Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Kokolums]

We will know the health of the game is extremely poor when they announce some sort of faction merge for raiding. They will merge factions in some capacity when it gets too hard to recruit raiders. Since it hasnt happened yet, we can safely assume Blizz thinks the game is healthy.

That said, it wouldnt shock me if they are thinking of doing it in 10.x

[huth]

We will know the health of the game is extremely poor when they announce some sort of faction merge for raiding. They will merge factions in some capacity when it gets too hard to recruit raiders. Since it hasnt happened yet, we can safely assume Blizz thinks the game is healthy.

That said, it wouldnt shock me if they are thinking of doing it in 10.x

The games general health doesn't have to be bad for that. Just one faction's.

[username993720]

They refused to give us an entire expansion for Emerald Nightmare and Argus, so I'm 100% certain that we won't get an expansion that's taking place in the Emerald Dream. We already had a lot of Emerald Dream related content throughout other expansions, there's absolutely no need for that to be an exclusive expansion.

Argus was destroyed and the Emerald Nightmare might have been just a sneak peek.
The Emerald Dream is as much a realm deserving its own expansion as Shadowlands. Let me remind you that it was merely a grey filter of the game before they came up with the expansion. There's so much potential to an Emerald Dream expansion beyond just a green forest.

We only got a Shadowlands Expansion because the LK Plot wasn't done. Hell, I was one of the guys that clearly assumed ahead that Light and Shadow would be AFTER a LK/Death Expansion, especially when you consider the Legion Whispers, as well as the fact that there was no clear Death divinity prior to this expansion, so things felt a little off. Doesn't help that Life and Death weren't yet explored on the cosmic scales of things prior to SL also.

I thought a Light/Void expansion would come after BfA, to be honest, with all the hints being dropped.

[Nyel]

Probably 9.2 but I do know a few sites have started to speculate if they might drop 10.0 news to time with Endwalker.

Getting 9.2 and 10.0 news at the same time would honestly be a major f*ck up. The former would completely overshadowed by the latter. And if we get 10.0 info soon (which I doubt), alpha/beta couldn't be too far away overall. And again, that would only mess up with 9.2 and its testing cycle.

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Argus was destroyed and the Emerald Nightmare might have been just a sneak peek.
The Emerald Dream is as much a realm deserving its own expansion as Shadowlands. Let me remind you that it was merely a grey filter of the game before they came up with the expansion. There's so much potential to an Emerald Dream expansion beyond just a green forest.

As I said, Emerald Dream stuff was covered throughout various expansions. An entire expansion on that topic would give us nothing. There's a lot of potential for several storylines and realms (Nyalotha and Black Empire says hello), but most of it is wasted. Emerald Dream is just more of the same we already have for years now, there's just no real fascination behind it.

- - - Updated - - -

We will know the health of the game is extremely poor when they announce some sort of faction merge for raiding. They will merge factions in some capacity when it gets too hard to recruit raiders. Since it hasnt happened yet, we can safely assume Blizz thinks the game is healthy.

That said, it wouldnt shock me if they are thinking of doing it in 10.x

Well, we pretty much know by the next quarterly results as well (and they're comming on Tuesday).

[Dracullus]

9.1.5 without timewalking is just glorified hotfix, we don't need "week to breathe" after this. It's completely opposite, they should give big 9.2 reveal ASAP after 9.1.5 will get some attention back to WoW.

[Sondrelk]

9.1.5 without timewalking is just glorified hotfix, we don't need "week to breathe" after this. It's completely opposite, they should give big 9.2 reveal ASAP after 9.1.5 will get some attention back to WoW.

For some it's a hotfix, for others like me its essentially a massive content update that quadruples possible rewards from the base game.

Besides, Blizzard should probably wait to announce anything just so the players whining about 9.1.5 gets it out of their system. Get the announcements to themselves instead of having to share it with an endless stream of players complaining that the update didnt come with the Sylvanas mythic mount being sent to everyone in the mail or whatever.

[Dracullus]

For some it's a hotfix, for others like me its essentially a massive content update that quadruples possible rewards from the base game.

