Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Lorgar Aurelian]

It would be interesting to see how close the end product is to the concept art in the case of the Maruuk if anyone can find it.

I don't think like any of them are online so here some crappy pictures from my crappy phone while I have the book out.

https://pasteboard.co/KlKIQjE1br3d.png
https://pasteboard.co/Lb74tXYZUxjo.png
https://pasteboard.co/Xlto5SgwXylQ.png
https://pasteboard.co/EefqQ9bh2bms.png

[Nymrohd]

I don't think like any of them are online so here some crappy pictures from my crappy phone while I have the book out.

https://pasteboard.co/KlKIQjE1br3d.png
https://pasteboard.co/Lb74tXYZUxjo.png
https://pasteboard.co/Xlto5SgwXylQ.png
https://pasteboard.co/EefqQ9bh2bms.png

Yeah those look far closer to the original WoW centaur; more angular faces in particular and ofc quite more grimy

Yup went in game to check it out. The women have very clean faces and they miss the pronounced eyebrows. Maybe not clean, just smooth, that glossy smooth from poorly textured 3D animation. Also most of them miss the resting bitch face. I don't know why the concept art doesn't have the characteristic face masks that the Desolace centaur had though. The men are also a bit too smiley. There are a few that have a very different face which is much more true to the original (Balakhar's face which is used by several others)

[AOL Instant Messenger]

I don't think like any of them are online so here some crappy pictures from my crappy phone while I have the book out.

https://pasteboard.co/KlKIQjE1br3d.png
https://pasteboard.co/Lb74tXYZUxjo.png
https://pasteboard.co/Xlto5SgwXylQ.png
https://pasteboard.co/EefqQ9bh2bms.png

Seems to be a trend. The concept art for Dracthyr also looks much better than the product we got. Another casualty of Dragonflight's terrible art direction, I suppose.

- - - Updated - - -

love that idea actually. if Azeroth is also Elune, who needed a shell to recover after her defeat, she then had a dissociative disorder and materialized as Azshara, then it would be even funnier. explains Azshara's worship in the empire and in a weird way confirms the Elune-Old God rofl theory

hey, they redeemed Sylvanas, why not tentacle mommy?

As I've asserted fairly ardently, I dislike the idea of Azshara getting Kerrigan'd after such a thing happened to Sylvanas. It was already fairly insufferable with her, but it was at least tolerable since Sylvanas hasn't been tolerable since MoP. Conversely, lobbing Azshara in the Kerrigan bin is far worse because she's a remotely enjoyable villain who has the potential to make something decent of herself.

[Nymrohd]

Btw completely irrelevant but I just found a "stay a while and listen" in Lunedane between Tyrande and Ysera that I had not noticed before (which obviously was there since launch). And it has them talk about the new homeland while staring forward, right towards that empty circular area west of Ohn'ahran Plains.

Likely place for 10.2. I was thinking an Emerald Dream zone but what if they just move part of the Dream with the new seed into that area. It is MASSIVE. And those mountains in the islands forming a ring are so damn tall so they are perfect for dragonriding.

[Dracullus]

They added 10.1 Ptr before 10.0.7 was up. Makes sense they would do the same for 10.1.5 and so forth. They went into the trouble of supporting two PTRs at the same time for a reason.

How it makes sense for future PTRs? Launch of PTR is just their intended release day minus days they estimate for testing. 10.1 release just 6 weeks after 10.0.7 and it's big patch, hence PTR had to start early.

We don't know date for 10.1.5 (only educated guess it will be somewhere in July), they get more efficient with testing so it's hard to speculate how long PTR has to be, so it's kinda strange to assume it will launch before 10.1 just because previous PTR did.

[Gimlix]

That's because I'm pretty sure it was a trading post set that Blizzard decided to port to the cash shop for some reason.

That's kinda sad, they could had given that for this month reward instead of some weapon, that is why this month reward of completing all is so basic compared to last 2

[Sondrelk]

That's kinda sad, they could had given that for this month reward instead of some weapon, that is why this month reward of completing all is so basic compared to last 2

It is really weird that the devs went out and stated that the monthly reward was supposed to be something everyone would want. Or at least most of the playerbase would want to buy for sure if it cost Tendies. The fact that it's only the third month and it was already a measly collection of two swords rather than a mount or a cosmetic set is a bit of a hit to the concept this early.
I mean, imagine if last month's reward were the two Blademaster sets. Sure they are unique and cool, but they are not the Jester Outfit.

