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

[Woggmer]

The items dataminesd could indicate the algarian earthens could have a culture similar to that of the Wildhammer Clan. Any geographical proximity is out of the picture, according to the text about the fissure, the earthens of khaz algar were separated by other dwarves by "vast swaths of time and distance".

I said, "If it was in a revamped area" I didn't say it was in a revamped area.

If say Khaz Algar was its own separate zone or continent (which is likely), it may borrow a lot of celtic/irish folklore... I mean like coming across the WoW version of Cú Chulainn, who'd probably be a dwarf but is capable of turning into a hulking monster.

That's just one idea, and while we have had references to irish/celtic folklore in some areas, we've never went fully into the idea for one specific area.

[Wangming]

This can work as a hook I think if we look at a series of zones as a cohesive region. Lordaeron, for example, including tirisfal, epl and wpl. Depending on how the politics go, also silverpine and possibly hillsbrad.

Yeah "Lordaeron revamp" would be a great hook. They can include Khaz Algar in it as a bonus zone if they want to. I don't care.

I said, "If it was in a revamped area" I didn't say it was in a revamped area.

If say Khaz Algar was its own separate zone or continent (which is likely), it may borrow a lot of celtic/irish folklore... I mean like coming across the WoW version of Cú Chulainn, who'd probably be a dwarf but is capable of turning into a hulking monster.

That's just one idea, and while we have had references to irish/celtic folklore in some areas, we've never went fully into the idea for one specific area.

I'm not sure the current devs would be willing to do a faithful adaptation of Cú Chulainn but it is worth a shot I guess. it is my understanding that he was kinda an asshole and he tied himself to a stone with his own entrails to die standing.

[Jastall]

What makes me way less hyped for Avaloren, as a Warcraft fan since 2003, is that it was introduced in (i guess) a book a year ago and it has none of the fun value for me in comparison to the value Dragon Isles, Zandalar, KulTiras, Broken Isles have.
Because Dragon Isles were known for ages, and i always wondered what is out there, and that dragons are out there, and that was freaking cool.
Zandalar and KulTiras are also were known for ages, we had characters from there in other expansions. I wanted to visit them.
Same with Broken Isles, i literally played there as Maiev in WC3.
Now, Avaloren? I literally found out about it from Bellullar video year ago. Okay, whatever. There is no cool and appealing anchors in here. Hell, it literally didnt exist in the canon untill DF.
So yeah, in my opinion thats why they shouldnt focus on Avaloren in 11.0, but instead choose either something with World Revamp so the story focused on known world, or with K'aresh, since its one of the old places players speculated about and are excited about.
Give us more meat on Avaloren in 11.0 to hype us up, and then proceed to focus on it in 12.0 etc.
Right now the hype is just not there for it.
Not for me at least.

Light vs Void on Rewamped Azeroth or K'aresh 2024, please!

Personally I don't feel like it matters too much since all those areas ended up being brand new lore anyway, or retconned to be so.

Broken Isles were the biggest ones. In WC2/3 they were tropical islands where the Tomb of Sargeras was and, uh, that's it, that's all she wrote about them. In Legion there was the Tomb of Sargeras... in a blasted hellscape and the Isles themselves suddenly had ghost NEs and non ghost NEs and taurens and Vrykuls and a huge city full of yet more Night Elves but magicky ones this time and not a single palm tree in sight.

Dragon Isles were... a place with dragons. That's it, what's what we knew of them. We know more of Avaloren now than we ever knew of the Dragon Isles for close to twenty years.

Pandaria was the place Pandaren came from. Pandaren are panda people who like beer and we know this because we met one who is a panda guy who likes beer. That's pretty much all we knew before Mists introduced its boatloads of lore.


So long as Avaloren is interesting in and of itself, it doesn't need to have a huge build-up that Blizzard will likely retcon anyway.

[Nerdslime]

On an earlier topic, I did feel a little let down when they said the Black Empire era didn't have enough visual variety to support an entire expansion when, as you say, supposedly a one-off equatorial tropical island became a super varied place with ancient Night self spinoffs and Vrykul and Tauren and each zone utterly different from each other with no real regard for the "science" of the Broken Isles' location on the map. I would think with four (five?) Old Gods lording over void beings and elementals and bugs of every description on one Pangaea supercontinent, they could come up with enough distinct cool biomes and color palettes and combos to make it work.

[Paula Deen]

BFA is over hated

I think I would hate it less if we got 2 seperate expansions instead of a Naval Expansion combined with an Old God Expansion. The two go so well together but not when you waste an entire expansion theme for it. I hated the Azerite so damn much as a system (Not a concept, the concept of Azeroth's blood being super crack is awesome) and it ruined the rest of the content that in retrospect was great. I felt the same about Argus when it came out, too many systems but in hindsight it is incredible. The difference is that BFA should have known when to quit. It just kept adding systems on systems until the very fucking end. If the system introductions stopped with the stupid necklace it would have been better. If the patches explored the Naga and the Naval Conflict then brought us to a new space that was leading into Nyalotha as an Expansion it would have been so much better I feel.

[Kalontas]

Any expansion theme can yield diverse biomes for multiple zones. And missing out on snow or a desert for one expansion won't kill us.

[PotHockets]

Any expansion theme can yield diverse biomes for multiple zones. And missing out on snow or a desert for one expansion won't kill us.

This is very true but also we haven't had a desert since BFA so it would end up being 3 expansions without if we don't get one on 11.0

[Houle]

So what are the odds of Ragnaros returning now that the throne of fire is vacant once more.

Will it be light lord rag from HS?

