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

[Teriz]

It’s not a popular theory though, it’s just one spoken about by a handful of forum members in this thread, yourself included.

You’re just assigning random patterns.

Well not really. If you think about it, Illidan Garrosh, Gul’Dan (skull) and Kiljadeen were present in both TBC, WoD, and Legion. Sylvanas played a prominent role in WotLK, BFA, and Shadowlands. The Lich King/Arthas also showed up in Shadowlands and that story was concluded in terms of Uther and Arthas’ soul, along with Sylvanas getting closure and getting “redeemed”.

In Dragonflight we have major players from Cataclysm, mainly the dragon aspects getting their powers restored, and the Black Dragonflight getting redeemed after Neltharion/Deathwing decimated it. We got a resolution (of sorts) for the infinite Dragonflight We even got a resolution for Nefarian’s experiments in the Dracthyr/Evoker class.

The only major cataclysm player missing from Dragonflight is Thrall, but look who’s on the cover for the key art for BlizzCon ‘23….

[ercarp]

I'll be very surprised if they decide to break the mould and give us a new race or class in 11.0. Precedent tells us that 11.0 should be a comparatively smaller expansion with fewer features.

I can see them continuing with the trend of adding new specs to existing classes and loosening restrictions on race/class combos. Paladins and Shamans for all races, tank spec for Shamans, necromancer spec for DKs, etc.

[Catastrophy349]

I love head canon and fanfiction.

[Santandame]

To defend Teriz (sentences I'd never thought I'd type) I have seen that theory quite a bit on MMO-Champ over the years. It started early Legion as a theory of "The next expansion will deal with WOTLK stuff". And ever since then it has popped up here and there.

I don’t believe in any way that the Warcraft narrative team are planning out trilogies of expansions set decades apart, or are retroactively assigning them as trilogies. There’s going to be plenty of overlap with themes and enemies because of the longevity of the game and how many expansions are made.

Just because something utilises demons or llidan doesn’t mean it’s a TBC sequel. Demons are one of the most prominent Warcraft enemies and Illidan as a character is intrinsically tied to the Legion. Outside of Illidan and Kil’jaeden, there is nothing that harkens back to TBC from Legion (Arakkoa, Ethereals, Blood Elves etc).

Likewise with anything featuring dragons in a prominent role meaning that it’s a sequel to Cataclysm as that expansion also featured dragons prominently. And so on with the Scourge etc.

I honestly think it’s one of the sillier theories out there.

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I love head canon and fanfiction.

It’s pretty much what Metzen here is saying.

[Catastrophy349]

I don’t believe in any way that the Warcraft narrative team are planning out trilogies of expansions set decades apart, or are retroactively assigning them as trilogies. There’s going to be plenty of overlap with themes and enemies because of the longevity of the game and how many expansions are made.

Just because something utilises demons or Other llidan doesn’t mean it’s a TBC sequel. Demons are one of the most prominent Warcraft enemies and Illidan as a character is intrinsically tied to the Legion. Outside of Illidan and Kil’jaeden, there is nothing that harkens back to TBC from Legion (Arakkoa, Ethereals, Blood Elves etc).

Likewise with anything featuring dragons in a prominent role meaning that it’s a sequel to Cataclysm as that expansion also featured dragons prominently. And so on with the Scourge etc.

I honestly think it’s one of the sillier theories out there.

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It’s pretty much what Metzen here is saying.

Unless I missed something, I didn't read any comments by Metzen?

[Santandame]

Unless I missed something, I didn't read any comments by Metzen?

Sorry Ion.

[ercarp]

Outside of Illidan and Kil’jaeden, there is nothing that harkens back to TBC from Legion (Arakkoa, Ethereals, Blood Elves etc).

There are many similarities with the Nightborne and Blood Elves (both being elves with a mana addiction), and we had Ethereals show up on Argus.

If you count WoD as part of the "Legion Trilogy", then that would cover most TBC stuff (including Arakkoa).

[Santandame]

There are many similarities with the Nightborne and Blood Elves (both being elves with a mana addiction), and we had Ethereals show up on Argus.

Yeah my bad, I had forgotten about the Ethereals on Mac’aree. I think the Blood Elf/Nightborne point is a stretch though.

My point still stands though, I think that believing the narrative team is either planning trilogies that are decades apart from each entry or retroactively assigning them is venturing into total Pyromancer tinfoil territory.

Just because something references something or has a throwback to something doesn’t make it a trilogy.