Besides, Blizzard should probably wait to announce anything just so the players whining about 9.1.5 gets it out of their system. Get the announcements to themselves instead of having to share it with an endless stream of players complaining that the update didnt come with the Sylvanas mythic mount being sent to everyone in the mail or whatever.

Of course, changes are massive, but it's still not new or even recycled content (on launch).

There will be whining that covenant switch won't give insta 80 Renown, campaign "skip" isn't skip but ability to recruit all soulbinds and reaching 80 without touching campaign, Mage Tower is not launching day 1. Oh, and of course that 9.1.5 changes are too late and it has no changes at all.

Don't get why it should delay 9.2 reveal. If anything it would also shut up every negative 9.1.5 comments. It all depends when they plan to launch 9.2, cause PTR will last ~13-14 weeks (usual 11-12 + Christmas). Can't imagine they wouldn't have enough materials to make reveal for weeks now.

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Jesus, I'm so stupid. I thought for some reason you still couldn't solo queue Islands, cause in some early build there were "new UI coming soon" message. Today I noticed you just talk to NPC near table for solo stuff. xD

Funny that Islands don't even feel like old expac content, it feels like SL solo content.

[TheFirstOnes]

Argus was destroyed and the Emerald Nightmare might have been just a sneak peek.
The Emerald Dream is as much a realm deserving its own expansion as Shadowlands. Let me remind you that it was merely a grey filter of the game before they came up with the expansion. There's so much potential to an Emerald Dream expansion beyond just a green forest.



I thought a Light/Void expansion would come after BfA, to be honest, with all the hints being dropped.

Definitely not. The LK plot was still being hinted at, and BFA also had LOTS of signs toward Death being next. Coming from the Il'gynoth whispers, to the echo of Arthas in 7.0, to Argus the "Death Titan", to the LK shit, to the Sylvanas plot, etc. Oh, also forgot about the N'Zoth fight.

[Sondrelk]

Of course, changes are massive, but it's still not new or even recycled content (on launch).

There will be whining that covenant switch won't give insta 80 Renown, campaign "skip" isn't skip but ability to recruit all soulbinds and reaching 80 without touching campaign, Mage Tower is not launching day 1. Oh, and of course that 9.1.5 changes are too late and it has no changes at all.

Don't get why it should delay 9.2 reveal. If anything it would also shut up every negative 9.1.5 comments. It all depends when they plan to launch 9.2, cause PTR will last ~13-14 weeks (usual 11-12 + Christmas). Can't imagine they wouldn't have enough materials to make reveal for weeks now.

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Jesus, I'm so stupid. I thought for some reason you still couldn't solo queue Islands, cause in some early build there were "new UI coming soon" message. Today I noticed you just talk to NPC near table for solo stuff. xD

Funny that Islands don't even feel like old expac content, it feels like SL solo content.

Players will whine even if Ion personally came into their homes and gave them 100$, this would be true for pretty much anything.

Besides, announcing it a week after gives players time to settle into the patch and figure out whether they are going to stay or take a break before the 9.2 announcement.
If you did it immediately then it might just get lost in the noise of players returning briefly or not so briefly, and general announcements about the patch.

And of course, by staggering the announcement from the release Blizzard essentially buys another week before the dreaded drought sets in.

[Gaidax]

For some it's a hotfix, for others like me its essentially a massive content update that quadruples possible rewards from the base game.

We have a running meme in the guild that 9.1.5 costs same as fresh AAA game out of the oven. Let that sink in for a moment there, mate.

9.1.5 is almost 0 new content and its chief achievement is WoW team scrambling to unfuck what they fucked up from the beginning. Which is more of a moral victory for players, as empty as that one is. And the worst part - 9.2 is another 4 months off and that's me being optimistic there.

[Sondrelk]

We have a running meme in the guild that 9.1.5 costs same as fresh AAA game out of the oven. Let that sink in for a moment there, mate.

9.1.5 is almost 0 new content and its chief achievement is WoW team scrambling to unfuck what they fucked up from the beginning. Which is more of a moral victory for players, as empty as that one is. And the worst part - 9.2 is another 4 months off and that's me being optimistic there.

