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

[Skytotem]

For what it's worth, the Alliance actually should know where it is. And have an easy way to get there, for that matter. Of course, Blizzard is trying hard to forget they gave them a freaking spaceship capable of atmospheric flight.

Vindicarr is a bit of a problem yeah, but... wibbly-wobbly magic storms and mists!

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He was an apprentice, with no tutors and next to no resources, trying to study a school of magic that he self-admittedly sucked ass at.

We got Archmages galore, master Telemancers, centuries to millenia worth of Arcane research and access to some of the brightest and most powerful magical minds at our disposal.

I find it rather laughable that someone like Occuleth wouldn't be able to easily reproduce Werens experiments on a weekend escapade.

I think you're making light of his 15 years of work.

[Santandame]

There is also the giant and very conspicous caved in entrance in Opportunity Point, right next to the equally conspicous, unused elevator to the Isle of Dorn.

That elevator is not unused. I use it often.

[Sondrelk]

That elevator is not unused. I use it often.

Right you are. Just found the quest to activate it right now.

Still. Giant cave entrance that looks conspicously caved-in.

[Foolicious]

But Khaz Algar isn't very far from Kalimdor & nothing was hiding it away. Surely lots of people came to Khaz Algar but the Oathsword turned them away. I don't believe Dalaran didn't actually know where Khaz Algar was.

But when it comes to Avaloren, there's more questions, like isn't there a stormwall between them and us? If Avaloren & where the Arathi Empire is even the same place. How did the Arathi get there in the first place? Was the Stormwall constructed by the watchers more recently than that? Why do they seem to have no knowledge of the Arathi's origin in the Eastern Kingdoms? Human history in general is not very long shouldn't they know these things?

I think the storms are much older than the arathi empire. At least in my headcanon they are either a creation by the rogue watchers that denounced the titans and fled from odyn, or odyn created the storms to imprison them after he failed to reach them several times.
We also know the naaru started communicating with humans roughly around the time the arathi left the eastern kingdoms. They could have guided them through the storm or even teleported them like the beledar.
If we go down the "light is evil" route its even possible that the naaru got the arathi to avaloren and then created storms to shield them from the outside world to create an azerothian army of the light with them.

[huth]

Right you are. Just found the quest to activate it right now.

Still. Giant cave entrance that looks conspicously caved-in.

Should be noted that the unlock is Warband level.

[Nightshade711]

Right, he was killed though, so who knows how long it will take for them to reverse-engineer the method he'd been developing for years.

Shouldn’t be too hard. Pulling things from memory is a simple spell according to Jaina during BfA, if a subject is willing. I’ve no doubt she could easily do it, or even just have someone like Oculeth do it like mentioned earlier.

[Telogrus]

Is this the first expansion where the Undermine has been officially namedropped in the game?

[Sondrelk]

Is this the first expansion where the Undermine has been officially namedropped in the game?

The Motherlode dungeon was for the longest time called Undermine during BfA development. It only changed later after some of the usual outrage. But it is still canonically on Kezan, and I believe Undermine is mentioned during one of the Island expedition questlines.

[micwini]

Undermine is mentioned multiple times during classic. In Ratchet mostly iirc.
There is also someone named Riddlevox, who is some kind of leader. I wonder if we'll meet him.

[Xilurm]

So I assume people like the Dawnbreaker dungeon because it's so different than the norm?

It's too gimmicky for me tbh.

[Joszef Kiprich]

So I assume people like the Dawnbreaker dungeon because it's so different than the norm?

It's too gimmicky for me tbh.

It's awful. Nokhud offensive made worse.

[Golden Yak]

Holy shit, they fucking killed him!

Hallowfall quest spoilers:
[I]Wenren Althal.[/I] I was genuinely shocked and dismayed. This hit worse than Khadgar.

[Sondrelk]

It's awful. Nokhud offensive made worse.

Really? I find it does everything Nokhud tried to do and succeeds.
It shows off the zone. Dragon riding actually feels integral to the dungeon. It's cinematic, and conveys the sense of a full war in the zone much better than Nokhud.

