Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Sondrelk]

I would argue that just being a Bard is the appeal for a lot of people. Bards are a pretty popular fantasy archetype through all forms of fantasy media.

In generic fantasy, sure. But not in WoW.

[Chickat]

about the one you linked the OP said "I'm gonna be real with y'all, I pulled this outta my ass.".

there is this one https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/2639284-Eclipse

That does sound cool, but it looks like it's lacking a big core feature to tie everything together.

[Hitei]

5 NPCs in the entire game; and they are just bards as in entertainers, nothing about them suggests they are bards the way we imagine them in DnD etc

Like I said, they're just not explicitly called "bards". That is the problem: you're looking for NPCs actually named the class. In WotLK there are only 5 NPCs in the entire game called monks, three of which are just iterations of scarlet monks, none of which are using chi powers or doing anything like what is seen in the actual monk player class.

WC3 had "Kodo Beasts", but the units were actually war drummers whose song provides a damage boost aura to nearby units. Pretty classically bard.

Imperial Vizier Zor'lok is an "Imperial Vizier" not a "bard" but his fight involves him singing damaging songs, using sonic screams and damaging shouts and throwing out spirals of sound magic.

Signe, of the Nine is "The Voice" but her section of the bossfight is singing a damaging song, an AoE damaging refrain, and Brynja the secondary add also uses a damaging dirge song.

Russel Brower, one of those NPCs you're referring to isn't just "an entertainer". He fights as part of the Wilderhammer wedding quests quests in Twilight highlands, where he uses both support/healing songs and damaging songs.

Winslow Swan, a Maldraxxus NPC bard who plays an instrument at the seat of the primus, also fights in some of the Korthia/Maw weekly stuff where he uses damaging slowing songs and a sound based debuff.

Hearthsinger Forresten, another of those NPCs, isn't just an entertainer, he uses the archetypical lullaby to sleep people.

Chi-ji and the other Pandaria cranes are all capable of using songs to summon fire tornados, AoE heal allies, put enemies to sleep.

The Kyrians actively use sound magic and magical instruments that can cleanse the soul, damage enemies, etc. And some of their mawsworn fallen debuff with slowing songs.

This is already significantly more presence than monk had pre-MoP. When that class was just unarmed attacking Scarlet NPCs and Auchenai who melee attacked with staves.

[Harbour]

I think the only class that is actually needed in Warcraft is Tinker. Warcraft3 heroes of Tinker and Alchemist cover all three roles, while offering great potential for a fresh playstyles.
The rest (Necromancers, Chronomancers, Inquisitors, Earthwardens, Blademasters, Shadow Hunters) can be baked into existing classes as 4th specs.
But tinker... man, i want tinker.
About bard. Even though Warcraft was partially inspired by DnD, Bard just doesnt fit the setting. Even more than the monk or evoker in my humble opinion.

[Azalar]

The whole concept of "hero class" is obsolete. It made some sense back in the days when WoW was still based on W3, but not anymore.

[Nymrohd]

I just hope that if they do make a machinist type class, they don't call it tinker. The name doesn't sound like a class to me. I'd much prefer something like Artificer or something.

I wonder if the next class, whether it'll be in 11.0 or beyond, will be a "hero" class or one that starts at the bottom, like monk. I've read that one of the reasons the monk class wasn't nearly as popular is because it had to be leveled during a time when the game wasn't nearly as alt friendly as it is now.

I still think that if Monk and Pandaren had been released as early access with the 5.0 patch instead of MoP launch, both the race and the class would have been far more popular.

[Thomir]

Same debate about classes, ad nauseum. Love to see it.

[seainma]

Same debate about classes, ad nauseum. Love to see it.

I was about to say the same! I love how when there isn't any fresh information. The speculation thread devolves into arguing about why something can or cannot exist in WoW.

[Civciv]

This whole TinkersvsBards debate is really annoying. Let each side have their fun without saying "OH WELL ACKHSHUALLY THEY CAN'T EXIST IN WOW BECAUSE...."

why. do. you. feel.the.need.to.be.a.buzzkiller.

[Chickat]

There was also a third one

That sounds really believable. If any leaks are real I'm saying it's this.

[Azalar]

I was about to say the same! I love how when there isn't any fresh information. The speculation thread devolves into arguing about why something can or cannot exist in WoW.

It's been like this for 10 years, trust me.

[ChairmanKaga]

why. do. you. feel.the.need.to.be.a.buzzkiller.

Probably because it's derailing the thread.

[Herstugvd]

Hey all! I want to share some very possible leak material ive seen in telegram chat a friend of mine showed me the other day. No “my father is the cleaning lady at blizz headquarters and he overheard a whiteboard session” type of BS.

Now lets put this first: i havent seen anything about the title, lvl cap or zones. They were refering to the xpac as TWA but didn’t see what the acronym actually stand for. There was a really cool artwork (probably created for blizzcon). It had nothing to do with things we could seen in the previous “leaks” (the AI generated dwarves riding gryphons etc.). The picture was dark, probably underground with torches as the only sources of light and showed the entrance of a temple-like building. The architecture felt familiar but it was smth we haven’t seen before. The other picture was the good ol’ World of Warcraft logo but without any text. Unlike previous years where colors got a little boring (mostly just black n’ white), this logo was vivid blue. I was super happy about seeing the logo, it gives off tbc/wrath/cata vibes (each had its own distinct color).

PS: (made a one-time acc so i can conceal my identity )

[ChairmanKaga]

Twilight Waves of Avaloren

[Catastrophy349]

I made a prediction back before Dragonflight was announced, so I'm going to do another one: I predict that we will be over 2000 pages before BlizzCon. HYPE MODE!

[Hitei]

Hey all! I want to share some very possible leak material ive seen in telegram chat a friend of mine showed me the other day. No “my father is the cleaning lady at blizz headquarters and he overheard a whiteboard session” type of BS.

Now lets put this first: i havent seen anything about the title, lvl cap or zones. They were refering to the xpac as TWA but didn’t see what the acronym actually stand for. There was a really cool artwork (probably created for blizzcon). It had nothing to do with things we could seen in the previous “leaks” (the AI generated dwarves riding gryphons etc.). The picture was dark, probably underground with torches as the only sources of light and showed the entrance of a temple-like building. The architecture felt familiar but it was smth we haven’t seen before. The other picture was the good ol’ World of Warcraft logo but without any text. Unlike previous years where colors got a little boring (mostly just black n’ white), this logo was vivid blue. I was super happy about seeing the logo, it gives off tbc/wrath/cata vibes (each had its own distinct color).

PS: (made a one-time acc so i can conceal my identity )

If you're going to LARP at least commit instead of hedging bets.

There is zero value in being wildly vague with things like "it's a familiar building but also... it isn't?" What did it actually supposedly look like? What did the logo actually have on it?

[Harbour]

TWA

Twilight Was Atrocious

[Civciv]

Probably because it's derailing the thread.

Speculating about next class isn't derailing the thread

[Woggmer]

In regards to the Hearthstone expansion just being revealed a few days ago.

I was expecting they'd announce it in Blizzcon, but it does seem odd that they would announce ahead of schedule... was it due to the T-shirt leaking out and spoiling everything and they had no choice on the matter?

[Catastrophy349]

Imagine a world where we get "another continent" on the "other side" of Azeroth. Now, imagine traveling to that world, though we only see a "single" part of it. Over time, we explore, expand, and evolve with that world. The World of Warcraft.