Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[GhostFish]

Why is it hard for you to believe Avaloren is being put off for several years? Was it hard for you to believe that the Dragon Isles was also put off for a few years? Cause that's exactly what happened. Hell, Dragon Isles were originally supposed to be part of Vanilla and got cut, and now here we are.

It's hard for me to believe because it seems like a bad move in terms of business. The next expansion will be for the 20th anniversary. They need to appeal to a literally new generation of players in order to survive. They need renewal, not simple addition. Moves that add to the long-term longevity need to be happening now, not in 5 years.
They won't have the mandate for a major investment in renewal if they put it off any longer. They will end up in complete maintenance mode.

[Swnem]

like what?

df is the ONLY expansion where I didnt level alts through questing (main storyline) because of how disgusting and out of touch with warcraft it is.

I can't remember of any quest where we had to bring someones head, hand, toe, finger, eye, foot... etc, etc, etc....

but we had to organize some gay marriage,
we had to bring bag of bunnies to "big bad powerful" green dragon whos actually allergic to bunnies (LOL!)
we had to rescue a pup from nasty random people who threatened to destroy a SPA!
we had to put bad students into corners
we had food fight
we had big bad ancient blue dragon, an aspect!.... having a bad cold and eating onion soup made by ms. Walrus....

Just beyond bad.

Look, I know WOW was always cartoonish and filled with Easter-eggs. BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT it was done with TASTE and in certain manner.
example: goblins in FH dungeon
night elf male wearing a costume of "mrrrrrglgll king"
steamy romance in HM
drunk dwarves
ratchet folks
booty bay and local quests
etc, etc, etc....

there was always bunch of "non-war" events/quests/npcs.... but they were done in WARCRAFT-STYLE.

The ones we have in DF are...... DISNEYCRAFT!

And thats why I'm extremely anxious about next expansion.

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sometimes its even beyond disney lol

Why are you so obsessed with those things?
I literally don't even remember those quests.

I remember Alextraza and Razageth fighting and Wrathion and Sabellian fighting over who gets to lead. I remember in the plains we helped one of the centaur tribes and the green dragons against the evil centaurs. Azuna i remember helping kalecgos and khadgar vs Razageth.
In the last zone we went into crazy murloc alternate reality, which was cool.

You are doing it to yourself, i hope you come to understand that. YOU are giving those things importance. They didn't even register to me.

[PotHockets]

Thank you, and yeah actual things to show are a lot easier to believe than just saying crap. Then again, we are in the age of AI imagery so that’s not really much either if it’s just images….

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Is Scaleface who we got the purply void images from a couple weeks back?

Yeah Scaleface got the purply stuff but has said they're not entirely sure what the context is and that it may just be honeypot images to try and catch leakers

[Mizue]

If blizzard really wants support specs to be a thing, I would assume that there should would be at least one coming in the next expansion. I can't see having only one support spec being available for two whole expansions.

[matijwow]

This is what I think they're doing as well. They typically hint to the expansion after the next expansion in-game. Avaloren seems too similar to DF thematically.

Legion had Kul Tirans and Zandalari show up in Aszuna but I don't remember any other hints in the same way. Nothing in Shadowlands pointed to Dragonflight, but there was one quest in BfA that mentioned the Dragon Isles.

[Nize]

I feel like the reason Blizz is dropping a ton of druid customization right now is to excuse not giving racial druid forms. I feel the same might be what happens with shaman totems. When they make shamans for all, they'll drop a ton of different totem looks and make them accessible by everyone.

[Viridiel]

Why is everyone so convinced that Khaz Algar and Avaloren are in the same area? The two reports that mention them don't seem connected at all.

All we know is Algar is in some fissure, it could literally be anywhere.

In fact we have a pretty good idea that they're on opposite sides of the Storming Seas. It seems like nobody can make it to Avaloren alive whereas a group of earthen were easily able to make it to Khaz Algar. It's possible that Khaz Algar is right on the boundary or even partially inside the Storming Seas, but it's very unlikely to be on the other side with Avaloren.

[Northelim]

It's hard for me to believe because it seems like a bad move in terms of business. The next expansion will be for the 20th anniversary. They need to appeal to a literally new generation of players in order to survive. They need renewal, not simple addition. Moves that add to the long-term longevity need to be happening now, not in 5 years.
They won't have the mandate for a major investment in renewal if they put it off any longer. They will end up in complete maintenance mode.

If everything was perfect and in a perfect world then we would be getting a revamp for 20th anniversary but that is not happening. Shadowlands was not on Azeroth and was absolutely awful. Just because something is new does not mean it will be very good.

[flan1337]

I think everyone is being hung up on the 20th anniversary- I was like that a couple weeks but remember this November is the 19th - next year is the 20th so 2025 is basically the year of the 20th anniversary.

Edit: this thread is not doing well haha - I feel like even with mages info we don’t have anything to go by or really any idea. Not sure if this a good or bad thing.

[Murlocos]

I feel like the reason Blizz is dropping a ton of druid customization right now is to excuse not giving racial druid forms. I feel the same might be what happens with shaman totems. When they make shamans for all, they'll drop a ton of different totem looks and make them accessible by everyone.