[Woke it Up]

Well not really. If you think about it, Illidan Garrosh, Gul’Dan (skull) and Kiljadeen were present in both TBC, WoD, and Legion. Sylvanas played a prominent role in WotLK, BFA, and Shadowlands. The Lich King/Arthas also showed up in Shadowlands and that story was concluded in terms of Uther and Arthas’ soul, along with Sylvanas getting closure and getting “redeemed”.

In Dragonflight we have major players from Cataclysm, mainly the dragon aspects getting their powers restored, and the Black Dragonflight getting redeemed after Neltharion/Deathwing decimated it. We got a resolution (of sorts) for the infinite Dragonflight We even got a resolution for Nefarian’s experiments in the Dracthyr/Evoker class.

The only major cataclysm player missing from Dragonflight is Thrall, but look who’s on the cover for the key art for BlizzCon ‘23….

This is one of the big opportunities to have a big Thrall cinematic and boost off of metzens return, 100% he's narrating it.

[Floot]

I'll be very surprised if they decide to break the mould and give us a new race or class in 11.0. Precedent tells us that 11.0 should be a comparatively smaller expansion with fewer features.

If there isn't going to be 10.3 raid content, then DF will already be a very small expansion...

[Catastrophy349]

How would people feel if they brought ONE "borrowed power" system back for 11.0, but it was "account wide" progression?

[Floot]

How would people feel if they brought ONE "borrowed power" system back for 11.0, but it was "account wide" progression?

Only if they managed to implement it as an evergreen content system that doesn't go away in future expansions.

In that case it wouldn't even need to be account-wide to be enjoyable.

[Nymrohd]

How would people feel if they brought ONE "borrowed power" system back for 11.0, but it was "account wide" progression?

If it's Essences, I'm in.

[Santandame]

If it's Essences, I'm in.

I’d be all in on essences too. Wish they were in BfA from the start.

[ercarp]

If there isn't going to be 10.3 raid content, then DF will already be a very small expansion...

Even without 10.3, DF has felt much bigger than something like SL which had three major patches.

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How would people feel if they brought ONE "borrowed power" system back for 11.0, but it was "account wide" progression?

If they bring back Artifact Weapons or Essences, I'm all for it.

[NikolaiShade]

If they bring back Artifact Weapons or Essences, I'm all for it.

A cloak would be better than weapons imho. It's spec agnostic, not limited by weapon types and if you don't like it you can even hide it. And if we got sinstones and baby murlocs as cloak items, Blizzard could really make it crazy

[lostsoup]

Huge no to borrowed power coming back. That'd mean going back to wasting years of dev time balancing and designing skills and passives that are going to be thrown away in two years time, and having specs be barebones skeletons that are only completed with said borrowed power to avoid bloat. Just... no.

[Murlocos]

I don’t believe in any way that the Warcraft narrative team are planning out trilogies of expansions set decades apart, or are retroactively assigning them as trilogies. There’s going to be plenty of overlap with themes and enemies because of the longevity of the game and how many expansions are made.

Expansion theorizing seems to be going down the same path that Super Smash Bros. roster speculation went down:

People try to construct patterns from past releases.
Those patterns then get arranged into theories to try to predict what's coming next.
Those theories then get repeated enough times that people start interpreting them as ironclad rules that will dictate what will and won't come next.

And then it all gets further lost to time and becomes harder to source. In Smash's case, people insist upon a thousand different rules around a character getting included into the series, but the only actual rule the series director has ever laid out is "the character has to have originated from a video game".

The funniest thing about the whole expansion/theme trilogy and similar theories to me is that BfA has been stated to be part of like three different themes or trilogies in this thread. Any part of BfA that's convenient for someone's theory gets roped into being BfA's main theme. Or like, people going back and forth if DF is supposed to be grouped with Cata or MoP for various reasons, and now we're currently on "Cata and DF are now their own new trilogy and 11.0 will be all the stuff from Cata that wasn't in DF".

[Merryck]

How would people feel if they brought ONE "borrowed power" system back for 11.0, but it was "account wide" progression?

Hell to the no.

[Skildar]

From what we've read in the few in-game "books" and notes, the next expansion has the potential to be heavily focused on good chaos. Could be demon, void, life and other types of uncontrolled energies and beings.

It wouldn't be out of picture if the game goes this way to have brokers, etherals and gallywix to make a comeback during the expansion.

But something more certain is that the titan watchers will be predominant and some made our enemies.

I'm still wondering though if we will be pursuing Iridikron in his research for allies and power. Or if we will be following Tyr against some unexpected predicament. Maybe both, but I feel like they ought to find a way to drop some of the aspectsfrom the spotlight in order to add some new figures to the roster for next expansion. If they don't it will just feel like dragonflight part 2.