Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Joshuaj]

Unrelated.

We are talking about zones, not villains. With your reasoning we might have to wait forever for K'aresh, as Sargeras has been the main villain of WoW since the early days and we have yet to fight him.

DF teased the Emerald Dream and delivered.

SL teased a First One zone and delivered.

BfA teased N'zoth and delivered (not in a new zone, though).

Legion teased Argus and delivered.

WoD teased Tanaan and delivered. Not really a tease in this case, to be fair, as we knew that it was coming from the beginning.

The rest of the expansions did not really have new zones in the same way as we have them today.

Sure, but TWW is ALSO teasing the Black Blood and Azeroth's Worldsoul a ton. That has just as high a chance of being the next patch ngl. But hey, if TWW ends with K'aresh, color me surprised.

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DF and TWW both have the slight-correction from SL where they do old races but their own OC factions- centaurs, tuskarr, gnolls, then a variation of the Twilight Cult. Same thing with TWW with nerubians, arathi (though the helf thing is a nice idea) and earthen all having OC groups we've never heard of before, but old races and -some- old plot threads.

It's better than the complete ass pulls of SL but it's still "OCslop" versus just bringing the Shadowguard back, expanding on Xalatath and Dimensius, killing Gallywix in Undermine, etc.

I do think the Arathi Empire is the best of their OC stuff in the SL-DF-TWW trio. Maldraxxus too.

"Correction"? Most of SL was just new lore and an expansion of the cosmology. DF and TWW didn't course correct anything. All it did was simply expand on the "new concepts" idea, as well as bring closure to a lot of threads that were namely opened in Chronicle, which is what the Worldsoul Saga's primarily about.

[Alanar]

It is not the definitive Void themed location. It’s the aftermath of a Void invasion. We can easily lose in 11.2. The ethereals are using the dark heart to try to suck up all the Void on K’aresh, we find about this via Locus Walker and his ethereals. We go there with intent to destroy the Dark Heart because now it’s too dangerous to let Xal have it. We succeed and now she decides to toot the horn and use the Sunwell as a beacon.

Ye, it lines up more with the little info we had back from blizzcon and the Sunwell, which is the voids goal.

There is a lot of radio noice with the last teaser.

[Cheezits]

"Correction"? Most of SL was just new lore and an expansion of the cosmology. DF and TWW didn't course correct anything. All it did was simply expand on the "new concepts" idea, as well as bring closure to a lot of threads that were namely opened in Chronicle, which is what the Worldsoul Saga's primarily about.

Course correcting FROM what SL was doing.

[Joshuaj]

Yeah, they went too far with the SL-DF-TWW "don't feel burdened by past stuff, do new stuff!" artistic expression and they got reigned back in by Metzen and higher ups, most likely.

"Reigned back in by Metzen"

Metzen is all about that expansion of power fantasy tho, what? He's the one that literally wanted a Saga based around the Worldsoul of Azeroth, that wanted us to see the Titans again, that wanted us to finish certain plot points so we could explore new ones, that wanted a whole ass Light Vs Void conflict, etc.

Nothing was "reigned in" by him. If anything, he delights in WoW's crazy conflicts, so long as they're well written. Shadowlands had an amazing setting imo, but it was also a poorly written expac.

[Super Dickmann]

That is a stretch, sir. Tel'abim has more of a shout.

It's closer to the Broken Isles than Northrend in terms of being mentioned locations that are vastly expanded for WoW purposes, the Dragon Isles has been mentioned prior as the homeland of dragons and was expected as such. Everything past that was in the air.

It is in comparison to SL, they clearly were told to bring it back to Azeroth and also to use some of the existing things in the toychest. However, both it and TWW did "Tuskarr, but MY Tuskarr" variations, but now we are killing Venture Co in Undermine and soon will be slapping void Amani in Zul'Amanland.

This is pure marketing cope, though that it flies at all is a testament to Blizz's wisdom in bringing Metzen back in to be the hypeman. The DF additions are as much 'OC do not steal' versions of extant races as say something like the Highmountain or the Unshackled, and equally as disposable. The only difference is authorship, there's no difference in quality or intent and nothing inherently wrong with setting up a different faction of an extant race.

