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

[Makorus]

Dont know if this has been posted already as I saw 25 more pages from where I left off but it looks like blizzcon goodies were anounced and the algarian stormrider looks to be an elemental.
Since they openly showed this I m guessing its not necessarily tied to the expansion? Unless I am mistaken and this is not the algarian stormrider.

That's not the Algarian Stormrider.

The Algarian Stormrider is from the Deluxe Edition.

[ercarp]

You could literally said same thing about Broken Isles after Frozen Throne. They could make continent even from banana island. How? Simple - as always 1 zone will be something you know, 3-4 zones will be something completely different. We have gone through this in TBC, Wrath, Legion.

Again, have some imagination people. Azeroth is not real world with its limitations.

It's easier to do that with islands since there's a lot more potential for variety. Undermine is completely underground and we already have a pretty good description of what it should look like. It's certainly big, but it's not big big. What you're proposing is comparable to turning Gnomeregan into the setting of an entire expansion.

[Hitei]

Oh I see. Please ignore this then I had not seen it. This thread is moving too fast to keep up.

That's not the Algarian Stormrider, it's the Bound Blizzard mount. The Stormrider comes with 11.0's heroic edition.

[ercarp]

Dont know if this has been posted already as I saw 25 more pages from where I left off but it looks like blizzcon goodies were anounced and the algarian stormrider looks to be an elemental.
Since they openly showed this I m guessing its not necessarily tied to the expansion? Unless I am mistaken and this is not the algarian stormrider.

I thought so too at first since there's a similar-looking Stormrider NPC in the game, but they've already given the name for the mount shown in the image. It's called the Bound Blizzard, not the Algarian Stormrider.

[Makorus]

Imo it's time to drop timer from Mythic+ 2-15. Two major changes happened in S2 of Shadowlands: official rating and overall nerf to dungeons, so now people who push them play 20+ and Keystone Master become participation reward.

Personally I love M0 dungeons on release of expansion and hate playing content with timer (doesn't matter how forgiving it is, it's about existence of timer), so I would play a lot more dungeon I could just casualy gear through seasonal dungeons.

I mean, without a timer, people are still gonna rush through. Doesn't really solve anything.

[ercarp]

Well that doesn't make it any more unsafe than the lest of the planet, does it?

Yeah, suppose not.

[Worldshaper]

Man, the Dragon Isles is a weird place.

If you're just standing about, letting the music and everything immerse you, it feels great.

But then you add a bunch of nonsense on top of that. World events coming in hot left and right, world quests, Fyrakk, etc., etc. You're kept so busy all the time, everywhere, you never have the time to just chill. At least that's how I feel about it.

Almost makes me want to consider dropping all the hectic content and just focus on like... pet battles, gathering and stuff like that.

[Enrif]

Look at it this way.

Disorder (the Burning Legion etc).
Death (the Scourge etc).
Shadow (the Old Gods etc).

Those are the three main enemy factions of WoW, beginning all the way back in the RTS games. Each of them had their own expansion in the early days (TBC, WotLK, and Cata). Then we got MoP, which according to Metzen was an intentional break from all of that. (Although as we also know in hindsight, MoP did kinda get WoD started as well.)

What happens over the next decade is that each story keeps going until it ends.

So Disorder keeps going until Legion. You've got demons in virtually every expansion until then, but then we barely hear anything about them.

Death keeps going until Shadowlands. Then it meets the same fate, and steps off the train. Don't hear much about Death these days.

Shadow, the final one, has had the chance to keep building throughout all these years. So we've had Old Gods, different cults, Deathwing shenanigans, and all sorts of stuff. And of course Titans as well, their antithesis.

Now, with 11.0, it'll finally be time for Shadow to meet its demise. That story will end after all these years.

What comes next is anyone's guess. I'm assuming all these cosmic forces will still play a role, but hopefully with new and exciting stories that aren't just continuations from Warcraft 1, 2, and 3.

That is a pattern you may wish to see but isn't backed by any facts.

I could go a whole different way that sounds as plausible, if not more so then the trilogy idea.

Example: Faction War + Old Gods is a common theme in WoW

Classic: Faction War stuff in Silithus + C'thun
WotLK: Faction War stuff after the Wrath Gate + Yogg'Saron
Cata: Faction War Stuff + N'zoth empowered Deathwing
MoP: Faction War + Y'sharj empowered Garrosh
BfA: Faction War + N'Zoth

This is such a common thread in WoW and goes through all Azeroth based Expansions. Only BC, WoD and SL had no real faction war + old god stuff.

