Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Super Dickmann]

Blizzard fell for the meme that every good expansion has a troll patch / raid.

We've been years without a troll patch. This is the time and the moment.

[JDBlou]

Oh got me there. 12.1 is season 2! Therefore, 12.1.5 is still Season 2 as well. 12.. '01' 5 You knew exactly what I meant.

Almost as if.. It's part of the zone, Zul'Aman! (and at that, half of that space is water.)

Cool, so we agree 12.1 is Season 2. Now back to the actual point: explain how a landmass that's 80% the size of Zul'Aman, with explicit 'RaidWarlockUlatek' assets following established naming conventions, and positioned exactly where Zul'jan is looking at the end of the zone story... is somehow NOT the 12.1 raid. Still waiting on that explanation.

You'd do well to notice that the Undermine Raid (11.1) also had that 01 you're so adorably attached to: inv_offhand_1h_goblinraid_d_01, and in Inv_mace_2h_etherealraid_d_01 in Manaforge Omega (11.2) so what even is the point you're so desperately trying to make semantically speaking?

"half that space is water", congrats chief you identified a key feature in what makes an island an island, not withstanding the red block around the area 2-12 clearly delineating it as its own zone on a world map.

[Mecheon]

Almost as if.. It's part of the zone, Zul'Aman! (and at that, half of that space is water.)

Its not part of the zone

Like. Verifiably. You can go and boot up the beta right now and try to go out there if you want.

[Cheezits]

We've been years without a troll patch. This is the time and the moment.

And they will never appear again after this.

[elderu]

Cool, so we agree 12.1 is Season 2. Now back to the actual point: explain how a landmass that's 80% the size of Zul'Aman, with explicit 'RaidWarlockUlatek' assets following established naming conventions, and positioned exactly where Zul'jan is looking at the end of the zone story... is somehow NOT the 12.1 raid. Still waiting on that explanation.

You'd do well to notice that the Undermine Raid (11.1) also had that 01 you're so adorably attached to: inv_offhand_1h_goblinraid_d_01, and in Inv_mace_2h_etherealraid_d_01 in Manaforge Omega (11.2) so what even is the point you're so desperately trying to make semantically speaking?

"half that space is water", congrats chief you identified a key feature in what makes an island an island

Lol wait.. so why is everyone convinced it's .1 and not .1.5's Raid, if the '01' means nothing? I'm trying to follow all of your guys' crazed logic here, not the other way around. I genuinely thought 'that 01 you're so adorably attached to:' applied to you.

I'm perfectly aware of Atal'Utek being set up as a Raid following Zul'jan. Your group are the only ones insisting it can't be 12.1.5, which.. is confirmed to have a Raid continuing off the leveling story.

I see no reason to set belief either place, is my angle. Go ahead and die on that hill though

Like. Verifiably. You can go and boot up the beta right now and try to go out there if you want.

That's called, part of the zone being inaccessible at launch.

[Super Dickmann]

And they will never appear again after this.

It's why they need this giant snake episode. Let's face it, Blizzard won't give them the big snake raid in Northrend and after that it'll be Arathi country. This is an opportunity.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Okay, so you think they moved the Worldcore Storyline to 12.1 then? Like tell me where it is instead cause there's no clear alternatives here beyond "Immediately to the Worldcore" based on the ending of Base or the whole Troll nonsense.

I also love that he forgets that.. Just because Atal'utek is on the map does not mean that it is the in-developmental map of the actual Patch Content Map of Atal'utek (or whatever its' called). The Isle of Fangs is a outline which may have then once again been decided to scale up internally on a internal map.

This is at least quite amusing though.

[Mecheon]

Lol wait.. so why is everyone convinced it's .1 and not .1.5's Raid, if the '01' means nothing? I'm trying to follow all of your guys' crazed logic here, not the other way around.

I'm perfectly aware of Atal'Utek being set up as a Raid following Zul'jan. Your group are the only ones insisting it can't be 12.1.5, which.. is confirmed to have a Raid continuing off the leveling story.

I see no reason to set belief either place, is my angle. Go ahead and die on that hill though

I mean, yeah, we're considering it per the long-standing history of the game that the main raid for a patch is The Big One that has files named after it, and the .5 raids tend to be smaller one-boss affairs

Both Crucible of Storms and Battle of Dazar'alor dropped the same gear, but Dazar'alor is where the file names came from.

That's called, part of the zone being inaccessible at launch.

