Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Zankai27]

Just for the lulz.

Bro needs to stop shitting themselves. It's literally 4 stills from a (presumably) 2 minute expansion feature trailer.

But color me shocked, it was the rocks that caved them in.

[NoTimeToDie5426]

You want me to post the Legion zones from the preview trailer? Okay...

Azuna (again);



Stormheim:



Highmountain;



Val'Sharah



Suramar;

Literally got a chill looking at these lol

[Cheezits]

I think they are mad because they were hyper convinced before that point that literally everything was reused until they stumbled on the rocks, which are the most boring thing to actually be unique. They're just rocks, and not interesting looking rocks. No one is getting excited over some rocks. If Blizz reused assets for everything interesting or big and showy and important, but made custom yet totally boring rocks of all things, I think I would find that maddening as well. UNLESS THEY ARE ROCKS FROM THE WORLD REVAMP BLIZZ IS PRIORITIZING D=

The Aerie Peak thing is likely an HD version, which implies a revamp because why else reuse the thing? But to me it doesn't matter if there's yet another hint at a revamp if it's not coming now. I've waited too long for it.

[Ferlion]

I think they are mad because they were hyper convinced before that point that literally everything was reused and thus fake because how lame is that to have nothing new? Until they stumbled on the rocks, which are the most boring thing to actually be unique. They're just rocks, and not interesting looking rocks. No one is getting excited over some rocks. If Blizz reused assets for everything interesting or big and showy and important, but made custom yet totally boring rocks of all things, I think I would find that maddening as well. UNLESS THEY ARE ROCKS FROM THE WORLD REVAMP BLIZZ IS PRIORITIZING D=

That would be so funny.

I almost hope it's true just for that alone.

[Chickat]

looking at the leak pictures again, I'm wondering if a couple of the pics wouldn't be remade zones of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdom

That could be cool but what zone could the desert be? Durotar?

[Vakir]

I dunno why you're taking this weird "you can't point out anything potentially off about leaks, because they might be true!!!" stance. Anything is possible. We get dozens and dozens of fakes every cycle, and every cycle some of them are quite convincing, and every cycle, there are problems with those fairly convincing fakes. Given that leaks end up being 1-2 right out of 50, it's better to be skeptical.

It's less that and more that the reasoning for these sorts of things is always based on cognitive dissonance born of being displeased with the result.

People will be more inclined to believe something that they're excited for.

I lean more towards it being fake than not, barely, but the fact is, you're all going to be disappointed just based on the expectations leveled here.

[PotHockets]

Oh yeah, no, I get it too. But better to get the rage out at Dragonflight 2/OCshit Expansion 3-In-A-Row now than be disappointed for Blizzcon.

I for one probably won't even be watching now. This really fucking blows if it's legit and Blizz deserves all the shit its getting for every minute it doesn't debunk it.

I think you mean this means it's gonna be fucking dope as shit. Dont fix what aint broke. But seriously DF 2.0 sounds amazing especially if those zone aesthetics are legit.

[Chickat]

Finally completely caught up after four hours of chasing the thread, and after all of that I only have one genuine question left:

Is Teriz some WoW terrorist everyone hates or is he more like that one friend in the group that gets his balls busted by everyone else incessantly?

He is so sure of himself and his ideas and refuses to budge or ever concede a point. But i do like him. Everyone can be annoying. I think people are too mean sometimes.

[Dismayxz]

Just for the lulz.

I feel for her, at this point she's put in more hours than I've put into coming to the same conclusion about the Stones on the first webpage Leak, after doing a deep dive on the assets and what could've been used to fake it via easy, non-goblin-hours ways (Quick Blender work?). Guess what. Textures, rocks, grass. All new. Those Boulders and Stones? They've got a rock solid alibi.

[J Street]

I'm leaning towards believing the zone preview screenshots real, solely because if it turns out to be fake, it'll just make any future leaks damn impossible to verify ever again. I don't get how we can blatantly write these off when it appears to be the most well done leaks ever done so far.

Especially using the logic of "why would blizzard show off the most uninspired, boring images to hype up the expac."

It's literally four still frames of what appears to be an entire preview video. Nobody knows how the leaker got the images, if more was available, if he hand picked which frames to use, etc. The other scenes could blow our minds for all we know. I'm sure every zone preview video has meh frames as well.

Assuming it's real, I think all the zones look pretty and nothing is an immediate turn off, even if not super innovative

[Vakir]

Finally completely caught up after four hours of chasing the thread, and after all of that I only have one genuine question left:

Is Teriz some WoW terrorist everyone hates or is he more like that one friend in the group that gets his balls busted by everyone else incessantly?

The answer is "yes."

I'm leaning towards believing the zone preview screenshots real, solely because if it turns out to be fake, it'll just make any future leaks damn impossible to verify ever again. I don't get how we can blatantly write these off when it appears to be the most well done leaks ever done so far.

Honestly, I hate (most of) leak season, the "teams," the gymnastics to try and confirm pet theories, the self-indulgent nonsense of who gets to call themselves the debunker(s) for ego more than knowledge, etc. so much that I almost hope this is the case. I hope Watchmen/Code Geass/whatever style that this is some kind of crazy extreme, universally hated circumstance that permanently sinks the ability to make bullshit leaks in the future unless it's unequivocally true with absolutely no margin for potential falsehoods. The one good thing AI art (or a creative Machinamist) might do.

