Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Bozzoltank]

I'd like to see our lead into a demon saga involving us finding out about several new demon factions that arose from the ashes of the legion, and us trying to make sure none of them get too powerful/too close to reforming the legion. With Sire Denathrus trying to reform the legion under his control via the dreadlords would be cool

would be especially cool if we got a lot of focus on the illidari doing like demon political assassination to keep the hordes angry at each other, basically the opposite of what we usually do in wow expacs recently, about helping groups of people overcome differences to come together.

A demonic civil war in the wake of Sargeras's disappearance, leading up to a grand confrontation with the Dark Titan himself could be fantastic.

There are so many corners of the Burning Legion left unexplored: Nathreza and its dreadlords, Xoroth, Rancora, the Annihilan to name a few. It would allow them to fully develop demon cultures, bring the spotlight onto Hakkar the Houndmaster, Magtheridon and Kazzak.

The Exodar could serve as the capital city, traversing the Great Dark Beyond to take the heroes of Azeroth to these destructive worlds.

[Pyrophax]

I'd like to see our lead into a demon saga involving us finding out about several new demon factions that arose from the ashes of the legion, and us trying to make sure none of them get too powerful/too close to reforming the legion. With Sire Denathrus trying to reform the legion under his control via the dreadlords would be cool

would be especially cool if we got a lot of focus on the illidari doing like demon political assassination to keep the hordes angry at each other, basically the opposite of what we usually do in wow expacs recently, about helping groups of people overcome differences to come together.

I can't see another demon "saga" for like what, 2-3 expansions? Full of fel and green goo? I rather not. Raid or two will be enough for me.
Put the "world" in our Warcraft. Revamp old world, use it. If you like demons - Karazhan and Felwood is place for that. But no more brand new and interesting zones for discover that always was there. Nether Plane for end of expansion zone is fine though.

[Bozzoltank]

I can't see another demon "saga" for like what, 2-3 expansions? Full of fel and green goo? I rather not. Raid or two will be enough for me.
Put the "world" in our Warcraft. Revamp old world, use it. If you like demons - Karazhan and Felwood is place for that. But no more brand new and interesting zones for discover that always was there. Nether Plane for end of expansion zone is fine though.

It doesn't have to be Fel, though. Rancora could be a terrifying jungle world of spiders and other, dangerous apex predators. Xoroth might be covered in fields of fire and lakes of lava. Nathreza with its towering obsidian citadels, basked in shadow.

The World in World of Warcraft was never meant for Azeroth alone. Hell, Outland proves that. None of the existing zones in Legion history are new either, most were present since Classic, or even WC3.

[Limayria]

I can't see another demon "saga" for like what, 2-3 expansions? Full of fel and green goo? I rather not. Raid or two will be enough for me.
Put the "world" in our Warcraft. Revamp old world, use it. If you like demons - Karazhan and Felwood is place for that. But no more brand new and interesting zones for discover that always was there. Nether Plane for end of expansion zone is fine though.

Warcraft has from warcraft 1 always involved other worlds, and us post wss heading out into the dark beyond would be awesome


I mean sure I'd love more stuff on azeorth too, for example I really wanna see the Arathi homeland. But a lot of zones just don't have the makings of particularly compelling expansion hooks with out being set up imo

[Darkarath]

Yeah I also don't see a Demon saga any time soon.

IMO after the WSS we would get an Old World Saga. A revamp of Kalimdor and the EK in whatever number of expansions they need while building, among other threats, the Legion, the Arathi and the Life Cosmic Force, which seems to be the only one that will get unscathed from the current saga (although I would prefer that Blizzard completely ditch the Cosmic Forces for, lets say, 20 years).

But the inevitable revamp is always a mystery. If we get more revamped zones during Midnight, I don't really know how Blizzard would implement zones that are close and not revamped. Could be a mess.

