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

[KurtMash]

The impression I've got is that the expansions in the Saga will be perhaps lighter on the features, but also shorter and - hopefully - cutting out the expansion-end content draught completely. Keeping the current content cadence (so about one major patch every half a year) and two major patches per expansion would give us one expansion every 1.5 year, so the Saga would in theory provide us 4.5 years of regular updates with a Dragonflight cadence and no breaks inbetween. Next expansion coming out whenever you would expect a new major patch. Sounds kinda good.

Unfortunately it probably means that we are 5 years away from the full world revamp. But after these 5 years and ending the "Warcraft Storyline"... where do we even go from there? Most stories in the game are connected to the Saga. I can only imagine we will get a much longer time-skip, with the world moving 20 or 50 years ahead, and revamp will be based on the new status quo. A soft reboot of sorts, allowing new players to enter the game without knowing the last 30 years of lore and not feel completely lost. And only from there a new storylines will start to emerge.

[RahEndymion]

It's weird.

In terms of tone, zones and overall setting I feel like this is a huge win compared to the last two expansions.

However, it does somehow feel like they know there isn't much. From the way Metzen gave a disclaimer before the cinematic how 'soft can be epic' and that they felt the need to preannounce two other expansions at the same time, it does somehow make all three of the releases seem a little insignificant.

I'm not really against shorter expansions, but I am against paying the same, getting less and then being expected to pay more again sooner. Plus I think 10.2 is not an appropriate raid to finish the current expansion on.

I am cautiously optimistic but all the while I feel like they're marketing issues as features. Less raid encounters, smaller expansions, more expensive expansions but also more often. All of those things would have been huge negatives 5 years ago.

[Stonecloak]

From the way Metzen gave a disclaimer before the cinematic how 'soft can be epic'

I think it was just a disclaimer about the trailer. Just a warning it wasn't this epic drop.

[MCMLXXXII]

Just a funny observation; for the past few weeks I've seen some people arguing here that Blizzard would never add Avaloren to the game because it was only mentioned very briefly in the game. Now Khaz Algar is added with about the same build up and its a-okay because it's underground?

[Wangming]

I think it was just a disclaimer about the trailer. Just a warning it wasn't this epic drop.

Yeah that was my understanding as well:

This trailer won't be epic, but the whole three parter story will be epic.

[doledippers]

I think it was just a disclaimer about the trailer. Just a warning it wasn't this epic drop.

my tinfoil hat theory is that it was a shot at the people who freak out whenever WoW shows us anything that doesn't involve juvenile levels of violence in the storytelling

[blaatschaap]

I don't think it makes a lot of sense for us players to be worrying or speculating about where the game goes after this saga. In fact, that's the whole point of showing us they have a plan for the coming 6 years. Then in 4 years at blizzcon, when 13.0 is freshly released and the beginning of the end of the world soul saga is out, they'll tell us the plans for the next saga or however else they wanna package it then

[doledippers]

Just a funny observation; for the past few weeks I've seen some people arguing here that Blizzard would never add Avaloren to the game because it was only mentioned very briefly in the game. Now Khaz Algar is added with about the same build up and its a-okay because it's underground?

agreed that it's built up the same amount as avaloren but its also not the ENTIRE expansion. It's 2 of the 4 zones, and it ties into the overarching worldsoul saga because it involves xalatath with the nerubians. It seems more like khaz'algar is serving as a segue into the story with xalatath, so i think it's a little different than Avaloren

[Nymrohd]

And if you played the game for decades already it is very unlikely you do stay for very long as the game simply offers no real innovation. So it already is the case nowadays many people buy the expac and play for one or two months only just to wait for the next expac. Seems people are willing to pay for expacs no matter how long the gameplay endures.

An expac release will absolutely get me two months of daily playtime. That is a crazy amount of gameplay.

[KurtMash]

Just a funny observation; for the past few weeks I've seen some people arguing here that Blizzard would never add Avaloren to the game because it was only mentioned very briefly in the game. Now Khaz Algar is added with about the same build up and its a-okay because it's underground?

I think there are three main differences.
1) "underground" is a much stronger theme than "just another lost island"
2) the main enemy force are Nerubians, and people wanted Nerubians for a long time now
3) Khaz Algar is basically a pathway to the core of the planet, to the Worldsoul. And the Worldsoul has been a thing for much longer than Avaloren or Khaz Algar

In other words: Khaz Algar is just a packaging for the thing the people wanted to see anyway. And the packaging doesn't matter nearly as much as the thing inside the package.

