Is there any consideration for pushing back any start date(s) considering the myriad bugs currently in game?
This post is mostly for release & communication concerns, if you are experiencing a bug please report it through the proper in-game channels or seek help here.
Player Concern
From talking with a lot of players, especially with how the pre-patch was delayed, we think that the launch of TWW will be very buggy on release. If problems are severe enough even a Thursday release player may be unable to play features of the game until a Tuesday reset - a whole day after the full release on Monday. Granted, following this there are two weeks before raid & M+ content roll out but I wonder how much testing there has really been to have Season 1 come so closely after players will have access to play through the content. This is all to say I think the timeline is very ambitious and unexpected issues may require more work than the timeline can withold.
Player concern seems valid. As of writing this (17 days before pre-release):
- Many old bosses are still bugged, including movement-based bosses like Sylvanas, Fyrakk, and Tindral. This makes farming transmogs difficult. [source]
- It’s unclear whether unlocking all amor types from quest rewards is a feature or a bug. [source]
- Cross Realm Trading being unavailable due to issues. [source]
- Not to make this yet another Hunter post, but our class has been heavily impacted by bugs. [list of bugs], [player feedback on bugs]. Despite these heavily impacting bugs, bandaid solutions have been implemented, such as only really attempting to fix Dark Ranger by buffing Dark Arrow’s damage, or nerfing BM despite bugs compounding the issue. Much more could be said on this - like how Pack Leader incentivizes Kill Command spamming. Class-specific issues are a particular concern for players given the historical lag in fixing issues, for example as it stands in Dragonflight Season 3 tier is still the most optimal for DPS, or how Deadly Duo was not properly increasing Kill Command damage all the way up until 1/30 - months into Dragonflight. Taken together, players feel like there will be many bugs in TWW and we should get used to them as features that are likely to not be fixed for a long time - essentially player pessimism but understandable I think. I get the feeling that other classes feel similarly.
- Trading the honor currency between alts increased player honor level and has since been disabled from being tradeable. [Personal experience]
- Character loss of reputation. [Personal & from conversations with players]
- Graphical bugs, like green boxes when taking portals in Zandalar [Personal experience].
- and myriad other issues Blizzard has reported - outlined here and here.
I know many of these are aware to Blizzard, but I’m just listing these to highlight the rather large scope of work yet to be done (which, to be fair, is also probably known by Blizzard!). I just think players are a bit concerned that many of the above bugs, particularly in how they correlate with frequent & large spec/role redesigns, may negatively impact The War Within’s first impressions & possibly last quite a bit ahead into the expansion.
Player Flexibility
So is the above avoidable? Beats me, that’s above my pay grade. In fact, I’m not getting paid at all for writing this, I guess I just love the game or something? Idk 
. I’m honestly very ignorant of how progress is going on everything I listed above. Many players are reasonable enough to not expect a 100% polished, bug-free, perfectly balanced game on launch. Yet, as it pertains to highly impactful bugs that affect the game experience, I have heard players talk about three things:
-
Players would like to read more about known issues, known gaps, and what our expectations should be for TWW. Are no more class changes coming? Is our plan to do a bunch of more testing in TWW live content before we dial specific nobs? Clarity on our approach I think will help us all set expectations, plan ahead, and adjust our feedback to these expectations.
- Made-Up Example: “Black Arrow’s damage increased 100%, player feedback has shown that Dark Ranger has not been that competitive compared to alternatives. Our intention is to revisit the Dark Ranger tree within Season 1.”
-
Some players, myself included, are okay with delays. Maybe not a long delay and probably not a full expansion delay, but if Season 1 had to be kicked back a week, or if certain aspects of the game needed to be paused (like Warbanks were), I speak for some saying that we’re cool with that rather than being frustrated trying to navigate broken content. Quality > getting content out quickly.
- Made-Up Example: "Currently The Darkness resets if players use too many movement abilities while he is casting Umbral Slash on the Candlelight. Due to this, Darkflame Cleft will be unavailable to play in Season 1 until this is resolved. "
-
I think we all know that frequent tuning and changes are in our future for the next few months. I think what could improve (similar to point 1) is that we would love more developer notes as this happens.
- Made-Up Example: “The Darkness’ Shadowblast timer has been increased to 7s (up from 6s), our intention is to wait and see how this timer plays out in an M+ setting before adjusting any further”
That’s all! Thanks, and if you’re from Blizzard I want to say I know you all are working very hard to fix things and have such a tight deadline on a lot of this. I appreciate your hard work! Hoping we can keep communication up during this month. <3
