Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Alanar]

Btw during the void assault on Telorgus you can encounter different wielders of Xal'atath. I found Zan'do and Seline and I assume I just missed Modgud. Do priests get any special content here?

Ye its on wowhead.

[Pyrophax]

Maybe Dimensius manifested through the world soul? So rather than creating a dark titan, it just allowed him to get here?

So Dimensius can be worldsoul of Ka'Resh? That rather interesting theory. And Radiant Song could be last "uncorrupted" screams of Worldsoul before birth.

Including his qoute

[qoute]Locus-Walker claims that his people, the ethereals, once had a vision similar to the Radiant Song that many across Azeroth are currently witnessing. However, this vision came shortly before their world was destroyed by the Void Lord Dimensius.[/qoute]

Its not saying that he comes from afar, just their world was destroyed by him. So its entirely possible.

[Alanar]

I am so happy to see Naielle. I wish Maladaar had been placed in a Vigilant so he'd feel more permanent. But I have to say, I do wish more of the NPCs had something to say. In the Kosh'arg almost every NPC had gossip text.

I think the new Shattrath will be built on Bloodmyst. Reason is, the Draenei would not want to displace the furbolg and night elves who are native to Azuremyst (and they'd absolutely would be displacing at least the furbolg to fit a city in that island).

Also current size doesn't matter. If this happens in game, the islands will be rebuild from scratch anyway.

And here people were very dismissive of the idea Dreanei would be involved in Midnight. They were part of the sunwell restoration and now this. I always though the bloodmist isle would get some attention as well. Dreanei and blood elf land are the only pieces left in that bc phase. It sounds obvious to me, that one can not stay behind, but what ever. We shall see

[Darkarath]

As if there is some upcoming Pandaria themed event fronted by the good Infinite dragons.

Yeah but I want to know if it drops something. I am busy ATM but as soon as I can I will try to kill it

Or Dimensius just did not corrupt the world soul, he just ate it

Wouldn't we be equally fucked then? We know very little about the Void Lords, but weren't they supposed to create the Dark Titan? Wasn't that how they win the Cosmic war? Or maybe the Void Lords have agency as the Old Gods have and they follow their own objectives?

We cannot believe the information that we got in Chronicles about them. Guess we will have to wait until Midnight to get some answers.

[Raetary]

Do priests get any special content here?

Not that i've seen, but then i wasn't specced into shadow.

[Varodoc]

I love what they are doing here with the Ethereals, K'aresh, and the "Radiant Song" that began the apocalypse of the Ethereals.

It reminds me of Mass Effect and the whole Prothean/Visions lore. It makes the story so much darker, because you realize that the Radiant Song that Azerothians are hearing is similar to the Song that the Ethereals heard moments before their destruction. A very ominous and dark feeling of dread approaching.

I expect Midnight to be the darkest WoW expansion ever, both in terms of setting and story development. The conflict with a Void Lord will not look pretty and neither will K'aresh.

[Ersula]

Doing Archeology in Cataclysm Classic reminds me that there's no reason they stopped including it in expansions & it would have been really easy to deploy it in expansions that didn't. They literally just forgot.

Personally I wouldn't change anything about how Archeology works & it would reward the cosmetic effects to class abilities people asked for with class skins. You don't need a big green fire questline for it if its through the lens of studying anthropology.

[Hitei]

Doing Archeology in Cataclysm Classic reminds me that there's no reason they stopped including it in expansions & it would have been really easy to deploy it in expansions that didn't. They literally just forgot.

Personally I wouldn't change anything about how Archeology works & it would reward the cosmetic effects to class abilities people asked for with class skins. You don't need a big green fire questline for it if its through the lens of studying anthropology.

They didn't "literally just forget". They stopped doing it because they didn't like the gameplay of it and the engagement numbers were low enough for the original version that it no longer warranted them continuing a system that they didn't like. Chilton said even way back in a WoD interview that he wished they had just 'borrowed power'd archaeology and removed it at the end of Cata instead of carrying forward it into MoP.

Realistically speaking, between Archives, Secrets, and dirt piles, DF basically had better archaeology anyway.