DF breaks this mold a bit, we don't have any old god stuff currently, but seem to go more toward cosmic void instead of old gods, and faction war is, as of now, not a thing anymore.

[ercarp]

Almost makes me want to consider dropping all the hectic content and just focus on like... pet battles, gathering and stuff like that.

I had a bit of a pet battle phase near the tail end of BfA. I was just going around collecting pets all over the world, it was very relaxing (and I'm not even a huge fan of pet battles). Highly recommend it.

[Izalla]

Yeah that was weird. Winter Queen, but no winter. Imagine if Ardenweald were divided into four sections, each representing a season and all havint different aesthetics and queens. I know it is winter Queen cause winter=natura dies=death. But the zone it self was not wintery.

And yes, Ardenweald spilling over on one side, a small pocket of nightmare corruption on another....a lot could have been done to spice up the dream.

They could have structured it so it is autumn when you enter the zone, and becomes steadily more winterized the closer you get to the center, and in the VERY center had the tiniest hint of spring (little flowers poking up through the snow or something like that). Or little spring themed pockets (but only a hint of spring as it is the death side of things) where they tend to the souls. Maybe the spring assets are only around the seed pod things when a spirit is about to be reborn.

It could have been a very beautiful zone that represented autumn and winter instead of being just another forest. It was a gorgeous zone but I find the aesthetic is better saved for night elves.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Essentially, WoW needs Torghast back with diverse aesthetics, it’s own separate reward structure, and not to be forced into it if you don’t want to do it.

Probably not something that goes with your idea, i guess you have your own premise of something torghast like but i was thinking about corruption/nightmare like towers, without trash but with bosses on every floor.

Like let's imagine a scenario where Void(or x baddies) attacks certain lands and drop these big towers corrupting the land, that up to 3 players can enter(it scales if solo), you have to go through some floors to finally defeat the last one and make the tower disappear from the land in your phase, getting rewards at the end.

Kinda like Mortal kombat towers that have different fighter on each floor, with the baddest and hardest one in the end.

[Wangming]

They could have structured it so it is autumn when you enter the zone, and becomes steadily more winterized the closer you get to the center, and in the VERY center had the tiniest hint of spring (little flowers poking up through the snow or something like that).

Ahhh maaaan that is beautiful

[Kalontas]

I always thought the expansion patterns were more like...

WC1 -> vanila -> Cata -> BfA
WC2 -> tBC -> WoD
WC3 -> Wrath -> Legion -> SL
MoP -> DF?

Vanila was going hard on some Orcs vs Humans themes, reintroducing the faction conflict after WC3 (and yes, I know it was given a root in the Rexxar campaign), while also building up the world and expanding it a lot. Cataclysm later goes back to the world from vanila and tries to push it ahead in time. BfA later goes back to the faction conflict and the Old God themes present in both vanila and Cata.

TBC has many callbacks to WC2, especially Beyond the Dark Portal. WoD later returns to those plots and reimagines them for a new, alternate reality - and I still believe Blizzard wanted to make multiple expansions in the WoD timeline, but that crashed and burned.

Wrath returns to plots from WC3 and tries to finish them off, as well as building up Northrend like vanila did to the old world. Shadowlands then, eh, tries to remake them with a new coat of paint, that completely covers up the much better painting from before.

MoP was the first one that is really hard to place in this scheme, and this may be because they tried to do something totally new, and in that way it is very similar to Dragonflight. Try to go off in a new direction, unseen so far. Unless you put MoP in the tBC line just because of Garrosh?

So if we were basing our speculation on that, we're one short on a WC2/tBC/WoD Outland-inspired line, or we could be wrapping back around to the Old God or faction war line - and the latter seems unlikely right now.

[Xilurm]

Man, the Dragon Isles is a weird place.

If you're just standing about, letting the music and everything immerse you, it feels great.

But then you add a bunch of nonsense on top of that. World events coming in hot left and right, world quests, Fyrakk, etc., etc. You're kept so busy all the time, everywhere, you never have the time to just chill. At least that's how I feel about it.

Almost makes me want to consider dropping all the hectic content and just focus on like... pet battles, gathering and stuff like that.

Evergreen content is pretty nice but at the same time it's overwhelming. Feels like there's no peace in any of the zones at all.

[Worldshaper]

That is a pattern you may wish to see but isn't backed by any facts.

