Dragonflight 10.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Hitei]

So the floating island would need to be either in its own instance (which I generally don't like, I would prefer all zones in an expansion to be connected on the same map without loading screens), or far off the coast so it loads during flight.

If they were to do this my best guess would be to the east of the Dragon Isles, as they might be able to use the high terrain facing the east to help with this.

Really don't think there's any tech issue here. Server-side can handle another zone on the main continent fine, see the scale of EK and Kalimdor (which both include Cata zones AND BfA revamped zones). Client-side only loads simple terrain geometry beyond a certain distance, and that distance is relatively close, so there's not entity stacking or anything. Plus the nature of a static rather than dynamic environment design means that you can just flag the assets up above to not load until the player is above a certain level: The player is only ever going to see the bottom of the flying islands when just on the regular Isles, so all that's being loaded is the simple rock texture and simplified geometry of the bottom of those flying islands.

If the islands were up high enough that the lowest part of their start is about even/just above the peaks of Thaldraszus (like so), then they won't load much from below, and when you're up on them not much of the main zones will be loaded. They have the advantage of facing the opposite direction. Whenever you're below them, you don't need to load any objects or entities above, because they are blocked from view. The same way games save resources by unloading things behind you, or outside a building when you're in one, or inside a building when you're outside one.

[huth]

As i said just had to be far enoght over behind clouds. Just think about it. Same as airplanes does. They are over the clouds. You can just see clouds beneath you not the land.

Let's not forget that there's canonically magitech that is perfectly capable of completely hiding large areas.

[Cheezits]

At this point it seems to be either Bronze Dragonflight, or Dream stuff. The other one is likely what we will get for 10.2. Which of course means that by extension a raid with that theme is likely.
The Dream stuff is just what we know will be relevant in the near future, so it has a slight edge in the debate.

Really it's down to which is more likely. Bronze Dragonflight mega-dungeon and Dream raid. Or Bronze raid and dream mega-dungeon.

Here's what I think: the interview mentioned the next stuff is Bronze, but we have the datamined Tree tease and Merithra is supposed to eventually show up at the Throne of the Aspects. So what's the deal?

Simple: similar to Mechagon, the Bronze story is a B-plot compared to the main one about the Primalists. While everyone was suspecting Murozond being the final boss, it's getting more and more likely that while he is involved, Iridikron truly will be the final boss. Murozond (and Galakrond!) may appear in the Time patch, but it's likely not going to be a full patch story or content.

So the Bronze stuff is 10.1.5 and the Tree is 10.2, and the Tree is getting hints in the main story because it's the next part of that campaign. Even though the Bronze stuff comes next.

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By the way, with the gear aesthetic for 10.1 being Draconic, and 10.2 being Dream (the Warglaive icon), what will 10.3 be? We already did Primalist with 10.0 and Time/retro stuff should be 10.1.5.

[Santandame]

My prediction is the mega dungeon will be Bronze Dragonflight and time way shenanigans. Possibly have the mega dungeon lead into the final patch/raid with a cinematic. We fight Galakrond in the past at the end of the mega dungeon, with Iridikron swooping in and devouring parts of Galakrond’s corpse or essence at the end and becoming something else entirely.

Have the final raid of the expansion be Iridikron fused with decay leading an assault on the Emerald Dream, being supported by both forces of decay such as the Gnoll matriarch and old god minions. Could even have Xal’atath make an appearance and allude to her future goals. Have a mini Emerald Dream landmass made up of three zones much like Argus in 7.3.

Going off the past few years of Blizz seeding in future plot ideas in the current expansion by having them subtly mentioned in the background, such as the Shadowlands references in Legion(as well as Bolvar being influenced by The Jailer) and the Dragon Isles references in BfA; I’m pretty certain we’ll finally be seeing Tel’Abim as an expanded landmass in the next expansion or the following. I see it having a heavy Arabic/Egyptian/Moroccan theme. Large focus on exploration as well as Djinn, Ifrit, ghouls etc. We’ve never really had an expansion with anything like this, the closest being Cataclysm with Uldum. I think it’s pretty likely.

