World of Warcraft - New Expansion livestream April 19 at 9 am PT

[Disclaimer]

Scaled down, but I wish it was more in this style for the dracthyr instead of what we got

Don't know, WoW seems increasingly going away from that old school Samwise design and I'm sure a lot of people love that but to me it just makes WoW look more and more like every other game

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Completely agreed. The old dragonkin designs are way more interesting than what we're getting in Dracthyr.

 

[Turnscr3w]

I don't really see an issue with the Dracthyr, they obviously gonna get polished up before release.

 

[Akronis]

I don't really see an issue with the Dracthyr, they obviously gonna get polished up before release.

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Yeah I think they look fine.

More diverse body types for all races included though would be nice for people that want that.

 

[Ashodin]

There seems to be a real

I want my chad dragons

vs

I love being a scalie

conversation going on and I don't envy either side

 

[Kemal86]

I don't really mind that they're not hyper buff. but I also don't think they look that great. something about them just seems off standing next to all the other races. can't quite put my finger on it yet. they are certainly different! which isn't necessarily bad.

 

[Turnscr3w]

There seems to be a real

I want my chad dragons

vs

I love being a scalie

conversation going on and I don't envy either side

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This is more important than raid content.

 

[LuckyLocke]

As a probable Dracthyr Evoker main, I don't mind their body types at all.

Also there will be armor and shoulder pads on top of that frame that will make them look a lot more bulkier than the naked model.

 

[Anoregon]

As a probable Dracthyr Evoker main, I don't mind their body types at all.

Also there will be armor and shoulder pads on top of that frame that will make them look a lot more bulkier than the naked model.

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I'm gonna need to see more of what the barbershop armor options are. Shoulders will help, but the "armor" we've seen so far are more like adornments that do nothing to add to the frame of the model.

 

[data west]

Blizz I know you still got it in you

 

[Royalan]

Wow has several buff race types.

Let the Dracthyr be androgynous.

This is honestly reaching embarrassing "this is why I don't claim the WoW community" levels at this point.

 

[Gavalanche]

I think social media in general just absorbed a lot of the playerbase that just used WoW as a chat room.

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Thats a great point actually. I was one of those people; I would often log on and sit in Ironforge and just chat. Ah those were good memories!

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

Scaled down, but I wish it was more in this style for the dracthyr instead of what we got

Don't know, WoW seems increasingly going away from that old school Samwise design and I'm sure a lot of people love that but to me it just makes WoW look more and more like every other game

Click to shrink...

If they needed anything it wasn't even more chunky, neckless models. The current ones seem like a cartoony version of the lizard people from Divinity:Original Sin (which are a cool design, mostly), but more "friendly" looking or something. Androgyny is a great direction, I just don't think they really pulled it off as well as they could and part of that is the lack of armour. Maybe its unfinished.

 

[JCizzle]

Thats a great point actually. I was one of those people; I would often log on and sit in Ironforge and just chat. Ah those were good memories!

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Oh you can still do that. You might want to bleach your eyes after though!

 

[Gavalanche]

Oh you can still do that. You might want to bleach your eyes after though!

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Yeah chat is horrendous now, I haven't had it turned on in ages. We were all so innocent back then.

 

[VeryHighlander]

At this point just throw in every single race possible. Why NOT? Give me god damn ogres already. And yeah that dreadlord thing from nathria up top is fucking beautiful. would love to play that too. There should be more races than you can count in this game...people would be willing to forgive reused animations and skeletons if there was just a shit ton of variation.

 

[Gavalanche]

At this point just throw in every single race possible. Why NOT? Give me god damn ogres already. And yeah that dreadlord thing from nathria up top is fucking beautiful. would love to play that too. There should be more races than you can count in this game...people would be willing to forgive reused animations and skeletons if there was just a shit ton of variation.

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Well that was what Allied Races were meant to be, them bringing out a lot more races that were mostly just asset re-usage of previous ones, and not bothering with their own capital city or whatnot. But they stopped it after BoA. Maybe it wasn't well received?

 

[VeryHighlander]

Well that was what Allied Races were meant to be, them bringing out a lot more races that were mostly just asset re-usage of previous ones, and not bothering with their own capital city or whatnot. But they stopped it after BoA. Maybe it wasn't well received?

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Allied races are good on paper but blizzard's implementation of them have been confusing as HELL for new players and veterans alike.

 

[Finaj]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/10541-WoW-Dragonflight-Alpha-Encrypted-Build-10-0-0-43342

Well, that was fast. The first encrypted Dragonflight build is up on the WoWDev Server. Going by past expansions, that means the Alpha/Beta will probably drop within the next 30-45 days.

 

[Allietraa]

More World of Warcraft Interviews - MMO-Champion

More World of Warcraft Interviews

www.mmo-champion.com

more interviews and Blizz is at least saying the right things to my ears. How they execute on them is always the question mark obviously. But no AP to grind and the focus on things outside of player power that goes away each patch seem like good things overall

 

[Wunder]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/10541-WoW-Dragonflight-Alpha-Encrypted-Build-10-0-0-43342

Well, that was fast. The first encrypted Dragonflight build is up on the WoWDev Server. Going by past expansions, that means the Alpha/Beta will probably drop within the next 30-45 days.