Depends on the definition of what wow costs though. On one hand it's a free patch on top of a reasonably cheap game. On the other it's an absurdly overpriced game that ranks among the most expensive.

Realistically though the patch "costs" a month of game time at least.

Always the question with subscription services I suppose. Are you paying for the item or access to the item? Quite the important distinction.

[Vasoka]

That leak with the Borean Thundra remake as new daily zone for 9.2 seems to be rather prominent, maybe it's the real one?

[Cosmic Janitor]

That leak with the Borean Thundra remake as new daily zone for 9.2 seems to be rather prominent, maybe it's the real one?

I hope not. I don't see why anyone would want to go back to borean tundra of all zones.. yikes.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Wasn't there a leak of updated map textures or something for the Halls of Reflection?

[Varodoc]

I hope not. I don't see why anyone would want to go back to borean tundra of all zones.. yikes.

A yikes ending for a yikes shit expansion sounds very fitting actually.

[Sondrelk]

Wasn't there a leak of updated map textures or something for the Halls of Reflection?

There were, though I don't think anyone managed to spot anything that was actually different.
It was pointed out though that it would have shown up if a developer simply opened the file and saved it without doing anything.

It will probably be relevant, but we have no idea for what yet.

[Hitei]

That leak with the Borean Thundra remake as new daily zone for 9.2 seems to be rather prominent, maybe it's the real one?

Prominent how?

[Sondrelk]

A yikes ending for a yikes shit expansion sounds very fitting actually.

You cna only sit there and wonder why Borean Tundra of all places? It could be more relevant zones for future content like Dragonblight. Previously unused zones like Crystalsong forest, fan avorite zones like Storm Peaks, or simply taking the entire plot back to the beginning with Icecrown.

With the exception of Grizzly hills and maybe Zul'drak it's a case where all the other zones would be more fitting or the plot, or even simply interesting to look at.

[Cosmic Janitor]

A yikes ending for a yikes shit expansion sounds very fitting actually.

While I'm in camp "9.2 should be the final" for SL, the idea of getting another 8.3 recycle desaster really rubs me the wrong way. If they at all care I want them to come out swinging with the next patch and at least have one new zone, better two. I mean even Tanan back in WoD was actually a new zone for all intends and purposes (I at least wouldn't have recognized it compared to the BC or WoD-intro versions), unlike uldum and vale..

I think I hate the idea so much, I would actually take no patch at all over getting a super half-assed one, or equally bad, two more patches of this mess. Heck I would even take a 5 minute quest chain about the Jailer being out of reach, but fullfilling his plan will take years, so we have to do something else in the meantime, over the previous options and draw a line under the whole SL deal and take a holiday on one of the IE islands.

[Varodoc]

While I'm in camp "9.2 should be the final" for SL, the idea of getting another 8.3 recycle desaster really rubs me the wrong way. If they at all care I want them to come out swinging with the next patch and at least have one new zone, better two. I mean even Tanan back in WoD was actually a new zone for all intends and purposes (I at least wouldn't have recognized it compared to the BC or WoD-intro versions), unlike uldum and vale..

I think I hate the idea so much, I would actually take no patch at all over getting a super half-assed one, or equally bad, two more patches of this mess. Heck I would even take a 5 minute quest chain about the Jailer being out of reach, but fullfilling his plan will take years, so we have to do something else in the meantime, over the previous options and draw a line under the whole SL deal and take a holiday on one of the IE islands.

Shadowlands already introduced a new patch zone in Korthia. And you might say "but BfA introduced 2 new zones in 8.2 instead of 1", true, but there wasn't Covid back in BfA remember

So since Shadowlands already introduced 1 new patch zone in Korthia, the chances of there being a new patch zone are extremely low unless it's something sandbox-ish and secondary like Timeless Isle and Mechagon...

But Korthia was this expansion's Nazjatar, so the final "location" is getting the Ny'alotha's treatment, with some potential reworks of already existing zones to accompany it...

But really the most likely outcome is that these leaks are the usual BS and 9.2 will not introduce any new location but the final raid (the Sepulcher) and maybe a new dungeon to go along with it (like Legion did with Seat of the Triumvirate).