I've seen the images that are the alleged reason for the leak and they're like super fake
Ever since WoW first showed off the rough sketches they do for expansion maps, every leak tries to crib that style. It's always an angled shot of some sort of powerpoint presentation, as though the people looking at it have only SECONDS to get the picture. And then despite only having mere moments to get a picture of the expansion map and logo (and there's always a finished WoW expansion logo, as though that's the first thing that they do), they have a fully detailed list of all the plot points and the new race or class that is coming with the expansion. It's such a goofy conceit. Either you have access to a bunch of information you can drop, or you don't.
Every leak tries to drop EVERYTHING about the expansion, when the leaks we've had that are true are extremely sparse with details, often accidental. You only get big, multi-detail leaks days before the expansion gets announced, because press material starts going out.
Also, tinkerer. Every leak says we're either getting demon hunter, runemaster, or tinkerer as a class.
What viable classes aren't playable at this point, thinking about it?
Barbarian is folded into warrior, scout into hunter, witch doctor is spread across other casters, runemaster's planned mechanics are in DK and monk, various necromantic types are folded into DK, etc.
Shadow Hunter might be appropriate for a Shadowlands expansion, but it feels sort of weird just from a naming standpoint? Spell Breaker seems difficult to fit in. Tinkerer or engineer or other techy classes might make sense, but would feel weird in the likeliest xpac themes. Dragonsworn might work for anything, since it looks like we're getting more Wrathion content soon.
They could do something really crazy, like roll out a race with a single racial class available or something.
I liked Taliesin's idea of class skins. Rather than releasing new classes which will just further spread the ability to have anything remotely resembling class balance even further, they should just start re-skinning existing classes. New animations, new spell effects, new class armors, mounts, titles and all the trappings that go along with a new class, but instead of a new class it's just a new coat of paint on an old class. Obviously the new animations and stuff would have to match frame for frame with the existing class.
But Taliesin's idea was to do some of the following:
-- Turn Elemental shaman into Tide Sages
-- Turn Demonology warlocks into Necromancers
He had a few other ideas too, that I'm forgetting.
And I had an idea of my own for a reskin.
They should reskin paladins for Night Elves. Call them Knights of Elune. Make all their spell effects Moon and Arcane oriented. Make sets of armor that are silver and purple like the night elf stuff, and lean very heavily into the Elune imagery. But instead of being a new class, it would just be a paladin in disguise.
What viable classes aren't playable at this point, thinking about it?
Barbarian is folded into warrior, scout into hunter, witch doctor is spread across other casters, runemaster's planned mechanics are in DK and monk, various necromantic types are folded into DK, etc.
Shadow Hunter might be appropriate for a Shadowlands expansion, but it feels sort of weird just from a naming standpoint? Spell Breaker seems difficult to fit in. Tinkerer or engineer or other techy classes might make sense, but would feel weird in the likeliest xpac themes. Dragonsworn might work for anything, since it looks like we're getting more Wrathion content soon.
They could do something really crazy, like roll out a race with a single racial class available or something.
shadow hunter as it has previously existed in warcraft games is another flavor of troll voodoo man which got rolled into shaman, or a hunter with shaman and rogue abilities more recently in WoW.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
So I got to watch the video, and I can't lie I think the way he laid it out sounds kind of awesome.
I really do take WoW like some kind of JRPG story. I believe that is why the writing doesn't bother me as much as others. This whole setup then is pretty much a JRPG story and a pretty wild one at that. Also I really think that would be one of the better ways BFA could end. I mean what was the alternative? Fighting N'zoth in the most predictable ending ever?
It is kind of funny too how the whole concept seems to mirror a lot of how FF 14 does things. Maybe the writing is nowhere near as good in WoW, but if they did go in this leaked direction it is hard to deny where their inspiration comes from.
If that stupid leak is real, which I don't think it is, the problem will be that it'll feel like a big cop-out narratively after 2 years of bullshit that doesn't matter, especially if you're horde and it's been 2 years of "actually the horde are evil bad guys." Like if we woke up at the beginning of the next expansion and all of BFA was just a dream ooOoOoOooo!