[Nymrohd]

Just a funny observation; for the past few weeks I've seen some people arguing here that Blizzard would never add Avaloren to the game because it was only mentioned very briefly in the game. Now Khaz Algar is added with about the same build up and its a-okay because it's underground?

Nerubians are known as are the earthen. Harrowdeep is working on very familiar themes. The zones look far more exciting than those four screenshots.

[Wangming]

Just a funny observation; for the past few weeks I've seen some people arguing here that Blizzard would never add Avaloren to the game because it was only mentioned very briefly in the game. Now Khaz Algar is added with about the same build up and its a-okay because it's underground?

Khaz Algar is not underground.
What makes it okay is that Khaz Algar is just one city in a region and not the whole region. The hook is not KA. It is more the journey to the World Soul. If any zone in particular is used to draw people it is Azj-Kahet for sure. And while we haven't known that place, an underground Nerubian Kingdom is much more hype, for me anyway, than a place where all we know is that the titans don't like it.

[Stonecloak]

Yeah that was my understanding as well:

This trailer won't be epic, but the whole three parter story will be epic.

my tinfoil hat theory is that it was a shot at the people who freak out whenever WoW shows us anything that doesn't involve juvenile levels of violence in the storytelling

Agreed. I loved the trailer. I think narratively the internal conflict of light/darkness is a compelling one, and the title sort of has a metaphorical double meaning in that sense. The war within Azeroth, and maybe the war within Anduin.

[Lady Atia]

An expac release will absolutely get me two months of daily playtime. That is a crazy amount of gameplay.

Yeah, and usually most people prefer the start of an expansion aswell as maybe the last tier. But if people have to decide between longer expansions with a content draught and another lame patch, or a whole new expansion, people will choose the expansion.

[Tototibere]

Hi all, apologies if this has already been discussed, but do you know what is now playable at Blizzcon on demos ?

[Marlamin]

Khaz Algar is not underground.
What makes it okay is that Khaz Algar is just one city in a region and not the whole region. The hook is not KA. It is more the journey to the World Soul. If any zone in particular is used to draw people it is Azj-Kahet for sure. And while we haven't known that place, an underground Nerubian Kingdom is much more hype, for me anyway, than a place where all we know is that the titans don't like it.

Khaz Algar is the collective name for the entire continent, I think.

Hi all, apologies if this has already been discussed, but do you know what is now playable at Blizzcon on demos ?

10.2 and 1.15.

[Nymrohd]

Khaz Algar is not underground.
What makes it okay is that Khaz Algar is just one city in a region and not the whole region. The hook is not KA. It is more the journey to the World Soul. If any zone in particular is used to draw people it is Azj-Kahet for sure. And while we haven't known that place, an underground Nerubian Kingdom is much more hype, for me anyway, than a place where all we know is that the titans don't like it.

I have to say, I find it weird they are doing Nerubians now given that they will be doing Northrend Revamp. They could have done the same concept and used Qiraji instead.

[MCMLXXXII]

I think there are three main differences.
1) "underground" is a much stronger theme than "just another lost island"
2) the main enemy force are Nerubians, and people wanted Nerubians for a long time now
3) Khaz Algar is basically a pathway to the core of the planet, to the Worldsoul. And the Worldsoul has been a thing for much longer than Avaloren or Khaz Algar

In other words: Khaz Algar is just a packaging for the thing the people wanted to see anyway. And the packaging doesn't matter nearly as much as the thing inside the package.

Not that I was a fan of Avaloren at all, but they could've just done the same and call it Avaloren in stead of Khaz Algar.

[Izalla]

So who is singing to Thrall and Anduin? Anduin should know about the world soul since he was around for BFA and talked to Magni. He shouldn't have to ask who it is unless he has reason to believe it's not Azeroth. Isn't one of the Old God whispers about how "her song is our song" or something? Alleria is experiencing the same thing but hers is clearly the void. Hopefully Alleria is experiencing something that is actually different and isn't just seeing the true nature of the "song" because she is so close to the void.

[KurtMash]

Agreed. I loved the trailer. I think narratively the internal conflict of light/darkness is a compelling one, and the title sort of has a metaphorical double meaning in that sense. The war within Azeroth, and maybe the war within Anduin.

Don't forget the war within Alleria