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

[Syegfryed]

I get your point and you're 100% right this is exactly how the DF leaks went down. But realistically, what does this actually prove other than the fact the same person is behind both leaks?

what do you mean with that?

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Practically every expansion since Cataclysm has lost lots of subs.

Cataclysm lost 2 million subs

Mists of Pandaria lost 2.6 million subs

Warlords of Draenor dropped 4.4 million subs in its first 9 months alone, almost halving the playerbase

But only mop had its 2.something million sales number be after a week instead of in one day.

It under sold every expan by what has to be a huge amount if they only had that in a week.

[Rathwell]

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that historically TBC and WotLK lost just as many as they gained too but the game hadn't fully saturated the market so growth was endless. Then around Wrath/Cata is when we tarted to get into that decade of a new MMO launching every other week all of them trying to take WoW's crown.

I'd believe it. Honestly, I don't think WoW bleeding out is because the game's shitty or anything. WoW grew as big as it did because it was exactly what it needed to be at that time, and competition was entirely different back then. The novelty of MMORPGs have disappeared over the past 20 years, there's been countless competitors, even ones from big IPs, and kids these days aren't staring at WoW with stars in their eyes the same way we did when it was new and shiny

You can't really roll back the clock on that one. Had Vanilla WoW released for the first time today, I doubt World of Warcraft would've ever grown very huge

[Mace]

ow does that stop Undermine from being a different place than Kezan?




Are we talking about the same eagle statue? It looks exactly like the statue in the EK except with smoother textures.




Except Azure span also has the same rocks and mist effects as that picture. The only difference is the addition of bright flowers on the ground;





Nope, looks like a spruced up Azure span.

Spruced up/ it looks like Azure span period.

[Catastrophy349]

This is honestly worse because the Dracthyr images before the full reveal looked goofy as hell. The High Res Art of Bolvar with the wrong colors? Goofy.

This though? Not goofy but everyone is as high as a West Virginian at 7pm on a payday on copium for some reason that this isn't it because it doesn't fit there specific headcanon.

That's what I've been saying. People are nuts.

[Hitei]

It being reused doesn't discount it, Blizzard have reused the same bear skeleton for 20 years.

So much being reused is a bit of a red flag though.

[Makorus]

I still think that if someone had access to the reveal trailer (which they do, because the "New Continent" text is mid-animation so it's not a presskit image), they would post something more interesting than that.

[Demonly]

It being reused doesn't discount it, Blizzard have reused the same bear skeleton for 20 years.

Again you're missing the point.

This is supposed to be a new expansion -- not show off all of your already existing assets and show nothing new.

New expansion

not

Entirely reused Expansion

Patch 10.3 or bust, def not a new expansion imo.

[Nightshade711]

She doesn't get all of them right I think, but she makes a point.

https://twitter.com/ObviouslyZelryn/...22061714006305

This is 100% a case of Dracthyr/DF 2.0

I remember images trying this very same thing w/ Dracthyr and pointing out “very obvious clipping issues” and other things.

Also in regards to the direhorn the poster tried so hard to debunk…

[milkmustache]

Underground expansion remains the most likely concept for 11.0. As I said before, I don't see how you make an underground expansion without Undermine. Especially since there's an Undermine clue in the Dragon Isles.

I suppose we'll see soon enough.

Come on Teriz, you've been making some decent points in the past few hours but that is just blantantly misleading.

You're right, there is a reference to Undermine in the Dragon Isles. Blizzard does tease future content this way, like the Island Expedition black dragon scale.

That being said, there are faaaaar more likely options than underground and Undermine for 11.0 that are referenced with more in-game lore ties and frequency, particularly the lands west of Kalimdor. I don't even want to go to Avaloren or Khaz Algar yet, but I know it's the most likely. You're seeing tunnel vision.

[Sinstrike]

https: //img ur.com/ZaOdDLS

Time is a flat circle. So many Pepe Silvia's coping so very hard.

