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

[Valysar]

So, when do you think we'll see the new Draeneis capital city ?

[Nightshade711]

Damn, my good mood has ruined, this looks like something that could happen. I mean, is it really that hard to just give at least one cool male character who isn't a burden, a jerk, or a crybaby? Illidan was the last cool dude, we can say that the Legion expansion was officially the end of World of Warcraft and the rest is not canon

Don’t get me wrong I do really hope he is more old school Warcraft feeling, but I’m not sure how much leverage he had on the story of TWW since Danuser/Golden had just recently separated from the company.

SO FAR from what I’ve been seeing/hearing involving the emperor it sounds good, but I’m not getting my hopes up at all.

[Raetary]

So, when do you think we'll see the new Draeneis capital city ?

After the Saga.

[Samin]

So, when do you think we'll see the new Draeneis capital city ?

Unlikely earliest is TLT, but I just assume everything that doesn't seem directly and overtly connected to the saga is just setup for after.

[Xilurm]

So, when do you think we'll see the new Draeneis capital city ?

2030. If we assume each expansion will take 2 years.

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BTW was Khaz Algar mentioned before DF?

[Dracullus]

BTW was Khaz Algar mentioned before DF?

If I remember correctly both Khaz Algar and Avaloren were introduced same time in some books from new wing of Uldaman. Hence many of us believed it's same thing when Algarian mount leaked.

[Auxis]

If I remember correctly both Khaz Algar and Avaloren were introduced same time in some books from new wing of Uldaman. Hence many of us believed it's same thing when Algarian mount leaked.

That reminds me of the anomaly these Algarian earthen were dispatched to investigate:

Fellow watchers,

When you were assigned to observe the state of our titan-forged subjects who, regretfully, fell under the influence of flesh, the keepers could not have anticipated the effort necessary to follow them as they spread throughout the world.

I shall do my best to ensure your perseverance is recognized. But for now, you are to continue your duties until a new directive is authorized.

It is apparent from your reports that the degree of transformation in titan-forged subjects is significantly diverse. There is no group in which this variance is more easily observable than the earthen.

While some have succumbed entirely to the malady, such as the earthen who emerged from Uldaman and called themselves dwarves, others remain resistant--whether in full or in part.

One particularly notable variant can be found in the earthen contingent dispatched to investigate the fissure detected in Sector AR-938 (for further details, search records related to geological anomalies).

In the course of their duties, these earthen began to manifest behaviors analogous to those which would one day be apparent in the self-styled dwarves, despite the two groups being separated by vast swaths of time and distance.

In fact, based on their origin dates, I could identify no corollary at all between these populations.

Yet while their behaviors, language, and demeanor show many similarities, (for example, assigning Sector AR-938 the colloquial name "Khaz Algar"), physiologically the two groups remain distant.

Is this distinctiveness due to exposure to the unique qualities of the anomaly, or is there another reason? We require more data before a conclusion can be reached.

As ever, your aid in this analysis remains invaluable. Remember, we are the eyes of the titans.

Respectfully,

Watcher Melenia

Do we have any idea what the fissure is? Is it the entire cave system? The Coreway? The Beledar?

[Pyrophax]

So, when do you think we'll see the new Draeneis capital city ?

With Kalimdor rewamp. If there will be one.

[milkmustache]

So... Archmage Drenden is totally Xal'atath (or an agent of) in disguise, right?

[Raetary]

So... Archmage Drenden is totally Xal'atath (or an agent of) in disguise, right?

Oh, i didn't even think of that...

That would be pretty interesting.

[Samin]

That reminds me of the anomaly these Algarian earthen were dispatched to investigate:



Do we have any idea what the fissure is? Is it the entire cave system? The Coreway? The Beledar?

I think Beledar would be the most explicit application for the "geological anomaly" they mention, altough a huge not-quite-natural cave system could also apply I guess. It could also be something that we don't learn about until patch content.

So... Archmage Drenden is totally Xal'atath (or an agent of) in disguise, right?

Obviously a Dread Lord.

[Lady Atia]

So, it seems like SWTOR removed it's ranked pvp mode, and instead added some kind of pvp seasonal battlepass.

I'm wondering if that's something they could do in WoW as well, without a huge backlash from the few elite pvp players still playing wow? I'm quite sure in the end, more people would play pvp if they could get the gladiator mount via grinding instead of being locked out of 80% of the ranked pvp rewards by default (especially as they also just go away at the end of a season). Solo Shuffle and BGB are the first step in the right directions though.

[Nightshade711]

So, it seems like SWTOR removed it's ranked pvp mode, and instead added some kind of pvp seasonal battlepass.

I'm wondering if that's something they could do in WoW as well, without a huge backlash from the few elite pvp players still playing wow? I'm quite sure in the end, more people would play pvp if they could get the gladiator mount via grinding instead of being locked out of 80% of the ranked pvp rewards by default (especially as they also just go away at the end of a season). Solo Shuffle and BGB are the first step in the right directions though.

I wouldn’t mind that to be honest. That’s what it feels like anyways with solo shuffle, getting to a high rank doesn’t even take skill it just takes luck & a grind.

[Padwarle]

So... Archmage Drenden is totally Xal'atath (or an agent of) in disguise, right?

Well, the storyline lore on Alpha says just that, so yeah. Feels like a waste of the character, tbh.

[Xilurm]

So, it seems like SWTOR removed it's ranked pvp mode, and instead added some kind of pvp seasonal battlepass.

