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

[Raetary]

The developers noticed we were about to reach page 3333 for the 3rd time finally.
Now we just need the return of the hypetrain to be sure.

I got you.



Unfortunately Adobe decided to fuck over my slightly less than legal copy of Photoshop, so don't expect updates until i learn to use Gimp without getting an aneurysm.

[Darkarath]

Yeah sure, keep shitting on poor Steve although he just tried to save WoW after the shitshow that was BfA lore. Also keep in mind the basics of Shadowlands were also done by Afrasiabi ... Steve's baby was Dragonflight which was alright lorewise lol.

I think that we can all agree that DF story was low quality. Sure it has some cool characters (mainly the Incarnates) and some very good side quests (Blue Dragonflight questline), but the rest... pretty ''meh'' or even ''eew''. Although I agree that we cannot fully blame Danuser by DF alone because his story was probably changed, although I would say that 10.0 was entirely his doing and it was not very promising.

Also does not help that in his interviews he was just terrible. Seriously, really bad. I still remember his explanation of how a character has several threads in different universes that mix together in the Shadowlands. My god that was hard to watch.

[Dracullus]

Ah, screw it.

24 HOURS ALPHA HYYYYPE!

[ImTheMizAwesome]

My final warband camp will be - 2 orcs, troll and tauren.

[Darkarath]

My final warband camp will be - 2 orcs, troll and tauren.

I do not play alts, but hopefully I will start to do it in TWW. And even if I don't, I wouldn't like to see my DH alone. I am thinking of two Blood Elfs (DH and Warrior) accompanied by two Void Elfs (Hunter and Warlock), though this might change depending on what Hero Talents I find the most fun and cool.

Yes, I like the Blood Elf model.

[Viridiel]

Well, some of the early screenshots for Azj'kahet shows a bunch of tents with plantlike designs and Talanji is in one of those tents. So it could be possible that Talanji might be a placeholder for a brand new design but we won't know for sure until we see some actual models.

Though if it is plant related, I might hope for Botani if they managed to gain sentience and aren't bound to the Sporemounds.. but lorewise that wouldn't make much sense, as it would have to be something that's much more ancient living out underground away from the Nerubians.

My very first thought was botani because the green and red looks very similar to the thorns in the botani areas. I'm assuming the mag'har quests took place before any timeskips so it's possible, but the description given definitely makes it seem like they've been there for a long time.

But unless I missed something there's no lore explanation for why there are podlings and mandragora in the Emerald Dream of the Dragon Isles. It could be that Draenor has an Emerald Dream equivalent despite never being fully ordered by the titans and they just travelled over from there since we know the Emerald Dream is connected to equivalents for other worlds. Or it's possible that the botani and kin in the Barrens have completely infected the Emerald Dream all over the planet. Or, of course, they're all somewhat generic beasts that actually occur on a bunch of planets like basilisks.

So there are a number of ways it could be botani, but I'm not sure the vibes are right. I think it's likely that they're some sort of similar plant/elemental people since the Nerubians aren't interested in eating them, but the botani we know are not peaceful whatsoever and there's no way the Nerubians would just let them chill nearby. I'm hoping for primordial trolls because we were promised them for Dragonflight and they didn't show up, but there's every chance that primordial trolls are something like botani.

[Sondrelk]

I got you.



Unfortunately Adobe decided to fuck over my slightly less than legal copy of Photoshop, so don't expect updates until i learn to use Gimp without getting an aneurysm.

So many good memories with that picture. So much hype!

Also, I still love that edit of the red star in the Xal'atath staff. Somehow it just works so well.

[Nathanyel]

The Amirdrassil finale cinematic is the epitome of that, a group of people that desperately tries to sell to us that they consider each other family, despite that half of those people never even exchanged a single word with one another

Just imagine the outrage if 90% of cinematics and NPCs talking ingame would've been about the Aspects-to-be talking to each other, getting to know each other. Besides, they already knew each other, for literal millennia, save Vyranoth who only knew Alexstrasza and Nozdormu.

and a dialogue that sounds like they are reading off a script writen by a middle school arts and crafts teacher trying to write a school play.

Yeah, that's a legitimate mistake, but done because they wanted to keep the way particularly Alexstrasza talked *very slow and regal* in Cataclysm. What I'm saying is, it was bad because it wasn't modernized.
Probably worse in other locales, I watched the German dub of the Tomb of Sargeras finale once, hearing Kil'jaeden address Velen with the antiquated formal "You" was pretty cringe. They were as close as brothers once, now one lays dying, that's no moment for stilted speech!

Unfortunately Adobe decided to fuck over my slightly less than legal copy of Photoshop

Photoshop CS2 is available for free - it's an older version from 2005, but unless you're a professional graphic designer, it's quite useable.

[Enrif]

I think that we can all agree that DF story was low quality.

I disagree. DF Story was good. Not amazing, but still good. Calling it low quality is wrong.

- - - Updated - - -

Where were you a month ago? People were telling me I was delusional for thinking southern kalimdor would be part of the expansion, despite you know, the whole cinematic being set there.

spent most of that time in the potential class thread, not in this one here

- - - Updated - - -

Probably worse in other locales, I watched the German dub of the Tomb of Sargeras finale once, hearing Kil'jaeden address Velen with the antiquated formal "You" was pretty cringe. They were as close as brothers once, now one lays dying, that's no moment for stilted speech!

