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

[Cheezits]

I wonder if the intent with DK mounted combat is actually exactly what it says on the box. Mounted combat available everywhere you can normally mount. This would most likely exclude a bunch of instanced encounters anyways, but would have some niche use in older dungeons.
Might be a bit on the strong side, but maybe.

I think it's exactly that. Though I wonder if you can still be dismounted, somehow?

[Nymrohd]

Northeron is the hypothetical area north of Lordaeron that Deathwing claimed to be from when he tried to influence Terenas. Presumably it would be somewhere north of Stratholme.

I'd assume Northeron is the Scarlet Crusade heartland. It is a stretch of coast that joins Scarlet Monastery with Hearthglen and extends to Stratholme Bay

- - - Updated - - -

I think it's exactly that. Though I wonder if you can still be dismounted, somehow?

Given it is not available to Blood, yes, you should be able to be dismounted

[Zardas]

It's all together. It's all connected. As they are developing the boss encounter (abilities, phases, strategies, adds, etc.), they are also thinking of how to incorporate those abilities into the environment and the overall lore of the character. They had this to say about the Lei Shen encounter from MoP:

I didn't play when ToT was current content, so I had to look up a guide for him. Therefore, my apologies if some infos are incorrect, feel free to point them to me. Anyway, here are my two cents on how to relatively easily adapt the Lei Shen fight for 5 players :

--- Conduits abilities (active during the whole fight except when conduit is destroyed) ---

East conduit : fusion chain (chain lightning)
-> No change needed, this mechanic is actually easier with less people

South conduit : overcharge (root a player and after a few second big aoe except in a safe zone)
-> Just make it so it can't target the tank, this mechanic is actually easier with less people

West conduit : bouncing bolt (send a bolt that players need to catch)
-> When he cast it, give all players a 50% speed boost for a few seconds

North conduit : static chock (soak)
-> Just decrease the damages so you only need like 2 players in the soak


--- Phase 1 ---

Decapitation (big hit, big debuff, tank swap)
-> No tank swap, but a damage increase (need a small cd)

Crashing thunder (deal damage to melee players and put an aoe upon them)
-> Put in on all 5 players

Thunderstruck (put a debuff on a player, when it expires deal a lot of damage to everyone, reduced by the distance from the player)
-> No change needed, just make sure it can't be applied to the tank


--- Intermission 1 ---
(boss in the middle and all conduits activated at once, then destroy the highest energy conduit)

-> Make it so that the conduits aren't activated in pair, but one by one.


--- Phase 2 ---

Fusion slash (bump, big debuff, tank swap)
-> Replace is with decapitation from phase 1

Thunder whip (big cone aoe that leave a damaging zone)
-> No change needed, easier with fewer people since you got more space

Summon ball lightning (spawn add on every players, they aoe then charge another player)
-> No change needed, easier with fewer people since it's easier to spread out

Seems easier than phase 1, but one conduit will level up, so it compensates

--- Intermission 2 ---
(same of Intermission 1)

-> Same shit as intermission 1


--- Phase 3 ---

Overhelming power (stacking debuff requiring a tank swap)
-> Reduce damage to turn it into a loose condition

Thunderstruck (same as phase 1)
-> Same shit as phase 1

Thunder whip (same as phase 2)
-> Same shit as phase 2

Summon ball lightning (same as phase 2)
-> Same shit as phase 2

Violent gale winds (wind pushing players and putting a stacking damage debuff)
-> Just remove it if it's too much, otherwise no change needed



As you can see, not much changes needed. If it ends up being too long of a fight, remove intermission 2 and phase 3 entirely.

The room itself is, of course, still huge, but it simply makes the fight more grandiose, let's just say that it's the mega in dungeon.

[Eldryth]

Spellslinger and Conduit of the Celestials are easily my favorites for this wave. Both are up there with Diabolist, my previous favorite.

Spellslinger was a great surprise- the name sounded boring and generic compared to the other two specs, so I didn't really have any expectations, but I really love the splinter stuff thematically. Kind of reminds me of Guild Wars 2's Virtuoso Mesmer, though clearly with a very different execution (which is great for me, since I loved the theme and didn't care for the gameplay).

