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

[Worldshaper]

There does not seem to be any consensus here that this is low-quality or fan art. I heard these exact same arguments about the Dracthyr last cycle. You are also assuming Chris Metzen was heavily involved with this expansion. Chris is just one person, and he just officially came back. They have been working on this expansion for years. Where did Blizzard say Chris Metzen co-wrote this expansion?

They don't work on expansions for "years". They begin full production shortly before the prior one launches. So right around the time when Chris came back.

And yeah, the art is pretty low quality. People have been analysing various elements of it for dozens of pages now. How various details and landmarks in the background are just ripped from old zones, then made blurry to hide it.

[Dismayxz]

I think that is a definite (but very low) possibility. But probably not as a “made it just to leak” kinda thing.

Probably something for RP or someone’s personal fun project IF it is fake.
Kind of like the revamped Dalaran picture or something like this I found on Twitter:

That's from the Private Server that shall not be named. Almost definitely made for RP, because it's a RP-centric server.

[ercarp]

Both leaks are in the spreadsheet and the Agg'orand website leak's poster has never come forward claiming it was fake. People are getting it mixed up with the Stormbreaker website leak, which was fake, and where the author did come forward and claim it as theirs.

[Hitei]

With the same token, why would you assume it's fake?

Has already been gone into. Questionable design choices and a background that is clearly an AI reproduction of the Dragon Isles concept art.

[Dismayxz]

I mean, there is not a "same" asset of it, but it's definitely the same base model with a different top as the quote said. Blizz can scale their models so scale isn't really an issue at all.

Even the rock texture on the base pillar is darker and lacks the gold beams going up the side of it.

[D4NNYB0Y]

The creator of the website leak admitted is was fake.

Do you have a source for that? The creator has 1 post.

i.imgur. com/VromJYz.jpeg

[Azalar]

They don't work on expansions for "years". They begin full production shortly before the prior one launches. So right around the time when Chris came back.

And yeah, the art is pretty low quality. People have been analysing various elements of it for dozens of pages now. How various details and landmarks in the background are just ripped from old zones, then made blurry to hide it.

If we take pre-production into play, then yes, they can work on expansions for years. Validation takes an humongous amount of time.

[Northelim]

Has already been gone into. Questionable design choices and a background that is clearly an AI reproduction of the Dragon Isles concept art.

Questionable Design choices is bread and butter with Blizzard, so not really no that's not an excuse. Go look at the warlords of draenor leak, the whole thing sounded like a horrible fanfict and no one believed it and it ended up being true to the T.

Proof to me that it's an AI re-production of the dragon isles concept art please when the Titan/Dwarf guy matches the image screenshots leaks as well?

Hell, I'll give you 5,000 gold via cross realm trade if this turns out to be fake.

[Gloriandus]

It's all about the fonts.

Currently they use Metamorphous (newer version of Morpheus) and Semplicita. They're also using a heavier weight of Open Sans on the Dragonflight features page, which appears to be new/different, and could account for the font used in body text from the laptop screenshot.

They also still use Friz Quadrata often, but it's likely they'd stick with the current design cues for their website features page.

[Selorian]

Assuming real, I've seen a lot of talk about odyn, has anyone
brought up the potential correlation with the name specifically?

aVALORen = VALARjar = storm drakes, storms. = odyn = halls of VALOR,trial of VALOR

The order of that list doesn't matter whatsoever but I thought it all clicked together in some semblance at least. Maybe I'm grasping at straws or maybe it's already been talked about, but there's too many pages to read through lol

Avaloren's only reference in lore is that it's a place Odyn was trying to get to to pursue a group he calls "heretics" but the expeditions kept getting wrecked.

More likely it's a reference to Avalon

[micwini]

Do you have a source for that? The creator has 1 post.

The name of that poster seems like an anagram. Any detectives in chat?

[Fahrad Wagner]

1 - 2 weeks before Blizzcon is always the best for these threads.

It truly is, juicy fingers and everything!

[Nize]

You mean like the leaker who created the image of Stormwind harbor filled with ghosts and ghost ships? I’m sure that took quite a lot of time as well.

No new models, with already implemented ghostly textures is vastly less time-consuming than CREATING a slew of new models for 4 different screenshots.

[J Street]

Avaloren's only reference in lore is that it's a place Odyn was trying to get to to pursue a group he calls "heretics" but the expeditions kept getting wrecked.

More likely it's a reference to Avalon

Oh okay, thank you

[Houle]

Looks very Blizzard tbh, everyone seems to go on a high of something amazing is going to happen and then we get the same old same old, why should this time be any different?

Oh no, i didnt expect much more, but that doesnt change the fact that its still boring.

[Ersula]

Oh no, i didnt expect much more, but that doesnt change the fact that its still boring.

If it is real, it would require a really good new gameplay feature to give people a reason to play it. Otherwise its very boilerplate.

[Marlamin]

Even the rock texture on the base pillar is darker and lacks the gold beams going up the side of it.

Yes, but that's still the same base model. They take assets and remix them all the time (and so do modders). Dragonflight alone has like 10 different versions of the same dragon stair model for example, in various states of brokenness/overgrownness. This wouldn't really be any different from that, it's really not that deep.

[Dismayxz]

No new models, with already implemented ghostly textures is vastly less time-consuming than CREATING a slew of new models for 4 different screenshots.

It can be done, but it's definitely more work inbetween the Webpage and the 4 zone images. Especially since the Dwarf-ogre Aggo'whatever dude in the Webpage is posing in a different section of what would be the same zone on the second string of images and in a combat pose rather than it's idle. This would be more or less breaking Stormwind Harbor's back in terms of effort for the Fake.

[Kiivar86]

Seems so, I havent seen you here in a while. But believe me: This has been discussed 5 times now lol, so I get the frustration. Its a mix between tyrhold pillar and regular large titan orb

Fair enough, I get it. Sorry for snapping as well at you, Arafal. I get that if you're having to repeat yourself, it gets annoying. I know that at my job all too well, that's for sure...

And yeah work's just kept me real busy as of late. My boss got me working on end of year processes and I'm training two newbies too on top of my regular duties. Its about all I can do but check reddit and here once every other hour for a few minutes.

My bad on the pillar.

[Kiria]

Oh no, i didnt expect much more, but that doesnt change the fact that its still boring.

Oh, I agree it's very underwhelming indeed.

If it is real, it would require a really good new gameplay feature to give people a reason to play it. Otherwise its very boilerplate.

I fully agree, there must be a killer feature to get people intrigued in this if it most certainly is real, maybe new artifact weapons?