Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Teriz]

Flameshaper completes the Evoker/HotS circle. Nice to see a new active red ability for Preservation and Devastation (just like I called it).

Rider of the Apocalypse sounds awesome, and I love the mounted talent. That bodes well for future concepts.

Shado Pan and Spellslinger were huge disappointments. Shado Pan especially. WTF was that?

[FelPlague]

I think the idea is you get both?

nah its a choice talent.

[Jastall]

Shado-Pan is probably the most boring one I've seen. Entirely flavorless passive damage. I get that Monks aren't the most played class but it just seems low-effort even by those standards.

Slayer looks ok. Loads of bladestorming and execute is always fun, but it's a bit on the passive side. Plus with the executes and bladestorms it kinda feel like a Blademaster with the serial numbers filed off.

Rider of the Apocalypse is the clear winner tho. Looks fun and very flavorful. Deathbringer is also nice. I might main DK in War Within.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

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.

Northeron in current lore sank during the Cataclysm and the remains are only part of the Twilight Highlands, no?

[Cheezits]

Shado-Pan is probably the most boring one I've seen. Entirely flavorless passive damage. I get that Monks aren't the most played class but it just seems low-effort even by those standards.

Slayer looks ok. Loads of bladestorming and execute is always fun, but it's a bit on the passive side. Plus with the executes and bladestorms it kinda feel like a Blademaster with the serial numbers filed off.

Rider of the Apocalypse is the clear winner tho. Looks fun and very flavorful. Deathbringer is also nice. I might main DK in War Within.

Even with Monks being played very little I think Shadopan has a chance to either get a decent flavorful rework, or they will just rename it all together. It's PASSABLE for there to be a boring passive talent tree (the hunter one is mostly that too) for people that don't want to change their playstyle that much, but Monks REALLY need something cool to drive people to play them.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Love that we do get the Mounted Combat even with the outdoor only restriction for Rider of the Apocalypse.

Wonder what kind of horrors could be unleashed on PvP with this? If only Blizzard didn't shortsightedly murder World PvP altogether with War Mode...

[Nymrohd]

Even with Monks being played very little I think Shadopan has a chance to either get a decent flavorful rework, or they will just rename it all together. It's PASSABLE for there to be a boring passive talent tree (the hunter one is mostly that too) for people that don't want to change their playstyle that much, but Monks REALLY need something cool to drive people to play them.

I mean Monks have a very flavorful playstyle out of the box. I'd be happy if the Hero Talents do not complicate some of the busiest specs in the game even further.

[Cheezits]

I mean Monks have a very flavorful playstyle out of the box. I'd be happy if the Hero Talents do not complicate some of the busiest specs in the game even further.

As Rider tree shows, you can have a mostly fully passive tree that just has cool stuff happen instead of "you will eventually punch more".

Shadopan has the entire "Ninja" toolbox to play with and does absolutely nothing. This should be the chance for some Ninja stuff to be added, so we don't have to play rogue to have some of the fantasy.

[Nymrohd]

As Rider tree shows, you can have a mostly fully passive tree that just has cool stuff happen instead of "you will eventually punch more".

Shadopan has the entire "Ninja" toolbox to play with and does absolutely nothing. This should be the chance for some Ninja stuff to be added, so we don't have to play rogue to have some of the fantasy.

But Shado-Pan Ninjas ARE rogues. Taoshi is clearly a rogue.

[Sondrelk]

Northeron in current lore sank during the Cataclysm and the remains are only part of the Twilight Highlands, no?

Northeron is the hypothetical area north of Lordaeron that Deathwing claimed to be from when he tried to influence Terenas. Presumably it would be somewhere north of Stratholme.

[Woggmer]

Shado-Pan is probably the most boring one I've seen. Entirely flavorless passive damage. I get that Monks aren't the most played class but it just seems low-effort even by those standards.

Slayer looks ok. Loads of bladestorming and execute is always fun, but it's a bit on the passive side. Plus with the executes and bladestorms it kinda feel like a Blademaster with the serial numbers filed off.

Rider of the Apocalypse is the clear winner tho. Looks fun and very flavorful. Deathbringer is also nice. I might main DK in War Within.

Ironic considering that Conduit of the Celestials has so much more going on and is a lot more interesting and brimming with flavor... Whereas with Shado-Pan... It's hard to pin down because if you think back about the Shado-Pan.. all their members are of different classes and different ways they handled things and only one or two of them that we meet are actual monks.

[Kiivar86]

I was expecting to not like Spellslinger but I am really interested in it now. Much more interesting than I had pictured. I like the sound of it so far. Unless Sunfury interests me (Arcane mage main here), I know where I'm going.

[Sondrelk]

I wonder if the intent with DK mounted combat is actually exactly what it says on the box. Mounted combat available everywhere you can normally mount. This would most likely exclude a bunch of instanced encounters anyways, but would have some niche use in older dungeons.
Might be a bit on the strong side, but maybe.

[Cheezits]

I wonder if the intent with DK mounted combat is actually exactly what it says on the box. Mounted combat available everywhere you can normally mount. This would most likely exclude a bunch of instanced encounters anyways, but would have some niche use in older dungeons.
Might be a bit on the strong side, but maybe.

I think it's exactly that. Though I wonder if you can still be dismounted, somehow?

[Nymrohd]

Northeron is the hypothetical area north of Lordaeron that Deathwing claimed to be from when he tried to influence Terenas. Presumably it would be somewhere north of Stratholme.

I'd assume Northeron is the Scarlet Crusade heartland. It is a stretch of coast that joins Scarlet Monastery with Hearthglen and extends to Stratholme Bay

- - - Updated - - -

I think it's exactly that. Though I wonder if you can still be dismounted, somehow?

