Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

We don't know anything about Xal'atath either, she could have no role or she could have a thematic and important role. We just do not know.

Anyways, I'm glad we're soon out of this arc of defending this escape ramp expansion. We'll see what they can do with a fully produced expansion on their terms and see if they can deliver anything of quality to their consumers.

A much more focused product could deliver something good, especially considering the quality of Undermine as a standalone story and the fact I thought the base story of The War Within was pretty good until the McGuffin refocus.

[Makorus]

We don't know anything about Xal'atath either, she could have no role or she could have a thematic and important role. We just do not know.

Anyways, I'm glad we're soon out of this arc of defending this escape ramp expansion. We'll see what they can do with a fully produced expansion on their terms and see if they can deliver anything of quality to their consumers.

A much more focused product could deliver something good, especially considering the quality of Undermine as a standalone story.

That's the thing, all the independent stories in TWW (even including the Arathi questline, bar the last cinematic which unfortunately is the most visible thing) have been great. It's just after TWW, I honestly think that Blizzard won't be able to do what they are wanting to do in terms of the big picture. I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzards idea of a Saga is them mentioning concepts in the first two expansions (Harranir, World Soul, Black Blood), and then picking up all the loose story threads throughout TLT.

And honestly, that's fine. The problem is advertising it as a "big 3-part saga". I just don't think it will be able to hold a candle to stuff like the GW2 Elder Dragon Saga, and with that, you could tell during the first "proper" part (Living World Season 2), that they were building towards something big.

[Al Gorefiend]

Definitely. I love flying, adore skyriding (which will never fail to amuse me because I argued pretty heavily against an idea very much like it pre-Dragonflight), but I do feel there is just something kinda lost with flying from the get-go.

What's lost with flying is the fact your mount just poofs into existence under your feet and is essentially just activating fly cheats.

My take: I love sky riding but it didn't fix what I felt was the worst problem about it which was constantly mount, dismount, mount, dismount, mount, dismount a dozen times per quest.

A better way to have fixed flying without removing is would be just adding more depth to mounts. You have to stable them up at the nearest stable master or flight path, experience the zone and when you're done you mount back up. If you dismount away from these places your mount plays an animation of returning to the nearest PoI where they can be stabled.

Idk, the fact they are just essentially a fly spell and not an interactable feature is what makes them so hard to balance right.

They absolutely shouldn't add this now, but man if I had a time machine and even a modicum of authority to design WoW, that's what I personally would have done.

[Makorus]

What's lost with flying is the fact your mount just poofs into existence under your feet and is essentially just activating fly cheats.

My take: I love sky riding but it didn't fix what I felt was the worst problem about it which was constantly mount, dismount, mount, dismount, mount, dismount a dozen times per quest.

A better way to have fixed flying without removing is would be just adding more depth to mounts. You have to stable them up at the nearest stable master or flight path, experience the zone and when you're done you mount back up. If you dismount away from these places your mount plays an animation of returning to the nearest PoI where they can be stabled.

Idk, the fact they are just essentially a fly spell and not an interactable feature is what makes them so hard to balance right.

They absolutely shouldn't add this now, but man if I had a time machine and even a modicum of authority to design WoW, that's what I personally would have done.

That's a thing a lot of people don't realise, and why they are hesitant to add stuff (and I think they addressed that in the PAX talk, maybe?), is that once they add something, it is incredibly hard to undo that.

[Joshuaj]

lmao how can you possibly say that when we don't know anything about Midnight or TLT?

Lemme cook

[Capivara]

anyone here do the datamining thing and know if the new encrypted build already shows something?

[Marlamin]

anyone here do the datamining thing and know if the new encrypted build already shows something?

They're encrypted, so no.

[Raetary]

First encrypted 11.2.7 build is up. Next up, Midnight encrypted builds.

Soon we shall feast!

[EuAmoPinguins]

First encrypted 11.2.7 build is up. Next up, Midnight encrypted builds.

Do you think it will take a long time for Midnight to come out as a closed beta after the announcements at Gamescom?

[Raetary]

[Hitei]

Do you think it will take a long time for Midnight to come out as a closed beta after the announcements at Gamescom?

Could be ten days, could be five months.

[Marlamin]

Do you think it will take a long time for Midnight to come out as a closed beta after the announcements at Gamescom?

I had a discussion about this in the datamining Discord just now. It is hard to guesstimate given this whole saga ordeal and not knowing how far ahead they are which Gamescom will shed a light on. My gut feeling says alpha/beta won't be long away and we'll at the very least get focused testing for player housing sooner rather than later (even if that is going on a 11.2.x PTR). Again, very hard to guesstimate with the whole saga situation but maybe we'll see Midnight testing start up in October/November? Not a clue.

[The-Shan]

I wonder if we're going to get a season 4 of the War Within. Guardians of the Dream (10.2) was released November 7th (NA), and the War Within was announced November 3rd, meaning the announcement lines up similarly to the release of 11.2 (August 5th) and the 'announcement' of Midnight (August 19th).

With how closely these timelines are aligned, a season 4 seems possible. Yet if we keep to the 8 week patch cadence, that would mean Midnight releases on January 20, 2026, roughly. Seasons last roughly 5 months if I'm not mistaken, so either we get Midnight in January, or TWW Season 4. I'm leaning towards no season 4 right now though, unless season 3 is kept weirdly short, but I see no reason for blizzard to force a season 4, when 5 months of Ka'resh seems fine to me.