I think shaman totems will be unique, as ultimately they only need to create 11 relatively low-res static models and a couple recolors of them, but yeah I'm starting to think the same for the druid forms. I don't want to downplay the effort they've put into all the new forms, but a lot of the fun speculation for druids is how each race's forms will look, so this would end up being a net disappointment for me at least.

[Ersula]

I think everyone is being hung up on the 20th anniversary- I was like that a couple weeks but remember this November is the 19th - next year is the 20th so 2025 is basically the year of the 20tg anniversary.

We know. But whatever expansion they announce will correspond to that 20th anniversary: So the expansion itself is what has the anniversary significance.

[flan1337]

Going to start getting my night before blizzcon post ready…

'Twas the night before BlizzCon, no secrets took flight,
No WoW leaks in sight, shrouded in night.
Gamers in silence, with bated breath keen,
For the grand revelation, yet to be seen.

In Azeroth's realm, where heroes take flight,
The expansion awaited, out of sight.
No spoilers escaped, no hints to be gleaned,
In the night before BlizzCon, the mystery deepened.

[GhostFish]

If everything was perfect and in a perfect world then we would be getting a revamp for 20th anniversary but that is not happening. Shadowlands was not on Azeroth and was absolutely awful.

Revamp doesn't appeal to new players as much. A new continent with a different history is more of a reset that gets everyone in on the ground floor.

A revamp is something existing players want. New players couldn't give a shit. It doesn't make the game more inviting or less alienating.

[Chickat]

I would imagine they're afraid of Alliance/Horde fatigue

Alliance and Horde war was a big plot point of MoP; after which we got Legion and WoD as allies and then BFA

I can't imagine we will ever get a faction conflict central to the plot again, it'd just be a complete retread

I'd honestly be in favor for a faction merge lorewise at this point, once Anduin is back in power and with Lor'themar, Baine and Rokhan being the backbone of the Horde - no one in leadership of either faction really wants war anymore, any war would feel incredibly forced

I wouldn't. Its fine they are at peace but an actual merge shouldn't happen for at least a generation or two.

[huth]

I think shaman totems will be unique, as ultimately they only need to create 11 relatively low-res static models and a couple recolors of them, but yeah I'm starting to think the same for the druid forms. I don't want to downplay the effort they've put into all the new forms, but a lot of the fun speculation for druids is how each race's forms will look, so this would end up being a net disappointment for me at least.

They pretty much rebuilt and massively expanded Druid customisation, so it's still a win for Druids. But we'll probably see more things like racial horn styles for moonkin and such instead of full forms.

[Valkorion1337]

I feel like the reason Blizz is dropping a ton of druid customization right now is to excuse not giving racial druid forms. I feel the same might be what happens with shaman totems. When they make shamans for all, they'll drop a ton of different totem looks and make them accessible by everyone.

Give me my Human Shaman I want to be Darth Sidious lol I have name saved

[Chickat]

Actually, making the Horde and Alliance friends like in DF already feels unnaturally forced regardless of how much time has passed.

And people are already showing fatigue from all the friendliness between factions. Without a faction conflict, the threat has to be a huge deal and there's nothing that will compete at the same level as the Legion (The Jailer almost did, but everything was kept in the Shadowlands so it lacked the same "we need to work together" like in Legion). So whole "both factions being allies" is going to create more problems than fix them despite what the community believes unless there's a super big force like the Void vs Light idea.

And if people suggest the Void vs Light like having Alleria, Umbric, and other faction leaders on one side while Turalyon, Lor'themar, Velen on the Light side... then it'll just be a faction conflict, but it's less interesting than HvA.

I dont think it would be too bad to merge them after 50 years of peace but its way too soon to do that now.

[Northelim]

Revamp doesn't appeal to new players as much. A new continent with a different history is more of a reset that gets everyone in on the ground floor.

A revamp is something existing players want. New players couldn't give a shit. It doesn't make the game more inviting or less alienating.

Disagree. Revamp could also bring in new players, because the world is completely redone/remade, good for both old veteran fans and someone who wants to get introduced. Again Shadowlands was completely new and just flat out horrible story telling.

Broken Isles, Dragon Isles legion/DF were great because they took place in familiar places and also introduced new classes. BFA might be an exception to that rule, the world was great, but it had horrible systems.

[Murlocos]

They pretty much rebuilt and massively expanded Druid customisation, so it's still a win for Druids. But we'll probably see more things like racial horn styles for moonkin and such instead of full forms.

I'm not a druid main so my opinion doesn't mean much in the end, I'm just hoping to see some unique stuff for new druid races instead of just choosing between a hodgepodge of bright sparkly Emerald Dream forms. I guess part of the mystery is that it feels like any of the remaining three classes (ignoring DH and Evoker) could be up next in 10.2.5.

[flan1337]

I feel like the reason Blizz is dropping a ton of druid customization right now is to excuse not giving racial druid forms. I feel the same might be what happens with shaman totems. When they make shamans for all, they'll drop a ton of different totem looks and make them accessible by everyone.

What does a generic totem look like? Technically horde in vanilla share 1 totem so it’s not a crazy new thing - orcs, trolls and Tauren all shared the same model