Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Raetary]

Kind of is, though. The Forbidden Reach was pretty, and big.

We'll see what the experience ends up being. Maybe it'll be fun. But based on what they've shown so far, it looks like a pointless waste of our time that exists merely to buy Blizzard some more time.

I want quality entertainment for my money and time, not half measures.

Your aesthetic preference not lining up with the presented visuals, isn't suggestive of the quality of the content.

Forbidden Reach was a reused starting zone they shoved some rares and dailies into.
Siren Isle is a new zone with reused assets that they are gonna shove some rares and dailies into.
It is the same.

And i'll gladly take a (supposedly) smaller zone that some dev took some time to design with what they got at hand, then spend 8 weeks with minimal additions like some minor world event or nothing at all.

[Joshuaj]

I really am not sure that the original plan was for two old world revamps after TWW, not when they have been building up a new western continent in both DF and TWW. That feels like a direct course correction.

Considering they put a Void skybox atop of the uninstanced Quel'thalas as early as BFA, I think the whole "revamped" stuff was being worked on for longer than we know.

[Sondrelk]

Seems like there is an updated version of the Goblin airship in the new zone. Not sure whether that has been in the files long, or if this is the first we see of it, but it is there.
(could easily be from BfA, and I honestly wouldnt know)

[Joshuaj]

When they showed the Wyvern nests, I figured this might be the island from the Warcraft 3 prologue, Exodus of the Horde. But I think that's unlikely. But why is it called Siren Isle if they showed no sirens, mermaids, or harpies?"Flowing" is a word I would never use to describe WoW's narrative. Shadowlands to Dragonflight and Dragonflight to TWW are the expansions with basically no carryover of the story.

What do you mean "no carry over"? The Dragon Isles were hinted at as early as BFA, and much of DF occurs as a result of Shadowlands (Such as Zovaal's defeat resulting in the world getting a surge of energies, which is why the Titanforged on the Dragon Isles reactivate to begin with, etc). Not to mention DF builds up a ton for the Worldsoul Saga.

[Sondrelk]

Actually, new art makes a ton of sense. It's a precursor to 11.1 which will presumably have new art that could've been used.

New art is a bit of a vague thing to say though. The preview patch for 10.2 had new art, but it consisted of like 5 doodads and one of the raid bosses.
Could easily be several new assets in the patch, but they are not ones worth focusing on. Especially if they don't have enough of them to make a cohesive zone theme around them,

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I mean, some things are objectively more appealing than others.

Filet mignon vs a dry sandwich.

A snowy village in the Alps vs a slushy January day in the suburbs.

A richly detailed zone with a lush environment full of beautiful colours, vs one dry islet.

You are aware that what you are saying is an entirely subjective view of quality, yes? I could just as easily say that I prefer Siren Isle over Forbidden Reach because Forbidden Reach reused DF assets and therefore didnt feel unique enough compared to Siren Isle reusing BfA assets and therefore feeling much more unique.
It's just as true, and just as impossible to refute.

[micwini]

This zone reminds me of one of those 'leaked' Avaloren zone screenshots. The one with the harpy in it.

[Valysar]

That map was datamined back in BFA so.... yeah

[Thomir]

Is that seriously the tip of Beledar ...

[Cheezits]

Is that seriously the tip of Beledar ...

Likely not, as it was just revealed the other week that there are other crystals similar to Beledar throughout Azeroth.

[Joshuaj]

Here's a very simple lesson Blizzard should have learned by now: boring/depressing/coarse/drab things are fine. The world needs contrast. BUT. They can never be the main highlight.

The Maw sucked because we spent all our time there. Same with Korthia. Had those places instead been small dungeons, or sub-zones, or one out of many endgame zones, fine.

But they can't form the main tapestry of the world for however many months.

It wears people out, bores them, depresses them. People are basic creatures from Earth. We evolved around different "biomes", if you will. We feel good when the game world somewhat resembles real life.

That's why EK and Kalimdor are so popular, and Northrend, and the Broken Isles, etc.

If everything's too hyperfocused on one thing, and that thing is also kind of... depressing? Yeah, not a good recipe for longterm happiness.

Gonna keep it 100, you're overreacting.