Almost like its future patch content. Almost as if its a separate zone and not part of the same one.

[Cheezits]

Okay, so you think they moved the Worldcore Storyline to 12.1 then? Like tell me where it is instead cause there's no clear alternatives here beyond "Immediately to the Worldcore" based on the ending of Base or the whole Troll nonsense.

Technically they could do a switcheroo between the Troll and Light/Pre-Worldcore plots but it's insanely unlikely.

- - - Updated - - -

It's why they need this giant snake episode. Let's face it, Blizzard won't give them the big snake raid in Northrend and after that it'll be Arathi country. This is an opportunity.

The concept of the patch is great, the possibility that the patch zone is Troll Broken Shore is insulting. The only thing that could salvage a patch like that is playable Amani and that's a crapshoot.

They unironically would've been better off saving Zul'aman in its entirety (so the coast and the island) to be a patch zone with its place at launch being taken by a Naga zone or Lordaeron.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Technically they could do a switcheroo between the Troll and Light/Pre-Worldcore plots but it's insanely unlikely.

- - - Updated - - -


The concept of the patch is great, the possibility that the patch zone is Zul Aman Broken Shore is insulting.

I mean, that's what makes sense narratively, so again it is the opposite of that since we're talking the Warcraft Team here whos' allergic to following up the events of Base in a manner where they don't have their precious time in their sandbox where they can do what they want because that's most important not that the expansions are coherent narrative pieces of media that actually tell a story from A, B to C.

[Super Dickmann]

The concept of the patch is great, the possibility that the patch zone is Troll Broken Shore is insulting. The only thing that could salvage a patch like that is playable Amani and that's a crapshoot.

The main hangup of the patch is the boldest decision of the base game that you pointed out a few pages back. The natural evolution of their plot is that after we temporarily push back the void threat, the Light garrison left over is the object of the fight. But the villain basically wins in terms of objective and the Vanguard is run over. So in what exact way do we go from that to trolls prodding a big evil fel snake?

[JDBlou]

Lol wait.. so why is everyone convinced it's .1 and not .1.5's Raid, if the '01' means nothing? I'm trying to follow all of your guys' crazed logic here, not the other way around. I genuinely thought 'that 01 you're so adorably attached to:' applied to you.

I'm perfectly aware of Atal'Utek being set up as a Raid following Zul'jan. Your group are the only ones insisting it can't be 12.1.5, which.. is confirmed to have a Raid continuing off the leveling story.

I see no reason to set belief either place, is my angle. Go ahead and die on that hill though



That's called, part of the zone being inaccessible at launch.

Because 12.1 arrives with a new raid and a new zone, and this area is totally not the zone they're talking about, but only if we live in your alternate reality where 2+2=5

Ion verifiably did not say leveling story, what he said was that's a one boss raid and "Unlike the raid in 12.07, which is more of standalone thing, this raid [12.1.5] is going to be a continuation of of Midnight's narrative, bridging us and setting the stage for the next major update in the following year."

The intellectual dishonesty of misrepresenting Ion's quote and assuming people won't fact check you is one hell of a gambit.

I guess you have an argument though, if you ignore all the evidence and plunge your head in the sand.

[Cheezits]

The main hangup of the patch is the boldest decision of the base game that you pointed out a few pages back. The natural evolution of their plot is that after we temporarily push back the void threat, the Light garrison left over is the object of the fight. But the villain basically wins in terms of objective and the Vanguard is run over. So in what exact way do we go from that to trolls prodding a big evil fel snake?

If the devs need more time to tell that Light story (possibly a whole season, given flame drake) they should admit it as soon as humanly possible. Otherwise we run the risk of the only thing going between the Dawnwell and Underground Xal being a single one boss raid.

My problem is less with Ula'tek and an Amani raid filler patch and more that just like Karesh there's a possibility that everything outside of the raid in 12.1 is lazy, reused asset sloppa. You can Shaman Sight Atal'utek right now and see that it's just more of Zul'Aman with some green rivers. Incredibly lazy.

[Joshuaj]

It's baffling how this community is convinced that the primary 12.1 Raid AND Zone is Atal'Utek, when we just got shown that 12.1.5 (still part of the same season mind you) has been all but confirmed to have a Zul'Aman style Labyrinth, likely Atal'Utek themed, and another single-boss Raid.

A marginal portion of Zul'Aman isn't a 'new zone' that they can't talk about.