Click to shrink...

That's exciting! I was telling my friend if we see alpha in june/july there might be a chance of a 2022 release. I'm not holding out hope but that'd be a nice surprise

 

[Kreim]

idle thought, but I think it's kinda lame (though understandable) there isn't a third spec for Evokers. I just feel like dragon's could probably do pretty well in melee, and the class being specific to Dracthy means you could do a unique style for them physically.

then again we never got windwalker worgens, so I can't even pretend the werewolf race is going berserk on stuff.

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

That's exciting! I was telling my friend if we see alpha in june/july there might be a chance of a 2022 release. I'm not holding out hope but that'd be a nice surprise

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I can see a 2023 release, tbh.
2019: WoW Classic
2020: Shadowlands
2021: TBC Classic
2022: Wrath Classic
2023: Dragonflight

Would be ballsy to launch both DF and WotLK in the same year.

 

[Allietraa]

That's exciting! I was telling my friend if we see alpha in june/july there might be a chance of a 2022 release. I'm not holding out hope but that'd be a nice surprise

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I think if DF was a serious possibility for 2022 they would said something along those lines during the interviews("we're targeting late 2022 but nothing is set in stone" etc). We're still in the realm of technically possible for a december launch but I'd put money on Q1 2023, especially with WotLK already confirmed for 2022...even though classic and live have different audiences, I doubt Blizz would be happy about either one potentially "stealing" players from the other one if they can help it

with that said I'm holding out hopium for a surprise 2022 date when pre-orders go live lmao

 

[Vinx]

That's exciting! I was telling my friend if we see alpha in june/july there might be a chance of a 2022 release. I'm not holding out hope but that'd be a nice surprise

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Yeah, theres zero chance of that.

They said season 3 will last a "typical duration" which is around 8 months, then after a couple weeks season 4 will start. Season 3 started on March 1 which would put the start of season 4 at around mid to late November.

And the surprise season 4 is very clearly a delay tactic because Dragonflight wont be ready for a while.

 

[Finaj]

One of the things I'm happy about is that, according to interviews, the zones of the Dragon Isles are -massive- and will utilize a lot of negative space, like Northrend did. While there wasn't a lot going on in Northrend, they seem to have a bigger emphasis on world content this time around.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

One of the things I'm happy about is that, according to interviews, the zones of the Dragon Isles are -massive- and will utilize a lot of negative space, like Northrend did. While there wasn't a lot going on in Northrend, they seem to have a bigger emphasis on world content this time around.

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If the zones are that much bigger, then I hope they consider reducing mob density a bit so that we can travel around without trailing dozens of enemies behind us or getting bogged down in fights every 30 seconds.

Mob density is one of the reason I most enjoy playing rogue. I probably wouldn't touch the class otherwise.

 

[Racketpunch]

People wanting meaningful choices but complaining about choosing between interrupt vs dps talents. I love the backwards direction Blizz took there.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

I just can't wait for the "just did a mythic + run and nobody had interrupts" complaints.

Not that it would be much different from "just did a mythic+ 10 run and I was the only person who bothered using interrupts" complaints. :P

Anyway, I just hope that assassination rogue and frost mage don't change too much or don't become unviable entirely. I don't know what else I'd play if I couldn't play those two classes.

 

[Boksberger]

Where's the details that they're putting interrupts in the talent trees? If it's just icons, then I'd chock it up to a draft representation and not representative. No where did they detail what the specific talent effects would be.

 

[Boksberger]

I'm stoked for the new zones.. theyve done flying only zones a few times, there may be more examples, but the one that comes to mind was Storm Peaks in Northrend. That was awesome because of the verticality and I'm super curious what the new zones could do when they're all designed like that.

Im optimistic with what they're doing and hope they can stick the landing. Returning to a grounded experience (gameplay, story) while adding huge QoL improvements for the base game and not just expansions will be great.

 

[Rhaknar]

whats this about interrupts? whats going on?

 

[Deleted member 93841]

whats this about interrupts? whats going on?

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Some early screenshots made it seem like interrupts might be optional talents, but it seems like nothing has been officially confirmed by Blizzard so far.

 

[trumpet909]

Regarding interrupts and talents:

WoW Dragonflight Talent Revamp FAQ - Blizzard Answers Player Questions

In addition to the earlier blue post, Blizzard provided more answers to players questions about the revamped talent trees.

www.wowhead.com

What about some abilities that are super important for gameplay, such as interrupt abilities, that you don't gain from the starting experience?

• We are currently trying to focus as many combat-altering abilities as possible into the new talent trees. This can include things such as movement abilities, interrupts, dispels, hybrid healing options, defensive abilities, etc. Our goal is to set up the trees and paths so that there opportunities to choose between different types of utility, but not to, for example, abandon all utility choices entirely in order to maximize your DPS. If you choose not to have an interrupt, it is likely because you traded it out for some other type of utility or CC that you believed would be more useful in the situation. The inverse is also true—specializations that do not have a certain capability in Shadowlands (such as an interrupt) may be able to obtain it by giving up something they currently do have.

