Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Aucald]

Nothing to add here, just backing this point up. The more class restrictions are lifted without at the very least making sure that the class has some culturally specific variant, like the Zandalari do, the more the setting weakens. Night Elves became exponentially more dull after they received mages etc.

I'm generally all for opening things up, but I do agree there are some races that have strong lore-based reasons as to why they shouldn't have specific classes available. Draenei, given their history, shouldn't have Warlocks among them. Night Elves shouldn't have Mages (or Warlocks) given their history with the Highborne and the exile of the High Elves. Void Elves shouldn't get Paladins at any point. I'd argue the Nightborne shouldn't have Monks, either. Tauren shouldn't have either Mages or Warlocks, etc., etc.

[huth]

Nothing to add here, just backing this point up. The more class restrictions are lifted without at the very least making sure that the class has some culturally specific variant, like the Zandalari do, the more the setting weakens. Night Elves became exponentially more dull after they received mages etc.

At least regular mages does make sense for them specificially. I'd really prefer if there were racial variants for the classes though, even if they are just cosmetic.

Void Elves shouldn't get Paladins at any point.

Kaboom.

[Cheezits]

I'm generally all for opening things up, but I do agree there are some races that have strong lore-based reasons as to why they shouldn't have specific classes available. Draenei, given their history, shouldn't have Warlocks among them. Night Elves shouldn't have Mages (or Warlocks) given their history with the Highborne and the exile of the High Elves. Void Elves shouldn't get Paladins at any point. I'd argue the Nightborne shouldn't have Monks, either. Tauren shouldn't have either Mages or Warlocks, etc., etc.

I think this is easily countered by strict information that if you play one of these classes, you are considered an outlier by your society OR you are canonically a member of some offshoot culture despite being the same race. For example, Nelf Mages should've either been actual highborne or told they were seen as untrustworthy because of it. Tauren Warlocks could be Grimtotem and/or Bloodtotem (or taught by them. Etc.

Nightborne not having monks is an odd choice IMO.

Even races that "can't do a class without exploding" can still be playable by virtue of "they are doing it despite this and are super powerful because they can hold it in". Like how Holy-using Undead were treated before the lore about that was kind of ignored for a while.

[Sondrelk]

I think it’s the inverse for Dracthyr: you devalue the juxtaposition of failed Dracthyr with Evokers if you allow the flunkies to become playable, capable of doing everything (and possibly more) than the supposedly pinnacle Evokers. Their status as failures becomes questionable at best, and the Evoker’s status among their kin becomes completely unsupported. Which you might be fine with. And that’s okay. I’m not fine with that, though. It’s a very subjective topic.

But that’s why I prefer the Drakonid solution. We get our big, beefy dragon tanks (and Magi and whatever else), and the original vision for Dracthyr is uncompromised. It’s win-win.

You don't play a hypothetical genius Dracthyr who goes from Warrior to Mage at will. You play a Dracthyr who couldn't quite make it to Evoker, but still had the basic training a Dracthyr needs, which might make them capable of being the basic physical classes at least.

[Aucald]

I think this is easily countered by strict information that if you play one of these classes, you are considered an outlier by your society OR you are canonically a member of some offshoot culture despite being the same race. For example, Nelf Mages should've either been actual highborne or told they were seen as untrustworthy because of it. Tauren Warlocks could be Grimtotem and/or Bloodtotem (or taught by them. Etc.

Nightborne not having monks is an odd choice IMO.

Even races that "can't do a class without exploding" can still be playable by virtue of "they are doing it despite this and are super powerful because they can hold it in". Like how Holy-using Undead were treated before the lore about that was kind of ignored for a while.

If there were mechanisms in place that could account for such race/class pairing in terms of the game, I'd say that's possible. Night Elven Mages could be flagged as "at war" with Darnassus, or Tauren Warlocks with Mulgore - that would better approximate their own standing in terms of their race's culture.

My choice for Nightborne and Monks would be down to the fact that I would imagine the Nightborne, having been xenophobic and highly regimented in their society, would probably not jump on the Monk bandwagon so quickly (although that is admittedly a looser rationale than the above).

Void Elf Paladins would, lore-wise, be walking time bombs primed to detonate at any moment - and the rest of their existence wracked by debilitating agony. There's just no real way for that idea to work at all with any lore-based strictures in mind.

[huth]

Void Elf Paladins would, lore-wise, be walking time bombs primed to detonate at any moment - and the rest of their existence wracked by debilitating agony. There's just no real way for that idea to work at all with any lore-based strictures in mind.

I'd say they'd be more like bowling with nitroglycerine filled pins. With a time bomb, you generally set a timer for when they explode.

[Nymrohd]

If we got class skins you could do void knights. But I doubt they would ever do class skins.

[TidesOfBlood]

I'd really not want the Maruuk centaur of all races to be the next AR.

I like this idea very much. The centaur storyline was the most intriguiging out of all the campaigns.

[Skytotem]

I'd really not want the Maruuk centaur of all races to be the next AR.

Eh, can always RP as a Kalimdor Centaur.

[Skildar]

I didn't enjoy the centaur storyline. It felt like a bad version of an orc tale
The tuskarr felt more interesting as they have more character but it wasn't great either

[Makabreska]

Maruuk was yet another story of "faction consists a few sub-factions, but one of them betrays and aligns with the enemy". Just like with Feltotem, Skovold, Forsworn, House of Rituals, Ashvane, and many, many more.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The Centuar storyline was ok. I preffered the more dragon centric stuff. Tuskar.....I'm sorry I just don't care about them. I did like the Baine Centuar Questline though.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

We already did mongols with the Yaungol so the Maruuk felt redundant.

