Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Darkarath]

Picture this.

It's November 13th, and Blizzard opens Warcraft Direct with a 11.1 trailer.

- Undermine is overrun by lackeys of the Void. You know, Gallywix-types. They either dug too deep and discovered something they shouldn't have, or the Sword of Sargeras unleashed something below.

- A huge operation is underway in Xal'atath's name, whether it's to wreck the roots of Elun'Ahir or drill down to the core. Something sinister.

- A group of good goblins want to fix things and take back their city.

- A sort of "expedition" is the theme of the story. Clever (and sometimes bonkers) inventors and engineers trying to save the day. A smidge whimsical, too.

- New Zone: Undermine.

- New Class: Tinker.

- New Raid: Roots of Elun'Ahir.

Meanwhile, 11.1.5, 11.1.7, 11.2, and future patches are more about the Beledar, Uldaz, Xal'atath, and the legacy of the Old Gods.

What would be your reaction?

Tinker would be really cool as a class available to all classes, with tank, heal and ranged DPS specs. The rest is kind of expected, and while it would be cool, I do not expect anything revolutionary about the zone or the raid.

I am more interested in system changes, evergreen additions (they will probably announce the evergreen Brawler's Guild), and especially in new ways to play WoW or new games in the Warcraft universe.

I think that the Warcraft Direct will be cool to see what is next, but unless they add something really new or a console version, I do nothing think that it will be enough to make me play again.

[Auxis]

I don't think a secret entrance for us to the worldsoul is needed, as we still haven't fully repaired the Coreway and the entire point of it is for the path to reach the worldsoul. The path of the Coreway that we've seen stops at the entrance to Hallowfall. The bottom of the Coreway in Dornogal still has debris and should lead further downward when its cleared.

I would however like to see the Undersea, and my original thoughts would be that the Goblins would be mining the tip of the Beledar, either without realising or caring, and they would cause it to come loose in the Hallowfall cavern ceiling and sink into the Undersea. I doubt this is going to happen in Siren Ilse (piddly little crystal) if at all now. Part of me is glad, I detest when Blizzard destroy beautiful zones without adding an option to view it as it was.

I could be wrong, but wasn't it mentioned by one of the Wards that it could take years to get the coreway operational? Even if it isn't years, I could see a scenario where we have to find another way down deeper because Xal makes a move - and waiting for the Coreway isn't an option.

I have a feeling we will learn something in future Disc quests with Brinthe and Dagran - Brinthe seems to know some things.

[Sondrelk]

Wonder why the Coreway doesn't just go straight down then. Heck, there's even a Coreway-esc gate leading into Hallowfall.

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https://www.wowhead.com/npc=220318/progenitor-spider

The Coreway does go straight down. It's a giant elevator, and the staircase we fly down is just the service entrance.
If you go to the entrance of Ringing Deeps you can see both the roof and the floor is caved in.

[Joshuaj]

Danuser is now Narrative Director for Fortnite...

Bro got an upgrade!

[Enrif]

Danuser is now Narrative Director for Fortnite...

Bro got an upgrade!

I would say it is a downgrade in terms of story relevance. Does Fortnite even has a relevant story?

[Sondrelk]

I could be wrong, but wasn't it mentioned by one of the Wards that it could take years to get the coreway operational? Even if it isn't years, I could see a scenario where we have to find another way down deeper because Xal makes a move - and waiting for the Coreway isn't an option.

I have a feeling we will learn something in future Disc quests with Brinthe and Dagran - Brinthe seems to know some things.

The theater plays does talk about there being a way further into the coreway by going through Azj'Kahet.
Might of course just be there for aesthetics, but the palace does sit partially into an even bigger cavern that seems to go much further down than the rest of Azj'Kahet.

[Ersula]

I have to imagine the Undermine forshadowing is referring to Undermine Goblins traveling to Khaz Algar or even the Rootlands. It would be dumb to spend 1/3rd of the Khaz Algar expansion half the world away. People need to remember Undermine isn't anywhere near Khaz Algar.

[Joshuaj]

The Coreway does go straight down. It's a giant elevator, and the staircase we fly down is just the service entrance.
If you go to the entrance of Ringing Deeps you can see both the roof and the floor is caved in.

Ah, I see...

Still, the Undersea could serve as a way for us to go to Azeroth's core manually, while the Coreway being completely revealed could be our fast travel way of going there

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I have to imagine the Undermine forshadowing is referring to Undermine Goblins traveling to Khaz Algar or even the Rootlands. It would be dumb to spend 1/3rd of the Khaz Algar expansion half the world away. People need to remember Undermine isn't anywhere near Khaz Algar.

Why would it be dumb? 1/3rd of Legion was literally off world, and 1/3rd of BFA was at Nazjatar.

[milkmustache]

I have to imagine the Undermine forshadowing is referring to Undermine Goblins traveling to Khaz Algar or even the Rootlands. It would be dumb to spend 1/3rd of the Khaz Algar expansion half the world away. People need to remember Undermine isn't anywhere near Khaz Algar.

We already got the Undermine Goblins travelling to Khaz Algar. They're in the Ringing Deeps and Azj-Kahet. They're not foreshadowing more Goblins coming to those zones, they're foreshadowing the source.

I do think that we'll see more Goblins in Khaz Algar, but we're certainly going to Undermine in some form.

Xal bargained with Gallywix to have the Darkfuse goblins repare the Dark Heart, as other goblins did the Demon Soul. Maybe she uses them as an alternate source of extracting black blood now that the Nerubians are no longer hers to use. Goblins being Goblins are taking it a step too far, going for max profits and disturbing things like the Rootlands and areas of Khaz Algar. We travel to Undermine via the same way they came here, which if not just a simple cave is instead something like a goblin built highspeed tram through niffen and nerubian cave networks. Spitballing here. Something like that could be it.

