Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Lady Atia]

Sincerely hoping there's a hidden customization unlock for the Worgen right now they've been asking for since the Cataclysm alpha because man, so far, none of this outside the city being back in general is anything what any Worgen player I've ever met has asked for in the last 12 years. We got Darkfallen with the undead questchain, which was one of the most requested things in the game in general and has remained immensely popular since it's introduction. (Amount of Dark Rangers / San'layn running around on the RP servers still after the hype died down is insane, and I still have like 5 San'layn.)

Throw them a bone.
So no, it shouldn't be a scarlet theme mount. We've had little to no involvement with Scarlets upfront - it was Worgen vs Forsaken that was sold to us originally and hyped up for over a decade.

At least hoping the transmog is a better recolour of the heritage set too, because that whole quest chain and it's reward were also extremely off the mark as to why most people enjoy the whole werewolf thing. "It's bad! Don't do it Princess"! - ...it could have been literally anything but a story about how the cool thing about your race is bad.





People in this game are so allergic to PvP they won't even do the most casual forms of it for extremely easy to obtain cosmetics.

Tbf, I did the vicious saddle grind once and I wouldn't call it the "most casual form" since you have to grind out the current seasons mount first above a rating of 1k. Maybe once battleground blitz has rating it will be quite "easy" to get these, but so far, even with soloshuffle it takes quite some time thanks to long q times and weird ladders there.

[Schwert]

Tbf, I did the vicious saddle grind once and I wouldn't call it the "most casual form" since you have to grind out the current seasons mount first above a rating of 1k. Maybe once battleground blitz has rating it will be quite "easy" to get these, but so far, even with soloshuffle it takes quite some time thanks to long q times and weird ladders there.

It's literally just grinding above 1k rating.
Your issue is solo shuffle; you remove that from the equation, the queues are instant, and that's how it's been until Dragonflight.

I have more saddles than I could ever do anything with and I barely touch rated outside to conquest cap and grab the odd 1800 set in.

[Lady Atia]

It's literally just grinding above 1k rating.
Your issue is solo shuffle; you remove that from the equation, the queues are instant, and that's how it's been until Dragonflight.

I have more saddles than I could ever do anything with and I barely touch rated outside to conquest cap and grab the odd 1800 set in.

Well, 2v2 needs more than 200 wins to get the seasonal mount, while 3v3 around 75 which is easier but than again, you have to find 2 other people. Which again, I wouldn't really call "casual pvp". Atleast it's accountwide, but how many casuals play rated pvp on more than one char, if at all?

[Schwert]

Well, 2v2 needs more than 200 wins to get the seasonal mount, while 3v3 around 75 which is easier but than again, you have to find 2 other people. Which again, I wouldn't really call "casual pvp". Atleast it's accountwide, but how many casuals play rated pvp on more than one char, if at all?

If opening up LFG and typing "mount farm" isn't casual, I don't know what is.

[Lady Atia]

If opening up LFG and typing "mount farm" isn't casual, I don't know what is.

Well, 3% of all people have the dragonflight season 1 mount, the sabertooth, according to data for azeroth. Which means that during the first season of the Expansion, even less than 3% of all people even got one new saddle. To give you something to compare with, Cutting Edge Sarkareth was done by 2,1289% of all people - so you are surely gonna tell me that Mythic raiding is now also casual, or what?

I would guess that most casual pvp players play random bg's and dabble into solo shuffle since it's less annoying and toxic than having to deal with LFG pugs. There is a reason Blizzard wants to do battleground blitz with rating, since PVP is dying for anyone but the very few.

[Alanar]

If opening up LFG and typing "mount farm" isn't casual, I don't know what is.

I did it like this in the past all the time.. with 40 hour job. I would defo call it casual as well.

- - - Updated - - -

For it to suddenly matter would be weird and out of place.

Honestly, I think this is the nail on the head. The question why this is relevant is a just one. I think we are in a shift currently, we have more and more people question this. Just something I noticed.

