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

[PotHockets]

Also if there would be no announcement, they would have tell that beforehand. It would be a HUGE PR mistake to let ppl be super hyped for exp and then give them no reveal.

Yeah they're never making the D4/Diablo Immortal mistake again. If they're hyping something up then they fully believe that it deserves that hype. It doesn't necessarily mean that what they have to announce is going to be something good but it's definitely something that they believe is worth the risk.

[FlemmMinis]

I schleep reading this

[justwatching]

I haven't been here in a few hundred pages. What one?

The 4 Screenshots from earlier this week.

[Sondrelk]

Would be interesting. An broad Artificer class instead of a more limited Tinker class would be nice.
Though we’d still get people who will ask for tinker just like people ask for Dark Ranger.

I think the issue with this idea is that people will want racial theming no matter what, so it's not doing much but giving them some breathing room to argue that the Tinker spec is limited by design.
A Draenei artificer would still want to create one of the soul constructs we saw in Auchindoun to run around with. A Belf would still want to use the blood magic onstructs from Throne of Thunder. Even if the actual mechsuit spec is just a more generic shredder mech equivalent you would still need a large amount of racial assets for the other specs. Otherwise it's still just the Goblin/Gnome class, just named something different.

[Selorian]

I dunno why people act like expansions need to be sold on the highest tier of concept heirarchy.

If the trailer starts playing and the zones look sweet, or it has one vaguely interesting feature, or involves some vaguely interesting figures, the general playerbase isn't going to care that it's "omg just a random island again!!!"

WoW has attracted a lot of weird nerds. It's one of the few games that has a dedicated anti-fandom of big streamers (asmongold, bellular) and fan forums are flooded with people who haven't played the game in years yet still feel like they can give a useful, informed opinion on the state of the game.

[Worldshaper]

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

The reason Dragonflight seems shorter is because they announced it later than usual. In ordinary times, it would've been announced at a "BlizzCon 2021", in November of 2021. But BlizzCon was sort of all over the place during the pandemic.

They cancelled it in 2020, and instead opted for a "BlizzConline" in February 2021.

Then in 2021, they cancelled the regular BlizzCon again because of the pandemic and planned for a digital thingie in early 2022 (the evolution of BlizzConline, I suppose).

But that got cancelled in the autumn of 2021 in the midst of the sexual harrassment scandal. They basically told us they wanted to go back and reimagine what BlizzCon is (translated: let things cool off for a bit so as to avoid being booed on stage for two days).

This resulted in an isolated Dragonflight reveal event in the spring of 2022, about six months later than the regular announcement schedule.

Edit

And just to add on to that: expecting an expansion announcement in the spring is crazy. They've got BlizzCon in 2 days, and Warcraft is the IP getting the most news. Why on earth would they take out their headliner announcement from that massive comeback?

Now, as for 10.3, it's not entirely out of the question yet. But right now everything seems to suggest that we get 10.2.5 and 10.2.7 in the spring, and then 11.0 in the late summer or early autumn.

[Selorian]

It's a problem everywhere online because online communities are inherently circlejerks since you have to opt-in to participate but it's to the extreme on MMO-C and I really think half the people in here railing against the idea of the expansion just being an expansion or thinking that retail is a graveyard with no one playing because their one personal wishlist feature hasn't been added yet are deluding themselves. Could be wrong sure but the only people I've ever seen with those takes both irl and online are always the kind of people that quit playing 2+ expansions before the statements are made and have created some unachievable standard that WoW has to reach to quantify as anything half way close to good. Basically they're chasing something that will never happen and have convinced themselves that no one could possibly think like they do or have different tastes/expectations.

yeah +1 to this

I've never met anyone with the sort of extreme takes in this thread in-game

[micwini]

Im not sure if releasing a new RTS (dying genre) is a good business decision.

[Raetary]

A new expansion won't get announced. It will get announced sometime in the spring.

Ye this isn't happening.

Besides Blizzard actively throwing bones in into the 11.0 discourse, we flat out datamined the pre-purchase bundles and epic edition mount achievement.

[Moth Preacher]

Im not sure if releasing a new RTS (dying genre) is a good business decision.