[Sondrelk]

Ohn'ahran plains never really grabbed me honestly. It was cool and all, but there didnt feel like there was a suitable finale like there was for Azure Span and Thaldrazsus.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I went to Blizzcon until the coof happened. Then Blizzard got castrated. Hard to feel excited about another one. Doubt they will put on a metal concert again. I don't know anyone who attends so it'd just be so it's just going to be a boring marketing show for investors with 15 minute demos you can play. The panels for the last two years weren't very informative (the design panel for a water boss for BFA, and the zone design one for Maldraxxus). Some were really bad (the Overwatch voice acting panel and the one about writing Warcraft traveller).

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I wonder what theme will the 10.1.5 megadungeon go for or what it will be about.

Personally i hope for "going through timelines" kinda fights and not another very dragon related theme in the sense of cosmetics, fights etc.

[Nymrohd]

I wonder what theme will the 10.1.5 megadungeon go for or what it will be about.

Personally i hope for "going through timelines" kinda fights and not another very dragon related theme in the sense of cosmetics, fights etc.

Most people are expecting Vakthos (sp?) that Blue tower in Azure Span.

- - - Updated - - -

Ohn'ahran plains never really grabbed me honestly. It was cool and all, but there didnt feel like there was a suitable finale like there was for Azure Span and Thaldrazsus.

I felt it lacked a certain something. The Maruuk are formulaic but you cannot deny there was work put there; each tribe is unique with its own base, traditions, colors, banners etc plus a few NPCs specific to them. Yet I cannot get myself to care for them anywhere near as much as about the Tuskar who got far less detail. Maybe they just lacked decent NPCs or good voice acting and thus failed to get me invested? Meanwhile the green dragons show too late and I felt we rushed through their area of the zoned; probably it is because their storyline continued with Renown.
It also bothered me later with the world quests that almost all of them are about the Maruuk or the generic ones (race, photo, climb); there was one in the final area of the zone where all the Primalists are but I didn't see any in the gardens or the island where the gate is. The reason to me is simple; they designed the Renown system around specific factions and that zone was meant for Maruuk rep, not Valdrakken rep. In general once you reach end level you don't really deal with dragon issues in the overworld because Valdrakken rep is very limited to specific areas of the map even if there are dragon interests everywhere.

[Nathanyel]

We don't have a lot of information regarding her reign, only that it was prosperous and she became the Kaldorei Empire's most beloved monarch.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Azshara is an avatar of Azeroth, a splinter of her essence born into a mortal* shell. Maybe an attempt to to learn more about the mortal races, maybe a kind of backup made as the world soul sensed the coming invasion of the Legion - which then ironically happened mostly because of Azshara.
Being born with an innate ability to wield magic without issue, literally a messianic offspring of this world's equivalent of 'God', but anaware of it - that certainly could lead to having... a high opinion of yourself, to put it mildly. Azshara considered only Sargeras to be worthy to become her mate, and she might not have been that wrong...

* We can only assume that without the events of the War of the Ancients, even Azshara would have eventually succumbed to age. Either the transformation into a Naga made her immortal (most likely) or the blessing of Nordrassil extended immortality to the Naga as well - there's an unsourced sentence on Nordrassil's Wowpedia entry saying "But the most important blessing came from Nozdormu, which ensured that so long as the tree existed the night elves would remain immortal. This would ensure that even the most corrupt of night elves would be drawn to protect the tree."
If that's the case, the Naga, including Azshara, are now mortal again - although that would still mean a life span of up to several thousand years - obviously someone as powerful and vain as Azshara would attempt to find a way to prevent that.

[Pheraz]

Most people are expecting Vakthos (sp?) that Blue tower in Azure Span.

- - - Updated - - -



I felt it lacked a certain something. The Maruuk are formulaic but you cannot deny there was work put there; each tribe is unique with its own base, traditions, colors, banners etc plus a few NPCs specific to them. Yet I cannot get myself to care for them anywhere near as much as about the Tuskar who got far less detail. Maybe they just lacked decent NPCs or good voice acting and thus failed to get me invested? Meanwhile the green dragons show too late and I felt we rushed through their area of the zoned; probably it is because their storyline continued with Renown.
It also bothered me later with the world quests that almost all of them are about the Maruuk or the generic ones (race, photo, climb); there was one in the final area of the zone where all the Primalists are but I didn't see any in the gardens or the island where the gate is. The reason to me is simple; they designed the Renown system around specific factions and that zone was meant for Maruuk rep, not Valdrakken rep. In general once you reach end level you don't really deal with dragon issues in the overworld because Valdrakken rep is very limited to specific areas of the map even if there are dragon interests everywhere.

I think their faces look too much like surgery/robotic (for me)
Also besides the green dragons in a little corner it's pretty much only maruuk on the whole area
Wheras the blue zone looks much more diverse, chaotic and "living" (IMO)

[Skildar]

I think their faces look too much like surgery/robotic (for me)
Also besides the green dragons in a little corner it's pretty much only maruuk on the whole area
Wheras the blue zone looks much more diverse, chaotic and "living" (IMO)

This is very true concerning their physical appearance. If you were to ask Samwise Didier to draw centaurs you would never end up with this generic and flavourless creature. His cartoon style shouldn't be the default but there is character in his work that is definitely lacking in a lot of art for this expansion.