Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Nymrohd]

I do wonder why the HS anniversary is not out yet; the anniversary event is already active in HS a week now?

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I mean they should just give us a date for 10.2.6 already.. It's not like they will show anything else for this mystery patch, but at least knowing exactly when it will be released would be nice.

Some +50% xp buff would be cool too, until the patch drops.

[Cheezits]

I wonder how the datamined Tauren stuff/Bakar mount plays into these patches. I believe Cairne's ghost was datamined, and there are Bakar mounts that were hidden in the journal.

[Ersula]

I mean they should just give us a date for 10.2.6 already.. It's not like they will show anything else for this mystery patch, but at least knowing exactly when it will be released would be nice.

Some +50% xp buff would be cool too, until the patch drops.

They typically give some sort of reason to create alts during the post expansion lull. That's why I was expecting either an allied race, or Paladin/Shaman/Druid for all races (especially with how anticlimactic for the game Tyr's return was) so curbing my expectations I'm expecting it to be a legion pre-patch like event, that gives a lot of exp.

shouldn't patch 10.2.6 be the introduction to TWW ? why talk about pirates and the seas if it doesn't relate to the future TWW

Supposedly 10.2.7 is the prologue to TWW. It's funny Mike Ybarra said "no pirates" in TWW then as soon as he was fired they announced this weird patch. Though I think it's more the promise of people coming to "plunder the dragon isles" from the reveal of Dragonflight that never actually happened during this expansion.

I do wonder why the HS anniversary is not out yet; the anniversary event is already active in HS a week now?

A lot of Hearthstone events & WoW events don't correspond at all, despite them being the literal same fake-holiday-based-on-a-real-holiday. The HS event in wow in on the Calendar for March 11th.

[milkmustache]

I wonder how the datamined Tauren stuff/Bakar mount plays into these patches. I believe Cairne's ghost was datamined, and there are Bakar mounts that were hidden in the journal.

Probably a wrap up on the Toghusuq Village and Windtotem tribe plotline with Baine, I'd guess. Horde get a small area in the isles/plains compared to Amirdrassil? /shrug

[ImTheMizAwesome]

They typically give some sort of reason to create alts during the post expansion lull. That's why I was expecting either an allied race, or Paladin/Shaman/Druid for all races (especially with how anticlimactic for the game Tyr's return was) so curbing my expectations I'm expecting it to be a legion pre-patch like event, that gives a lot of exp.

Would be very nice, im waiting for kultiran paladin since they were added.

[doledippers]

https://x.com/TheWindstalker/status/...866610712?s=20

tweet from holly, replying to taliesin evitel about no news this week

"@TaliesinEvitel Sorry? We have learned that not having news and deets is frustrating for our creators and players. Stick with us for a minute. Our goal is a bit o' fun. As always we are here to learn and serve. So to speak. "

seems like they realized that keeping people in the dark this long is kinda frustrating to people, which is good

[Cheezits]

Probably a wrap up on the Toghusuq Village and Windtotem tribe plotline with Baine, I'd guess. Horde get a small area in the isles/plains compared to Amirdrassil? /shrug

Yeah, but what part of the roadmap is that? Is it 10.2.6? They said you don't need DF for the patch contents. I just don't know where it fits into the roadmap.

- - - Updated - - -

https://x.com/TheWindstalker/status/...866610712?s=20

tweet from holly, replying to taliesin evitel about no news this week

"@TaliesinEvitel Sorry? We have learned that not having news and deets is frustrating for our creators and players. Stick with us for a minute. Our goal is a bit o' fun. As always we are here to learn and serve. So to speak.

Reminder that they have a recorded video for the patch but refuse to post it. Weirdly submissive language though. Why not just apologize.

[Ersula]

https://x.com/TheWindstalker/status/...866610712?s=20

tweet from holly, replying to taliesin evitel about no news this week

"@TaliesinEvitel Sorry? We have learned that not having news and deets is frustrating for our creators and players. Stick with us for a minute. Our goal is a bit o' fun. As always we are here to learn and serve. So to speak.

They didn't learn from 2022 when they delayed DF's reveal 8 months that it hurts the people who promote your game for a living? That's when WoWhead started posting headcanon articles they were so desperate for content. Like I said, this secretive attitude is bad for the community as a whole.

[Cheezits]

They didn't learn from 2022 when they delayed DF's reveal 8 months that it hurts the people who promote your game for a living? That's when WoWhead started posting headcanon articles they were so desperate for content. Like I said, this secretive attitude is bad for the community as a whole.

It definitely elevates expectations for what will definitely be a barebones filler patch, unless there is an AR or something similar. They are going to take a hit for this.

They didn't take into consideration that the lack of communication is bad, not that the patch contents are secret.

[doledippers]

They didn't learn from 2022 when they delayed DF's reveal 8 months that it hurts the people who promote your game for a living? That's when WoWhead started posting headcanon articles they were so desperate for content. Like I said, this secretive attitude is bad for the community as a whole.

not trying to defend them but they probably saw the success of SoD and wanted to replicate some of that for retail. I agree it's certainly been frustrating. i hope it pays off

[Cheezits]

not trying to defend them but they probably saw the success of SoD and wanted to replicate some of that for retail. I agree it's certainly been frustrating. i hope it pays off

The difference is that they communicated a decent amount about SOD in the lead up to the patch. There is no reason we shouldn't know the patch date this week.