Overall, the german loca is quite okay. But the "formal you" is such a bad habit of german translations in all kind of games.

[Treegdar]

I'm 100% positive the silithus sword will be addressed at some point during WSS, but idk if itll be during TWW. Seems like something that would make sense to be used when the titans come down during TLT. Maybe whatever Xal'atath does at the end of TWW plays into the sword in someway tho. Think they said something about a big titan tunnel running down from the Isle of Dorn into some great titan facility. Certainly could play into the sword somehow. I'd bet that at some point either Azeroth "hatches" and uses the sword or one of the titans in TLT uses it.

Have an idea that feels up Metzen's alley. At the end of TLT we're fighting against some/all of the titans and almost defeat them, but in an act of desperation Aman'thul or someone goes for the sword to try and destroy azeroth, but Sargeras jumps in front and takes the blow sacrificing himself to save Azeroth. I haven't thought through the details of why Sargeras becomes a good guy, but the whole heroic sacrifice to stop something bad Sargeras himself created feels like something Metzen would write.

[Woggmer]

So there are a number of ways it could be botani, but I'm not sure the vibes are right. I think it's likely that they're some sort of similar plant/elemental people since the Nerubians aren't interested in eating them, but the botani we know are not peaceful whatsoever and there's no way the Nerubians would just let them chill nearby. I'm hoping for primordial trolls because we were promised them for Dragonflight and they didn't show up, but there's every chance that primordial trolls are something like botani.

Again, they're not exactly hostile as the Botani since they're not in the same vicinity as the Sporemounds unless they brought some of those spores over into Azeroth when they came over with the Mag'har, but that's a huge IF.

I never considered primordial trolls since whenever Blizzard decides to switch or not follow through with a new creature/race concept they don't make it past the first draft. Djaradin were supposed to be Primordial Trolls before they were swapped to what they are now. Another race they could adapt in is the Skardyn, which were dwarves corrupted to monstrosities but they were only mentioned in story and they had concept art but never made it into the game.. (were instead replaced with Troggs in Grim Batol.)

[Murlocos]

Pretty much this. They should merge the zone quest and main story team, we shouldn't have more stuff about centaur and Tuskarr than the dragon aspect protagonists in the most quest-heavy phase of the game.

It seems like they'll be trying to fix that in TWW where they set up a protagonist trio that will probably explore the new zones with you, like FF XIV Heavensward did.

Yeah, improvement to their inter-team communication is vital. The siloed way they've handled writing contributes to the heavily disjointed feeling where a lot of time is spent on world-building fluff in part because that's the easiest thing to do in isolation. You can't really build up any characters or plot beats when all you're assigned are specific parts of some zones and you have no idea what's been set up before or what follows after. The 10.1 main questline is another glaring example where it was divvied up between multiple people and the inconsistency in character writing is laid bare. Imagine if Vyranoth actually got to do something in-game and get built up as an antagonist so the side switch would have some impact.

We're so close to alpha now that I'm pretty gassed out on speculation, but I'm very curious to see if they're actually changing up how they tell stories in-game or if we're in for another redux of SF and DF's fragmented stories told in isolation that they try to piece together after the fact.

[doledippers]

random off topic but what are we thinking will be the "seasonal flavor" dungeon(s) in the mythic+ dungeon pool for 11.0? seems like every season of DF has had 1 or 2 flavorful dungeons to reinforce the season theme. think neltharians lair for season 2 , everbloom / darkheart thicket for season 3, etc.

spicy take but i think a lot of the wrath dungeons make sense. ahn'kahet , azjol-nerub, halls of stone (earthen origin lore). I could also see stonecore

[Valysar]

random off topic but what are we thinking will be the "seasonal flavor" dungeon(s) in the mythic+ dungeon pool for 11.0? seems like every season of DF has had 1 or 2 flavorful dungeons to reinforce the season theme. think neltharians lair for season 2 , everbloom / darkheart thicket for season 3, etc.

spicy take but i think a lot of the wrath dungeons make sense. ahn'kahet , azjol-nerub, halls of stone (earthen origin lore). I could also see stonecore

Can have Scarlet Monastery too I think

[doledippers]

Can have Scarlet Monastery too I think

good shout, for the arathi humans in hallowfall. would be curious how they rework those if they do. i think each wing is too small for a mythic+ dungeon, but if you combine them they'd be too big

[Valysar]

good shout, for the arathi humans in hallowfall. would be curious how they rework those if they do. i think each wing is too small for a mythic+ dungeon, but if you combine them they'd be too big

Turn it into a megadungeon, like Karazhan maybe

[doledippers]

Turn it into a megadungeon, like Karazhan maybe

assuming they could pull it off in an elegant way i think thatd be really cool

[Zardas]

good shout, for the arathi humans in hallowfall. would be curious how they rework those if they do. i think each wing is too small for a mythic+ dungeon, but if you combine them they'd be too big

The could do a brand new SC classic dungeon for phase 4 of SOD, then use it in the m+ rotation of TWW.

[Cheezits]

The wrath dungeons didn't age well imo, and I think Cata may be their benchmark graphically.

Monastery would fit but looks kind of dated as well. Maybe a klaxxi dungeon?

[doledippers]

The could do a brand new SC classic dungeon for phase 4 of SOD, then use it in the m+ rotation of TWW.

theyd prob have to end up designing two different dungeons. not sure a sod dungeon would xfer over to m+ very well. that being said, if they were willing to do that, it could be interesting