[Cheezits]

Going off the past few years of Blizz seeding in future plot ideas in the current expansion by having them subtly mentioned in the background, such as the Shadowlands references in Legion(as well as Bolvar being influenced by The Jailer) and the Dragon Isles references in BfA; I’m pretty certain we’ll finally be seeing Tel’Abim as an expanded landmass in the next expansion or the following. I see it having a heavy Arabic/Egyptian/Moroccan theme. Large focus on exploration as well as Djinn, Ifrit, ghouls etc. We’ve never really had an expansion with anything like this, the closest being Cataclysm with Uldum. I think it’s pretty likely.

The dueling Avaloren and Tel'abim references could point to multiple islands, which would fit a Cataclysm 2.0 type expansion as it also had multiple new areas spread out around the world.

[Sondrelk]

On a bit of a different topic. Did anyone get a feeling that the Neltharion seemed to have hidden a secret worse than the Dracthyr? His experiments in controlling them definitely failed, but it didnt seem like the kind of mistake he would be all that concerned about in the grand scheme.
And of course, there would be no point mentioning it like that if we already knew it.

[Cheezits]

On a bit of a different topic. Did anyone get a feeling that the Neltharion seemed to have hidden a secret worse than the Dracthyr? His experiments in controlling them definitely failed, but it didnt seem like the kind of mistake he would be all that concerned about in the grand scheme.
And of course, there would be no point mentioning it like that if we already knew it.

I think the "big secret" is the Void shrine that seems to connect directly to the void realm.

[Sondrelk]

I think the "big secret" is the Void shrine that seems to connect directly to the void realm.

Good point. Given it seems capable of creating Old Gods, it would seem like the kind of secret that he would be concerned about, even after having succumbed to the Void.

I really hope this doesnt just become another BfA, where the Old God stuff gets crammed into the final patch with no real explanation or buildup, only to get quickly dealt with.

[Cheezits]

Good point. Given it seems capable of creating Old Gods, it would seem like the kind of secret that he would be concerned about, even after having succumbed to the Void.

I really hope this doesnt just become another BfA, where the Old God stuff gets crammed into the final patch with no real explanation or buildup, only to get quickly dealt with.

I think overt old god/Void theming for this expansion ends here, unless Iridikron gets void corrupted. I kind of doubt it though as it would be too repetitive of this patch where Sarkareth gets void corrupted.

Given that Decay has been foreshadowed and Galakrond is a big mix of powers that includes Decay, I think they will do a Decay theme instead to change things up. It's also the flip opposite of the general Spirit and Life themes of the Isles (3 of the 4 main zones have an overt elemental theme, as well as Zaralek, and next up the Dream).

[Nathanyel]

They could have put a "to be continued" screen at the end of Brackenhide and it wouldn't have felt out of place.

The tech was there since WoD... but I guess they didn't wanna spoil, since then we would've known the megadungeon theme a good half year before it comes out.

[Sondrelk]

I think overt old god/Void theming for this expansion ends here, unless Iridikron gets void corrupted. I kind of doubt it though as it would be too repetitive of this patch where Sarkareth gets void corrupted.

Given that Decay has been foreshadowed and Galakrond is a big mix of powers that includes Decay, I think they will do a Decay theme instead to change things up. It's also the flip opposite of the general Spirit and Life themes of the Isles (3 of the 4 main zones have an overt elemental theme, as well as Zaralek, and next up the Dream).

Wasn't Galakrond supposed to have been corrupted by Yogg-Saron though? I faintly remember the in-game lore mentioned that what became the Ruby Life Pools was corrupted by the Old Gods, not necessarily Decay.

[Plehnard]

Idk if it's focused too much on the Bronze Dragon stuff, but I can totally see the Megadungeon being more-so related to the Blue Dragonflight and it's stuff. Blizzard did say that the Black and Blue flights would be focused on for 10.1.

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I have 2-3 cool names for what I think 10.2 could be btw.

10.2: Land of Dreams.

10.2: Gardens of Emerald.

