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

[allegrian]

I've played through 3 full pandaria zones and man, the story and even gameplay is so much better than DF leveling, it's like night and day. The world building in pandaria is top notch, and the story flows and connects each zones in a logical way, as well as having story threads that are introduced and keep moving like anduin, the sha, mogu, the insect invasion... And it's all written in a way that new players could understand most of what's happening.

DF on the other hand has us meet different shamanistic copycat races in each zone that are forgotten once you leave and make us look for macguffins that are dropped and forgotten before the first raid. The fountain of youth questline in pandaria is better than anything in DF and let's not even talk about big set pieces like the dragon statue or the giant insect destroying the wall in pandaria as the climax of 2 zones.

I really hope TWW and midnight are closer to pandaria leveling...

[Darkarath]

I've played through 3 full pandaria zones and man, the story and even gameplay is so much better than DF leveling, it's like night and day. The world building in pandaria is top notch, and the story flows and connects each zones in a logical way, as well as having story threads that are introduced and keep moving like anduin, the sha, mogu, the insect invasion... And it's all written in a way that new players could understand most of what's happening.

DF on the other hand has us meet different shamanistic copycat races in each zone that are forgotten once you leave and make us look for macguffins that are dropped and forgotten before the first raid. The fountain of youth questline in pandaria is better than anything in DF and let's not even talk about big set pieces like the dragon statue or the giant insect destroying the wall in pandaria as the climax of 2 zones.

I really hope TWW and midnight are closer to pandaria leveling...

I have to agree, I did not remember MoP questing and worldbuilding to be this good. The lore was really interesting back then. Everything related to the Mantid is top-notch IMO.

I still think that WoD was better in terms of questing and especially in the world itself. Draenor is still the best continent. Pandaria as a continent is good, it is what it should be, but it is just not as spectacular as Draenor (personal taste, of course).

I believe that it would be difficult for Blizzard to make an expansion so important, expanding and mysterious as MoP lore-wise. Especially because back then we did not have the Chronicles books, which took out much of the magic of the Warcraft's universe, even if at the time the first Chronicle book was cool.

[Xilurm]

But I'm glad shorter expac never become a thing. Even now, after Metzen comment about saga expacs coming "little bit faster", they later said to expect saga end before 2030.

Honestly a lot of people think that when Blizzard says "shorter expansions", they mean a year long expansion and a new one instantly after that. Not to mention the whole discourse about paying for glorified patches.

But what they're actually talking about is the long drought that follows the end of an expansion, which usually lasts almost a year by itself. That's still part of an expansion, and that's the thing they want to shorten.

Even now, we're in the drought period. The last proper patch came out and now we're just waiting for the TWW pre-patch. If TWW comes out this summer I say they've achieved the shorter expansion thing they want to do. If we're getting a patch every 2 months, a 4 month period between the end of an expansion and the start of a new one doesn't seem too long.

[Lady Atia]

I've played through 3 full pandaria zones and man, the story and even gameplay is so much better than DF leveling, it's like night and day. The world building in pandaria is top notch, and the story flows and connects each zones in a logical way, as well as having story threads that are introduced and keep moving like anduin, the sha, mogu, the insect invasion... And it's all written in a way that new players could understand most of what's happening.

DF on the other hand has us meet different shamanistic copycat races in each zone that are forgotten once you leave and make us look for macguffins that are dropped and forgotten before the first raid. The fountain of youth questline in pandaria is better than anything in DF and let's not even talk about big set pieces like the dragon statue or the giant insect destroying the wall in pandaria as the climax of 2 zones.

I really hope TWW and midnight are closer to pandaria leveling...

Yeah idk, some stuff didn't really age well in MoP tbh. Stuff like the nesingwary quests were you literally kill baby animals for fun or even the questline were you attack that poor giant squid should never return. The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

[Lahis]

We are most definitely going to get at least three (Alleria, Anduin and Thrall) imo. I really hope Xal gets one though.