Conduit, on the other hand, I had high hopes for from the start and so far it looks like they might live up to them. The Celestials are great and I love the idea of having all of them involved.

I like Pack Leader and Farseer thematically but they both sound way too passive, don't really care for the implementation at all. It looks like they won't have much impact on gameplay.

Aldrachi and Druid of the Claw also sound cool thematically to me, but I don't know enough about those classes to really judge the implementation.

And Hellcaller... This seems like a really bad choice all around. I loved Diabolist from a Demo perspective, but now that we've seen both of the Destro options, I'd say they're right to be disappointed. I had expected Hellcaller deliver on that fantasy, but it really sounds more like an Affliction theme. Destro really isn't getting a single Hero Spec that fits their fantasy.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Northeron is the hypothetical area north of Lordaeron that Deathwing claimed to be from when he tried to influence Terenas. Presumably it would be somewhere north of Stratholme.

I'd assume Northeron is the Scarlet Crusade heartland. It is a stretch of coast that joins Scarlet Monastery with Hearthglen and extends to Stratholme Bay

That's not Northeron you're thinking of, far as my knowledge goes; Prestor just said he was from some northern region in Lordaeron. As for your suggestion, Nymrohd, you're thinking of Northern Lordaeron. Northeron was originally conceptualized as being the same thing as Northern Lordaeron, but now it's just its own thing in the Khaz Modan subcontinent.

[Nymrohd]

That's not Northeron you're thinking of, far as my knowledge goes; Prestor just said he was from some northern region in Lordaeron. As for your suggestion, Nymrohd, you're thinking of Northern Lordaeron. Northeron was originally conceptualized as being the same thing as Northern Lordaeron, but now it's just its own thing in the Khaz Modan subcontinent.

Ah yes, Northeron would be part of Twilight Highlands. But that is implemented already.
The thing is, that's what people suppose because Kudran is from Northeron. THe other idea is that it is the Hinterlands. The only map that has it show up would place it in EPL but almost every Lordaeron map before WoW looked completely different to what we got in game (and imo, far more logical, especially with how the Lordamere is effectively an inland sea connected to the ocean at Dalaran making Capital City a port.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

Ah yes, Northeron would be part of Twilight Highlands. But that is implemented already.

Precisely. In the context of the post I was initially responding to, the zone list doesn't work because they used "Northeron" where they meant "Northern Lordaeron". It seems like they were trying to pass it off as a leak, so this change in the lore makes it seem implausible.

[Auxis]

On break but from what I read so far of the Hero talents:
(This is based on theme btw)
- Hellcaller: interesting.
- Conduit: love it. It's exactly what I was hoping for - a spec that gives all Celestials a time to shine. Plus its one of WW's specs so I'll be able to use it.
- Shado-pan: cool, close to loving it but it would depend on the visuals of the Keystone/Capstone ability. I love more hand-to-hand stuff.
- Slayer: ... yeah? It just sorta doesn't feel like it's own thing. It feels like it's something already core to Fury/Arms.
- Spellslinger: love it. I hope the projectiles look like Spellfrost (mixture of frost and arcane) and not just blue for Frost or purple for Arcane.
- Deathbringer: love it. Hate/love to say it but its another spec giving me XIV vibes - reaper in this case. Again, I'm hoping the visuals are good. And I'm praying the scythes are unique and not just the Ahune scythe model again that Frostscythe use in its animation.
- Rider of the Apocalypse: love it. Love that we got 3 specs so far revolving around summons/calling guardians. Though I've seen a lot of love for the Death Steed ability which surprises me because everyone and their mother seems to hate Divine Steed - not just for visuals, but for useability too.
- Pack Leader: uhhhh. Ima be real, I just glossed over it. It just feels like Besst Master.
- the Elemental/Resto one that I'm blanking on its name atm: cool. I guess that's a .5th summon spec? Lol.
- Aldrachi: cool
- druid of the claw: meh/cool. Again it just feels like it's already something in Bear/Cat trees.
- Flamecaller evoker or w/e Its called: cool.

Had to rush the last 3 because I need to go back to work.