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[Deleted member 93841]

Oh shit, so it is kinda sorta officially confirmed.

I'm not quite on board with something as important as an interrupt being an optional choice. Maybe if I had to choose between Slow Fall and Counterspell on my mage, but if I have to trade an actually useful skill to get my interrupt, I'm not 100% sure I'd be on board with that.

I'll have to see the final system to make a proper judgement on whether I like it or not.

 

[DanteMenethil]

Fights have been designed and balanced with the assumption that dps have interrupts. This is gonna blow on their face.

 

[Deleted member 93841]

Fights have been designed and balanced with the assumption that dps have interrupts. This is gonna blow on their face.

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Yeah, that's what's got me wondering too. Especially with the fact that Timewalking M+ is going to become part of the seasons. They can design the DF dungeons so that interrupts aren't as necessary or can be done by a limited amount of party members, but are they going to rework the timewalking dungeons to require less interrupting?

 

[B-Dubs]

Fights have been designed and balanced with the assumption that dps have interrupts. This is gonna blow on their face.

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I mean, not every fight or dungeon needs an interrupt. I do think the basic interrupts should be standard, but there's definitely fights and dungeons where having it isn't really all that helpful.

That said, if they're all in the class tree it wouldn't be so bad for DPS classes since it's not like mages or warriors have a healing spec that Blizz can add stuff from to the class tree.

 

[Gemüsepizza]

You will be able to save and name many different talent loadouts and swap between them with ease.

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Great, now you will be required to min-max 61 talent points and the corresponding key bindings on a per-fight basis for raiding. This will surely make WoW more accessible to new players.

 

[B-Dubs]

Great, now you will be required to min-max 61 talent points and the corresponding key bindings on a per-fight basis for raiding. This will surely make WoW more accessible to new players.

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ngl, if you're guild is doing this and you're not a world first or mythic guild then that's not really a good thing and you probably need to find a new guild because none of the fights require anything even close to what you're describing unless you're in like Liquid or Method or some other RFWF guild that's actively competing for the title

 

[Nerokis]

Fights have been designed and balanced with the assumption that dps have interrupts. This is gonna blow on their face.

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I would be for some classes having baseline interrupts and others having to spec into it. That used to be a point of class distinction back in the day (obviously a more extreme version of that, with some classes not having access to interrupts at all), and I could see this being a way to evoke that period of less homogeneity.

 

[YorkshireDaveUK]

Its almost like they will have betas to test these changes. Granted its Blizzard so there is a chance they might not listen, but getting worked up over changes not set in stone seems a tad silly. Lets see how it plays out.

 

[Turnscr3w]

I'm still not sure if I want to look for a new guild, I kinda want to play this expansion entirely solo.

 

[f0rk]

Regarding interrupts and talents:

WoW Dragonflight Talent Revamp FAQ - Blizzard Answers Player Questions

In addition to the earlier blue post, Blizzard provided more answers to players questions about the revamped talent trees.

www.wowhead.com

Click to shrink...

What's the difference between this and a utility row in the current talent system

 

[B-Dubs]

What's the difference between this and a utility row in the current talent system

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You can choose to skip the utility talents and pick the damage ones instead.

 

[Boksberger]

But can you? If it's a tree similar to what we've seen, they can easily front load the utility skills where the dps skills are dependent on choosing one or more utility skills.

 

[Anoregon]

You can choose to skip the utility talents and pick the damage ones instead.

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In the proposed system? It sounds like the design is the opposite of that.

 

[B-Dubs]

In the proposed system? It sounds like the design is the opposite of that.

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Really? Because the way they're talking it sounds like you can skip over some stuff to grab other stuff, in a way you cannot right now

 

[f0rk]

You can choose to skip the utility talents and pick the damage ones instead.

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The quote explicitly says the opposite

Our goal is to set up the trees and paths so that there opportunities to choose between different types of utility, but not to, for example, abandon all utility choices entirely in order to maximize your DPS.

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I liked the current system because it does boil it down to the meaningful choices (urgh) that matter - there aren't filler 1%x5 upgrade talents and you don't have to count your points out to get the min/max. I'm worried this new system is just obfuscation for no reason.

 

[JahIthBer]

Would be pretty funny for drama and toxicity if you can skip interrupts on the tree, a lot of people would skip it.

"DK, use your mind freeze, kick that spell"
"mind freeze?"

 

[Anoregon]

Really? Because the way they're talking it sounds like you can skip over some stuff to grab other stuff, in a way you cannot right now

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right, but it's always going to be a utility vs utility or throughput vs throughput. It sounds like interrupts are always going to be in the class tree, which is more utility-concerned in general. The examples they gave for things you might give up the interrupt for were movement skills and stuff like that. You aren't' going to have an interrupt in your spec tree as a choice against a damage-increasing talent.