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

[Cheezits]

This kinda brings up another question. Is this patch/event going to be another Time Rifts, Archives, Dreamsurge, etc where it has high engagement upon release, then is nearly dead within 3 weeks, or are we maybe ggoing to see something that could hypothetically be somewhat evergreen?

If it's another puzzle hunt, it's technically "evergreen" as it is built off the last one.

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How do we think SMC phasing will be handled in Midnight?

A) New EK that is Cata EK + Midnight QT Area (EVersong, SMC, Ghostlands, Zul'aman, etc)

B) New EK that is Revamped Midnight EK + Midnight QT Area

C) Cata EK is still separate and Midnight QT Area needs to be portaled into and is disconnected by a loading screen (lore reason, maybe a void or arcane bubble?)

I was thinking that it may feel very odd for Midnight QT to be built with Dragonriding in mind, but not the rest of EK that you can fly to. Maybe part of the "twist" of the expansion is that the entirety of EK is being revamped, even if it doesn't have quests or content?

If the entirety of Northrend is being revamped for TLT, it could stand to reason that EK could be as well.

[Varodoc]

They have already said that seamless transition will be used to go to Quel'Thalas.

It will remain in a separate instance from EK.

[Cheezits]

They have already said that seamless transition will be used to go to Quel'Thalas.

It will remain in a separate instance from EK.

If that's the case, what will the "tunnel" be? We have yet to have a seamless transition that isn't supported by flying through some kind of tunnel to support the zone loading (and this seems to be continued in TWW).

[Varodoc]

If that's the case, what will the "tunnel" be? We have yet to have a seamless transition that isn't supported by flying through some kind of tunnel to support the zone loading (and this seems to be continued in TWW).

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Thalassian_Pass

[Cheezits]

https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Thalassian_Pass

That works, but they would have to find some way to restrict you from flying over it and bypassing it entirely.

[Varodoc]

That works, but they would have to find some way to restrict you from flying over it and bypassing it entirely.

It's supposed to be a mountain pass, so it can reasonably be turned into an Elven-themed tunnel going through the mountains and just retroactively say that it was always meant to be an underground tunnel pass.

The "good" kind of Retcon.

[Treegdar]

They have already said that seamless transition will be used to go to Quel'Thalas.

It will remain in a separate instance from EK.

Unless I missed a big interview they have not said this. There was an interview where they said doing stuff like that would be cool, but that was literally all they said.

I don't think there will be any phasing for Midnight's QT. Itll be its own instanced continent, probably have the thallassian pass as land access to connect it to the rest of the world in addition to the Org/SW ports and maybe a Zepplin/boat as well. Leave old QT accessible via the ports in Org and old undercity. Only issue would be Alliance players accessing the old version, but thats so rare that they could just add a port in Shatt or old quel'danas for that.

[Kiivar86]

I'm probably reading too much into it but "bit o' fun" seems like pirate speak to me...

[Varodoc]

Unless I missed a big interview they have not said this. There was an interview where they said doing stuff like that would be cool, but that was literally all they said.

I don't think there will be any phasing for Midnight's QT. Itll be its own instanced continent, probably have the thallassian pass as land access to connect it to the rest of the world in addition to the Org/SW ports and maybe a Zepplin/boat as well. Leave old QT accessible via the ports in Org and old undercity. Only issue would be Alliance players accessing the old version, but thats so rare that they could just add a port in Shatt or old quel'danas for that.

Clearing up any misconceptions - there's no time travel in Midnight/The Last Titan. We recently healed the timeways in Dawn of the Infinite and have no reason to revisit that anytime soon. When Metzen said returning to the Old World, he meant seeing how familiar lands have changed and telling new stories within them. They want to ensure that future WoW storytelling keeps iconic settings relevant - we told the story of Northrend and the Lich King 15 years ago, keeping it stale and unchanging doesn't really benefit the Warcraft universe. So yes, we will be returning to the lands of Silvermoon, Quel'Thalas, and later Northrend - we'll see how they've changed over time, expand, and reimagine them, but there's no time travel, only moving forward. Those older spaces will also be updated to allow dynamic flying, with a seamless transition from EPL to the Ghostlands, etc.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/world-o...ow-live-336065


There will be seamless transition to go from EPL to the Ghostlands, therefore Quel'Thalas will remain instanced away from the rest of the EK.

They can just use Zidormi to go to the TBC Quel'Thalas, like they do for Pre-WoD Dark Portal.

[Treegdar]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/world-o...ow-live-336065


There will be seamless transition to go from EPL to the Ghostlands, therefore Quel'Thalas will remain instanced away from the rest of the EK.

They can just use Zidormi to go to the TBC Quel'Thalas, like they do for Pre-WoD Dark Portal.

Oh nice, I did miss that when it was originally posted. Also more or less confirms itll be QT only and not half of EK like tons of people have been making up.

[Varodoc]

Oh nice, I did miss that when it was originally posted. Also more or less confirms itll be QT only and not half of EK like tons of people have been making up.

They were wise to choose Quel'Thalas, it is the perfect expansion setting for the new pedigree of 4 zones at launch.

- Eversong Woods

- Ghostlands

- Silvermoon (similar to Suramar)

- Zul Aman (similar to Zuldazar)

They can then keep Quel'Danas for the Patch content, as they did in TBC.

The entirety of the Lordaeron is impossible, they don't do more than 4 zones at launch anymore.

[Cheezits]

They were wise to choose Quel'Thalas, it is the perfect expansion setting for the new pedigree of 4 zones at launch.

- Eversong Woods

- Ghostlands

- Silvermoon (similar to Suramar)

- Zul Aman (similar to Zuldazar)

They can then keep Quel'Danas for the Patch content, as they did in TBC.

