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

[Eurhetemec]

Companion:
I don’t like this iteration. I’m played a Maghar Orc Blackrock warrior, Blood Elf warlock, Zandalari shaman and Orc shaman as my mains. I would have preferred a character from the Reliquary to accompany me instead of Brann Bronzebeard. Same as i would not like it to have Aggra for example accompanying my Alliance toons. Breaks my immersion(not to mention that Brann can become quite annoying quickly in my opinion)and i’m not a fan at all of the Unifaction.

What i would have preferred here ist the option to create my own companion. Everything i need for it is already in the game. I can choose his faction, race, name, look etc. Simply because i would have enjoyed a Blackrock Shaman as a companion for my Blackrock warrior much more compared to Brann Bronzebeard for example.

Whilst I appreciate the desire, creating your own companion would mean they had to be a mindless, largely silent character who just sort of stood there awkwardly. Even if they vocally responded to commands, having difference voice-lines for every single race and gender would be a huge task. Doing a specific single companion is obviously hugely less work, and as they change each season no annoying one should stay too long. I do appreciate Brann is a potentially annoying one, but at least it's not Harrison Jones.

I really don’t understand why they could not at least put in a second or third Allied Race. Like Jinyu/Ankoan for Alliance, Mogu for Horde, Earthen as neutral. Would have looked much better.

No new race/sub-group customizations. WoW still lacks behind big time in my opinion. Not sure if they’re out of ideas here, it seems like it. Which would be bad. Not a thing on that front.
No class specific customizations. I am really not sure why they haven’t bothered to do these properly, either as normal customization you can choose when creating a character or/and as quest rewards. Huge waste of potential. Combined with an evergreen cosmetic system you could make a lot of Warcraft 3/RPG hero classes a reality, visually.

This isn't stuff that would have been in their announcement for the entire expansion.

No race campaigns, something i really would like for the game. The races in WoW get story wise way too little attention. Race campaigns would be also the far superior option to class halls, the problem of tauren sunwalker in a human church building(just one example of many) and all that could be avoided, not to mention that these could be used for building up a much broader cast of characters for all races as well.

The reason it doesn't happen is that it's hugely wasteful to put in content so few people would engage with, but which requires as much effort as content tons of people will.

I would have liked the return of Warfronts in an improved version. The Warfronts don’t have to be faction war specific. They could portray all kinds of battles

If they did that, they probably wouldn't call it Warfronts, nor make the reward system work like Warfronts.

PS: For christ sake, please hire competent writer who have at least mastered entry writing classes on a at least decent university.

They have, now. Most of WoW's writing team who you're shitting on are highly qualified and experienced. Ironically the era of WoW you thinking the writing is "good" from is the era when most of the writers had no writing qualifications, and were hired for reasons like "Is my guildmaster in EverQuest" or "wrote some really spicy posts shitting on a game I don't like". If you don't believe me, go to LinkedIn and look at people's educational and employment history. Steve Danuser for example has a BS in English and has been working as a writer or creative director in MMOs since 2003. But people act like he's some guy they hired off the street. Whereas Alex Afrasiabi, who was WoW's lead creative for a while and wrote a lot of WoW quests and lore, didn't have any kind of writing or software design or game design qualification (IIRC - one of him or Jeff Kaplan didn't), and was hired solely because he was Rob Pardo's guildmaster in WoW.

EDIT - Sadly I see Afrasiabi deleted his LinkedIn, presumably after The Incident.

[Nathanyel]

In my opinion it wasn’t well balanced. I prefer a cinematic that balances out emotion, epic moments, actions. I also prefer showing instead of telling. For example, i like both the Frostfire Ridge and Shadowmoon Valley ingame cinematics from WoD a lot. They had everything in it a good cinematic needs. Emotional scenes, epic scenes, action, great music in the right moment.

So because Anduin and Thrall were talking, it was only Tell, not Show? Because it showed a lot, mostly about Anduin's state, but also about the visions and what they might mean.
Also, you're comparing it to zone finale cutscenes, of course those are action-packed, they're bookends of that zone's story, not teasers of upcoming content.

To simplify it, this is due to a different approach to the core threat: it doesn't arrive screaming like the Iron Horde or the Legion, but will be revealed as the 11.0 story develops, and it begins with the people of Azeroth investigating these visions and where they lead them.

I’m not logging into WoW to experience depressed characters left and right and their therapy sessions

Forsaken are tormented by their lingering emotions, Blood Elves were addicts when introduced. Gnomes and Darkspear are basically refugees, forced to abandon their home a few years prior to the start of WoW.
But yeah, if you haven't played Shadowlands (watching reaction videos to the cinematics doesn't count) of course you don't get why Anduin might feel this way.

