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

[DeltrusDisc]

I did this quest on the PTR and really did not enjoy how it was framed, even as someone that's not really a huge night elf fan or wants to get into the genocide debate. Wowhead doesn't cover the whole thing in full so I'll just throw the description into spoilers just in case.

Voss is framed as an infallible person of kindness and justice while the night elves are portrayed as unnecessarily cruel and mean-spirited against her. You meet up with Shandris and Voss, and they're already portrayed as comrades because hey, you can't trust modern WoW to do proper buildup for anything that isn't a cosmic threat.

Shandris begins acting more pointed and distressed and then runs off, and you read her journal that Wowhead describes, which makes it seem like she can't truly forgive the Forsaken. Voss acts perfectly polite and nice about this trying to help her. She almost feels like a totally different character. The whole while she's trying to help, all the dryads and keepers of the grove of the such are expressing their distrust and dislike of her.

Then it's revealed it's a nature spirit that got released earlier in the questline that's stoking Shandris's negative feelings, AKA you can just resolve the issue by killing something. You both save her, and then Voss lectures all the gathered night elf forces about how they need to be more open-minded and tolerant of people trying to help them. This is written so heavy-handed that they have all the dryads and such emoting of looking away in embarrassment and shame, in case the message wasn't smashed into your skull at this point.

It's the same problem over and over again: no buildup, just jumping to the end point the writers want. The Forsaken are being portrayed as morally superior to the people they massacred the same time we're seeing them try working together for the first time. Danuser and company cannot write a proper followup to the events of Battle for Azeroth, because the only outcome they want is everyone is best friends. We're supposed to handwave everything that happened so we can focus on cosmic shenanigans because faction strife gets in the way of that. If these writers did Warcraft 3, the humans and orcs would have become best friends off screen before even sailing to Kalimdor.

Ugh God damn it Blizzard. If this is the reality... I'm so sick of all the "be nicer to people that are different to you" in-game when it's already pounded on people IRL. I AM nice to people that are different to me where it matters - IN REAL LIFE. In the game? Fuck you, I want to hate the Horde, they burned my treehouse. Don't give me this bs.

[ercarp]

Funny how everyone has given up on the idea of Tinker and Necromancer this cycle

I think most leaks are betting on "no new class" since Blizzard has never added 2 new classes back-to-back. Most players aren't expecting to see a new class in 11.0 either.

[Baraden]

Ugh God damn it Blizzard. If this is the reality... I'm so sick of all the "be nicer to people that are different to you" in-game when it's already pounded on people IRL. I AM nice to people that are different to me where it matters - IN REAL LIFE. In the game? Fuck you, I want to hate the Horde, they burned my treehouse. Don't give me this bs.

I used to play mostly night elves and considered them my favorite race; I've given up - we won't ever get a satisfying or reasonable plot

No one cares about a new world tree on the most forgettable expansion continent ever; especially when it came as the cost of Malfurion; on top of the that, the Forsaken get 0 consequences, they even get undercity back - it's just lame

[Mecheon]

Ugh God damn it Blizzard. If this is the reality... I'm so sick of all the "be nicer to people that are different to you" in-game when it's already pounded on people IRL. I AM nice to people that are different to me where it matters - IN REAL LIFE. In the game? Fuck you, I want to hate the Horde, they burned my treehouse. Don't give me this bs.

you uh

do know that like, every quest Voss has been in has been about her getting rid of pre-conceived notions and working towards a better future (also with tremendous violence when that doesn't work), right? Like we're not talking some random NPC. We're talking Voss, the character who spent BfA being the nice one in the Forsaken crew and trying her best to help and not end up with murders

[DeltrusDisc]

Eonar is a problem.

What made you bring up the Titan of Life?

[D4NNYB0Y]

Do they usually release the HS expansion ahead of Blizzcon? I can't recall. Seems like odd marketing. I know it was leaked, but that wouldn't have had them totally change their marketing strategy. Most people don't see/pay attention to leaks.

Bigger news for other franchises?

[NikolaiShade]

Funny how everyone has given up on the idea of Tinker and Necromancer this cycle

I always hoped for the introduction of necromancers but realism has gotten the better of me honestly

[Chickat]

We are finally in Prime Leak season. Any leak could be true from this point on. Even bizarre ones. Tbh especially the bizarre ones.

[Nightshade711]

I think most leaks are betting on "no new class" since Blizzard has never added 2 new classes back-to-back. Most players aren't expecting to see a new class in 11.0 either.

I don’t think there will be a new class because of DF
BUT
Given it’s the 20th anniversary & the 10th expansion they COULD pull out all the stops to give us a new race and/or class.

[Reive]

Do they usually release the HS expansion ahead of Blizzcon? I can't recall. Seems like odd marketing. I know it was leaked, but that wouldn't have had them totally change their marketing strategy. Most people don't see/pay attention to leaks.

Bigger news for other franchises?

hs gets a new expansion every 3-4 months. blizzcon is for long term plans i guess

[Ferlion]

I always hoped for the introduction of necromancers but realism has gotten the better of me honestly

The issue with Necromancers is they play exactly like Demo Warlocks, so I think when Demo got it's big revamp to imp squad, that was the death of necromancer.

[Hitei]

I always hoped for the introduction of necromancers but realism has gotten the better of me honestly

They're not really in any less likely than they were prior. If anything they've been given even more possibilities since SL introduced five additional domains of "death magic" with distinct visuals for them to pull from.

[Chickat]

Do they usually release the HS expansion ahead of Blizzcon? I can't recall. Seems like odd marketing. I know it was leaked, but that wouldn't have had them totally change their marketing strategy. Most people don't see/pay attention to leaks.

Bigger news for other franchises?

That or maybe they have some major monetization and gameplay changes and dont have time to talk about both. Perhaps they want to spend their HS time talking about major changes to bring people back. Might just be pure Copium. Or like you said they have so much other news they are getting the minor stuff out of the way ahead of time.

[Shamolo]

Do they usually release the HS expansion ahead of Blizzcon? I can't recall. Seems like odd marketing. I know it was leaked, but that wouldn't have had them totally change their marketing strategy. Most people don't see/pay attention to leaks.

Bigger news for other franchises?

They usually don't, but it's also worth noting that Hearthstone now both pushes expansions for the standard game and expansions for Wild/Twist.

[Nightshade711]

The issue with Necromancers is they play exactly like Demo Warlocks, so I think when Demo got it's big revamp to imp squad, that was the death of necromancer.

I’m still forever hoping for class skins, that way they can just add necromancer cosmetics to warlock.

Also could add in MOST popular requested classes with this. Witch doctors, spellbreakers, night warrior, void knight, etc.

[NikolaiShade]

I’m still forever hoping for class skins, that way they can just add necromancer cosmetics to warlock.

Another nice feature I lost all hopes to ever see implemented

Edit: don't get me wrong I would really like class skins, just I don't think they'll ever happen

[PotHockets]

They usually don't, but it's also worth noting that Hearthstone now both pushes expansions for the standard game and expansions for Wild/Twist.

And also new seasons for Battlegrounds that may as well be an expansion for that mode pretty regularly

[Catastrophy349]

So, everyone ready to travel underground and visit the "true" Black Empire?

[Nerdslime]

So, everyone ready to travel underground and visit the "true" Black Empire?

What? Where did you see this news?

[DiscipleofCazicThule]

That 4chan leak gives me hope of some Shaman love. I really hope they do something with totems again. What once was a major part of the class identity is now pretty much an afterthought.