Dragonflight 10.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Teriz]

Wasn’t the Dwarf character Makorus linked a Stormrider as opposed to Storm Rider? Same with the trading post items?

Yes, but that's the Dwarf rider themselves, not the gryphon they ride on.

We know the mount is called the Algarian Stormrider. We know that the trading post items are also named with Stormrider present. Isn’t it far more likely that they will be linked to the mount and Dwarven Stormrider NPC in Stormsong Valley, instead of decking us out to look like a Stormrider elemental from 15 years prior that Blizzard have likely forgotten about. Unless you’re suggesting the Stormrider gear in the Trading Post is themed around Dwarves but isn’t themed around the expansion mount if it is infact the Stormrider elemental in Northrend - but then why on earth would they have two completely separate, unrelated things in game with the exact same name and released around the same time as each other?

Because one (the achievements and trading post gear) is for 10.2 and the other (the mount) is for the next expansion which is quite possibly completely unrelated to each other.

Yeah, it’s likely we’re going to get dynamic flying for all mounts eventually. It’s also pretty much accepted that it’s going to look silly on some mounts. Do you really think the new shiny expansion pre-order mount is going to use a rig that looks completely stupid when utilising dynamic flying? Especially when it might have a focal role in some of the upcoming expansion content? Be real here. It will very much be an issue if we’re given a brand new mount that we’ve paid ti pre-order that looks completely ridiculous when dynamically flying.

Whether it looks silly or not via dynamic flying isn't really an issue, because that probably won't be implemented until next expansion anyway. The goal of heroic pre-purchase editions is to entice players to buy the next expansion with a few goodies attached, so Blizzard's only goal here would be to make a cool looking mount. Now, if that transmog gear was included with the heroic edition purchase, there would be no argument from me, because clearly Blizzard's goal would be to have the player be some storm riding dwarf on back of a gryphon. However, the fact that its in the trading post makes me skeptical that it has anything to do with the heroic pre-purchase mount at all.

Again, if Blizzard is entering new territory here and integrating the heroic pre-purchase mount into previous expansion content on a level never seen before, so be it.

[Woggmer]

Okay.. so I looked at the list of promotional achievements that were leaked.

Confirmed: Ysergle the Dreamurk, Lil' Maggz, and Lil' Frostwing (Putting this one in spoiler because it seems like the next promotional item for this week. Found out based on a search in Wowhead.) Along with all the Mini Rumble figure stuff as part of the Rumble promotional event.

Yet to be revealed: S.A.F.E, Survey Bot, Storm Rider: (Bronze, Silver, and Gold), Squally (likely the new expansion battle pet), Fyrn, and finally [Heroic Edition]: Algarian Stormrider.

S.A.F.E could be related to Warcraft Rumble's launch (or if by chance it is related to something IN WoW, one can only assume it'll involve gnomes or Gnomergan)
Storm Rider: (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) could be in relation to a race, but where it is remains to be seen.
Squally and the Algarian Stormrider could be connected to the next expansion, (with Squally being the Pre-Order Bonus). [Still no clue on what the expansion's theme will be.]

This just only leaves the Survey Bot and Fyrn as complete mysteries.

[Teriz]

Didn’t the SL mount have quests attached to it to unlock a whole transmog set?

Yeah, but that was something that you got specifically from the mount. It wasn't available to people who did not purchase the mount.

Like I said, the transmog gear is coming via the trading post and is available to everyone.

The achievements are possibly related to the mount though, so I can't write off a gryphon completely.

[Nightshade711]

Yeah, but that was something that you got specifically from the mount. It wasn't available to people who did not purchase the mount.

Like I said, the transmog gear is coming via the trading post and is available to everyone.

As said earlier, blizzard likes to theme almost each monthly trading post.
Not far fetched to think they’d theme something after an expansion announcement the month they announce it.

[Makorus]

Yeah, but that was something that you got specifically from the mount. It wasn't available to people who did not purchase the mount.

Like I said, the transmog gear is coming via the trading post and is available to everyone.

The achievements are possibly related to the mount though, so I can't write off a gryphon completely.

You could get the transmog without having the mount.

[Teriz]

As said earlier, blizzard likes to theme almost each monthly trading post.
Not far fetched to think they’d theme something after an expansion announcement the month they announce it.

Yeah, but we're getting those items before the announcement at BlizzCon.

[Makorus]

Yeah, but we're getting those items before the announcement at BlizzCon.

You can theme a month around Dwarves without going "These items were selected because of the expansion!!!" on November 1st.