[Joshuaj]

Course correcting FROM what SL was doing.

Blizzard themselves said they wanted to focus on Azeroth for a bit after our fight with the Jailer during SL's time-frame tho. Nothing was corrected from Shadowlands, Blizzard just wants to flip flop between cosmic stuff and grounded stuff, and I completely get it.

[Enrif]

For sure. I just don't think it's such a sharp turn that we go from Underground zones to outer space.

let my try to sell it to you why it fits a underground expansion:

Some assumed we go to the core of azeroth, the deepes point we could go. But what if instead we go to the deepes point of K'aresh? It would still be in line with the "underground" expansion, but it wouldn't be azeroths underground. And why would we go to the core of K'aresh? To figure out the radiant song that happend there, where it was coming from. Because, if it was coming from a world soul, wouldn't the void have already fullfilled the biggest fear of sargeras? Understanding K'areshs' radiant song will teach us what our radiant song means.

[Cheezits]

This is pure marketing cope, though that it flies at all is a testament to Blizz's wisdom in bringing Metzen back in to be the hypeman. The DF additions are as much 'OC do not steal' versions of extant races as say something like the Highmountain or the Unshackled, and equally as disposable. The only difference is authorship, there's no difference in quality or intent and nothing inherently wrong with setting up a different faction of an extant race.

While I can't put it into words at the moment, I do think the Highmountain suck and are along the lines on what I don't like about the Maruuk, Iskaaran, and to a lesser extent the TWW factions. Mostly that they do nothing to advance the original faction, which is at least something that the TWW factions ACTUALLY do. Unshackled (and Nightborne) enhanced their respective races IMO.

(Though on the downside to this it's now annoying when they leave these new factions in the ditch, see Azj-Kahet)

It's mostly that these guys just got in the way of a world revamp.

[Super Dickmann]

While I can't put it into words at the moment, I do think the Highmountain suck and are along the lines on what I don't like about the Maruuk, Iskaaran, and to a lesser extent the TWW factions. Mostly that they do nothing to advance the original faction, which is at least something that the TWW factions ACTUALLY do. Unshackled (and Nightborne) enhanced their respective races IMO.

Yes, that's precisely my point - there's no difference in type between say, the Highmountain and the Iskaara, it's all execution. It can be done good or it can be done poorly. Hell, gun to my head I'd say the Iskaara are marginally better, since the tuskarr aren't a playable race with much backstory and don't have much going for them, so expanding them with what's basically a tribe of baseline and their mostly disposable fluff and lines is fine for the slice of life feel much of DF was going for.

The Maruuk meanwhile are thoroughly wretched, because not only are they for all intents and purposes just the Highmountain again and thus boring to the point of criminality, complete with three nice tribes and one bad one and the exact same spirit in Ohn'ahra, but they also do not interact at all with their original iteration, expanding on neither the theme or the backstory. They are only centaur to answer political complaints about the OG centaur being offensive (god knows to whom, Genghis Khan) and are thus aggressively inoffensive and mild.

In turn, the TWW nerubians and Earthen are both better than their original iteration in depth of worldbuilding, lore and setting, in so far as the nerubians were carried out almost exclusively by (very cool) character design prior and now have lore that perfectly matches it and the Earthen were at least explored in terms of the only conceivable story you could tell with them, i.e their artificiality.

[Viridiel]

Thinking about the prospect of playable haranir and what classes they might have. If they go in the direction of something like the paladin cards from the next Hearthstone expansion, I could see them being every class except DK, DH, and evoker.

[Lahis]

Thinking about the prospect of playable haranir and what classes they might have. If they go in the direction of something like the paladin cards from the next Hearthstone expansion, I could see them being every class except DK, DH, and evoker.

In old world I would have said that Warlock and probably Mage wouldn't fit their vibes, but these days those are base classes open to all.

From the unholy trinity of exclusive non-hero classes, I would say that they won't have Paladins. Shaman are very likely and Druids are confirmed.