People are overreacting to the delay in reveal but Blizz is handling it badly by not responding to that overreaction.

[Ersula]

not trying to defend them but they probably saw the success of SoD and wanted to replicate some of that for retail. I agree it's certainly been frustrating. i hope it pays off

This is probably why. But if their takeaway was "Season of Discovery is successful because we shadowdropped it" instead of "Season of Discovery is successful because it's content for the game that's legitimately fun & creative" they need to abandon that notion fast.

[milkmustache]

not trying to defend them but they probably saw the success of SoD and wanted to replicate some of that for retail. I agree it's certainly been frustrating. i hope it pays off

Yea, I think they obviously saw the initial SoD excitement and tried to continue to capitalize on it, but it just ended up backfiring. SoD was a unique situation incomprable to retail. I think that the retail community is far more demanding about communication, with reason. I think if they really wanted to go down this route of secrecy, they should have fully committed and not said anything at all until it was imminent. Tease it in game, maybe. But they're trying something, and I think that's okay to celebrate in it's own way, it's just a bit of a shame that their recent great communication streak is now in question due to this decision.

Yeah, but what part of the roadmap is that? Is it 10.2.6? They said you don't need DF for the patch contents. I just don't know where it fits into the roadmap.

I imagine 10.2.7. I don't know if it will directly tie into the full theme of "Dark Heart" or TWW at all, but a short questline to get an extra mount or something. Gilneas Liberation, but way smaller stakes and scales.

[Cheezits]

Definitely agree communication could improve. The Monday blog post thingie for the week is all right, but it could be way better.

Why not use that space to always, every single week of the year, give players a little something to chew on?

Little teasers.
Updates from some team.
Concept art of future content.
Anything that gives you the feeling that:

1. We're moving forward with things
2. Blizzard isn't silent
3. Each week has something exciting in store, however little

Its probably not feasible to dripfeed stuff for the future when they still want players to somewhat give a shit about the current expansion.

[Nachtigal]

What I don’t understand is the incessant demand of constant communication. It’s a weird thing to be that clingy, especially to an entertainment company.

How busy are people then, if not clingy, that they can’t just play what they want until the next content drop?

- - - Updated - - -

Definitely agree communication could improve. The Monday blog post thingie for the week is all right, but it could be way better.

Why not use that space to always, every single week of the year, give players a little something to chew on?

Little teasers.
Updates from some team.
Concept art of future content.
Anything that gives you the feeling that:

1. We're moving forward with things
2. Blizzard isn't silent
3. Each week has something exciting in store, however little

If people want that kind of thing, they ought to consider working for Blizzard. Microsoft? Whatever.

[Cheezits]

What I don’t understand is the incessant demand of constant communication. It’s a weird thing to be that clingy, especially to an entertainment company.

How busy are people then, if not clingy, that they can’t just play what they want until the next content drop?

Because the game is a lot of people's lives, so they are very demanding. Plus a history of players learning that bullying Blizzard gets them what they want.

[Ersula]

What I don’t understand is the incessant demand of constant communication. It’s a weird thing to be that clingy, especially to an entertainment company.

How busy are people then, if not clingy, that they can’t just play what they want until the next content drop?

It's not so much that we're expecting presentations every week, but what we're seeing is a decrease in overall updates. Yes, the community prefers the Dragonflight patch model, but really that's just moving minor features into more frequent minor patches. The overall amount of content is the same. But suddenly that model gets overturned when they're like "this patch is going to be a secret." That creates a problem when a lot of the community thrives on discussing & reacting to upcoming content.

We don't know if 10.2.6 is going to be big & impressive (like 10.1.5) or small & boring (like 10.2.5) but the last patch being the latter is a factor here.

It's entirely likely 10.2.6 is just the second half of 10.2.5 because 10.1.5 had so much huge, world-changing content: New Dungeon, New Evoker Spec, Time Rifts, Warlocks for all races...... 10.2.5 was flying in the old world (which was already functionally in 10.1.5 with the old world cups) and (an extremely disappointing) Dragonflight epilogue. (I mean, it was a cute cutscene, but it also felt like the season finale for a show that ran out of ideas 2 season ago)

[Cheezits]

We don't know if 10.2.6 is going to be big & impressive (like 10.1.5) or small & boring (like 10.2.5) but the last patch being the latter is a factor here.

I think there's 99% chance it's a small patch, based on 10.2.5 and "doesn't need DF", but the silence and secrecy is setting up the community for disappointment.

Only the following DF-related things that haven't been announced could happen, IMO.

- Druids of the Flame skintone for Nelf
- some kind of Evoker epilogue or Dracthyr heritage quest, based on datamined special armor pieces and Adamanthia plotline/Wrathion's book
- Dracthyr classes
- Druid/Paladin/Shaman unlocks (I think Shaman is the most likely, and maybe tied to Druid of the Flame?)
- Windtotem continuation with Bakar mount unlock

Otherwise, besides Dark Heart stuff (which could be on another continent anyway) the expac is done.

[Ersula]

I think there's 99% chance it's a small patch, based on 10.2.5 and "doesn't need DF", but the silence and secrecy is setting up the community for disappointment.

True, but they only said the event doesn't need DF. The patch might include things other than the event. Plus for example, a new class/race combination (or even a new spec?) wouldn't require the latest expansion: At no point does this secrecy curb my expectations so my expectations are running wild.