Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Sondrelk]

“There are no Old Gods in Battle for Azeroth.”

Can’t believe how gullible people are being that this means no pirates.

No. I very much believe this. Not in the sense that there are no pirates, or even that pirates are part of the main plot. But that the next expansion is themed heavily around Pirates specifically.

[Santandame]

No. I very much believe this. Not in the sense that there are no pirates, or even that pirates are part of the main plot. But that the next expansion is themed heavily around Pirates specifically.

Yeah I don’t think the consensus was ever going to be pirates as the primary theme. Moreso key factor of the expansion if its South Seas and or a new world with their main role being that of either allies providing us with a ship or the allies of the main enemy like Azshara.

I still think we’ll get the above.

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Sorry, other than the settings and minor NPCs being included (like Kurog), I don't see how Dragonflight isn't it's own story for now. Primalists and the Incarnates who are the main antagonists for now are completely new entities. The main narrative is independent of any other expansion. Dragonflight would still make as much sense as it does now without any other expansion/games existing. You couldn't say the same about TBC, Wrath, Legion, BFA or Shadowlands. I do retract Cataclysm. Warlords is kind of an outlier because it's fundamentally literally based on another game.

You were the one bitched about Blizzard making the "next expansion be a part two" because we are obviously not gonna kill Iridikron in this expansion.

Saying that all the other games are independent on eachother is idiotic.

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They literally never said that.

People always parrot that, but they've never said that.

Okay.

“Who is the final boss of Warlords of Draenor?”

“Grommash Hellscream”

[Makorus]

Yeah I don’t think the consensus was ever going to be pirates as the primary theme. Moreso key factor of the expansion of its South Seas and or a new world with their main role being that of either allies providing us with a ship or the allies of the main enemy like Azshara.

I still think we’ll get the above.

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Okay.

“Who is the final boss of Warlords of Draenor?”

“Grommash Hellscream”

Which was literally the original plan. There are times where Blizzard fudges the truth, but people make it out like every single time Blizzard says something it's some elaborate 3D Chess Troll move.

[Santandame]

Which was literally the original plan. There are times where Blizzard fudges the truth, but people make it out like every single time Blizzard says something it's some elaborate 3D Chess Troll move.

I don’t know what to tell you. If you think they’re going to reveal a key element of the expansion prior to its reveal when they have never done so before then you do you.

I think it’s clear among a few here that pirates aren’t a popular theme, as evidenced in this thread. It feels like people are letting that opinion cloud their judgement here in terms of getting them when most evidence points towards them being in the next expansion in some form.

[Makorus]

I don’t know what to tell you. If you think they’re going to reveal a key element of the expansion prior to its reveal when they have never done so before then you do you.

They couldn't also have literally not said anything at all. They have nothing to gain from lying about Pirates. No ones gonna be like "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THERE ARE PIRATES AFTER ALL HELL YEAH!!!". It's pirates.

[Santandame]

They couldn't also have literally not said anything at all. They have nothing to gain from lying about Pirates. No ones gonna be like "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THERE ARE PIRATES AFTER ALL HELL YEAH!!!". It's pirates.

No but people instead might be like “WOOOOOO YEAH WE’RE FINALLY GOING TO GET OUR OWN SHIP HELL YEAH!!!!”.

Regardless of whether they could have said nothing at all - they have never revealed their theme for an expansion prior to a reveal, ever.

For the record, my number one hope is a world revamp expansion but I’ll be amused looking back on the last couple of pages when the next expansion is revealed and pirates having a role in the story as well as us getting our own ship is revealed.

[Woggmer]

If there is a world revamp, the max/expansion content has to take place in this new world.

A Cata-style revamp would take a massive amount of resources for content that, in the grand scheme of things doesn't matter (leveling). In Cataclysm the endgame-content suffered massively due to the revamp, even though they weren't even able to finish it, as you can see with zones that were barely touched like Arathi or Silithus.