[Nightshade711]

Yeah, but we're getting those items before the announcement at BlizzCon.

They’d only be coming maybe a day or two early.
Plus I’d imagine they could delay the release of those specific items if they really wanted to.

[Yus atath]

Are there no mods on this forum? The amount of times ppl in this thread go completely off-topic and forget that this an 11.0/DF SPECULATION thread….

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Someone in Twitter (I think it was a WoW dev) pointed to more customization next PTR build.

I think it was more about next ptr after 10.2 but you might be right too.

Hopefully it's not elves only.

[Therougetitan]

Okay.. so I looked at the list of promotional achievements that were leaked.

Confirmed: Ysergle the Dreamurk, Lil' Maggz, and Lil' Frostwing (Putting this one in spoiler because it seems like the next promotional item for this week. Found out based on a search in Wowhead.) Along with all the Mini Rumble figure stuff as part of the Rumble promotional event.

Yet to be revealed: S.A.F.E, Survey Bot, Storm Rider: (Bronze, Silver, and Gold), Squally (likely the new expansion battle pet), Fyrn, and finally [Heroic Edition]: Algarian Stormrider.

S.A.F.E could be related to Warcraft Rumble's launch (or if by chance it is related to something IN WoW, one can only assume it'll involve gnomes or Gnomergan)
Storm Rider: (Bronze, Silver, and Gold) could be in relation to a race, but where it is remains to be seen.
Squally and the Algarian Stormrider could be connected to the next expansion, (with Squally being the Pre-Order Bonus). [Still no clue on what the expansion's theme will be.]

This just only leaves the Survey Bot and Fyrn as complete mysteries.

Frostwing is the 19th anniversary pet: https://www.wowhead.com/npc=209259/lil-frostwing

The promotion is probably another TCG item or maybe Arfus related

[Sondrelk]

Are there no mods on this forum? The amount of times ppl in this thread go completely off-topic and forget that this an 11.0/DF SPECULATION thread….

The line between on and off topic can be very blurry though. Discussing old expansions is relevant if you are debating potential features in the next expansion for instance. Same with story.

[Xilurm]

More customisation + class skins would be so good. Imagine the possibilities. RP'ers would go nuts. And even people like me who don't RP but still like their character to have some sort of backstory and the most possible immersion would really appreciate it.

More customisation options are really needed though regardless. No other race (on the alliance side at least) can match the amount of customisation the Humans have.

[Nightshade711]

Someone in Twitter (I think it was a WoW dev) pointed to more customization next PTR build.

We do know for sure that balance druids are getting a whole suite of customization. I do hope there’s more customization for other classes/races though.

On the topic of customization, I do hope we can unlock the primalist eyes that’ve been in the files for a while. Imo they look cool and could be used for a variety of non-elemental classes. (Like the primalist-earth eyes are perfect for a Paladin/Priest. The fire ones would be perfect for an augmentation evoker)

There’s some stuff attached to them that points to them being player customization.
Part of me is hoping it’s part of a challenge (like mage tower) to unlock… but it’ll probably be a reward for completing all the fated raids.

[Teriz]

They’d only be coming maybe a day or two early.
Plus I’d imagine they could delay the release of those specific items if they really wanted to.

You can theme a month around Dwarves without going "These items were selected because of the expansion!!!" on November 1st.

Certainly possible. Thankfully we'll know one way or another soon enough.

Unfortunately I must drop out of this conversation for now because I already see some posters accusing me of spamming the thread.

[Makorus]

We do know for sure that balance druids are getting a whole suite of customization. I do hope there’s more customization for other classes/races though.

On the topic of customization, I do hope we can unlock the primalist eyes that’ve been in the files for a while. Imo they look cool and could be used for a variety of non-elemental classes. (Like the primalist-earth eyes are perfect for a Paladin/holy priest.)

There’s some stuff attached to them that points to them being player customization.
Part of me is hoping it’s part of a challenge (like mage tower) to unlock… but it’ll probably be a reward for completing all the fated raids.

I mentioned it before and I mention it again:

Blizzard needs to go more all out with earnable cosmetic rewards, like the 10.1 armor special effects or even the KSH Tier Set effects.

Make a big meta achievement and let that unlock a cool cosmetic customization reward for all races. Primalist Eyes, new skin colour, an aura, something.