[Nymrohd]

My issue with most demon worlds expansion concept is that expansions where the zones are disjointed usually suffer from it. It was one of the major complaints for Cata, was one of the big issues with Shadowlands and has been consistently a problem with things like patch zones and is looking to be an issue with Midnight at least at launch (with Voidstorm and Harandar very disjointed from Quel'thalas)

I like the theme, just don't know how you can execute it without suffering from the obvious "disjointed" issue.

[Joshuaj]

I don't think a Demon SAGA is happening. However, I can totally see a Demon Expac occurring.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

I like some of the science fantasy aspects of Warcraft, but whether I like a given science fantasy element is dependent on aesthetics and theming. Tempest Keep, in my mind, worked because (1.) it was strongly rooted in an evocative fantasy, despite the obvious science fiction tropes inherent to being a spaceship littered with consoles and Transformers energon cubes, and (2.) it had a strong, striking aesthetic. Legion-era aesthetics are more mixed in that department for me, since while areas like the invasion point with the floating islands work, the Legion’s technological aesthetic there was just missing some element the TBC version had. It felt less sinister and alien.

That said, re: a planet-hopping expansion, aside from @Nymrohd being right that it would be too disjointed, a lack of grounding in the setting could also seriously kneecap it. Outland and Draenor are the most workable settings for an expansion off of Azeroth, K’aresh, I think, potentially would’ve been the most workable alien planet behind that if it got an expansion and had aesthetic variety. A set of disjointed planets, each of which we could only realistically visit only a limited slice of, just doesn’t seem like it would cut it for the bulk of an expansion’s release content.

[Nymrohd]

Legion worlds could have worked in something like an Island Expeditions/Torghast/Delves hybrid. We take over their portal network and send small assault teams into different Legion worlds. Could have worked for an Argus expac but that's dead now.

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I like some of the science fantasy aspects of Warcraft, but whether I like a given science fantasy element is dependent on aesthetics and theming. Tempest Keep, in my mind, worked because (1.) it was strongly rooted in an evocative fantasy, despite the obvious science fiction tropes inherent to being a spaceship littered with consoles and Transformers energon cubes, and (2.) it had a strong, striking aesthetic. Legion-era aesthetics are more mixed in that department for me, since while areas like the invasion point with the floating islands work, the Legion’s technological aesthetic there was just missing some element the TBC version had. It felt less sinister and alien.

I think it is less the tech itself and more the lack of the Mo'arg. I do not understand why we got the Wyrmtongue and no Gan'arg, no Scientists/Engineers but only Brutes or Felguards/Fel Lords

[Darkarath]

Legion worlds could have worked in something like an Island Expeditions/Torghast/Delves hybrid. We take over their portal network and send small assault teams into different Legion worlds. Could have worked for an Argus expac but that's dead now.

Well, we had that with Invasion Points, didn't we?

[Nymrohd]

Well, we had that with Invasion Points, didn't we?

In an extremely diminished version of the other three features I suggested, sure.

[Darkarath]

In an extremely diminished version of the other three features I suggested, sure.

It was a cool feature for that time.

But sure, now that Delves are a thing, if we ever get a Legion expansion again, Blizzard could potentially make thousands of Delves in the thousands of planets controlled by the Legion.

But more importantly... I WANT THE ROADMAP

Wouldn't be cool if for 12.1 instead of ''New Zone'' they just put there ''Revamped Zones''?

[Bozzoltank]

It was a cool feature for that time.

But sure, now that Delves are a thing, if we ever get a Legion expansion again, Blizzard could potentially make thousands of Delves in the thousands of planets controlled by the Legion.

But more importantly... I WANT THE ROADMAP

Wouldn't be cool if for 12.1 instead of ''New Zone'' they just put there ''Revamped Zones''?

COULD YOU IMAGINE? Oh my God, it would feed the speculation train for a good while.

I'm primarily hoping for another good ol' "new mega-dungeon". There's ample opportunity for Midnight to have another banger of a mega-dungeon. Stratholme would be THE perfect choice, if they do a restored Eastweald (copium post-dungeon Stratholme City Alliance capital with a Forsaken / Horde enclave).

