Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Wyrt]

So just a thought, but what if we still got Spellbreakers, but as a hero talent tree for warriors? They haven't even touched on hero talents yet, many possibilities still exist. Also, DH need at least one new one too.

I wonder how they'd handle that. Obviously Fel-Scarred is going to be the one that the void spec doesn't have access to. If they make a new one does Vengeance or Havoc get 3? Or does Devourer get an exclusive hero talent?

[Fiercelord]

I really wonder what are they going to do with Stratholme since we can see that area north of it is updated (finally!)
Stratholme probably won't be updated, but I'm guessing they will add additional mountain between the zones to separate the city from Eversong Woods.

[Nymrohd]

I am torn on that. One one hand yes, megazones are now on the table. On the other, should we expect single zone revams coupled with new zones for future revamps?
A world revamp isn't worth much if you need a fresh set of revamps long before you are even half finished with a single continent.

Will be interesting to see the patch zones though. Now that Rootlands and Voidstorm (which I assume is basically the void cosmic realm) there isn't really anywhere that makes sense besides more revamps. Though of course that could change.

Rootlands is not at the core. The Manifold absolutely is a possiblity. It makes as much sense as the final zone of Midnight as it makes sense in TLT imo. Light would also make sense. But I do think a revamped EPL+other places is not out of bounds.

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Apparently it was "leaked" on the Demon Hunter discord that the new hero talent for Devourer is called Annhilator.

Lol, such fantasy, much theme

[Sondrelk]

That's...kinda disingenuous. Don't get me wrong, I know people wanted more of the northern Eastern Kingdoms to be revamped along with Quel'Thalas and that's disappointing, but there isn't any part of Quel'Thalas that didn't ultimately get revamped, so it's not like just getting Storm Peaks and Ulduar after we were told we were going to Quel'Thalas.

If anything, this concerns me because it adds fuel to the idea that parts of Northrend are just gonna get destroyed or removed in-lore if that is the case. Doing a revamp of that many biomes is a lot harder.

Alternatively, there is no Northrend revamp and we just happen to start in Ulduar. And I may be in the minority, but I'd almost prefer that. TLT should take us to some weird fucking places.



A different bad take doesn't change the presence of a bad take.

FWIW, people were not paying attention when they posed that, they told us pretty much from minute one that they were designing QT to be seamless.

It's more just that they said world revamp, and then had two entirely new zones that players have little to no relation to.
Removing zones in Northrend isn't the same as having a Northrend expansion half take place somewhere other than Northrend.

[Vakir]

Quel'thalas being seamlessly connected to the rest of the EK is precisely why this isn't going to happen. You will most likely be able to fly through Northrend as you can now and just go from the old zones to the new ones without any issues.

That's what I'm saying.

You can do that with a much smaller area, but it's harder to do it with a much larger one without stripping away a lot of the biodiversity.

Granted, Northrend revamp is not as clearly the plan as the Quel'Thalas revamp. It's an assumption, if I recall right.

It's more just that they said world revamp, and then had two entirely new zones that players have little to no relation to.
Removing zones in Northrend isn't the same as having a Northrend expansion half take place somewhere other than Northrend.

I guess I don't really get it.

Maybe it's that I'm not enamored to obsession with elves, but would the story really be better served to drag out those two locations more just to make sure a mentioned area involves 4 zones because we're told we always have 4 zones now?

It should be that way only if it makes sense to have enough there to expand. Modern zones are fucking huge already.

Would it genuinely enhance the expansion to have another elf area and another troll area to arbitrarily make every single zone in Quel'Thalas, just to say that 12.0 is solely Quel'Thalas?

[Marlamin]

Didn't you just say we shouldn't expect it to come out in June? Some people are saying January.

I would personally gamble on February-ish which is why I said 6 as lower bound. Hard to tell what state it is in based on what they showed today. Zones look pretty far, got a variety of shots and only 1 untextured object which is better than TWW's trailer.

I have to wonder why the gameplay feature reveal was not meatier though. 6-8 months away is NOT far away. Most reveals are at 6-8 months after all.

It's just the perception people are getting because we're so used to having a big info dump right after or interview releases and everyone thinks the ship is sinking.

I genuinely think part of it feeling off is that their marketing is doing this weird thing right now where they have several of the interesting things and b-roll shots that would usually be in feature trailers as shorts/social posts now. I don't like it, I would much rather have had a Warcraft Direct that had all of this information in one place (in a normal aspect ratio).

The very little information we have from the singular Gamespot interview already answered 2 of my burning questions (zone sizing/accessibility & 11.2.7 housing restrictions), so I'm hoping other interviews are as useful to other people in regards to other subjects too. If this week comes and goes without those questions being answered, for example 0 information on class stuff, then start ringing the alarm bells.

[xskarma]

Quel'thalas being seamlessly connected to the rest of the EK is precisely why this isn't going to happen. You will most likely be able to fly through Northrend as you can now and just go from the old zones to the new ones without any issues.

Or everyone's "favorite" method, Zidormi conveniently located right underneath old Dalaran, or at whatever point we come into the "new" parts.

[Nymrohd]

I really wonder what are they going to do with Stratholme since we can see that area north of it is updated (finally!)
Stratholme probably won't be updated, but I'm guessing they will add additional mountain between the zones to separate the city from Eversong Woods.

It will still need to look pretty when you fly over it. Though they could just be super cheap and keep the ash cloud over it with an invisible wall, letting you fly OVER Strat and then having a nondescript coast across northern Llordaeron.
Yeah, that is what they will do. Just cover it in an ash cloud we cannot penetrate and give us empty terrain across the coast. Dammit.

