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

[Magistrate]

The Titans are mid and almost got dominated by the Jailer.

I am literally so bored of titans and titan adjacent themes my god I would take almost anything else to never see another titan temple, factory, reset button, ruin, bathroom ever again.

[huth]

I am literally so bored of titans and titan adjacent themes my god I would take almost anything else to never see another titan temple, factory, reset button, ruin, bathroom ever again.

That's going to be difficult given that the main setting of the game is right on top of one and something like half the races were created by them directly or indirectly.

[Magistrate]

That's going to be difficult given that the main setting of the game is right on top of one and something like half the races were created by them directly or indirectly.

We've had a couple expansions with minimal if not near zero titan stuff, but Legion, BFA, Shadowlands, and DF have really made it the core of their activities and events.

I just assume a third of each expansion is going to be bronze plated Greco Roman pillars with a high sci f twist and maybe better texture resolution.

Aside: remember when fake box art leaks was the thing to do? I guess it's obvious that that has faded away given the rise of digital copies but still. I remember the chase for the most realistic biz art being the driving force of speculation for a lot of game franchises.

[huth]

We've had a couple expansions with minimal if not near zero titan stuff, but Legion, BFA, Shadowlands, and DF have really made it the core of their activities and events.

Shadowlands had the least Titan influence out of the entire game. On the other hand, WotLK, Cataclysm and MoP also had plenty of it. TBC and WoD are a bit iffy since technically, Orcs, Ogres, Gronn are all Titan creations since Aggramar is responsible for their existence, and of course Sargeras was the leader of the Burning Legion.

[Scyth]

What is the ONE theme Blizzard could announce at BlizzCon 2023 that would immediately make you say, "yep, I'm done?"

An expansion centred around Orcs and/or Humans and I lose interest on the spot.
Factions wars is probably the other one. Cba with that too.

[Syegfryed]

this.
race/class for each expansion should be the norm

im pretty sure they will either add more customizations and pretend is enough content to replace a new race.

That is option one, options 2 is pull out some weird allied race of their ass and/or "all races to be all classes" to replace a new class.

I would be fine, if they expend their effort by making all class to all races, that would be enough work to validate an expansion without races or classes, cause making new druid and DH forms would be cool.

Still want me ogres anyway

[Paula Deen]

Interesting tidbit from Wowhead in their latest post regarding the 10.2 campaign finale but even more so with this in mind https://i.gyazo.com/8967aab975629f26f7e5d0ec32944653.png.

It made me think of one of the "leaks" ("Eclipse" - the OP said he made it up but still, I couldn't help but think about it).

"Moon's White Lady's Haunted."
"What?"
"White. Lady's. Haunted."

[Revamp Man]

Wait why do we still believe stormbreaker? The second image they shared had the incorrect U? I thought we agreed its debunked.

There won't be any agreement until the dude comes out and admits its fake

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Interesting tidbit from Wowhead in their latest post regarding the 10.2 campaign finale but even more so with this in mind https://i.gyazo.com/8967aab975629f26f7e5d0ec32944653.png.

It made me think of one of the "leaks" ("Eclipse" - the OP said he made it up but still, I couldn't help but think about it).

You can make up something but still get most of it right
The writing in WoW is shallow and so predictable my fake dragon isles had
Empowering the aspects
1 zone per flight
Wrathion meeting another black dragon challenging his claim to leadership
Ysera returning just to die

Honestly if Alex survives DF ill be surprised because there's so many death flags for her and abyssion

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That would be a first for Blizzard considering that the pre-purchase heroic edition mount is called Stormrider, and there's supposedly Storm Rider achievements attached to it. Typically the pre-purchase mount isn't named after the actual expansion title.

I'm also highly skeptical of the concept; We find yet another hidden continent that has titan and draconic leanings right after we left another hidden continent that has titan and draconic leanings....

They said they plan on connecting expansions to eachother and have been since WoD

[Marlamin]

I mean, it's technically possible to add dynamic flying to gryphons right now as I believe all that could be done through hotfixes so it's not out of the question, the only wildcard is the static/dynamic flight switch system that we haven't seen since 10.1.5.

Post is from a week ago, but stumbled upon some stuff since that appears, and take this with a grain of salt as we might be missing context here not visible in the client, to just be a switch on the server that enables the 125 mounts on the following page to be able to use dragonriding or not (forum fucks up the below URL so copy/paste):

https://wago.tools/db2/Mount?filter[MountTypeID]=424&page=1

This also includes the static/dynamic flight switching system we saw back in 10.1.5, so, provided this is done, they have the capability to "just turn it on" without a patch or even maintenance. Whether or not they'll go about it that way I doubt, but interesting bit of information nonetheless. Sidenote, they will need to learn players the Change Flight Style spell.

[Ersula]

They said they plan on connecting expansions to eachother and have been since WoD

Yes but there's a big spectrum to that. The only connection between the plot of BFA & Shadowlands was that Sylvanas was doing....something. Like Wrathion in Cataclysm, the only connection there is her making extremely vague statements.

[matijwow]

Compared to the MoP to WoD story bridge, Cataclysm and the previous expansions really came out of nowhere.

I think they said they did the time skip for Dragonflight so that they could have a reset on the expansion bridges.

[Woggmer]

What is the ONE theme Blizzard could announce at BlizzCon 2023 that would immediately make you say, "yep, I'm done?"

