WoW: Battle for Azeroth (8.3)

I'd normally recommend, if you see one like that, create an LFG group, you'd be surprised how fast your group will fill up if you list something like that. That's actually how I got my first Cruncher kill to get my RIP achievement done.

Demosthenes wrote:

I'd normally recommend, if you see one like that, create an LFG group, you'd be surprised how fast your group will fill up if you list something like that. That's actually how I got my first Cruncher kill to get my RIP achievement done.

I gave up finding backup after about 5 mins because it was super early (~8 am EST) on a weekday and I had to get to work. But you're absolutely right - that boss and a few others out there absolutely need a group. Only impatient morons try to solo some of those guys, amirite?

Hehe,I just wanted to note should you find yourself in that position again, create a group finder, folks who need things from it will frequently keep an eye on those groups and see if they can find one. I would recommend putting the group up BEFORE you hit the drill though.

We have a date for 8.3: Jan 14.

Raid schedule is here.

Barring any weird crap, that's it for BfA. Shadowlands is due in 2020, probably July (best case) or August.

Honestly, if that's their timeframe, the Alpha/Beta invites are probably going to need to start going out pretty much immediately after the patch hits. That likely means no 8.3.5, just right into 9.0.

As a newly mained DH, I'm curious about the class stuff for next expansion now. Would be nice to get some of our artifact ability stuff back from Legion.

Magni, be praised. 8.3 will give us a heroic version of Operation: Mechagon. Maybe even better, the damn dungeon will be split into two wings (for heroic and M+). Maybe now I'll get that achieve for finishing the thing.

Enix wrote:

Magni, be praised. 8.3 will give us a heroic version of Operation: Mechagon. Maybe even better, the damn dungeon will be split into two wings (for heroic and M+). Maybe now I'll get that achieve for finishing the thing.

That's what they did with Return to Karahzan; release it as one big experience for people who want that sort of thing, then break it into more digestible chunks for everyone else.

Is 9.0 the patch that has the revamped leveling? Or is that a prepatch? Isn't major expansion mechanics implemented in a pre-patch? It doesn't look like 8.3 is the pre-patch...

9.0 will be the pre-patch. The expansion launch is just when the content unlocks.

Enix wrote:

Magni, be praised. 8.3 will give us a heroic version of Operation: Mechagon. Maybe even better, the damn dungeon will be split into two wings (for heroic and M+). Maybe now I'll get that achieve for finishing the thing.

Great, I will finally be able to see it too.

fangblackbone wrote:

Is 9.0 the patch that has the revamped leveling? Or is that a prepatch? Isn't major expansion mechanics implemented in a pre-patch? It doesn't look like 8.3 is the pre-patch...

Vargen wrote:

9.0 will be the pre-patch. The expansion launch is just when the content unlocks.

Yeah, 8.3 is basically the last "content patch" for BFA, maybe. We're not 100% sure, there COULD be an 8.3.5 to help tide things over or they could release the pre-patch way in advance specifically to help get folks engaged what with the changes to leveling and all that... not to mention the changing up of classes with adding spells back in, removing spec restrictions on some spells, etc...

I'm still curious what to expect for my own class though. Having switched to DH, we don't have any old unused totems or any cross spec spells to restore or anything like that. Would be nice to get some of our artifact abilities back from last expansion, but that's about it.

Honestly, they did the scaling content revamp in January for the last expansion which was released in august. That is 8 months time to iron out the kinks. I would have preferred they do the same for the level squish this time around. They should do at least 4 months if not 6 before the release so hopefully by april. If they wait until 9.0 and one month before the expansion unlocks, they are fools...

I think the real thing to watch for is the 9.0 PTR to open up sometime in feb. If that doesn't happen it's very unlikely we'll be seeing the expac in august, and dicey it'll even be out before the next holiday season

Ooh, I am definitely going to jump on the PTR when 9.0 is up there
You have to subscribe to access it of course, yes?

fangblackbone wrote:

Ooh, I am definitely going to jump on the PTR when 9.0 is up there
You have to subscribe to access it of course, yes?

Don't they usually do a lottery of former and current subscribers and send out e-mails?

thrawn82 wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

Ooh, I am definitely going to jump on the PTR when 9.0 is up there
You have to subscribe to access it of course, yes?

Don't they usually do a lottery of former and current subscribers and send out e-mails?

Do they typically do a N.0 patch test on the PTR separate from the beta test of the expansion content? It seems like I ought to know the answer to that, but I have no idea.

Then again, I never look at anything until it goes live. I had my fill of MMO betas with Everquest.

You'd be smart to put money on an August release for Shadowlands, mostly because the last two have come out in that month.

