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

[Demonly]

Haha, I actually do not like beer to be honest. I am down for meeting up and networking but that depends on the schedule and what's happening. Although I am sure there is a media lounge upstairs from what the PR told me where everyone including the devs hang out. So we can prolly say hello there.

Look man truth be told, I can see how some people may believe there is a .3 patch but the reality is that it is not and here is why - https://www.wowhead.com/news/new-inf...tys-end-325505

This is the shadowlands version of the item "The latest PTR build has added reputation rewards to the new reputation coming in Eternity's End, The Enlightened. One of the rewards for this faction, following the trend of adding one of these every final tier of an expansion, is the infinitely usable Augment Rune for Shadowlands, the Eternal Augment Rune! This item requires Exalted with The Enlightened and will cost 40,000"

In the past, it was normally reserved for the final tier for an expansion, and it's in the 10.2 patch as well.

And here is the Dragonflight version of it in 10.2 on the PTR - https://www.wowhead.com/news/permane...0-2-ptr-335456

"Dragonflight Permanent Augment Rune

Dragonflight's permanent Augment Rune has been added on the Patch 10.2 PTR! Typically the permanent augment rune is only added in the final patch of the expansion likely signifying that 10.2 is the final Patch of Dragonflight! While Shadowlands had Season 4, it was with old content rather than new content."

I get that SL and WoD weren't the greatest expansions ever but whether they were good or bad I do not think they have anything to do with it. Season 4 in SL was quite fun and I am thinking they will do the same thing for DF. The fated season was well received if I am not mistaken.

If this is not the evidence that 10.2 is the final raid tier and the final big major patch for DF then I do not know what is. We will most likely see Season 4 in 10.2.7 imo with access to all the 3 raids/fated and a cool new mix of Mythic+ to top the expansion off as we wait for the next big thing in the Fall or Late summer of 2024.

Hey, a joint would be cool too

I totally get where you're coming from with the Augment rune and I would agree this could be a sign of .2 being the last major raid tier, but I would only stop there. 10.3 could be a bridge patch -> what's the come next.

I'm imagining it like this..

10.2 is the last raid tier.. and to bridge the gap between a potential (2025) release date they are releasing 10.3 which includes Avaloren, some new story, beginning phases of a world revamp & a new mega infinite dungeon (Uldaz). This would make sense with the item referencing Uldaz, & how "Avaloren" was conceptually introduced at the start of Dragonflight, finally bridging the story -> world revamp (11.0) -> conflict w/ Irikidon & Xal.

This gives them the extra time they need to fulfil the wishes of a world revamp, while also not having a huge content drought, maybe even world quests throughout the world start popping up during 10.3 & the bridge to 11.0 makes it worthwhile.

[Hitei]

i bet they reveal their unannounced survival game during the opener

It's still really far out. Last I checked they had job listings up for stuff as basic as art director. But I guess they do often announce games like 3-4 years before they actually come out, so who knows.

[Moth Preacher]

With modern culture any Q&A is going to be a shitshow, really. A hot mess with "absolutely reasonable" political slogans and "influencers" trying to stand out lol

[Cheezits]

If 11.0 is lazy/small AND they announce that expansions are now three raids long, I wonder how small the retail userbase will get.

[Pinksocking]

It's still really far out. Last I checked they had job listings up for stuff as basic as art director. But I guess they do often announce games like 3-4 years before they actually come out, so who knows.

its been in development since 2016 or something

i believe jason schreier said its imminent

reveal this blizzcon with potential 2024 winter release date

full deep dive next blizzcon / beta

[PotHockets]

If 11.0 is lazy/small AND they announce that expansions are now three raids long, I wonder how small the retail userbase will get.

As long as all the shit heads that think dropping random racial slurs is peak comedy leave then who cares.

[allegrian]

It's just the standard gryphon rider keyart.

I know, but they chose that specifically. I wonder what Thrall will do with all the dwarves tho, maybe getting back his shaman powers or something.

[Hitei]

Hey, a joint would be cool too

I totally get where you're coming from with the Augment rune and I would agree this could be a sign of .2 being the last major raid tier, but I would only stop there. 10.3 could be a bridge patch -> what's the come next.

I'm imagining it like this..

10.2 is the last raid tier.. and to bridge the gap between a potential (2025) release date they are releasing 10.3 which includes Avaloren, some new story, beginning phases of a world revamp & a new mega infinite dungeon (Uldaz). This would make sense with the item referencing Uldaz, & how "Avaloren" was conceptually introduced at the start of Dragonflight, finally bridging the story -> world revamp (11.0) -> conflict w/ Irikidon & Xal.

This gives them the extra time they need to fulfil the wishes of a world revamp, while also not having a huge content drought, maybe even world quests throughout the world start popping up during 10.3 & the bridge to 11.0 makes it worthwhile.

This would be pretty unprecedented. But this 10.3 also doesn't include a raid tier because we have the AoTC mount in 10.2 and the additional PvP season mount in 10.2 would be a really odd choice if 10.3 adds a huge extra landmass that would presumably have its own beasts and mounts to pull from.

10.3 is also skipped over in the dragonriding race strings, so that'd be strange, a 10.3 new landmass with no new races.

