Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Auxis]

I agree about there being a lot of naysaying about new tiers. But I think it's a lot of '1st day commenters' trying to get in and have their opinions seen immediately - rather than step back and think about what they are saying for a bit.

Should all of the Tier sets be themed around Undermine? Personally, I don't think so. Having everything themed around something is fairly lackluster and quite bland. We had that with Sepulcher and Vault of the Incarnates - yes some of the sets looked good design wise, but they were all very same-y.

Personally, I like the DH set. It's not a very "traditional" DH set - ie, no shirt, shoes, still get service for some reason - but I like it. It's giving me a DH interpretation of Warden armour. I like and don't like the Priest set - dislike the helmet, but without it it feels like a 3D-ified MOP leveling armour set for some reason. Hunter is very odd, not bad looking by any means, but odd. Paladin is a mixture of Argus and Anduin armour imo. I like it.

I LOVE the Rogue set. And I saw a few people on wowhead (yes, I know - the comments are a cesspit) wondering "wtf is the direction with it"... it's a pirate set. One of the Rogue specs has Pirate themes. We have plenty of high-fantasy hooded thief/assassin sets - let us have a nice pirate set.

[Alanar]

Yeah, but those are much more than just an entrance. The Zandalar subzone has some extra stuff too but feels like primarily an entrance.

Little sad, we have no option to go back to Kezan starting zone or see parts of the motherload. Hopefully Undermine doesnt feel to much like an instance.

Tunnel-loading screen- directly in Undermine.

Ye Undermine might aswell be located in some random part of the world. I hate they keep doing this and not let people fly or go by boat.. actually see you are going to Kezan and actually feel part of the world. Anyway this was expected, but still sad.

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According to Keyboardturner, etherial will have new models too. One for each body type :

https://bsky.app/profile/keyboardtur.../3ldplwmig2c2v

This seems pretty clear to me. They are indeed a bit shiny in that sense, but not a bad improvement.

[Auxis]

So ethereal raid is back on the menu?



Ice strike, fire nova and crash lightning also get updates visuals. Fingers crossed they do a good job this time. Last time they wanted to update lightning bolt it was really badly received and they didn't touch animations for years after that.

No idea about the indicator changes. I haven't played enhancement without addons for years because its so hard to track things. I guess they try to make it easier to see important stuff if you use the standard interface.

Woke up a bit. Based on reading it again, there was a lot of visual prompts on Maelstrom spending abilities. They are cutting back "flares" on the icons of basic spenders at 5 and 10 stacks (LB, CL, one other that I can't remember), will keep "flares" on strong spenders at 10 stacks (things like Primordial Wave/Storm (Primordial Storm is a new 1-2 action that pops up after you used Wave, dunno why they specify Storm in the Dev Notes) and Tempest), keep "flares" on when you have an active buff that affects spenders (Static Accumulation, Arc Discharge), and I think they intend to use auras (I think thats what they call the UI elements that pop up in the middle of your screen when procs are available) to indicate when you are at 5 or 10 stacks (currently in the default UI, it's a lightning visual above your character/the center of your UI for 5, and then 10 is an additional visual below the center of your UI. Looks like they want to have 5 and 10 occupy the same space, but 10 overrides the 5 visual for obvious reasons).

Having played a fair amount of Enh leveling shamans in the Anniversary, there is a lot of flares and auras. I think it would be good to cut down the visual traffic.

[Cheezits]

Undermine is smaller than a Nazjatar/Mechagon double patch, or Argus, but I don't really care. This is basically them adding a Suramar-sized capital city for an old playable race that didn't actually have one, and if you do the raid renown you unlock the amenities that make it an ACTUAL city (tmog, auctioneer, etc). Also the way it integrates into the world through the train stations is really cool and makes it feel expansion agnostic.

I would much prefer more patches like this versus larger zones. I understand the issue is that if you don't like goblins you're screwed, but i'm glad they went all in for this patch instead of diluting it with a secondary theme.

[huth]

Wonder where those bandages are supposed to hang on? Clearly this is datamining issue where they don't appear on the right place.

Given the size, i'd guess around the shoulders. Or maybe waist. Clearly not feet with how much clipping is going on there.

[Ersula]

I was expecting at the very least we'd get goblin/junkyard transmogs sets for the four armor types as generic zone gear, but we haven't seen any yet so I'm worried. I know we're all complimenting the tier sets but now was the time to establish the goblin Priest, goblin Shaman aesthetic, etc.

[Cheezits]

I was expecting at the very least we'd get goblin/junkyard transmogs sets for the four armor types as generic zone gear, but we haven't seen any yet so I'm worried. I know we're all complimenting the tier sets but now was the time to establish the goblin Priest, goblin Shaman aesthetic, etc.

There are four goblin armor types for outdoor gear.

[Lady Atia]

Undermine is smaller than a Nazjatar/Mechagon double patch, or Argus, but I don't really care. This is basically them adding a Suramar-sized capital city for an old playable race that didn't actually have one, and if you do the raid renown you unlock the amenities that make it an ACTUAL city (tmog, auctioneer, etc). Also the way it integrates into the world through the train stations is really cool and makes it feel expansion agnostic.

I would much prefer more patches like this versus larger zones. I understand the issue is that if you don't like goblins you're screwed, but i'm glad they went all in for this patch instead of diluting it with a secondary theme.

Will be interesting to see if the raid renown is actually seasonal or if they chicken out and allow everyone else to farm it up later.

In any case, it's a good direction and I hope rated pvp renown is next.

[Khaza-R]

If Ethereals are the MN new race. I wonder if K'aresh might double as a starting zone and maybe the return to it for the last raid or something.