[doledippers]

after looking at the hero talents more these are my quick takes

hellcaller: cool
aldrachi reaver: cool
farseer: ok
conduit of the celestials: ok
shado pan: ok
rider of the apocalypse: insane
slayer: really cool
druid of the claw: really cool
flameshaper: really cool
pack leader: boring, but i think thats ok for BM
spell slinger: insane
deathbringer: really cool

[Scyth]

Bit disappointed with Farseer, for a spec called Elemental you'd think the spec would revolve more around elementals. Maybe stormbringer will do that, who knows.
It's overall not that interesting to me.

Spellslinger looks really cool too, although I'm not a fan of Arcane but the spec does look fun. Mages eating good so far!

Rider of the Apocalypse is sick though, why can't all hero talents be like that??

[Viridiel]

It's interesting to put Northeron in there. In lore I don't believe it's meant to have necessarily been destroyed, just completely abandoned by the dwarves following the Cataclysm and the emergence of Iso'rath. There's nowhere in-game that's actually called Northeron, but there's every chance it was torn off the Highlands and sent out to sea. Or it could be retconned to have been an island the entire time with the order of events being that the island was abandoned when it got heavily damaged by the Cataclysm, and then all the dwarves were killed by Iso'rath and the cultists when they landed in the Highlands. Either way, there's a mysterious fleet of ships where Northeron is meant to be, as well as that strange farm that was recently used for a storyline in Season of Discovery. If the remains of Northeron are an island north of the Highlands then it would also be the mid point between the two remaining settlements of the amani empire, Zul'aman and Jintha'alor, with close proximity to a (former?) Scarlet settlement.

But I don't really care for it. We don't need a new zone in the continent of Lordaeron when there are areas like Alterac Mountains with like 2 named NPCs in them, we need those areas to be developed and expanded. I want to see the Eastweald reclaimed, the amani unified, and the Lordaeron storyline (worgen vs. forsaken, or worgen and forsaken vs. the Scarlet Crusade) to expanded into Hillsbrad and Alterac. I want the arathi to return to the Arathi Highlands.

[Marlamin]

PTR realms have been updated to 10.2.6 BTW (albeit without a client yet), assuming them to come up very quickly after release, probably even the same week provided there's no huge issues that need fixing for the retail event. Then 10.2.7 PTR probably as soon as after all the S4 stuff has been properly tested. Not to mention 11.0 alpha/beta starting somewhere along the line too.

Whew.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

Precisely. In the context of the post I was initially responding to, the zone list doesn't work because they used "Northeron" where they meant "Northern Lordaeron". It seems like they were trying to pass it off as a leak, so this change in the lore makes it seem implausible.

Yes my bad, I'm still confused about these two zones. But I guess both have their place since they're near Quel'Thalas. Northeron's situation seems unclear enough to me to invoke a magical retcon "oops, it wasn't so destroyed after all :-)".

In the process of diversifying zones to avoid elven fatigue for Midnight, I think it's important to add a dwarf or even human zone for cultural and visual variety. So, yeah, it seems pretty logical to include that in the list of zones.

And sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like an alleged leak. It's obviously not, I should have added an "according to me".

[Cheezits]

Eversong/Silvermoon- Elf
Ghostlands- still elf, but also some forsaken presence
ZulAman- troll
????- either Naga or Plaguelands/Lordaeron

My guesses for the four Midnight zones at the start. Keeps it varied.

Also I think they may continue to do "double zones" where the aesthetic is different but the overall theme and culture is the same, more or less. Like Dorne and Ringing Deeps.

[Viridiel]

Eversong/Silvermoon- Elf
Ghostlands- still elf, but also some forsaken presence
ZulAman- troll
????- either Naga or Plaguelands/Lordaeron

My guesses for the four Midnight zones at the start. Keeps it varied.

I mostly agree, but I'll only be happy with Ghostlands remaining its own zone if it gets expanded to include the area to the west and the area north of Stratholme as an extension of Deatholme. Eversong Woods should be mostly blood elves and high elves, Ghostlands mostly nightborne, void elves, and night elves, and Quel'danas should be attacked by Azshara and the naga, potentially with an underwater component if the island isn't expanded. I'd also like to see satyr and san'layn present somewhere (Deatholme?) to round off the presence of all elves and elf-adjacent races, but I'm not really sure how they would've ended up there or what that would look like.

