Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[xskarma]

As much as we complained about borrowed power: I would have preferred a Light/Void borrowed power system. If we're praying to the Sunwell for Renilash, now would have been the time for a borrowed power system. The Plot is literally about borrowing power from the Light. People liked Artifacts, so borrowed power isn't all bad.

After all they didn't get rid of Borrowed power, they just release multiple smaller (and less satisfying) borrowed power systems over the expansion. (Forgotten Reach Ring, Overcharged Belt, Siren's Isle Ring, Reshii wraps, etc. These are all just borrowed power progression systems.)

I think the problem with borrowed power is 2 fold: First it takes power away from you the player and puts it in some item you wear/carry/use and without it you can basically not fulfill your role anymore, despite being a celebrated Hero of Azeroth. Secondly, it usually comes with a grind of some kind, even if a benign one of just 1 quest a week for a couple of weeks. it has to grow in power, which means YOU have to do shit to enable that.

And I think people can deal with both of those things if they are mroe small scale and fleeting and make some sort of sense within the story of the moment. But people are usually also glad to move on from the item after a while.

But, to have another expansion long borrowed power system, which has to be treadmilled all expansion again to keep up, I think that would very much upset most of the playerbase again. We've been there and done that. Not again.

[Xilurm]

Unless they're just gonna make it like Dalaran with the two little out of bounds side clubhouses, I don't see them keeping this. Elves, especially Blood Elves and dare I say the H word, are just too contentious and too popular.

Maybe this is a...sigh plus handjerk motion...gameplay and story integrated decision to thematically challenge the player and give an emotional reaction that's consistent with how a character would feel, culminating in the eventual tribal union the story is built around that allows Silvermoon to be more open for all.

But this ain't sitting through 4 sets of credits in Death Stranding to feel frustrated and bored on purpose for thematic reasons, this is a mass market popcorn game and they'll probably cave.

I'll be incredibly annoyed if they do. This along with the seamless integration of the new zones with the rest of EK is giving me a lot of hopes for future revamps if/when they happen. I'd certainly not want Horde characters to muck about all over the place in Stormwind or Darnassus if/when they decide to bring it back.

[Chickat]

It's an instanced BG and an open world PvP hotspot. It literally says so right in what you quoted.

Yeah. A bg with an open world area like the towers in legion, or the spots in outland. Still wouldn't consider that an open world pvp zone.

[Eldryth]

The 3rd DH spec is called Devourer. Are the Devourers creatures of the Void?

I've been wondering about that too.

The existing lore was that they were speculated (in-universe) to have originated in the Shadowlands, but nobody actually knew that for sure. But they definitely resembled the Void from the start- between their focus on devouring everything and their magic matching up with the Cosmic Void aesthetic. Then, even before we got the spec confirmation, Adarus's fighting style resembled Devourers even more than it did the Void.

I would not be surprised at all if they're heading towards confirming that the Devourers are Void creatures and not just the near-identical substitutes that Shadowlands characters claimed they were. They already fixed Brokers in the same way, when they retconned their origins completely to make them K'areshi.

Edit: I also just rewatched the features trailer, and it got me thinking- is the Voidstorm actually another piece of K'aresh? The first thing we see of it in the trailer is another Ethereal Manaforge surrounded by Ethereals. A Manaforge without the NPCs is also shown in this image:



The less-twisted bits of land we see there also looks similar to K'aresh. And, since all we've been told about it is that it's a mysterious distant world shaped by the Void, maybe it could be another fragment that was fully swallowed by the Void?


With that said, it could also still be another world the Void consumed, and the Ethereals and Manaforges could be new arrivals after Xal'atath captured Salhadaar. If that's the case, maybe it's Xal'atath's homeworld?

[milkmustache]

Edit: I also just rewatched the features trailer, and it got me thinking- is the Voidstorm actually another piece of K'aresh? The first thing we see of it in the trailer is another Ethereal Manaforge surrounded by Ethereals. A Manaforge without the NPCs is also shown in this image:



The less-twisted bits of land we see there also looks similar to K'aresh. And, since all we've been told about it is that it's a mysterious distant world shaped by the Void, maybe it could be another fragment that was fully swallowed by the Void?


With that said, it could also still be another world the Void consumed, and the Ethereals and Manaforges could be new arrivals after Xal'atath captured Salhadaar. If that's the case, maybe it's Xal'atath's homeworld?

I'm not sure. That's a cop out answer, but I'm really not. My gut says it's just another Manaforge in the Voidstorm. Let's not forget that Salhadaar is a boss in the first Void raid! I think we'll learn a bit more in 11.2.7.

[Thomir]

I think it's pretty likely that the Voidstorm is the remnants of Xal'atath's world that was consumed by Dimensius. And that the cut dialogue revealing she was a mortal from this zone will be re-explored in this zone.

[Ersula]

At the very least can we ask for the New Demon Hunter Race options before the prepatch? Surely Devourer has to come with 12.0 or even later, but I think we'd all like to make our Void elf Demon Hunters during Legion Remix.

[milkmustache]

At the very least can we ask for the New Demon Hunter Race options before the prepatch? Surely Devourer has to come with 12.0 or even later, but I think we'd all like to make our Void elf Demon Hunters during Legion Remix.

I'm still kinda of shocked it's still Void Elf. I know new races would need new metamorphasis forms but... orc and draenei are right there.

[Zaelsino]

You know how annoying it is when you're in Dornogal and you accidentally get too close to the weekly table and are auto-dismounted? Now half the playerbase just has entire sections of the city that presumably teleport or dismount and teleport you for flying over them for too long or taking a wrong turn. Because they chose the wrong faction I guess? GG?

