wow Patch 7.3 PTR Dev Notes: Build 24608

[Stan 5,239]

Most of 7.3 content is enabled for testing in the latest build and now's a great time to check out PTR. This build opens the Seat of the Triumvirate dungeon, the third Argus area called Stygian Wake and the Netherlight Crucible that upgrades Relics by adding additional effects and item levels.

Blizzard (Source)

We’ve added a heap of new content to the 7.3 PTR in this build, including:

• The Seat of the Triumvirate 5-player dungeon
• The third (and final) area of Argus, including World Quests
• The Frost Death Knight updates we mentioned a few days ago
• A few new updates, quests, and World Quests for Professions
• The Netherlight Crucible

The Netherlight Crucible (accessible from the Vindicaar after completing the quest “An Offering of Shadow”) is a new way to upgrade new and existing Artifact Relics by adding additional effects and item levels. As your Artifact grows in power, the system will expand to allow more and more customization. We’d love your feedback on this system, including on the pacing of the upgrades as well as the upgraded effects themselves, so please let us know what you think!

At this stage, most of 7.3’s content is now available for testing on the PTR (with the raid being a notable exception). From this point, we’ll be focusing primarily on fixing bugs and tightening up the new content based largely on your feedback, so if you haven’t checked out the PTR yet, now’s a great time. Thanks, and happy testing!

[MrEdren 114]

They're really putting an awful lot of work into the artifact system, considering they're gone in 6 months. 

[Yridaa 490]

8 minutes ago, MrEdren said:

They're really putting an awful lot of work into the artifact system, considering they're gone in 6 months. 

Or are they? Is that taken from an official source?

[DasBigHippo 14]

I don't know anything about 6 months. However it is very unlikely that they will carry over to the next expansion. And Blizzard has stated that they want to push out expansions more often after how big of an awful dryspell there was in WoD I believe.

[afunyun 0]

2 hours ago, DasBigHippo said:

I don't know anything about 6 months. However it is very unlikely that they will carry over to the next expansion. And Blizzard has stated that they want to push out expansions more often after how big of an awful dryspell there was in WoD I believe.

That is not true, they said they were doing quicker expansions before WoD and after how shitty it ended up they decided they want to spend more time and effort on each expansion and give it more content rather than rush into the next expansion.

[gambit5555 0]

4 hours ago, DasBigHippo said:

I don't know anything about 6 months. However it is very unlikely that they will carry over to the next expansion. And Blizzard has stated that they want to push out expansions more often after how big of an awful dryspell there was in WoD I believe.

No, Blizzard stated at the beginning of Legion that they are NOT going to try to release expansions on a yearly basis, they have realized that they are unable to come close to that time frame, and they would rather focus on releasing continuous patches of content to keep the player appetite sated. I honestly feel like they have overall done an exceptional job with this, despite a rocky roll-out on 7.2 

[Plergoth 277]

I'm not sure about artifacts leaving us entirely myself either. Entire classes and specs revolve around their artifact abilities; would they give us conventional weapons again, scrap those abilities or let us keep the passive and active spells they gave us, or give us new artifacts come next expansion? 

I have similar thoughts regarding legendaries. By design, you cannot destroy or disenchant any legendary you obtain, so come next expansion, are we expecting to put all of those into the bank to collect dust until Legion timewalking dungeons, or...? As I am assuming they want to keep a lot of the concepts and ideas they've done so far in Legion for the next expansion. 

[Maerlim 8]

I don't want to retire my artifact weapons to go back to regular ones. I love the system and the arttifact weapons themselves.

[Neldor 4]

I wonder how they are going to handle the fact that for druids, the artifacts completely change the look of their transformation forms. I can't imagine going back to the simple, boring cat or bear. Maybe glyphs, availible based on the appearances acquiered?

[Mcdermott 3]

6 hours ago, Maerlim said:

I don't want to retire my artifact weapons to go back to regular ones. I love the system and the arttifact weapons themselves.

no reason to, because of the relic system they should be able to use artifact weapons as like sub-sub specs, release new weapons, but keep the old ones relevant via relics.

[DeathsDesign 92]

I think a lot of what will happen to the artifacts next expansion all comes down to the theme of next expansion.  Honestly I could see Blizzard having a whole new artifact system for the next expansion and requiring the breakdown (destruction possibly) of Legion artifacts in order to construct or obtain new artifacts.  

