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

[Izalla]

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.

I should have read further before posting my idea, because you already said it haha

[Xilurm]

You already had Tauren that didn't really wear boots to begin with.

[Worldshaper]

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.

That's true, but there's a stark change in themes between them. The story of BfA is another from the story of Legion.

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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.

I might try it! Was there any tangible reward from it, like did you get a lot of achievements or currency or something?

[Wangming]

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.

And the Dragon Isles were a very small zone with an Old God temple. Plans change and stuff likely gets recycled elsewhere.
I mean when I first started writing my novel it looked very different as the end product and at this point I can't reuse those ideas for a single because they wouldn't make sense in the form I wanted them to.
Who is to say ideas for Undermine weren't used up in the Goblin starting storyline or Azshara? or any other goblin owned settlement or district?

[Nightshade711]

You already had Tauren that didn't really wear boots to begin with.

Tbf tauren still “wear” boots. It’s just a little thing around the ankles. & 3D Assets now that can cover the hooves.

[Magistrate]

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.

Imo the bigger issue isn't world quests--many of which aren't even combat oriented. The issue is the big event systems they keep layering over each zone. The time event, the fyrrakk assault, the great hunt, the siege of the keep. These aren't evergreen features, they're expansion specific features, and they should have made them only up for the related patches and then moved them to an NPC or something.

I don't have an issue with wqs or world bosses. If scattered correctly, I think they're fine. They also aren't all on 24 hr timers so there's a good mix of when they show up so it's not all at once.

If they ever did a pass on the old world to add content, I'd hope they'd place a concentration of profession, slice of life, and race themed wqs on different timers clustered in the cities and around the zones they're in, and then have only like two zones on each continent with wqs active per week.

[ercarp]

I might try it! Was there any tangible reward from it, like did you get a lot of achievements or currency or something?

You get the Zookeeper title if you complete the World Safari achievement which requires you to collect all the battle pets from EK, Kalimdor, Outland, Pandaria, and Northrend. I didn't make it quite that far though as there are a lot of pets.

[Grazrug]

Thrall features in the Blizzcon Art do you think he will die?

[Magistrate]

Thrall features in the Blizzcon Art do you think he will die?

What makes you think he would die?

I'm grateful for the orc heritage quest (some of the best world building questing in the game imo) because it brought out a lot of fresh or returning orc characters, but I think we'd need more horde development before we start killing more of our leaders and not replacing them with anything meaningful.

But now that I type that all out, to your point it would fit the mold for how Blizzard handles Horde characters

[Myrrh]

Thrall features in the Blizzcon Art do you think he will die?

Ah yes, inviting Metzen back just in time to kill off his baby. That's some cold shit man.

(there is no way Thrall is dying with Metzen back in creative)

[Grazrug]

What makes you think he would die?

I'm grateful for the orc heritage quest (some of the best world building questing in the game imo) because it brought out a lot of fresh or returning orc characters, but I think we'd need more horde development before we start killing more of our leaders and not replacing them with anything meaningful.

But now that I type that all out, to your point it would fit the mold for how Blizzard handles Horde characters

Because it would mirror the fate of Varian. And his children are in position to replace him.

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Ah yes, inviting Metzen back just in time to kill off his baby. That's some cold shit man.

(there is no way Thrall is dying with Metzen back in creative)

I just hate him. He is one of two characters I really do not like at all.

[Cheezits]

The way they are framing Amirdrassil in that interview goes against how they are portraying it in game. Lots of Nelves are saying it will be their home, but the devs see it as a "place to rest" before "something new"?

Are they talking about how the Dream Zone is a place to rest before the tree is grown? Or in a meta-sense, Amirdrassil well be the temporary Nelf area before a Hyjal revamp?

Because 8 years(?) and loads of drama to just update Hyjal (something they could've done instantly after BFA) would be insane.

[Wangming]

I just hate him. He is one of two characters I really do not like at all.

He ain't my cup of tea either, but that is no reason to kill him off.

[Dancaris]

The way they are framing Amirdrassil in that interview goes against how they are portraying it in game. Lots of Nelves are saying it will be their home, but the devs see it as a "place to rest" before "something new"?