I could go a whole different way that sounds as plausible, if not more so then the trilogy idea.

Example: Faction War + Old Gods is a common theme in WoW

Classic: Faction War stuff in Silithus + C'thun
WotLK: Faction War stuff after the Wrath Gate + Yogg'Saron
Cata: Faction War Stuff + N'zoth empowered Deathwing
MoP: Faction War + Y'sharj empowered Garrosh
BfA: Faction War + N'Zoth

This is such a common thread in WoW and goes through all Azeroth based Expansions. Only BC, WoD and SL had no real faction war + old god stuff.

DF breaks this mold a bit, we don't have any old god stuff currently, but seem to go more toward cosmic void instead of old gods, and faction war is, as of now, not a thing anymore.

I never said there weren't other prevalent threats or themes to be found in WoW, lol.

But if you actually sit down and look at it, you'll see that I am right.

Warlords of Draenor caused Legion, when AU Gul'dan took off for the Tomb of Sargeras after we stopped Archimonde in Tanaan Jungle.

Battle for Azeroth caused Shadowlands, when Sylvanas took off for the Shadowlands after having harvested enough souls for the Jailer.

Watch and see as Dragonflight will end up causing 11.0.

Furthermore...

They have so much in common, it's almost plagiarism, lol.

Outland/Draenor and Argus. Khadgar. The Naaru. Huge focus on Draenei and Orcs. Archimonde, Kil'jaeden and Sargeras. The Burning Legion. I could go on. But you probably already realise that all of these are heavily featured in TBC, WoD, and Legion. They'll sporadically appear in other expansions as well (at least until Legion), but nowhere near as cohesively.

Going on. A land marked by death (Northrend, Zuldazar with its Loa of Death and general Death worship, Drustvar with its Drust problems, witch burnings, and murders, and eventually the Shadowlands. Jaina, Sylvanas, Arthas, Uther, etc. have larger roles than usual. These are all hallmarks of WotLK, BfA and SL.

Finally, lots of elemental unrest, and Thrall. Dragons and the Dragon Aspects. Deathwing and his legacy. Cultists and agents of the Old Gods. Queen Azshara and the Naga. Lots of talk about world revamps (we'll see if a second one comes to pass soon). World trees and the Druids of the Flame. I could go on. These are all characteristics of Cata, DF., and by the looks of things, 11.0.

Each expansion will also have other things going on. And like I said, the Burning Legion was fairly prevalent in most expansions until Legion, and so was Death until Shadowlands. But for two expansions each ever since that MoP/WoD divide, they've come together in cohesive two-part stories that effectively ended their stories (for now).

[Dracullus]

It's easier to do that with islands since there's a lot more potential for variety. Undermine is completely underground and we already have a pretty good description of what it should look like. It's certainly big, but it's not big big. What you're proposing is comparable to turning Gnomeregan into the setting of an entire expansion.

People wouldn't stomach whole underground expansion. That's why I would expect revamped Kezan on top on this + maybe even some near islands. Or maybe even part as South Seas expac with Plunder Isle, Tel'Abim and Lost Isles. In general all places named in lore shouldn't be discarded as potential expac content.

But I'm derailing this discussion, cause chances for that expac in 11.0 are less than slim. Imo now Avaloren/Khaz Algar is only route if we want base our speculations on facts, not wishes.

[Teriz]

People are forgetting that Undermine was originally intended to be a continent in vanilla, so Blizzard already had multiple zones in mind for the landmass.

[Enrif]

You forgot that Legion caused BfA by plunging a Sword into the world that released Azerite which gave rise to new weapons and sparked the faction war.

[Worldshaper]

Evergreen content is pretty nice but at the same time it's overwhelming. Feels like there's no peace in any of the zones at all.

Yeah definitely agree with this.

[Nightshade711]

People are forgetting that Undermine was originally intended to be a continent in vanilla, so Blizzard already had multiple zones in mind for the landmass.

Nobody forgot about it being a zone in vanilla.
What people seem to forget is that Naga were intended on being playable to the point that they made skeletons for them like the other races (if I remember correctly)

The issues they had with making Naga playable involved questions like “how would a Naga wear boots” but as Mechagnomes and Dracthyr showed blizzard solved that issue by not letting those be visible.

Next expansion being sea/storm/void themed with Azshara could be a perfect expansion to add them in.
The issue with mounting can be fixed by having the playable Naga having multiple tails like the “elite Naga” in nazjatar.