9.X Patches & 10.0 Speculation Thread

[micwini]

So many "leaks" about Dragon Isles. I won't bite. I still hold strong: #teamworldrevamperino

[Sondrelk]

So many "leaks" about Dragon Isles. I won't bite. I still hold strong: #teamworldrevamperino

The last dragon themed expansion did have a world revamp though, no reason to think this one cannot be the same.
The Dragon Isles are as vague an area as you might get, the only thing definitive that players might ahve really wanted to see from it was the giant Old God temple, which has already been added to the game with Stormsong Valley.

We could just as well get a world revamp, with the Dragon Isles as a patch zone later. Or even world revamp with one or two Dragon Isle zones as endgame.

[Shadochi]

Okay and what continent or realm are we going to then in the first patch?

LiFeLaNdS with the main zone being Gardens of Life.
A Maw like zone but all nature-y. In 10.0 we can't stay in there so long because completing quests and objectives increases the threat from Eye of the Jailer the Garden Keeper and he sends increasing threats on us.
We enter the Lifelands through a portal found in the ashes of Teldrasil when Tyrande takes Sylvanas there to weep over what she has done. This brings life back to Sylvanas and makes her the main protagonist of the expansion (expansion to include at least 3 more CGI cinematics with Sylvanas and at least 7 new models for her, hands optional).
In there we enter the uncorrupted portions of the Emerald Dream, since it is basically an image of Azeroth before civilization and the recent things happening in Blizz, as well as the world event going on for the past 2 years they didn't have much time to spend on the leveling zones and decided that what would fit is just bringing in Eastern Kingodm and Kalimdor files from Vanilla and removing all the man made buildings and architecture. Then out of the 2 continents they make Northern and Southern Easter Kingdom, and Northern and Southern Kalimdor as leveling zones, reusing assets from Valsharah, Ardenweald and Drustvar to create 3 of the zones being forests, and using Voldun assets to create a desert zones. For some reason there are trolls in all the zones since that is where Bwomsamdi took them to hide them from the Jailer. There is also an Ethereal/Broker like race that seems important but ends up being not so much.

In a later patch we go to Zereth Vitas, which looks like Zereth Mortis but is inverted (the sand and grass parts) and instead of water we can walk on we get water we can walk under. Here we battle against Elune who is Zovaal's sister and is trying to use Azeroth to reshape the universe so that only elves exist. Zovaal knew of this all along and was trying to stop her, Sylvanas is the one that tells us this as she is the main protagonist. We defeat her in 1 patch but the moon of azeroth gets destroyed causing the next cataclysm and a world revamp in 11.0. Tyrande is the Anduin equivalent boss of this raid.

I might have gotten a bit carried away.

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The last dragon themed expansion did have a world revamp though, no reason to think this one cannot be the same.
The Dragon Isles are as vague an area as you might get, the only thing definitive that players might ahve really wanted to see from it was the giant Old God temple, which has already been added to the game with Stormsong Valley.

We could just as well get a world revamp, with the Dragon Isles as a patch zone later. Or even world revamp with one or two Dragon Isle zones as endgame.

I remember the Shaggy Parrot mentioning over the weekend that in SL beta they were testing something about maps and phasing (With thorghast having parts of it but all maps are in the same instance or something).

Honestly if they do a world revamp I hope it encompasses also Northrend and Maybe Pandaland, or at least bring all the areas of Azeroth together so that there is no longer loading screens between them but you can travel freely. Even if it was just an EK and Kali revamp and the others stayed the same. Also bring in the TBC racial starting zones to the maps.

Imagine going from Silvermoon to Northrend taking 10ish minutes on your flying mount, would not be practical but would be cool

[micwini]

My 6th sense just triggered. 9.2 Release announcement this week?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

My 6th sense just triggered. 9.2 Release announcement this week?

We are sadly missing Mythic+ Affix testing still. Everything else is in-game though.

I think this week it would be crazy but definitely next week being likely. Although, I hope your 6th sense is right. I want to get out of this drought and into the blue yonder.

