wow New Expansion Announcement at BlizzCon 2017

[Stan 5,021]

Blizzard uploaded a new video with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas retrospectively talking about Legion. PvP Brawls and micro-holidays were among the great features of the expansion. At the end of the video, Ion tells us how excited the development team is to unveil what's next for World of Warcraft at BlizzCon 2017.

We know that Jaina Proudmoore will be representing World of Warcraft on this year's key art. For better underestanding of what to expect at BlizzCon, don't forget to read the leaked dialogues and the fate of Azeroth (spoiler alert).

[Yridaa 490]

TL;DR: SWIRLS WERE JUST SETBACK

[Valks 2,373]

39 minutes ago, Yridaa said:

TL;DR: SWIRLS WERE JUST SETBACK

Swirls are always setback. They keep coming every time until there are so many we no longer can complete the fight. 25 swirls for a 20 man group INC.

[SMOrcMan 76]

I hope they finally remove artifacts, or just keep relics and not artifact level. Playing one class and only using one spec infinitely can go woefully boring, but it is the optimal playstyle of legion. It's fun to sometimes switch it up by playing DPS when you are a healer, or tank when you are a DPS, but with artifacts you will perform poorly with low artifact levels, especially with the addition of the netherlight crucible.

[Valks 2,373]

45 minutes ago, SMOrcMan said:

I hope they finally remove artifacts, or just keep relics and not artifact level. Playing one class and only using one spec infinitely can go woefully boring, but it is the optimal playstyle of legion. It's fun to sometimes switch it up by playing DPS when you are a healer, or tank when you are a DPS, but with artifacts you will perform poorly with low artifact levels, especially with the addition of the netherlight crucible.

To be fair, with how high AK is now and how little of a difference the Concordance ranks make, as well as the crucible, it's not exactly a huge difference between specs. You can fill out an alt-spec artifact to Concordance and with 900+ item level with a few world quests on Argus after doing the storyline.

[Rudy199 8]

Probably will have something to do with water and Old Gods..just my thought.

[Kharth 9]

Which would you like best as the new expansion ?

WotLK 2.0 Bolivar's Return

Cataclysm 2 Deathwing laid an egg we didn't know about and now his baby is all grown up and back for revenge.

Gul'dan had a soulstone on and ressed when we left Nighthold. 

An alternate timeline where we find a new Pandaria, Garrosh split when he escaped to WoD and he's the end boss here too.

Been a while since the evil trolls did anything too though so that's always an option.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Kharth

[DeathsDesign 92]

1 hour ago, Rudy199 said:

Probably will have something to do with water and Old Gods..just my thought.

Warcraft/Hellboy Crossover inc????

[SMOrcMan 76]

1 hour ago, Rudy199 said:

Probably will have something to do with water and Old Gods..just my thought.

I feel like it might be some void related thing. We've dealt with demons and fel for a while and now in Argus we seem to have some void shit going on.

[DeathsDesign 92]

1 hour ago, Blainie said:

To be fair, with how high AK is now and how little of a difference the Concordance ranks make, as well as the crucible, it's not exactly a huge difference between specs. You can fill out an alt-spec artifact to Concordance and with 900+ item level with a few world quests on Argus after doing the storyline.

Agreed, it's sooo easy to get decently geared.  As far as artifacts are concerned, you can easily get guaranteed 3 910 relics (915 with netherlight first traits) for 1950 veiled argunited, not to mention 880 minimum with unsullied gear.  

As far as AP for example I looked at my map today (not including Argus) the the WQ addon I use showed 1881m AP from WQ's on the broken isles.  That's almost 1.9 billion AP... This is a bit over 3x the cost of the first concordance trait.

I made a Blood DK probably 3-4 weeks ago, with very minimal playing (I mean less than an hour a day if that) he's 911 equipped (only 1 legendary) with a 949 Artifact weapon with 60 traits in his weapon.  Total time played at 110? probably about 28 hours or so.

Gearing an Alt or alt-spec for AK has never been easier.

[Syktris 36]

Just now, Kharth said:

WotLK 2.0 Bolivar's Return

No, PLEASE!

[DeathsDesign 92]

6 minutes ago, SMOrcMan said:

I feel like it might be some void related thing. We've dealt with demons and fel for a while and now in Argus we seem to have some void shit going on.

When Legion is over, the Burning Legion will be as well, this much has been said by Blizzard.   The Old Gods are entities created by the Void Lords to corrupt nascent titan souls.  I'd venture to guess that the Old Gods that remain will be the first (non-teir) raid and the beginnings of the expansion and that as the expansion progresses we will encounter and begin the fight against the Void Lords.