Actually, I remember an old video from during the days when Cata was in its alpha/beta stage where TotalHalibut (later named TotalBiscuit [RIP]) was going over some of the zones and found something going on in Silithus, which looked like a placeholder quest.. where a bunch of the Cenarion Circle night elves were waddling around under some Old God influence.. and it had C'thun sitting nearby being the cause of it all.

They probably had something planned but scrapped it for any number of reasons (though the biggest possible reason being the fact that if C'thun was still alive would probably mean Med'an would get involved... and nobody likes Med'an.) Which would explain why Silithus was largely untouched in Cata.

[Nymrohd]

If No Pirates then it must be Ninjas. Void Ninjas!

[Makorus]

Actually, I remember an old video from during the days when Cata was in its alpha/beta stage where TotalHalibut (later named TotalBiscuit [RIP]) was going over some of the zones and found something going on in Silithus, which looked like a placeholder quest.. where a bunch of the Cenarion Circle night elves were waddling around under some Old God influence.. and it had C'thun sitting nearby being the cause of it all.

They probably had something planned but scrapped it for any number of reasons (though the biggest possible reason being the fact that if C'thun was still alive would probably mean Med'an would get involved... and nobody likes Med'an.) Which would explain why Silithus was largely untouched in Cata.

Still one of the cooler scrapped things, along with the Nazjatar/Nzoth merged-zone.

[KayRule]

I really wish the WoW userbase was mature enough that Cata could have just been a revamp, with the "end game" content being repurposed across the zones on launch. Getting an expansion solely focused on a revamp instead of it being split between end game zones and content, new giant cinematic starting zones with hundreds of new assets and locations never to be used again, really made it so the revamp felt very half assed - to the point many zones, from Silithus to Ashenvale just literally being untouched, and stuff like this really shows as time went on they just said "fuck it" and left many zones as is.

Even now, people wishing for a World Revamp fail to acknowledge how badly the playerbase would react if they actually did it right and just focused on a revamp.

[Jaggler]

They probably had something planned but scrapped it for any number of reasons (though the biggest possible reason being the fact that if C'thun was still alive would probably mean Med'an would get involved... and nobody likes Med'an.) Which would explain why Silithus was largely untouched in Cata.

What do you mean. Everybody loved, the draenei-orc-human mage-priest-shaman Med'an who was just great in every way and should have been our saviour from all evil.

I can't wait when Blizzard finally reveals 11.0: Warlords of the Shadowlands.

The warlords we killed in WoD manifested as powerful spirits in the Shadowlands and we need to take them down. We have to join one of six orc-clans and rejoin one of the 4 covenants. Each combination of clan an covenant has a special ability for every class. Also the whole expansion will take place just on Korthia.

[Darkarath]

I really wish the WoW userbase was mature enough that Cata could have just been a revamp, with the "end game" content being repurposed across the zones on launch. Getting an expansion solely focused on a revamp instead of it being split between end game zones and content, new giant cinematic starting zones with hundreds of new assets and locations never to be used again, really made it so the revamp felt very half assed - to the point many zones, from Silithus to Ashenvale just literally being untouched, and stuff like this really shows as time went on they just said "fuck it" and left many zones as is.

Even now, people wishing for a World Revamp fail to acknowledge how badly the playerbase would react if they actually did it right and just focused on a revamp.

I agree that Cata revamp was a failure for how they approached it. But years have passed, they learn.

Anyone that believes that a revamp would be like Cata is delusional. It we ever get a revamp, I would bet my hand on the following points:

- Current Old World would still be there, untouched.

- The revamp would not cover all of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.

- The revamped zones would be made from the scratch, like Draenor was, in a different map.

- All revamped zones would be part of the new max level experience. So they would be like any new expansion.

[Makorus]

Revamping part of the world or only Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdom would be so terrible that at that point, they shouldn't even bother.

