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

[Well Done Steak]

illidan walking sargeras around avaloren on a leash all expansion

In all seriousness, it does feel like 11.0 will be a middle expansion in a trilogy. The Elune creating Naaru thing is an interesting angle I've never heard. I'll keep standing by my opinion that Elune is unlike anything else in the WoW universe, and possibly more dangerous than all of which we know. She seems to be one of the only entities unaligned to a single cosmic force, but taking from multiple.

Personally I think 11.0 will be the epic conclusion to all this shit that has been brewing since wrathion ate Lei shen's heart.

10 exp, 20/30 th anni feels good to go all out

[Darkarath]

This is the biggest reason 10.2 doesn't make sense as the final raid teir. I suppose all the story that is left could be covered in a minor patch but the majority of players just ignore minor patch story stuff.

Yes, keep praying for a 10.3 like I do. DF has more than enough to have one.

Can actually Scaleface solve this question? @Scaleface, I am more worried about the lack of a 10.3 than about 11.0. Something to share?

[Leowyld]

If we have a 10.3, it would have to be a self-contained Dragon Isles story and not something that connects meaningfully to 11.0, because we will already knows what the main plot of 11.0 is well before we have 10.3 on PTR. We'll not only have the Opening Ceremony, by that point, but also all the following panels and interviews that love to chat about future plot points. It makes sense for the connecting plot to 11.0 to be the last story we played live before BlizzCon, and that is the Iridikron and the void portal stuff. Iridikron going through that portal is like Sylvanas flying off to show up for the next expansion. I'm almost certain that is what we will see. And, if that is the case, Fyrakk makes sense as a final boss. Who else would it be with that setup?

[ImTheMizAwesome]

There will be 10.2.5 and .7 patches with story and some evergreen content for sure, 10.3 probably will be just fated raids and some story.

[ercarp]

Speaking of @Scaleface, why aren't more people talking about what he wrote about 11.0 back in September? I guess it's not much to go on, or it has already been discussed to death, but I don't think he would be making this up. Void and dreadlords?

As I wrote to few ppl before in private - all I have this time is just a pack of screens, nothing more (and based on the screens themselves there is no point in guessing like with DF where I had much more information).
It is too risky to upload them in higher quality, as they may be sent intentionally (they may be, for example, generated by AI) to target people who post information during the NDA. Also, as I also mentioned - don't take it too seriously but: most of them have locations with purple skies and models that look very much like dreadlords.
That's why this time I'm refraining from posting anything, even in the same form as in DF - although it was very funny when you discovered the next clues one by one I simply don't have much information (only a handful of screenshots), and I don't want to cause confusion.

Also, I've tried to make fake screenshots using AI and all the tools I've used (DALL-E, Midjourney, StableDiffusion) suck at creating anything that looks even vaguely WoW-like. So if he genuinely has screenshots in his possession and they look like WoW, then I doubt that they were AI generated.

[Santandame]

Speaking of @Scaleface, why aren't more people talking about what he wrote about 11.0 back in September? I guess it's not much to go on, or it has already been discussed to death, but I don't think he would be making this up. Void and dreadlords?



Also, I've tried to make fake screenshots using AI and all the tools I've tried suck at creating anything that looks even vaguely WoW-like. So if he genuinely has screenshots in his possession and they look like WoW, then I doubt that they were AI generated.

We did discuss it quite a fair bit. General belief was that it was AI.

I’m pretty sure he even admitted they were AI and that a friend sent them to him as a hint.

But yeah, he pretty much said he has nothing this time round.

[Raetary]

Honestly I would have gone for a full on winter theme to really play on the hibernation theme.
Would have made the corrupted areas more distinct. Even more so considering you could contrast the soothing winter with a harsh one.

Honestly, the corrupted areas made thematically no sense.
Ardenweald decaying from Winter into autumn was such a weird decision.

The autumn colors should've been integrated into Ardenwealds base design.
Could've had us start out in an autumn themed starting location, and then have the zone progressively shift into winter and dark blues.

The Drust destabilizing the realm into a harsh, corrupt, uninhabitable Blizzard, in contrast to the calm, cold, snowy winter night, would've made a lot more sense and be visually a lot more impressive.

[Wangming]

Speaking of @Scaleface, why aren't more people talking about what he wrote about 11.0 back in September? I guess it's not much to go on, or it has already been discussed to death, but I don't think he would be making this up. Void and dreadlords?



Also, I've tried to make fake screenshots using AI and all the tools I've used (DALL-E, Midjourney, StableDiffusion) suck at creating anything that looks even vaguely WoW-like. So if he genuinely has screenshots in his possession and they look like WoW, then I doubt that they were AI generated.

Interesting. Well Dreadlord looking enemies kinda make sense with Big D still at large. But they aren't really affiliated with the Void. And in WoW purple is generally void stuff. or Darkmoon Faire. Which might be the same thing really.

And yes, I don't think @Scaleface is lying. I mean why destroy the clout he built up last time?

- - - Updated - - -

Honestly, the corrupted areas made thematically no sense.
Ardenweald decaying from Winter into autumn was such a weird decision.

Right?! That's just nonsense.

[Leowyld]

There will be 10.2.5 and .7 patches with story and some evergreen content for sure, 10.3 probably will be just fated raids and some story.

We don't even need a major patch for fated raids. It will likely be 10.2.5 or 10.2.7. Maybe 10.2.5 will be our Dragon Isles epilogues. And then 10.2.7 will be the Fated raids final patch.