Fake, low effort text posts will still endure, sadly, because they give this place traffic.

[Catastrophy349]

I bet I can watch the Dragonflight announcement trailer (shown during the online premiere) and pick out 4 images (print screenshot) for each of the zones. Then, to go a step further, pick the absolute worst, and most boring areas of these zones, such as: a random cave in the Waking Shores (23:02), although many other beautiful shots were taken during the same video of the zone, a snow area with a tree in the Azure Span (23:05), again, although there are beautiful shots taken of the Tuskarr (among other things), an open field (plains) in the Ohn'ahran Plains (46:42), although the Maruuk Centaur camps/Green Dragon area would certainly work better, and finally, another cave from Thaldraszus (52:07), while the rest of the zone is literally gorgeous in so many ways.

Here's the video. Have fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3nPloFgHkM&t=2760s

[Polybius]

Bro needs to stop shitting themselves. It's literally 4 stills from a (presumably) 2 minute expansion feature trailer.

But color me shocked, it was the rocks that caved them in.

They've worked with this before, it's not heavy work if you're used to it. I think the point they were trying to make is everything here is reused, and not in the sense of reskinning, but copypasted onto a model the same way PServer and machinima artists do.

You'd be surprised what a keen eye can find in a few stills, it happens with trailers too.

[Catastrophy349]

You want me to post the Legion zones from the preview trailer? Okay...

Azuna (again);



Stormheim:



Highmountain;



Val'Sharah



Suramar;

So, unlike my post (which you should check out using DF as an example), you chose literally the BEST screenshots from the trailer showcasing each zone. Bravo.

[Teriz]

Ummm, sir, that's because the expansion had been announced. Blizz had given us all the lore and background we needed to appreciate that this was a location worth going to. We didn't know any of that before the expansion was announced, and justification revealed. Before that we had nothing. Unlike right now where we can speculate all kinds of reasons we may want or need to seek out Avaloren. We know Odyn wants to find it, we can guess that maybe Iridikron knows something about it and is going there so we need to hunt him down, or maybe we just join that crew Nightsquall is putting together so we can plunder so riches for funsies and then we get into all sorts of trouble over there. That's more to go on than we had when we knew the title "Mists of Pandaria", and I might even be wrong about all three suggested reasons. But why would we know that right now, when we haven't even defeated Fyrakk yet? We're busy on the Dragon Isles right now, lorewise, and we haven't even had the expac announcement yet. We SHOULD be in the dark right now if Blizz wants us to be. If they want us to know more, in game, they will put it in game before the expansion is over.

Uh yeah we did. The TTRPGs that weren't de-canonized until MoP came out had loads of info about Pandaria, Pandaren, and Pandaren Brewmasters. That all came out BEFORE MoP and some of that information was used for the expansion.

[Demonly]

I feel for her, at this point she's put in more hours than I've put into coming to the same conclusion about the Stones on the first webpage Leak, after doing a deep dive on the assets and what could've been used to fake it via easy, non-goblin-hours ways (Quick Blender work?). Guess what. Textures, rocks, grass. All new. Those Boulders and Stones? They've got a rock solid alibi.

Everything Zel says keeps lending credence to the fact that this is going to be a 10.3 patch. Not an expansion.

I can't see them heavily reusing assets for promo preview when everything else a lot of people have shown from other expac previews shows nothing but newer assets.

Iridikon is still loose out there, what better way to tie him into the next expac if not have a 3 zone patch "timeless isles" style connecting him -> 11.0

- - - Updated - - -

Pretty much. And since we're still on the hunt for Iridikron, he might do the whole baddie thing of "Find me in Avaloren if you wish to confront me!"

Continues to make me feel 10.3, not 11.0

[Izalla]

Sorry lmao. Yeah im on mobile so grammar isnt really my goal atm. But yes, i meant B-roll.

I need to get more thread-cred so I can get Broll Bearmantle riding a giraffe added to the hype train.

[Ferlion]

Setting aside the "Do we like it or not", let's assume the screenshots are for realsies.

It makes me more interested in what the bridge is going to be, and what the new World Tree is for. The narrative is and has been built up to indicate that Amirdrassil was fundamentally important and a source of renewal for more than just the Night Elves. It is, narratively, leading us to the direction of "The world changes based off the new World Tree surging it with energy".

In fact, this is ultimately the primary reason Fryjack is all "Gonna go mess with it". He wants to corrupt the tree with shadowflame so when it comes into Azeroth, it triggers the entire world to be shaped by Shadowflame.

This brings the inherent implication that the world is going to be flooded with whatever energy the World Tree already has (Life, Death, Elune, dead night elf souls) on a global scale, which seems like the perfect narrative in for a world revamp.

The possibility of it being something else means the bridge is gonna be really fun.

[Teriz]

So, unlike my post (which you should check out using DF as an example), you chose literally the BEST screenshots from the trailer showcasing each zone. Bravo.

Well no, I just grabbed the first screen shots that popped up. For example this pic of Suramar;



Is more impressive than the one I posted, and it also comes from the zone preview.

[Woggmer]

Just for the lulz.

I mean, I don't like it as much as anyone else, but I've pretty much resigned myself to accept it for what it is and probably expecting the launch trailer reception to really anger a lot of people.