9.0 General Discussion

[TheFirstOnes]

its waaaaaay too early for Void Lords

For now, yeah. We still have Ny'alotha to go to, the Dragon Isles, as well as the whole Death/Elune thing to go through. Pretty sure 9.0 is going to solve the rest of the plots still going around on Azeroth. 10.0 might be where we do the whole Void Lords BS. Remember, the Legion, and the Black Empire were dealt with in the span of 1 Expansion. So, I mean...

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Expansion can be anything at this point, there are at least 2 very viable paths to continue - Void Lords and Death/Shadowlands. I, personally, hope for Void Lords with Sylvanas skulking around for the next expansion.

Dragon Isles will be nothing more than a single zone, if at all.

9.0 will most definitely be about Death. They're going to save the Void Lords for last. They're literally the Outer Gods of WoW.

[Buliwyf the Omen]

What if we don't get a new landmass but instead have EK, Kalimdor and Northrend revamped completely? And you can level 1-130 (or if we have level squish 1-70) in the old zones? Are we ready for that? Or there must be a landmass?

I think they will go for something real big. 8.2 only having one small zone each and 8.3 only giving a new raid with some old zones changed slightly we can expect a lot from WoW this BlizzCon.

[Syegfryed]

Depends. The whole Red Star in the sky thing premonitions do point at that direction and we do have Locus-Walker and Shadowguard chilling for some time now.

IMO, Ion quite directly telling us to look at the red star in the sky and the moment it disappears leading to something bad like half a year ago, does sort of point into Void Lord direction, otherwise why would he just toss that remark out of blue.

It's a tease remark and IMO it's meant to tease something that will come soon enough.

pretty sure the red star ws something to do with Sargeras imprisoned in the throne, and if it desapear, it means he is free.

Also, something from Legion that we apparently forget, some riddles talk about a green serpent with many eyes, that is coming from the space, or some shit like that.

I don't remember very well the mysteries of past expansions but pretty sure there is things that are not yet reveled

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also, we didn't saw yet the other side of Azeroth, not just that, is pretty safe to assume there is more landmass on the south, like another big continent, probably a cold one like northrend, pandaria look more like a equatorial land, based on the climate, so, going south it should get cold again.

in azeroth still we have those possibilites:

- South continent or continents
- Other side of Azeroth
- Big isles yet not explored, like Dragon isles and Ogrezonian and other they can create

Just don't know what plot work besides dragon isles.

[LorDC]

What if we don't get a new landmass but instead have EK, Kalimdor and Northrend revamped completely? And you can level 1-130 (or if we have level squish 1-70) in the old zones? Are we ready for that? Or there must be a landmass?

IMO, that's what is coming. Although Northrend is probably staying the way it is. That of course requires them to make whole Azeroth work for high level activities.

[Shadochi]

I think they will go for something real big. 8.2 only having one small zone each and 8.3 only giving a new raid with some old zones changed slightly we can expect a lot from WoW this BlizzCon.

Compared to other patch zones, I disagree that Nazjatar is small (Mechagon sure, especially if you dont consider the island in the west part).

[Buliwyf the Omen]

Compared to other patch zones, I disagree that Nazjatar is small (Mechagon sure, especially if you dont consider the island in the west part).

We shouldnt forget Island Expeditions to be honest which also got new zones, I guess that makes it up for it kinda.

[TomatoBisque]

Compared to other patch zones, I disagree that Nazjatar is small (Mechagon sure, especially if you dont consider the island in the west part).

It's relatively large, but keep in mind we also got two patch dungeons in addition to the mega dungeon in Legion, while we just got the mega dungeon in BFA. And while Kara had some number of reused assets from the original, Operation Mechagon's entire first half is just the zone so that about evens out.

[huth]

Other side of Azeroth!!! (Which I hope so we get another golden era "breath of fresh air" expansion like MoP was for the most part)

Making it canon could give them enough possibilities for at leas a few more future expansions with fresh lore.

I would like it if we were lorewise stranded in a new area where nobody knows us. Whether that's on some unknown part of Azeroth, a different planet/plane or whatever. Would also give them time to let the factions recover some.

[Teriz]

I'm still of the belief that the next expansion will be called "WoW: The Deep Below" where we go underground to fight the remnants of the Old Gods and cleanse Azeroth's heart once and for all.

