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

[damonskye]

Do not tell me to get tf out, if you don't want to read other peoples opinions, that is your problem.

And you also forgot to mention MoP, which introduced a new Class, the first ever cross-faction Race, Challenge Modes, Proving Grounds, Pet Battles, among other stuff.

And BFA, which introduced Island Expeditions, HoA + Azerite gear + Essences and Warfronts.

Or even fan favorite SL, which introduced Covenants and Torghast and craftable Legendaries.

Even WoD had a mega-feature - Garrisons.

Do you notice a pattern in your list of "features"? Island Expeditions weren't continued to the next expansion. Azerite Gear wasn't continued. Warfronts weren't continued. Covenants weren't continued. Torghast wasn't continued. Garrisons weren't continued.

They were one-and-done systems. And ALL OF THEM, every one, were heavily criticized. Even the one that was received sort of positively, garrisons, were lambasted for being a shell of their true potential (especially when the half-assed ships table came into play.)

Other than the standard classes/races stuff (and ignoring the proving grounds which barely anyone remembers, and challenge modes which evolved into M+ dungeons), the only singular one of them that really continues to this day is pet battles. And props to it, I think the pet battle system is amazing.

But this is exactly why you should feel positive about the new expansions: they're investing in actual systems that continue beyond one expansion. Delves are a major piece of that. The warband QoL changes are another. The fact that there's a new battleground for PVPers, finally, is another. Dragonriding evolving into something for the entire game, is yet another.

The point I think I and other people are making is, you seem to be doing everything you can to talk yourself into hating this, when you should really look at what Blizzard is telling us: they've finally gotten the point.

[pacotaco]

Maybe Hellcaller is Necromancer?

Nah, it's probably Soul Harvester based on Ulthalesh, Hellcaller empowers fire and destruction spells and Diabolist probably the old Demonology Meta.

[FossilFree]

That would be Lightsmith, most likely (and it maybe ties with Naaru, too)

Lightsmith sounds like a LFD style artificer making light crystals.

[Well Done Steak]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-wor...by-2030-335918

6 years, looks like they're full sized expansions unlike some people feared. Good shit

[Kiivar86]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-wor...by-2030-335918

6 years, looks like they're full sized expansions unlike some people feared. Good shit

I'm still a bit iffy on Midnight and The Last Titan but will need to see what comes with it. I'm sure I'll be wrong, so I'm ok with that, just being a bit pessimistic.

[Khaza-R]

People are just mad if something is added that they won't play.

I just think about the guy that went "viral" a few weeks ago with his collection of every dwarf class at max level. Players like this exist. And they are having the time of their live with some "unpopular" race like the earthen and dwarf content. And this is so important in an mmo with a vast variety of races to choose.

Also tbf, a non-insignificant amount of Horde players have always wanted a playable faction of dwarves. So here it is.

I think the ARs returning is surprising. I am not 100% keen on the having to unlock them them again but I am hopefully that the Earthen mean there might be more planned to the future.

[Cheezits]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-wor...by-2030-335918

6 years, looks like they're full sized expansions unlike some people feared. Good shit

I'm very curious about what the not-Silithus zone will be in TWW if they are all getting two zone patches.

[Khaza-R]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-wor...by-2030-335918

6 years, looks like they're full sized expansions unlike some people feared. Good shit

I read that as them just giving themselves leeway if they can't actually pull of a faster expansion cadence. Whether it actually takes until 2030 is something different.

[vintage79]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-wor...by-2030-335918

6 years, looks like they're full sized expansions unlike some people feared. Good shit

i read dat as :

classic+tbc+wotlk trio

[blaatschaap]

I'm really happy about the Delves thing becoming evergreen and an endgame staple. Means there is basically very little chance it'll end up being something I won't enjoy, since they'll just keep iterating on it till they get it right based on community feedback.

[damonskye]

I'm very curious about what the not-Silithus zone will be in TWW if they are all getting two zone patches.

I'm willing to bet one of them gets us even closer to the worldsoul at the heart of the planet.

Thankfully, we don't need to know for a good long while...

- - - Updated - - -

I'm really happy about the Delves thing becoming evergreen and an endgame staple. Means there is basically very little chance it'll end up being something I won't enjoy, since they'll just keep iterating on it till they get it right based on community feedback.

Hear hear! The thing I am REALLY happy about is that delves have an endgame progression system for open world players. I do raid with a team on my main character (and occasionally do an M+ or two), but I have a number of alts and all I do with them is open world content because it's fun. And the progression system will eventually get us close to heroic raid loot (which is perfectly fine, we are long past the days when someone else's gear has any impact upon you whatsoever.) So, win/win.