[FossilFree]

Apparently it was "leaked" on the Demon Hunter discord that the new hero talent for Devourer is called Annhilator.

Oh nice! I wonder what its hook will be? If the Devourer shares Aldrachi Reaver with Vengeance, and Fel-Scarred is shared between Vengeance and Havoc, what will Havoc's and Devourer's shared one look like? Will Annihilator blend fel with void? That could be pretty epic.

[Nymrohd]

I would personally gamble on February-ish which is why I said 6 as lower bound. Hard to tell what state it is in based on what they showed today. Zones look pretty far, got a variety of shots and only 1 untextured object which is better than TWW's trailer.





I genuinely think part of it feeling off is that their marketing is doing this weird thing right now where they have several of the interesting things and b-roll shots that would usually be in feature trailers as shorts/social posts now. I don't like it, I would much rather have had a Warcraft Direct that had all of this information in one place (in a normal aspect ratio).

The very little information we have from the singular Gamespot interview already answered 2 of my burning questions (zone sizing/accessibility & 11.2.7 housing restrictions), so I'm hoping other interviews are as useful to other people in regards to other subjects too. If this week comes and goes without those questions being answered, for example 0 information on class stuff, then start ringing the alarm bells.

Yeah, that sounds like engagement strategy. They want to get all their socials boosted. But they are not communicating it well. It doesn't help that WoWhead is asleep and linking to nothing.

[FossilFree]

I wonder how they'd handle that. Obviously Fel-Scarred is going to be the one that the void spec doesn't have access to. If they make a new one does Vengeance or Havoc get 3? Or does Devourer get an exclusive hero talent?

Yea, it's a weird situation. Seems like Havoc or Vengeance will lose access to one of them.

[Xilurm]

That's what I'm saying.

You can do that with a much smaller area, but it's harder to do it with a much larger one without stripping away a lot of the biodiversity.

Granted, Northrend revamp is not as clearly the plan as the Quel'Thalas revamp. It's an assumption, if I recall right.

Well, honestly if they didn't want us to think that they shouldn't have said the words "old world, Northrend and Ulduar in the same sentence." Should've just said Ulduar.

[Nymrohd]

then start ringing the alarm bells.

Has that ever helped with Blizzard?

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Well, honestly if they didn't want us to think that they shouldn't have said the words "old world, Northrend and Ulduar in the same sentence." Should've just said Ulduar.

The best leak we had was the Northrend map. They ruined some zones and merged the rest into 4 zones. Makes sense to me.

[Merryck]

Yea, it's a weird situation. Seems like Havoc or Vengeance will lose access to one of them.

havoc: aldrachi, fel scarred
vengeance: fel scarred, annihilator
devourer: aldrachi, annihilator

[Reive]

Has that ever helped with Blizzard?

losing players always works with blizzard

[Xilurm]

Or everyone's "favorite" method, Zidormi conveniently located right underneath old Dalaran, or at whatever point we come into the "new" parts.

When I say old zones I mean non revamped ones like Dragonblight to revamped ones like Storm Peaks. It's the same way you can go from Ashenvale to Darkshore regardless if it's old Darkshore or the warfront version. I'm assuming they're using that same tech for Midnights zones.

[Wyrt]

Yea, it's a weird situation. Seems like Havoc or Vengeance will lose access to one of them.

Yeah, and neither of them particularly fit the void stuff as they are now. So it may be a situation where Annihilator feels like the only thematically fitting one for Devourer, but they're still stuck with another just for game reasons.

[Nymrohd]

When I say old zones I mean non revamped ones like Dragonblight to revamped ones like Storm Peaks. It's the same way you can go from Ashenvale to Darkshore regardless if it's old Darkshore or the warfront version. I'm assuming they're using that same tech for Midnights zones.

Why would they not revamp them all? With Quel'thalas the issue was simple; they did NOT have enough zones to work with without upscaling things and that would break continuity. But revamped Northrend will be like WoD, a completely separate instance probably crafted from ground up.

[Xilurm]

Yeah, that sounds like engagement strategy. They want to get all their socials boosted. But they are not communicating it well. It doesn't help that WoWhead is asleep and linking to nothing.

People gotta keep in mind that GTA VI is coming out in May, so Blizzard launching an expansion close to that might not be very smart. And before anyone says anything, every single dev is worried about GTA VI, there's no exceptions.

[Dracullus]

I would personally gamble on February-ish which is why I said 6 as lower bound. Hard to tell what state it is in based on what they showed today. Zones look pretty far, got a variety of shots and only 1 untextured object which is better than TWW's trailer.

Assuming Remix dates from PTR are correct, 20th January is pre-patch, both DF/TWW lasted 5 weeks, so 20th February for early access is safest bet.

We will be more sure in Alpha, but they pushed Remix in 2.5 and looks like housing is 2.7 like you said, so I don't think they have any problem with schedule. Otherwise we would have some 2.6 filler patch.

People gotta keep in mind that GTA VI is coming out in May, so Blizzard launching an expansion close to that might not be very smart. And before anyone says anything, every single dev is worried about GTA VI, there's no exceptions.

In todays gaming world 2-3 months are eternity, expac hype is gone after season start and tourists leave. Beside, with current patch system they don't have much flexibility with WoW release schedule, they got pretty lucky that GTA VI (if not delayed again) will be in mid-late S1.