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

[PotHockets]

Blizzard don't usually just produce content out of the blue unless they have a purpose behind it.

No not usually but this is a huge anniversary year and I think they're just leaning into Warcraft as a franchise for it as opposed to just themed around the expansion.

[Hitei]

It wouldn't have to just be a Gnome/Goblin class. You could easily include Humans, Dwarves, Draenei, VElves, Mechagnomes and Dark Irons for the Alliance. The harder one would be Horde side but even then you could do Orcs, Blood Elves, Maghar Orcs, Nightborne and maybe Vulpera if you lean into them always looking for new ways to string things together and make it work or something.

It was less about being locked into specific races and more about general aesthetics. See: Monk. Monk suffers because regardless of what you are playing it on, it's still extremely pandaren/august celestial in aesthetic. "tinker" technology in wow is heavily tied into gnome and goblin aesthetic, which just isn't popular.

[ercarp]

They are unpopular because they are unpopular.

They're unpopular until they get added to the game and get to be the shiny new class everyone wants to try out.

Bonus points if Blizzard makes them OP af (the meta brains can't say no, no matter how much they might detest gnomes). I mean look at the amount of people choosing to main underfed lizards that can't even transmog just because they're OP.

[Nymrohd]

That's an extremely flawed line of reasoning. Mechanic classes are rarely popular in any game. DH wasn't added until 2017, do you know what people did instead? Played Night Elf rogues and warriors and wore demon-huntery transmogs. They are unpopular because they are unpopular.

I mean by that logic, everyone who plays an engineer using the goggle mogs wants to be a tinker.

[Woggmer]

Tinkers would actually be such a cool addition, I don't know why people are hating on them constantly.

I think people just hate it mainly because it keeps getting brought up... To be honest, I'm not as against it as other classes that got added in.

Like I was one of the people that really loathed people saying "When are we gonna get Demon Hunters Blizz?" "The next expansion is gonna have Demon Hunters!" and it just got on my nerves because there was no way it would get added in because we all thought Illidan was dead along with the rest of the Demon Hunters. So the only way to become a demon hunter (pre-legion) was to read a set of forbidden scrolls the Night Elves had locked away.

And now that we've had Evokers and Demon Hunters... I'm rooting for Tinkers, mostly for Blizz to pull off another MoP and make something good despite people being against the idea and quickly judging the content at the cover rather than looking deeper into it.

Let me put it this way: If Blizz can make the Pandaren (aka a joke race) interesting and popular, why not do the same for Gnomes and Goblins?

[Worldshaper]

No not usually but this is a huge anniversary year and I think they're just leaning into Warcraft as a franchise for it as opposed to just themed around the expansion.

It's not. Next year is a huge anniversary year. People keep confusing the two because we've been discussing the possibility of a revamp expansion being announced so that it might release around the time of the anniversary.

[Cheezits]

Jaina and Thrall usually appear together. Considering they are pretty faction-tied (compared to Khadgar and the dragons) I think the only thing they imply is a return to factions being in the story, not so much a hint towards a revamp.

[Worldshaper]

Hmm. The last we heard from Jaina Proudmoore was before Dragonflight, in the short story A Vow Eternal.

“The Lord Admiral is doing well,” Taelia told Kalecgos. “Lady Jaina wanted so much to be here, but her hands are rather full. We’re having some trouble with . . . pirates.”

Something tells me Taelia isn't really telling the full story here.

[PotHockets]

It was less about being locked into specific races and more about general aesthetics. See: Monk. Monk suffers because regardless of what you are playing it on, it's still extremely pandaren/august celestial in aesthetic. "tinker" technology in wow is heavily tied into gnome and goblin aesthetic, which just isn't popular.

I don't disagree about the aesthetic aspects of Monk being so heavily tied to Pandaria but depending on what a Tinker is i.e. is it just something that uses technology and specifically a quasi revival of Gnomish v Goblin engineering. Or is it something with a mech because if it's something with a mech all those races I mentioned have their own aesthetic takes on Mechs/Constructs that could be customizable.

[Trazzle]

50% because goblins and gnomes are wildly unpopular, silly, and dumb, and 50% because tinker fans continually insist that they are the only reasonable option to add despite like three other classes being added in the meantime.

All previous additions have made sense and fit within WoWs narrative/architecture.

What drives me wild, and I’d assume some others, is that if fits so damn well and we still don’t have it. The games almost 20 years old… just exhausting.

DHs got theirs, High Elves (somewhat) got theirs… it’s time!!

[Hitei]

I mean by that logic, everyone who plays an engineer using the goggle mogs wants to be a tinker.