The entirety of the Lordaeron is impossible, they don't do more than 4 zones at launch anymore.

Eversong and Silvermoon are too similar aesthetically IMO to be two separate zones, I think they will do something with Quel'danas or a Void portal area to spice things up. Silvermoon will be beefed up but I'm unsure if it will be its own zone.

Both Ringing Deeps and Dorne are two Dwarf zones but the aesthetics are very different.

Also, the renowns will probably be something like-

Eversong/SMC- Farstriders
Zul'aman - Amani
Ghostlands- some kind of Calia contingent??
Mystery Zone- Ethereals if void, ???? if Quel'danas

[milkmustache]

Eversong and Silvermoon are too similar aesthetically IMO to be two separate zones, I think they will do something with Quel'danas or a Void portal area to spice things up. Silvermoon will be beefed up but I'm unsure if it will be its own zone.

Both Ringing Deeps and Dorne are two Dwarf zones but the aesthetics are very different.

I dunno, Silvermoon as like mega Suramar would be absolutely incredible. But if Suramar the zone was 90% city 10% outdoor. Have the gates of Silvermoon, part of the Dead Scar and Falconwing Square be within the city zone.

[Cheezits]

I dunno, Silvermoon as like mega Suramar would be absolutely incredible. But if Suramar the zone was 90% city 10% outdoor. Have the gates of Silvermoon, part of the Dead Scar and Falconwing Square be within the city zone.

Yeah, but then you need it to be a questing zone, which means a shit ton of mobs and enemies. Which means its no longer a "city" outside of lore similar to how you still can't chill in Suramar.

And as the Withered/whatever they are called are gone at this point... I think... it means the city would be occupied, which would piss people off.

(The issue is that Blizz can't make a proper giant city in game without it being filled with things to kill, meaning that we are doomed to have small cities (Dalaran, Valdrakken, Oribos even if it isn't a real city) or have them be mostly set dressing with a small hub (Dazar'alor, Boralus). Unfortunately they need to have player engagement tied to zone development these days... we prob will never get something like vanilla cities again. Just look at how small and reused Belameth is)

[Varodoc]

Eversong and Silvermoon are too similar aesthetically IMO to be two separate zones, I think they will do something with Quel'danas or a Void area to spice things up. Silvermoon will be beefed up but I'm unsure if it will be its own zone.

Both Ringing Deeps and Dorne are two Dwarf zones but the aesthetics are very different.

If they want to do an underground zone for every expansion of the Worldsoul saga, then they could do an underground zone below Zul Aman (where the C'Thrax is buried) and then obviously the long-awaited Azjol-Nerub zone in Northrend.

I don't see Quel'Danas coming at Launch. It wasn't at Launch in TBC either, after all.

[Treegdar]

They were wise to choose Quel'Thalas, it is the perfect expansion setting for the new pedigree of 4 zones at launch.

- Eversong Woods

- Ghostlands

- Silvermoon (similar to Suramar)

- Zul Aman (similar to Zuldazar)

They can then keep Quel'Danas for the Patch content, as they did in TBC.

The entirety of the Lordaeron is impossible, they don't do more than 4 zones at launch anymore.

I don't know about perfect just because the established aesthetic of Silvermoon, Eversong, and Ghostlands all have a shared architectural style in the current version, and they really should still share one in the midnight version to make any sense. And while ghostlands is different tonely and has the dark blue "haunted forest" lighting its still very similar to Eversong in terms of general geography and what kind of topography is present. They could just decide that Ghostlands is actually way more mountainous or something. I agree that it does seem easy set up to expand into 4 zones without creating anything out of left field, but I kinda think they might do that anyway just for variety. Like the only time there's been anything remotely this close aesthically in multiple zones was Kul'tiras but that had fairly varied topography within each zone plus the 3 Zandalar zones.

Maybe theyll do something like combine eversong and ghostlands into a single zone and just have one half of the zone with a haunted aesthetic, similar to how azure span is half temperate forest, half winter plain/forest. Silvermoon turns into a suramar like zone, make part of it the hub for the xpac, and still expand Zul'aman into a full forest troll zone. But then as the fourth zone they can invent whatever for variety. Maybe they turn the strip of land north of stratholme into something, maybe we go into the void and have a full void zone. I agree that Quel'danas will be patch content tho. Just kinda suspect theyll do something wacky with 1 zone, be it brand new or major changes to an old zone to add some visual variety to the xpac.

Edit: maybe theyll go the "easy" route tho and thats part of what helps make the WSS have xpacs every ~18 months since they have less distinct tile sets to create.

[Reive]

https://x.com/TheWindstalker/status/...866610712?s=20

tweet from holly, replying to taliesin evitel about no news this week

"@TaliesinEvitel Sorry? We have learned that not having news and deets is frustrating for our creators and players. Stick with us for a minute. Our goal is a bit o' fun. As always we are here to learn and serve. So to speak. "

seems like they realized that keeping people in the dark this long is kinda frustrating to people, which is good

i can already imagine the drama if this patch turns out to be another nothingburger. holly seems to be doing some damage control here: "Our goal is a bit o' fun". looks like she's trying to lower expectations for this hidden patch

[Makabreska]

I'm probably reading too much into it but "bit o' fun" seems like pirate speak to me...

Yarr! Me hearties! Let's us have a bit o' fun with walking the players down the overhype plank?

[Valysar]

i can already imagine the drama if this patch turns out to be another nothingburger. holly seems to be doing some damage control here: "Our goal is a bit o' fun". looks like she's trying to lower expectations for this hidden patch

Imagine if it's just another boring event like temporal rift or big dig ...

[Reive]

Imagine if it's just another boring event like temporal rift or big dig ...

90% it is

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