Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Viridiel]

Lefthand side, middle of the screen. Cracks spiderweb out but on the bottom they curl with the artwork. I also think the crack is going off the phone screen there as well, but that could just be low resolution.

I really can't see it. There's a waterfall behind the cracks that confuse things a bit, and there's the lightning/ice/crackly effect across most of the screen that might look like it blends it.

I'm not sure why somebody would take a photo of their laptop and phone and then superimpose images on top of them rather than just displaying the images on the devices and taking a photo... I think it's the wrong thing to try and pick apart. The fact that they usually change the design of the website each expansion and this is basically the same as Dragonflight's is a stronger argument. Although that was before everything moved from worldofwarcraft.com to worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com.

[Ferlion]

Look at the hands on that lightning dwarf. The staff isn't even aligned with itself. This is an exceptional leak, but they've clearly used AI in this instance so it's almost certainly fake.

Oh yeah. The bottom finger pinky thing is all kinda of weird and crooked.

And as you say, the bottom of the staff before the hand and the top after the hand are not lined up.

[Mace]

You're so cute.

Isn't he indeed

[Ferlion]

Actually, now that I see they aren't lined up, it's even more obvious on the full picture. I noticed the finger, but not the staff.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

If those "tall dwarves" become playable before Mok'Nathal or Orgres... yeah, nasty move from Blizzard.

Feels like another Mechagnome situation if this happens, just completely out of touch with the playerbase.

Yeah, i mean it's a well made leak that might end up real but not yet confirmed or denied, that's why im fearing about the idea that they will also add these dwarves that clearly use mok'nathal model as playable race before actual Mok'nathals or ogres if these dwarves are meant to be goliaths.

[Wangming]

Honestly, what would be the story or main plot of Avaloren even be? Everything since after Legion feels like a setup, but never came to a satisfying conclusion. BfA and Shadowlands were so disappointing that they needed to end the overarching plot in the respective expansion. Dragonflight story-wise feels completely filler and just as a build-up for what’s to come, but would this really culminate in Avaloren? How so? It feels like there’s very little progress overall and that’s why the last expansions all fell so flat. The suspense isn’t suspensing.

I guess the point is to lean more into the "Titans are not nice people" angle with meeting heretics in Avaloren.
But that begs the question: Why do we care if the Titans are nice or not? Why does our character care?

There was this one time on the PTR I made a Demon Hunter chick, played around a bit and tried to imagine what my character would think.

I did the starting area and went into BfA. I was sent to Stomwind Keep where Anduin, Jaina, and Genn (three people I have never met in my entire life) were arguing about a Horde attack I did not experience and sent me to Kul Tiras.
I mean sure let's help all these people cause I need their help to win a war I did not experience and have very little actual stakes in, cause I am pretty much a neutral party.
Halfway into Nazjatar, where I was bossed around by Jaina I got a mental message from The Bolvar (whom I have never met) telling me that Sylvanas (whom I have never met) has kidnapped Jaina (With whom I have spent a grand total of a few hours over the span of a couple of weeks and spent most of that time nagging me), Anduin (Whom I have met once for like five minutes) Thrall and Baine (Neither of whom I have met or even know how they look) and asked me to literally go to hell and get them back. But I should not worry cause I will get help from Mograine (whom I have never met).
Inside I was quickly wrapped into the inner conflicts of the death realm caused by the Anima shortage. Granted the whole concept of anima and the shortage was mostly explained in blue posts and not in game, so poor Yorha had no idea why anything happens or why she should care about it. All she knew is that the Primus is a colossal moron cause once he found out Zovaal is up to something he sent a warning wrapped in a puzzle that remained unsolved for centuries. Instead of, ya know. Making a phone call or something.

Going to Avaloren now radiates this same kind of energy for me.

[Auxis]

Damn, a lot happened in the 8 hours since I last checked out the thread.

IF those images are real, I REALLY hope that dwarf-like species isn't a new race. It looks FAR too similar to regular dwarves for my liking.

[Mace]

Seems obvious to me that it's just a WoW version of a colonial narrative. The Titans are colonists. Some of the natives (dragons) join them, some resist. They're writing it to make the Titans more and more unsympathetic though (the dragons only go along out of fear), which hasn't been how the Titans have been written in the long run.