I think the text descriptions for the one that plays ingame said it was about Earthen history in Khaz Algar.

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The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

That is the point. Both sides go full warcrime mode on landfall and that is what awakens the Sha across the continent in strength never seen before.

[Xilurm]

Yeah idk, some stuff didn't really age well in MoP tbh. Stuff like the nesingwary quests were you literally kill baby animals for fun or even the questline were you attack that poor giant squid should never return. The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

Yeah trust me 99% of people don't care. The only thing I don't like about the Nesingwary quests is that they're all just a grind. It's like a meme at this point. Kill 15 of pretty much everything 10 times in a row or w/e. I guess it gives good exp.

[Nymrohd]

I have to agree, I did not remember MoP questing and worldbuilding to be this good. The lore was really interesting back then. Everything related to the Mantid is top-notch IMO.

I still think that WoD was better in terms of questing and especially in the world itself. Draenor is still the best continent. Pandaria as a continent is good, it is what it should be, but it is just not as spectacular as Draenor (personal taste, of course).

I believe that it would be difficult for Blizzard to make an expansion so important, expanding and mysterious as MoP lore-wise. Especially because back then we did not have the Chronicles books, which took out much of the magic of the Warcraft's universe, even if at the time the first Chronicle book was cool.

Well we will get WoD Remix some time soon and you'll then remember better. WoD had three superb zones (Shadowmoon, Frostfire, Arak), a zone that had no real storyline (Gorgrond) and two zones with so much promise and a completely disappoint finish that left significant areas simply unexplored (Talador, Nagrand)

Every zone in MoP delivered the story it had to deliver including with continuing max level campaigns (And it is so annoying that the real story for the Vale is completely lost here).

[allegrian]

Yeah idk, some stuff didn't really age well in MoP tbh. Stuff like the nesingwary quests were you literally kill baby animals for fun or even the questline were you attack that poor giant squid should never return. The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

And the purge of Dalaran. WoW didn't care much about morality back then, it was all rule of cool and blood and thunder. You had forsaken quests in cata about killing human civilian refugees that escaped from the hillsbrad attack and turning them into new forsaken in silverpine forest (basically scourge 2.0), which is what was criticised in BFA when players cared more about morals.

You had dwarves kill troll whelps in their intro zone, back then you saw them as just monsters like in any other fantasy rpg, but now and specially since bfa, people see trolls as poc humans in a troll body so it feels bad (and racist) to kill their children.

The current developers and playerbase are more sensitive to this stuff and that's why you get some pleople crying about world of "peace"craft.

[huth]

Yeah idk, some stuff didn't really age well in MoP tbh. Stuff like the nesingwary quests were you literally kill baby animals for fun or even the questline were you attack that poor giant squid should never return. The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

I don't think you remember that squid properly. It attacked first, you're just fighting back.

And none of the Nesingwary quests require killing the young (only the Mushan and foxes even have any present to kill), although it is still gratuitious violence against animals. The Nesingwary line also shows they meddle with stuff they don't understand in a rather shortsighted way and the whole thing is rather out of place when compared to the rest of the zone. They don't feel like they have any local or Alliance support for their presence there.

[allegrian]

Yeah idk, some stuff didn't really age well in MoP tbh. Stuff like the nesingwary quests were you literally kill baby animals for fun or even the questline were you attack that poor giant squid should never return. The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

Now That I remember, centaur hunts quests in DF also make you kill stuff randomly including young animals.

[Xilurm]

Do you think we'll see more Azerite in TWW? Or the WSS in general? Feels like it makes sense right.

Btw, how come the well of eternity didn't look like it was Azerite?

[Lady Atia]

I don't think you remember that squid properly. It attacked first, you're just fighting back.

And none of the Nesingwary quests require killing the young (only the Mushan and foxes even have any present to kill), although it is still gratuitious violence against animals. The Nesingwary line also shows they meddle with stuff they don't understand in a rather shortsighted way and the whole thing is rather out of place when compared to the rest of the zone. They don't feel like they have any local or Alliance support for their presence there.

