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

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

TWW was never going to be a popular concept. Everyone is excited for Midnight and curious about LTT.

It makes sense why they wanted to have 3 connective expansions considering how weak TWW is.

Obviously the Major Patches becoming a gacha mechanic with your box purchase price is a weird change from them. But, at least now if there is more than 1-2 Major Patches its a surprise mechanic.

[Varodoc]

They had to announce a revamp of a popular area because the fanbase wouldn't have done well with just another reveal of another New Island like Khaz Algar (though it is done well IMO).

Northrend is weird though because I don't think that was as popular a request as, say, Ashenvale revamp. But HD Ulduar is probably the focus because it's so popular.

Lich King fans vastly outnumber Night elf fans.

Back at Blizzcon 2019, the crowd went wild when they saw Icecrown Citadel at the beginning of the SL trailer.

The Lich King is easily the most popular and beloved villain of entire Warcraft franchise; it is not surprising that Northrend will be the setting of the final expansion of the Worldsoul saga.

[Raetary]

They had to announce a revamp of a popular area because the fanbase wouldn't have done well with just another reveal of another New Island like Khaz Algar (though it is done well IMO).

Northrend is weird though because I don't think that was as popular a request as, say, Ashenvale revamp. But HD Ulduar is probably the focus because it's so popular.

For an expansion that's supposed to be the climax of an expansion trilogy, i really hope Northrend is actually a revamp and not just an extended Stormpeaks.

[Daniri]

Did they not mention any expanded race/class combos?

[Cheezits]

Lich King fans vastly outnumber Night elf fans.

Back at Blizzcon 2019, the crowd went wild when they saw Icecrown Citadel at the beginning of the SL trailer.

The Lich King is easily the most popular and beloved villain of entire Warcraft franchise; it is not surprising that Northrend will be the setting of the final expansion of the Worldsoul saga.

The Lich King hype will be promoting an expansion that will likely not touch ICC or Arthas for very very obvious reasons?

[Izalla]

Players want it to be trivial though. They dont want to have to play a minigame to get to that rare quickly. They just want to get there. If they want to add more challenges and minigames for flying thats great. Dont take away functionality. It probably would have been fine if they implemented it the way you suggest, but its too late now. You cant take away peoples toys. Its like flying in tbc. They regretted adding it, but it was too late. Cant take it away.

Beyond the speed I just love how immersive it feels to have to actually control your mount instead of just hitting forward/auto run. Turning it into some "show off your skills" bullshit that no one else even cares about (is anyone really gonna be in awe of your dragon riding abilities? No one cares about someone else's flight...) would totally ruin the immersion for me. Why can't my flying mount effectively stay in the air longer than 20 seconds? Are its wings malformed? Is the engine busted? Why would my incompetence as a rider make my mount get tired so fast it has to land right away when I couldn't find updrafts and speed boosts?

[ro9ue]

What ever happened with the whole "Scourge will run rampant without a LK"? Was that a lie or are scourge actually running rampant now lol?

[Cheezits]

For an expansion that's supposed to be the climax of an expansion trilogy, i really hope Northrend is actually a revamp and not just an extended Stormpeaks.

We'll see, but I can see it just being the right side of Northrend (everything to the right of ICC but including Dragonblight)

[Izalla]

So are the Earthen an allied race instead of a regular race because they reuse the dwarf model and Blizz knows they would be shit on for calling that a new race? Or because they plan to add a few different ones through the expac and allied race is code for "not a full race but not the only one you'll get"?

[Varodoc]

The Lich King hype will be promoting an expansion that will likely not touch ICC for very very obvious reasons?

Not again with "Shadowlands PTSD" arguments.

Just because Shadowlands lore flopped and people would rather just ignore it doesn't mean they can no longer touch on Lich King and Scourge.

I definitely can't see a Northrend revamp that doesn't feature the Scourge and Icecrown Citadel (one of most iconic raids) in some way.

And weren't some people here speculating that Harrowsdeep (Iridrikon's lair from the novel) is near or under Icecrown?

[Raetary]

What ever happened with the whole "Scourge will run rampant without a LK"? Was that a lie or are scourge actually running rampant now lol?

SL pre-patch says hello.

The Ebon Blade are currently responsible to keep them in check.

[Izalla]

What ever happened with the whole "Scourge will run rampant without a LK"? Was that a lie or are scourge actually running rampant now lol?

They destroyed Redridge and killed a ton of people but I don't know if Blizz gave the specifics on other affected zones.

[Vakir]

The Lich King hype will be promoting an expansion that will likely not touch ICC or Arthas for very very obvious reasons?

I am not backing Varodoc's position on any of this, but I just wanted to throw in that there is absolutely no way that Arthas' final fate is gonna stay as it was in SL, lol. Not even to say it should change. But I'd bet anything it will.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I feel like they kinda shot themselves in the foot by announcing the setting of each expansion.

People are more preoccupied talking about Silvermoon, than what's gonna happen in TWW.

Silvermoon is a place people actually care about. Also, the zones for TWW are known. Meanwhile people are wondering what the zones for Midnight will be like, if they're going to be phased over existing zones and be small enough that you can dragonride into a wall in 15 seconds, or if they are going to be a new map instance the size of the dragon isles.