[Underbottom]

The panels are only gonna be 45 minutes with 15 minutes to switch over to the next panel and let people leave so new people can enter.

[Rathwell]

This official image for the schedule... Griphon rider xpac is super confirmed at this point.

[IMG]https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_entry_media/HAX68VPJ6V0Y1698275104300.png[IMG]

That's an alliance gryphon, imo

More specifically, it's this art piece of an Alliance gryphon rider chased by an orc chimera rider from 2019




Edit: Ah, someone beat me to it

[Ersula]

10.2 is the last raid tier.. and to bridge the gap between a potential (2025) release date they are releasing 10.3 which includes Avaloren, some new story, beginning phases of a world revamp & a new mega infinite dungeon (Uldaz). This would make sense with the item referencing Uldaz, & how "Avaloren" was conceptually introduced at the start of Dragonflight, finally bridging the story -> world revamp (11.0) -> conflict w/ Irikidon & Xal.

Great way to get all raiders to unsubscribe by announcing there won't be a new raid for a whole year.

[Selorian]

There's a lot of reasons for DF not doing well and not all of it is because of the actual content of the game. People confused about DF not selling well when it is receiving good reception by the players don't understand how many things go into someone buying a game.

The writing was on the wall at the release of the expansion: DF is not interesting enough or big enough to warrant new casual and/or old haters coming to play, regardless of the quality. And it looks like 11.0 will be the same if Avaloren is it, meaning we may be shifting to F2P instead of Blizzard making a giant expansion to win people back.

You're putting in a lot of your own personal bias into this (this thread is a pretty big echo chamber wrt world revamp, most people outside simply do not care one way or the other). SL was not a popular expansion and combined with the lawsuit a lot of people just stopped playing. Blizzard has to rebuild trust, and DF has been a good step in that direction. Player retention throughout the expansion has been very good, which suggests the changes they've made have been popular.

[Nyel]

The report from February said Dragonflight was the first expansion since MoP to not outsell the previous expansion. I suspect that the expansion has not been financially successful and that the praise for it online is mostly the effect of an echo chamber.

It absolutely is. The amount of players is way less, but they are happier than during something like Shadowlands e.g. the word of mouth is more positive, but coming from a smaller group of people this doesn’t mean much.

The WoW subreddit was full of praise for Dragonflight in the first 6 months and is to this day and anything negative about the expansion gets downvoted, although they finally adapted to reality and see how mediocre Dragonflight really is now (in parts, at least).

[Azalar]

I'm a dev myself and I'm quite certain that Blizz lead devs would absolutely love to host a Q&A. If there's no live Q&A must be due to the previous experiences we all know and corporate shutting that door.

Also, to add more sauce and spice, I'm dead sure that if we feel disappointed with that leak, devs will probably be too xD

[PotHockets]

This would be pretty unprecedented. But this 10.3 also doesn't include a raid tier because we have the AoTC mount in 10.2 and the additional PvP season mount in 10.2 would be a really odd choice if 10.3 adds a huge extra landmass that would presumably have its own beasts and mounts to pull from.

What if it was a fated raid tier so you end up with new open world content to lead into the next expansion while in the M+/Raid department you do a victory lap tier.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm a dev myself and I'm quite certain that Blizz lead devs would absolutely love to host a Q&A. If there's no live Q&A must be due to the previous experiences we all know and corporate shutting that door.

Probably that and just culture in general right now having gone insane post Covid and in a world where everything has the potential to go viral and turn you into an overnight influencer. Well all mellow out again eventually but it's still a thing.

[Hitei]

its been in development since 2016 or something

i believe jason schreier said its imminent

reveal this blizzcon with potential 2024 winter release date

full deep dive next blizzcon / beta

I wouldn't be surprised. They have openly talked about it and even shared art, which they don't normally do with internal unannounced projects, so it's not surprising it's close to reveal. Just odd that they seem to still be working on hiring core team stuff if they're announcing it in a week.

[Chickat]

The point is that the screenshot and website leaks are fake, so who cares? Obviously the next expansion will have more than 4 zones. EVERY WoW expansion has more than 4 zones. A leak telling you that the next expansion is getting 4 zones should be a giant red flag.

But its not definitively telling us that. There could be 11 zones it that were real.

[Well Done Steak]

I'm taking the 3rd off, how can we watch live again? Through YouTube or did the mount package have a virtual ticket

[Demonly]

Great way to get all raiders to unsubscribe by announcing there won't be a new raid for a whole year.

Raiding was never the focal point of WoW. It was always about the RP experience & w/ Metzen at the helm again I could absolutely see the direction spinning this way. People want more RPG elements back in their MMORPG, not just an endless dungeon/raid grind

[Selorian]

It absolutely is. The amount of players is way less, but they are happier than during something like Shadowlands e.g. the word of mouth is more positive, but coming from a smaller group of people this doesn’t mean much.

The WoW subreddit was full of praise for Dragonflight in the first 6 months and is to this day and anything negative about the expansion gets downvoted, although they finally adapted to reality and see how mediocre Dragonflight really is now (in parts, at least).

Man, I wonder if something happened during Shadowlands that would make people shy away from Blizzard products?

Nah, it couldn't be, it has to be something that fits my narrative.