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

[Kathranis]

That cutscene was pre-rendered. Notably its using a more detailed version of Sylvanas & Anduin's in game models. I know it's hard to tell the different between in engine cutscenes & pre-rendered cutscenes that use in-game assets & environments but there is a difference.

No, that isn't prerendered. That is 100% in-engine. They've been able to do this level of acting in-engine since the start of Shadowlands. It can even bug out, I've seen streamers watch this and the models not load properly.

[Merryck]

So what are people first impression of 10.2 so far?
Personally I think it's a big improvement on 10.1, insofar as I feel far more compelled to engage with the various mechanics of the patch. As opposed to Zaralek where I mostly engage with it on a superficial level of new expansion.

How much longevity the zone has is a different matter of course. Though I do at least feel they got the minigames more correct.

I don't have any characters I want to play ...

I wish Blizzard would change how names work because what holds me back from making new characters is that all the names I want are taken.

I'd rather have to invite someone using their BattleTag than having to put accented letters in my preferred name.

These cross-realm guilds might force them to make a change since it'll be possible to be in a guild with multiple people who share the same name.

[Kathranis]

I don't have any characters I want to play ...

I wish Blizzard would change how names work because what holds me back from making new characters is that all the names I want are taken.

I'd rather have to invite someone using their BattleTag than having to put accented letters in my preferred name.

These cross-realm guilds might force them to make a change since it'll be possible to be in a guild with multiple people who share the same name.

Right now it appends your realm name to the end of your player name. They've been doing it this way since they started doing virtual realm mergers. I have characters with the same name on both Alleria and Khadgar servers in the same guild, and they show up as Name-Alleria and Name-Khadgar.

That said, they absolutely should overhaul how they handle names.

1. Introduce surnames, allowing players to have the same given name so long as the surname is different, and maybe even allow players to choose which of the two they want displayed as their primary identifier.

2. Allow for a single apostrophe or hyphen in the given name, with some restrictions. This would allow players to use lore-accurate names in the same style as "Gul'dan" or "Kel-Thuzad."

[Viridiel]

Edit: In a different direction I'm curious what theyll do for the new dungeons in Midnight. I'd bet a revamped Zul'Aman ends up as the megadungeon if it doesnt become a raid of its own. But outside of that it feels like basing it off of TBC Quel'thalas there aren't a ton of different notable areas to turn into dungeons that won't have a similar feel to each other. Here's a potential list that I can think of:

1. Deathholme - leftover undead stuff. (also could justify updated art assests that can then also be used in The Last Titan in Northrend revamp)
2. Magister's terrace - legacy of Kael'thas stuff, maybe demonic leftover? Or could make it void stuff since its so close to to the Sunwell.
3. Windrunner Spire - Seems like it could be easily made into a dungeon. Cool location on a clif overlooking the sea. Lore significance. Could be void or ghost focused.
4. Troll dungeon - maybe not if Zul'aman ends up as a raid or the mega dungeon just for enemy/environment variety but otherwise easy add.
5. Some sort of void invasion - Think it'd be cool to see the ruins of silvermoon or some section of silvermoon city being invaded and overrun by void forces.

Thats all I've got really. There are other existing locations that could be made into dungeons but without a pretty significant change in environment or the inclusion of a whole new zone with new locations, everything else feels like it'd just be more troll or Blood elf towns.

Zul'Aman should rightfully be its own zone with multiple instances inside it if they want to do Quel'Thalas justice.

And if they pull from the whole history of lore then all cosmic forces should have a presence in Quel'Thalas, so I think there's a lot that could be done in terms of biomes. Life and Arcane are present to begin with (their balance is what creates Eversong Woods' biome and is the same magic that made the Arcandor of the Nightborne), Fel and Death came from the blood elves' addiction and Arthas' crusade respectively, and of course Light and Void will likely be the main storyline due to the Sunwell. I'm loath to have an entire expansion about elves, but honestly there's some pretty good opportunities for great stories given the relationships between the elves and the cosmic forces they deal with.

Someone somewhere (sorry) raised the possibility of an entire floating zone based on the floating spires and platforms the blood elves love to use, and I think that would be sick. They'd need to either be creative with airlock technology or develop something new for it to work if it's on top of another zone, but that makes it an exciting prospect. If we end up seeing a small zone like this in TWW then we can be fairly certain they're testing it for Midnight or TLT.

[Varodoc]

It's also possible that we get an underground zone based on remnants of the Black Empire; Quel'Thalas used to be part of N'Zoth's empire, and we haven't had much Old God-themed stuff in the Eastern Kingdoms (compared to the other continents anyway).

There are definitely enough concepts and ideas to make Quel'Thalas a stand-alone expansion continent.

[Inxotep]

Looks like they removed the "in development" article we'd getting this week

[Marlamin]

No, that isn't prerendered. That is 100% in-engine. They've been able to do this level of acting in-engine since the start of Shadowlands. It can even bug out, I've seen streamers watch this and the models not load properly.

Can confirm that one is definitely in-engine.

[Cheezits]

Looks like they removed the "in development" article we'd getting this week

Can confirm. Giving 10.2 some breathing room?

[Catastrophy349]

To be fair, 10.1.5 wasn't announced until the second week (2 days after Season/Raid released). So, maybe they want the story to play out a bit more? Perhaps, the article for "In-Development" was a mistake and was always meant to be next week

[Scyth]

It's possible they put it out by mistake, was weird that they'd show the next story patches before we have officially seen the ending of the raid.

[Cheezits]

It's possible they put it out by mistake, was weird that they'd show the next story patches before we have officially seen the ending of the raid.

Especially if the tree blooms at the end of the raid, and the tree plays into the next patch.

[Ersula]

It's possible they put it out by mistake, was weird that they'd show the next story patches before we have officially seen the ending of the raid.

