Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Sondrelk]

Oooof! Expansion leaks have been officially killed by announcement of World Soul Saga, we gotta settle now with patch leaks.

Not really. All we lost is the speculation on name, theme, and location. We still have features, actual zones, inhabitants, raids, etc.

We know that Midnight will take place in Quel'thalas and deal with a Void Incursion of some kind. But will the zones be larger version of the two Belf zones? Everything north of the Thandol span? Underwater areas for Naga?
Will there be player housing? Will Gilneas be important again? Will the Scarlet Crusade show up using Hallowfall tech? Is Zul'Aman going to be an important area?

There is still plenty to speculate about.

[Usagi Senshi]

i heard some "leaks" (not confirmed whatsoever so this could be complete bullshit) that its gonna be some 3v3 game mode with teams of NPCs and you start with a blank character and pick up abilities, the combat is apparently completely different, no tab targetting and everything is aimed kinda like evoker breaths.

just something i saw, not claiming this to be true but i found it interesting

That would fall in line with a Survivors style game mode tbh. Also, good, I would like another caster/melee that doesn't use traditional tab-targeting spells. I actually enjoy playing ranged classes when I don't have to click on my targets and get auto-aim.

[Auxis]

Hero Talents article should drop in several hours, yeah?
That should be something newsworthy to round out the week.

I'm hoping for to see Sunfury, any of the monk ones, Slayer, that Storm or Totemic one for Shaman (or any of the Shaman ones, I guess), either of the remaining priests ones.

Actually really interested in what Shado-pan is. Given Shado-pan are effectively the military/secret services of Pandaria, I wonder if it will be more combat oriented - more brutal kicks and strikes, maybe a better Hadouk- I mean, Chi Burst.
Also interested in what the Celestial spec is. Im wondering if it might be kinda like Diabolist where you cycle through the Celestials in forms of buffs or summons.

[Sondrelk]

That's not the same thing, dude.

Speculating about the basic theme of the expansion felt like anything could happen. Nothing was off the table. Now that's gone.

Not the end of the world, though.

Again, I disagree. By the time we get properly into the leak season there is usually a strong contender for main theme. During the leak season prior to SL more or less everyone agreed the theme would be the Shadowlands. The question was just where it would be. Same with before DF was announced, and everyone more or less agreed Dragons would be important.

The leak season we just had was the unique one in that there were no major plot points most people could agree on, outside Titans being important.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Hero Talents article should drop in several hours, yeah?
That should be something newsworthy to round out the week.

Waiting for slayer tree to decide if i will play colossus or that.

[doledippers]

hoping to see some DH hero talents.

any guesses on what "more" hero talents will mean? 4? 8? 10?
im hoping to see a big dump of them, 10+

[Treegdar]

Not really. All we lost is the speculation on name, theme, and location. We still have features, actual zones, inhabitants, raids, etc.

We know that Midnight will take place in Quel'thalas and deal with a Void Incursion of some kind. But will the zones be larger version of the two Belf zones? Everything north of the Thandol span? Underwater areas for Naga?
Will there be player housing? Will Gilneas be important again? Will the Scarlet Crusade show up using Hallowfall tech? Is Zul'Aman going to be an important area?

There is still plenty to speculate about.

We already know Midnight will not include other zones north of the Thandol Span. What exactly they do to QT to make it expansion size is up for debate tho. Only thing that would shock me if it was missing is a full Amani troll zone along the east coast. Otherwise there's lots of different ways they could decide to update the existing stuff to 4 zones.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/world-o...ow-live-336065

[AOL Instant Messenger]

The amount of handwringing and conversation that's been going on for not even a secondary but a tertiary patch that'll likely include five mog appearances, ten mins of quests and has previously sported things like bugfixes or the first go at timewalking baffles me.

My best guest: the revelation of three expansions at once is too much for the forum to handle, and the loss of mystery has left them desperately hoping there's something big and unknown on the horizon.

[Sondrelk]

We already know Midnight will not include other zones north of the Thandol Span. What exactly they do to QT to make it expansion size is up for debate tho. Only thing that would shock me if it was missing is a full Amani troll zone along the east coast. Otherwise there's lots of different ways they could decide to update the existing stuff to 4 zones.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/world-o...ow-live-336065

Where does it say that? All i see is that the zones will be Quel'thalas and Silvermoon, which still leaves the question of how two small zones designed around no flying would be enough for a full expansion of Dynamic flight.

The zones will either:
A. Be much larger in Midnight than they are now
B. Include new areas off the coast
C. Revamp areas surrounding Quel'thalas as well

A. Is a possibility of course, but might look and feel weird when you go there from the Plaguelands.
B. Means adding entirely new zones
C. Is still correct based on their wording. While the zones north of the Thandol Span coincidentally comprise an area roughly the same size as the Dragon Isles, while also having a bunch of stuff that fits an expansion, like a major hub for each faction.

Regardless, the point here is that just because we know the name and theme of the expansion ahead of time doesnt mean we won't have anything exciting to speculate about.

- - - Updated - - -

My best guest: the revelation of three expansions at once is too much for the forum to handle, and the loss of mystery has left them desperately hoping there's something big and unknown on the horizon.

I think this is just the standard cycle of engagement. We currently have nothing to look forward to in the short term beyond recycled content while waiting for the trickle of updates from the Alpha to start. After which we can do nothing but wait almost half a year for the next expansion.