[Eldryth]

To be honest, I don't see how Midnight even could be anything less than a total remake. The region, as it exists now in-game, is tiny compared to any full expansion. They'd need to vastly increase the scale of the map to be able to fit in any real amount of content, and Dynamic Flight would just make its lack of size even more clear. I'd expect a remaining more along the lines of Draenor compared to Outland... though it'd take even more changes than that to turn Quel'thalas into an expansion continent.

[Kiivar86]

Even with revamped zones I would expect some new ones as well, at the very least.

[Ersula]

Silithus isn't guaranteed it, just likely. The significance of the cinematic was depicting the aftermath of the event that already happened, not necessarily the location where Anduin was. The entrance to Khaz Algar isn't related to Silithus.

Huh? In Universe, the sword happened almost a decade ago. "The sword was aiming at something" The expansion cinematic could have been set in Dorn itself, the sword is so big you can see it from Hyjal. If southern Kalimdor doesn't come into play that cinematic (which was extremely short compared to most cinematics) its going to seem silly in retrospect.

Those Hyjal and Khaz Modan regions are not insignificant. That's at least 5-6 zones.

At moderate speed dragonriding, you can span an entire vanilla contintent's longetude in less than 30 seconds.

Compared to Dragonflight zones, it's 3 at max. I forsee Quelthalas being Ghostlands, Elwynn & silvermoon all in one zone, like Tiragarde Sound. Lordaeron or "Alterac" if we're going by the mountain region is everything between there & wetlands; size wise all of that was the equivalent to Azure Span. Kalimdor can be split into Hyjal, The southern Desert area might as well be one zone. And Stonetalon, Mulgore, Barrens & Durotar together is about the same size as Ohn'ahran Plains

Did they not mention any expanded race/class combos?

No. It's actually driving me crazy that they didn't talk about anything that supposed to happen in the next 10+ months.

[Alanar]

I feel like they kinda shot themselves in the foot by announcing the setting of each expansion.

People are more preoccupied talking about Silvermoon, than what's gonna happen in TWW.

I's probably just a marketing move. They know Silvermoon would generate the hype, so people will more likely stick around.

[Vakir]

Silvermoon is a place people actually care about. Also, the zones for TWW are known. Meanwhile people are wondering what the zones for Midnight will be like, if they're going to be phased over existing zones and be small enough that you can dragonride into a wall in 15 seconds, or if they are going to be a new map instance the size of the dragon isles.

The broken clock is right twice a day.

I am really happy with what I saw these last two days. I am legitimately excited. But people are talking about the future because that's what they tend to do.

Even when, say, Legion was announced, it was less about what we knew was happening and more about how they'd expand/iterate forward on the concepts we knew were coming.

Huh? In Universe, the sword happened almost a decade ago. "The sword was aiming at something" The expansion cinematic could have been set in Dorn itself, the sword is so big you can see it from Hyjal. If southern Kalimdor doesn't come into play that cinematic (which was extremely short compared to most cinematics) its going to seem silly in retrospect.At moderate speed dragonriding, you can span an entire vanilla contintent's longetude in less than 30 seconds.

I didn't say it happened recently.

It's a cinematic decision. It does a lot more to see something at the base looming above than it does from some other place. And it means they can cheat a bit by having a simplified set of terrain while cramming in a lot of detail into their character renders.

We're not doing anything in Silithus this expansion based on the information provided. Which is not to say we won't LATER, including 11.1 or so.

Compared to Dragonflight zones, it's 3 at max. I forsee Quelthalas being Ghostlands, Elwynn & silvermoon all in one zone, like Tiragarde Sound. Lordaeron or "Alterac" if we're going by the mountain region is everything between there & wetlands; size wise all of that was the equivalent to Azure Span. Kalimdor can be split into Hyjal, The southern Desert area might as well be one zone. And Stonetalon, Mulgore, Barrens & Durotar together is about the same size as Ohn'ahran Plains

Which, again, supports what I was saying with this being a large endeavor extended over a period of time, perhaps into 14.0 and 15.0.

They said we're going to Quel'Thalas. Not also Lordaeron and Alterac and the Wetlands. And that's inferring there aren't completely new zones with it.

This is just "the Jailer isn't evil" all over again.

[Sondrelk]

Beyond the speed I just love how immersive it feels to have to actually control your mount instead of just hitting forward/auto run. Turning it into some "show off your skills" bullshit that no one else even cares about (is anyone really gonna be in awe of your dragon riding abilities? No one cares about someone else's flight...) would totally ruin the immersion for me. Why can't my flying mount effectively stay in the air longer than 20 seconds? Are its wings malformed? Is the engine busted? Why would my incompetence as a rider make my mount get tired so fast it has to land right away when I couldn't find updrafts and speed boosts?

Why do people assume this would be the case? Couldnt it be more like the difference between Dragonriding races, and Dragonriding challenge races? In both cases you have no issues staying aloft, just that in one you move significantly faster.

The way I imagine Dragonriding should look is less about never being able to do anything, and more so that you look out over a zone, see a whole bunch of options for fast movement, and your skill determines whether you go the standard, slightly boring way. Or the more challenging, but much faster and more visually interesting way.

Sure, dragons should be able to stay flying for a good while. But on the other hand, when my warrior does a whatever amazingly strong swing of his preposterously large sword I should logically slice arms off easily. Or leave my opponent crippled. But since that would be less interesting to look at and play you accept the gameplay aspect of the game.