Like maybe because we have stopped the Burning Legion and dealt with Sargeras our artifact weapons are losing power.  In order to conserve the remaining power we have to destroy the artifact and extract the remaining power to imbue it into a newer more powerful artifact capable of combating the new threat.

This would require much more development for the dev team, however, it's a viable way to keep the artifact system going and prevent us from dealing with the "my character sucks because x weapon never drops for me" scenario we all experienced at one time or another.

[Valks 2,375]

We'll probably break our weapons, use the power to fuse with some sort of titan-esque power and then win. I hope not, but probably.

[Yridaa 490]

25 minutes ago, Blainie said:

We'll probably break our weapons, use the power to fuse with some sort of titan-esque power and then win. I hope not, but probably.

I wouldn't say we'll "win" just yet with the next xpac as we know very little about the void. I mean, just think how long it took us to get to Sargeras over all these xpacs.

 

Then there's still Aszhara... although our enemies are definitely dwindling...

[Valks 2,375]

3 hours ago, Yridaa said:

I wouldn't say we'll "win" just yet with the next xpac as we know very little about the void. I mean, just think how long it took us to get to Sargeras over all these xpacs.

 

Then there's still Aszhara... although our enemies are definitely dwindling...

Chronicles has shown that they're not afraid to write in new enemies though, like with the Void Lords. I'm sure there are still plenty of enemies for us, just waiting to be revealed.

[Yridaa 490]

16 hours ago, Blainie said:

Chronicles has shown that they're not afraid to write in new enemies though, like with the Void Lords. I'm sure there are still plenty of enemies for us, just waiting to be revealed.

Oh for sure! I mean as long as they have story writers and willing to expand on the Warcraft universe (Considering economic reasons and passion to make games and their IP thrive), I see no reason to just say "Well guys, that was it, thanks for playing!".

 

It is however definitely worth noting that things like the previous RTS styles have a much, much faster story pace than the MMO variant of Warcraft. If you consider what happened in - and between - the Warcraft 1 (1994) and Warcraft 3 TFT (2003), a timespan of 9 years and compare that to WoW, it is leaps and bounds faster in story pace.

 

Of course, the MMO variant has a - pretty much - infinitely deeper elaboration on the lore and details. And how could it not? Dedicating an entire expansion on only a few subjects with hundreds if not thousands of quests, dungeons and raids, it only makes sense.

 

 

The point I am trying to make here is not that "RTS is better than MMO" or the other way around, it'd be comparing apples and oranges. The point I am trying to make is that a new Warcraft RTS would be a great way to dig through a lot of "large scale" story content - as they did in the past - and then continue the MMO after (or perhaps even during) the RTS events.

 

It seems to me a great way of telling the story and adding lore. I mean, we were so happy to finally fight the Lich King and with good reason, we've been following Arthas' journey from start to finish in the RTS and see him grow and become this monstrosity. To finally fight him in the MMO was everyone that played WC3's dream.

 

It doesn't have to be one of a kind thing and I feel both the RTS and MMO can live in harmony perfectly fine if executed well.

 

Because the current known bad guys (Not a general faction (Void Lords)) are almost all dead, I can't help but look very much forward to what Blizzard can bring to us next. I mean, even though most of us didn't like MoP from a content perspective (Those dailies in specific and perhaps the panda race for some), I am sure we can agree that the majority really loved the new lore that came with it, even if it did tie in with the current lore (Celestials being Titan constructs for example, the Sha being part of an old god)

 

Bring it on!

[Valks 2,375]

7 hours ago, Yridaa said:

Because the current known bad guys (Not a general faction (Void Lords)) are almost all dead, I can't help but look very much forward to what Blizzard can bring to us next. I mean, even though most of us didn't like MoP from a content perspective (Those dailies in specific and perhaps the panda race for some), I am sure we can agree that the majority really loved the new lore that came with it, even if it did tie in with the current lore (Celestials being Titan constructs for example, the Sha being part of an old god)

Definitely. As much as people may hate on MoP, Blizzard did a pretty amazing job of creating some awesome lore surrounding the new continent, races, everything.