Why would they cover the story at all? I expect they focus on whatever features are coming before 11.0

Despite that I don't understand why Warbands aren't a minor patch feature, I hope the following minor patches include Fire Druid customization for Night Elves. I expect Druid, Shaman & Paladins for all races at the very least, otherwise we all might as well unsubscribe January 1st, 2024 until 11.0

[huth]

Why would they cover the story at all? I expect they focus on whatever features are coming before 11.0

Despite that I don't understand why Warbands aren't a minor patch feature, I hope the following minor patches include Fire Druid customization for Night Elves.

Probably because they take some major client changes to pull off. It may not seem like much to you, but it's likely not that easy on the technical side.

[Scyth]

Why would they cover the story at all? I expect they focus on whatever features are coming before 11.0

Despite that I don't understand why Warbands aren't a minor patch feature, I hope the following minor patches include Fire Druid customization for Night Elves. I expect Druid, Shaman & Paladins for all races at the very least, otherwise we all might as well unsubscribe January 1st, 2024 until 11.0

Aspects getting blessed and the tree possibly blooming fully and whatever happens to it next is still a huge part of the story and very likely connected to whatever is coming in 10.2.5 and .7, so makes more sense to have a chat about what's next after we've seen the ending of the raid.

Is just what I think though, they might not care lol But judging the chat was removed, my guess is it's because of the story.

Weren't we also supposed to get more blizzcon interviews this week? If so, they probably don't want it getting lost within all the blizzcon info.

[Pyrophax]

Any recent theories about that big revealation about Titans from Metzen announcement?
Grab tin-foiled hats, we come to speculation time!
Can it be that Titans are not Order aligned from start, its just Aman'Thul is infusing them with Order magic? Like other titans, aside Norgannon are not seems order-aligned.
Khaz - is more fire/earth elemental being than Order being.
Eonar - more Life above everything.
Golganneth - Air/Water elemental being.
Aggrammar and Sargeras - they like warriors than Order. Maybe Spirit-ones?
Or even Sargeras is Fel World Soul from the start. But was turned into Order being. And his "corruption" is like returning to his "roots"?
Aggramar can be Light aligned from the start. It can explain why Tyr is Light-based, or Light-using.

Could it be that Titans are not some Pantheon of Order, and just be most powerfull beings in material Universe, and Order via Aman'Thul just usurb others to Order reign?

[huth]

Any recent theories about that big revealation about Titans from Metzen announcement?
Can it be that Titans are not Order aligned from start, its just Aman'Thul is infusing them with Order magic? Like Other titans, aside Norgannon are not seems order-aligned.
Khaz - is more fire/earth elemental being than Order being.
Eonar - more Life above everything.
Golganneth - Air/Water elemental being.
Aggrammar and Sargeras - they like warriors than Order. Maybe Spirit-ones?
Or even Sargeras is Fel World Soul from the start. But was turned into Order being. And his "corruption" is like returning to his "roots"?
Aggramar can be Light aligned from the start. It can explain why Tyr is Light-based, or Light-using.

Could it be that Titans are not some Pantheon of Order, and just be most powerfull beings in material Universe, and Order via Aman'Thul just usurb others to Order reign?

We don't even know who is conspiring against whom. It could just as easily be that there is some conspiracy against the Titans, like Iridikron and Odyn being in cahoots. Or the conspiracy is by some other faction against Azeroth and it just comes to a head in TLT.

So it isn't quite clear it's even a revelation about the Titans.

[Chickat]

They really didn't add a cinematic with Ysera&Alextrasza, this is disappointing

They said they plan on doing a new patch every 8 weeks right up until TWW launch, so we may still get one.

[Santandame]

Any recent theories about that big revealation about Titans from Metzen announcement?
Grab tin-foiled hats, we come to speculation time!
Can it be that Titans are not Order aligned from start, its just Aman'Thul is infusing them with Order magic? Like other titans, aside Norgannon are not seems order-aligned.
Khaz - is more fire/earth elemental being than Order being.
Eonar - more Life above everything.
Golganneth - Air/Water elemental being.
Aggrammar and Sargeras - they like warriors than Order. Maybe Spirit-ones?
Or even Sargeras is Fel World Soul from the start. But was turned into Order being. And his "corruption" is like returning to his "roots"?
Aggramar can be Light aligned from the start. It can explain why Tyr is Light-based, or Light-using.

Could it be that Titans are not some Pantheon of Order, and just be most powerfull beings in material Universe, and Order via Aman'Thul just usurb others to Order reign?

I always thought the implication was that Sargeras was light aligned.

[Chickat]

So what are people first impression of 10.2 so far?
Personally I think it's a big improvement on 10.1, insofar as I feel far more compelled to engage with the various mechanics of the patch. As opposed to Zaralek where I mostly engage with it on a superficial level of new expansion.

How much longevity the zone has is a different matter of course. Though I do at least feel they got the minigames more correct.

Ill answer you in a month. If theres no one to kill rares or do events with it will be bad. Zaralek was a good zone. Just no way to do half the crap in a timely manner after 2 weeks.

[Sondrelk]

Ill answer you in a month. If theres no one to kill rares or do events with it will be bad. Zaralek was a good zone. Just no way to do half the crap in a timely manner after 2 weeks.

That is true.
Maybe I am just blinded by all the new stuff, but I feel like this is the closest to the feeling given by Timeless Isle in a good while.

Not being able to get the full reputation from the seeds and whatnot will certainly be annoying, though I do think the developers are fully on the right track by ensuring that the rewards are designed in such a way that a single players in a year will in theory be able to fly in a circle around the zone planting seeds, and only miss out on reputation, and not important stuff like mounts, pets, or Transmog.