Storywise, there are limits to what they can do with these final patches. But there is no limit on QoL stuff. And sometimes the final patches of an expansion have the best QoL. I'm thinking of Legion, where the final patch 7.3.5 give us the first iteration of world scaling and the first Allied Races. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the 10.2 minor patches did another all races class unlock.

[ercarp]

We did discuss it quite a fair bit. General belief was that it was AI.

It's possible, but I feel like he would have been able to tell that quite easily. The state of AI is pretty impressive, but I've yet to see anyone generate environments that look like actual in-game screenshots from WoW.

I’m pretty sure he even admitted they were AI and that a friend sent them to him as a hint.

Can't find that in his post history. Did he say that to someone in a private message?

[Santandame]

It's possible, but I feel like he would have been able to tell that quite easily. The state of AI is pretty impressive, but I've yet to see anyone generate environments that look like actual in-game screenshots from WoW.



Can't find that in his post history. Did he say that to someone in a private message?

Yeah I misremembered. Just checked his post history but he said there’s a high chance they’re just bait.

Here’s his twitter where he goes into it a bit more too.

https://x.com/wowexdev?s=21

[CopyX1982]

These leaks only serve one thing for me personally right now. When they announce the next expansion I usually take a little time to go back over the leak threads to see if anyone guessed right or actually did know.

[Munchlord]

In light of the confirmation that 10.2 will release after Blizzcon, is anyone concerned at the idea of Blizz showcasing a new expansion when we haven't even seen how 10.2 ends? Do you think that 10.2’s ending doesnt roll into the story for 11.0? Or will Blizzcon just basically spoil the ending of 10.2?

[ZyntosAran]

In light of the confirmation that 10.2 will release after Blizzcon, is anyone concerned at the idea of Blizz showcasing a new expansion when we haven't even seen how 10.2 ends? Do you think that 10.2’s ending doesnt roll into the story for 11.0? Or will Blizzcon just basically spoil the ending of 10.2?

Actually it happened quite often that the last patch of the expansion was not released before the next exp was announced.

[Cheezits]

In light of the confirmation that 10.2 will release after Blizzcon, is anyone concerned at the idea of Blizz showcasing a new expansion when we haven't even seen how 10.2 ends? Do you think that 10.2’s ending doesnt roll into the story for 11.0? Or will Blizzcon just basically spoil the ending of 10.2?

Considering the ending of 10.2 is very very very likely the Tree crossing into reality, they can very easily not spoil it. All they have to do is not show it or anything on the Dragon Isles (though they may show off 10.2.5, in which case they'll have to be careful)

Or they will show off the Tree because they are proud of it/want people to come back for it.

[Teriz]

oooooh Thanks might give that a try <3

If you like Warcraft and its lore, definitely give Hearthstone a try. The art is beautiful and the gameplay is very enjoyable.

[milkmustache]

In light of the confirmation that 10.2 will release after Blizzcon, is anyone concerned at the idea of Blizz showcasing a new expansion when we haven't even seen how 10.2 ends? Do you think that 10.2’s ending doesnt roll into the story for 11.0? Or will Blizzcon just basically spoil the ending of 10.2?

I think the ending of 10.2 will probably be a little less related to whatever brings us to 11.0 if Iridikron continues to be the main villain. It seems that 10.2 is focused on wrapping up Fyrakk, which seems to be Iridikron's distraction for us. It also seems that there doesn't have to be a huge in-game reference to the next expansion. Dragon Isles started by Ebyssian and Wrathion going to the capitals and just saying "help".

[Raetary]

In light of the confirmation that 10.2 will release after Blizzcon, is anyone concerned at the idea of Blizz showcasing a new expansion when we haven't even seen how 10.2 ends? Do you think that 10.2’s ending doesnt roll into the story for 11.0? Or will Blizzcon just basically spoil the ending of 10.2?

This isn't the first time they are announcing an expansion before the final patch releases.

[SunspotAnims]

Okay, so this sort of straw-graspy speculation is not something I'm normally interested in, but in this case I wanted to see what the community thoughts were because it's at least grounded in some concrete details.

In the BlizzCon store there are three hockey jerseys: one for Diablo, Overwatch, and WoW. The number on the Overwatch jersey is 2 and the number on the Diablo jersey is 4. Both of these are for pretty obvious reasons. The number on the WoW jersey is also 4. Was this number deliberately chosen in the same way it was for OW and Diablo? I think naturally it would lead to speculation on Warcraft 4, but I'm personally not convinced that Warcraft 4 is ever going to happen. Are there any other reasons the WoW jersey would represent the number 4, assuming that number was chosen for a deliberate reason?

[milkmustache]

Okay, so this sort of straw-graspy speculation is not something I'm normally interested in, but in this case I wanted to see what the community thoughts were because it's at least grounded in some concrete details.

In the BlizzCon store there are three hockey jerseys: one for Diablo, Overwatch, and WoW. The number on the Overwatch jersey is 2 and the number on the Diablo jersey is 4. Both of these are for pretty obvious reasons. The number on the WoW jersey is also 4. Was this number deliberately chosen in the same way it was for OW and Diablo? I think naturally it would lead to speculation on Warcraft 4, but I'm personally not convinced that Warcraft 4 is ever going to happen. Are there any other reasons the WoW jersey would represent the number 4, assuming that number was chosen for a deliberate reason?

Interesting point. 10 or 11 would fit well for WoW. Definitely something to keep in mind for Blizzcon.