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

[Worldshaper]

Not how it works for an art director especially when the content they work for is done months prior to the message you're analysing

11.0 is at least 6 - 9 months away from release, and even then it won't have all its content ready for launch. Some of it will arrive at a later time through patches.

Samwise could easily be working on a bunch of cool stuff involving Elune, the moons of Azeroth, and so on right now.

Edit:

But again, just to be clear, I don't think there's anything to it. It's just fun to speculate.

[KyleEverett]

The 4chan thing is too detailed to be real and also Enhancement was the main example they used in a qna as a spec they would not rework into support because players who already play it play it for the damaging melee spec it is.

[Kiria]

>WoW 11.0 will be shown at Blizzcon
>Story is set in underground world below Azeroth

Big nope, im out in that case, will start looking into doing other things than playing WoW if this is even remotely true.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Next expansion will be fully underground with half of underwater only zones + underwater only dungeon and raid.

[Kiria]

Next expansion will be fully underground with half of underwater only zones + underwater only dungeon and raid.

The whole Classic+ speculation is actually starting to sound more and more interesting with the sort of direction they're taking Retail.

[Catastrophy349]

Big nope, im out in that case, will start looking into doing other things than playing WoW if this is even remotely true.

Which part of your "reply" are you against? 11.0 being announced at BlizzCon, or the story taking place underground? If both or either of those bother you, I don't even know what to say.

[lanerios]

The whole Classic+ speculation is actually starting to sound more and more interesting with the sort of direction they're taking Retail.

lol, let's not get ahead of ourselves ok? We have no idea what it will be. And we really don't need a classic vs retail here..

[Kiria]

Which part of your "reply" are you against? 11.0 being announced at BlizzCon, or the story taking place underground? If both or either of those bother you, I don't even know what to say.

Being Underground or even venturing there is a big nope for me, it's terribly boring and uninteresting anything along the lines just ruins the game for me.

lol, let's not get ahead of ourselves ok? We have no idea what it will be. And we really don't need a classic vs retail here..

It's always a good idea to have a back up plan, just incase. Also no one said anything about a Classic vs Retail, I just said it starting to sound more interesting than some of these theories for retail that are popping up aka Khaz algar and Underground shenanigans.

[Catastrophy349]

Being Underground or even venturing there is a big nope for me, it's terribly boring and uninteresting anything along the lines just ruins the game for me.



It's always a good idea to have a back up plan, just incase.

Initially, I was turned off by "underground," too. I guess it just depends on "how they do it."

[Kiria]

Initially, I was turned off by "underground," too. I guess it just depends on "how they do it."

Naw sadly, I don't believe there are any redeeming qualities to Underground content and there's nothing the WoW team can do to make it interesting in the slightest, Teriz'z headcannon of Underground skies is just simply headcannon, it would be dark dank caves and thats it.

[D4NNYB0Y]

>WoW 11.0 will be shown at Blizzcon
>Story is set in underground world below Azeroth involving a lost Earthen City where they broke free of the Titans control like those that would become the Dwarves/Troggs but they DIDN'T succumb to the curse of flesh, something completely different lead to their sentience and freedom and Iridikron, Azshara and Sire Denathrius are all clashing to lay claim to this "primal force of invention".
>New form of "not-dragonriding" is crawling. Spiders, Beetles and the like are the new mounts with past mounts such as crabs and silithids being able to climb sheer walls and tiptoe across webs players would just fall through.
>Traversal is also aided by a form of universal goblin glider inspired by Breath of the Wild and Fortnite. Intended to function as a more open and freedom of choice equivalent to the harpoon from Legion
>Heavy shaman focus in story, Earthen Ring makes a return. Class itself getting major rework including a new Tanking spec. Enhance to be changed from straight dps to support in the same role as new Evoker spec.
>Game is going Free to Play
>There will still be a subscription with bonuses like extra Traders Tender, no daily/weekly raid and dungeon cap and default access to premium tracks on battlepasses

>Will follow a FFXIV style model of a .x patch then .x.5 patch a fixed period after to smooth out the player ups and downs and reactions to expectations with Dragonflight roadmap content.
>Metzen is co-writing this expansion
>A heavy intent to "fix" the alliance as the game has become heavily Horde slanted in the userbase
>THE BIG THING THAT WILL CAUSE DRAMA: There will be a new addon agreement drastically reducing the amount of handholding addons in the game. Expect high end raiders to be up in arms with this one. The days of "RUN AWAY LITTLE GIRL, RUN AWAY" are over.
>Magni Bronzebeard returns are the Khdagar/Alextraza type wisened party member to accompany you on your journey
>In the greatest of twists going deep underground to a former titan installation may involve some Old God hijinks. I know. Mindblowing stuff.
>no new Races/Alliance Races/Customisation updates, no word right now on more heritage stuff.
>Native controller support is happening
>Is coming Summer 2024.

new 4chan "leak". speculate

1) Not sure how you could traverse large distances with a crawling mount to replace dragonriding even with a universal glider. Unless the zones are going to be much smaller, it would have to move ridiculously fast. I have trouble envisioning the animation. Seems odd they would replace dragonriding like this so soon.

2) I highly doubt they would rework Enhancement into Support even if it fits thematically. Pretty sure they've already said they won't do this.

3) If they are going to have an F2P option now would probably be a pretty good time since it's the 20th anniversary. Game really needs to become more accessible to new players.