Via Ye Olde Wikipedia:

The Burning Crusade: Jan 2007 release date
Wrath of the Lich King: Nov 2008 ... 22 months from previous expansion
Cataclysm: Dec 2010 ... 25 months
Mists of Pandaria: Sept 2012 ... 21 months
Warlords of Draenor: Nov 2014 ... 26 months
Legion: Aug 2016 ... 21 months
Battle for Azeroth: Aug 2018 ... 24 months

... even if Blizzard takes a max of 26 months, that's still a 2020 release. By now, tho, WoW is a machine, and I suspect the production schedules have been locked down now for a while.

Yeah, they will drop or delay features if need be.
I want my dance studio!!

thrawn82 wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

Ooh, I am definitely going to jump on the PTR when 9.0 is up there
You have to subscribe to access it of course, yes?

Don't they usually do a lottery of former and current subscribers and send out e-mails?

Well, two different things there.

PTR is the public test realm that's open to all, usually a last stage of testing for content releases.

The lottery one you're thinking of would be the alpha/beta.

Likely what we'll see post 8.3 launch is the Alpha/Beta testing of Shadowlands as a whole. As we get closer to the expansion, there should be a 9.0 PTR with basically the pre-patch changes for folks to also test with without access to Shadowlands content.

My money is that they'll have a round of testing in April and another in May because they like to f*ck with their competition's releases. That's when Amazon's New World Beta and Launch are.

ranalin wrote:

My money is that they'll have a round of testing in April and another in May because they like to f*ck with their competition's releases. That's when Amazon's New World Beta and Launch are.

I dunno, I'd guess an Alpha, is there isn't one up already, will go up pretty quick after 8.3 launches and the raid goes live a week later. Beta? Even April seems like a far way off for that as that would make Beta maybe 4-6 months long to release this year? I'd be willing to bet if a beta isn't up this month, it'll be up in February. The only MMO Blizzard seems to be actively scheduling around right now to mess with is FFXIV... and I have no idea what their calendar looks like for next year.

Demosthenes wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

Ooh, I am definitely going to jump on the PTR when 9.0 is up there
You have to subscribe to access it of course, yes?

Don't they usually do a lottery of former and current subscribers and send out e-mails?

Well, two different things there.

PTR is the public test realm that's open to all, usually a last stage of testing for content releases.

The lottery one you're thinking of would be the alpha/beta.

Likely what we'll see post 8.3 launch is the Alpha/Beta testing of Shadowlands as a whole. As we get closer to the expansion, there should be a 9.0 PTR with basically the pre-patch changes for folks to also test with without access to Shadowlands content.

you're right i was definitely meaning to refer to the closed beta not the PTR

thrawn82 wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

Ooh, I am definitely going to jump on the PTR when 9.0 is up there
You have to subscribe to access it of course, yes?

Don't they usually do a lottery of former and current subscribers and send out e-mails?

Well, two different things there.

PTR is the public test realm that's open to all, usually a last stage of testing for content releases.

The lottery one you're thinking of would be the alpha/beta.

Likely what we'll see post 8.3 launch is the Alpha/Beta testing of Shadowlands as a whole. As we get closer to the expansion, there should be a 9.0 PTR with basically the pre-patch changes for folks to also test with without access to Shadowlands content.

you're right i was definitely meaning to refer to the closed beta not the PTR

Yeah, I can't imagine we'll get more than month post Mythic raid opening without Shadowlands Alpha/Beta going up and invites going out... the question is will Blizzard be more open or closed with this one. The last two Alphas/Betas were pretty NDA free, stream it if you want to, all that. In the case of Legion, it was a clear boost to the expansion's hype factor... in the case of BFA, it was a clear highlight of how so many things were not ready/half-baked. Azerite Armor... what was supposed to be THE thing of expansion (now one of 3 different things) didn't even go up on the beta until like the last month/month and a half of testing.

My guess is that Alpha will probably be NDA-ed, no talking about it, etc... but Beta, well, they really don't have a choice, they're gonna have that be open to be streamed/YTed, etc... because people are kind of over BFA and want to see the new stuff and more importantly want to see Blizzard is learning from the mistakes of this expansion.

Hopefully I can get a beta invite again, did so the last two expansions and sent in a decent amount of notes and ended up creating one of the most infamous beta threads ever for Shamans, leading to Earthshrine's feedback room on their discord no longer allowing folks to talk about how the rotation doesn't flow right or use the word clunky at all. XD

Because I'm just now starting to pay attention to 8.3:

* Do the intro quest asap. That's the content gate.