It is exactly these sort of shifts and changes that make the lore seem inconsistent.. especially when they now go for them being the established truth rather than some heretic twist or propaganda of the bad guys.. you have to have some stability and consistent with out always throwing up your foundation pillars in the air and then re-writing your story.

This is why they should have a lot more time devoted to telling the machinations between races and lands than always delving into cosmic stuff. Their philosophy is very poor and they're not good enough to write on existential matters as they've clearly demonstrated they have very little idea of such things.

Off course everyone alive is entitled to an opinion, but it's one thing to have an opinion, another thing to write that opinion in as a lore that millions of people watch and read. People aren't as stupid or as thoughtless as some, especially California elites like to think. B/s and junk is b/s and junk even if the writers don't realise or don't care because they aren't philosophers, wise men or people who are trying to understand the deep meanings of lif and existence. But here they are, focusing their story telling of their made up world on things they have little to no understanding of, just makes the whole thing come off terrible and trashy ....


But then what else are they going to do.. they are committed to now exploring cosmic realms of life, void, light etc once they started on the SL start.. I mean this is a medieval world, not the apex civilization. They left both the night elven and draenei advanced civilizations in the dust, and the little that survive in groups like the Highborne and Nightborne, or the very night elves and draenei themselves never talk of such things.

This is were such high concepts should sta, as well as Goddesses like Elune, until some one insightful enough or skilled enough to flesh it out comes along. You don't need to delve into such stuff. Most people just want battles and intrigues, with magic, fantasy and wonder, a good story for an adventure.. they don't need an epic tle every two years.. krikey, a lot of the stuff they've done should have ben it's own video game or it's own separate series with spans of eons apart.. but here we are.. getting more ridiculous by the moment.

Perhaps a little of it , if it could be written well, could be in the game for lore nerds, but for the rest, stick to timeless stories, adventure stories, war stories, not cosmic reality stories. But then maybe this is how it should be so the all can see how unworthy this is of any true affection or love, and certainly not worthy of idolising.

[locketto]

what faction they added in 10.2 zone?

Stormforged dragons and?

[Dnusha]

5000 posts earlier

[Nebron]

Okay, so basically the jungle zone seems to be Un'goro / Sholazar Basin titan-themed zone? Of possible 4 zones, one is presumably going to be heavily titan based? I'd say Khaz'Algar is a titan facility in the same manner as Tyrhold is Uldorus. So we are likely getting titan expansion, where the inital theme are dwarves.

[caliphax]

You're all getting bent out of shape for something that isn't even confirmed to be real yet. Calm down. Nothing in the leaks is saying that the dwarfy boys are going to be playable races. You're getting upset at something you've made up yourselves.

[Auxis]

what faction they added in 10.2 zone?

Stormforged dragons and?

Only new faction are the Dream Wardens. They are the new Renown faction.
We do recruit stormdrakes/give stormdrakes the choice to leave Stormheim/Odyn's ranks to come to the Dream. I think there is also something about Netherwing's as they show up in the main sanctuary.

[Nyel]

I guess the point is to lean more into the "Titans are not nice people" angle with meeting heretics in Avaloren.
But that begs the question: Why do we care if the Titans are nice or not? Why does our character care?

There was this one time on the PTR I made a Demon Hunter chick, played around a bit and tried to imagine what my character would think.

I did the starting area and went into BfA. I was sent to Stomwind Keep where Anduin, Jaina, and Genn (three people I have never met in my entire life) were arguing about a Horde attack I did not experience and sent me to Kul Tiras.
I mean sure let's help all these people cause I need their help to win a war I did not experience and have very little actual stakes in, cause I am pretty much a neutral party.
Halfway into Nazjatar, where I was bossed around by Jaina I got a mental message from The Bolvar (whom I have never met) telling me that Sylvanas (whom I have never met) has kidnapped Jaina (With whom I have spent a grand total of a few hours over the span of a couple of weeks and spent most of that time nagging me), Anduin (Whom I have met once for like five minutes) Thrall and Baine (Neither of whom I have met or even know how they look) and asked me to literally go to hell and get them back. But I should not worry cause I will get help from Mograine (whom I have never met).
Inside I was quickly wrapped into the inner conflicts of the death realm caused by the Anima shortage. Granted the whole concept of anima and the shortage was mostly explained in blue posts and not in game, so poor Yorha had no idea why anything happens or why she should care about it. All she knew is that the Primus is a colossal moron cause once he found out Zovaal is up to something he sent a warning wrapped in a puzzle that remained unsolved for centuries. Instead of, ya know. Making a phone call or something.