[milkmustache]

It looks like Malfurion is back from Ardenweald. I wonder if there was an abandoned storyline reasoning for his slumber in the weald, or if it was just a case of him being simply too powerful to have involved in the Fyrakk storyline. I still find the Ysera plotline really odd this expansion, seemed like they changed their mind on what to do with her early on.

[Varodoc]

The entire storyline surrounding Ysera, Malfurion, and Merithra reeks of changes behind the scenes.

Why DF loading screen shows Ysera if Merithra was always supposed to be the new "Main" Green Dragon?

Yet why did Ysera do nothing if Blizzard was willing to sacrifice Malfurion to bring her back?

And why did they create such a sad, sentimental, heartfelt farewell scene between Malfurion and Tyrande if they are just going to bring him back before the expansion is even over in the first place?

And here I thought Shadowlands was Afrasiabi's fault and Danuser and his team are tooootally good writers.

[milkmustache]

The entire storyline surrounding Ysera, Malfurion, and Merithra reeks of changes behind the scenes.

Why DF loading screen shows Ysera if Merithra was always supposed to be the new "Main" Green Dragon?

Yet why did Ysera do nothing if Blizzard was willing to sacrifice Malfurion to bring her back?

And why did they create such a sad, sentimental, heartfelt farewell scene between Malfurion and Tyrande if they are just going to bring him back before the expansion is even over in the first place?

And here I thought Shadowlands was Afrasiabi's fault and Danuser and his team are tooootally good writers.

Yep, right on all points. Makes me nervous for parts of TWW. Where are the loose ends gonna appear there?

Luckily the Malfurion/Tyrande/Ysera situation is pretty minor. It's tied to the ending arc of the expansion, but still relatively minor compared to some other issues in the past.

[Varodoc]

Yep, right on all points. Makes me nervous for parts of TWW. Where are the loose ends gonna appear there?

Luckily the Malfurion/Tyrande/Ysera situation is pretty minor. It's tied to the ending arc of the expansion, but still relatively minor compared to some other issues in the past.

The Malfurion/Tyrande/Ysera storyline might be minor compared to Sylvanas and Jailer, but it's still proof that basically nothing's change with this new writing team. They still change their minds midway through an expansion and clearly don't have a plan from beginning to end.

I mean, they hyped up Raszageth as the main villain of the expansion (they even give her a CGI/live action model) only to get rid of her in the very first raid. At least Denathrius was not presented as the main villain of the expansion.

The Worldsoul saga will avoid these writing issues as Blizzard, under Metzen's leadership, clearly has a vision set in stone from beginning to end this time.

[milkmustache]

I mean, they hyped up Raszageth as the main villain of the expansion only to get rid of her in the very first raid. At least Denathrius was not presented as the main villain of the expansion.

This reminds me: Vakthros. This looked like it'd play a huge part, and Raszageth even seemed to imply such, yet here we are. A big nothing area of Azure Span.

[Eldryth]

Yet why did Ysera do nothing if Blizzard was willing to sacrifice Malfurion to bring her back?

This is one of the big reasons I suspect there was a major patch cut from Dragonflight. They made such a big deal about Ysera coming back temporarily to help, but she ended up doing nothing except channeling a shield for a bit and motivating Merithra. Instead we got Alexstrasza and Vyranoth taking the lead in a patch focused on the Emerald Dream and Green Dragonflight, while the Reds as a whole were ignored for the entire expansion.

It feels like there should have been one more patch there- with Ysera and Merithra taking Alexstrasza and Vyranoth's place in 10.2, followed by a 10.3 focused on the Red Dragonflight (probably facing Iridikron- it seemed like they were building him up as the final boss early on, and I suspect Dragonflight changed because Metzen wanted to save him for the Saga when he came back just after launch).

[Super Dickmann]

It looks like Malfurion is back from Ardenweald. I wonder if there was an abandoned storyline reasoning for his slumber in the weald, or if it was just a case of him being simply too powerful to have involved in the Fyrakk storyline. I still find the Ysera plotline really odd this expansion, seemed like they changed their mind on what to do with her early on.

