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

[doledippers]

damn, so nothing concrete today on the leaks. was hoping to get another juicy one today. o well, theres always tomorrow

[Shadochi]

Huh, I actually liked WoD, each to their own I guess

I gotta agree with this, but from my point it was also since it was my first expac on retail (played 3.3.5 private servers before that) so I also had a ton of time to do old grinds

[leothar]

The binary code stuff is giving r/iamverysmart

[PotHockets]

My thoughts re: world revamp at this point is that I think it's slightly peculiar that Ion had the chance in that 10.2 interview to either completely shut down the idea of a revamp or dismiss it with a quick "no plans at this time" or what have you, but instead went onto say that it's likely and begin talking about the specific problems they want to tackle with it. Seems odd to talk about it off the cuff at such length, but who knows.

It's definitely happening. They've been doing the work for the assets for a while now. The real question is just if it's 11.0 or not.

[NikolaiShade]

My thoughts re: world revamp at this point is that I think it's slightly peculiar that Ion had the chance in that 10.2 interview to either completely shut down the idea of a revamp or dismiss it with a quick "no plans at this time" or what have you, but instead went onto say that it's likely and begin talking about the specific problems they want to tackle with it. Seems odd to talk about it off the cuff at such length, but who knows.

I think it's like the trading post weapons and the gray dwarf pictured in the TP post. At this point if they are all non sequiturs the blame is more on them than on us

[Catastrophy349]

That honestly just sounds annoying as hell. Imagine if you like the atmosphere except it only appears on the third Thursday of March and only if it's raining.

Innovation isn't always for the best, but I would like to see Blizzard experiment more. Dragonflight being a "safe expansion" I think was smart. However, now I want them to take the lessons learned, QoL changes, system overhauls, etc., and create something even better for 11.0+.

[Varodoc]

I don't think you can disconnect Khaz Algar from Avaloren at this point.

Avaloren is somewhere other than Ancient Kalimdor, check.

Khaz Algar is very far away from Uldaman, check.

Erinethria flew west to another land not on Ancient Kalimdor, beyond storms, check.

Khaz Algar has Stormriders, check.

Edit:

That said, since Khaz Modan is the name of an entire kingdom or subcontinent, it is possible Khaz Algar is as well. It might not be a city, as people like to believe. If this is the case, then it might indeed be separate from Avaloren. Perhaps they are both simply continents behind the Storming Sea.

I think that Khaz Algar is separate from Avaloren. Why? Because their names don't have anything in common at all.

If anything, "Avaloren" makes Me think of Avalon from the Arthurian legends, most certainly not Fantasy Dwarves.

"Khaz Modan" refers to the entire Dwarven subcontinent, but Ironforge is actually much bigger in the lore and even in-game it's implied that it spans through the entire region, even as far as Loch Modan (the little closed-off windows that are above the gates of Ironforge are also found at the borders of Dun Morogh/Loch Modan, implying that it's all an inter-connected underground settlement much larger than just city of Ironforge).

So I expect Khaz Algar to be a very large, subcontinent-wide settlement. It might get a similar treatment to Zuldazar/Dazar'alor, where Zuldazar is the entire city that spans the entire zone, and the urban core and player hub is Dazar'alor.

[Nymrohd]

As someone who mostly plays to raid (but not exclusively), I adored WoD.

BRF is still the best raid instance in the game, and Highmaul had some incredibly good bosses as well.
Command Table also was still at a point where it was a fun side activity.

Imo All three raids were amazing. WoD is probably the expansion with the most consistently good raid encounters. Every other expansion had some flop raid.

[PotHockets]

Innovation isn't always for the best, but I would like to see Blizzard experiment more. Dragonflight being a "safe expansion" I think was smart. However, now I want them to take the lessons learned, QoL changes, system overhauls, etc., and create something even better for 11.0+.

I liked what they did with weather in Shadowlands and would like to see that touched on more. Weather systems could apply to a lot of different vibes or atmospheres. Maybe even able to double up on them so say you have rain and also wind in the area then it's a heavy deluge but if you have wind and a lot of sun you get some dust devils or something.

[justwatching]

WoW is the big cashcow, and the reception to DF fixing a bunch of stuff gives them a bunch of momentum that it would be insane to give up on by implictly stating all expansions going forward will be "failed" ones.

Has it given them momentum? It seems like engagement with Retail related content is very low,the limited statistics we do have suggest the playerbase is overall down to about 9.2 levels and just anecdotally most lapsed players I talk to are completely uninterested in Dragonflight and they almost all say "something big is needed to bring me back".

Ultimately well find out and getting a sense of the feeling in the community at large is extremely hard but it wouldnt surprise me if the reaction to another 4 zone island expansion was pretty negative even from players that are still playing.

[matijwow]

damn, so nothing concrete today on the leaks. was hoping to get another juicy one today. o well, theres always tomorrow

World of Warcraft: Juice of the Titans
New Zone: Tel'Donar (includes Tel'Abim and other tropical islands, each one with its own fruit)
New Class: Barista - Juicer (dps), Blender (support), pyramid schemer (reverse-support; basically it leeches dps from the other players to empower itself)
Main Antagonist: Cellulos, the Sucrotic Titan
Plot: A new Titan has awoken and found Azeroth, but wants to fatten her and her champions up to make a meal out of! Team up with new health-and-fitness inspired factions to thwart Cellulos's sugary invasion and supply Azeroth with nutritious juices and smoothies.

[Cheezits]

Ultimately well find out and getting a sense of the feeling in the community at large is extremely hard but it wouldnt surprise me if the reaction to another 4 zone island expansion was pretty negative even from players that are still playing.

