H Madness, Chromatic, Skyfire... MoP?

[kerghan]

Been leafing through the forums the last few weeks... In addition to the miles upon miles of QQ, I've stumbled on a couple interesting thoughts.

There's a thread here that's theorizing a heroic-only boss after Madness or some kind of extra phase:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-have-a-secret
-- Some decent concepts, most revolving around N'zoth. No lie, I'd like to see it happen. I'll never see it at content in game, but I'd still like to know it's there and go back to it later. (Speaking of which, Sinestra? let's do lunch.)

Then there's this drake mount that NOBODY knows where it comes from:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images...ragonmount.jpg
-- I said on day friggin 1 that it looked asian as all get-out and HAD to have something to do with MoP.

And here's the last piece of the cookie. Take another look at the map of the Wandering Isle (Panda starting zone):
http://images.wikia.com/wowwiki/imag...izzCon2011.png
-- What ho? Skyfire Crash site? I thought we parachuted out and killed ol Deathy and then had tea and a baby shower. What's this about a crash?


So here's my rudimentary theory, and please add any other information or variations if you know more.
H-madness goes exactly as planned. Cutscene goes as planned. Loot roll. Once last loot is removed from boss, event is triggered. Thrall does an in-game emote about something swirling in the Maelstrom, and you talk to him to start ... another cinematic. Now we've got tenticles and Old-God goodness coming out of the Maelstrom, Cue N'Zoth fight. Somewhere in there (help me out here -- Beginning? End?) something happens like random debris or saboteuring faceless ones and the Skyfire is damaged (with or without players on board). If players on board... MoP spoiler inc. If not... Easter Egg / story conclusion in MoP.

Like I said, just trying to piece some stuff together. For the Skyfire to crash, SOMETHING has to happen to it, and it makes far more sense to happen during the chaos of the Deathwing fights than to go down on lol-random patrol over a "naval battle". (otherwise, why use the Skyfire? Apparently you've built a good few of these since ICC). Then again... N'Zoth, great sea, naval battle...


This reference to patch 4.4 "breaking the timeline precedent" either means A) we're dropping an xpac over summer instead of Nov/Dec. or B) timeline got really really small to accommodate a much larger cliffhanger story.

[Ragu]

There will be no bonus encounter.

Here is your proof: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...53121?page=1#6

[meroko]

There will be no bonus encounter.

Here is your proof: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...53121?page=1#6

How exactly is that proof? He never confirms NOR denies there being an extra phase. So yeah.

[Crackleslap]

Oh how i wish this was true, or something like it. Unfortunately, our chances aren't very high

[Daetur]

Would be amazing. Probably not, though, with the magic of datamining.

[Chickat]

Maybe they will patch in Nzoth in 4.4 as the halion fight? He appears just as you said after deathwing.

[DetectiveJohnKimble]

They would have to have a patch ready to go as soon as H Spine goes down in order to implement this, because stuff like this would have been datamined by now.

We got a heroic only boss on the launch tier and an entirely new phase to H Rag, so that might be all Blizzard has in them in adding anything particularly unique for heroic raids. The heroic end-tier bosses before them didn't really have any new flashy phases/mechanics, just pretty basic stuff like we're going to see with the Corrupting Parasite on H Madness most likely.

Hopefully Blizzard really does have something planned to make it a lot more interesting

[Deleted]

I guess there is something coming. And you have to admit it would be awesome.

[Reg]

I am pretty sure there is a time lapse between Cata and MoP. The Skyfire crashes in an event completely unrelated to the events of 4.3

And I have been assuming that Chromatic Drake will be a reward from the Chromatic Champion achievement

[.Nensec]

Regarding how blizzard's client works nowadays I would not be too suprised if they are able to dynamically cache brand new abilities, models and other crap straight from their server

[Deleted]

I am pretty sure there is a time lapse between Cata and MoP. The Skyfire crashes in an event completely unrelated to the events of 4.3

And I have been assuming that Chromatic Drake will be a reward from the Chromatic Champion achievement

Why would it have the asian style of model then?

Also, Chromatic Champion achievement is easy, like really easy. We will get it in four weeks, and it never says there is a reward for it.