[Nyel]

Oof. February has Horizon and Elden Ring, it will be very hard for 9.2 in February, if that's the supposed release month.

[Arcinatoss]

Oof. February has Horizon and Elden Ring, it will be very hard for 9.2 in February, if that's the supposed release month.

and Lost Ark, and for me a new Path of Exile league. too many hecking games.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

They could artificially delay it till March, but they would have to move into Alpha in April. So I don't know, we'll see what transpires.

[micwini]

Oof. February has Horizon and Elden Ring, it will be very hard for 9.2 in February, if that's the supposed release month.

Blizzard's ability to wait to counter another upcoming game is long gone. They need to release no matter what other games release and when. At this point even the staff of hermes trismegistus would struggle to keep the game alive. It needs new content asap rocky

[Miffinat0r]

I saw this on the WoW forums--it's a good joke.

If you gave Joel Schumaker the world's greatest script of all time, you'd still wind up with a Joel Schumaker film. Why should you expect anything less from Ion?

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Well, there's that thing called Hope. Which exists in our hearts, I guess.

I don't know, I am waiting till the presentation. I am definitely anti-Every Idea that has been put forward except World Revamp. But, I am willing to at least hear them out. If not it's just another 2 year waiting period before potentially an exciting new expansion is revealed instead. Not a big deal, there's so many games and experiences to experience and Classic will still exist for those who still engage with that.

[Nyel]

Blizzard's ability to wait to counter another upcoming game is long gone. They need to release no matter what other games release and when. At this point even the staff of hermes trismegistus would struggle to keep the game alive. It needs new content asap rocky

Oh, I don't deny that. 9.2 should be released as soon as it's good to go. But February and March are just sooooo packed with games, it will be tough.

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and Lost Ark, and for me a new Path of Exile league. too many hecking games.

Ah Lost Ark, I totally forgot that although it might be the biggest MMO release this year, lol. And there's Pokemon: Legends Arceus at the end of January (although many belittle that game). Too much within just a few weeks.

[uzira]

LiFeLaNdS with the main zone being Gardens of Life.
A Maw like zone but all nature-y. In 10.0 we can't stay in there so long because completing quests and objectives increases the threat from Eye of the Jailer the Garden Keeper and he sends increasing threats on us.
We enter the Lifelands through a portal found in the ashes of Teldrasil when Tyrande takes Sylvanas there to weep over what she has done. This brings life back to Sylvanas and makes her the main protagonist of the expansion (expansion to include at least 3 more CGI cinematics with Sylvanas and at least 7 new models for her, hands optional).
In there we enter the uncorrupted portions of the Emerald Dream, since it is basically an image of Azeroth before civilization and the recent things happening in Blizz, as well as the world event going on for the past 2 years they didn't have much time to spend on the leveling zones and decided that what would fit is just bringing in Eastern Kingodm and Kalimdor files from Vanilla and removing all the man made buildings and architecture. Then out of the 2 continents they make Northern and Southern Easter Kingdom, and Northern and Southern Kalimdor as leveling zones, reusing assets from Valsharah, Ardenweald and Drustvar to create 3 of the zones being forests, and using Voldun assets to create a desert zones. For some reason there are trolls in all the zones since that is where Bwomsamdi took them to hide them from the Jailer. There is also an Ethereal/Broker like race that seems important but ends up being not so much.

In a later patch we go to Zereth Vitas, which looks like Zereth Mortis but is inverted (the sand and grass parts) and instead of water we can walk on we get water we can walk under. Here we battle against Elune who is Zovaal's sister and is trying to use Azeroth to reshape the universe so that only elves exist. Zovaal knew of this all along and was trying to stop her, Sylvanas is the one that tells us this as she is the main protagonist. We defeat her in 1 patch but the moon of azeroth gets destroyed causing the next cataclysm and a world revamp in 11.0. Tyrande is the Anduin equivalent boss of this raid.

I might have gotten a bit carried away.