If done properly, with Blizzard Microsoft resources it can as well revitalize the genre. Not that I would bet on it lol

[Shadochi]

I mean, we know based on the 11.0 preorder edition tender rewards that 11.0 pre-order should be out soon and in all likelihood during 10.1.7 (unless they push it a few days to 10.2), so not sure why people would assume no expansion is being announced. Arguably one of the biggest stretches of the hype thread so far and that's saying something.

In addition to this, I think blizzard would come and say not to expect an Expansion announcement already seeing all the hype (not just here) being generated around it if that was the case.

[Kiria]

Im not sure if releasing a new RTS (dying genre) is a good business decision.

In fairness, I love RTS games and I've been following them for a long time, there's quite a few new ones on the horizon so I wouldnt say its a dying genre it just hasnt had the spotlight like it used to, and I played CnC Remaster and got all the achievements, I really did enjoy that game.

[Palapop]

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

you forgot to mention the most important thing:
There was no Blizzcon in these month gaps.

[PotHockets]

If done properly, with Blizzard Microsoft resources it can as well revitalize the genre. Not that I would bet on it lol

I don't think you can revitalize that genre. Maybe if League and DotA didn't exist but we've had a decent chunk of great RTS'es come out over the last few years and one's with big names too and they didn't do anything at all to build the genre. It's just a niche that exists in other genres now. You have 4x and MOBAs completely splitting the genre now into the groups that prefer meta or micro gameplay.

[Pheraz]

Kinda loling at all the people and leak larpers talking about classic+, alternative WoW timelines which say "this hasn't happen"

Why I think this is lol-potential:

Even if blizzard understood that creating a brood cave for sexual harassment and bro culture (which is a good think that they understood this!!!), I really really do not think that they lowered their pride so much that they (especially the WoW team) will admit that they need a story revamp. I can not see this happening any time soon. They will find ways to mitigate questionable lore decisions like the nippler, but they will never create some alternative WoW versions, similar to some of the private servers. i guess that modified private servers have become so popular that many people come here because even though they enjoy the creativity of those private server creators, they prbly miss the polish of a multi million dollar studio/publisher.

[Varodoc]

"Xavius, running from one master to the next, scrambling for power, yet defeated again and again. The God of the Deep picks a poor champion? Or, is there something else at play?"

This whisper is interesting, cause with the context we have now, it seems like N'Zoth was most likely testing us lmaooo

Obviously.

N'Zoth has foreseen the future of the adventurer, this is confirmed in DF but was already stated in BfA, where N'Zoth said this after the Xal'atath exchange:

I have dreamed your destiny, mortal.

On top of this, Uu'nat's dying words are:

Uu'nat yells: Master... they are worthy.

At which point N'Zoth says:

Yes... you are indeed the ones I seek. The ones to turn the tide.

It's pretty obvious that N'Zoth was testing the adventurers to see if they were worthy to carry out whatever scheme he has planned. But the scheme has not been revealed yet, only alluded to, and this is why N'Zoth will return as the Main Villain of 11.0.

[Catastrophy349]

We're going to get all kinds of "rando leaks" over the next day and a half.

[mycooloriginal]

In fairness, I love RTS games and I've been following them for a long time, there's quite a few new ones on the horizon so I wouldnt say its a dying genre it just hasnt had the spotlight like it used to, and I played CnC Remaster and got all the achievements, I really did enjoy that game.

Im not sure if releasing a new RTS (dying genre) is a good business decision.

You know Warcraft: Rumble is an RTS right? Just on mobile. This year at least 4-5 new RTS games were released.

[FlemmMinis]

We're going to get all kinds of "rando leaks" over the next day and a half.

This will be incredibly entertaining

[Moth Preacher]

I don't think you can revitalize that genre. Maybe if League and DotA didn't exist but we've had a decent chunk of great RTS'es come out over the last few years and one's with big names too and they didn't do anything at all to build the genre. It's just a niche that exists in other genres now. You have 4x and MOBAs completely splitting the genre now into the groups that prefer meta or micro gameplay.

Yes and no. We're talking about Microsoft Blizzard. With this amount of owned platforms and money to advertise, with a Warcraft renome and obviously a groundbreaking game - I think you can revitalize anything. If done properly, of course.