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Dyshow am I even using this gunRegistered Userregular
The "screenshot" of that leak has the water looking really weird, and nothing at all like any current textures for it.
Not even like waves at all actually, it looks to be randomly rippling on a big enough scale that the scene almost looks set up in a modeling program.
The "screenshot" of that leak has the water looking really weird, and nothing at all like any current textures for it.
Not even like waves at all actually, it looks to be randomly rippling on a big enough scale that the scene almost looks set up in a modeling program.
Is it not just concept art?
The post of this leak I saw claimed that it was a screenshot of a cutscene. The shot with the boats is the one I mean.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
Nah it is supposed to be a cinematic screenshot.
I really don't think the leak is real outside of the whole "everyone leaks shit purposely for publicity now" angle. Which I wouldn't put past them to try and salvage BFA pretty much disappearing after classic came out. But I like the idea that the leaker put forth, real or not. I am fairly certain this leak would be more interesting than what we really get.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
edited September 2019
I'm going to make my own expansion leak. I mean, repeating what I heard from a trusted source who works at Blizzard.
The next expansion will be all about air-to-air combat. Blizzard is tired of everyone hating on their convoluted anti-flying stance, so the next expansion will be all in the air. There will be no upgrades to your character's actual abilities, instead you'll get an air mount with artifact weapon like upgrade tree.
Considering how Blizzard updated their PTR background graphic to depict a dwarven gryphonrider and a Horde bat rider, I'd say that 100% proves this leak that I just made up, I mean, heard from a trusted source who works at Blizzard, is true.
Anyone with experience with shaman (mythic plus and some normal/heroic raiding)? Enhance for DPS and resto.
My druid is running out of stuff to do besides any raids the guild decides to do (mostly need weapons for feral and guardian, and resto trinket), earning that 17k titan each week from a 10 is mostly a waiting game, and closing in on the last of the rank 3 essences I want. I tank, dps (Feral), and heal on this guy - though healing is more of a pinch hitter kind of thing.
Looking to figure out the next char to start to gear up, and can't decide between my monk and shaman.
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Kai_SanCommonly known as Klineshrike!Registered Userregular
Enh is still fun if you don’t need to feel like you are mastering something complex. One of the top specs for world content because it just gets in and does the damage immediately with very few long cool downs bringing you down. It is also quite capable in any level of pve even though the conception is otherwise. It’s biggest fault was simply that ele is right there, being both ranged in a ranged dominant game and being one of the top performing specs recently.
Just don’t expect to pvp. Enh feels like shit there.
Anyone with experience with shaman (mythic plus and some normal/heroic raiding)? Enhance for DPS and resto.
My druid is running out of stuff to do besides any raids the guild decides to do (mostly need weapons for feral and guardian, and resto trinket), earning that 17k titan each week from a 10 is mostly a waiting game, and closing in on the last of the rank 3 essences I want. I tank, dps (Feral), and heal on this guy - though healing is more of a pinch hitter kind of thing.
Looking to figure out the next char to start to gear up, and can't decide between my monk and shaman.
Enhancement's DPS is on par with Elemental in M+. More mobile, but in melee as a tradeoff. It's slightly behind in raid DPS because the game is so melee unfriendly, but it can keep up just fine if you find it more fun.
If that stupid leak is real, which I don't think it is, the problem will be that it'll feel like a big cop-out narratively after 2 years of bullshit that doesn't matter, especially if you're horde and it's been 2 years of "actually the horde are evil bad guys." Like if we woke up at the beginning of the next expansion and all of BFA was just a dream ooOoOoOooo!
If BFA ends with Sylvanas waking up and seeing Teldrassil in the shower, then I will nominate WoW for game of the decade.
If that stupid leak is real, which I don't think it is, the problem will be that it'll feel like a big cop-out narratively after 2 years of bullshit that doesn't matter, especially if you're horde and it's been 2 years of "actually the horde are evil bad guys." Like if we woke up at the beginning of the next expansion and all of BFA was just a dream ooOoOoOooo!
If BFA ends with Sylvanas waking up and seeing Teldrassil in the shower, then I will nominate WoW for game of the decade.