Companion:
I don’t like this iteration. I’m played a Maghar Orc Blackrock warrior, Blood Elf warlock, Zandalari shaman and Orc shaman as my mains. I would have preferred a character from the Reliquary to accompany me instead of Brann Bronzebeard.

Well, it's only Brann in 11.0, they stated that later seasons would have other companions. Brann is just the Explorer of the Warcraft universe, so he's obviously the first choice.
Ideally, a Reliquary/Horde character would be used in 11.1

[Raetary]

I also prefer showing instead of telling.

The cinematic was almost entirely Show, don't Tell.

[Nymrohd]

The cinematic was almost entirely Show, don't Tell.

I'd say it's neither. It doesn't show or tell much.

[Worldshaper]

Something I've pondered...

The Well of Eternity basically caused life to sprout all around it. Lowly creatures evolved, and for example Dark Trolls turned into Night Elves.

But we also know Elune liked to swim in the waters of the well, and right now the most pulopular theory assigns her as a member of the "Pantheon of Life".

So was it in fact not the blood of Azeroth which caused all of that evolution, but rather Elune channelling it as a font of power for Life? Because as we know, Azerite basically just enhances other stuff, whether it is destructive or creative.

Does this in turn mean that the World Trees were basically just Elune's way of tapping into the power of the worldsoul? Using agents such as Freya, Eonar, Druids, Green Dragons etc. to achieve her goals.

So World Tree roots are probably designed to delve into the planet and reach the worldsoul, which is what makes them the perfect doorway for the Old Gods, and also reveals to us why Aman'Thul hates them so.

We've already seen them infest World Trees, like the one in the dream-version of Un'goro. Could the roots of Elun'Ahir be how the 5th Old God reached the worldsoul and possibly almost corrupted it, thereby gaining powers of life and death in the process?

[Raetary]

I'd say it's neither. It doesn't show or tell much.

It showed Anduins current physical and mental state, it showed the World Soul and its growing ability to communicate, it showed Thralls connection to the planet and his relationship to Anduin, it showed the Sword and sets up its relevance.
It showed plenty, it just didn't show much that we weren't already aware of to some extent

[Vakir]

I'd say it's neither. It doesn't show or tell much.

It'd show a decent amount...if it wasn't stuff we already knew.

Anduin is traumatized, Varian is a spirit connected to him maybe?

HydaelAzeroth is a world soul that can chat with people not-Magni now, there's a big honkin' sword dug in that everyone remembers now.

It's about 95% stuff we're aware of. Some are valid reminders but some are just straight up answered mysteries. If not for Chronicle and...like all of BFA, Azeroth speaking and the nature of the Titans would be a megaton bomb to unveil, but...

[Nathanyel]

It's about 95% stuff we're aware of. Some are valid reminders but some are just straight up answered mysteries. If not for Chronicle and...like all of BFA, Azeroth speaking and the nature of the Titans would be a megaton bomb to unveil, but...

About that, I'd say at first, there'll be hints that the voice might not actually be Azeroth, explaining Thrall's hesitant statement, but eventually it's revealed that those hints are false flags by Xal'atath et al. to sow doubts or co-opt the as-yet cryptic messages.

[Nymrohd]

It showed Anduins current physical and mental state, it showed the World Soul and its growing ability to communicate, it showed Thralls connection to the planet and his relationship to Anduin, it showed the Sword and sets up its relevance.
It showed plenty, it just didn't show much that we weren't already aware of to some extent

That's not really the story of the world though. It's yet again more of the soap opera.

[doledippers]

That's not really the story of the world though. It's yet again more of the soap opera.

the entire premise of the worldsoul saga is that the world soul of azeroth is awakening, it quite literally is the story of the world

[Raetary]

That's not really the story of the world though. It's yet again more of the soap opera.

Yes, the cinematic was character driven rather than focused on worldbuilding.
That still doesn't change that it showed all of its contents rather than telling us.

[Nymrohd]

the entire premise of the worldsoul saga is that the world soul of azeroth is awakening, it quite literally is the story of the world

And that is a very minor part of the cinematic, most of which is about Anduin's trauma which for some reason he talks about with Thrall instead of any character he actually has a relation with or at least a character of his own age or one that went through something similar.

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It'd show a decent amount...if it wasn't stuff we already knew.

Anduin is traumatized, Varian is a spirit connected to him maybe?

HydaelAzeroth is a world soul that can chat with people not-Magni now, there's a big honkin' sword dug in that everyone remembers now.

It's about 95% stuff we're aware of. Some are valid reminders but some are just straight up answered mysteries. If not for Chronicle and...like all of BFA, Azeroth speaking and the nature of the Titans would be a megaton bomb to unveil, but...