Unlike 12.0.5's off-shoot Sporefall Raid, 12.1.5's Raid , as Ion said, will be following up on the threads from the story campaign, and gee what could that be..? Zul'jan.

Like the hysteria is so bad, even these CE owners are buying into 'OH NO WE BETTER HIDE THIS!' as if it's a mistake being in there?? lol give me a break.
They don't have spoilers in those books. This whole ordeal has been fabricated by pure speculation based on a Warlock set icon- in an age where we have Raid-Specific-Renown-Rewards.

There's pretty much no surprise or super secret with Atal'Utek, there's no grand mystery, but there sure is a novel patch content delivery schedule.

Not gonna be that guy, but would you really be surprised if 12.1 was Atal'Utek? It would be no different to how TWW did things:

X.0- Main plot

X.1- Side story stuff (with main plot connections)

X.2- Continuation of main plot

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

Honestly, 12.1 and it's Raid and Zone is all because Metzen really wanted Jesse Cox to come back and see that Giant White Snake finally make an appearance.



It all just makes sense. It was from the deepest depths Metzen recognized that it was time. 14 Years later, the Gundrak snake will finally show itself.

[Eldryth]

The reason it seems so safe to assume Ula'tek really is the main S2 raid from that string is because it's a set.

Sure, we're getting an extra one-boss raid in the following patch... but there's no chance of them making new sets for just one boss. And while it is possible for us to get multiple smaller raids in S2 just like with S1, I can't imagine them labeling the sets under a minor raid like Dreamrift, as opposed to the biggest raid (like Voidspire) or the finale (like Quel'danas).


If it had been non-set items like weapons or trinkets, this whole situation would be a lot more ambiguous.

[elderu]

Both Crucible of Storms and Battle of Dazar'alor dropped the same gear, but Dazar'alor is where the file names came from.

This would only mean something if all the Raid Sets for each Class are themed after the Raids, which in this expansion unlike BFA, they are not.

If anything, it could be a better guess to say that whatever RaidUlatek is, IS the one-off for that reason, or like I said, a set coming from a Raid-Specific Renown track for all we know.

For example: None of the raid set pieces in 12.0 raids are called 'Voidspire/Dreamrift/Queldanas', it's "Inv_plate_raiddeathknightmidnight_d_01_chest"

Because there is no 'main' raid for season 1, there are 3 raids. In season 2, there are 2 raids- and clearly Ulatek gets unique armor sets per class. That makes it unusual.

[Super Dickmann]

If the devs need more time to tell that Light story (possibly a whole season, given flame drake) they should admit it as soon as humanly possible. Otherwise we run the risk of the only thing going between the Dawnwell and Underground Xal being a single one boss raid.

My problem is less with Ula'tek and an Amani raid filler patch and more that just like Karesh there's a possibility that everything outside of the raid in 12.1 is lazy, reused asset sloppa.

You can Shaman Sight Atal'utek right now and see that it's just more of Zul'Aman with some green rivers. Incredibly lazy.

Judging by the roadmap, 12.1 has a full raid, not a one-off. There'll definitely be asset reuse, but it has to, it is a troll area. The main thing the zone has to do story-wise is to compensate for the abysmal main game patch story by bringing up the actual Horde trolls and to explain why this is a pressing issue that prevents pursuing Xal'atath. Xal'atath pressing her position by raising a general from yonks back works to that end.

[Cheezits]

Devils advocate: if we are getting four seasons again, Atal'utek is just the "lazy zone patch" that we used to get in old expansions (Isle of Fangs, Broken Shore, Nzoth invasions, Korthia etc) while 12.2 and 12.3 have more impressive offerings.

[Mecheon]

They unironically would've been better off saving Zul'aman in its entirety (so the coast and the island) to be a patch zone with its place at launch being taken by a Naga zone or Lordaeron.

Getting the entirety of Zul'aman after all these years is one of the biggest pulls of this expansion. Lordaeron would have sucked. I can already go to Lordaeron, but I can't get into Zul'aman.

The main hangup of the patch is the boldest decision of the base game that you pointed out a few pages back. The natural evolution of their plot is that after we temporarily push back the void threat, the Light garrison left over is the object of the fight. But the villain basically wins in terms of objective and the Vanguard is run over. So in what exact way do we go from that to trolls prodding a big evil fel snake?

Ever since he was mentioned in the RPG, Ula-Tek has always been associated with the Old Gods in some unspecified manner. So that might be "xal's messing around has woken something up"