Given it is not available to Blood, yes, you should be able to be dismounted

[Zardas]

It's all together. It's all connected. As they are developing the boss encounter (abilities, phases, strategies, adds, etc.), they are also thinking of how to incorporate those abilities into the environment and the overall lore of the character. They had this to say about the Lei Shen encounter from MoP:

I didn't play when ToT was current content, so I had to look up a guide for him. Therefore, my apologies if some infos are incorrect, feel free to point them to me. Anyway, here are my two cents on how to relatively easily adapt the Lei Shen fight for 5 players :

--- Conduits abilities (active during the whole fight except when conduit is destroyed) ---

East conduit : fusion chain (chain lightning)
-> No change needed, this mechanic is actually easier with less people

South conduit : overcharge (root a player and after a few second big aoe except in a safe zone)
-> Just make it so it can't target the tank, this mechanic is actually easier with less people

West conduit : bouncing bolt (send a bolt that players need to catch)
-> When he cast it, give all players a 50% speed boost for a few seconds

North conduit : static chock (soak)
-> Just decrease the damages so you only need like 2 players in the soak


--- Phase 1 ---

Decapitation (big hit, big debuff, tank swap)
-> No tank swap, but a damage increase (need a small cd)

Crashing thunder (deal damage to melee players and put an aoe upon them)
-> Put in on all 5 players

Thunderstruck (put a debuff on a player, when it expires deal a lot of damage to everyone, reduced by the distance from the player)
-> No change needed, just make sure it can't be applied to the tank


--- Intermission 1 ---
(boss in the middle and all conduits activated at once, then destroy the highest energy conduit)

-> Make it so that the conduits aren't activated in pair, but one by one.


--- Phase 2 ---

Fusion slash (bump, big debuff, tank swap)
-> Replace is with decapitation from phase 1

Thunder whip (big cone aoe that leave a damaging zone)
-> No change needed, easier with fewer people since you got more space

Summon ball lightning (spawn add on every players, they aoe then charge another player)
-> No change needed, easier with fewer people since it's easier to spread out

Seems easier than phase 1, but one conduit will level up, so it compensates

--- Intermission 2 ---
(same of Intermission 1)

-> Same shit as intermission 1


--- Phase 3 ---

Overhelming power (stacking debuff requiring a tank swap)
-> Reduce damage to turn it into a loose condition

Thunderstruck (same as phase 1)
-> Same shit as phase 1

Thunder whip (same as phase 2)
-> Same shit as phase 2

Summon ball lightning (same as phase 2)
-> Same shit as phase 2

Violent gale winds (wind pushing players and putting a stacking damage debuff)
-> Just remove it if it's too much, otherwise no change needed



As you can see, not much changes needed. If it ends up being too long of a fight, remove intermission 2 and phase 3 entirely.

The room itself is, of course, still huge, but it simply makes the fight more grandiose, let's just say that it's the mega in dungeon.

[Eldryth]

Spellslinger and Conduit of the Celestials are easily my favorites for this wave. Both are up there with Diabolist, my previous favorite.

Spellslinger was a great surprise- the name sounded boring and generic compared to the other two specs, so I didn't really have any expectations, but I really love the splinter stuff thematically. Kind of reminds me of Guild Wars 2's Virtuoso Mesmer, though clearly with a very different execution (which is great for me, since I loved the theme and didn't care for the gameplay).

Conduit, on the other hand, I had high hopes for from the start and so far it looks like they might live up to them. The Celestials are great and I love the idea of having all of them involved.

I like Pack Leader and Farseer thematically but they both sound way too passive, don't really care for the implementation at all. It looks like they won't have much impact on gameplay.

Aldrachi and Druid of the Claw also sound cool thematically to me, but I don't know enough about those classes to really judge the implementation.

And Hellcaller... This seems like a really bad choice all around. I loved Diabolist from a Demo perspective, but now that we've seen both of the Destro options, I'd say they're right to be disappointed. I had expected Hellcaller deliver on that fantasy, but it really sounds more like an Affliction theme. Destro really isn't getting a single Hero Spec that fits their fantasy.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Northeron is the hypothetical area north of Lordaeron that Deathwing claimed to be from when he tried to influence Terenas. Presumably it would be somewhere north of Stratholme.

I'd assume Northeron is the Scarlet Crusade heartland. It is a stretch of coast that joins Scarlet Monastery with Hearthglen and extends to Stratholme Bay

That's not Northeron you're thinking of, far as my knowledge goes; Prestor just said he was from some northern region in Lordaeron. As for your suggestion, Nymrohd, you're thinking of Northern Lordaeron. Northeron was originally conceptualized as being the same thing as Northern Lordaeron, but now it's just its own thing in the Khaz Modan subcontinent.

[Nymrohd]

That's not Northeron you're thinking of, far as my knowledge goes; Prestor just said he was from some northern region in Lordaeron. As for your suggestion, Nymrohd, you're thinking of Northern Lordaeron. Northeron was originally conceptualized as being the same thing as Northern Lordaeron, but now it's just its own thing in the Khaz Modan subcontinent.

Ah yes, Northeron would be part of Twilight Highlands. But that is implemented already.
The thing is, that's what people suppose because Kudran is from Northeron. THe other idea is that it is the Hinterlands. The only map that has it show up would place it in EPL but almost every Lordaeron map before WoW looked completely different to what we got in game (and imo, far more logical, especially with how the Lordamere is effectively an inland sea connected to the ocean at Dalaran making Capital City a port.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Ah yes, Northeron would be part of Twilight Highlands. But that is implemented already.

Precisely. In the context of the post I was initially responding to, the zone list doesn't work because they used "Northeron" where they meant "Northern Lordaeron". It seems like they were trying to pass it off as a leak, so this change in the lore makes it seem implausible.