[guro-tchai]

As I've asserted fairly ardently, I dislike the idea of Azshara getting Kerrigan'd after such a thing happened to Sylvanas. It was already fairly insufferable with her, but it was at least tolerable since Sylvanas hasn't been tolerable since MoP. Conversely, lobbing Azshara in the Kerrigan bin is far worse because she's a remotely enjoyable villain who has the potential to make something decent of herself.

i don't hate this because kerriganning Sylv annoyed me a lot, but it made subsequent offenses harmless - the door is open, the deed is done. complete desensitization. lulz are there to be harvested though
in best-case scenario she doesn't need to get declawed and become a bland potato - like Illidan, but much more so. she's just the current incarnation of the Goddess, who turns out to be a bitch queen of the universe

[Teriz]

You act like Bard won't be a fucking banger spec unironically lmao

- - - Updated - - -

I would absolutely take a Bard class tho, preferably.

Like you don't understand, that has SO much more potential than fucking Tinkers, and Hearthstone only makes me more desperate for it.

Well if some of the rumors are true, Evokers might house the first bard-style spec in WoW.

[Super Dickmann]

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.

The Maruuk fail because they're a lot whole of fluff over not much substance. You have these tribes with their rites regarding food and travel and marriage and so forth, but it's all insular. It's trivia which only concerns how they work in a vacuum. It has no relevance to the outside world which they don't really interact with and it also has no bearing to the all-important lynchpin of the game - conflict. Their quirks don't lend themselves towards rubbing up against each other in battle. On paper, there's actually more to the Maruuk than the Highmountain in terms of raw amount of lore but even the Highmountain, which are themselves basically Styrofoam: The Race get a leg up because they're playable and because the Bloodtotem were okay episodic villains in Legion. The Nokhud aren't even that. They're air.

It doesn't help that they exist exclusively in order to apologize for the original, significantly more interesting tauren. The Maruuk are purposefully bland lest some characteristic be turned into grounds for a social media campaign. It's a shame because while the centaur are so safe and harmless that you could swap them with tauren and it'd actually only improve them, the other episodic DF villains like gnolls have gotten a decent shake.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

i don't hate this because kerriganning Sylv annoyed me a lot, but it made subsequent offenses harmless - the door is open, the deed is done. complete desensitization. lulz are there to be harvested though
in best-case scenario she doesn't need to get declawed and become a bland potato - like Illidan, but much more so. she's just the current incarnation of the Goddess, who turns out to be a bitch queen of the universe

Eh, even Illidan wasn't particularly enjoyable for me because he never really returned to his roots as a legitimately selfish bastard, but instead became a particularly gloomy quasi-anti-heroic figure. His whole portrayal after Warcraft III was rather strange—I especially never got the revenge thing, either, since he wasn't wholly about that. He was more a power-hungry narcissist with a grandiosity complex, and I think he was the most interesting in that capacity. I find the Legion portrayal to be better than The Burning Crusade, but hardly desirable in itself.

Azeroth being a tad less scrupulous than she's made out to be is wholly sensible, though. Let's not forget that Magni seems to be taking a very paternalistic approach to her, and so may have a skewed perspective on the kind of person she is. I do like the idea of Azeroth hatching as some kind of avatar of war or conquest.

[draugril]

.Azeroth being a tad less scrupulous than she's made out to be is wholly sensible, though. Let's not forget that Magni seems to be taking a very paternalistic approach to her, and so may have a skewed perspective on the kind of person she is. I do like the idea of Azeroth hatching as some kind of avatar of war or conquest.

Good timing for an in-game title drop.

[Makorus]

You're going to get your Evoker support-based 3rd spec long before that happens.


Yeah, I really don't want to see Dracthyr getting other classes. Evoker lore kind of stomps that notion into the ground.

There literally are Dracthyr that are not Evoker. Every Evoker is a Dracthyr, but not every Dracthyr is an Evoker. There are Evoker Rogues in some places (mainly at Sundered Flame places) and some Mages as well AFAIK.

[Teriz]

There literally are Dracthyr that are not Evoker. Every Evoker is a Dracthyr, but not every Dracthyr is an Evoker. There are Evoker Rogues in some places (mainly at Sundered Flame places) and some Mages as well AFAIK.

Well that’s what I’m saying; the non-Evoker Dracthyr are the mentally disabled ones who couldn’t generate dragon powers.