(Dracthyr model being picked apart - feel free to post the image for me if you want)

Here's the post from Le Conceptuel via the 10.0 speculation:

"Here's my whole analysis that makes me think it's fake and probably from a Scalie server. My sister, who is an artist (though not a 3d artist) also helped with her eye for design.

Firstly, and most damningly, is exhibit #1—I am 100% sure this is actually a preexisting mesh applied to the body meant for a type of armor. How WoW used to do some armors (and still does for a few) is that they would actually make a new mesh for the underlying model. I think this was either accidentally or intentionally toggled for whatever reason—I think there's actually a Legion armor (for Mages IIRC) with "shorts", and the "shorts" over the legs were probably what was specifically toggled, because it reminds me of them. I don't recall which one, though. I think it might've been Nightborne-adjacent leveling gear, though. Exhibit #1 is the most awkward mistake I've seen on this model, which is surprising for being such a small one. I simply cannot explain it away.

Exhibit #2 has been done to death—the "nipples" people are seeing are the wings, which are an adjacent mesh that doesn't connect to the body as a whole (whereas I'd expect Blizzard to build the wings entirely into the model instead of using them as an attached mesh like eyes and Elven ears are, since they're probably neither separately attached to permit for easier customization (like hair, beards or eyes) nor need to be removed for some armor types like most mesh parts. This is pretty awkward to me, and it almost certainly confirms this can't be Blizzard because it's such an awkward, obvious and somewhat explicit mistake to make.

Exhibit #3 is the awkward horns that seem to have a metallic or crystalline texture—admittedly, it would look really pretty on a Blue Dragon specifically, since they are known to have crystalline growths sometimes, but it looks super awkward on this model. It is golden, too, so it doesn't match up with any preexisting flight. If they were purple, then this would actually give points to the leak because it would seem absolutely suitable for something related to Blue Dragons, since Senegos already has those kinds of growths. However, it's also awkward they don't appear in place of the chin spines (though they could just be a different customization option that allows them to be crystalline separately from the horns). It does seem like the crystalline horns are a customization option, since I think they're not on the red one we see in the other screenshot.

Exhibit #4 was pointed out by my sister, who noted that the heads are also smaller than most WoW model heads. I agree—this is one of the things that makes me think it's a Scalie model, along with the general softness and femininity of the face. The weird, angular eyes and the "eyelashes" really make me feel suspicious. The fact that the heads are smaller also makes it hard to believe this is a WoW model, since the heads are so often very large on Blizzard models.

Exhibit #5 is the translucent wings. They were mentioned by the leaker, but the way they work is a little awkward. It is possible the leaker noticed them but couldn't do anything about them, so he just added that to obfuscate them as a mistake or a weird design choice.

Exhibit #6 is that the feet look more like Worgen feet than, say, Sethrak or actual Dragon feet. My sister said that she's pretty sure it's not the same as the Worgen feet due to a larger lifted claw and there being three toes + dewclaw as opposed to four + dewclaw on the Worgen model, but I think it was based on them.

Exhibit #7 is the awkward texture shift. Most of the textures in the game are a little more subtle than this, whereas the textures shift very dramatically here and look a little inconsistent. The incongruity is damning. This was also pointed out by my sister. My sister also noted incongruous color shifts, but I don't really see it that much. She says it does look like a detail a Scalie who intends for them to wear minimal armor would add, but not the WoW team.

Exhibit #8 is that they also just seem to have breasts due to the way the model is made. It looks very awkward, and they're both awkward and unwieldy and far too large to be WoW breasts. It also is odd they have them on Lizards. This does look very slightly like it may have been based on the Arakkoa's body shape, but they don't have it so horizontal. This definitely feels like a Scalie addition.

Exhibit #9 is that the wingtips look a little awkward to me—they actually look quite a lot like WoW's Dragon models, but they also do seem like they may have had some copy/pasting going on. They just look off to me—they actually seem a little low-resolution, too. They may be partially copy/pasted, which also could explain why the wings as a whole are iffy.

If they are meant to wear armor, the spikes on the shoulders are also very awkward, though I also think they are the most Blizzard-like design of the whole model."

