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

[Nightshade711]

So now that we know about the basic plot points about the saga....Do we give points to Scaleface? I mean he did guess that Light vs Void would be important based on the twitter posts. And in the Worldsoul Saga we might be getting exactly that in three ways.
- The void is attacking. At least definitely in the first two chapters. And Midnight is very specifically about Light vs the Void
- The team we have for the first chapter has Anduin (who might say he no longer has light, but we are for sure not buying it) and Alleria a VOID elf
- The internal conflict inside Alleria who probably doesn't want to succumb to the void
Hey in fact there might be a fourth one depending on what force the singing voice is alligned with. The voice inside Alleria vs the voice inside everyone else.

I’ll have to find it but I coulda sworn I do remember him saying something about underground, light vs void, and titans.

[Samin]

War Within has all the features of a full expansion, but I'm a LITTLE worried about next two, simply because it was said we will be going back to old zones in each. Does it mean no new continents? Or maybe some new zones and some fully revamped old ones?

I kind of expect The Last Titan being a Northrend revamp. I doubt Midnight will take place entirely in Quel'thalas. It would be prime opportunity for the fan favorite K'aresh or maybe we go to the moon.

[milkmustache]

War Within has all the features of a full expansion, but I'm a LITTLE worried about next two, simply because it was said we will be going back to old zones in each. Does it mean no new continents? Or maybe some new zones and some fully revamped old ones?

I imagine it'll be a full continent or subcontinent revamp for those areas. Quel'thalas (Eversong Woods, Ghostlands, Isle of Quel'Danas, Silvermoon City?) becoming Dragon Isles size, or the inclusion of Lordaeron as well (plz). Northrend probably getting a full revamp I'd have to imagine.

I dunno. They impressed me so much with this announcement (wasn't on board for underground) that I trust them.

[Sondrelk]

Im guessing everything we have acquired during DF will be made baseline? Either way, he says we'll see later today in the DEEP DIVE

What he said implied differently. That only the baseline version is carried forward, and that they will find other ways to make it work.

[Nymrohd]

War Within has all the features of a full expansion, but I'm a LITTLE worried about next two, simply because it was said we will be going back to old zones in each. Does it mean no new continents? Or maybe some new zones and some fully revamped old ones?

My expectation of Midnight is three fully revamped zones (Ghostlands, Eversong, Silvermoon & IQD) plus an outdoor troll zone (Hills of Maisara). Alternatively it could be a full Lordaeron and Quel'thalas Revamp. I'd still expect a patch zone past the void portal into a Void zone OR K'aresh if they keep the Void Elf storyline and present more Voidguard ethereal.
As for Last Titan, yes I expect just revamp with maybe an underground zone. Northrend is big enough and has varied biomes and so many stories in it.

[Cheezits]

I bet something happens with Turalyon and Arator. Maybe he has to kill Alleria by the end and he snaps?

[Sondrelk]

My expectation of Midnight is three fully revamped zones (Ghostlands, Eversong, Silvermoon & IQD) plus an outdoor troll zone (Hills of Maisara). Alternatively it could be a full Lordaeron and Quel'thalas Revamp. I'd still expect a patch zone past the void portal into a Void zone OR K'aresh if they keep the Void Elf storyline and present more Voidguard ethereal.
As for Last Titan, yes I expect just revamp with maybe an underground zone. Northrend is big enough and has varied biomes and so many stories in it.

Wouldn't be surprised if Midnight has underwater areas with Naga to bring in Azshara as well.

- - - Updated - - -

There are still systems and story details that can be speculated on. Like for Midnight we will get all kinds of interpretations of how Quel'thalas will look and how far the void incursion goes and people may even once again speculate over an entire EK revamp. Tinkers too, obviously.

I'm honestly not too worried just because we know the name and a one sentence story pitch.

ARs are now also confirmed to be a thing again, so those are on the table.

