Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Luck4]

A world revamp is definitely the only thing that could possibly warrant ending the expansion early. And even then it would be a bit of a leap.

10.2 datamining might have a clue about 11.0, an item/texture/achievement removal, the usual stuff.

[Nymrohd]

I suppose the question that should be asked is whether it's better to get one big thing, or several smaller things.

If just one of the many events in 10.1-10.1.7 was all we had, but it was also much more in-depth. Would that be objectively better than all these different ones that while more boring, can give far more varied rewards.

Personally I think I do enjoy having several small things. Because while individually kinda boring, I do prefer the tiniest amount of new content, rather than the one big thing at the start that I would have been long since done with by now.

I think many of the events need polish. What were the elemental storms? Why were they happening? What was their goal? And they had no real structure. They just started and ended without actually interacting with the players.
With the Fyrakk Assaults, I assume we will found out what Igira was making in 10.2. Those imo were decent but very small.
Then Time Rifts. I am sorry but where is the polish there? Everyone who wants to do the new casual content is stuck in a tiny area facing random mobs. Imagine if they were actual rifts and instead of getting a tiny cut area for the final boss, we had 5-6 MoP style scenarios but meant for large groups in different areas. Like the Legion one could take place in a Suramar under constant Legion siege, ending with us stopping Illidan in a fel ship coming to kill Tyrande. Just a 3-5 step scenario using entirely existing assets with some of the steps randomized.

Then when it comes to rewards, I just think that the casual/world content should just have a structured reward ladder that keeps people engaged for multiple months instead of encouraging grind and ending in 2-3 weeks at most. The example I use as a reward track is the BfA Conquest track; do any number of activities that progress the track during the week and once you fill it in, you get a reward. First 8 weeks give a Normal Raid ilvl reward and then it gives Heroic ilvl rewards until the end of the season (all slots). Unlike the BfA track, make the rewards cumulative (so if you start late you can keep doing activities to fill multiple levels of the track up to the current step). So instead of some easy catch up, you actually have people engage with your content. Because you can make every content reward progression in the track, people can do whatever they like (and the cosmetics will keep them hopping around). Because the rewards would be good, people would actually do them. And they'd be far enough back from what people doing instanced content can get that they don't need to bother with them (but many might still do them for cosmetics).

[Dracullus]

10.0.7=useless new zone forgotten after 1 month
10.1.5= another reskinned legion assault
10.1.7= yet another reskinned legion assault

30 minutes of quests aren't content. or better, they are not enough to sustain a patch by themselves.

Of course shit this, shit that, in previous post it was "10 minute story patch", now everything is reskin and 'useless'...

Eh, I'm tired of it. Keep arguing that expansion with patch every 8 week is low effort with someone else.

[Nymrohd]

don't put too much faith into blizzard. look at diablo 4: 10 years of development and it released with no content. now the game is dead after only 2 months.

don't underestimate how inefficient and incompetent blizzard can be.

I think it was more like 8 years of development with at least 4 of them wasted because they had no clear vision of what they wanted to do and reset things at least twice. Which yes, is incompetence.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

I hate this.

I'm really not a fan of how Sylvanas' post-redemption interactions with her loyalists have been handled. In Shadowlands, you effectively had a quick interaction that boils down to "I may be forced to spend an eternity doing Maw dailies for all those horrible atrocities I committed and am super-duper sorry for, but I'm happy you were complicit in those atrocities I committed <3", and here you have her tacking on this rather revisionist bit about how the Forsaken were always more than arrows in her quiver. This seems a bit silly, especially given that we know not only was there a point when they were very much only considered arrows in her quiver, but also that they only lost that status when they got upgraded to "bulwark".

I'd have preferred if she were a bit more level and less sentimental. I also think her musing on her work with the Forsaken was nice, but I would have preferred if it were treated more like her recognizing the value of the Forsaken civilization in hindsight and taking some joy from that she was able to do something of value. It's a bit of a thin line between this proposition and the dialogue Blizzard wrote, but I still think it would have made a bit of a difference in making this interaction feel more sincere. I also think it may make sense to have her be more skeptical of the Desolate Council instead of immediately riding them. She may know they're liable to be better than her, but it would make sense for her not to want to jump to conclusions and to comment on them with some skepticism.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

One lead to the most loved post-Wrath expansion (Legion) with frequent updates, and one lead to a well received expansion (DF) with frequent updates. So...

7.1 brought the megadungeon thing for the first time. Night Hold(Really though assets were all there, they just staggered the raid to 7.1. 7.0 Raid was Emerald Nightmare. Also Broken Shore zone was there to before 7.2 happened. Then there's 7.3 which lead to Argus so the .1 at least originally didn't have a new zone at the start.


If DF was ran like Legion all the Emerald Dream assets would be in game just not available just yet. So they aren't necessarily handling it like Legion.


And yeah DF has frequent updates and thats fine but the big updates the major content patches are the ones with the actual hype behind them and the minor updates having some small story updates still isn't gonna hit the excitement when a new major content patch comes.

[Raetary]

Status update from everyone's favorite certain Forsaken character!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yUamzm8OAo

I find this hilarious.

Her speech feels like a very awkward zoom meeting.

[Reive]

Of course shit this, shit that, in previous post it was "10 minute story patch", now everything is reskin and 'useless'...

Eh, I'm tired of it. Keep arguing that expansion with patch every 8 week is low effort with someone else.

You said this patch had more story than 7.2 so i changed the 10 minutes into 30. also, i'm not the only one who thinks the content is low effort. a patch every 8 week doesn't mean crap if there is nothing to do in it.