I'm wondering if that's something they could do in WoW as well, without a huge backlash from the few elite pvp players still playing wow? I'm quite sure in the end, more people would play pvp if they could get the gladiator mount via grinding instead of being locked out of 80% of the ranked pvp rewards by default (especially as they also just go away at the end of a season). Solo Shuffle and BGB are the first step in the right directions though.

FFXIV did that as well. Getting to the end offers you transmog or w/e.

[Lady Atia]

I wouldn’t mind that to be honest. That’s what it feels like anyways with solo shuffle, getting to a high rank doesn’t even take skill it just takes luck & a grind.

Yeah, maybe they could even go with a hybrid system - keep titles for rating brackets but move the cosmetics to a battlepass like system similiar to lets say, hearthstone. It seems like they currently have a "we can and should change the game to bring it into the modern era" thing going on at blizzard that started with the ousting of Afrasiabi, but with pvp they are slow to change out of fear of a backlash. It's a good sign that Ion thinks BGB will be the default rated mode though - although this can only work if you make the cosmetics (including gladiator mounts) available there aswell.

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FFXIV did that as well. Getting to the end offers you transmog or w/e.

Good to know, especially as the devs take inspiration from other modern mmo's now ^^

[Eurhetemec]

Don’t get me wrong I do really hope he is more old school Warcraft feeling, but I’m not sure how much leverage he had on the story of TWW since Danuser/Golden had just recently separated from the company.

SO FAR from what I’ve been seeing/hearing involving the emperor it sounds good, but I’m not getting my hopes up at all.

Why even mention Golden? She was never, ever, ever, ever in charge of story direction for WoW. That's just a weird-ass thing that makes it look like you have no idea how game writing works, and just randomly glom on to whatever name drifts past you. She was just a writer, one of several, none of the rest of whom you could even name, even though they had equal influence.

Whereas Steve Danuser was Lead Narrative Director until October 2022, when he was changed to Narrative Director until September 2023 when he left.

So he's absolutely worth mentioning - whilst story decisions weren't his alone, he had major influence and control. I do think the title change in October 2022 is interesting. At the same time as his title changed, Blizzard started hiring for a Narrative Director for WoW. I don't think we even know who the current Narrative Director(s) for WoW is/are. Metzen isn't. He's the Executive Creative Director, a higher-level and less-day-to-day position. What this looks like to me is a bit of a shift of responsibilities, where even before Metzen was officially back, responsibility for the overall narrative was being shifted away from the narrative director "up the tree" somewhat.

As for "old-school Warcraft feeling", the trouble with that is it's completely nebulous and individual. One person's idea of "old-school Warcraft" is completely different to another - for some people it's The Old Gods and the Titans and cosmic mysteries, for others it's a bunch of gruff NPCs yelling at each other like it's a WWE match, for others it's quests being largely random mini-stories which make the player seem unimportant, and so on. I think if you really want "old-school Warcraft", the only way to reliably get it would be to play Classic, but Classic shows even that isn't enough - because not just the game has changed in 20 years, but we have - we're not the same people as 2004 - so we can't expect to have the same vibes as then.

[loras]

Could LW just be another void lord? AFAIK we still don't know the name of a single one besides Dimensius.

That's because their names are void.

[Kiivar86]

I think Beledar would be the most explicit application for the "geological anomaly" they mention, altough a huge not-quite-natural cave system could also apply I guess. It could also be something that we don't learn about until patch content.

It is possible I suppose but I don't think it is likely. While Beledar has been there a while, I feel it is kind of implied to have fallen within the last few thousand years, since the Arathi headed in that direction due to the vision of a falling star. They also arrived relatively recently. The Earthen that went to what became Khaz Algar went a considerably longer time ago.

[Eurhetemec]

Yeah, maybe they could even go with a hybrid system - keep titles for rating brackets but move the cosmetics to a battlepass like system similiar to lets say, hearthstone. It seems like they currently have a "we can and should change the game to bring it into the modern era" thing going on at blizzard that started with the ousting of Afrasiabi, but with pvp they are slow to change out of fear of a backlash. It's a good sign that Ion thinks BGB will be the default rated mode though - although this can only work if you make the cosmetics (including gladiator mounts) available there aswell.

Being real, a battlepass-style approach to PvP would absolutely massively increase the number of people doing PvP. By hundreds if not thousands of percent.

I used to PvP a ton in WoW, and big part of that was that a lot of the rewards seemed relatively attainable, and yeah often with more of a grind and less of being highly skilled (because let's be real, most players aren't skilled PvPers). And I had a good time, in part because I was working towards these rewards, slowly and steadily, whether by rep or tokens or whatever.

But over the decades WoW's PvP has shifted to be more and more skill and organisation-centric, and generally unrewarding for anyone who just wants to y'know, play the game, rather than "be the best". It's weird because that's never been true of the rest of WoW - perhaps it was most true in late TBC when The Sunwell saw just 0.5% of players down even 1 boss (according to Blizzard).

My initial instinct to any battlepass-style approach is "Ugh, tacky, a battlepass, hate those", but actually, so long as it was free (and I assume it would be, given the sub), if the rewards were interesting, I'd almost certainly get out there and learn to PvP again, and probably have a lot of fun.

I will say as well, re: elite PvPers - there are very few of them, and further, anything that increases PvP participation will massively piss them off, not because of competition or whatever, but because l337 PvPers, throughout the entire history of gaming, absolutely loathe amateurs unless the amateurs exist primarily to be farmed, rather than them having to potentially work with them. Many of them also enjoy feeling really special and like they're the only ones the "balls" to do WoW PvP, so don't actually want more people doing it.

I think it's weirdly a good idea, and sure, yeah, l337 PvPers will weep, but again, they'll weep about anything that gets more people into PvP.