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

[Schwert]

There's a difference between bringing armies to fight a tertiary foe, and bringing armies to fight eachother lmao.

Meanwhile, Malicia lmao.

[Lady Atia]

Idk, we have two kinda huge news for the potential future of WoW which get ignored here but we still discuss some lore things that aren't even relevant to the worldsoul saga at all? weird.


1.) (and now, maybe that's interesting for you danuser haters) they seemingly booted the whole "lore story group" they had, so it seems like Metzen is now the only one overseeing it? Related to that, they also fired the artist who did the priest s2 sets aswell as the owlbears, which is just really shitty cause she actually managed to capture the look of WoW as opposed to the person who did stuff like the centaurs in their hyperrealistic style that just clashes with the rest of the game.

2.) It seems like we may get the SoO wolf back either via timerunning or the trading post. If they do it, there is LITERALLY no reason to gatekeep any old mounts/transmog from either pve or pvp anymore, so I expect them to slowly bring it all back. And honestly, TCG items should just come to the BMAH, old raid mounts should be available via timewalking, and pvp should change the vicious saddles into vicious coins and do a tiered system, like one coin gives you a vicious mount/tabard, two coins could give you an elite set or an illusion, three coins a gladiator mount or elite weapon. Would add a HUGE grind to casual rated pvp, especially for people who never got any of the rewards. Just limit "exclusivity" to two-three expansions where you cant buy stuff, similiary to mythic raids and the ability to solo them. Don't give out the FoS achievements when buying a gladiator mount from the vendor, so people can still "flex". If done right, they can also use that to fill in the really small patches, instead of releasing everything at once. Imagine f.e. if 10.2.5 had Zul Aman Timewalking with the original Amanibear as a 1% drop from Zul'Jin, aswell as the TBC gladiator mounts available via 3 coins from the vendor to grind. Atleast than, the patch would have some evergreen stuff to farm as opposed to three small questlines that you do once. Than in another patch they could do a TotC timewalking raid, with the removed mounts dropping once again with a 1% chance, alongside the WotLK gladiator wyrms on the pvp vendor. Rins and repead with every other expansion 'till we are catched up.

[Makorus]

If Danuser is gone, I wonder who they are gonna use as a scapegoat next.

Surely, it can't be Metzen.

[Nymrohd]

If Danuser is gone, I wonder who they are gonna use as a scapegoat next.

Surely, it can't be Metzen.

Where is this coming from? I keep seeing people here say it but never seen any supporting evidence.

[Lady Atia]

Where is this coming from? I keep seeing people here say it but never seen any supporting evidence.

Tbf, Steve prolly left the team before the Blizzcon already. He prolly didn't want to make a big news / announcement out of it simply because he had to read enough shitty comments about him.

[Raetary]

Danuser is still at Blizzard according to his Linkedin.

He just isn't that active on twitter anymore.

[BaumanKing]

Danuser is still at Blizzard according to his Linkedin.

That's good. Toxicity will never prevail.

[Ersula]

Tbf, Steve prolly left the team before the Blizzcon already. He prolly didn't want to make a big news / announcement out of it simply because he had to read enough shitty comments about him.

I think Shadowlands derangement syndrome is reaching critical levels, yeah it was a badly carried-out expansion (what with there being a global pandemic) but it very likely made more money than Diablo 4 & Overwatch 2, and the layoffs support that theory. WoW is Blizzard's safest property.

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1.) (and now, maybe that's interesting for you danuser haters) they seemingly booted the whole "lore story group" they had, so it seems like Metzen is now the only one overseeing it? Related to that, they also fired the artist who did the priest s2 sets aswell as the owlbears, which is just really shitty cause she actually managed to capture the look of WoW as opposed to the person who did stuff like the centaurs in their hyperrealistic style that just clashes with the rest of the game.

Source? I saw some artists were let go. (Artists are rarely on salary so their roles almost always have a predetermined end date) but nothing about some narrative jobs going away.

I am pointing to how apparently the Worldsoul Saga apparently had two whole teams, the biggest production in Blizzard history, claims. That didn't last long did it? WoW seems the least effected, but even Microsoft would look at that & say "why?" I know on many levels the prospect of that was very exciting but from a developer angle people were surely asking "Maybe you should be focusing on the upcoming expansion, not the expansion after next."

