SO WAS I RIGHT OR WAS I RIGHT?
I will accept oaths of loyalty this coming evening. All who wish to commit their souls to my rule need but kneel and say the words.

Anyway…

Not confirmed yet, but another MASSIVE beta wave went out. Honestly, everyone I know now has it. Except like 2 people. There was a lot of speculation as to what criteria this wave consisted of, and even after blue response, I would offer a more likely solution.

Bashiok took to Reddit for some reason to explain, but I still don’t buy it. Let me tell you what I think and why it plays in to exactly what I was talking about with last week’s predictions.

When I logged on to WoW before raid, I was surprised to find nearly everyone in my guild received a WoD Beta invite. We were all laughing and talking about how great it was going to be. After a while, two new recruits logged on and noted they had NOT received a beta invite and were upset and surprised we ALL had. Like literally, the entire guild is in now minus these two new members.

As a joke, one of our leaders said “You didn’t get in because you joined after we killed garrosh. They only gave it to people who were there for the progression.” We all laughed, and continued discussing the implications of having a full guild in the test.

One seemed quite obvious, and was brought up by multiple people: When raid and other testing starts, we will all be able to participate!

Hmm…

Population who have received Beta.

Population who have received Beta.

So after a night of raiding, these ideas were really swirling in my head quite heavily. It became more and more pressing for me to ask around and see what was happening. So I asked two guild leaders on the server also running 25m Heroic raiding groups. One has been done with Garrosh since before we cleared it, and the other recently converted and just downed Siegecrafter for the first time this weekend.

The 14/14H officer returned a jovial “Ya man, like the entire guild got in lol.” The 12/14H officer was slower to respond and none to pleased when he did, offering a snide “No, why. I’ve been waiting for ever, but I never  get in to things like this. Doesn’t look like anyone else here did either.”

So, maybe a coincidence of course, and maybe a misunderstanding, but for the sake of this article we will progress UNDER THE ASSUMPTION that the beta wave targeted players that had been playing a long time with priority given to those 14/14H after a certain date.

But why would they do that, you might ask?
Well there are two pretty obvious reasons. I am probably giving Blizzard and their CMs WAY too much credit here, but put it this way. The “feedback” thread is a minefield. There is this one clown going on constantly about how the beta is terrible, how no one wants to play it, and how everything is broken beyond comprehension. Meanwhile, there have been 4 capped threads (=2000 and counting) over Flying in WoD, and another near capped thread on the Hubs changing places.

Not to mention the 10 threads a day about how bad the new Character Models are, along side how that one ability removed from each spec completely ruins the video game.

Its utterly horrid. It’s turned in to a general discussion forum honestly, and its to the point that no one there even plays the game seriously, let alone has serious feedback. For the record, if you are nitpicking the new models to the point of making 10s of posts on them, just stop playing the game. If you are staring at your characters face for that long in game then you should just go play a beauty simulator. The new models are amazing and a HUGE upgrade from what they were. You didn’t complain then, so don’t do it now.

ANYWAY…

Where was I? Oh ya, so they invite all these successful raiders to actually do content, instead of just complain about features that have no bearing on important parts of the game. But that isn’t the only reason they would do something this bold.

Once again, maybe too much read into this, but it seems pretty obvious that they are looking to elevate the build. They have announced the API changes needed to facilitate Addons, enabled Combat Logging functionality, and placed vendors with full enchants, potions, food buffs, and flasks. Now they invite a million~ 14/14H raiders!?

Raid testing is on its way boys.

On top of this, we have our confirmation that the next phase will hit the ground running.

That guy, who apparently works at Blizzard, goes on to say later in the string that the build will be up some time next week. This comes on the coattails of Foror saying that they have the other four zones ready, and the next builds will contain two at a time. How exciting is that

But given what we already knew, each time the leveling side gets something, the Level 100 server gets something else. How appropriate would it be to released the next wave of dungeons, wrap that up, and be testing heroics and CM by August? Raids shortly after? then 2-3 months of alternating day Raid testing and the end game is ready to be shipped!

Don’t get me wrong, there is still a LOT to do. They haven’t even added Pet Battling yet, and I know it sounds minor, but that has a lot to it. Not to mention all there is to do in Draenor at 100. Even with the server, we still need to test the end game pve outside instances.

Well anyway, hopefully you guys are as excited as I am. Stay tuned to the associated youtube channels as well as wow.stratics for all the coverage. And maybe some more wod beta key giveaways for those unlucky 😉