I feel they are trying to save themselves in retail since bfa was a turd and vanilla took off like a rocket
I can honestly endure a single moment of white-hot megastupidity to redeem Sylvanas or whatever if it lets us put the sustained everpresent stupidity behind us.
Enh is still fun if you don’t need to feel like you are mastering something complex. One of the top specs for world content because it just gets in and does the damage immediately with very few long cool downs bringing you down. It is also quite capable in any level of pve even though the conception is otherwise. It’s biggest fault was simply that ele is right there, being both ranged in a ranged dominant game and being one of the top performing specs recently.
Just don’t expect to pvp. Enh feels like shit there.
That sounds just fine, feral is plenty complicated for me. Won't hurt my feelings if something is a little less ...snapshotty.
So Bellular posted a new video today (shocking I know! (seriously, he makes like 4 billion videos a day these days)).
But this one was particularly interesting. It deals with a leak. A leak that has not been substantiated and could very well be a hoax.
But, if there's even a shred of truth in it, everything he discusses is quite interesting.
Spoilering the video, because while right now it is based solely on a leak, the possibility that this is real might ruin future patches and/or expansions for people. So click only if you don't care about theorycrafting about leaks that might or might not be real.
1) 8.30 is a raid on Stormwind. The attack on Thunder Bluff was a ruse, and while the heroes rush to defend Thunder Bluff, Sylvanas conquers Stormwind pretty much unchallenged. So the players and lore heroes show up to take it back from her.
2) A giant battle ensues, in which Bolvar the Lich King shows up and starts purging everybody. Pretty much 100% of the cast of the game is killed in a very Tarantino-esque bloodbath, including the player characters.
3) Helya shows up to fulfill her side of the pact that was made with Sylvanas in Legion, and Helya ushers the souls of all the dead to the Shadowlands.
4) Next expansion, titled "The Shadowlands" will be about two things: A) Finding a way back to the mortal realm and to life, and Defeating the Black Empire while we are there.
5) This whole thing was Sylvanas's master plan all along, and the entire story is a giant "Watchmen" ending, where the villain (in the Watchmen it was Adrian Veidt, in Warcraft it is Sylvanas) ends up being the savior of the world through extremely immoral means. Sacrifice the few (million) to save the many. That's where this is headed.
If the leak is true, Sylvanas is the hero. She does extremely shitty things to get us there, but the entire thing has been a giant manipulation, which served to wage a war against the Black Empire and ultimately save the world.
So if this happens, point A would need to become solved pretty much immediately, as they would NEVER give you a new area without also allowing you to also return to the old areas and travel between them pretty much on a whim.
it's super easy to handwave that away, like how azshara "traps" you in nazjatar and is "blocking portal magic" and then you have a permanent portal connecting to your home city in under 10 minutes.
I will always be in favor of another apocalypse expansion that does a soft reset of the game in some way. Nobody cares to see just another continent where they can hit level 130 and kill another big bad who lives there.
I think if they're going to do a big world shakeup like cata again they might as well just make WoW 2 and get unshackled from the 15 year old spaghetti code engine
I'd be for that too, but they're not going to throw away the engine. It's got probably 20 years worth of development put into it. Better to invest in refactoring it in-place rather than starting from scratch, which I imagine they've been doing ever since launch.
it's painfully obvious how much the engine is holding them back at this point if you compare it to, for example, FF14
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Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I think if they're going to do a big world shakeup like cata again they might as well just make WoW 2 and get unshackled from the 15 year old spaghetti code engine
The problem with that is cheevos.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
I don't think FF14 feels that good to play at all tbh. I imagine they could change the gameplay a lot with this engine if they wanted to, as long as it's not turning it into a full ARPG. They've just been beholden to all the existing content and characters.
I like 14, it's the game I raid in and I've been subbed to it almost constantly since ARR launched, but its engine is if anything worse than WoW's.
There's a reason the inventory stuff in 14 is always frustrating and heavily limited; they can't figure out how to make it better with the engine they have. It also feels worse to play, has the 3 second server ticks that cause so many mechanics to feel awful, AoEs going one by one through your list to hit everyone, etc.