[Makorus]

I think Shadowlands derangement syndrome is reaching critical levels, yeah it was a badly carried-out expansion (what with there being a global pandemic) but it very likely made more money than Diablo 4 & Overwatch 2, and the layoffs support that theory. WoW is Blizzard's safest property.

That's the thing. Blizzard is smart enough not to give in to stupid online BS, and they realize that if they get rid of Danuser, it will just be someone else who gets the flak.

Also, the whole "lore layoff thing" is dubious at best because the only thing I can find is this Reddit thread of "Some Guy(TM)" saying he knows someone who works at Blizzard who allegedly says they got laid off.

https://old.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...d_and/kjk83te/

[Lady Atia]

I think Shadowlands derangement syndrome is reaching critical levels, yeah it was a badly carried-out expansion (what with there being a global pandemic) but it very likely made more money than Diablo 4 & Overwatch 2, and the layoffs support that theory. WoW is Blizzard's safest property.

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Source? I saw some artists were let go. (Artists are rarely on salary so their roles almost always have a predetermined end date) but nothing about some narrative jobs going away.

I am pointing to how apparently the Worldsoul Saga apparently had two whole teams, the biggest production in Blizzard history, claims. That didn't last long did it? WoW seems the least effected, but even Microsoft would look at that & say "why?" I know on many levels the prospect of that was very exciting but from a developer angle people were surely asking "Maybe you should be focusing on the upcoming expansion, not the expansion after next."

According to him, the "lore historian team" got kicked out. I also read on twitter about both artists and lore people who lost their job, aswell as one who was shifted to the quest design team.

[Murlocos]

Related to that, they also fired the artist who did the priest s2 sets aswell as the owlbears, which is just really shitty cause she actually managed to capture the look of WoW as opposed to the person who did stuff like the centaurs in their hyperrealistic style that just clashes with the rest of the game..

Natacha Nielsen left Blizzard to join Riot in March 2023, she got laid off from Riot earlier this week. She was only posting about her WoW work and both sets of layoffs happened within days of each other so I get the confusion though.

[Lady Atia]

Natacha Nielsen left Blizzard to join Riot in March 2023, she got laid off from Riot earlier this week. She was only posting about her WoW work and both sets of layoffs happened within days of each other so I get the confusion though.

Ahhhh ok. Still a shame as she was doing great work and perfectly catched the spirit of WoW in the modern engine.

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In other news - how hyped are we about the 10.2.6 reveal next week?

There is a 10.2.6 reveal next week, right? Right?!

[Sondrelk]

Ahhhh ok. Still a shame as she was doing great work and perfectly catched the spirit of WoW in the modern engine.

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In other news - how hyped are we about the 10.2.6 reveal next week?

There is a 10.2.6 reveal next week, right? Right?!

I am very curious about the 10.2.6. what kind of feature could possibly be worth completely hiding from the big reveal stream?

[Woggmer]

I remember there was blue post about awaking some evil there, kinda future Cataclysm content thing

EDIT: It wasn't blue post
https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Bae...cavator#Quotes

Yeah, we never figured out what that was and it was never brought up again... The only clue we have is that there was some crystal called the Tears of the Moon, which some dwarf wanted and it turned him into a trogg.. then in Cata, they have you killing off that same trogg for "sniffing around"

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Idk, we have two kinda huge news for the potential future of WoW which get ignored here but we still discuss some lore things that aren't even relevant to the worldsoul saga at all? weird.


1.) (and now, maybe that's interesting for you danuser haters) they seemingly booted the whole "lore story group" they had, so it seems like Metzen is now the only one overseeing it? Related to that, they also fired the artist who did the priest s2 sets aswell as the owlbears, which is just really shitty cause she actually managed to capture the look of WoW as opposed to the person who did stuff like the centaurs in their hyperrealistic style that just clashes with the rest of the game.

It isn't WoW's lead narrative designer (aka Danuser) that was laid off, but actually Overwatch 2's narrative designer was laid off... probably because they weren't going to continue with the PvE stuff so there was no point keeping a narrative designer.

