It just seems weird that they would do that. It feels pretty deliberate that they moved the timeline up if anything.
Why would they move up the timeline only to then delay it again? It isn’t impossible, it just seems like it would be needlessly bad PR for them.
I mean I was among the first to say 2023 DF. Actually, not among the first, the actual first.
S4 never made any sense to me without the thought that S3+S4 combined would be long, longer than even the standard content drought. But if they’ve moved up the timeline, then to me that suggests something has changed for them to do that.
I want to clarify that I’m fine with it being earlier, I’m just super skeptical based on where we are now to having an expansion release in 6 months.
We are just over 3.5 months into the final raid tier (also possibly the hardest raid tier of all time) AND they already announced a season 4 and a new rotating raid system. It would take 6 weeks just to run through each fated raid twice.
Plus pre-patch that is normally 2-3 weeks.
And it’s just like……ehhh ok Blizz if in day so but that timeline doesn’t add up well in my head.
Legion and BFA both had betas last 3.7 months. Shadowlands happened during early(ish) COVID so I’d rather not use that as a baseline.
So you’re looking at DF beta starting in early/mid August to support a December release.
To be fair, Blizzard DID just go against the core of their very being and finally gave us deterministic loot with the Dinar system.
Ion confirmed in interview it will be 2 weeks.
Hence all of the comments about rushing.
It should be noted that Ion has been pretty adamant that 10.0 is supposed to be sort of a continuation of 9.2. The talent trees we have seem to confirm that they’ve designing class gameplay in 10.0 to simply be a balanced version of 9.2 with the powers baked into the tree. There’s only 4 new M+ dungeons, 1 new raid, no new systems, they’ve gone back on having tier in every patch and have said that we don’t have set bonuses in 10.0… what is there they really need to be devoting time to testing? It’s basically just ensuring the transition from 9.2 to 10.0 goes smoothly and a bit of new content.
It will take 6 weeks minimum if you full clear the raid every week to get the 3 dinars (30, 20, and 10 kills respectively).
The upgrade tokens take 20 kills per item. So unless you’re full clearing mythic week 1 ain’t nobody going to be using them to upgrade more than 1 item at best.
Still, legion and BFA betas were both 3.7 months long. That would put DF beta starting in Early/Mid August.
If S4 is only 12 weeks or so then it certainly defangs the complaints about why players can’t keep earning more Dinars. You simply wouldn’t even have the time to earn them.
Similarly, it makes the upgrade tokens not simply welfare 311 items if the season is short. I was legit not going to play S4 if it was so easy to attain 311 gear over the course of a 6-7 month season but if most players are only going to get 1 or maybe 2 of these items at best aside from the absolute cream of the crop then pushing without raiding won’t be such a severe disadvantage that it seemed like it would be. The nightmare scenario where you have to compete with the Fury Warrior dual wielding Gavel and Jaythis while wearing OWS is mostly averted.
People be chompin’ at the bit!! Rearing to savage the talent tree changes!!!
I mean…I too am interested in all the talent tree builds. Discussing optimal trees. Rational back and forth with others. Especially when opinions differ from my own and that which is presented.