[Eurhetemec]

There are many possibilities to be honest. But I think most of us agree we are looking at last 3 traditional expansions for 2004 game. Something that probably Blizzard imagined as Sargeras/Burning Legion expansion when they started WoW.

What's after that? I think at least level squish and totally down to the earth chapter, most likely in new EK/Kalimdor. But I start to believe it won't be 14.0, but true WoW 2 with new engine and hard reset.

That's why I doubt these will be some short 1 year expacs. I think Blizzard thought about many expansions in advance for 2 reasons:

a) lore - now we will feel we are experiencing really important events, underground expansion alone would have "sigh, another continent" reaction
b) buy themself time, making WoW 2 won't take 2 years, more like 5-6 at least.

If I have to guess right now:
1) The War Within - October 2024
2) Blizzcon 2024 - TWW patches
3) Blizzcon 2025 - MD features reveal
4) Midnight - April 2026
5) Blizzcon 2026 - TLT features reveal
6) The Last Titan - October 2027
7) Blizzcon 2027 - TLT patches, teasing end of WoW
8) Patch 13.2 and final raid of World of Warcraft - November 2028, 25th anniversary.
9) Blizzcon right after that, with World of Warcraft 2 reveal.
10) Around 2030 - WoW 2 release.

Oof, I got carried away.

Not implausible.

All the way back in 2010 Blizzard's then-CEO (Rob Pardo?) said that they'd do a WoW2 when they felt like WoW's engine just couldn't be upgraded enough anymore to do what the designers wanted. And Blizzard aren't as stuck in their ways as Bethesda. And I think that broad strategy probably still applies. By 2030 we're likely to see at least 2 MMORPGs which are a real leap beyond WoW in how they look and potentially play, whilst still having a lot of the same conceptual appeal, and we'll be on new console generation, one that will be pretty wildly powerful compared to the PCs of today, where ray-tracing is likely to be basically the norm. That's without getting into the changes we may seen in animation and how AI may impact the industry too. The "cheap" graphics card will presumably be a Nvidia 6060 or something.

[Wangming]

I’ll have to find it but I coulda sworn I do remember him saying something about underground, light vs void, and titans.

I'm not sure what he said was exactly true. But his tweet theory was pretty spot on. And you know what? Those honey trap pictures he wasn't sure of? I remember thinking they kinda look like void infested quel thalas. If those pictures are in any way real that might mean that development is already underway for 12.0 And that is very good news.

[Valysar]

Let's hope we'll discover juicy stuffs on the deep dive panel later.

[Sondrelk]

I bet something happens with Turalyon and Arator. Maybe he has to kill Alleria by the end and he snaps?

Turalyin is definitely getting a storyline with the Arathi given his heritage and thematic link.

[Rathwell]

It is a shame, though I also think there is a bittersweet quality about it. There's a real sense of finality here if The Last Titan really is the final expansion, and it honestly does feel kind of like the right way to end it. We go to Quel'Thalas, then to Northrend, two iconic locations in the "old world" to first put to rest the newer final villains, and then to close off the old lore. It's better than a big anime fight with all the First Ones, at least. I'd definitely much rather see it end this way.

Definitely bitter sweet. If it's going to end, that's the way to do it. I was fearing WoW would get a little too Cosmic towards the end. I mean, the final threats are clearly Cosmic, but how would we random adventurers who still fight with swords and spears while wearing plate armor defeat these great Gods beyond time and space? I didn't like that much about Shadowlands, and hopefully it won't quite be that at the end of this trilogy.

Hopefully they can bring it down a little, and maybe some other Cosmic entity fights on our behalf to make a little more sense of it

[blaatschaap]

Really, almost every part of an expansion is frontloaded. Most of the story, world building and dungeons are always at release. The only thing that is released mostly in patches is raids. Shorter expansions essentially means ONE thing. Less raids.