[Dismayxz]

An enemy who tries to take over by making us love them too much to fight them, perhaps.

Sounds like something the Light would try.

Or perhaps this is hinting at Elune again. If she's a triple goddess, well, there's the Night Warrior and Mother Moon so far that I've heard her called.

Dunno about any third aspect (though triple goddesses are a thing in real life), but an overbearing mother sounds like it might fit.

It's Pyromancer's Evil Eonar theory. She'll manipulate all our major characters into relationship storylines, which then reignite the faction war as the great cheating war of Azeroth.

On a serious note, it's interesting how they can spread so much 'love' in one patch, but I'd assume the topic is just naturally a good candidate for Blizzard to pursue, obviously apart from any "Big new bad" or Expansion topic. The faction war is over, at worst back to small skirmishes if not even smaller ones than we're used to I'd assume, and I guess similarly to more Universe/World based storylines we've been seeing come to conclusions over these last years (Avengers, Game of Thrones, yada yada come to mind), generally having Storylines that focus more on interaction between characters and dialogue seem to come to better payoffs for the fans. Hell, the writing might sometimes be scuffed to shit, but favorites interacting with eachother seems to be pretty positively received, even if the only driving factor is that mild sense of "Rule of Cool".

[Shadochi]

It's relatively large, but keep in mind we also got two patch dungeons in addition to the mega dungeon in Legion, while we just got the mega dungeon in BFA. And while Kara had some number of reused assets from the original, Operation Mechagon's entire first half is just the zone so that about evens out.

With Island Expeditions (BfA) and Class Halls (Legion), Warfront revamps and a bunch of other stuff from both Expacs I agree that there isn't a noticeable difference in new zones/areas added.
And if reusing open world areas to make dungeons means we get a wider variety of dungeons for M+ I don't mind it. (Seat in Legion was completely a Subzone of an argus zone with that one small room in the building added).
If anything, the previous two expansions had more new/revamped zones and areas than any expansion beforehand (except maybe Cata with world revamp).

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It's Pyromancer's Evil Eonar theory. She'll manipulate all our major characters into relationship storylines, which then reignite the faction war as the great cheating war of Azeroth.

On a serious note, it's interesting how they can spread so much 'love' in one patch, but I'd assume the topic is just naturally a good candidate for Blizzard to pursue, obviously apart from any "Big new bad" or Expansion topic. The faction war is over, at worst back to small skirmishes if not even smaller ones than we're used to I'd assume, and I guess similarly to more Universe/World based storylines we've been seeing come to conclusions over these last years (Avengers, Game of Thrones, yada yada come to mind), generally having Storylines that focus more on interaction between characters and dialogue seem to come to better payoffs for the fans. Hell, the writing might sometimes be scuffed to shit, but favorites interacting with eachother seems to be pretty positively received, even if the only driving factor is that mild sense of "Rule of Cool".

Kinda makes sense for them to pursue the more personal storylines after the war has ended, the war pretty much took up all the focus for the main character cast and now that it is done they have time to dedicate to themselves.

[Gaidax]

That was afrasiabi not ion.

Also Ion, he specifically said that in one interview I have seen. If this was both of them teasing on 2 different occasions then it's even more important.

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And then what? We learn that the Void Lords just want a Dark Titan to fight an even bigger threat?

...

Jokes aside, we need to slow down or there won't be any credible threats to face.

And then whatever Blizzard makes out of it, it is clear with their hints that this is going to be a very big event with immediate repercussions. For all we know we may get some wounded titan running for his/her life crashing on Azeroth and telling us to pack up Vindicaar and go pound some void asses or whatever.

As for running out of threats, we have currently a 3 expansions of backlog of loose ends, by the time we chew through that they will conjure some new "Superduper Holy Lords" that want to brainwash everyone into hypnotized peace and happiness or whatever other cosmic or local force seeking to take over us all.

Heck you may have Azeroth waking up and violently tossing us off her tits or something expansion.

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I'm still of the belief that the next expansion will be called "WoW: The Deep Below" where we go underground to fight the remnants of the Old Gods and cleanse Azeroth's heart once and for all.

They won't be beating a dead horse. The whole thing ends in 8.3, just like Legion did.

They might revisit this and remnants of the Legion eventually, but 9.0 will clearly move away from this.

[Hitei]

To be fair, I dont see Shadowlands happening either as an expansion setting.

