Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Cheezits]

Funny enough, if you zoom in on this screenshot, you can see Talanji in the back.

Maybe a placeholder, maybe a spoiler.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-C3sDza...name=4096x4096

[Osmeric]

- Heavy account-wide reward system.

The Warbound stuff means content in current tier basically never becomes useless, if you have alts. You're just getting gear for those alts.

[Vakir]

Funny enough, if you zoom in on this screenshot, you can see Talanji in the back.

Maybe a placeholder, maybe a spoiler.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-C3sDza...name=4096x4096

See, this is the kind of continuity of presence I would kind of hope for in a three part finale. And they aren't even in the top 20 names I'd list of "Why is X not helping?"

[Osmeric]

Ion has Shadowlands PTSD too

The big negative reaction couldn't have been fun for them as developers.

[blaatschaap]

I'm willing to bet one of them gets us even closer to the worldsoul at the heart of the planet.

Thankfully, we don't need to know for a good long while...

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Hear hear! The thing I am REALLY happy about is that delves have an endgame progression system for open world players. I do raid with a team on my main character (and occasionally do an M+ or two), but I have a number of alts and all I do with them is open world content because it's fun. And the progression system will eventually get us close to heroic raid loot (which is perfectly fine, we are long past the days when someone else's gear has any impact upon you whatsoever.) So, win/win.

I basically can't raid or do mythic+, since I often *have* to leave at a moment's notice and I don't want to screw over other people doing raid progression or mythic+ keys when that happens. Basically I do only LFR, dungeon finder heroics and open world stuff. (And yes, I do feel bad when I have to leave during a heroic dungeon, it has come up occasionally. Actually got a macro for apologizing for it) Delve should really make the game a lot more interesting for me. I still hope they will add more stuff like what torghast should have been, mage tower, etc. the possibilities are endless. Sorry for the long story, nobody asked I know, just wanna explain why delve might be a gamechanger for me as a player.

[Vakir]

The big negative reaction couldn't have been fun for them as developers.

I empathize with how they had to deal with that, especially considering video game consoomers can be some of the most vicious out there, but such ample time there was to course-correct that they had nobody to blame but themselves. Same with many of BFA's initial systems.

[Raetary]

Friendly reminder that magic wells tend to have a history of being used as fancy portals in this franchise.
Xal is likely gonna use the Sunwell to summon a Void Lord.

It's also connected to every blood elf in Quel'thalas.
If the thing gets corrupted, it'd basically corrupt most of the Kingdom immediately.

[Nymrohd]

The big negative reaction couldn't have been fun for them as developers.

I don't know about everyone else here but while I adapted to working from home, it did take time. And they also had to deal with a massive scandal that must have been extremely demoralizing.

[vintage79]

Okay, here's my first theory for the Worldsoul Saga's story.

• Azeroth's fate is uncertain. Queen Alexstrasza told us as much in the Dragonflight opening cinematic, and in the War Within features trailer, Alleria said that the fate of our world rests upon the edge of a knife. This is both a reference to Xal'atath, who is seeking to tip the scales in favour of the Void, but it is also a literal description of the Worldsoul's current status. It might be born into good, or evil.
• Xal'atath has recruited the Nerubians, aka. the Children of the First Flesh. They are the ones who, according to 'A Song of the Depths' must remember their oaths to the Old Gods, and who are toiling below to reclaim what was lost.
• The War Within is for the crystal at Hallowfall. Arathi humans from 3 000 years ago and nerubians in the service of Xal'atath are waging war over this artifact. It shifts between Light and Shadow, and might be the heart of a god. Perhaps Elune, or a First One? This is what 'A Song of the Depths' refers to as "what was lost", and the "dark heart left broken" which "awaits the taking". It is unclear why there are humans from 3 000 years ago here, and why they've been fighting the nerubians for centuries when Xal'atath only recently "gathered" them. Perhaps time travel shenanigans is involved for both parties. But what's interesting is that these humans were once allies to Quel'Thalas.
• The heart will infused into the Void Artifact, which in turn will be used on the Sunwell to create an endless night. It'll shift its Light-given energies over into darkness, and Void. This is what causes Midnight. Alleria's Void Elves and the Blood Elves will gather at Silvermoon in defense of the Sunwell, but unfortunately won't succeed (they will, however, become unified as a High Elf race).
• Azeroth is born into shadow. But we'll still win in the end.

'But we'll still win in the end'

at the cost of complete destruction of Azeroth (as we know[gonna know] it)

and after that

back in time to Azeroth before sundering
aka BIG RESET /WoW2 /Full Revamp

2030++



Well of eternity
Ashara (ture one this time)
Legion (or so) ofc
and here we go again

[Nymrohd]

I empathize with how they had to deal with that, especially considering video game consoomers can be some of the most vicious out there, but such ample time there was to course-correct that they had nobody to blame but themselves. Same with many of BFA's initial systems.

That ripcord thing was so fucking stupid. It was obvious to every player that it was bad in day one. And there were already limitations in game anyway (it's not like you could advance all Covenants at once because progressions required those souls which were a limited resource) so it would never get unbalanced.

[Vakir]

Absolutely easy to explain. Tuure forced Dimensius back into the Void. Can they do it again? Nope cause they had to sacrifice themselves to achieve this. Sacrifice is a key theme for the Light. Perhaps one of the Naaru that guided Mereldar sacrificed itself to send these tribesmen to guard one of their own, perhaps even a Prime.

It's easy to explain THAT time.