[Ersula]

Such as Zovaal's defeat resulting in the world getting a surge of energies,

This did not happen. They told us we'd be discovering why the energies within Azeroth were surging & it was because of Primalist Activity or whatever is going on in TWW, but since they never gave us clear exposition about that, its safe to say that's not a coherent storyline continuation. Why tf would killing a guy who's never been to Azeroth cause Azeroth's elemental forces to surge???

Here's a very simple lesson Blizzard should have learned by now: boring/depressing/coarse/drab things are fine. The world needs contrast. BUT. They can never be the main highlight.

"People actually like new zones that will instantly become empty & forgotten once the next patch adds another new zone" is the hot take of the millennium.

[Raetary]

random gibberish

An Arizona looking filler zone in a minor patch does not "form the tapestry of the world", let alone "for many months" when it'd be over within less than 10 weeks.

Outside the bare minimum of doing the campaign quests, you likely won't have to spend a single second in there.
So if you loathe it so much, then just don't do it.

[Darkarath]

I understand that some players might be dissapointed with 11.0.7, but how things have changed... Before DF it would be unthinkable that a minor patch would bring a new (minor) questing zone with new collectables among other stuff.

I think that the patch looks decent enough for a minor patch. Nothing amazing, but certainly miles above any minor patch pre DF.

Not going to play it, though. Let us hope that Warcraft Direct creates some hype.

[OCoyne]

I understand that some players might be dissapointed with 11.0.7, but how things have changed... Before DF it would be unthinkable that a minor patch would bring a new (minor) questing zone with new collectables among other stuff.

I think that the patch looks decent enough for a minor patch. Nothing amazing, but certainly miles above any minor patch pre DF.

.

Exactly. People are forgetting and crying about the fact it's a 0.7 patch patch which would usually have about 4 new quests in it, although it's completely random, it's something new to do, but it does hint at the fact .1 isn't coming til atleast April if they're doing this and bringing back Plunderstorm at the same time to stop people having FF14 syndrome and having absolutely nothing left to do.

[Joshuaj]

This did not happen. They told us we'd be discovering why the energies within Azeroth were surging & it was because of Primalist Activity or whatever is going on in TWW, but since they never gave us clear exposition about that, its safe to say that's not a coherent storyline continuation. Why tf would killing a guy who's never been to Azeroth cause Azeroth's elemental forces to surge???"People actually like new zones that will instantly become empty & forgotten once the next patch adds another new zone" is the hot take of the millennium.

It happened because Azeroth was healing, and because of that, energies started to surge from the planet. That's why the Primalists in particular were starting to become more active.

[Lahis]

The map is actually an abandoned Island Expedition map from BFA.

So the required dev time for this patch is very minimal. They're not giving up on 11.1 by making this small filler contetn in between.

[Joshuaj]

I should've worded it better. My fault.

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The map is actually an abandoned Island Expedition map from BFA.

So the required dev time for this patch is very minimal. They're not giving up on 11.1 by making this small filler contetn in between.

*Looks at Tel'abim and Plunder Isle* Oh yeah..they'll have their moment soon enough.

[Cheezits]

Just "here's brown island with mobs on it and old transmog, go wild. Your first 6 months being subscribed to TWW gave you an anniversary and a brown rock."

And all of TWW launch which has been widely praised, so they are probably not too scared. The lack of an emergency heritage armor quest in this patch is telling.

[Eldryth]

I wasn't expecting this before the Warcraft Direct. Hopefully the fact that we're getting a patch reveal now means that that'll be even bigger than the 11.0.7/11.1 reveal that I had expected.

When they showed the Wyvern nests, I figured this might be the island from the Warcraft 3 prologue, Exodus of the Horde. But I think that's unlikely. But why is it called Siren Isle if they showed no sirens, mermaids, or harpies?

They said that the crystal seems to be singing, and the gossip teasing this patch said that the island seemed to call to the goblins who found it. So the island itself mirrors typical siren myths and abilities. Seems like a fitting name in that respect.

And the special ring comes from a legendary siren.

[Cheezits]

...I really hope they are not directly changing this plot to have to do with Azerite, solely because they are reusing a BFA map. LOL