The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Nymrohd]

Well, in the end, you can justify greenery with titan machines / close to Azeroth soul or stuff like that I guess?

Usually when the Hollow World concept is done in fantasy it has massive vibrant areas with extinct animals and things like that near the Inner Sun of the world.

[Santandame]

Hard to find my post about that expac concept but I think I had Azshara help us find the xpac's McGuffin and guide us through the final raid so we'd save the world together . . . and then after the fight she steals the McGuffin and leads us to the next xpac. So we wouldn't be fighting her, we'd be working for her and she would ofc stab us in the back

Yeah I’d love something like that. Her filling the Magni/Bolvar/Khadgar role for the expansion. Imagine her spearheading the expansions main campaign storyline. It would feel so refreshing to have a villain in that spot.

[Gloriandus]

Maybe they could do something like the Genesis device in The Wrath of Khan; the Titans used a form of the reorginiation device to create a "perfect" world beneath the surface/inside Azeroth, aka a "Hollow Earth", as "practice" for the surface? Or maybe just for themselves, and that's what they've been hiding all along? AFAIK, reorigination doesn't destroy the terrain, just the lifeforms.

If Danuser is still fully in charge of the story, considering the esoteric subjects Dragonflight has hinted at which he clearly leans towards, a hollow earth would fit right in.

[Nymrohd]

Yeah I’d love something like that. Her filling the Magni/Bolvar/Khadgar role for the expansion. Imagine her spearheading the expansions main campaign storyline. It would feel so refreshing to have a villain in that spot.

She has an excellent Voice Actor so I'd love to have her do that. Honestly Bolvar was good and so underutilized.

Anything but Magni.

[lanerios]

I really hope we don't get underground zones. I really don't understand the obsession some people seem to have with them. "Oh you liked being inside caves and such? Here, you'll be stuck in them for a whole expansion!"

In Cata, and with Zaralek it's ok because there is enough of a difference between the zones. You can go to coastal areas, you can go to snow areas, you can go underground. With a whole Deepholme style expansion? "Here are caves, and look! some more caves. What's around the corner you ask? CAVES!"

[Harbour]

https://newsroom.activisionblizzard....next-adventure

Interesting how in this video devoted to merge with Microsoft they only show Warlord of Draenor footage and then Gromm mostly as well. May mean nothing but its interesting how they chose not WotlK (most popular overall), or Legion (acknowledged last years) or DF (current expansion), but WoD to use footage from.

[lanerios]

Starfield is considered by most to be a very, very good game. It sits in a genre of its own, and if Bethesda games aren't your style then it might not fit your tastes. But to imply that it's a bad game, or a commercial failure, is just silly.

Even if Starfield was a flop, then it would also have been worth remembering that the Bethesda acquisition happened some time into its development. The core structure was already set in place at that point.

What I'm talking about here is Xbox's ability to bring back dead franchises, because they've got money to spend and want to make Game Pass as appealing as it can be, to as many people as possible. There's room for Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft, and Warcraft strategy games. But they'll likely also want to pump money into whatever else Blizzard might be up to, if it builds their brand. For example films and TV shows.

It's considered good by Bethesda fans.. you know, the same people who:

Bash EA/Ubisoft/Blizzard for fixing broken games
Praise Bethesda for releasing broken games because the fans will fix it

And then keep praising Bethesda for keeping the game broken until fans fix it.

Sorry, I hope you don't mind I will not take these people seriously.

[Nebron]

My idea was that the locals found a way to contain the Void in half the continent using Titan tech after expelling the titans so the first xpac would be exploring Avaloren and meeting the local cultures and helping resolve local issues as well as how the rest of the world would interact with them and the second xpac would be void focused, fully using the NPC roster the first one established with us having a chance to explore the past of those cultures as found in the ruins of their land. Odyn, Xal'atath and Azshara would be driving the story.

