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

[Kiria]

I'm inclined to agree. Very few leaks this year.

I concur, This leak season has been particularly underwhelming, what would you like to see happen? What sort of things would give you the goosebumps to be excited for the game again?

[pacotaco]

No the theory was that Legion and WoD echo two parts of TBC, BFA and SL echo two parts of Wrath and that DF is the dragon part of Cata and the next one would be the elemental part of Cata but that doesn't really work when DF already is both a Dragon and Elemental expansion.

That said I still think Decay is kind of important going forward. It's an interesting element for sure.

Now that you point about it, maybe next expansion echoes MoP? But instead of focusing on an exotic forgotten land influenced by the Spirit, the aftermath of an OG death and the Titans, it's another forgotten land influenced by Decay, a Life Lord (Elune) and (maybe?) a not so dead OG?

[Raetary]

I concur, This leak season has been particularly underwhelming, what would you like to see happen? What sort of things would give you the goosebumps to be excited for the game again?

People to use the immense amount of online tools at their disposal to create a convincing fake leak and have it run for weeks.

[Sondrelk]

I concur, This leak season has been particularly underwhelming, what would you like to see happen? What sort of things would give you the goosebumps to be excited for the game again?

World Revamp, or the backside of Azeroth being an archipelago.
Basically one of the two expansions I have been waiting for since at least the end of WoD. BfA never managed to scratch the seafarer itch I have.

[Reive]

this leak season has been underwhelming for 2 reasons i think:

1) the algarian stormrider leak has mostly "set" the theme of the new expansion
2) the interest in the game is down

[PotHockets]

I concur, This leak season has been particularly underwhelming, what would you like to see happen? What sort of things would give you the goosebumps to be excited for the game again?

I can't speak for anyone else but myself obviously but either a Karesh expansion or a revamp would hype me up theme wise. Features wise I'm not really picky. I don't actually need any new big features to be content with an expansion, it's usually more the absence of certain things that will sour my opinion but if they ever add a true Battlemage class or spec I don't think I'd ever touch anything else.

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Now that you point about it, maybe next expansion echoes MoP? But instead of focusing on an exotic forgotten land influenced by the Spirit, the aftermath of an OG death and the Titans, it's another forgotten land influenced by Decay, a Life Lord (Elune) and (maybe?) a not so dead OG?

I think that's a distinct possibility if the expansion is a new continent as opposed to a revamp or something cosmic. If Elune features heavily then I expect that Decay will feature very heavily but as far as like any theories in that direction I've got none.

[Nightshade711]

I concur, This leak season has been particularly underwhelming, what would you like to see happen? What sort of things would give you the goosebumps to be excited for the game again?

New races / classes are always nice.
A nice cinematic w/ some big epic/heroic moments like Legion, WoD, MoP, etc. It’s something that DF kinda fell flat on a little imo.

[Baraden]

TBC called it wants to know where you want your retcons delivered.

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Same. Torghast was fun. Tying it to player power was a mistake but Torghast itself is an amazing idea that should evolve.

I think adapting eredar into the draenei isn't a retcon; but a lore development

Even if you do want to call it a retcon, on the grand scope of things its actually be good for the lore and it's definitely plausible for an evil race of people to have a noble history; draenei mirror orcs in that respect

Shadowlands not only changed the rules of death, but also implemented lore behind how everything we know in Warcraft came to be; I'm sorry - but lore revelations this massive were simply unearned and felt like fan-fiction

Gods and higher power in Warcraft have always been ambiguous, vague and mysterious; given that we have different cultures and races all believing into different deities - it was cool that one race believes in one god, one race another - and the nature of Warcraft higher power means we didn't necessarily need to know the truth, it was the belief in those dieties that led to interesting plot points and stories

This is no longer true thanks to shadowlands, we know now every god in Warcraft is just some powerful entity and not the actual god, because the actual gods are weird robot type dudes with futuristic, high technology, mathetic themed magic and no personality; does anyone go to zereth mortis and seriously believe it feels like Warcraft?

I would love to see someone give a 100 word summary of the shadowlands plot the way you can every other expansion; do that, read it - and defend it, I guarantee no one will, it is one of the worst written expansions in any game; I say this without a hint of hyperbole

[Kiria]

People to use the immense amount of online tools at their disposal to create a convincing fake leak and have it run for weeks.

I think to a degree the use of AI tools has dampened alot of the speculation and thrown people backwards and forwards into different discussions on whether the image is ai or not which has ruined some of it.

World Revamp, or the backside of Azeroth being an archipelago.
Basically one of the two expansions I have been waiting for since at least the end of WoD. BfA never managed to scratch the seafarer itch I have.

Go team world revamp, im still rootin for yer.

this leak season has been underwhelming for 2 reasons i think:

1) the algarian stormrider leak has mostly "set" the theme of the new expansion
2) the interest in the game is down

You make a good point that leak has set the course for most of the discussions, and im inclined to agree on the interest for the game is down but I know people are looking forward to 10.2 to see what it's about and should garner more interest.

[PotHockets]

New races / classes are always nice.
A nice cinematic w/ some big epic/heroic moments like Legion, WoD, MoP, etc. It’s something that DF kinda fell flat on a little imo.

All I need for the cinematic is for it to hit like the end of the WoD one does with the slow zoom out and title reveal. I still don't think they've topped that moment combined with the music and I really don't see it happening anytime soon.

[Reive]

i want either more "cosmic" stuff or a world revamp. the dragon isles were pretty boring. need a change of atmosphere

[ercarp]

I concur, This leak season has been particularly underwhelming, what would you like to see happen? What sort of things would give you the goosebumps to be excited for the game again?