Are they talking about how the Dream Zone is a place to rest before the tree is grown? Or in a meta-sense, Amirdrassil well be the temporary Nelf area before a Hyjal revamp?

Because 8 years(?) and loads of drama to just update Hyjal (something they could've done instantly after BFA) would be insane.

Telling you, Avangers style portal entrance.

Spoiler: 

[Magistrate]

Because it would mirror the fate of Varian. And his children are in position to replace him.

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My counter is that Thrall hasn't operated as Varian's political parallel in the Horde since Cataclysm, that he's not even on the Council, and that Vol'jin was deemed the parallel to Varian at the time and that was why he was killed after his hilariously short stint as Warchief.

But in a more general sense, yes, I can see the broader logic due to the way Varian and Thrall have historically paralleled each other as shorthands for Alliance and Horde representation in older content, books, etc.

I would hope they kill off another Alliance racial leader to justify it, though, because otherwise we lost Vol'jin for nothing. And the Alliance has no equal to what they did to Sylvanas.

I just hate him. He is one of two characters I really do not like at all.

This is a good point and one that the "METZEN IS BACK WOW IS SAVED" crowd seem to oddly be forgetting.

[Sondrelk]

The way they are framing Amirdrassil in that interview goes against how they are portraying it in game. Lots of Nelves are saying it will be their home, but the devs see it as a "place to rest" before "something new"?

Are they talking about how the Dream Zone is a place to rest before the tree is grown? Or in a meta-sense, Amirdrassil well be the temporary Nelf area before a Hyjal revamp?

Because 8 years(?) and loads of drama to just update Hyjal would be insane.

I imagine the writers are once again realizing that their plans are not what the audience had in mind, so they are subtly trying to backtrack to still leave options open.

8.1 wasnt what Nelves wanted, so we had Tyrande show up in Shadowlands to defeat Sylvanas. Then that was undercut by Sylvanas being redeemed, so they tried to promise Nelves a new home. And once they had it in the Dragon Isles the players once again had to point out why it's seemingly being placed in the Dragon Isles.

Or maybe it's because they want to make it clear that the tree will not stay in the Emerald Dream. And by extension that the tree with the actual home will be somewhere else. Hard to say when it comes to Blizzard writing Nelves.

[Wangming]

Hard to say when it comes to Blizzard writing Nelves.

Hopefully they at least have a clear plan and it's not like Sylvanas where the guy with a boner for her and the guy with a hate boner for her try to outgambit each other.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Because it would mirror the fate of Varian. And his children are in position to replace him.

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I just hate him. He is one of two characters I really do not like at all.

You can't kill green jesus, he will be the one leading all orc clans to battle.

[Teriz]

And the Dragon Isles were a very small zone with an Old God temple. Plans change and stuff likely gets recycled elsewhere.
I mean when I first started writing my novel it looked very different as the end product and at this point I can't reuse those ideas for a single because they wouldn't make sense in the form I wanted them to.
Who is to say ideas for Undermine weren't used up in the Goblin starting storyline or Azshara? or any other goblin owned settlement or district?

Considering that there simply isn’t a lot of classic lore areas left in WoW, it is doubtful that Blizzard would toss away a potential continent for “reasons”. If they took Dragon Isles from a zone to a continent and turned the Broken Isles into a continent, then Undermine at the very least is going to maintain its vanilla status as a potential continent.

There’s zero reason not to.

[Grazrug]

My counter is that Thrall hasn't operated as Varian's political parallel in the Horde since Cataclysm, that he's not even on the Council, and that Vol'jin was deemed the parallel to Varian at the time and that was why he was killed after his hilariously short stint as Warchief.

But in a more general sense, yes, I can see the broader logic due to the way Varian and Thrall have historically paralleled each other as shorthands for Alliance and Horde representation in older content, books, etc.

I would hope they kill off another Alliance racial leader to justify it, though, because otherwise we lost Vol'jin for nothing. And the Alliance has no equal to what they did to Sylvanas.



This is a good point and one that the "METZEN IS BACK WOW IS SAVED" crowd seem to oddly be forgetting.

Metzen gave us TBC. Which had arguably the worst lore since it burned down the whole Illidan gang for no reason. People should not expect too much.