[ercarp]

New interview: https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Forum:...Q&A_-_Saturday

Good interview.

These seem to be addressing the Old World revamps in Midnight and The Last Titan:

Will zone revists be getting glow ups?
Seems reasonable.

Will these be zone-wide updates or more local around the new content?
Def it's going to be focused on the areas that are dealing with the new quests/expansion. Also we're going to be leaning on Chromie TIme - we're not going to be destroying the Sunwell, for instance. It'll still be there to do if you want. Big difference coming from painted textures on sheer walls that are pretending they're mountains versus actually sculpted properly.

I'm actually surprised they only said "seems reasonable" instead of emphasizing on it a little more. Maybe the doomer side of my brain is coming into play again, but that makes it sound like they're not actually planning to do massive zone revamps for those expansions.

In my mind, I had already imagined that they were going to rebuild Quel'Thalas from the ground up with massive DF/TWW-sized zones.

[Cheezits]

I'm actually surprised they only said "seems reasonable" instead of emphasizing on it a little more. Maybe the doomer side of my brain is coming into play again, but that makes it sound like they're not actually planning to do massive zone revamps for those expansions.

I read it like a "duh". Especially when they mentioned they'll have to make actual mountains.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

When we say that the next three expansions are faster, it's because we know how to actually produce content with DF now.

Only took them a decade to relearn how to push out a lot of content fast like they did in MoP

[damonskye]

I'm actually surprised they only said "seems reasonable" instead of emphasizing on it a little more. Maybe the doomer side of my brain is coming into play again, but that makes it sound like they're not actually planning to do massive zone revamps for those expansions.

Blizzard devs put in touch with the media and fanbase *always* couch their statements like this, not to worry. "Seems reasonable" is probably the closest they can get to winking at us without getting in trouble.

[Nymrohd]

Ive just been waiting for a race that speaks to me is why i get hyped for em

See here is my issue. Half the time when Blizzard introduces a race, I don't actually get an archetype I want for that race because of the class system. The obvious example is gnomes; I'd absolutely play a tinker gnome if I had that but alas. But for me it is even a problem with more versatile races; my favourite flavour of "high elf" is the bladesinger, i.e. warcraft's spellbreaker and spellblade. But I don't get to play it in WoW do I? Look at trolls, their thematic classes are witch doctor, hydromancer, shadow hunter, loa priest. NONE of them are playable. Sure you have Forsaken but you cannot be an Apothecary or a Necromancer. They add Kul Tirans but can you play a Tidepriest? Not really. They add Zandalari but can I be a priest of the Loa? Nope. Heck even the druids they did add do not use the forms common among the loa but some random dinocat and bear (and they did not even bother to create some new Loa who use those forms). They are adding Earthen but will we get to play Runecasters? Nope. Void Elves at least get shadow priests but then we get the team in BfA and they have a voidstalker and a void knight and maybe the former could be a subtlety rogue but what is the latter?

So yeah, new races rarely excite me. Because if I do get them, it's not like I will be able to play the archetypes of their NPCs. MAYBE I'll get a facsimile. So I stick to my human paladin, my orc shaman, my night elf druid because those DO fit their archetypes perfectly.

[Daniri]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-wor...by-2030-335918

6 years, looks like they're full sized expansions unlike some people feared. Good shit

I don't know how you can read "not 2030" as "6 years".

[damonskye]

Only took them a decade to relearn how to push out a lot of content fast like they did in MoP

That's incredibly selective memory you have, there. MoP had the second longest content drought in the game following Siege of Orgrimmar... I believe second only to the post-Dragon Soul raid at the end of Cataclysm.

[Stonecloak]

Some interesting things in that interview I saw that was being discussed here (Wasn't sure if it's already posted, if it has you can disregard).

-Warbands limits?
It's the entire account, all characters are in the same warband, even A/H characters.

-Expansions have been 24 months, will it be faster?
Can't speak to specifics, but yes, we want to finish the World Soul saga before 2030. Teams have been parallelized they're already working on Midnight.

So, no limit to warbands, and at best it'll probably be 18-24 months per expansion imo. If TWW comes out November next year. That would be pretty much 6 years from from 2030, so 2030 is a larger time frame that I thought to complete the Saga. As far as content. We may just see the same as DF has had each of those next 3 expansions.

[damonskye]

I don't know how you can read "not 2030" as "6 years".

2024-2026 The War Within
2026-2028 Midnight
2028-2030 The Last Titan

That's with just two year expansion cycles like past history, starting toward the end of each year. The point I think the interviewee was making was they DON'T want The Last Titan to be the 2030 experience, but rather would like to speed it up.