People want to play that?

[Makorus]

Well that’s what I’m saying; the non-Evoker Dracthyr are the mentally disabled ones who couldn’t generate dragon powers.

People want to play that?

What an idiotic take.

Evokers are Dracthyr that are able to use abilities from every single weyrn i.e. are fully able to control all Essences.

No where does it state that non-Evoker Dracthyr "couldn't generate dragon powers".

[Sondrelk]

Well that’s what I’m saying; the non-Evoker Dracthyr are the mentally disabled ones who couldn’t generate dragon powers.

People want to play that?

If it means i get to play a Dracthyr without also having to pay Evoker, then sure.

Really this is an issue that is almost entirely created by Dracthyr being a specific race, rather than Evoker being a spec with a Dracthyr form.

Now that being said my wishes are tempered by Dracthyrs lack of customization, but that might change.
My DK has had the name Valiagos for ages, and I would love to make that bit of RP come full circle by making him an actual Dragon.

Even with tar though, you don't have to play your non Evoker Dracthyr as a dropout. You can imagine them as someone who refuses Neltharions intents for them, or even a different strain of Dracthyr.

- - - Updated - - -

The Maruuk fail because they're a lot whole of fluff over not much substance. You have these tribes with their rites regarding food and travel and marriage and so forth, but it's all insular. It's trivia which only concerns how they work in a vacuum. It has no relevance to the outside world which they don't really interact with and it also has no bearing to the all-important lynchpin of the game - conflict. Their quirks don't lend themselves towards rubbing up against each other in battle. On paper, there's actually more to the Maruuk than the Highmountain in terms of raw amount of lore but even the Highmountain, which are themselves basically Styrofoam: The Race get a leg up because they're playable and because the Bloodtotem were okay episodic villains in Legion. The Nokhud aren't even that. They're air.

It doesn't help that they exist exclusively in order to apologize for the original, significantly more interesting tauren. The Maruuk are purposefully bland lest some characteristic be turned into grounds for a social media campaign. It's a shame because while the centaur are so safe and harmless that you could swap them with tauren and it'd actually only improve them, the other episodic DF villains like gnolls have gotten a decent shake.

In thinking about it I feel the Maruuk suffer from a simple case of bland design. The Centaur stuff worked back in Vanilla when stuff like a building with two floors was impressive, but this is 2023. A smattering of small tents doesn't really stand out all that much.

The Highmountain Tauren i feel worked because of how amazing the zone itself was. You could really ,have loads of interesting areas, which coupled with the Eagle focus made them stand out massively.

The Maruuk are in a giant flat plain. And while it looks good, there isn't much room to really make them stand out visually. Even more so when their architecture is so minimalistic.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Good timing for an in-game title drop.

It's a World-Soul that is the architect of wars. What is it, some kinda World of Warcraft?

[Teriz]

What an idiotic take.

Evokers are Dracthyr that are able to use abilities from every single weyrn i.e. are fully able to control all Essences.

No where does it state that non-Evoker Dracthyr "couldn't generate dragon powers".

Every dracthyr is an expert soldier. Whatever weyrn they serve, they use their talents to defend dragonkind in obedience to the Earth-Warder. Yet even among such illustrious ranks, there are a select few who transcend the skills of their kin. Who are able to master the specialties of all weyrns and shift between roles at will. These are the evokers. The best of the best, finest of the finest.

These elite forces possess the rare potential to focus their essences into an instrument of preservation or a weapon of devastation. The journey to such mastery is long, and few dracthyr can see this path through. But those who learn to harness their full potential shall be honored with the title of evoker.[5]

So if a Dracthyr Warrior is as good as an Evoker, then I suppose they're not the "best of the best".

[Makorus]

So if a Dracthyr Warrior is as good as an Evoker, then I suppose they're not the "best of the best".

Who are able to master the specialties of all weyrns and shift between roles at will. These are the evokers.

It's almost like one is a Hero Class, and one isn't?

Why would anyone play a Warrior or a Rogue if you can play a Paladin or a DK?

Sometimes, I feel like getting stuff wrong and being obtuse is a fetish of yours.

[Teriz]

It's almost like one is a Hero Class, and one isn't?

Why would anyone play a Warrior or a Rogue if you can play a Paladin or a DK?

Where does it say that Paladins and DKs are superior to Warriors and Rogues?

It specifically says that Dracthyr Evokers are superior to non-Evoker Dracthyr.