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
Yeah, uh, as much as I love FF14, I wouldn't use its engine as an example of one that is better than WoW's. The fact that the game works at all, let alone being as good as it is, is entirely because of how good the dev team is, not the crap ass engine they've been burdened with.
I'm talking about stuff like the character and armor models, where WoW only started trying things like having bits that aren't just textures painted directly on the model for parts other than the pauldrons and helmets in Legion. I guess WoW's technical artists could just be stupid and lazy but I would rather give them the benefit of the doubt and say it's because of engine limitations from 2003. Or the terrible in-game cutscenes and rigging for those, or lack thereof.
Posts
No more new classes or races
Bard?
But Taliesin's idea was to do some of the following:
-- Turn Elemental shaman into Tide Sages
-- Turn Demonology warlocks into Necromancers
He had a few other ideas too, that I'm forgetting.
And I had an idea of my own for a reskin.
They should reskin paladins for Night Elves. Call them Knights of Elune. Make all their spell effects Moon and Arcane oriented. Make sets of armor that are silver and purple like the night elf stuff, and lean very heavily into the Elune imagery. But instead of being a new class, it would just be a paladin in disguise.
shadow hunter as it has previously existed in warcraft games is another flavor of troll voodoo man which got rolled into shaman, or a hunter with shaman and rogue abilities more recently in WoW.
I really do take WoW like some kind of JRPG story. I believe that is why the writing doesn't bother me as much as others. This whole setup then is pretty much a JRPG story and a pretty wild one at that. Also I really think that would be one of the better ways BFA could end. I mean what was the alternative? Fighting N'zoth in the most predictable ending ever?
It is kind of funny too how the whole concept seems to mirror a lot of how FF 14 does things. Maybe the writing is nowhere near as good in WoW, but if they did go in this leaked direction it is hard to deny where their inspiration comes from.
Not even like waves at all actually, it looks to be randomly rippling on a big enough scale that the scene almost looks set up in a modeling program.
Is it not just concept art?
The post of this leak I saw claimed that it was a screenshot of a cutscene. The shot with the boats is the one I mean.
I really don't think the leak is real outside of the whole "everyone leaks shit purposely for publicity now" angle. Which I wouldn't put past them to try and salvage BFA pretty much disappearing after classic came out. But I like the idea that the leaker put forth, real or not. I am fairly certain this leak would be more interesting than what we really get.
The next expansion will be all about air-to-air combat. Blizzard is tired of everyone hating on their convoluted anti-flying stance, so the next expansion will be all in the air. There will be no upgrades to your character's actual abilities, instead you'll get an air mount with artifact weapon like upgrade tree.
Considering how Blizzard updated their PTR background graphic to depict a dwarven gryphonrider and a Horde bat rider, I'd say that 100% proves this leak that I just made up, I mean, heard from a trusted source who works at Blizzard, is true.
My druid is running out of stuff to do besides any raids the guild decides to do (mostly need weapons for feral and guardian, and resto trinket), earning that 17k titan each week from a 10 is mostly a waiting game, and closing in on the last of the rank 3 essences I want. I tank, dps (Feral), and heal on this guy - though healing is more of a pinch hitter kind of thing.
Looking to figure out the next char to start to gear up, and can't decide between my monk and shaman.
Just don’t expect to pvp. Enh feels like shit there.
Enhancement's DPS is on par with Elemental in M+. More mobile, but in melee as a tradeoff. It's slightly behind in raid DPS because the game is so melee unfriendly, but it can keep up just fine if you find it more fun.
I feel they are trying to save themselves in retail since bfa was a turd and vanilla took off like a rocket
That sounds just fine, feral is plenty complicated for me. Won't hurt my feelings if something is a little less ...snapshotty.
And if I PvP I'm going to go resto druid.
Thanks
Immediately after logging in, your character dies and begins falling into the Shadowlands.
record scratch
your character: "Now, you may be wondering how I got here"
The problem with that is cheevos.
And the FF14 engine is still a decade old!
There's a reason the inventory stuff in 14 is always frustrating and heavily limited; they can't figure out how to make it better with the engine they have. It also feels worse to play, has the 3 second server ticks that cause so many mechanics to feel awful, AoEs going one by one through your list to hit everyone, etc.