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

[Khaza-R]

Good interview.

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

I think they were more eluding that there wasn't going to be a Cataclysm situation for Quel'thalas. The old version in TBC will always exist and new version won't overwrite it. But there will definitley be a new and updated version.

[Cheezits]

- Instead of getting a completely new theme every expansion, we'll keep building on the Worldsoul Saga with the Void as the ultimate enemy. It's like when Peter Jackson took The Hobbit and made three films out of one story, or when every movie franchise over the past decade has stretched their final film into two or three films to make more money.

Yeah, no, this expansion is 50% Dwarf, 25% Human Light (huge twist) and 25% Nerubian. Even if it's about fighting the void, Midnight will have a similar variety I'm sure.

It's The Last Titan I'm the most worried about in being boring.

[damonskye]

- Instead of getting a completely new theme every expansion, we'll keep building on the Worldsoul Saga with the Void as the ultimate enemy. It's like when Peter Jackson took The Hobbit and made three films out of one story, or when every movie franchise over the past decade has stretched their final film into two or three films to make more money.

Or, to many of us, it's the culmination of ONE STORY that we've been playing for well over a decade: the World Soul of Azeroth, the big sword from Sargeras, the warnings he and Zovaal gave us about a terrible enemy (the Void) and the fate of the Titans.

We're getting an expansion dealing with the sword and the world soul, one with the Void, and one with the Titans. Sounds to me like enough content for three.

[ZyntosAran]

Yeah, no, this expansion is 50% Dwarf, 25% Human Light (huge twist) and 25% Nerubian. Even if it's about fighting the void, Midnight will have a similar variety I'm sure.

It's The Last Titan I'm the most worried about in being boring.

Midnight sounds like at least 50% Elves, 50% Void.

[Varodoc]

People only marginally care about the storyline of an expansion.

Yes, it can help to have a hype storyline with well-known villains, but it is not what most people are interested in.

It is gameplay systems and new cosmetic additions that most people are interested in and get the biggest cheers at Blizzcon.

We know the storyline of Midnight but we don't know it's major gameplay systems or new cosmetic additions. This will generate speculation, leaks, and suspense at Blizzcon.

Will Midnight contain new Void class? Or new Ethereal race? Will the world revamp extend to Lordaeron? We don't know, but rest assured that there will still be leaks and general hype... they will simply focus entirely on Gameplay and Cosmetic stuff.

[Marlamin]

I think they were more eluding that there wasn't going to be a Cataclysm situation for Quel'thalas. The old version in TBC will always exist and new version won't overwrite it.

Yup.

The person doing the interview for Warcraft Wiki also just contextualized that the team said they won't be revamping full continents because "continents are big" but just the areas relevant to the content. Full quotes will be coming at some point after everything settles down.

[damonskye]

It's The Last Titan I'm the most worried about in being boring.

And since the only two things we even know about it are that it's in Northrend and it deals with the Titans, I don't even see how one can possibly make the leap from that to "boring".

It's like someone said "Dragonflight sounds boring because it's about dragons flying." Kind of ridiculous.

[Pheraz]

I'm most excited for quel talas story

Also I love that alleria Vs xalatath theme

Ofc love the warbond thing

Earthren are okaish

I hoped for NE palas though

Overall very nice WoW future

[Cheezits]

Yup.

The person doing the interview for Warcraft Wiki also just contextualized that the team said they won't be revamping full continents because "continents are big" but just the areas relevant to the content. Full quotes will be coming at some point after everything settles down.

That's going to be very weird for Northrend. Although I understand not doing all of EK, Northrend you kind of have to do everything. Maybe they are just going to skip ICC?

[Rathwell]

Yeah, no, this expansion is 50% Dwarf, 25% Human Light (huge twist) and 25% Nerubian. Even if it's about fighting the void, Midnight will have a similar variety I'm sure.

It's The Last Titan I'm the most worried about in being boring.

Depending on how Midnight plays out, I feel like there's a possibility we'll be burned out on the theme. I mean, a lot of people experienced "fel fatigue" after Legion. Now we'll be doing Titan/Void-y things for three expansions in a row. Sure, we'll be doing dwarf stuff this one and Void/Elf stuff next one, but I hope the overarching theme is as varied or we'll just keep running into Void and Titan things in all the zones in all three

[damonskye]

People only marginally care about the storyline of an expansion.

That is, with respect, the single most wrong thing anyone has said today on MMO-Champion.

Completely, utterly, totally wrong.

[bruxx]

People only marginally care about the storyline of an expansion.

Yes, it can help to have a hype storyline with well-known villains, but it is not what most people are interested in.

It is gameplay systems and new cosmetic additions that most people are interested in and get the biggest cheers at Blizzcon.

We know the storyline of Midnight but we don't know it's major gameplay systems or new cosmetic additions. This will generate speculation, leaks, and suspense at Blizzcon.

Will Midnight contain new Void class? Or new Ethereal race? Will the world revamp extend to Lordaeron? We don't know, but rest assured that there will still be leaks and general hype... they will simply focus entirely on Gameplay and Cosmetic stuff.

Next 2 years on these forums: Team Ethereal vs Team Naga arguing over why their favorite race is THE ONE that objectively makes sense.

[ercarp]

Like, don't get me wrong. War Within seems fine. I'm thrilled about the potential behind the Worldsoul Saga, and I think WoW is in the right hands with Metzen. I just don't see how we are tangibly better off this BlizzCon than we would have been under normal circumstances, without the Worldsoul Saga unveiled to us.

