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

[Ferlion]

It would not make sense as Celtic Design is associated with the Vrykul and Drust, one of them being forces of Odyn the other being poorly received.

That's more norse than celtic. Drust you have a point on.

[Izalla]

Evasive: Increase dodge by 1%
Good Fortune: You gain 1% of extra gold from enemy loot.
Master of disguise: You take the appearance of your current target. If you have no target you take the appearance of a random object.

Well that has nothing to do with massive furry balls.

[bruxx]

Funny you should say that because I'm pretty sure the Vulperan naming scheme is based on Japanese. They have names like Kiro, Kenzou, Haniko, Shuko, Hagashi, Mekaru, etc. which seem to be influenced by Japanese.

According to lore, they're not originally from Vol'dun either so it's possible the Vulperan homeland (wherever it is) could be very Japan themed.

Man, vulpera samurai would be neat

[Leowyld]

There is a reason Blizzard put them in a desert zone. They are not just fox people. They are *fennec* fox people. Their names are the only thing Japanese about them.

[allifeur]

I forgot about those. Tanuki might look a bit too similar.

I could see Tanuki people as new customisation options for vulpera rather than something new. I feel like it would appeal to the same niche.
Wolvars are just way more forgettable.

[ercarp]

There is a reason Blizzard put them in a desert zone. They are not just fox people. They are *fennec* fox people. Their names are the only thing Japanese about them.

Yes, but maybe the Vulpera in Vol'dun are a subrace of the original fox race.

[Leowyld]

I could see Tanuki people as new customisation options for vulpera rather than something new. I feel like it would appeal to the same niche.
Wolvars are just way more forgettable.

I would love tanuki options for vulpera and similarly raccoon options, give me a proper ringtail - there is already a face option that is mask-like.

[Murlocos]

I don't understand how they said having people use the portals in Cataclysm was bad, then in BfA and Shadowlands they came up with even worse ways to separate zones.

I don't think BfA was the worst of it. It could have been neat if both set of islands were on the same map, but I figure they wanted to keep them separate for lore reasons.

Shadowlands though? Either that wisdom was forgotten a decade after the fact, or it was one of the many facets of their apparent plan to treat player feedback as a distracting devil and that they could simply brute force conceptually poor decisions into being good ones by just believing hard enough. Probably both.

[Leowyld]

Yes, but maybe the Vulpera in Vol'dun are a subrace of the original fox race.

Their clothing, style, and customs all seem like they are inspired by the North African region that fennec foxes live in. Like I said, the naming convention is the only thing Japenese. And maybe that's because they weren't as knowledgeable about Arabic-style names.

[ercarp]

Their clothing, style, and customs all seem like they are inspired by the North African region that fennec foxes live in. Like I said, the naming convention is the only thing Japenese. And maybe that's because they weren't as knowledgeable about Arabic-style names.

That doesn't change the possibility of them being a sub-race that has adapted to the desert.

[bruxx]

Their clothing, style, and customs all seem like they are inspired by the North African region that fennec foxes live in. Like I said, the naming convention is the only thing Japenese. And maybe that's because they weren't as knowledgeable about Arabic-style names.

They could have changed significantly since their departure... Void Elves come from Trolls.

Ofc, we're inventing random potential lore for the heck of it.

[Sondrelk]

But I mean...is it?

You already said yourself you personally know how to 'abuse' dragonriding. Blizzard with the introduction of the Challenge Races has shown it was an intentional mechanic and, while we don't have metrics to show for it, from personal exp I'd say a very small percent of the playerbase actually has the achievements for beating all the challenge races. Meaning that while the intricate mechanics behind dragonriding are something you have mastered, the majority have not.

Its no different than raiding. Some people will simply never have the ability to compete at a Mythic Level. Some people will never be Gladiators. Some people will never get M+ Portals.

Instead of adding more layers to the mechanics already presented they should add a different set of mechanics. Perhaps for ground mounts or wall climbing mounts. Its a different system that allows for people like us to abuse & master it while also not directly harming the games stability by extending a mechanic that frankly is pretty slim to begin with.

I am not asking for intricate mechanics to be the norm. If anything I am asking for those intricate mechanics to be less important.

As I said before, Dragonriding mastery should be about map knowledge, not twitch reflexes and a sensitive mouse, which is the "correct" way to Dragonride currently.

To give you a sense of what I am looking for here.
Currently we have Dreamsurges active. When they are up you have the green orbs everywhere. They spawn in consistent locations, and don't require much skill to get with Dragonriding.

Imagine if instead of giving resources they were instead speed boosts or updrafts.
Wouldn't hitting them be kinda fun? You have mechanics similar to Dragonriding races, which I imagine is the average players introduction to fast Dragonriding, and you have them everywhere.
I imagine this would be more inherently fun than maximizing vigor refills, which isn't that fun of a mechanic, even if it's easy.


In short, I just feel that looking over the Ohn'ahran plains and seeing a bunch of speed boosts, updrafts, and what have you, is more interesting than just using effectively endless vigor to do what you used to be able to do with old flying, just faster.