[Super Dickmann]

So much being reused is a bit of a red flag though.

Depends on what the plan is. While it's like to fail, I suspect that if they have a dwindling subscriber base but can still put out content relatively quickly as DF has shown the business model may be a 1.5 year release schedule. We'll know in about a week. If we get a release date of mid-2024 then the plan may be to push out expansions faster at the DF patch cadence to keep a constant stream of content.

If it isn't and it releases November then they've fallen on their heads as children.

[Nightshade711]

Underground expansion remains the most likely concept for 11.0. As I said before, I don't see how you make an underground expansion without Undermine. Especially since there's an Undermine clue in the Dragon Isles.

I suppose we'll see soon enough.

The cognitive dissonance is strong here.

[Mrpms]

I am going to assume the leak is real until non-nitpicking proof comes out, or a better leak. It's still got more plausible evidence than the other leaks.

With that said, I am curious what features we could see. One potentially neutral race isn't going to light the world on fire. I am sure they have something in the back burner for an evergreen feature, and we are only getting the most obvious features of new zones.

[milkmustache]

Time is a flat circle



(Dracthyr model being picked apart - feel free to post the image for me if you want)

Inserting image:

It pains me, I so want it to not be true.

But you're right. We're looking at images that are most likely 11.0. Copium says it could be 10.3, but that's unlikely. We'll all be in Avaloren this time next year.

[Super Dickmann]

This is 100% a case of Dracthyr/DF 2.0

I remember images trying this very same thing w/ Dracthyr and pointing out “very obvious clipping issues” and other things.

Also in regards to the direhorn the poster tried so hard to debunk…

I think the leak is legit, but the big dinosaur looks like total ass compared to the small one and also has its rocks built different.

[PotHockets]

I'd believe it. Honestly, I don't think WoW bleeding out is because the game's shitty or anything. WoW grew as big as it did because it was exactly what it needed to be at that time, and competition was entirely different back then. The novelty of MMORPGs have disappeared over the past 20 years, there's been countless competitors, even ones from big IPs, and kids these days aren't staring at WoW with stars in their eyes the same way we did when it was new and shiny

You can't really roll back the clock on that one. Had Vanilla WoW released for the first time today, I doubt World of Warcraft would've ever grown very huge

Yeah I fully agree. WoW was lightning in a bottle not just because of the games quality but because of exactly when it came out. We have Skyrim, Witcher 3, AC Odyssey, League of Legends, Fortnite, Apex, Valorant, VR Chat, etc. now. WoW came out when there was nothing like it at all, no other MMO had a seamless world at the time and it wasn't just a game it was a place to hang out with friends, meet new ones, etc. Basically WoW was a graphical social network at a time before social networking had really taken off in the way we see it now.

Even if it was still the only really truly huge MMO it would still be a fraction of what it was because times change and what it was is now spread over 1000+ different games or apps or experiences.

[Teriz]

Come on Teriz, you've been making some decent points in the past few hours but that is just blantantly misleading.

You're right, there is a reference to Undermine in the Dragon Isles. Blizzard does tease future content this way, like the Island Expedition black dragon scale.

That being said, there are faaaaar more likely options than underground and Undermine for 11.0 that are referenced with more in-game lore ties and frequency, particularly the lands west of Kalimdor. I don't even want to go to Avaloren or Khaz Algar yet, but I know it's the most likely. You're seeing tunnel vision.

Okay, check out this break down from Wowhead and tell me what you think;

https://www.wowhead.com/news/what-wi...pansion-335701

[bruxx]

On the topic of reuse, I feel like some people are assuming that these 4 screenshots were taken by some rando on the pre-alpha servers for leaking Luls, while the general assumption is that it is leaked promotional material. The reason people think this fake is because using your reused assets for promo material is not the brightest move, not because we assume that reusing assets is in any way uncommon.

[Makorus]

People have to remember that the text leak is directly related to this leak (All four zones mentioned in the text leak are the zones from the images), and that leak has stuff that is definitely not gonna happen, like Shamans getting one of their specs turned into Support.