Every time we've got a good expansion, there's been a fair bit of apprehension about how the next expansion is going to f**k it all up, both in terms of its theme and systems.

With their promises of evergreen systems and a clear outline of where the story is going next, it seems players no longer have to be worried about the immediate future of the series. I think this is the main reason why they did this whole "saga" announcement.

Blizzard wants the players to be hopeful about the future of the game in the long-term instead of fretting over how their brief window of good expansion happy times is going to be ruined by the next Shadowlands.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

People only marginally care about the storyline of an expansion.

Yes, it can help to have a hype storyline with well-known villains, but it is not what most people are interested in.

It is gameplay systems and new cosmetic additions that most people are interested in and get the biggest cheers at Blizzcon.

We know the storyline of Midnight but we don't know it's major gameplay systems or new cosmetic additions. This will generate speculation, leaks, and suspense at Blizzcon.

Will Midnight contain new Void class? Or new Ethereal race? Will the world revamp extend to Lordaeron? We don't know, but rest assured that there will still be leaks and general hype... they will simply focus entirely on Gameplay and Cosmetic stuff.

I think the biggest disappointment is that we might have to wait 5+ years until The Last Titan to get the tinker class and real mechagnomes.

[Cheezits]

Quel'thalas has easy zone variety depending on how far they stretch beyond Ghostlands into the Plaguelands. They can also go full Troll Zone with the Amani, who will probably become playable. Ethereals were hinted and void worlds are easy patch bait. We haven't played with these themes in any serious way for years.

The Last Titan? Vrykul, Titan, Frost Trolls..... Earthen again........ Nerubians again........ uhhhhhhhhhhhhh............

Besides Vrykul it's going to be a lot of stuff we've already seen in the Worldsoul saga plus a retread of Dragonflight races like the Dragons and Tuskarr.

[Jaggler]

Next 2 years on these forums: Team Ethereal vs Team Naga arguing over why their favorite race is THE ONE that objectively makes sense.

and in the end it will be amani allied race for both factions. :P

[damonskye]

That's all fine. But how are you better if by knowing about it beforehand? Couldn't War Within just be its own standalonee thing that then naturally leads into Midnight, a complete surprise to you?

Oh, don't get me wrong, I totally agree they could have kept Midnight and The Last Titan off the list of things discussed this year, sure.

But is it a detriment that they did mention them? I don't think so. In fact, I think says three important things: one, they are definitely planning for at least three new expansions taking us to the end of the decade (instead of nonsense like "WoW 2" or whatever); two, they actually do have a story plan that isn't going to take a side trip into something that ultimately doesn't feel related to the main story (hello Shadowlands); and three, that beyond these three expansions, there will be new stories to tell.

Point three is actually the most important thing for WoW, because it means that new players will be able to jump into WoW after the Worldsong Saga and not have to worry about all the baggage. Hard enough reset for new players, without messing around with anyone who's been around for most or all of the past.

[Nymrohd]

On the matter of theme I think I understand why they make it so clearly a trilogy
It is so we can lose at the midpoint. I think Midnight will be the first expac that will end with our complete loss.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Quel'thalas has easy zone variety depending on how far they stretch beyond Ghostlands into the Plaguelands. They can also go full Troll Zone with the Amani, who will probably become playable. Ethereals were hinted and void worlds are easy patch bait.

Hopefully Midnight isn't only four zones either. Would be nice to have a Silvermoon city zone, an Eversong Woods zone, Isle of Quel'danas, revamped Tirisfal and Plaguelands, and also new original zones like a corrupted Void forest, and then two zones set in a Void world/dimension.

[Vakir]

- Instead of getting a completely new theme every expansion, we'll keep building on the Worldsoul Saga with the Void as the ultimate enemy. It's like when Peter Jackson took The Hobbit and made three films out of one story, or when every movie franchise over the past decade has stretched their final film into two or three films to make more money.

That's...not a great comparison.

The Hobbit was a literal children's book Tolkein put together for his son. The original plan was 2 films under del Toro before New Line stepped in and even that may have been pushing it.

If you're planning from the start for something to be 3 parts, it's a lot more feasible, since you aren't making a longer creep version of something that pre-existed.

We'll need to see if this expansion is as large or dense as Dragonflight. If it isn't, then there's clear cause for concern, unless they start phoning it in with Midnight. But that's just speculation at this point. Frankly, the idea of every expansion being self-contained with a maybe-sequel hook that may or may not actually be coherent is part of the problem. It's why SL felt so fucking meandering with Zovaal's final words, and it's why N'Zoth being resolved in one patch felt like a wet fart.

YMMV but I hated the speculation before BlizzCon. It ended up having completely unclear expectations and paranoia and anxiety surrounding exactly this kind of stuff, and it meant that every 2 years we just got hit with "I want THIS flavor bad guy." "Well I want THIS flavor bad guy."

This is kinda what I was talking about a few days ago. You guys were expecting the moon and the stars. You were never getting a full world revamp with 2023 visual fidelity and DF levels of cadence. Not at this stage. Maybe in 14.0. And even then, don't expect things to go smoothly.

Hopefully Midnight isn't only four zones either. Would be nice to have a Silvermoon city zone, an Eversong Woods zone, Isle of Quel'danas, revamped Tirisfal and Plaguelands, and also new original zones like a corrupted Void forest, and then two zones set in a Void world/dimension.

That's gonna mean they're probably much smaller if they're planning the same content cadence. And then dynamic flight ends up pretty bizarre, as it will feel in the old world in 10.2.5. You're gonna plow through like 4 styles in 30 seconds.