[Leowyld]

That doesn't change the possibility of them being a sub-race that has adapted to the desert.

Anything is possible, I guess.

[Nymrohd]

Yes, but maybe the Vulpera in Vol'dun are a subrace of the original fox race.

I have this headcannon that there were more than 4 August Cestials. First off because we are missing the Qilin. Second, the Rogue set from Throne of Thunder is fox based and called Nine-Tail Battlegear. What is there was a Kyubi Kitsune Wild God that Lei Shen killed. We know he imprisoned Xuen, Niuzao and Chi Ji. Maybe there were more and he killed them.

- - - Updated - - -

They could have changed significantly since their departure... Void Elves come from Trolls.

Ofc, we're inventing random potential lore for the heck of it.

So are the devs. THis is how lore is created. You make up random things that could fit into existing lore and see if they would work out. God is not whispering to Danuser what the plot should be. Or at least, I hope so.

[Woggmer]

Same with Warfronts. You could make it more difficult, as they did. But Warfronts failed because they wanted to emulate the feel of an RTS, and that was always impossible when the content was designed to accommodate 30 players at once.

They tried that with Battle for Mount Hyjal in TBC, that was supposed to be a callback to WC3 and emulated the survival aspect, minus the resource management... but it turned into one of the least favorite TBC raids because it was just constantly horde mode until people reached Archimonde.

You would have needed to scrap basically the entire thing, making not just two NPCs for each player required for the last boss, but five or six.
You wouldn't just need to fight a big wave of enemies. You would need to somehow make it so you could create static defences that made repelling enemy attacks possible at all.

Or instead of making it 30 players, make it more like a MOBA with 5 v 5 players.. Arathi seems more designed to look like the 3 lane 2 base map structure that standard mobas have, minus a jungle... while Darkshore works as the two-lane mini map structure in Duel maps.

That would work much better than what we had.

[Marlamin]

The Auspicious Arborwyrm and the possibly related Cypress pet are encrypted content in Classic. Fyrn (and probably the arborwyrm mount?) is encrypted content in retail, which is where I'm confused.

Update on this, upon further investigating it appears that the Auspicious Arborwyrm mount might be in BOTH Retail and Classic and that "unknown mount A" (the mount using elemental/wind assets) might be the Auspicious Arborwyrm, which fits with the theme of the assets.

It also implies the Fyrn pet (retail) that shares assets with Unknown Mount A is related to it somehow and by extension probably the Cypress pet (classic) as well. Maybe we're getting expanded Lunar New Year rewards for both Retail and Classic?

[FossilFree]

It might not even necessarily be a Pandaria revamp. But you know, when N'Zoth awakened Mogu were active on both sides of the conflict. If there is a titan keepers vs void conflict we could totally see Mogu fighting Mantid. And the Wandering isle can make port next to any island. Even Avaloren.

It could be a "spiritual successor" to MoP without actually being a return to Pandaria itself. More like it follows the same story beats as MoP did. Dragonflight didn't take us back to Twilight Highlands or whatever, but we still went to similar places. Zaralek Cavern is obviously Deepholm 2.0. Deathwing has a huge part to play in the story, and the Firelands too.

A land hidden by storms (mist) that someone wants to plunder (Nightsquall, Garrosh). Titan influence abounds in this new place (Heretics that are still of Titan origin, Mogu). There is a new (to us) Old God in this land (body of 5th Old God perhaps Xal'atath's true form, Y'shaarj). A familiar race has an exotic, somewhat different, cousin living there (algarens and dwarves, pandaren and furbolg). We try to stop Void McGuffin from McGuffining things up (Iridikron's void amulet, Garrosh's Y'shaarj heart). And so on.

[Nymrohd]

Or instead of making it 30 players, make it more like a MOBA with 5 v 5 players.. Arathi seems more designed to look like the 3 lane 2 base map structure that standard mobas have, minus a jungle... while Darkshore works as the two-lane mini map structure in Duel maps.

That would work much better than what we had.

The central concept was to give people a faction vs faction activity that was PvE. A significant number of players never engage in pvp. I would not be surprised if they are a majority even.

[Catastrophy349]

Looking at those 4 images of Avaloren, I'm actually excited about the biomes shown. Additionally, I'm curious what the continent will look like on a map. The Dragon Isles, for example, we're designed so well (Waking Shores at the lowest point followed by every zone climbing in altitude). Loved it!

[Nymrohd]

Update on this, upon further investigating it appears that the Auspicious Arborwyrm mount might be in BOTH Retail and Classic and that "unknown mount A" (the mount using elemental/wind assets) might be the Auspicious Arborwyrm, which fits with the theme of the assets.

It also implies the Fyrn pet (retail) that shares assets with Unknown Mount A is related to it somehow and by extension probably the Cypress pet (classic) as well. Maybe we're getting expanded Lunar New Year rewards for both Retail and Classic?

I mean a not insignifcant number of people pay their subs for classic, not for retail. Blizzard obviously has the actual numbers for this. If there are loyalty rewards for maintaining subs, they should be for both games. Especially if they see they have Classic subscribers that only sub sporadically.