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

[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.

[Fahrad Wagner]

me with any leak that does not include a world revamp:

[justwatching]

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.

I can always only speak for myself but I really dont even care about any of the continents post Northrend. I want them to find ways to connect the world and utilize EK and Kalimdor for example I dont get why there are no timewalking WQs.

4 new zones,8 new dungeons and one raid just puts me to sleep at this point.

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.

I agree and that has been my expectation...4 zones 8 dungeons on some island/continent they invented 12 months ago is not it...unless a major feature like Housing etc. is a part of it.

[Sondrelk]

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.

Even more than that, Ironforge was originally designed to have several smaller entrances. Two of them are still visible that I know of. The one to the flight range, and the one near the descent into the Wetlands.

- - - Updated - - -

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.

I feel players are generally more excited about future prospects compared to stuff like the midpoint of SL where the game seemed to have stalled. Story was uninteresting, systems were uninteresting, future prospects were uninteresting, etc.

Also future expansions can build off of the improvements Dragonflight added without having to put in the same work themselves, which leaves them open to try stuff of their own.

[Cheezits]

I'm not even sure Housing by itself would sell an Avaloren expansion as we see so far.

[SloidVoid]

Less than 48 hours, still no SUPER compelling leaks

[Sondrelk]

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.

Removal of armor limitations on Transmog is one of those features I can absolutely see improve player engagement by a significant amount, simply by the fact that even casual transmog enthusiasts who usually only play a single class would have reason to play at least 4.

For those with dedicated alt armies it probably wouldnt do much, but I imagine most players are dedicated to one or two characters at most. Maybe with more for professions or what have you.
Removing transmog restrictions gives an inroad into playing alts in a way that I feel only Legion before managed with the myriad stuff you could do by the final patch.

[justwatching]

Less than 48 hours, still no SUPER compelling leaks

There is a very compelling leak but its also depressing.

[donjn]

Avaloren in 10.3 is still the hill I have chosen to die on.

I've thought of this too. Avaloren is patch 10.3.
A new expansion won't get announced. It will get announced sometime in the spring.

Look:

Legion release August 2016
BFA announce November 2017
GAP 15 months

BFA Release August 2018
Shadowlands announce November 2019
GAP 15 months

Shadowlands Release November 2020
Dragonflight announced April 2022
GAP 17 months

Dragonflight release November 2022
New Expansion announce November 2023
GAP less than 12 months

[Polybius]

They appear in the dreams of the prophets.
They whisper in the desert wind.
They cast no shadow; they bear no weight; they foster no mercy.

You and @LeConceptuel should write cultist pramphlets.

[Shalpal]

Can y'all stop crying about the zone pics, literally every expansion would look depressing with 3 random ass pics missing any context (besides Suramar).

[Nyel]

I mean I think its pure to cope to call it fake at this point. Its so extremely well made and also clearly done in engine that if its fake the person who made it could use it to get a job at blizzard.

The fact it has matching vertical fog pretty much sold it for me so I'm expecting it to be real.

Well made? A lot of effort, yes. But the quality of that was is shown is pretty poor for WoWs newest standards.

[justwatching]

I've thought of this too. Avaloren is patch 10.3.
A new expansion won't get announced. It will get announced sometime in the spring.

Look:

Legion release August 2016
BFA announce November 2017
GAP 15 months

BFA Release August 2018
Shadowlands announce November 2019
GAP 15 months

Shadowlands Release November 2020
Dragonflight announced April 2022
GAP 17 months

Dragonflight release November 2022
New Expansion announce November 2023
GAP less than 12 months

One of their stated longterm goals has been yearly expansions(D4 is targeting this as well). They very clearly want 11.0 to ship in August/September.