* The weekly assaults (one major, two minor) give you i430 and i440 gear. That'll be a decent upgrade for my main (i425 or so) and a huuuge upgrade for my Horde toon (almost i400).

* The assaults also drop BOA gear tokens a la Timeless Isle. They'll be i400 and a big boost if you've been slack-leveling alts like I have.

More detail here and here.

Unrelated: I'm probably the last person to have learned that you can send your BOA Benthic tokens to your enchanter, who can pop the item and melt it down into the elusive (to me, anyway) Veiled Crystal. If you're like me and wondering what you could do with all of those damn manapearls that were starting to pile up, there you go.

Enix wrote:

Because I'm just now starting to pay attention to 8.3:

* Do the intro quest asap. That's the content gate.

* The weekly assaults (one major, two minor) give you i430 and i440 gear. That'll be a decent upgrade for my main (i425 or so) and a huuuge upgrade for my Horde toon (almost i400).

* The assaults also drop BOA gear tokens a la Timeless Isle. They'll be i400 and a big boost if you've been slack-leveling alts like I have.

More detail here and here.

Unrelated: I'm probably the last person to have learned that you can send your BOA Benthic tokens to your enchanter, who can pop the item and melt it down into the elusive (to me, anyway) Veiled Crystal. If you're like me and wondering what you could do with all of those damn manapearls that were starting to pile up, there you go.

You can also scrap the azurite armor slots for (admittedly little, but some) Titan Residuum too... though keep in mind that's going to reset Tuesday, so might be worth waiting until then... Plus there's always the mounts and essences and such too which cost the pearls.

That is a heck of a long unlock questline for all the 8.3 features. Jeebus.

Seriously, a friend of mine, who is notoriously ADHD about her Rare Tracker/Chest Alerts, but still... and I did it last night. We started at 10:15PM, and ended up finishing all of our Visions and all that at 2:45AM. Definitely some fun to be had in the new patch systems, but the inconsistency of fly to this zone versus being basically portaled there and the sheer amount of travel time was just... bleeeeeeeeeeh. Invasion clickables also being unshared even by party members and being 'solo' so that people can just run up and grab a thing you're fighting mobs for is... lame. I don't understand how Blizzard just keeps not learning that that's super annoying for players, especially at peak hours/days. Took one of my guildies almost an hour to complete one of the first daily quests in Uldum for those obelisks... and on top of them being that quest requirement, they're ALSO part of the invasion fill-the-bar "WQ" thing... so there's still value in clicking them after you complete the quest, making them even harder.

But, other than that and spending far more time on my mount going between places than I would have expected with titan facilities that are linked up and have let me teleport between them before... was good fun. If you didn't know, the egg for the new "raise your mount" questline is up in Uldum far off in the SW corner in the harbor with the bugs. The visions are intriguing.

And... oh yeah, somehow I got the best tank corruption on one of my invasion cache pieces which carries a price of 75 corruption... so that is both awesome and just not going to be used for weeks. XD

I got through about half of the stuff playing last night, but that also included a solid 1 1/2 hours on a fairly awful operation mechagon LFD run. Oh pro tip, while it is split in half for queuing, it isn't hard split the way LFR is, if you start at the beginning you can just do the whole thing and it still counts.

Oh yeah, the new Doubloon crates absolutely have mounts in them, as my Yeti mount proved to me last night. Was trying to get the Twlight Avenger dragon mount, but got the Yeti... but they are in there.

No plans for 8.3.5. This is a huge mistake. we are basically going to beta test the new leveling experience on Shadowlands launch. This is so *facepalm* short sighted. This is the main reason for coming back to WoW. I still am looking forward to leveling a ton of horde alts but I would have liked to avoid the mad rush. With the pre-patch at least you could have split the rush between those that want to try the new leveling and those that want to experience Shadowlands.
https://www.millenium.us.org/guide/1...

First of all, just to get it out of the way, we currently don’t have any 8.3.5 plans — there may be some small systems tweaks or updates for stability between now and Shadowlands, but Visions of N’Zoth is really the concluding chapter of Battle for Azeroth, and we’re excited to focus our attention on Shadowlands and the upcoming beta for Shadowlands that’ll be opening up over the course of the year.

Something like the new leveling system would not have been in 8.3.5. It will be in 9.0. Which is not necessarily the expansion launch.

When they did the first stat squish for Warlords of Draenor they put out 6.0 and then let us hammer on a rebalanced Siege of Orgrimar raid for several weeks before the actual expansion was released. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we had a month or more of 9.0 with the level squish and maybe the new starting zone before Shadowlands hits. That may be what they have planned instead of 8.3.5.