He is the OG final boss after all so I feel like the 10th exp and 20th anni might honor him

I always saw light lord.rag as an AU boss fight in an infinite raid. But given recent circumstances I doubt that'll happen

I think him coming back is highly likely at this point.

-He was the final boss of the very first raid, so it would seem fitting for him to come back for the 20th anniversary.

-They are conveniently getting rid of the replacement firelord just before that.

-And they already teased that a cult of dwarves (which would also fit if 11.0 actually has big dwarf elements) is trying to bring him back.

What i doubt is that hes going to be light-infused, if hes coming back. They just had a big fire enemy being infused with Void (and one whos going to consume Smolderon during the raid no less), so doing the same thing with Rag (another big fire enemy) and the Voids opposite force would feel kinda repetitive.

[Woggmer]

I'm not sure the current devs would be willing to do a faithful adaptation of Cú Chulainn but it is worth a shot I guess. it is my understanding that he was kinda an asshole and he tied himself to a stone with his own entrails to die standing.

They don't need to do a faithful adaptation of his legend down to the letter. If they can't go the human route like in Kul'tiras or Gilneas, they can do it with the Dwarves or whatever variant we end up finding in Khaz Algar.

They just need to make a dwarf with a polearm, and give him the ability to turn him into an uncontrolled monster...

They could even include stuff like The Morrigan or have it be a mix with Arthurian legends like Morgan La Fey of Avalon (ideally in case Avaloren and Khaz Algar are in the same continent.)

[Samin]

This is very true but also we haven't had a desert since BFA so it would end up being 3 expansions without if we don't get one on 11.0

Zereth Mortis had a desert.

[Magistrate]

This is very true but also we haven't had a desert since BFA so it would end up being 3 expansions without if we don't get one on 11.0

Zereth Mortis was half desert.

Zereth Mortis had a desert.

Twinsies.

[Well Done Steak]

Jesus Christ, can someone do some digging for decent leaks.

I need some Bolvar, alexstrsza-like cinematic leaks.

God I hate AI for ruining leaking season

[Magistrate]

I think him coming back is highly likely at this point.

-He was the final boss of the very first raid, so it would seem fitting for him to come back for the 20th anniversary.

-They are conveniently getting rid of the replacement firelord just before that.

-And they already teased that a cult of dwarves (which would also fit if 11.0 actually has big dwarf elements) is trying to bring him back.

What i doubt is that hes going to be light-infused, if hes coming back. They just had a big fire enemy being infused with Void (and one whos going to consume Smolderon during the raid no less), so doing the same thing with Rag (another big fire enemy) and the Voids opposite force would feel kinda repetitive.

I also hope that if this happens it's not until a late content patch in 11.0 or it's the following expansion. This expansion has had so much fire already and it's about to go into overdrive. There's only so many ways you can make it feel cool without needing a break for a bit. I do miss the high concept wacky element architecture though, which we get to see some glimpse of next patch.

[PotHockets]

Zereth Mortis had a desert.

I didn't even think of Zereth Mortis as a desert zone because it's just a subsection of it but fair enough.

[Leowyld]

Jesus Christ, can someone do some digging for decent leaks.

I need some Bolvar, alexstrsza-like cinematic leaks.

God I hate AI for ruining leaking season

We are still 15 days out. Both of those things happened closer. Although... the Dragonflight title did leak at the 15 day mark. So, maybe we'll get our title soon.

[Izalla]

Btw I know this was discussed early on with 10.0 but I really hope that with 11.0 they consider changing the Covenant spells that practically every spec got so that they fit their classes visually and thematically. Some of them are just jarring. Spec and class identity are so important in WoW.

Not me skipping them in the talent tree for exactly this reason...

[milkmustache]

Jesus Christ, can someone do some digging for decent leaks.

I need some Bolvar, alexstrsza-like cinematic leaks.

God I hate AI for ruining leaking season

I agree, but we're still pretty far away in regards to leak season. In the next two weeks we may begin to see something, but maybe not and we're all surprised!

[Magistrate]

Btw I know this was discussed early on with 10.0 but I really hope that with 11.0 they consider changing the Covenant spells that practically every spec got so that they fit their classes visually and thematically. Some of them are just jarring. Spec and class identity are so important in WoW.

I pointed this out immediately when it was revealed they were getting baked into our talent treats with 10.0 on this very forum and I remember so many people saying in pretty brutal terms they didn't think it was an issue. It drove me nuts. Not a single person agreed.

[Paula Deen]

Btw I know this was discussed early on with 10.0 but I really hope that with 11.0 they consider changing the Covenant spells that practically every spec got so that they fit their classes visually and thematically. Some of them are just jarring. Spec and class identity are so important in WoW.

While we are it; rename them because the amount of effort I had to put in to make some of my macros work with Primordial Wave when that was a useful ability....

[Izalla]

They are not well-known concepts. They are well-known names.

You kinda know the gist of it based on the name. The reason people know those names is because one of them was the #1 community joke and the other one is the most well-known piece of cut content from Classic.

But they had no world building lmao. Look at the Dragon Isle page from before DF was announced.

The only thing that is not cut content is the reference from the Island Expedition, which is an Uldaman Book-tier reference.

Funnily enough, if Avaloren is to the west if Kalimdor and on the "back side" of Azeroth, it is conceptually just as familiar and old as anything. There was just no name tied to the concept. Pretty sure there's been talk of storms preventing exploration to the west of Kalimdor for a long ass time now, and there's never ever been a mention in lore of anyone traveling east of EK either. As long as the name of the Avaloren expac references the west or the storms or something like that instead of the name "Avaloren", people will know what's up and be curious.