[pilch]

Interesting ideas but it doesn't look likely that there will be another boss after heroic madness, and from that blue post I'm frankly beginning to doubt there will even be an extra phase:

"The way we handled Ragnaros was kind of unique"

Either this means that it was unique compared to any previous boss (which is pretty true), or that madness won't have a heroic-only final phase. I hope it's the former :<

[Deleted]

i dunno does it proves anything... there is alliance gunship crash site in deepholm as well.
Skyfire might be used later in that supposed war and shot down over Pandaria.

Extra hidden boss in HC DS raid sounds like nice thing though. Who knows
When first guilds get there we will know.

[Reg]

Why would it have the asian style of model then?

Also, Chromatic Champion achievement is easy, like really easy. We will get it in four weeks, and it never says there is a reward for it.

Asian model? It's a character rendition of a Chromatic dragon, how is that an Asian model?

And achievements don't have to be hard to give rewards...

[Deleted]

We've to beat Azshara first in order to encounter N'zoth.

Azshara was also empowered by him, this old god is responsible for several big things.. including the creation of Naga and is now rumoured to have something to do with the Sha. <_<

[Cowt]

Then there's this drake mount that NOBODY knows where it comes from:
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images...ragonmount.jpg
-- I said on day friggin 1 that it looked asian as all get-out and HAD to have something to do with MoP.

The spell animation coming out of the Dragon Soul when Thrall takes the final shot after you have defeated the Madness of Deathwing-encounter, looks identical to the mount without the armor. This does not appear in any cinematic, and has to be seen in-game.

[Tides]

Well the skyfire would have had to land somewhere...

We jumped outa it along with the crew... Crewless ship flying haplessly into the horizon... BOOM Panda's going like "WTF?!?"

[Cheebie]

Well the skyfire would have had to land somewhere...

We jumped outa it along with the crew... Crewless ship flying haplessly into the horizon... BOOM Panda's going like "WTF?!?"

Yeh, this basically.

Ever since I saw the Skyfire crash site in the files i thought it would have something to do with the battle of theramore in 4.4 or something, then again how would they have met the horde if it was used for the alliance? No idea, but I'm sure they have something good planned.

[kerghan]

The spell animation coming out of the Dragon Soul when Thrall takes the final shot after you have defeated the Madness of Deathwing-encounter, looks identical to the mount without the armor. This does not appear in any cinematic, and has to be seen in-game.

I have seen this and will grant you that point. Personally, I think it's a weaker correlation than the "asian" idea, but it is valid.

---------- Post added 2011-12-13 at 08:26 AM ----------

Well the skyfire would have had to land somewhere...
We jumped outa it along with the crew... Crewless ship flying haplessly into the horizon... BOOM Panda's going like "WTF?!?"

Blizz is infamous for not showing you every single detail. Actually, every story ever told is infamous for omitting nonessentials. (how many times did Frodo take a piss? hrm?) I'd 110% guarantee that there were some gnomes running the engines that simply were not animated. We never get a chance to explore the lower decks of the ship (other than what we see in the cinematic), so they could and should be down there toiling away.

To compound this, let me throw this logic gem at you. You defeat Spine, and immediately the cut-scene goes to Thrall skewering DW straight-through. Ok.... So where are the players? Standing in the unarmored firing zone? Then we'd be obliterated by the blast. Or you could say the players crawled off to the corner somewhere to avoid the blast zone.... except that he immediately crashes in to the Maelstrom. The only slim-slim real possibility is that we were packing double parachutes and there was some kind of water retrieval offscreen.

Oooooorrr..... there's stuff called "suspension of disbelief" and they just assume to not show every scrap of logistical detail.

[Vereesa]

I am pretty sure there is a time lapse between Cata and MoP. The Skyfire crashes in an event completely unrelated to the events of 4.3

And I have been assuming that Chromatic Drake will be a reward from the Chromatic Champion achievement

The Chromatic Champion achievement is part of the Glory of the Dragon Soul Raider meta-achievement. It would, in my opinion, be quite senseless to reward the players basically two mounts for completing the meta.

OP: Your clues definitely hint at a possible connection, but I doubt Blizzard would do this. We all know how Sinestra worked out... (no testing that is)