I don't think there being three expansions announced has anything to do with it.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I mean, we know Midnights features are going to be sock popping off level. So I don't even agree with the sentiment regarding the 3 Expansions announced made us lose our minds.

Again, we're just discussing, having fun and speculating about a mystery that Blizzard themselves invented out of thin air.

[Zardas]

A. Is a possibility of course, but might look and feel weird when you go there from the Plaguelands.

It will probably just be some kind of a portal switching you from the EK phase to the Midnight phase, just like the one in place right now. Eventually with a bronze drake next to it, to switch the portal from the Midnight one to the TBC one.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

I mean, we know Midnights features are going to be sock popping off level.

Allegedly.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Allegedly.

I mean, sure. I am not exactly expecting product quality going forward with what the business side is cooking right now until they refute the Blizzcon Status Quo.

But, I also still think they did that intentionally due to the issue regarding The War Withins' neutral/ambivalent state of reception so far.

Either its' genuine or its a stringing along type ordeal to get the more reluctant fans to go through The War Within period.

[Murlocos]

The response to the handling of the patch is inevitably colored by what's come before, which is a very lackluster Hearthstone event and a tepid 10.2.5 that still has bugs affecting its content two months later. There's naturally going to be more skepticism and impatience aimed at what's next, and that means the playful teasing approach has just as much chance to agitate as it does to excite.

I'd be lying if I said that the strange PR for this patch (was the original plan really to just post pirate flag emojis for 2 months straight?) and Holly's apologetic tweets didn't stymie my expectations for what's coming. The communication they're putting out is riding a fine line between "we're trying something new, trust us" and "this isn't very good and we're just hiding it" and my view on it is tilting toward the latter we closer we get to the patch.

What's worse, bad content or no content? I don't think there's a definitive answer to every situation, but quantity over quality is becoming a problem, and there's a risk of stoking frustration in the face of your next expansion release (that also has to combat over a decade of community expectations for bad expansions following good ones) where there'd otherwise be patient anticipation.

[Cheezits]

More content = more subs. Even if it's bad content. So they will continue to do it even if it pisses people off (because post-expac is always dead, any growth is good to them)

Post expansion content has so far been weak but otherwise it would be fated and that's it.

[Sondrelk]

The response to the handling of the patch is inevitably colored by what's come before, which is a very lackluster Hearthstone event and a tepid 10.2.5 that still has bugs affecting its content two months later. There's naturally going to be more skepticism and impatience aimed at what's next, and that means the playful teasing approach has just as much chance to agitate as it does to excite.

I'd be lying if I said that the strange PR for this patch (was the original plan really to just post pirate flag emojis for 2 months straight?) and Holly's apologetic tweets didn't stymie my expectations for what's coming. The communication they're putting out is riding a fine line between "we're trying something new, trust us" and "this isn't very good and we're just hiding it" and my view on it is tilting toward the latter we closer we get to the patch.

What's worse, bad content or no content? I don't think there's a definitive answer to every situation, but quantity over quality is becoming a problem, and there's a risk of stoking frustration in the face of your next expansion release (that also has to combat over a decade of community expectations for bad expansions following good ones) where there'd otherwise be patient anticipation.

I wonder if it would be better or worse if they didnt say the event was time limited.
On one hand, saying it's time limited gives the impression it will not be substantial. Especially when we just had the supposedly massive Hearthstone 10th anniversary event.
On the other, saying it's just a new event might give the impression it's another hourly event to add to the already ungainly pile of events currently in DF.

Maybe they should have simply stated it was a time limited event weeks ago, so expectations would not have been so high. Who knows...

[doledippers]

More content = more subs. Even if it's bad content. So they will continue to do it even if it pisses people off (because post-expac is always dead, any growth is good to them)

Post expansion content has so far been weak but otherwise it would be fated and that's it.

i think 10.2.6 and 10.2.7 will be good, imo. we'll see tho cuz 10.2.5 was pretty whatever

[Nymrohd]

It will probably just be some kind of a portal switching you from the EK phase to the Midnight phase, just like the one in place right now. Eventually with a bronze drake next to it, to switch the portal from the Midnight one to the TBC one.

It is my bet as well. Midnight will have Ghostlands, Eversong, Hills of Maisara and Quel'danas scaled up to the size of Dragonflight zones and will still be separate. And I get why people hate the idea because getting Quel'thalas on the same map is something many of us have wanted since forever.
But I'd rather have the zones scaled up so that they look reasonable.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

The midnight zones are as follows :

4 basic zones

- Eversong Woods
- Ghostlands
- Northeron
- Zul'Aman

2 additional zones

- Isle of Quel'Danas
- K'aresh

As big as Dragonflight.

[Murlocos]

I wonder if it would be better or worse if they didnt say the event was time limited.
On one hand, saying it's time limited gives the impression it will not be substantial. Especially when we just had the supposedly massive Hearthstone 10th anniversary event.
On the other, saying it's just a new event might give the impression it's another hourly event to add to the already ungainly pile of events currently in DF.

Maybe they should have simply stated it was a time limited event weeks ago, so expectations would not have been so high. Who knows...

I don't think it's going to be something hourly, but they definitely set themselves up for this one with the description being so vague. When we know virtually nothing about it but it being a limited time event, that gives room for negativity to spread and the patch now needs to be that much better to get over that hump.