[Banard 61]

1 hour ago, Blainie said:

To be fair, with how high AK is now and how little of a difference the Concordance ranks make, as well as the crucible, it's not exactly a huge difference between specs. You can fill out an alt-spec artifact to Concordance and with 900+ item level with a few world quests on Argus after doing the storyline.

Your statement is true and false. Concordance is not what matters, 52 traits does not matter, the end goal is 75 and unlocking that third trait on that third relic....then and only then does your statement become true. Currently, we are in a race to 75. Couple months from now, 75 will be a joke to obtain for offspecs and alts. 

Edited September 28, 2017 by Banard

[Demenzel 29]

27 minutes ago, Banard said:

Your statement is true and false. Concordance is not what matters, 52 traits does not matter, the end goal is 75 and unlocking that third trait on that third relic....then and only then does your statement become true. Currently, we are in a race to 75. Couple months from now, 75 will be a joke to obtain for offspecs and alts. 

You've 2 paths here.

You can play only 1 in the entire expac in order to get the max gain, or you can play the game in a way that you enjoyed more, ppl need to understand that, the min/max and the 75 traits at TBT launch, is for hardcore raidings, not for the casual player who plays less than 6 hours per day.

[Banard 61]

24 minutes ago, Demenzel said:

not for the casual player who plays less than 6 hours per day.

weird cut off....you play 6 hours a day! your hard core that is 42 hours a week! what you play only 5 hours a day...man @ 35 hours a week you sure are casual. 

The way the system is, any raider no mater what level of raiding should want to be the best the can be. At the moment, the way blizzard has set the game that is 1 spec on 1 class until you reach trait 75. The increase in dps from each tier unlock is more significant then gear. 

Every expansion before this one,  it was relatively easy to switch specs to the "optimal" spec or even switch rolls (dps to healer) or create a new toon but now the current game design discourages this behaviour. 

 

 

 

[Yridaa 490]

1 minute ago, Banard said:

Every expansion before this one,  it was relatively easy to switch specs to the "optimal" spec or even switch rolls (dps to healer) or create a new toon but now the current game design discourages this behaviour. 

And with the legendary items (And legendary ilvl increases during raid openings), it makes it even harder to "Oh the other spec is better this raid tier, guess I'm farming Titan essences for the other legendaries now..."

 

And I think you're right, no matter how casual you are, you still want to be the best you can with the time you give the game. Even moreso if you play with friends that are at your "level of casual-ness" that also raid, because you don't want to let them down.

 

It is only not true if you truly are so casual, you don't care for raids or only LFR. But at every level of competition, even the lowest, people strive to be the best in their category. And there's nothing wrong with that.

 

Blizzard's way to discourage spec swapping however, I feel is very wrong.

[Valks 2,373]

18 minutes ago, Banard said:

Every expansion before this one,  it was relatively easy to switch specs to the "optimal" spec or even switch rolls (dps to healer) or create a new toon but now the current game design discourages this behaviour. 

MoP was awful with changing toons - having the block of the legendary cloak was a serious difference in DPS. I remember having raiders swapping from Warriors with the DPS cloak going from top DPS on Galakras (for example), to near bottom on their cloakless ranged DPS. 

All expansions prior were only forgiving with changing if you weren't a legendary target. Got Shadowmourne on your DK in Wrath? Good luck bringing your Warrior to the raids instead. Glaives on Rogue? Valanyr on your Priest? Good luck bringing any other character, or better yet changing spec. The only time legendaries were forgiving is when the class in question was double targeted by it - for example, Tarecgosa was great for any Mage spec. On the other hand, it was only useful to a Boomkin for Druids. 

The change with Legion is that now, technically, everyone is a legendary target. Instead of you being forced onto toons because of loot council decisions and the lack of your DPS, you are now forced onto toons by Blizzard's targeting of RNG legendaries and the DPS gap it presents. Same situation, different people calling the shots.

[DeathsDesign 92]

40 minutes ago, Blainie said:

The change with Legion is that now, technically, everyone is a legendary target. Instead of you being forced onto toons because of loot council decisions and the lack of your DPS, you are now forced onto toons by Blizzard's targeting of RNG legendaries and the DPS gap it presents. Same situation, different people calling the shots.

And because of the current legendary system you're either going to be top of your charts or bottom because either your rng is good and you got your bis legendaries or your rng is bad and bis is the last legendaries you'll get...  As an example, my DH who was my first 110 at launch, has the most legendaries of all my characters, has more played time at 110 than any of my other 110s just this week got Anger of the Half-Giants.  I still don't have the shoulders, and I have 4 more possible legendaries for Havoc that I can get... part of the reason it's been so long is I swapped mains because my dps was crap without any of the bis legendaries and I was getting benched by my raid lead... well my ranged char was the same thing, no bis legendaries despite getting 5 relatively close together, and yet again getting benched because of "lack of performance" (was not messing up mechanically at all).  Finally I said screw it and went tank, can't get benched when guild only has 2 tanks and you're one of them right?  Point is unless you're one of those lucky few that get bis legendaries every time you make a new char you're going to suffer.