[babalou1]

So with todays Disk Fragment quest.. The titans built a "World Core" around the World Soul so that only they can influence it.

Apparently the World Soul didnt like that and turned the Earthen working on the Core into Thraegar "Crystal Dwarves" (like Magni), who then rebelled, attacked, and damaged the Core.

[shade3891]

What do you guys hope to see/find after The worldsoul Saga ends. More Azeroth? New world(s)? Going back to adventure or continuing as the champions? New factions with a new split between all races? A huge time skip maybe?

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Very interesting developments, that the Azeroth's worldsoul is sentient enough to have agency in actions to prevent things happening to it. Rebelling against the titan's actions by creating "thraegar" earthen and (what I assume) creating Beledar and attempting to shoot it out of the planet's surface.

I'm starting to see parallels between the titan's "work" with Azeroth's worldsoul and the means Sargeras took to use Argus' worldsoul.

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What do you guys hope to see/find after The worldsoul Saga ends. More Azeroth? New world(s)? Going back to adventure or continuing as the champions? New factions with a new split between all races? A huge time skip maybe?

More planets would be the likely scenario. Of course Blizzard can always create new islands/lands/continents that are present on Azeroth that we haven't seen yet, but I think after a while we should run out of space.

[Joshuaj]

So with todays Disk Fragment quest.. The titans built a "World Core" around the World Soul so that only they can influence it.

Apparently the World Soul didnt like that and turned the Earthen working on the Core into Thraegar "Crystal Dwarves" (like Magni), who then rebelled, attacked, and damaged the Core.

Oh my god...

Wait, my theory on the raid for 11.2 MIGHT actually be right if this is the case.

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What do you guys hope to see/find after The worldsoul Saga ends. More Azeroth? New world(s)? Going back to adventure or continuing as the champions? New factions with a new split between all races? A huge time skip maybe?

Realistically, probably Avaloren or something like that.

What I want though? Honestly? Order vs Disorder.

Continue from where TLT leaves off, but have developments in the Nether stir to where "Disorder Lords" finally attack Azeroth (Namely from different points. One point being Outland, one point being Argus, etc). This would lead to the pre-patch being based around Disorder's attack on Ulduar, only for the Titan city to fall at the end of the event.

The first expansion would be based around a revamped Outland, a return to Argus, us going to the ruins of Nathreza, us entering Xoroth, etc (Xoroth and Nathreza's ruins would be patch zones). The second expac could be based around the Order realm in greater detail (I would have TLT be our first introduction to this realm, but in TLT they'd serve as instances, rather than zones). And the third expac could focus on the darkest reaches of the Nether, where true anarchy and disorder reigns.

[Nymrohd]

What do you guys hope to see/find after The worldsoul Saga ends. More Azeroth? New world(s)? Going back to adventure or continuing as the champions? New factions with a new split between all races? A huge time skip maybe?

Avaloren probably.

[Eldryth]

So with todays Disk Fragment quest.. The titans built a "World Core" around the World Soul so that only they can influence it.

Apparently the World Soul didnt like that and turned the Earthen working on the Core into Thraegar "Crystal Dwarves" (like Magni), who then rebelled, attacked, and damaged the Core.

Yeah, I figured TWW would be building up to something big at Azeroth's core.

Kind of reinforces why I'm so skeptical about the idea of us going to Undermine in TWW- there's just so much set up in the main story, on Khaz Algar, to cover already as it is. The Rootlands and this Core are clearly set up as being something very important, plus they have to do something with Beledar and possibly the Undersea... If they're sticking to the three major patches per expansion we've been getting, something has to give, and that's without adding another side trip to Undermine.

If we get zones and raids for the Rootlands and Core- the things that seem to be set up the most as being critical to the main story- then there really isn't room for a massive detour to Undermine. I guess they could combine them- have a Core raid in the Rootlands zone- but that sounds like it would be resolving too much for one patch to do it justice.

[Sondrelk]

Bit of a side topic here. But assuming we get Undermine in 11.1. What dungeons would people think we would see return? Motherlode! is a definite of course, but what else would work? I was thinking that Deadmines could be a fun one. Even if the Goblin link is very tentative, and it would need a lot of work to bring up to par with even other Cata dungeons like Vortex Pinnacle.

[Thomir]

I hope we'll get Thraegar customisation options for Earthen.

[JonasVG]

damn good idea

[Joshuaj]

Yeah, I figured TWW would be building up to something big at Azeroth's core.

Kind of reinforces why I'm so skeptical about the idea of us going to Undermine in TWW- there's just so much set up in the main story, on Khaz Algar, to cover already as it is. The Rootlands and this Core are clearly set up as being something very important, plus they have to do something with Beledar and possibly the Undersea... If they're sticking to the three major patches per expansion we've been getting, something has to give, and that's without adding another side trip to Undermine.

If we get zones and raids for the Rootlands and Core- the things that seem to be set up the most as being critical to the main story- then there really isn't room for a massive detour to Undermine. I guess they could combine them- have a Core raid in the Rootlands zone- but that sounds like it would be resolving too much for one patch to do it justice.

What do you mean? There's plenty of room for it.

1 word: Megadungeon.

[Dracullus]

What do you guys hope to see/find after The worldsoul Saga ends. More Azeroth? New world(s)? Going back to adventure or continuing as the champions? New factions with a new split between all races? A huge time skip maybe?

Full revamp of EK and Kalimdor - both as current endgame and default way to level from 1 to max (of course squished in 14.0) - would be wild. Revamping just one old continent Midnight/TLT style is much more feasable.

In general I think we should revisit places more often than invent completely new ones. This way when we will see Avaloren it will be exciting, not "sigh, another 2 years, another made up island".