Going to Avaloren now radiates this same kind of energy for me.

Yeah, I mean why would we care about the Titans being good or bad? What kind of influence does it even have for us, the average player, who’s not directly touched by them (like the Dragons or whatever)? Just imagine this from a Human, Troll, Elven perspective. It really doesn’t matter at all. So I have no clue why they try to build up something like this when the outcome is either irrelevant or so inexplicit that it just feels like another random plot point without much meaning. I never was yearning for the Void expansion, but at least there are some stakes behind it. Something like Avaloren just feels so boringly random that it’s automatically rated as filler in my head.

[Mace]

I think one person in the forums summed it up, "Tyr in general comes across a lot less friendly than his game depictions. They seem to be leaning into all beings of Order being kind of micromanagers who don’t take no well." Like I've said before, I'm not a fan of this direction they're going with Tyr in the slightest. It feels like a retread of Xe'ra, and I'm getting the feeling that Vyranoth is going to [b]DESTROY[/b] this new Tyr that we're trying to build.

This is exactly what it is. I hated what they did with both Xe'ra and Illian and the light at the end of that expansion - they don't handle these things well, because they don't understand the concepts they are exploring well. They are using this as some sort of playful thought experiment that should be discussions rather than established lore - held to to perhaps in game lore books of musings of elves and dragons and wizards and priests - scholars and professors, rather than actually the confirmed reality of the world.

I'm not saying these things should never be explored, but they're not doing them well at all, and I think the game lore should stay away from cosmic threats, and trying to plumb into them, they're simply undoing their earlier lore in a constant change and re-shift.. this is not what should happen to your core. You should keep your core in tact, if you think of better things that may undo your core, then keep them to yourself and don't explore them, build on your core, you don't have to go on to explain Elune or explain the light or explain good and evil and existence, this is not necessary for the scope of your product nor the audience you cater to, it simply isn't. You can't handle it well because you are not knowledgeable enough about such things, nor wise enough, do don't. Stick to what you're good at, what most people actually loved about you and thought you did well and started enjoying your products for. You do that well, keep that up, go into this shit more and more, you'll lose people, and they'll grow contemptuous of you as more of your flaws would be exposed for everyone to see it. You may not have the capacity to perceive it, but never be arrogant enough to think that others cannot see beyond what you do, even if they are young.

[Makorus]

Man, I love nothing more than people complaining about a plot point of an expansion that they've made up in their mind.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

You're all getting bent out of shape for something that isn't even confirmed to be real yet. Calm down. Nothing in the leaks is saying that the dwarfy boys are going to be playable races. You're getting upset at something you've made up yourselves.

And who said that it's happening 100% and who's getting upset?

We're just discussing latest leaks and what they can mean if end up being true, possibilities that can happen for certain things.

You know speculation thread is for speculation and discussion, stop with your "stop speculating you're just getting upset" kinda posts.

[caliphax]

Man, I love nothing more than people complaining about a plot point of an expansion that they've made up in their mind.

Amen brother.

[Wangming]

Yeah, I mean why would we care about the Titans being good or bad? What kind of influence does it even have for us, the average player, who’s not directly touched by them (like the Dragons or whatever)? Just imagine this from a Human, Troll, Elven perspective. It really doesn’t matter at all. So I have no clue why they try to build up something like this when the outcome is either irrelevant or so inexplicit that it just feels like another random plot point without much meaning. I never was yearning for the Void expansion, but at least there are some stakes behind it. Something like Avaloren just feels so boringly random that it’s automatically rated as filler in my head.

Exactly. It would help if the prepatch stories stayed in the game permanently, but I still feel like the hook for DF was pretty weak and if Avaloren is legit I fear it will be even weaker.
I hope I am wrong. I really do.

[keelr]

You can't possibly consider the website leak not fake. The shapes are not lining up with the screen, the aesthetics are not there, just look up dragonflight's website. The leak looks like smth they did in 2012. Also the space on the website is not at all utilized, again, check the dragonflight website, they have wide images etc.