I think it was more like 8 years of development with at least 4 of them wasted because they had no clear vision of what they wanted to do and reset things at least twice. Which yes, is incompetence.

w/e it's still crap. overwatch 2 is even worse. they killed ow 1 to make 2 with a pve mode and then after 4 years they couldn't even deliver that. there is a serious case of mismanagement of resources at blizzard.

[Gurahk]

Not sure I really like the story direction, I see a lot of praise but it just doesn't do it for me. At best it can be decent, at worst the voice acting and quirky characters make me mute the game out of spite.
Also if 10.2 really is the end then I'm not sure I can really trust Blizzard with the future, especially considering I'm already pretty apathetic to the game currently in general.
11.0 really has to be something big.

[Ersula]

I'm really not a fan of how Sylvanas' post-redemption interactions with her loyalists have been handled. In Shadowlands, you effectively had a quick interaction that boils down to "I may be forced to spend an eternity doing Maw dailies for all those horrible atrocities I committed and am super-duper sorry for, but I'm happy you were complicit in those atrocities I committed <3", and here you have her tacking on this rather revisionist bit about how the Forsaken were always more than arrows in her quiver. This seems a bit silly, especially given that we know not only was there a point when they were very much only considered arrows in her quiver, but also that they only lost that status when they got upgraded to "bulwark".

You have to remember that as soon as the Jailer told her the universe was doomed when Argus died she basically disassociated. Literally nothing mattered to her at that point because she had been convinced the universe was going to either die slowly or quickly, depending on her actions. Now she's back to her state of mind before all that.

I can't tell if this is gaslighting for Sylvanas lovers or just tone deaf with everything she has done.

Do you think during the Forsaken Heritage Quest she should express regret in establishing the Forsaken nation in the first place? She is the reason they exist at all.

Her speech feels like a very awkward zoom meeting.

That's very much what it is, yes.

[PenguinChan]

I think it was more like 8 years of development with at least 4 of them wasted because they had no clear vision of what they wanted to do and reset things at least twice. Which yes, is incompetence.

They abandoned D3's second expansion, released Necro, started work on D4. Restarted development like 4 years later, didn't know what they wanted to do with D4 for awhile - some leads were fired and / or replaced a couple years in after that. Which explains why we have leads that haven't even touched the game, yet the obvious base workings of D4 were implemented far before 2023.

[Jaggler]

7.1 brought the megadungeon thing for the first time. Night Hold(Really though assets were all there, they just staggered the raid to 7.1. 7.0 Raid was Emerald Nightmare. Also Broken Shore zone was there to before 7.2 happened. Then there's 7.3 which lead to Argus so the .1 at least originally didn't have a new zone at the start.


If DF was ran like Legion all the Emerald Dream assets would be in game just not available just yet. So they aren't necessarily handling it like Legion.


And yeah DF has frequent updates and thats fine but the big updates the major content patches are the ones with the actual hype behind them and the minor updates having some small story updates still isn't gonna hit the excitement when a new major content patch comes.

If DF was ran like Legion it would have also just released in May this year (wich is insane to think about tbh)

[Palapop]

Yep, 10.0.7 with zone and more story than 7.2, definitely 10 minutes story patch xD.

If DF ends on 10.2.5, it has 1 RAID less than MoP/Legion/BfA. And that is because in most of 4 raid expacs X.1 patch had size similar to 10.1.5+1.7. Instead you get more world content and actual dungeon rotation if you into dungeons. So less if you like raids, more if you like everything else.

What new zone in 10.0.7?

[Shadowferal]

I'm sure there'll be a book to purchase that'll explain EVERYTHING.

[Raetary]

I'm sure there'll be a book to purchase that'll explain EVERYTHING.

There will be.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

10.0.7 Forbidden Reach zone was technically already done via the Drac'thyr starting area so most of the assets were made already,(Not all obviously)

(At Palapop)

[Jaggler]

I'm sure there'll be a book to purchase that'll explain EVERYTHING.

There's not really aneed to explain anything if you paid attention to the story so far.

[Sondrelk]

7.1 brought the megadungeon thing for the first time. Night Hold(Really though assets were all there, they just staggered the raid to 7.1. 7.0 Raid was Emerald Nightmare. Also Broken Shore zone was there to before 7.2 happened. Then there's 7.3 which lead to Argus so the .1 at least originally didn't have a new zone at the start.


If DF was ran like Legion all the Emerald Dream assets would be in game just not available just yet. So they aren't necessarily handling it like Legion.


And yeah DF has frequent updates and thats fine but the big updates the major content patches are the ones with the actual hype behind them and the minor updates having some small story updates still isn't gonna hit the excitement when a new major content patch comes.

I think it's more correct to say that if DF was run like Legion then Neltharus would simply have had a basement for 10.1, and the Forbidden Reach or the islands off the coast of Ohn'ahra would have been 10.2.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Status update from everyone's favorite certain Forsaken character!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yUamzm8OAo

Pretending like Sylvanas ever actually cared about her people is just painful to see and obvious awful fanboying by the writers (you know which one).

[Dracullus]

Imo they shouldn't wait with 2024 roadmap to Blizzcon or new year. It's not like existence of 11.0 is surprise to anyone. Raw info that 10.2 is last major patch without full picture simply will cause bad PR.

Lack of 10.2.7 in some files people posted earlier make me wonder if 11.0 isn't set to release earlier than November, so we would have full season 3 -> 10.2.5 with BfA timewalking and story epilogue -> 12 weeks fated -> pre-patch.