Or 10.2: Lands of Emerald.

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Garden of Dreams is also neat, but idk...

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Dreams of Emerald also works too ig

"Sweet dreams are made of this"

[Sondrelk]

"It seems capable of creating Old Gods"

...when was this stated?

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Nah. It's more like the waters were basically tainted by Old God "corruption" and whatnot, which may or may not had something to do with the Titan Keepers experimenting something with it, and it apparently resulted in Galakrond going mad n shit.

The achievement you can get from Sarkareth has you throw an unidentified lump of flesh into "space".
I might just be wildly misreading it, but it seems to me like some kind of origin of at least some kind of Old God, given they are described as giant lumps of flesh floating in space.

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Regardless. The pools that Galakrond nested close to were Old God corrupted, not Decay corrupted.

Maybe that will be extrapolated to mens the Old Gods corrupting it with Decay, but i digress.

[Cheezits]

Regardless. The pools that Galakrond nested close to were Old God corrupted, not Decay corrupted.

Maybe that will be extrapolated to mens the Old Gods corrupting it with Decay, but i digress.

Old God is not a magic type, and it doesn't LOOK like Galakrond was solely Void corrupted/infused like Sarkareth or the void dragons from BFA. Old Gods likely use a lot of different "bad" magics similar to Dreadlords.

As Decay and the Decatriarch have zero relevance to anything in this expansion (except opposite to the Dream) and it kind of fits Galakrond, I think it's not a big jump to assume he is the tie-in. Unless the Decay stuff is to link the Dreadlords to the expansion which is also relatively likely considering they will appear again as soon as Lothraxion (OR maybe the "eyes of green"/Nathrezim agent stated to be in the Lifelands, they could appear in the Dream)

[Fahrad Wagner]

"Sweet dreams are made of this"

Who am I to disagree?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I prefer the Decay being more Old God hijacked instead of "Well actually it was the dreadlorrrrrds"

[Super Dickmann]

I would still have used kobolds tbh. Even their architecture looks like kobold architecture.

I like their design and general vibe, but what I think they should've done is upped the grummle connection. What Dragonflight massively lacks compared to Pandaria is the thought put into the setting as an internally consistent whole. Nowhere is it more obvious when comparing even bit-races like the grummles and saurok compared to how vague the status of things like the Primalists and djaradin are pre our arrival.

[Nymrohd]

I like their design and general vibe, but what I think they should've done is upped the grummle connection. What Dragonflight massively lacks compared to Pandaria is the thought put into the setting as an internally consistent whole. Nowhere is it more obvious when comparing even bit-races like the grummles and saurok compared to how vague the status of things like the Primalists and djaradin are pre our arrival.

Yeah there is minimal effort made to tie the Dragon Isles into the rest of the world

[ChairmanKaga]

I really hope this doesnt just become another BfA, where the Old God stuff gets crammed into the final patch with no real explanation or buildup, only to get quickly dealt with.

I understand people don't like BfA but there was buildup and Old God stuff throughout it not just jammed in the last patch.

[Varodoc]

The achievement you can get from Sarkareth has you throw an unidentified lump of flesh into "space".
I might just be wildly misreading it, but it seems to me like some kind of origin of at least some kind of Old God, given they are described as giant lumps of flesh floating in space.

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Regardless. The pools that Galakrond nested close to were Old God corrupted, not Decay corrupted.

Maybe that will be extrapolated to mens the Old Gods corrupting it with Decay, but i digress.

Yogg-Saron was worshipped as the "Old God of Death" and his crystallized blood was used as the foundation of the Scourge war machine; in addition to this, his blood was used to create a replica of a tower of the Shadowlands. Furthermore, it was the Old God Yogg-Saron who created the Emerald Nightmare by piercing the veil and corrupting a piece of the Emerald Dream, causing it to decay into a twisted and horrid reflection of life; and it was also this Old God who created the Curse of Flesh, which caused the Titanforged to decay into fleshy and weak creatures.

Why wouldn't Old God Yogg-Saron have Decay powers?