[Cheezits]

If Ethereals are the MN new race. I wonder if K'aresh might double as a starting zone and maybe the return to it for the last raid or something.

I think that's definitely the case, just having the resources to reuse would be smart.

The new ethereals have the option to be fully covered with no magic showing/partially covered, magic color options, bandage color options, and more. I really don't see why they would bother with this and adding a feminine model if they were just raid mobs. Especially when there's no real reason for them to have energy boobs (ladies have used the male models in the past because a mummy is a mummy)

[FossilFree]

Could this be a haranir druid bear form?

[Cheezits]

Could this be a haranir druid bear form?

There's some kind of world quest about taking care of bears, so I think that's what its related to. I think Haranir druids will look more Batty.

[Telogrus]

So ethereal raid is back on the menu?



Ice strike, fire nova and crash lightning also get updates visuals. Fingers crossed they do a good job this time. Last time they wanted to update lightning bolt it was really badly received and they didn't touch animations for years after that.

No idea about the indicator changes. I haven't played enhancement without addons for years because its so hard to track things. I guess they try to make it easier to see important stuff if you use the standard interface.

Ethereal raid is in Midnight. After you beat Princess Ky’veza, it’s revealed that you’ve been fighting a shadow clone all along, and the real one shows up briefly after the fight. The real Princess Ky’veza has like 85,000M health, which is around 20x that of current raid bosses. We won’t be reaching numbers like that until the next xpac, and I doubt Blizz just gave her an absurdly high health pool for no reason

[FossilFree]

There's some kind of world quest about taking care of bears, so I think that's what its related to. I think Haranir druids will look more Batty.

I just though the tusks, braids, and nose piercing looked a little haranir. Like maybe we see Orwenya's bear form early in this patch?

But yea, they probably will look more batty. Bat people need a bat bear!

[Nebron]

Ethereal raid is in Midnight. After you beat Princess Ky’veza, it’s revealed that you’ve been fighting a shadow clone all along, and the real one shows up briefly after the fight. The real Princess Ky’veza has like 85,000M health, which is around 20x that of current raid bosses. We won’t be reaching numbers like that until the next xpac, and I doubt Blizz just gave her an absurdly high health pool for no reason

Actually, we could expect ethreal raid in 11.2 based on these datamines:

inv_11_0_etherealraid_communicator_color4
inv_11_0_etherealraid_chime_color1

Goblin ones for 11.1 were validate, so... and then the ethereals model update

[Makabreska]

Ethereal raid is in Midnight. After you beat Princess Ky’veza, it’s revealed that you’ve been fighting a shadow clone all along, and the real one shows up briefly after the fight. The real Princess Ky’veza has like 85,000M health, which is around 20x that of current raid bosses. We won’t be reaching numbers like that until the next xpac, and I doubt Blizz just gave her an absurdly high health pool for no reason

That seems very far fetched, claiming that already Blizz knows what HP pools bosses will have next expansion after squish.

[Al Gorefiend]

Actually, we could expect ethreal raid in 11.2 based on these datamines:

inv_11_0_etherealraid_communicator_color4
inv_11_0_etherealraid_chime_color1

Goblin ones for 11.1 were validate, so... and then the ethereals model update

I hope it's them invading us, and not another planet hopper expansion. Maybe if the last few bosses in the raid have us doing the ol' draenor/argus reversal and we go to K'aresh that way, but a patch sized zone for all of K'aresh would be lame imo

[Alanar]

Undermine is smaller than a Nazjatar/Mechagon double patch, or Argus, but I don't really care. This is basically them adding a Suramar-sized capital city for an old playable race that didn't actually have one, and if you do the raid renown you unlock the amenities that make it an ACTUAL city (tmog, auctioneer, etc). Also the way it integrates into the world through the train stations is really cool and makes it feel expansion agnostic.

I would much prefer more patches like this versus larger zones. I understand the issue is that if you don't like goblins you're screwed, but i'm glad they went all in for this patch instead of diluting it with a secondary theme.

It isnt really tbh. Its go trough portal, boom you are in undermine. It could literally be placed anywhere in the world. No travel or freedom outside to explore. Its an instanced area pretty much.

[Sondrelk]

That seems very far fetched, claiming that already Blizz knows what HP pools bosses will have next expansion after squish.

Specific numbers, no. But it isn't that difficult to make the health pool only four times higher to imply a boss in the final raid, compared to twenty times higher like what you would get from the next expansion.

Personally I think we won't get an Ethereal raid in this expansion. More so because it feels incongruous with what the expansion is building towards compared to Midnight where an Ethereal raid would fit perfectly.

[Cheezits]

I hope it's them invading us, and not another planet hopper expansion. Maybe if the last few bosses in the raid have us doing the ol' draenor/argus reversal and we go to K'aresh that way, but a patch sized zone for all of K'aresh would be lame imo

They are definitely going to do an Argus patch for Karesh. If they couldn't do an Argus expansion there's no way they can do the void equivalent, but I can see 2-3 zones at the end of Midnight.

Especially if there's some small area for us to help friendly Ethereals reclaim.

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It isnt really tbh. Its go trough portal, boom you are in undermine. It could literally be placed anywhere in the world. No travel or freedom outside to explore. Its an instanced area pretty much.

What I meant by that is that there is a goblin train in Zuldazar as well, and there are also three currently unused train stations in Undermine so they could place three more trains in EK/Kalimdor.

Tech wise it would be basically impossible to make Undermine in the real world (as Kezan can't be flown to) so I like this way of making it bigger than just an expansion zone- it will likely get entrances near Gadgetzan, Bilgewater Harbor and Booty Bay to show how it can be accessed all over the world.