Instead of legendary gear, how about legendary talents achieved through a quest line (similar to the legendary quests of old or the order hall campaign) that scale and are viable every expansion.  Something that provides a bonus to your class not only your spec.  Or a legendary stat boost that once you complete the questline gives you a permanent stat boost.

Personally I like the artifact system, the relics (not so much) but I like the idea of one weapon boosted throughout the expansion instead of the "oh boy I hope my BiS weapon that has a 1-2% drop chance finally drops for me now that we're 1.5 years into the expansion" that we have all dealt with.

I get that Blizzard wants some randomness in the game and I'm ok with that, but I feel that there should also be a static completion to the game as far as character progression.  Even warforging and titanforging I think has gotten out of hand, WF = +socket or 5 levels or both, TF = 10 levels max.  Prevents the holy crap I got an 860 to TF to 920 cuz I got super lucky and now everyone's jelly...

 

Sorry rambling.. Carry on nothing to see here :P.

Edited September 28, 2017 by DeathsDesign

[Valks 2,373]

28 minutes ago, DeathsDesign said:

Sorry rambling.. Carry on nothing to see here :P.

As it stands, I think that anything that revolves around drops just doesn't work unless you can guarantee it for multiple members of a raid. Being the "third Rogue" in a Dragon Soul 25 guild meant you wouldn't see your daggers for ages, which in turn meant you had no reason to be there over either of the other Rogues that already had it or were getting it before you. 

Pushing to get your Warrior Shadowmourne first? Welp, his PC just died. Start over. 

I think the only way it can actually work is to have a system that has a minimum drop rate per week in rotating solo scenarios that scale with gear. It can drop more, get you it earlier, fine, but there is a minimum per week. It stays challenging because of scaling, it can be done at your own pace and, as long as you play every so often, you can get it. For alts, once you have it, if you need to catch up, it can drop at a faster rate, with a higher minimum each week.

I don't see a need to put it in raids if LFR drops it, since that's basically a solo fight with 24 bots, and there's no need to have simple RNG drops.

[Rikuna 0]

Totally excited right now this could turn out pretty epic

[Dejo93 984]

Please God, add a new playable race or two

[DeathsDesign 92]

1 hour ago, Blainie said:

As it stands, I think that anything that revolves around drops just doesn't work unless you can guarantee it for multiple members of a raid. Being the "third Rogue" in a Dragon Soul 25 guild meant you wouldn't see your daggers for ages, which in turn meant you had no reason to be there over either of the other Rogues that already had it or were getting it before you. 

Pushing to get your Warrior Shadowmourne first? Welp, his PC just died. Start over. 

I think the only way it can actually work is to have a system that has a minimum drop rate per week in rotating solo scenarios that scale with gear. It can drop more, get you it earlier, fine, but there is a minimum per week. It stays challenging because of scaling, it can be done at your own pace and, as long as you play every so often, you can get it. For alts, once you have it, if you need to catch up, it can drop at a faster rate, with a higher minimum each week.

I don't see a need to put it in raids if LFR drops it, since that's basically a solo fight with 24 bots, and there's no need to have simple RNG drops.

I completely agree with all of this.  I mean I get having something RNG related just so there's some randomness but I don't think the potential of your class should be 100% dependent on that RNG.  Yes there are going to be the few exceptional cases where someone with the worst gear, and worst stat priority can outplay someone with BiS just because they're better at the class.  But that's a so far and few between scenario that it shouldn't even be considered.

[Valks 2,373]

9 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

Please God, add a new playable race or two

If we're going down the Kul'Tiras and Old Gods route, I'm wondering what that new race could be... Perhaps sub-races of some kind?

[Valks 2,373]

8 hours ago, DeathsDesign said:

I completely agree with all of this.  I mean I get having something RNG related just so there's some randomness but I don't think the potential of your class should be 100% dependent on that RNG.  Yes there are going to be the few exceptional cases where someone with the worst gear, and worst stat priority can outplay someone with BiS just because they're better at the class.  But that's a so far and few between scenario that it shouldn't even be considered.

Yeah, the legendaries need to either be nerfed so they aren't as important for some classes if it is full RNG, or they need to rework the system. 

I'm especially surprised there is no catchup mechanic right now for legendaries, given how important they are.

[Hypersonic 113]

This year already was amazing and i'm really excited about next expansion. I think we can calculate dramatic changes with legendaries and the artifact system. But i dont think we need another playable class or new races now.