[Nebron]

If I’m being completely frank, my idea for the Stormrider evidence is that pre-patch wise we’ll get dangerous storms happening in certain zones of the old world, where we have to use our Stormrider mount to navigate the event and dispel it. Then when journey to the new land, the opening expansion event is a scenario with us traversing the storm then stopping it during the levelling so reinforcements can arrive. Past that, I don’t think the storm side of the expansion will be relevant and I don’t think it’ll be tied to the Elements or Elemental Lords as blatantly as people believe. For all we know Xal’atath is conjuring it using some dark magic.

So my speculation idea goes something like this:

- after awakening, Tyr sends us to investigate the fissure;
- we get a pre-patch, in which we learn from Wildhammers how to navigate through the storms on gryphons, as these seems to be the only mode of transportation capable of flying in storms (pointing to possible tragic end of the Erinethria);
- when we get to the new contintent, we discover a thriving dwarven society with a few kingdoms and mighty Khaz Algar as the main hub located in the center of the map;
- we discover that the similiarities between Algarians and "our" dwarves are not a mere coincidence - titans have "programmed" the earthrens, so it the end, it was their destiny (titans are bad bois );
- the fissure is the prison of the 5th Old God, which is located right below the Khaz Algar; the earthrens were able to seal the prison, built the city on top of it, but they paid the price of curse of flesh;
- the other major races are the mantid-like ant humanoids, which fit quite nicely to Old God themes, let's say ANTIDS, and some humans that evolved like Vrykuls did
- just like saronite is blood of Yogg-Saron, the "blood" of 5th Old God is very valuable material, so some dwarves want to mine deeper - as it happens, they are getting corrupted and eventually unlock the prison with the help of antids;
- Old God escapes and that enrages the elementals, who are the enemy of the Old Gods? they also hid the land with storms, so none can get in and mess with Old Gods, and they find it a massive threat, which actually is true;
- Thrall with the shaman-clan of dwarves help us to navigate through the conflict, some elementals and Iridkron work with the Old God and they become our secondary enemy;
- Then there's only antids, bad humans old-god-worshippers and the Old God itself left, but we lose the fight leading to 11.0 or something like that


Put Xal'atath somewhere and obviously a titan facility, right?
but that's how I envision the blueprint for the plotline

[Nightshade711]

I mentioned it before and I mention it again:

Blizzard needs to go more all out with earnable cosmetic rewards, like the 10.1 armor special effects or even the KSH Tier Set effects.

Make a big meta achievement and let that unlock a cool cosmetic customization reward for all races. Primalist Eyes, new skin colour, an aura, something.

Agreed. Earn-able cosmetics are always a big hit whenever blizzard focuses on it. Doing that for player customization would be a big win imo.
Eyes are probably the easiest to do, but auras could be neat and could probably be easy to do.

[Wangming]

- just like saronite is blood of Yogg-Saron, the "blood" of 5th Old God is very valuable material, so some dwarves want to mine deeper - as it happens, they are getting corrupted and eventually unlock the prison with the help of antids;

Oooo. Did dwarves dig too deep and find something nasty?

[Santandame]

Certainly possible. Thankfully we'll know one way or another soon enough.

Unfortunately I must drop out of this conversation for now because I already see some posters accusing me of spamming the thread.

I don’t believe you are spamming the wrong thread. Admittedly discussion with you can be quite frustrating at times because you haven’t been budging this speculation season but I’ll be the first to admit that the past few pages you have been a lot more amenable.

I honestly do struggle to follow your logic regarding the Stormrider mount with what’s been presented to you as well as why you think introducing a new pre-order mount that will undoubtedly have dynamic flying incorporated but will look silly when doing so because of the rig won’t be an issue.

I’ll concede to you that I do think the elements will play a role next expansion in some form. But I don’t think those elements will be along the core four which we typically deal with; fire, air, earth and water. I think spirit and decay will play a huge role. I also don’t think that the Storms aspect as of the expansion will be heavily related to the element of air as a theme. Merely as a plot device to explain why Avaloren(?) is so inaccessible. I think past the initial launch the storm theme will be downplayed too. I’m also of the opinion that the storm side of things could be something as simple as Xal’atath conjuring a storm via dark magic or Iridikron unleashing a storm of decay using Galakrond’s essence. I don’t think the mention of a storm automatically means elemental expansion inbound.

There’s every possibility I’m wrong. But in my opinion, and several others, we’ve just had our elemental expansion with fire, air, wind and water playing huge roles within it. It would feel redundant to continue that on in a major way. We have however not dealt with the element of spirit, or that of decay (in a meaningful way outside of Brackenhide and Galakrond’s essence which are both undeniably being continued over). All hints point towards Life being a major theme, and decay is the foil to that. That’s simply where I believe the elemental connection will extend to.