Yeah regarding the squid, I tried to watch Shin Godzilla recently and had the same feelings .... they could have handled that one a lot better than harpoon it so hard it was spilling ink all over the place. Atleast with Godzilla they didn't kill it but instead put it onto ice.

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Do you think we'll see more Azerite in TWW? Or the WSS in general? Feels like it makes sense right.

Btw, how come the well of eternity didn't look like it was Azerite?

The earthen literally have an azerite racial.

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Now That I remember, centaur hunts quests in DF also make you kill stuff randomly including young animals.

Tbf, I never liked the centaurs either haha. Although I thought they did it in order to prevent over population or some shit?

[HelipsBP]

Yeah idk, some stuff didn't really age well in MoP tbh. Stuff like the nesingwary quests were you literally kill baby animals for fun or even the questline were you attack that poor giant squid should never return. The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

To be honest, I don't mind getting few darker in tone quests during an expansion. When all quests are 100% peacce and loving and thinking about good being of everyone, then the experiance gets a bit stagnant. And during MoP there was a war on a new land, so it's quite normal for some to be profiteering during all the chaos and battles. In real world you have people who make wealth during wars (throughout our whole history). So I imagine there will be people on Azeroth who want to make money during war, because morality is a thing different for each person. One will advocate peace and taking care for everyone, and other will take what he can. The Nesingwary quests show that. New animals for trophies to sell for money, why anybody else would care when they are distracted by battles, murder and destruction. The same is about the intros. The Alliance and Horde were in a state of war, having skirmishes and everything. While it gets into warcrime teritorry to kill unarmed Orcs in the water swimming to escape drowning ships, the decision made some sense in that moment (although it wasn't morally good).
It adds diveristy to the worldbuidling.

Not to say I am on their side, but it is enjoyable to witness some different shades on an existing world, not just running around and hug everyone and make peace.

[Enrif]

Do you think we'll see more Azerite in TWW? Or the WSS in general? Feels like it makes sense right.

Btw, how come the well of eternity didn't look like it was Azerite?

The earthen racial is something called with Azerite, a crystal used in Hallowfall was dubed similar to azerite but not quite.

So i think we will see azerite and perhaps learn more of it.

My recent thoughts on that: Azerite is azeroths blood, but only the blue part of it. The golden part could be some type of "light impurities". This would explain why some golden crystal in Hallowfall was said to be similar but not quite. It is part of Azerite as we saw it.

[allegrian]

Do you think we'll see more Azerite in TWW? Or the WSS in general? Feels like it makes sense right.

Btw, how come the well of eternity didn't look like it was Azerite?

I think the earthen active racial is about azerite.

[huth]

Yeah regarding the squid, I tried to watch Shin Godzilla recently and had the same feelings .... they could have handled that one a lot better than harpoon it so hard it was spilling ink all over the place. Atleast with Godzilla they didn't kill it but instead put it onto ice.

A small fisher village with little to no outside support? No, i don't think they realistically could. That squid had no business being there in the first place anyway. They probably did the enviroment a favour.

[Raetary]

Do you think we'll see more Azerite in TWW? Or the WSS in general? Feels like it makes sense right.

Btw, how come the well of eternity didn't look like it was Azerite?

Yes.
It's mentioned a couple of times and the new Earthen gen, the ones we play as, are empowered with it.

[Xilurm]

That's cool. I haven't paid much attention to them but I'm planning on making an Earthen shaman maybe.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I was MIA for few weeks when it comes to new alpha stuff, did more ablities get some visual changes for hero talents or not really?

Last changes i saw were for priests.

[Zardas]

Yeah idk, some stuff didn't really age well in MoP tbh. Stuff like the nesingwary quests were you literally kill baby animals for fun or even the questline were you attack that poor giant squid should never return. The intro was also quite .... cruel, especially for the alliance.

What is aging not well there ? It was cool back then, and it's still cool now.