[Darkarath]

Revamping part of the world or only Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdom would be so terrible that at that point, they shouldn't even bother.

Subjective.

I would love that DF ends with a cataclysmic event that destroys a good part of the world. 11.0 brings zones of the Old World revamped and we rediscover everything that we have visited through the years along, of course, new zones.

Everything would be new and shiny while nostalgic.

I would love that they have the balls to do that, but I know that I am just daydreaming.

[Hitei]

I agree that Cata revamp was a failure for how they approached it. But years have passed, they learn.

Anyone that believes that a revamp would be like Cata is delusional. It we ever get a revamp, I would bet my hand on the following points:

- Current Old World would still be there, untouched.

- The revamp would not cover all of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.

- The revamped zones would be made from the scratch, like Draenor was, in a different map.

- All revamped zones would be part of the new max level experience. So they would be like any new expansion.

Not really sure about this one. Especially in conjunction with the next one. You're just gonna have part of EK or Kalimdor instanced off?

[Santandame]

Not really sure about this one. Especially in conjunction with the next one. You're just gonna have part of EK or Kalimdor instanced off?

Yeah not sure how that’ll work.

If they revamp for example, Arathi Highlands and above for that expansions current content but block off Wetlands down to STV and say something like an elemental storm is preventing you from going further; then I feel like people would be rightfully pissed.

If a revamp happens then both EK and Kalimdor need to be done at the same time or completely built from scratch like Draenor.

[maplesyrupgl]

Subjective.

I would love that DF ends with a cataclysmic event that destroys a good part of the world. 11.0 brings zones of the Old World revamped and we rediscover everything that we have visited through the years along, of course, new zones.

Everything would be new and shiny while nostalgic.

I would love that they have the balls to do that, but I know that I am just daydreaming.

Hard disagree.

We already did the "cataclysmic event" that changes the world. It was called Cataclysm.

It was a cool idea at the time, but it put a hard timestamp on every levelling quest. The zones were narratively outdated literally 1 expansion later and it really added to the weird timejumping feeling of levelling.

If we get an old world revamp, I hope it's actively not driven by one singular point in time. I hope zones are reworked to have more self-contained timeless stories

[Darkarath]

Not really sure about this one. Especially in conjunction with the next one. You're just gonna have part of EK or Kalimdor instanced off?

I mean, if a Cataclysm happens, some zones might be totally destroyed, so that would be less work to do. Also, several zones would be mixed into bigger zones. This is another point that I take for granted.

So if you take all these elements together I guess that they might revamp all of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms in one expansion, or at least by the end of the cycle of the expansion, with the patches. I think that it would be difficult, but I would love to be wrong.

If they do not this and leave zones for future expansions/ patches, why that would be bad? It would create mystery. How many players were super interested in Hyjal and Uldum when they were not accessible? I would certainly be eagerly waiting to see what is going on in a certain zone after another Cataclysm, especially if they give us hints through the quests of the new revamped world.

[Dracullus]

As I have said before. The most likely source of leaks is some low level employee at the Blizzcon Convention Center seeing the rehearsal for the actual release, then making a leak when they get off work and have access to their phones.

I just hope it will be more like 2019 when Jeff Kaplan was clearly pissed about even limited leak about Overwatch 2 than Dragonflight when (not confirmed, but c'mon) whole shit was leaked to manage expectations. We are happy about WoW, Blizzard (more or less), surprise us this time.

[Sondrelk]

Yeah not sure how that’ll work.

If they revamp for example, Arathi Highlands and above for that expansions current content but block off Wetlands down to STV and say something like an elemental storm is preventing you from going further; then I feel like people would be rightfully pissed.

If a revamp happens then both EK and Kalimdor need to be done at the same time or completely built from scratch like Draenor.

EK and Kalimdor doesn't have to be revamped at the same time. Just don't give any reason to go to the other continent and it would be no different from the ship in Stormwind still going to Northrend despite it still being stuck on WotLK.