[Zardas]

But more importantly... I WANT THE ROADMAP

Wouldn't be cool if for 12.1 instead of ''New Zone'' they just put there ''Revamped Zones''?

Hadn't they forgotten, in an earlier roadmap, to indicate a new zone for one of the major patches (maybe it was 10.2 ?) and everyone freaked out at the idea of not having one ?

[Darkarath]

COULD YOU IMAGINE? Oh my God, it would feed the speculation train for a good while.

I'm primarily hoping for another good ol' "new mega-dungeon". There's ample opportunity for Midnight to have another banger of a mega-dungeon. Stratholme would be THE perfect choice, if they do a restored Eastweald (copium post-dungeon Stratholme City Alliance capital with a Forsaken / Horde enclave).

It would be soooo fun if they'd do that. Speculation would explode.

Hadn't they forgotten, in an earlier roadmap, to indicate a new zone for one of the major patches (maybe it was 10.2 ?) and everyone freaked out at the idea of not having one ?

Yeah they did that with 11.2.

Maybe they weren't certain if they had to put ''New Zone'' or ''New Planet''.

[Bozzoltank]

Hadn't they forgotten, in an earlier roadmap, to indicate a new zone for one of the major patches (maybe it was 10.2 ?) and everyone freaked out at the idea of not having one ?

That was such a funny goof.

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It would be soooo fun if they'd do that. Speculation would explode.

I reckon we'll know in 2-3 hours if we're getting the roadmap. Unless they release it tomorrow, or on Wednesday. Right? Right...?

[Darkarath]

I reckon we'll know in 2-3 hours if we're getting the roadmap. Unless they release it tomorrow, or on Wednesday. Right? Right...?

Yeah it doesn't have to be today.

I guess that today or tomorrow.

But definitively this week.

[Ersula]

Yeah it doesn't have to be today.

I guess that today or tomorrow.

But definitively this week.

We might not get roadmaps anymore but we might not get it until the actual Midnight Release. They probably feel safe with just the hype of TBC & Pre-patch in January.

[Darkarath]

We might not get roadmaps anymore but we might not get it until the actual Midnight Release. They probably feel safe with just the hype of TBC & Pre-patch in January.

I don't see much sense in that, but who knows?

Last year Blizzard released it on November if I recall correctly. The other ones (2023 and 2024) were on December. Hopefully they do the same this year.

[Mackud]

Azeroth being the only important thing in the entire universe only makes it very weird that the Burning Legion tried invading 10k years ago failed and then just didn't bother to really try again for another 10k years and that's already on top of the Dimensius being the last Void Lord retcon making Sargeras just look like a complete idiot instead of being pushed to darkness by an extreme solution for a real problem. IMO they keep playing chicken with this whole worldsoul plot because it feels like a definitive ending to a game that's supposed to keep receiving expansions and stories until the end of time so they're putting themselves in a corner with it

You're 100% correct.

As said before, the Affliction Warlock Legion Weapon is yet another entity trapped within a weapon, they've blatantly done it to lengthen the expansion cycle.

I don't think they'll jump from Xala to this new entity, there needs to be a build up for the guy hence why I think the next saga will be more of a FF14 Dawntrail, a complete side quest while building up the new villian.

The fact that the planet Nethraza was mentioned in the Antorus raid and the new villian being a Dreadlord isn't a coincidence at all.

The question is how do they build up this new guy to be more dangerous than Sargares - Sargares doesn't know the Dreadlords aligned themselves with Death rather than Chaos will be a major part. I also think Remornia from Castle Nathria will have something to do how he gets freed from the weapon - Coincidentally is yet another entity trapped within a weapon, but we already know who that entity is.

2 Dreadlords inside 2 weapons, a mention of their planet Nethraza. It's easy to see where this is going.