[Cheezits]

Haranir are definitely going to have druid as their special class, but also shamans would make sense.

I can see Earthen druids also being unlocked at the time due to the Freysworn being connected to Elunahir.

[Hitei]

"Reigned back in by Metzen"

Metzen is all about that expansion of power fantasy tho, what? He's the one that literally wanted a Saga based around the Worldsoul of Azeroth, that wanted us to see the Titans again, that wanted us to finish certain plot points so we could explore new ones, that wanted a whole ass Light Vs Void conflict, etc.

Nothing was "reigned in" by him. If anything, he delights in WoW's crazy conflicts, so long as they're well written. Shadowlands had an amazing setting imo, but it was also a poorly written expac.

Metzen does not give a shit if things are well written. Nothing about BC, Wrath, or Cata was well written. MoP is a blend of good writing and some of the worst writing in the game. He also doesn't care about "everything being totally cool and epic!!!!1!" he is the one who started the introspective character drama trend. Up until MoP, WoW continually ignored past shit to do new stuff that was often just blatant retconning with little care.

I really wish people would stop trying to use Metzen as some sort of sad parasocial "he's just like me!" validation for their personal take, frequently in direct opposition to things he's done or said.

[milkmustache]

I know Haranir models scream playable, but are we certain they're coming? I've gotten the feeling less and less that we will get them.

[Cheezits]

I know Haranir models scream playable, but are we certain they're coming? I've gotten the feeling less and less that we will get them.

It's a Vulpera thing where they already can put on armor and are a reskin race from launch. Even if they aren't relevant they probably will still happen.

Ethereals with boobs and customizations did get added VERY early as well so it's a coinflip honestly. Could be Haranir 11.2 and Ethereals 12.0, as Haranir have more ties to Khaz Algar and Eonar.

[Hitei]

I know Haranir models scream playable, but are we certain they're coming? I've gotten the feeling less and less that we will get them.

I don't think there's been certainty of any race since like... Vulpera.

[Enrif]

I know Haranir models scream playable, but are we certain they're coming? I've gotten the feeling less and less that we will get them.

something about the Harranir: What mount would they have? Earthen have their stone rams, arathi have their lynx.Outside of their bat form, we have not seen them with any animal that would be a racial mount for them.

[MauroDiogo]

I don't think there's been certainty of any race since like... Vulpera.

Yep but... if all the datamining was confirmation of Vulpera eventually becoming playable then the Haranir even more so because... They have a LOT more player-ready costumisation than Vulpera had!

I've been too damn excited about potentially playing as one ever since they were first shown. I need it now!

something about the Harranir: What mount would they have? Earthen have their stone rams, arathi have their lynx.Outside of their bat form, we have not seen them with any animal that would be a racial mount for them.

There's some speculation that they could be genetically linked to the Quillboar in some capacity. So a boar-like mount with a red thorn theme could work thematically. And pigs/boars are known to scavenge around roots too.
Or the giant snails like Hitei mentioned.

But the Haranir seem quite agile and elusive. A chunky, slow animal goes against those characteristics. But a spider-like mount would work while also fitting in with the nature & roots theme? Or maybe a furry spider in the same vein as their Bat flying form, as the land travel form? :think:

[Hitei]

something about the Harranir: What mount would they have? Earthen have their stone rams, arathi have their lynx.Outside of their bat form, we have not seen them with any animal that would be a racial mount for them.

They have giant snails and regular sized pet rock mice in their camp.

[Cheezits]

something about the Harranir: What mount would they have? Earthen have their stone rams, arathi have their lynx.Outside of their bat form, we have not seen them with any animal that would be a racial mount for them.

We don't know anything about the species in the Rootlands but I think it will be dinosaurs because they have a caveman theme. However the new hedgehog mounts do look like they fit their vibe, especially the leaves, and there is one with their color scheme.

Also if they are playable they will probably have a very strange balance form ala the Zandalari as I doubt they have a relation to moonkin. Maybe something that looks like a Nathrezim? Batpeople?