[Underbottom]

Yeah but I want to know if it drops something. I am busy ATM but as soon as I can I will try to kill it

Was it Huolon? Drops itself as a mount.

[Murlocos]

I think it even took my skin color into account as a Man'ari- for anyone who did this as a classic blue Draenei, did Arzaal talk about you doing good work representing the Penitents (not in a quest dialogue or anything, just when you talk to him during the quests to find totems and kill corrupted animals)? And I really hope we get to see their new city.

The dialogue does indeed change if you're playing a regular draenei. I'm guessing some of the NPC lines at the festival itself would be different too depending on your skin.

Draenei heritage was as fantastic as I expected, and while the troll one didn't have much hope living up to that I'm happy that the designer was acutely aware of the Darkspear needing some future to cling onto that wasn't revolving around Vol'jin. This is probably the overall happiest I've been with a patch story in a long time, so I hope the consistency carries on to the expansion proper.

[Kiivar86]

They didn't "literally just forget". They stopped doing it because they didn't like the gameplay of it and the engagement numbers were low enough for the original version that it no longer warranted them continuing a system that they didn't like. Chilton said even way back in a WoD interview that he wished they had just 'borrowed power'd archaeology and removed it at the end of Cata instead of carrying forward it into MoP.

Realistically speaking, between Archives, Secrets, and dirt piles, DF basically had better archaeology anyway.

Yeah speaking as someone who grinded out the Seeker of Knowledge title (still my favorite title ever), Archaeology sucks and needs a massive revamp. The stuff they're trying in DF is leagues better.

The rotating reward one in Legion was decent, if only because it cut down massively on RNG. The downside was, you miss the two weeks it was up, it would be months before it came up again.

[milkmustache]

I love what they are doing here with the Ethereals, K'aresh, and the "Radiant Song" that began the apocalypse of the Ethereals.

It reminds me of Mass Effect and the whole Prothean/Visions lore. It makes the story so much darker, because you realize that the Radiant Song that Azerothians are hearing is similar to the Song that the Ethereals heard moments before their destruction. A very ominous and dark feeling of dread approaching.

I expect Midnight to be the darkest WoW expansion ever, both in terms of setting and story development. The conflict with a Void Lord will not look pretty and neither will K'aresh.

I'm totally on board here too. I was never huge on the idea of K'aresh, but I'm fully bought in now. I hope they dive further into the culture of Ethereals as masters of Arcane magics as Cheezits said, opposed to them just being beings of the Void. The lore they're building in for the Light/Void showdown between Avaloren & the Arathi along with the Ethereals and K'Aresh is so incredibly exciting.

The new coat of paint that the void has now gives it far much more weight. Divesting from tentacle old gods into cosmic oblivion is proving to add far more into the horror of it.

I know a lot of people were not thrilled with Abberus and Sarkareth as a raid boss, but every additional piece of void lore that we get builds the case for Sarkareth being such an intersting story to me. The dracthyr's entire motif of identity is strong through their story, and with Sarkareth's being focused on the heir to Neltharion, only to find absolute nothingness at the end of his life is such a tragic tale.

I'm full on board for Midnight.

[Ersula]

They didn't "literally just forget". They stopped doing it because they didn't like the gameplay of it and the engagement numbers were low enough for the original version that it no longer warranted them continuing a system that they didn't like.

Like I said, he only reason the engagement numbers went down was because the rewards for each subsequent iteration of it were crappier & crappier. All BFA archeology offered was 1 toy per continent & a trinket that wasn't even good at any point in progression.

The Azeroth Archive isn't a good replacement because it isn't the same experience at all. But in typical Blizzard fashion, they just trash an entire system they developed instead of fix it.

The stuff they're trying in DF is leagues better.

Please don't replace Archeology, an actually engaging minigame, with a reskin of hunts. The Azerothian Archive minigame is braindead compared to original archeology.

[JDBlou]

I love what they are doing here with the Ethereals, K'aresh, and the "Radiant Song" that began the apocalypse of the Ethereals.