Last two expansions they added a whole new zone in every major patch. I'm certain they will keep the 2 major patches (so x.0.0 followed by x.1.0 and x.2.0) with minor patches inbetween and as epilogues. They know people won't tolerate being sold an expansion with only one or two raids. If you think they are gonna do anything else, you are just delusional as hell. A major point of Metzen was they wanna deliver the same amount of content faster, most likely by addressing the content drought problem at the end of expansions.

Also, the last titan won't be the last expansion. There won't be a wow 2. People are making up nonsense in direct opposition to what was announced. The whole point is that they're committing to the next 20 years of world of warcraft

[Rathwell]

I bet something happens with Turalyon and Arator. Maybe he has to kill Alleria by the end and he snaps?

I could definitely see that. The Holy Paladin suddenly in a relationship with his polar opposite, a Void elf, seems too good a plot point to not make something of.

[Ferlion]

Not implausible.

All the way back in 2010 Blizzard's then-CEO (Rob Pardo?) said that they'd do a WoW2 when they felt like WoW's engine just couldn't be upgraded enough anymore to do what the designers wanted. And Blizzard aren't as stuck in their ways as Bethesda. And I think that broad strategy probably still applies. By 2030 we're likely to see at least 2 MMORPGs which are a real leap beyond WoW in how they look and potentially play, whilst still having a lot of the same conceptual appeal, and we'll be on new console generation, one that will be pretty wildly powerful compared to the PCs of today, where ray-tracing is likely to be basically the norm. That's without getting into the changes we may seen in animation and how AI may impact the industry too. The "cheap" graphics card will presumably be a Nvidia 6060 or something.

I just really need to make this point.

Bethesda doesn't not change engines because they are stuck in their ways. They don't change engines because Creation engine Is literally the only engine on the planet that does what Bethesda games do.

And I don't just mean gameplay or persistent world.

I mean mods of its scale.

A change in engine would be an end to mods

[Rathwell]

Let's hope we'll discover juicy stuffs on the deep dive panel later.

Wish list at the moment is a breakdown of these new talent trees. Just a sneak peak of the Druid options and name-dropping the warrior ones does not sate me. I want to know the names and themes of all of them!

[pacotaco]

Apparently it's not the sword but a crystal of sorts per the What's Next lady.

Which makes sense because the entire region seems to have evolved around the crystal light and if it was the sword it would be only around a decade old gove or take?

You are correct, we can even see that the crystal could be linked to Naaru (maybe a Titan equivalent of the Light Realm?), because it's changing to a Void crystal just like depleted Naaru do.

[Ferlion]

Definitely bitter sweet. If it's going to end, that's the way to do it. I was fearing WoW would get a little too Cosmic towards the end. I mean, the final threats are clearly Cosmic, but how would we random adventurers who still fight with swords and spears while wearing plate armor defeat these great Gods beyond time and space? I didn't like that much about Shadowlands, and hopefully it won't quite be that at the end of this trilogy.

Hopefully they can bring it down a little, and maybe some other Cosmic entity fights on our behalf to make a little more sense of it

I think we are more likely to see a WoW 1.5 than WoW2.

I don't think they'll ditch collections

[Arenis]

I'm interested in seeing Hallowfall, I'm digging the looks of it. The rest idk.

[pacotaco]

Might be referring to Blood Elves, High Elves and Void Elves?

- - - Updated - - -

Earthen confirmed to be 25% bigger than normal Dwarves is a good differential. Now if they can give them an option for rock/crystal hair and beards I'll be sold

Yeah, probably as tall as a human.

- - - Updated - - -

I have a feeling the crystal in Hallowfall (awful name, people are going to call it Hallowfell, Hollowfall, Hollowfell...) is either an Old God seed that got infused with the Light or a Light equivalent of an Old God seed. I reckon it could still be under Silithus though and maybe it was what Sargeras was actually aiming at. Presumably it could also be what Xal'atath is looking for and she needs to empower the Nerubians to actually be able to fight against the Arathi to get to it and complete its darkening with Galakrond's essence.

Xal is probably trying to use the blood of the Old God and the fact the crystal is turning to Void to create a portal to bring Dimensius.