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

[Pheraz]

TBF we’ve mainly been fighting dragons this expansion. The “elemental” angle people keep erroneously bringing up are dragons imbued with elemental powers.

Teriz, with all respect but even if we wouldnt have been fighting elementals since classic, they are def. the least interesting "villians" of all. They are nice side springles but thats it. And we've really seen enough.

[Nightshade711]

Yes, we're sick of elemental shenanigans.

Agreed.
It’s why I highly doubt that next expansion is anything elemental related because of how much the elements play a role in DF.
We’re even fighting an elemental lord lmao.

[Hitei]

Apparently there are two portals slots on the extended Stormwind portal room without doodads on the PTR.

Amirdrassil and 11.0 capital, or something else?

The portal rooms are modular and designed non-specifically so that they can accommodate whatever future long-term portals are decided.

The lack of doodads here is (almost certainly) nothing. It's just that they didn't want the space to feel artificial and like an empty development area, so they put around random crates and storage doodads to make it seem like a proper in-world space that isn't being utilized by the stormwind mages as anything but backroom storage at the moment. In spreading random stuff around the back room, two of the slots ended up not having anything put in them (because some empty and some full looks more organic).

In fact, I would expect, just from an ergonomics point of view, that what will happen when 11.0 hits is that one of the lesser utilized portals in the front room, exodar probably, will be moved into the new wing, and the new capital will be put in that open slot. Because it doesn't really make much sense for the portal people are using the absolute most to be a whole extra walk into a mostly empty back section.

[Raetary]

Idk if anyone mentioned this, but in sw they opened up the second floor in the Stormwind Portal room.

Spoiler: 

[Teriz]

Yes, we're sick of elemental shenanigans.

Replace “we’re” with ”I’m”.

Teriz, with all respect but even if we wouldnt have been fighting elementals since classic, they are def. the least interesting "villians" of all. They are nice side springles but thats it. And we've really seen enough.

The salient point here is that personal feelings doesn’t diminish the chances of certain themes becoming expansions. If it’s not your cup of tea, then maybe you’re sitting out next expansion? I did that during Shadowlands. In the end, whatever is coming our way is coming our way in 11.0 whether we personally like it or not.

[Marlamin]

Idk if anyone mentioned this, but in sw they opened up the second floor in the Stormwind Portal room.

Yeah, this has been open since the first 10.2 build. Weird timing, but neat.

[Raetary]

Yeah, this has been open since the first 10.2 build. Weird timing, but neat.

Damn, i completely missed it until now.

[Pheraz]

Idk if anyone mentioned this, but in sw they opened up the second floor in the Stormwind Portal room.

Spoiler: 

IMO that is another indication for something revamp related. In boralus we got some portals left and also those portals in that elemental circle. I guess those will be moved there instead.

- - - Updated - - -

Replace “we’re” with ”I’m”.





The salient point here is that personal feelings doesn’t diminish the chances of certain themes becoming expansions. If it’s not your cup of tea, then maybe you’re sitting out next expansion? I did that during Shadowlands. In the end, whatever is coming our way is coming our way in 11.0 whether we personally like it or not.

Think differently. What blizzard wants is: money. I have no problems with this (with money making). But elementals is just not selling.

[Wangming]

Think differently. What blizzard wants is: money. I have no problems with this (with money making). But elementals is just not selling.

To be fair it wouldn't be the first time they were one step behind what players want. For a lot of people orc fatigue was a thing before WoD was announced.

[Enrif]

since it seems the thread doesn't go anywhere and no real good leaks are about.

How about the following. What if the next expansion is a timeline based one? Similar to WoD but not quite. I have this theory for sometime in my head, and it really got me thinking about it when the Varian/Lo'Gosh and Sylvanas Transmogs were datamined.

We have Iridikron working with the Infinites and he asked why the titans preserved this timeline. So, the most logical conclusion to all this is a timetravel expansion. But this time not to another world, but Azeroth. And the specific period in time is given by the Lo'Gosh armor, which would put it before Classic but still after WC3.

A timeline in which Varian did not made it yet back to Stormwind and is still Lo'gosh the Gladiator, where Sylvanas didn't yet joined the Horde. Where the scarlet crusade is still strong.

I think a lot of datamined stuff (high res alliance/horde assets) could be actually for something like that. Not quite a revamp. And it is also not an alternate timeline (yet), but a jump back in time, where we as players have to make sure things happen as they should be, while Iridikron and the Infinites try to change the past.

[Teriz]

If it looks like a duck. There's a lot of elemental aspects to DF and it's just silly to pretend like there's not. I don't think elemental fatigue is real but if they do wanna lean into an elemental theme for the next expansion they would need to do it on an elemental plane or multiple elemental planes to not have it just feel like DF 2.0 and I doubt they wanna go with the disjointed zones thing again anytime soon since it took them a decade to get over how poorly it was received in Cata just to be incredibly poorly received in SL as soon as they were okay with zones not being connected again.

You mean like us fighting elementals (and other stuff) underground? That would be a rather big departure from the high flying thematics of Dragonflight.

[Marlamin]

I don't think it's useful to get stuck on a certain idea of what 11.0 is going to be or to shoot down other's ideas, BlizzCon (or large enough BlizzCon leaks) will be the only thing that contextualizes it enough to form an early opinion on and even then it remains to be seen if it'll actually be good or not.

Shadowlands seemed appealing to me at the start but I didn't really end up connecting to the story or anything with Torghast being the only thing I really liked doing. For DF, the leaked stuff didn't seem very appealing to me initially, then after the announcement it had my interest and now I've come to love the setting (and dragonriding in particular). We'll see what 11.0 brings but I cannot imagine how people are already starting to form opinions based on the extremely little information we know, which is largely (or entirely) without context.