[doledippers]

According to him, the "lore historian team" got kicked out. I also read on twitter about both artists and lore people who lost their job, aswell as one who was shifted to the quest design team.

yeah blizzard had a team of 5 that was meant to be like, an encyclopedia of existing lore for all of blizzards IPs that devs could reference when making new stories or whatever. That team got reduced from 5 to 2 in the layoffs according to Sean Copeland's wife on twitter,
source: https://twitter.com/Scarletleaf21/st...66346422465010

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It isn't WoW's lead narrative designer (aka Danuser) that was laid off, but actually Overwatch 2's narrative designer was laid off... probably because they weren't going to continue with the PvE stuff so there was no point keeping a narrative designer.

yea, and also see what i wrote above, people seem to be confusing the lore historian team for the wow narrative team, they are different, and the lore historian team isnt even a wow specific resource

[Ersula]

yeah blizzard had a team of 5 that was meant to be like, an encyclopedia of existing lore for all of blizzards IPs that devs could reference when making new stories or whatever. That team got reduced from 5 to 2 in the layoffs according to Sean Copeland's wife on twitter,
source: https://twitter.com/Scarletleaf21/st...66346422465010

I'm sorry this guy lost his job but this sounds crazy. You really shouldn't need more than one person who's dedicated job is keeping the lore straight. For the first decade it was just Metzen. If you have more than one or two people it turns into a wikia with mods just trying to turn their personal headcanons into canon. Adventure Time didn't even need Pendleton Ward for very long because he documented centuries of lore in really concise lore bibles.

[milkmustache]

I'm sorry this guy lost his job but this sounds crazy. You really shouldn't need more than one person who's dedicated job is keeping the lore straight. For the first decade it was just Metzen. If you have more than one or two people it turns into a wikia with mods just trying to turn their personal headcanons into canon. Adventure Time didn't even need Pendleton Ward for very long because he documented centuries of lore in really concise lore bibles.

I suppose with Metzen returning this also made them highly redundant, no matter how busy Metzen is on other things. I just hope that they're not made scapegoats for writing decisions.

[Cheezits]

To clear the air of the bad news, we will probably get a 10.2.6 reveal this week. But after 10.2.5 came out half-baked, its 50/50 IMO.

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I am very curious about the 10.2.6. what kind of feature could possibly be worth completely hiding from the big reveal stream?

There are also a bunch of encrypted nelf characters who AFAIK didn't make it into the epilogue quest but were scattered around Belameth on the PTR. Namely the Nelf paladin and a nelf druid who has Nymue's staff.

So there is probably some secret nelf campaign.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I'm sorry this guy lost his job but this sounds crazy. You really shouldn't need more than one person who's dedicated job is keeping the lore straight. For the first decade it was just Metzen. If you have more than one or two people it turns into a wikia with mods just trying to turn their personal headcanons into canon. Adventure Time didn't even need Pendleton Ward for very long because he documented centuries of lore in really concise lore bibles.

Metzen and keeping lore straight really shouldn’t be in the same sentence given things like red shirt guy at blizzcon.

As to how many people you’d need, I’d think a minimum of two if you actually want to keep things straight as one person could get something wrong or misunderstand so gagging a second person to talk things out with to figure out what’s really what would only be a good thing.

The more you get though the more problematic things become even more so when there not cross referencing each other and just adding there own bits to a data base. Which honestly either that or just not checking with the lore team seems to be what the writers have been doing recently.

[Ersula]

There are also a bunch of encrypted nelf characters who AFAIK didn't make it into the epilogue quest but were scattered around Belameth on the PTR. Namely the Nelf paladin and a nelf druid who has Nymue's staff.

So there is probably some secret nelf campaign.

Or they're just intended to show up in Belameth in the next patch to show time has passed & the town is growing. They've been doing that a lot lately.

Which honestly either that or just not checking with the lore team seems to be what the writers have been doing recently.

Even more reason a "lore team" is a bad idea. Is it that the quest writers weren't even using the team for its explicit purpose or that said team had 5 different interpretations of the same lore? Tolkien didn't need a "lore team"