What do you guys think?

[Hitei]

I wonder if we're going to get a season 4 of the War Within. Guardians of the Dream (10.2) was released November 7th (NA), and the War Within was announced November 3rd, meaning the announcement lines up similarly to the release of 11.2 (August 5th) and the 'announcement' of Midnight (August 19th).

With how closely these timelines are aligned, a season 4 seems possible. Yet if we keep to the 8 week patch cadence, that would mean Midnight releases on January 20, 2026, roughly. Seasons last roughly 5 months if I'm not mistaken, so either we get Midnight in January, or TWW Season 4. I'm leaning towards no season 4 right now though, unless season 3 is kept weirdly short, but I see no reason for blizzard to force a season 4, when 5 months of Ka'resh seems fine to me.

What do you guys think?

I think it is extremely unlikely. S4 in recent expansions has more or less been "filler" season that tries to refresh existing content for the sake of giving people some more stuff to do during what historically would have been the drought between last patch and next expansion launch. Given MoP Remix's success, and the timing we see on the roadmap, my guess is that they are just planning to all-in on Legion remix and Housing's pre-release to instead fill that gap, especially since.--everything according to plan at least--the gap should be much smaller than previous expansions.

I don't think that Midnight will release on the 8 week cadence, but I do think that their tentative goal is probably February.

[The-Shan]

I think it is extremely unlikely. S4 in recent expansions has more or less been "filler" season that tries to refresh existing content for the sake of giving people some more stuff to do during what historically would have been the drought between last patch and next expansion launch. Given MoP Remix's success, and the timing we see on the roadmap, my guess is that they are just planning to all-in on Legion remix and Housing's pre-release to instead fill that gap, especially since.--everything according to plan at least--the gap should be much smaller than previous expansions.

I don't think that Midnight will release on the 8 week cadence, but I do think that their tentative goal is probably February.

The War Within was 16 weeks after 10.2.7, that is true. However, Blizzard did say they intend to 'release expansions faster', so I wouldn't be surprised if they are able to shave that extra 8 weeks off with statements like that, if they hold true.

[micwini]

Legion remix will be a pseudo Season 4.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

I'm assuming Midnight comes out in February, So the 18 month cadence and then, The Last Titan might get a reduction to 16 months? So that would be June 2027?

So yeah, we'll see how much less time they want to give, I suppose and whether we're chasing the 12 month cadence or not after the Saga.

[Houle]

Thanks, you've reassured me that the bad-faith actors definitely won't act in bad faith to claim that my criticisms add to theirs. I'm so glad to have someone so intelligent and rational here to help me.

Are we really at a point here where people seriously try to make the argument that any type of criticism about a specific piece of media is inappropriate, simply bc some right-wing incels might use similar criticism for completely different reasons and motives?

Unless you stop criticizing anything at all (and i hope i dont have to point out all the numerous reasons why that would be ridiculous), you will basically never have the assurance that some asshat wont use similar criticism as yours to push whatever cause or agenda they wanna push. Pretty much every single opinion you have, about any possible topic, you share with at least some rancid people. That doesnt mean the opinion is necessarily bad in and of itself, it depends on the reason for having said opinion.

Motives and reasons are always an essential part of actual criticism, and lumping all of them together would beyond laughable.

[Hitei]

The War Within was 16 weeks after 10.2.7, that is true. However, Blizzard did say they intend to 'release expansions faster', so I wouldn't be surprised if they are able to shave that extra 8 weeks off with statements like that, if they hold true.

Well, February is still just under a year and a half as opposed to the typical 2 year cadence. I sorta expect that their plan is to shoot for 18 month expansions for WSS asa their target for getting the saga out in a reasonable time. That puts TLT release in late summer 2027 and the end of the saga in spring 2029.

[Dracullus]

I wonder if we're going to get a season 4 of the War Within. Guardians of the Dream (10.2) was released November 7th (NA), and the War Within was announced November 3rd, meaning the announcement lines up similarly to the release of 11.2 (August 5th) and the 'announcement' of Midnight (August 19th).

With how closely these timelines are aligned, a season 4 seems possible. Yet if we keep to the 8 week patch cadence, that would mean Midnight releases on January 20, 2026, roughly. Seasons last roughly 5 months if I'm not mistaken, so either we get Midnight in January, or TWW Season 4. I'm leaning towards no season 4 right now though, unless season 3 is kept weirdly short, but I see no reason for blizzard to force a season 4, when 5 months of Ka'resh seems fine to me.

What do you guys think?

You forget about key thing - no 11.2.6 patch on Roadmap. This cut whole expac by this 2 extra months (compared to DF) that could be filled by Season 4.

Of course. since S4 is so cheap to make, I would never say it's 100% impossible. But at most I could see something like opening all raids and TWW dungeons with catch up gear around pre-patch - still VEERY unlikely, considering we have Legion Remix late 2025 and Housing for pre-patch if not sooner.

Simply we will be so busy that even those few resources needed for S4 would be wasted (arguably they were wasted already for DF S4 since everyone abandoned it for MoP Remix after 3 weeks).

Legion remix will be a pseudo Season 4.

It's more like end-of-season timewalking events on steroids focused on single expac - you mass level alts like in Turbulent Timeways and collect old stuff like in Collectors Bounty.

Let's face it, S4 only worked in SL because Nathria lasted 84 years and many people skipped Korthia patch (which also lasted 84 years). With stable patch cycle and 50 flavours of classic there is no room for it.