You have countless other methods of sending things forward you can bullshit, theoretically, which is partly the visual gag behind the time-traveling snake storm episode from Rick and Morty.

That ripcord thing was so fucking stupid. It was obvious to every player that it was bad in day one. And there were already limitations in game anyway (it's not like you could advance all Covenants at once because progressions required those souls which were a limited resource) so it would never get unbalanced.

I was shrieking to the heavens how it was a big fucking mistake on here among the many others, all of us not streamers or influencers in any capacity, and the argument against it being a problem persisted that it was just poopsocking meta-slaves and Youtubers.

You don't hear those same people now and they are fully on board with Blizzard's philosophy simply because it's now theirs.

What do you know, voting with your wallets works, competition is a good thing, and people should sometimes listen to opinions that were more educated.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

My concern is that we are getting two expansions and 3.5+ years about fighting the starry black tentacles in a row, much like how we had two expansions and 3.5+ years about fighting against green lava demons in a row.

[Cheezits]

My concern is that we are getting two expansions and 3.5+ years about fighting the starry black tentacles in a row, much like how we had two expansions and 3.5+ years about fighting against green lava demons in a row.

The black tentacles aren't in TWW so far. It will probably just be the last raid + a chunk of Midnight.

[Vakir]

My concern is that we are getting two expansions and 3.5+ years about fighting the starry black tentacles in a row, much like how we had two expansions and 3.5+ years about fighting against green lava demons in a row.

Eh. We're fighting spiders, then void tentacles, and then probably glowy constellars and order beings.

[Sondrelk]

So what do people reckon? Arathi tribe. Fanatical enemies we have to work around, or allies we help? We know there is a dungeon or two there, but who knows on whether it's because the people there are generally hostile. Whether we join forces with rebels trying to stop corruption. Or whether we are fighting against rebels trying to do something or other.

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Eh. We're fighting spiders, then void tentacles, and then probably glowy constellars and order beings.

We could be fighting the Arathi in the second raid for all we know. Finally getting something close to the Scarlet Monastery raid we never got back in Vanilla.

[Vakir]

So what do people reckon? Arathi tribe. Fanatical enemies we have to work around, or allies we help?

Answer: Yes.

As is tradition. MMOs give us stuff we need to punch, and that means using hostile versions of any given visual kit. There's a trope for it.

Even the What's Next panel made fun of "boy, sure would suck if there's division." If there's a faction in WoW, it has division and a bad version.

We could be fighting the Arathi in the second raid for all we know. Finally getting something close to the Scarlet Monastery raid we never got back in Vanilla.

Maybe. I get the sense this is going to be a 2 raid expansion to accompany the faster timeline, but I could be wrong.

If they are the second raid, though, maybe Xal turns to corrupting the light crystal which ends up meaning she allies with them.

[Ersula]

2024-2026 The War Within
2026-2028 Midnight
2028-2030 The Last Titan

That's with just two year expansion cycles like past history, starting toward the end of each year. The point I think the interviewee was making was they DON'T want The Last Titan to be the 2030 experience, but rather would like to speed it up.

But 2030 would be when 14.0 comes out. I hope they don't. "Speeding it up" is only bad for the customer considering they charge by the expansion.

[Varodoc]

It would be cool if the expansion starts out with Silvermoon being this dark (yet beautiful) bastion of the Void, from whence Xal'atath rules and controls the Sunwell. Perhaps a bit too similar to Suramar thematically, but hey. Quel'dorei from all over Azeroth must unite under one banner, along with other allies, to breach their ancient city and reclaim the well before all is lost.

This is likely what will happen.

Silvermoon has been compared to Suramar many times both in-univese by relevant characters and out-of-universe by the community.

So it makes sense for Revamped Silvermoon to be a hostile endgame zone like Suramar.

I think Silvermoon will fall to the Void early on and a gated questline will be about its gradual liberation from the Void invaders, like it was for Suramar in Legion.

The "fall of Silvermoon" will serve to raise the stakes and show the Void's terrifying power and why they are a terrible threat for Azeroth, the same story function the Broken Shore disaster had for Legion.

The first tier can be the final push to liberate Silvermoon (like Nighthold), then the second tier will be the Sunwell 2.0 raid to banish Dimensius the All-Devouring and the Void permanently from Azeroth (like TBC Sunwell and Tomb of Sargeras), and then final tier and expansion conclusion in K'aresh to liberate that world from the Void and avenge the Ethereal (similarly to 7.3 on Argus).

So Silvermoon > Sunwell > K'aresh in a way that resembles Legion's Suramar > Tomb of Sargeras > Argus.

[Sondrelk]

Weird thought. But is TWW going to be the most urban expansion in the game? Both Hallowfall and Azj'Kahet seem to be mostly city of some sort. And Isle of Dorn seems to be heavily urbanized as well.

[Nymrohd]

Answer: Yes.

As is tradition. MMOs give us stuff we need to punch, and that means using hostile versions of any given visual kit. There's a trope for it.

Even the What's Next panel made fun of "boy, sure would suck if there's division." If there's a faction in WoW, it has division and a bad version.



Maybe. I get the sense this is going to be a 2 raid expansion to accompany the faster timeline, but I could be wrong.

If they are the second raid, though, maybe Xal turns to corrupting the light crystal which ends up meaning she allies with them.

I mean their cathedral is also a dungeon.
Also, given that these are all likely 2 years expansions, expect them all to have three raid tiers. I just hope they have more bosses. The raids in DF were all small. Or maybe we could get some double raid tiers again!