In terms of leaks, I'm a sucker for really good logos. Doesn't even have to be the real logo as long as it's good enough to fool me.

I remember when the Shadowlands logo dropped, I could immediately tell that it was the real deal since it was super high-res and had way more effort and care put into it than any other prior leak.

With the Dragonflight logo on the other hand, I was completely in denial over it being the real logo because it had comparatively much less detail and it broke the silhouette of past expansion logos in a way that was completely unprecedented. And I wasn't alone in thinking that.

If the logo leaks, I hope they've changed something up this time around as well (like DF did with the silhouette) so that no one can make up their mind about whether or not it's real. That'll be fun.

[Teriz]

i want either more "cosmic" stuff or a world revamp. the dragon isles were pretty boring. need a change of atmosphere

You’re likely going to get an underground expansion full of elemental strife. We might get some old god craziness towards the end, but I believe the expansion theme is pretty much set in stone.

[Kiria]

In terms of leaks, I'm a sucker for really good logos. Doesn't even have to be the real logo as long as it's good enough to fool me.

I remember when the Shadowlands logo dropped, I could immediately tell that it was the real deal since it was super high-res and had way more effort and care put into it than any other prior leak.

With the Dragonflight logo on the other hand, I was completely in denial over it being the real logo because it had comparatively much less detail and it broke the silhouette of past expansion logos in a way that was completely unprecedented. And I wasn't alone in thinking that.

If the logo leaks, I hope they've changed something up this time around as well (like DF did with the silhouette) so that no one can make up their mind about whether or not it's real. That'll be fun.

Agreed, I really enjoyed DF leak season, it was a lot of fun seeing all the speculations and people putting these logos up and them being dissected, this leak season has just been ai one ai image after another based on the achievement leak names and it's really muddied the waters.

[Reive]

You’re likely going to get an underground expansion full of elemental strife. We might get some old god craziness towards the end, but I believe the expansion theme is pretty much set in stone.

I find elements extremely boring. i really hope you're wrong lol

[Bsirk]

I'm sure Blizzard has had it in their back thoughts about the Microsoft deal happening before Blizzcon. Now that it has I can see Phil Spencer welcoming us into the Microsoft family. Does anyone think that will make any difference on the expansion to come? Or even if it ever will?

[Nebron]

this leak season has been underwhelming for 2 reasons i think:

1) the algarian stormrider leak has mostly "set" the theme of the new expansion
2) the interest in the game is down

Altough true in essence, not sure about the latter being the cause. This forum was on fire whenever the Algarian Stormrider was datamined. It's more like there's really nothing to speculate about. We have absolutely no clue of what Khaz Algar really is, while with Dragon Isles, which were basically accepted as the theme for next expansion unanimously back then, it was much easier to get wild and still be partially correct. Please remember, that majority of 10.0 leaks were just re-iterations of Dragon Isles content, one way or another. Same happens for Khaz Algar / Avaloren these days, but everything about them is pretty much a blind guess - the closest to truth might be the existence of dwarves/earthrens and perhaps titan's influences. Other then that, as of today, is a fan fiction.

Also, the first serious "leak" happened with that weird looking creature, that sparked the debate whehter it's an orc / lightbound orc / stoneborn or something, and on the standards of previous leaks, that would be accepted as 100% legit with some refusing it as they always do. But since that one was debunked by the OP, the level of caution increased dramatically, so the spam of AI generated leaks met with much more resistence (for good reason) and if anything, I would consider that as a main reason for this season being "different" and less exciting

[Sondrelk]

i want either more "cosmic" stuff or a world revamp. the dragon isles were pretty boring. need a change of atmosphere

It might be a controversial opinion, but I think Dragonflight made the right call by being kinda boring. It could have risked it and gone harder on some aspects, but I don't think WoW could have handled another potentially damaging story. Much better to play it safe, ensure the people who strictly want a grounded expansion gets what they want, and then slowly dial it back up for future expansions.

In all honesty, the only thing I think back on as actually bad is the transmog from the first raid weirdly enough. Dawn of the Infinites wasnt amazing like I had hoped, but the only thing I look back on and don't care for at all is that transmog. It was just that bland.
It might be a weird thing to focus on, but I think it shows the overall quality of the expansion that my biggest gripe is those sets. BfA for instance easily have just as bad sets, but I barely think about it compared to the other stuff that expansion did wrong.

[ZyntosAran]

I'm sure Blizzard has had it in their back thoughts about the Microsoft deal happening before Blizzcon. Now that it has I can see Phil Spencer welcoming us into the Microsoft family. Does anyone think that will make any difference on the expansion to come? Or even if it ever will?

I can definitely see Phil Spencer on the Blizzcon Stage. I am actually 99% sure thats gonna happen.
But there is nothing changing the expansion regarding that. its so deep into development now.

[ercarp]

Agreed, I really enjoyed DF leak season, it was a lot of fun seeing all the speculations and people putting these logos up and them being dissected, this leak season has just been ai one ai image after another based on the achievement leak names and it's really muddied the waters.

Yeah, the AI stuff does take away from some of the excitement of seeing an image leak. Before AI image generators, it at least took some effort and know-how to create believable fakes so when you were presented with something that looked real, you had to ask yourself, "Would someone actually spend days working on this?"

Now you can just click one button and create more believable fakes than ever before. I genuinely believe both the Alexstrasza poster art and the Bolvar cinematic leak would have been dismissed as AI if they were leaked today.