People were already expecting Argus as an expansion, the Black Empire with Nyalotha, or South Seas which is pretty much Island Expeditions. Nazjatar didnt get a own expansion either despite Azshara being more than decent enough for a whole threat with N'zoth to lead into a Black Empire expansion.

Not sure that logic really follows. Like if anything this historically works against you, because zones that one wouldn't expect to be an entire expansion (Broken Isles, Zandalar and KT) are a thing. Which pretty much means we can't at all accurately judge what will or won't be an expansion setting, because Blizzard can on a whim decide that potentially huge areas (Argus, Nazjatar, ED, Ny'alotha) are single zones or just raids, and small areas are 6 zones.

[Gaidax]

A lot depends on whether they can imagine a candidate expansion continent to be diverse enough to be an actual continent. For example they did explain why Argus and Emerald Dream were not expansion continents - they would be a bunch of monotonous areas and after what happened with Cata, I think they are not eager making an expansion with a bunch of unrelated zones thrown all around the world.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Remember when it was once believed that Zandalar and Kul Tiras would just be single zones in a South Seas island expansion? Blizz could totally turn the Dragon Isles into an expansion setting.

Dragon Isles could also be worked into the EKs since that's how it was originally. Maybe attach it to "Northeron" for extra zone variety, maybe add a Quel'thalas zone.

What if we don't get a new landmass but instead have EK, Kalimdor and Northrend revamped completely? And you can level 1-130 (or if we have level squish 1-70) in the old zones? Are we ready for that? Or there must be a landmass?

The issue there is how do you handle the new levels? Where do you barricade players and say "You need World of Peacecraft to progress?"

[ATZenith]

So I’m guessing 8.3 data mining didn’t add any big 9.0 hints like 7.3 did?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

1-50 is for everyone and 50-60 for those with new expansion. Easy

Okay so what zones do you wall off?

I'm going to guess Northrend?

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So I’m guessing 8.3 data mining didn’t add any big 9.0 hints like 7.3 did?

If there's anything there it's encrypted.

[Tang0]

This might’ve been already mentioned, sorry for asking again, if that’s the case.

With the recent announcement that N’Zoth(in some capacity) is the last boss of the supposedly last patch of BfA, how can they announce new expansion without massive spoilers?

Unless it’s something super unrelated like “while we were battling old gods something-something happened somewhere-somewhere”. Proud to announce next expansion World of Warcraft: Lords of somewhere”

[Newname1234567890]

Dragon Isles has had more reference as a location than any sort of death realm. We can easily have a world revamp expansion with Dragon Isles as zones (because cata theme: ESPECIALLY after they make it clear that Nzoth was Deathwing's master) AND deal with the death stuff in later patches.

They did it in Legion (Elf/Tauren Fun feat. Vrykul ---> DEMONS) and BFA (Pirate/Troll Fun --> OLD GODS) so they'll do it again.

The Shadowlands is referenced all the time

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This might’ve been already mentioned, sorry for asking again, if that’s the case.

With the recent announcement that N’Zoth(in some capacity) is the last boss of the supposedly last patch of BfA, how can they announce new expansion without massive spoilers?

Unless it’s something super unrelated like “while we were battling old gods something-something happened somewhere-somewhere”. Proud to announce next expansion World of Warcraft: Lords of somewhere”

Spoilers has never stopped them before

[Polybius]

I guess I understood South Seas badly then, because I always associated it with traveling with an actual usable boat that you can manage and can control, not the low effort version we as usual got with BfA. Which is also why I said they are pretty much Island Expeditions, where you actually explore the South Seas by yourself, but as I said, made poorly.

I never said Shadowlands nor Dragon Isles ARENT new areas, I just said they wont be an GENERAL EXPANSION idea. They wont make an Expansion called "Shadowlands", the focus will be something else. They wont make an expansion called "Return of the Dragons" or whatever, it will be something else.

They will be sidekicks, like Nazjatar is to BfA.

And Naga and Azshara with Nazjatar being an expansion wouldnt be too hard to stretch. Considering how supposed to be big all the cities are lorewise they could make expansions on cities alone if they wish.

And for the new areas? We wont get any. We will get whole Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms revamped, maybe with Elemental Lords playing a role again or threat X.
Atleast not with 9.0.

Eww no. It's a good thing they didn't follow that line of reason in the past or we would've gotten Northrend as one zone. Same for Broken Isles.