Sounds cool
They could also start with small island to the West, imply the existence of major landmass and keep working on that for some time, to eventually launch a maaaaasive continent as an alternative for a revamp. I think there are countless possibilities there, I simply hope they avoid overcrowding the map with infinite number of islands that don't have that much in common and to which you hardly return once the story is finished. Making the zones replayable over the years allows them to explore much more interesting plotlines and story that evolves over the years.

To be honest, I'm not even a fan of these new characters that are being pushed to another expansion (like Iridikron apparently), because it feels like a cheap way to justify that the story is being built to span for more than just one expansion. For me, there's literally nothing cool about introducing a character, that has no clear goal, and you drag him to another expansion to serve as driving factor for new storylines, as it just creates an illusion of rich and well-thought storytelling, rather than an actual one

- - - Updated - - -

Usually when the Hollow World concept is done in fantasy it has massive vibrant areas with extinct animals and things like that near the Inner Sun of the world.

Yeah, so "Azeroth Worldsoul" could fit as a source of energy akin to the idea of Inner Sun I guess?

[ImTheMizAwesome]

https://newsroom.activisionblizzard....next-adventure

Interesting how in this video devoted to merge with Microsoft they only show Warlord of Draenor footage and then Gromm mostly as well. May mean nothing but its interesting how they chose not WotlK (most popular overall), or Legion (acknowledged last years) or DF (current expansion), but WoD to use footage from.

Is this one from Hearthstone? havent' seen it before.

[Lady Atia]

Is this one from Hearthstone? havent' seen it before.

Maybe from Arclight Rumble?

[AngerFork]

Yes, but that is what I am pointing out.

Putting the gametime in Heroic makes no sense from Blizzard's point of view, because then you just pay $5 for a whole bunch of stuff and have significantly less incentive to get the epic. That'd just be going from everyone giving you a flat $20 for a cool mount/pet/transmog and then maybe $5 for some extra stuff to everyone giving you $5 for the mount/pe/transmog and probably not any more money.

Ah, gotcha. I misunderstood and thought you were saying it made no sense for the epic edition.

[Auxis]

New "leak" from a new thread:

[Kiria]

New "leak" from a new thread:

AI for sure they seem to use a similar background throughout all the pics that have been posted.

[Harbour]

Kek, as someone who made a lot of AI art, this picture is 100% AI generated. You can see in textures, it has typical overly crispy highly contrast textures.

I think its safe to call every leak with even a bit of AI generated presence fake one. Like seriously, this technology didnt properly exist before DF, and now, when it exists, every second leak has that AI generated look.

Blizzard are lazy but they wont use fucking AI for their main promotion. Hiring normal artist would cost them less than reputational losses.

[Jodmos]

For anyone interested, Taliesin has a new video out about all the leaks so far. Not for the faint hearted as it's 1 hour 20 minutes. Probably just the same speculation as has been here for each 'leak'.

[pacotaco]

https://newsroom.activisionblizzard....next-adventure

Interesting how in this video devoted to merge with Microsoft they only show Warlord of Draenor footage and then Gromm mostly as well. May mean nothing but its interesting how they chose not WotlK (most popular overall), or Legion (acknowledged last years) or DF (current expansion), but WoD to use footage from.

Wait, where's that Draenei render from? First time I've seen it, I think.

[Kiria]

For anyone interested, Taliesin has a new video out about all the leaks so far. Not for the faint hearted as it's 1 hour 20 minutes. Probably just the same speculation as has been here for each 'leak'.

I listened to it earlier, it wasnt bad i do like some of Tali's views as hes a huge lore nerd and is generally quite good with his predictions.

[Raetary]

Wait, where's that Draenei render from? First time I've seen it, I think.

From BfA.

[Well Done Steak]

Wait, where's that Draenei render from? First time I've seen it, I think.

I'm pretty sure that's the draenie next to anduin and the final shot from the BFA cinematic

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Maybe from Arclight Rumble?

I just watched arclight cinematics at least those that i found and it didn't have a scene like that.

I guess it has to be from some HS expansion.