That's... not many people.

They're unpopular until they get added to the game and get to be the shiny new class everyone wants to try out.

Bonus points if Blizzard makes them OP af (the meta brains can't say no, no matter how much they might detest gnomes). I mean look at the amount of people choosing to main underfed lizards that can't even transmog just because they're OP.

I think the better move would be to look at monks, another heavily racial themed class that has struggled with population numbers since its inception.

[Santandame]

It must be some kind of forum blood feud that's gotten out of control. I know that goblins and gnomes are not the most popular races, but there's no way people hate Tinkers this much.

Personally I think goblins and gnomes actually have some really cool lore. The problem is that Blizzard's writers ignore this and use them as comic relief instead. Same happened with Pandaren.

Goblins and Gnomes aside, there’s a few races that would be strong contenders for playable Tinkers.

- Humans
- Dwarves
- Dark Iron
- Draenei
- Lightforged
- Orcs
- Mag’har
- Vulpera
- Blood Elves

You could probably justify Nightborne, Forsaken and Kul Tirans too.

[Woke it Up]

It's not. Next year is a huge anniversary year. People keep confusing the two because we've been discussing the possibility of a revamp expansion being announced so that it might release around the time of the anniversary.

But also this is the tenth expansion, and given the previous celebrations of anniversaries there's hope that this breaks the mold somehow

[Murlocos]

So if we go to another island or continent or something else, then how many zones at the beginning do you guys want?

I would prefer to have 6 zones like in BFA than 4 main zones again.

4 Isles-sized zones (excluding Thaldraszus) and one endgame Suramar-esque zone is fine with me given the trend towards less zones. My bigger wish is less to do with zone count and more hoping that this time around there's a more front and center storyline linking the zones together and some more consistency between them. I haven't been a fan of SL and DF returning to linear leveling but the zones also feeling very separate and sectioned off from one another that makes them feel like four separate sidestories. More literally in SL's case of course but I'd like some more cohesiveness.

[pacotaco]

They could take ETC (tank) and Lucio (healer) as base concepts for Bard. They'd just need to figure out a DPS or support spec and made all of it cohesive and fit into WoW lore.

[Leowyld]

They have been actively moving towards making all classes available to all races. Evoker wasn't because of how very dragon-related it is. But, I imagine if we get Tinker or any other regular class in the future, it will be for all races. Wouldn't really make sense, otherwise, with their paradigm shift.

[matijwow]

Most likely reason is just that Jaina and Thrall are the most iconic Warcraft characters outside of maaaaaaybe Arthas and Illidan. Even then I think Jaina and Thrall probably win out but only by a bit.

They've also used them to represent Alliance and Horde leaders working together since WCIII. Both of them were the respective leaders Medivh led to Kalimdor, and after Jaina stopped hating the Horde at the end of BfA, they had them side-by-side again in Shadowlands.

[ercarp]

I think the better move would be to look at monks, another heavily racial themed class that has struggled with population numbers since its inception.

I think that's more due to meta reasons than thematic ones. Players are constantly complaining about monks getting the short end of the stick.

I also wouldn't say "since its inception", I think monks have definitely had their time in the spotlight and they tend to weave (heh) in and out of the meta as time goes on. I remember Mistweaver being fun to play in Legion.

And as other users have pointed out, there are lore reasons to justify Tinkers being available to some of the other races as well. Doesn't have to be just goblins and gnomes.

[Santandame]

It was less about being locked into specific races and more about general aesthetics. See: Monk. Monk suffers because regardless of what you are playing it on, it's still extremely pandaren/august celestial in aesthetic. "tinker" technology in wow is heavily tied into gnome and goblin aesthetic, which just isn't popular.

Which is a shame as there are plenty of unique machinery themed aesthetics they can pull from such as Draenei Articifers, blood golems, Vulpera scavenging parts together, Kul Tiran harvester technology, the Nightborne with their constructs and I’m sure the Forsaken could cool up some really cool, gothic, Frankenstein esque inventions.

[Woke it Up]

Goblins and Gnomes aside, there’s a few races that would be strong contenders for playable Tinkers.

- Humans
- Dwarves
- Dark Iron
- Draenei
- Lightforged
- Orcs
- Mag’har
- Vulpera
- Blood Elves

You could probably justify Nightborne, Forsaken and Kul Tirans too.

Burning crusade set up half of those, bfa built on it with azerite and the golems, there were a bunch of stuff in wotlk too. It's not a stretch in any part of the imagination. Blizzard showed pretty much no imagination towards engineering as a profession in BFA, which sucks because a huge chunk of classic had those elements.