[Teriz]

Think differently. What blizzard wants is: money. I have no problems with this (with money making).

Yes, and we're talking about the same company that went from Cataclysm to Mists of Pandaria. Also, Blizzard prefers expansions to be as different from each other as possible.

But elementals is just not selling.

You wouldn't exactly push it as an elemental expansion. You push it as an Azeroth expansion where elements (and other stuff) play a big role.

[Polybius]

Replace “we’re” with ”I’m”.





The salient point here is that personal feelings doesn’t diminish the chances of certain themes becoming expansions. If it’s not your cup of tea, then maybe you’re sitting out next expansion? I did that during Shadowlands. In the end, whatever is coming our way is coming our way in 11.0 whether we personally like it or not.

There are many "I'm"s in this thread sharing the sentiment.

Edit: For context, I've been raiding every expansion. People *do* get tired of eating the same dish. It was felt with WoD, BFA and SL's color palettes (low lighting indoor raids), and now elemental.

[Teriz]

There are many "I'm"s in this thread sharing the sentiment.

Which is fine. That still doesn't alter what the theme of the next expansion is going to be. I'm sure many people found out that 10.0 was going to be about dragons and they decided to sit out. Meanwhile there were others who stopped playing during Shadowlands, looked at Dragonflight, got excited and jumped back in (I was in that group).

It happens.

If the next expansion rolls around and it doesn't appeal to you, don't play it. However in a speculation thread, all possible themes should be explored, even the themes you don't like.

[Wangming]

since it seems the thread doesn't go anywhere and no real good leaks are about.

How about the following. What if the next expansion is a timeline based one? Similar to WoD but not quite. I have this theory for sometime in my head, and it really got me thinking about it when the Varian/Lo'Gosh and Sylvanas Transmogs were datamined.

We have Iridikron working with the Infinites and he asked why the titans preserved this timeline. So, the most logical conclusion to all this is a timetravel expansion. But this time not to another world, but Azeroth. And the specific period in time is given by the Lo'Gosh armor, which would put it before Classic but still after WC3.

A timeline in which Varian did not made it yet back to Stormwind and is still Lo'gosh the Gladiator, where Sylvanas didn't yet joined the Horde. Where the scarlet crusade is still strong.

I think a lot of datamined stuff (high res alliance/horde assets) could be actually for something like that. Not quite a revamp. And it is also not an alternate timeline (yet), but a jump back in time, where we as players have to make sure things happen as they should be, while Iridikron and the Infinites try to change the past.

An interesting idea. But I don't think it warrants a whole expansion
"Nothing changes but the baddie dies" doesn't really sounds like a story worth telling

[huth]

There are many "I'm"s in this thread sharing the sentiment.

Edit: For context, I've been raiding every expansion. People *do* get tired of eating the same dish. It was felt with WoD, BFA and SL's color palettes (low lighting indoor raids), and now elemental.

Just remember: Teriz is always wrong. Anything in WoW remotely similar to what he claims is purely by accident.

[Enrif]

An interesting idea. But I don't think it warrants a whole expansion
"Nothing changes but the baddie dies" doesn't really sounds like a story worth telling

That depends. A lot of critic WoW got over the years, is that they don't tell stories in the game, but put them out into books and other media. This could be a way to remedy this a bit.

And we still have Nozdormus fall to Murozond before us, and he warms up to the Ideas of the Infinites with the Eternus quest, so perhaps he will be more liberal with timeline shenenigans.

[PotHockets]

An interesting idea. But I don't think it warrants a whole expansion
"Nothing changes but the baddie dies" doesn't really sounds like a story worth telling

I doubt a time travel expansion wouldn't change anything. Nozdormu's entire DF arc was basically just realising that if you can change things or save people without making other things worse then you have a moral obligation to do it.

If anything post DF would be the time to do it and lean heavily into Nozdormu realizing he was kinda wrong and wanting to fix it.

[Hitei]

since it seems the thread doesn't go anywhere and no real good leaks are about.

How about the following. What if the next expansion is a timeline based one? Similar to WoD but not quite. I have this theory for sometime in my head, and it really got me thinking about it when the Varian/Lo'Gosh and Sylvanas Transmogs were datamined.

We have Iridikron working with the Infinites and he asked why the titans preserved this timeline. So, the most logical conclusion to all this is a timetravel expansion. But this time not to another world, but Azeroth. And the specific period in time is given by the Lo'Gosh armor, which would put it before Classic but still after WC3.

A timeline in which Varian did not made it yet back to Stormwind and is still Lo'gosh the Gladiator, where Sylvanas didn't yet joined the Horde. Where the scarlet crusade is still strong.

I think a lot of datamined stuff (high res alliance/horde assets) could be actually for something like that. Not quite a revamp. And it is also not an alternate timeline (yet), but a jump back in time, where we as players have to make sure things happen as they should be, while Iridikron and the Infinites try to change the past.

Kinda feels like a waste of a time travel expansion in much the same way that WoD was.

There are so many more interesting time periods than the First/Second/Third War and its fallout. Primordial Azeroth before the arrival of the Old Gods, the Black Empire, during the Ordering where the planet is still in the middle of being terraformed, the Zandalari Empire, the Kaldorei Empire and War of the Ancients. The settling of Quel'thalas and Troll Wars.

Post WC3 pre Vanilla is basically just HD Vanilla. It's only a window of a few years, everything would just be how it was in the original quests. Forsaken fighting Scourge and Scarlets (but not with the Horde's help), Night Elves dealing with corruption problems in Teldrassil, humans dealing with a smaller Defias threat and gnolls, orcs scrapping together an existence.