If the supposed landmass west of Kalimdor was housing an 6th Old God that the Titans just so happen to not notice because the landmass is protected by a deadly storm. If that becomes real, I will literally shout, "NO! YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT! BECAUSE WE DESTROYED THE LAST KNOWN OLD GOD WITH THE FUCKING HEART OF AZEROTH!"
I don't care how badly people want Old Gods, they're getting boring and N'zoth ruined it for me. No more.

Also Moon Dwarves... I can suspend my disbelief on a lot of things in WoW, but an actual Moon Dwarf is just too stupid for me.

[Ersula]

Compared to the MoP to WoD story bridge, Cataclysm and the previous expansions really came out of nowhere.

I think they said they did the time skip for Dragonflight so that they could have a reset on the expansion bridges.

Shadowlands: Conclusion to the story of the Lich King through a villain never referenced before.
Dragonflight: Conclusion to the story of Nordrassil through a protagonist not referenced at the time (The Dragon Aspects did not exist until WoW) (The blessing the aspects gave Nordrassil before it lost it in W3 is given back to them, restoring what they lost in Dragon Soul)
Next Expansion: Conclusion to the story of.... The Titans? Through a Titan first added in Hearthstone? Amitus?

[hattahat]

We've defeated Disorder in the Legion expansion, Death in Shadowlands, and we'll likely defeat the Void in the next expansion. This tentatively wraps up the three major factions covered in the TBC, WotLK, and Cataclysm expansions. But what happens after that? It's a well-known story that expansion plots continue like this: TBC - WoD - Legion / WotLK - BfA - Shadowlands / Cataclysm - Dragonflights - Next expansion, so I'm thinking of reversing that. We'll tackle Order, Life, and Light one by one, and we'll finish them off properly again, so WoW will continue for another 20 years.

[Woggmer]

Honestly if Alex survives DF ill be surprised because there's so many death flags for her and abyssion

What indications are there to imply that Alexstraza going to die? Same for Ebyssian who just became the aspect of the Black Dragons...

If anything, Norzdomu or Vyranoth have a likely chance of dying.

And as for Ysera, we pretty much knew that her getting brought back in DF was just a temporary visit so that her daughter could take up the mantle.

And even then they rarely throw death flags at big pivotal characters unless it was to spark another conflict (like how there were a bunch of important figures that died in the bombing of Theramore).

[matijwow]

I mean the linear connections.

Vanilla to BC: The Dark Portal suddenly and inexplicably opens.
BC to Wrath: The Lich King suddenly and inexplicably decides to attack.
Wrath to Cata: Deathwing suddenly and inexplicably breaks the planet.
Cata to MoP: Pandaria is suddenly and inexplicably accessible.
MoP to WoD: Garrosh and the Bronze Dragons investigating Timeless Isle -> Time travel to alternate Draenor and creation of the Iron Horde
WoD to Legion: The failure of the Legion on alternate Draenor -> Alternate Guldan summons the Legion on Azeroth
Legion to BfA: Sargeras's sword wounds Azeroth bringing Azerite to the surface -> The fourth war starts because of weaponized Azerite
BfA to SL: Sylvanas killed enough in the war and leave the Horde to begin phase 2 of her plan -> Sylvanas begins phase 2 of her plan
SL to DF: 5 years after SL, the Dragon Isles are suddenly and inexplicably accessible.

[Revamp Man]

Yes but there's a big spectrum to that. The only connection between the plot of BFA & Shadowlands was that Sylvanas was doing....something. Like Wrathion in Cataclysm, the only connection there is her making extremely vague statements.

WoD to Legion
BfA to SL
DF to 11.0

The tie to the SL from BfA was Sylvanas
Just like in WoD it was a single cutscene but expanded on in the story of SL and the books

[matijwow]

We've defeated Disorder in the Legion expansion, Death in Shadowlands, and we'll likely defeat the Void in the next expansion. This tentatively wraps up the three major factions covered in the TBC, WotLK, and Cataclysm expansions. But what happens after that? It's a well-known story that expansion plots continue like this: TBC - WoD - Legion / WotLK - BfA - Shadowlands / Cataclysm - Dragonflights - Next expansion, so I'm thinking of reversing that. We'll tackle Order, Life, and Light one by one, and we'll finish them off properly again, so WoW will continue for another 20 years.

The Burning Legion was written as antagonists we need to fight because they're an army of demons bent on killing everyone, not because they're simply one of six interchangeably dominating forces that needs to be contained. Trying to make different flavors of the Legion arc by shoehorning every cosmic force into the same mold hasn't been working, which is probably why they brought Metzen back.

[Revamp Man]

What indications are there to imply that Alexstraza going to die? Same for Ebyssian who just became the aspect of the Black Dragons...

If anything, Norzdomu or Vyranoth have a likely chance of dying.

And as for Ysera, we pretty much knew that her getting brought back in DF was just a temporary visit so that her daughter could take up the mantle.

And even then they rarely throw death flags at big pivotal characters unless it was to spark another conflict (like how there were a bunch of important figures that died in the bombing of Theramore).

Her relationship with Vyranoth is hinting at "this time I'll do better"
She has fulfilled her role of uniting the flights again
Comments by raz
Mentoring the young Wrathion
These point towards her either getting betrayed or her stepping up in a moment to sacrifice herself


There's also a weird line about 6 aspects datamined I'm wondering if Vyranoth takes up a new aspect role

[Nadiru]

I mean hot take, just make the Legion again. Yeah, they're leaderless because we killed a bunch of eredar and Sargeras is in baby jail, but are we truly to believe that nobody's left to fill the power vacuum?