It reminds me of Mass Effect and the whole Prothean/Visions lore. It makes the story so much darker, because you realize that the Radiant Song that Azerothians are hearing is similar to the Song that the Ethereals heard moments before their destruction. A very ominous and dark feeling of dread approaching.

I expect Midnight to be the darkest WoW expansion ever, both in terms of setting and story development. The conflict with a Void Lord will not look pretty and neither will K'aresh.

I'm going to be incredibly disappointed if we don't get playable ethereals in some way. K'aresh as the final patch of 12.2, and midnight as a whole are our last best shot at it.

[Kiivar86]

Like I said, he only reason the engagement numbers went down was because the rewards for each subsequent iteration of it were crappier & crappier. All BFA archeology offered was 1 toy per continent & a trinket that wasn't even good at any point in progression.

The Azeroth Archive isn't a good replacement because it isn't the same experience at all. But in typical Blizzard fashion, they just trash an entire system they developed instead of fix it.
Please don't replace Archeology, an actually engaging minigame, with a reskin of hunts. The Azerothian Archive minigame is braindead compared to original archeology.

Original archaeology is extremely braindead. I spent months on it farming pristine solves for my title, I have copious experience with it.

You aren't wrong about the rewards getting worse as it went on, though.

Maybe not make it like the Archive and stuff but at least something better than what it is now. At the bare minimum maybe a way to focus on a specific solve.

[Hitei]

Like I said, he only reason the engagement numbers went down was because the rewards for each subsequent iteration of it were crappier & crappier. All BFA archeology offered was 1 toy per continent & a trinket that wasn't even good at any point in progression.

The Azeroth Archive isn't a good replacement because it isn't the same experience at all. But in typical Blizzard fashion, they just trash an entire system they developed instead of fix it.

Please don't replace Archeology, an actually engaging minigame, with a reskin of hunts. The Azerothian Archive minigame is braindead compared to original archeology.

Numbers were never 'up' beyond the initial buzz of a new secondary profession. You seem to be under the mistaken impression that archaeology was a huge thing that died in late expansions, but it was already something most people ignored by the time MoP came around.

There is nothing to fix. If you think AA is braindead I have no idea why you're jumping for joy at an even more braindead minigame where you follow the same 'arrow' again and again and again and again.

This is also already a lost fight. It's too late for "please don't replace", Ion outright said at DF launch that they have no plans to bring back the original version and that they'd be looking at a other ways to approach the system.

[Santandame]

I’m standing by my prediction that Locus Walker is Dimensius.

Whether that be an avatar, fragment, shade, whatever.

[loras]

I am a prophet. My words are eternal.

I am shocked that people actually wasted their time on discourse about whether the High King of the Alliance being the main character constituted an Alliance-themed story over a Horde one. A story about a human priest's struggle with his human faith and its relation to his leadership over the human kingdom and his buddy, the Alliance high elf leader in charge of the local chapter of the Alliance high elves and a main Alliance character since WC2 is an Alliance story. Any discourse about it is manifestly disingenuous.

That having been said, while TWW is an Alliance story, it's also a dwarf story, a race that's been dicked from Vanilla onwards who badly need the screentime. There's nothing worth doing with Thrall, Baine et al. They're worthless, and the story is better for their absence. The story would also be better for focusing on the dwarves. Opportunities were missed for shamans just now by centering the most shamanic expansion on night elves and druids, nothing short of a potential dark troll link with a rewrite of the locals to tie in with the Zandalari would be interesting, which is the main miss of the expansion. A prominent goblin role would also be much appreciated and worth pushing.

Bolded for truth.
Hail to the one and only Prophet Dickmann.

[rainhard]

I’m standing by my prediction that Locus Walker is Dimensius.

Whether that be an avatar, fragment, shade, whatever.

Where does that come from?

[loras]

Original archaeology is extremely braindead. I spent months on it farming pristine solves for my title, I have copious experience with it.

You aren't wrong about the rewards getting worse as it went on, though.

Maybe not make it like the Archive and stuff but at least something better than what it is now. At the bare minimum maybe a way to focus on a specific solve.

This too.
The original idea was neat, but the implementation was mediocre.