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Lmaoo plsss

[Nyel]

They could artificially delay it till March, but they would have to move into Alpha in April. So I don't know, we'll see what transpires.

I mean end of February / March is still the "natural" release time when we consider how long past end-of-expansion patches have been on the PTR.

[cantrip]

Where did you get this number? The up-to-the-first-day sales figure was less than 4 million.

Blizzard wrote the "launch-week player concurrency climbed to its highest point since the 2010 launch of the Cataclysm expansion." Back in 2010, World of Warcraft reached 12 million subscribers, but went downhill since then, however Blizzard doesn't disclose this kind of information anymore. It is just a rough estimate considering that Shadowlands sold better on day one than any other expac before, even TBC, even WotLK. And if blizzard says it is the highest point since 2010, it is not very likely below that point, as the numbers went down those days. I give them another million copies after launch as a bonus due to the fact shadowlands sold way better than legion.

Better lets ask the question why blizzard does not publish them anymore.

What do the devs have to lose?

Arguments for their agenda?

[Nyel]

Blizzard wrote the "launch-week player concurrency climbed to its highest point since the 2010 launch of the Cataclysm expansion." Back in 2010, World of Warcraft reached 12 million subscribers, but went downhill since then, however Blizzard doesn't disclose this kind of information anymore. It is just a rough estimate considering that Shadowlands sold better on day one than any other expac before, even TBC, even WotLK. And if blizzard says it is the highest point since 2010, it is not very likely below that point, as the numbers went down those days. I give them another million copies after launch as a bonus.

Better lets ask the question why blizzard does not publish them anymore.

What do the devs have to lose?

Arguments for their agenda?

Player concurrency. 12 million subscribers does not mean 12 million concurrent players. Huuuuuuge difference.

[cantrip]

Kotick will place more emphasis on getting token sales than worrying about subs evidenced by the amount of store garbage over this expansion

Only because Hazzikostas convinced him the games decline is normal. I wonder what he thinks if he watches FFXIVs lifecycle, how a well done MMORPG actually could add even more players?

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Player concurrency. 12 million subscribers does not mean 12 million concurrent players. Huuuuuuge difference.

Yeah, it is very likely they sold way more copies. Problem is, you can only count the number of active players if you compare it with the number of active raiders or active mythic+ players. That is what i am doing.

The player statistics from benched is based on active players, not total players. And based on blizzards statement, the number of active users was as high as cataclysm in 2010. Which would be around 12 millions players plus n.

[Ersula]

Better lets ask the question why blizzard does not publish them anymore.

What do the devs have to lose?

Arguments for their agenda?

Because the last time they reported, Legion at one point had 22 million subs. So if they've gone from 22 million subs to 12 million, that's not something you want to advertise.

[LordKharon]

Blizz needs to release 9.2 as soon as possible. Forget all other game releases. They need content for the ppl still subscribed (their biggest fans) NOW. If 9.2 is good others will come back after they played EldenRing or whatever some weeks after 9.2 release.

But 10.0 announcement should be in a week where nothing else "big" is released so they get as much media coverage as possible...

[Shadochi]

Lmaoo plsss

This is what happens when I my mind goes wild while stuck in a random work daily meeting and my next D&D sessions are already prepared. I just tried to put myself in the shoes of Danuser

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Blizz needs to release 9.2 as soon as possible. Forget all other game releases. They need content for the ppl still subscribed (their biggest fans) NOW. If 9.2 is good others will come back after they played EldenRing or whatever some weeks after 9.2 release.

But 10.0 announcement should be in a week where nothing else "big" is released so they get as much media coverage as possible...

Yeah, I see people mentioning all the releases coming in the next two months but for wow's sake it is in the best interest to release it as soon as possible and not wiggle it based on other industry releases.
Also with the nature of WoW it doesn't really matter too much for MOST player, since you might have a couple hours of content to do as a casual (not min maxing or trying to do everything asap) and then can switch to other games. I really don't think other parts of the industry having releases matters that much especially if it isn't a same style of game. Otherwise why would all the publishers still release their major title in a month that is already crowded