I doubt this will impede Alliance gameplay whatsoever, but... well, yes. Silvermoon is the capital of the blood elves and aligned with the Horde in the lore. If they're going to use it as a neutral hub it should absolutely be apparent to Alliance players that they're guests, not citizens, as Hamuul's warning to behave and the "Sentinels are watching you, Horde scum" debuff made clear to the other faction in Bel'ameth. I don't think the Horde should have been allowed there or in Gilneas at all, for the record, but if WoW is determined to tell one story for two factions these little reminders of those factions are the least courtesy owed.

[Ersula]

I'm still kinda of shocked it's still Void Elf. I know new races would need new metamorphasis forms but... orc and draenei are right there.

Since they didn't actually comment on it, just showing a Void Elf DH in the trailer, I'm still holding out hope. At the very least Nightborne had that close demon association during the Legion occupation of Suramar.

[Zaelsino]

Since they didn't actually comment on it, just showing a Void Elf DH in the trailer, I'm still holding out hope. At the very least Nightborne had that close demon association during the Legion occupation of Suramar.

Also, come on, the Felborne customisations are ready-made and sitting there.

[milkmustache]

Since they didn't actually comment on it, just showing a Void Elf DH in the trailer, I'm still holding out hope. At the very least Nightborne had that close demon association during the Legion occupation of Suramar.

There seems to be a lot of room for interpretation around it. I'm also surprised we're not getting Paladins for all or most races.

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Also, come on, the Felborne customisations are ready-made and sitting there.

As are the fel orc from WoD! And Manari!

[Ersula]

I don't think anyone else brought it up but.....they called it Voidstorm as a tongue-in-cheek reference to that fake TWW leak, right? It was probably some sort of invasion & other dimension, but I think they probably would have called it something else but saw the opportunity to make it a community in-joke? Voidstorm was probably the funniest fake leak of the TWW era.

[vindicator782]

Kul Tirans have been an option since 8.1.5.

yeah but for some reason blizzard elected to make them like 50% taller than normal humans and have god awful animations, they're goofy

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Speaking of kul tirans - has anyone mentioned the kul tiran paladin player character in one of the youtube shorts? Maybe they haven't revealed everything

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Them being the most popular race was fabricated from the get-go, they've had access to classes no other horde race did for the majority of their existence

This is such a reach - people chose blood elves because they were pretty, paladins were a bonus

Shaman were just as powerful if not more so than paladins, but draenei have never been anywhere near as popular as blood elves

[ChronoSul]

I'm still kinda of shocked it's still Void Elf. I know new races would need new metamorphasis forms but... orc and draenei are right there.

Agreed it really wouldnt be that hard to do draenei due to kj & other eredar bosses they could reuse for them. Hell orcs u could reuse gul'dan's transformations from nighthold for orcs too :/

[Ersula]

This is such a reach - people chose blood elves because they were pretty, paladins were a bonus

Shaman were just as powerful if not more so than paladins, but draenei have never been anywhere near as popular as blood elves

There's where you're wrong. During TBC Draenei were right behind Blood Elves in popularity. Humans slowly exceeded Draenei for their PvP racials.

The one thing I can't explain is eventually Dwarves exceeded Draenei in popularity. But that would be consistent with the fact that humans, or the most human looking, race is inevitably the most played.

Not sure you can say "Blood Elves are the only reason people played as horde" if its more likely "En masse, people prefer the most human-looking race, and Blood Elves just happened to be the most human looking race on the horde."

[Hitei]

I doubt this will impede Alliance gameplay whatsoever, but... well, yes. Silvermoon is the capital of the blood elves and aligned with the Horde in the lore. If they're going to use it as a neutral hub it should absolutely be apparent to Alliance players that they're guests, not citizens, as Hamuul's warning to behave and the "Sentinels are watching you, Horde scum" debuff made clear to the other faction in Bel'ameth. I don't think the Horde should have been allowed there or in Gilneas at all, for the record, but if WoW is determined to tell one story for two factions these little reminders of those factions are the least courtesy owed.

Right, but Bel'Ameth wasn't, and will never be a capital city of the expansion for a year and a half and "omg a debuff" is different from not being allowed in significant parts of the city.

[Hearthfinder]

I don't think anyone else brought it up but.....they called it Voidstorm as a tongue-in-cheek reference to that fake TWW leak, right? It was probably some sort of invasion & other dimension, but I think they probably would have called it something else but saw the opportunity to make it a community in-joke? Voidstorm was probably the funniest fake leak of the TWW era.

I created that leak, but I can't remember if there was some word I drew inspiration from. There's a Voidstorm inside Telogrus, maybe that was there earlier?

[blaatschaap]

I'm sure the new zones dungeons raids and delves will be cool and all, but I expected more new gameplay features. I have very little interest in housing, as I'm sure a lot of people do. Looks like they really counted on this feature carrying the expansion for them, which seems like a colossal mistake. I'm almost certain the vast majority of people who play this game, i.e. who play casually, aren't going to spend what little time they have to play playing house... This was a pretty huge let down. I don't see the only new actual gameplay variety thing, the prey gameplay feature, saving this expansion for me

[Paula Deen]

Glad people seemed to have simmered down in here.

Lots of anger all over when the trailer and cinematic dropped and I was confused because they both looked great. I totally didn't expect the Haronir. I also didn't expect the World Tiers.

Any ideas on who the army is coming through the Sunwell? Is it us? The Arathi? The Tyr's Hand?