I mean we quest with Magni talking with Argus and then Eonar throughout the Argus campaign. In the audio short story we see Argus talking to Alleria and how she realizes how World Souls are formed and that Azeroth is one.

The part were Anduin and Thrall wonder who that is was just genuinely head scratch moment.

[Sondrelk]

And that is a very minor part of the cinematic, most of which is about Anduin's trauma which for some reason he talks about with Thrall instead of any character he actually has a relation with or at least a character of his own age or one that went through something similar.

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I mean we quest with Magni talking with Argus and then Eonar throughout the Argus campaign. In the audio short story we see Argus talking to Alleria and how she realizes how World Souls are formed and that Azeroth is one.

The part were Anduin and Thrall wonder who that is was just genuinely head scratch moment.

Thrall does say he isn't sure though, not that he has no clue. This is presumably why they are even in Silithus to begin with, to talk to Magni about confirming whether it's Azeroth or not.

[Murlocos]

I think it'd be more accurate to say that this is more about the debate of action scenes vs. characters talking to each other rather than show vs. tell (not that this isn't another major issue). Even then, I'd critique that it's not just an abundance of cutscenes of characters talking, but that the scenes are often shot in a way that there's little else going on besides the characters talking. The improved facial animations and lip sync are undoubtedly a positive, but there's often nothing else to look at but character's faces.

I'm not sure how much of it is intentional and how much not, but the way I'd describe a lot of recent cinematics is that they lack a certain grandiosity and energy that cutscenes from WoD or Legion had. 'Subdued introspection' is such a dominant presence that the few bits of action we get typically feel weightless and forgettable. I'd describe it as feeling smaller than life, like we should be getting some striking shots and serious character presence, but instead they're just slowly pacing around a room speaking equally as slowly with inside voices.

The Anduin questline cutscene from 7.2 is a perfect example of a cutscene where you can dumb it down to characters just talking, but the execution makes it an exciting moment of triumph by the end.

[Vakir]

About that, I'd say at first, there'll be hints that the voice might not actually be Azeroth, explaining Thrall's hesitant statement, but eventually it's revealed that those hints are false flags by Xal'atath et al. to sow doubts or co-opt the as-yet cryptic messages.

I'm hoping there's more to it, but unless Magni buys the farm SO fast we can't communicate with him for a second, it feels like it would be easy for him to confirm or deny it.

WoW's plot, for all the bad decisions, usually follows the simplest and most predictable path in the least interesting way.

Thrall and Anduin's trepidation just reads as someone strangely in the dark on it.

[Kiria]

*Sigh* Why do I get the feeling High end Raiders are going to try and ruin content for Solo/small group players again, Just saw a video of Tali moaning he will feel "Obligated" to do Delves just because they reward gear and he "Needs" to fill out his Vault weekly, I mean fuck you Tali we solo small players are not just Trash we have other things going on in life like kids and jobs and your fucking job is playing WoW, I really hope these elitist assholes don't ruin something potentially good again.

I'm not linking his video because I don't wish to support him but this is the sort of mindset most High End Raiders hold because they fucking live in WoW, no ones asking for their things to be taken away and the small glimmer of a solo gearing path for people is promising but these guys are asking for it to be removed.

It's ironic the minority are the loudest as I read only 7% of the playerbase actually got AOTC from Sarthek (whatever his name is) and trhis was recorded back in Nov just before 1.2 dropped.

[Nymrohd]

*Sigh* Why do I get the feeling High end Raiders are going to try and ruin content for Solo/small group players again, Just saw a video of Tali moaning he will feel "Obligated" to do Delves just because they reward gear and he "Needs" to fill out his Vault weekly, I mean fuck you Tali we solo small players are not just Trash we have other things going on in life like kids and jobs and your fucking job is playing WoW, I really hope these elitist assholes don't ruin something potentially good again.

Yeah I think if they do with Delves what they did with Torghast, we shouldn't call out the devs, we should straight up clog the streamers' channels.

[Kiria]

Yeah I think if they do with Delves what they did with Torghast, we shouldn't call out the devs, we should straight up clog the streamers' channels.

Torghast had promise, and it was nerfed into the ground to become a massive chore, these so called "influencers" are a plague.

[Makabreska]

Torghast had promise, and it was nerfed into the ground to become a massive chore, these so called "influencers" are a plague.

Dunno. Original Torghast build of quickly getting OP and one-shotting everything with one million Ice Lance also seemed dull.

[Kiria]

Dunno. Original Torghast build of quickly getting OP and one-shotting everything with one million Ice Lance also seemed dull.

Oh yeah it probably needed toning down and balancing but it was outright nerfed into oblivion and went from something potentially fun into a hated weekly chore that was mandatory.