4) Very skeptical of them restricting addons though I'd personally be for it if they improved their encounter design and telegraphs.

5) I'm also skeptical WoW could work on a controller, but FFXIV has controller support so it's definitely possible. With the merger complete it wouldn't surprise me if WoW comes to Xbox eventually.

Overall though I think a lot of this is plausible.

[ZyntosAran]

1) Not sure how you could traverse large distances with a crawling mount to replace dragonriding even with a universal glider. Unless the zones are going to be much smaller, it would have to move ridiculously fast. I have trouble envisioning the animation. Seems odd they would replace dragonriding like this so soon.

2) I highly doubt they would rework Enhancement into Support even if it fits thematically. Pretty sure they've already said they won't do this.

3) If they are going to have an F2P option now would probably be a pretty good time since it's the 20th anniversary. Game really needs to become more accessible to new players.

4) Very skeptical of them restricting addons though I'd personally be for it if they improved their encounter design and telegraphs.

5) I'm also skeptical WoW could work on a controller, but FFXIV has controller support so it's definitely possible. With the merger complete it wouldn't surprise me if WoW comes to Xbox eventually.

Overall though I think a lot of this is plausible.

They basically already said that dragonriding is a thing to stay.

[Catastrophy349]

Naw sadly, I don't believe there are any redeeming qualities to Underground content and there's nothing the WoW team can do to make it interesting in the slightest, Teriz'z headcannon of Underground skies is just simply headcannon, it would be dark dank caves and thats it.

I don't disagree. I think an entire, underground expansion would be awful. However, some "underground" aspects could be fun. Personally, my hope is for "Avaloren," a continent on the "other side of Azeroth." That is something I've wanted for a long time (before Avaloren was a thing), but even more now that it has been "name dropped" along with all the other "hints" from DF patches.

[Ferlion]

Naw sadly, I don't believe there are any redeeming qualities to Underground content and there's nothing the WoW team can do to make it interesting in the slightest, Teriz'z headcannon of Underground skies is just simply headcannon, it would be dark dank caves and thats it.

I think a large part of the problem is that Blizzard has a very bland opinion of underground zones. Zaralek Cavern is way to close to Deepholme. Crystals, and rock.

While Zaralek at least has lakes and lava and stuff, it's still just meh.

An underground zone COULD work, but they would have to get more creative than I think Blizzard has shown to be when it comes to underground zones.

Moss and mushrooms that shimmer and change color based on the time of day, simulating a skybox type deal, swamps and ruins. Sprawling caves where the entire ceiling is a carved ceiling like a temple.

But I dont really have much faith in their cave design so far.

[Wangming]

I don't disagree. I think an entire, underground expansion would be awful. However, some "underground" aspects could be fun. Personally, my hope is for "Avaloren," a continent on the "other side of Azeroth." That is something I've wanted for a long time (before Avaloren was a thing), but even more now that it has been "name dropped" along with all the other "hints" from DF patches.

Yeah the key is moderation. Quite frankly I'm not even against one underground zone. Vash'ir or how the fuck you spell it certainly had its problems, but as a zone i enjoyed it more than Nazjatar. And even that latter came out more than four years ago. Plenty of time to reflect on mistakes and do it better.

- - - Updated - - -

I think a large part of the problem is that Blizzard has a very bland opinion of zones.

Fixed that for you.

The sad part is, this wasn't always true.

[flan1337]

>Game is going Free to Play
>There will still be a subscription with bonuses like extra Traders Tender, no daily/weekly raid and dungeon cap and default access to premium tracks on battlepasses

I do think wow could be free to play but only 1-60 with limits placed. HELL I think classic should be somewhat free to play.

But the next xpack will always cost money - wow is a theme park style monetary game. It already makes money with a sub why would they kill that guarantee income? If I recall no one is buying diablos battlepass - no one likes battlepasses look at halo they literally removed it (or some game removed it)

[Wangming]

I do think wow could be free to play but only 1-60 with limits placed. HELL I think classic should be somewhat free to play.

So you want a proper free trial. Like for FFXIV.

[Dismayxz]

Or Genshin Impact, which is bringing Hoyoverse a truly obscene ammount of money.

Well, TRUE. But you get what I was doing. GW2 would've probably been a less out-of-genre reference to use for something like gliders in MMOs.

[Wangming]

Well, TRUE. But you get what I was doing. GW2 would've probably been a less out-of-genre reference to use for something like gliders in MMOs.

True. And based on dagonflying, Blizz is definitely aware of GW2

[ro9ue]

I do think wow could be free to play but only 1-60 with limits placed. HELL I think classic should be somewhat free to play.

But the next xpack will always cost money - wow is a theme park style monetary game. It already makes money with a sub why would they kill that guarantee income? If I recall no one is buying diablos battlepass - no one likes battlepasses look at halo they literally removed it (or some game removed it)

There's a threshold that I'm sure they are closely monitoring.

Let's say they have a core audience of 1m players giving $15/mo. If you go F2P, but offer an optional premium battle pass with cosmetics and free tendies for the same price, you'll probably retain a lot of that core audience as they are pretty dedicated, lets say 200-300k. But when you go F2P, you open the doors wide open to a flood of -potentially- 5m+ new players. There's a point where the X number of F2P players averaging $Y on the shop per year start making you money.