[Auxis]

I had to chuckle at this quote from the Shado-pan feedback thread:

When I saw the name I was hoping to see a diverse set of support elements from all the classes of WoW, because the Shado-pan are more than just monks, they’re everyone.

Yes, give a Monk hero spec talents based on the multiple classes involved in the Shado-pan. Because nothing screams Monk more than calling upon the powers of an Omnia mage, Wu Kao rogue, or a Black Guard warrior.

Like, I don't want to come across as nit-picky; but Monks are a new race with little class identity beyond being a Pandaren class of fighter. Monk's are screaming for some representation, we get a spec based on what is basically Pandaria's secret service which includes some of the fiercest, highly trained Monk's Pandaria has to offer - and you want to give the spec basis on "everyone" in the Shado-pan's ranks?

[ImTheMizAwesome]

- Slayer: ... yeah? It just sorta doesn't feel like it's own thing. It feels like it's something already core to Fury/Arms.

I was cool with it yesterday but i just woke up and saw your post and i started to think the same way - I see hardly anything unique about it, they talk about hero fantasy so much but it just feels like a small extension to core fury/arms gameplay in theory, i guess we will still have to see the visual changes to abilities but i wish it would have some default, better flavour.

They say Mirror image has no place in warrior toolkit and i say bullshit, just make it work, especially when some other hero talents bring some crazy flavour to specs.

[Auxis]

I was cool with it yesterday but i just woke up and saw your post and i started to think the same way - I see hardly anything unique about it, they talk about hero fantasy so much but it just feels like a small extension to core fury/arms gameplay in theory, i guess we will still have to see the visual changes to abilities but i wish it would have some default, better flavour.

They say Mirror image has no place in warrior toolkit and i say bullshit, just make it work, especially when some other hero talents bring some crazy flavour to specs.

Agreed on the last part. Warriors are capable of creating lightning (not just with the Storm Thane spec, Thunderclap generated electricity), leaping enormous lengths, throwing weapons that are capable of spinning and remaining airborne for several seconds (Ravager), throwing lightning hammers (Storm Bolt), shouting so powerfully it physically harms enemies surrounding them (Thunderous Roar, formerly known as Dragon Roar).

You can put all of that down as them just being able to do it because "thems is angry". But I'm of the belief there is something going on with whatever hey use to pull of those actions - personally I think Rage is a form of Spirit/Anima and is capable of substituting for mana to be used to perform beyond natural abilities - and surely they can use that energy to create clones for a short amount of time.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Agreed on the last part. Warriors are capable of creating lightning (not just with the Storm Thane spec, Thunderclap generated electricity), leaping enormous lengths, throwing weapons that are capable of spinning and remaining airborne for several seconds (Ravager), throwing lightning hammers (Storm Bolt), shouting so powerfully it physically harms enemies surrounding them (Thunderous Roar, formerly known as Dragon Roar).

You can put all of that down as them just being able to do it because "thems is angry". But I'm of the belief there is something going on with whatever hey use to pull of those actions - personally I think Rage is a form of Spirit/Anima and is capable of substituting for mana to be used to perform beyond natural abilities - and surely they can use that energy to create clones for a short amount of time.

Yeah all you said is true.
I don't really know who's there at the team that just hates this idea and think it doesn't fit warriors, but it's just weird.

They could at least add this for one expansion and check how it does, the clones might even not do much but it would be still something that makes certain hero spec unique, like cherry on top.
Rider of the apocalypse for example also has many passives, but it has also things that make it stand out and get people talking, being excited because it brings the fantasy fitting the name of that hero spec.

But it's overall a problem with these hero talent trees, there are some that bring that cool flavour and others just sound boring and unimaginative.

[Merryck]

Eversong/Silvermoon- Elf
Ghostlands- still elf, but also some forsaken presence
ZulAman- troll
????- either Naga or Plaguelands/Lordaeron

My guesses for the four Midnight zones at the start. Keeps it varied.

Also I think they may continue to do "double zones" where the aesthetic is different but the overall theme and culture is the same, more or less. Like Dorne and Ringing Deeps.

You can't have THE Light vs Void expansion without a Draenei zone or at least some Draenei presence ...