And don't forget that said island has uninspired zones with little to nothing new on them. The only animals we even see are retextures.

If it was a crazy wacky island it would be a different story.

[D4NNYB0Y]

I think that Khaz Algar is separate from Avaloren. Why? Because their names don't have anything in common at all.

If anything, "Avaloren" makes Me think of Avalon from the Arthurian legends, most certainly not Fantasy Dwarves.

"Khaz Modan" refers to the entire Dwarven subcontinent, but Ironforge is actually much bigger in the lore and even in-game it's implied that it spans through the entire region, even as far as Loch Modan (the little closed-off windows that are above the gates of Ironforge are also found at the borders of Dun Morogh/Loch Modan, implying that it's all an inter-connected underground settlement much larger than just city of Ironforge).

So I expect Khaz Algar to be a very large, subcontinent-wide settlement. It might get a similar treatment to Zuldazar/Dazar'alor, where Zuldazar is the entire city that spans the entire zone, and the urban core and player hub is Dazar'alor.

I like the idea from the one leak that translated Khaz Algar as "Prison of Khaz" alluding that it is an underground Old God prison.

I guess that would make Algarians prison guards or wardens?

[Yus atath]

It doesnt matter what 11.0 is yall will always find a way to complain about an expansion and fuel the speculation thread with negative comments and complaints once the new xpac is announced. Its been like that since BFA

[Sondrelk]

I gotta agree with this, but from my point it was also since it was my first expac on retail (played 3.3.5 private servers before that) so I also had a ton of time to do old grinds

I imagine this is also what pulled me through that expansion since it was similarly the first one where I played the entire thing. Still though, you look back and realize how incredibly empty everything was, and how devoid of content it felt.
So many great zones, and so many fantastic possibilities for content, and it all fell flat. Karabor is just a neat looking garden you go to for two quests. Shattrath forever repels you with whatever mysterious force is inside, and no explanation of what is even happening? Spires of Arak is a great questing zone that you only go back to when you did the Challenge Dungeon or Pet Battle daily. etc.

WoD was the perfect example of an expansion with no driving momentum for the player. A beautiful Ferrari without an engine, doomed to only look impressive, not be impressive.

[ercarp]

In case you want to quote him verbatim.

-snip-

Wow, thank you! I actually ended up going through and adding translated versions of his original messages to the album but I'll credit you as a helper alongside Arafal because this is some good work.

[Woggmer]

I mean you could say the same about DF to be honest. Maybe the decline in quality has finally hit the environmental art team.

Either that or they haven't figured out a proper skybox for these zones... Which is why some of the look pretty flat and bad, except for the last one which looks the most legitimate because it doesn't need one.

[lostsoup]

I think the two most credible things about the Binary leak are 1. the removal of transmog restrictions is something that we've been leading up to after moggable whites/greens, removing restrictions on most holiday gear, etc. that hasn't been included in nearly any leaks as a feature, and 2. Blizzard almost never includes fan requests exactly as suggested, such as "playable Dragons" turning into Dracthyr and Evokers. Them adding an engineer class as Artificer instead of Tinker fits this.

Just two days left. I hope the screenshot leak isn't real, but we'll see soon.

[Sondrelk]

Innovation isn't always for the best, but I would like to see Blizzard experiment more. Dragonflight being a "safe expansion" I think was smart. However, now I want them to take the lessons learned, QoL changes, system overhauls, etc., and create something even better for 11.0+.

I think this is why a World Revamp makes so much sense.
In Dragonflight they fixed a bunch of gameplay systems, and generally made the baseline experience of playing the game exciting. Next expansion should then build on that by making an expansion exciting to see unfold, which is the weak point of Dragonflight.
After that it would just be a matter of making good on the promise of incremental improvements, with the occasional big crowd pleaser feature like Housing.

[vintage79]

Well if u 'dont know' we can always make some assumptions with logic

Players are different;
some have been playing for 10+ years,
others have been playing since the expansion is released,
and yet anothers are just starting after catching the hype

But what they and Blizzard all have in common is that they need that 'something'.

This thing is tl;dr: HYPE

And how to create this hype in the current 'setup'?

of course, as always: by breaking the current ceiling
Need to be BIG, Shiny, Catchy, Brave, and not mentioned before

So about what we have 'currently':
1. We got rid of borrowing power and it would be total stupidity to go back to it.
I would like to point out that this is a huge area and it will seriously hamper the legs of the ANY new Expansion (if blizz gona keep it dat way).

2. No one give a damn about any previous feature and they cannot be sold as 'new' and big ones.
Of course, they may be welcome, but let's not kid ourselves that people will squeal about it
eg. dragonraiding for normal mount etc.

Now we need to add any current implications; stories, plots and so on
Iridikron, Void, whispers from other dimensions, generally old gods looming in background with a sprinkle of elemental fights (basic DF campaign)

Let's also add that Blizzard suddenly started adding new specs to the classes (although during their datamining they vehemently denied that this would happen) and, in addition, this new spec is a whiff (yikes) of a new role in the age-old setup, i.e. support.

let's also take into account that - what we know and see a little (but not a lot) what is happening in Blizzard (and around) during its takeover by Microsoft and how it may/could have influenced the production of the current expansion (we will probably find out in a few years).

and let's not forget, of course, about the overwhelming monetization***

***
Taking all this into account, I think (although of course I wona believe in better wow)

That they will put a lot of effort into Cinematic (so that people will throw their wallets at the monitor) and will add some new support specs and will probably take up partial revamp - although under the guise of big changes, we will have a looong road ahead and a lot of 'game breaks' between patches.