The original storyline was likely some variant of Ysera coaching her daughter to take up her reins, her last dialogue suggests as much, while Malf took a possibly indefinite timeout, both due to power issues and because he's had nothing to do or any role that made sense for the entire course of the game and his only good MMO moments were parts of A Good War and thirty seconds of a Darkshore cinematic. However, they backtracked on this due to player complaints and so the whole thing got shelved and went nowhere.

[Valysar]

Blue news on Friday, maybe 10.2.6 reveal, who knows

[doledippers]

Blue news on Friday, maybe 10.2.6 reveal, who knows

im still coping , surprise announcement sometime this week

[Dracullus]

Blue news on Friday, maybe 10.2.6 reveal, who knows

Blue news is recap from whole week on Friday. Patch revel is "In development" article. Unless something change, looks like no reveal this week.

[Nibelheimy]

This team decided not to mention anywhere in game that Fyrakk is Alexstraza's cousin, not even in the ending quest lines or cinematic after his defeat. Are they that piss poor they thought it wouldn't be important to mention, or was it added to the book last minute to try and make him seem more like a proper end boss?

Vyranoth calls him brother (a term for a fellow incarnate) so I wouldn't be surprised if players who don't read forums/don't read that book think that she's actually more biologically related to him than Alex is. They'd have no reason to think Alexstraza has anything to do with him other than their war.

They literally shelved Malfurion for the emerald dream patch and that's it. What a travesty.

[milkmustache]

This is one of the big reasons I suspect there was a major patch cut from Dragonflight. They made such a big deal about Ysera coming back temporarily to help, but she ended up doing nothing except channeling a shield for a bit and motivating Merithra. Instead we got Alexstrasza and Vyranoth taking the lead in a patch focused on the Emerald Dream and Green Dragonflight, while the Reds as a whole were ignored for the entire expansion.

It feels like there should have been one more patch there- with Ysera and Merithra taking Alexstrasza and Vyranoth's place in 10.2, followed by a 10.3 focused on the Red Dragonflight (probably facing Iridikron- it seemed like they were building him up as the final boss early on, and I suspect Dragonflight changed because Metzen wanted to save him for the Saga when he came back just after launch).

You're totally right, the red dragonflight is completely absent for the entirity of this expansion aside from some deep in thought dialogue from Alexstrazsa.

However, if Iridikron's current arc/usage is a Metzen idea, then it seems to be a good omen for the World Soul Saga, because I think it's a brilliant usage. Iridikron hardly cared about the Dragonflights, even if his fellow incarnates did. His eyes were on the bigger prize the entire time, the Titans. To have him killed off without being able to confront them would've been a real waste of his character. Instead it seems we're being given at least a more nuanced and interesting view on the esotercism presented in the story.

I just hope they don't kill him off in TWW and let him last until The Last Titan where we can hopefully see him kill one of them. Villains in this story deserve a bit more of a fallout from their actions, which this could be.

[Cheezits]

They shelved Malfurion because they wanted 10.2 to still be a dragon patch, not a Nelf patch, and have admitted they didn't know how to equally balance Tyrande and Malfurion.

[Valysar]

This team decided not to mention anywhere in game that Fyrakk is Alexstraza's cousin, not even in the ending quest lines or cinematic after his defeat. Are they that piss poor they thought it wouldn't be important to mention, or was it added to the book last minute to try and make him seem more like a proper end boss?

Vyranoth calls him brother (a term for a fellow incarnate) so I wouldn't be surprised if players who don't read forums/don't read that book think that she's actually more biologically related to him than Alex is. They'd have no reason to think Alexstraza has anything to do with him other than their war.

They literally shelved Malfurion for the emerald dream patch and that's it. What a travesty.

They waited the 10.2 to reunite Alex and Ysera (only to say goodbye...), so at this point, I guess they don't care anymore