Nokhud felt like a regular dungeon where they were just too lazy to actually make the dungeon a proper narrative.
Dawnbreaker actually flows like a proper dungeon with rising tension.

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So I assume people like the Dawnbreaker dungeon because it's so different than the norm?

It's too gimmicky for me tbh.

I can get why people think it's gimmicky. I just think the gimmick is done really well.
Nokhud was the one that felt gimmicky in a distracting way. How the Dragon riding only factored in as a way of moving from area to area with nothing really going on between them.

[Xilurm]

Holy shit, they fucking killed him!

Hallowfall quest spoilers:
[I]Wenren Althal.[/I] I was genuinely shocked and dismayed. This hit worse than Khadgar.

I was shocked too. I actually stood there with my mouth open when I entered his house and found him dead.

[Telogrus]

Don’t get why people think the “Goblin Raid” will be in the Rootlands. The Goblins and the Harronir haven’t interacted at all in 11.0, despite there being some Venture Co Goblins in Azj Kahet. Given that Undermine is subterranean, it would be bizarre if it wasn’t featured in a Goblin-centric patch in TWW

[Sondrelk]

Don’t get why people think the “Goblin Raid” will be in the Rootlands. The Goblins and the Harronir haven’t interacted at all in 11.0, despite there being some Venture Co Goblins in Azj Kahet. Given that Undermine is subterranean, it would be bizarre if it wasn’t featured in a Goblin-centric patch in TWW

The logic is that Rootlands would be too similar to the Emerald Dream without a gimmick. And that Undermine (at least in my mind) feels unlikely to be a full patch if Rootlands is also a full patch.
Therefore: Combine the two into the very recognizable Classic WoW theme of Goblins exploiting an area of its natural resources and funneling them into Undermine.

Of course, there is nothing saying we couldnt get both Undermine AND Rootlands in their own separate major patch. It just feels unlikely when given the Beledar is a much more tempting future patch zone. And the alternative to the Rootlands and Undermine conondrum is that one of them gets side billing as a minor patch akin to Forbidden Reach or just a Megadungeon.

[Telogrus]

The logic is that Rootlands would be too similar to the Emerald Dream without a gimmick. And that Undermine (at least in my mind) feels unlikely to be a full patch if Rootlands is also a full patch.
Therefore: Combine the two into the very recognizable Classic WoW theme of Goblins exploiting an area of its natural resources and funneling them into Undermine.

Of course, there is nothing saying we couldnt get both Undermine AND Rootlands in their own separate major patch. It just feels unlikely when given the Beledar is a much more tempting future patch zone. And the alternative to the Rootlands and Undermine conondrum is that one of them gets side billing as a minor patch akin to Forbidden Reach or just a Megadungeon.

I think that Undermine is 99% likely to be the zone for 11.1. Xal’atath will strike some type of bargain with at least one of the Cartels, and it’s not uncommon for the Season 2 patches to deviate a bit from the main story. For example, Sarkareth was pretty much irrelevant to the Incarnates storyline. And like I said, there’s no better time to use the Undermine than in the subterranean expansion.

And then 11.2 will most likely be either Beledar or Elun’ahir. Maybe Blizz actually gives us an Elun-ahir megadungeon AND a new zone (Rootlands) in 11.1.5? They’ve never given a megadungeon its own zone before, but there’s a first time for everything. Or maybe they could give us the Rootlands as a Forbidden Reach type zone in 11.0.5/7, and add a megadungeon to it in 11.1.5

[Raetary]

They’ve never given a megadungeon its own zone before, but there’s a first time for everything.

They did do that with Mechagon.

[Sondrelk]

I think that Undermine is 99% likely to be the zone for 11.1. Xal’atath will strike some type of bargain with at least one of the Cartels, and it’s not uncommon for the Season 2 patches to deviate a bit from the main story. For example, Sarkareth was pretty much irrelevant to the Incarnates storyline. And like I said, there’s no better time to use the Undermine than in the subterranean expansion.

And then 11.2 will most likely be either Beledar or Elun’ahir. Maybe Blizz actually gives us an Elun-ahir megadungeon AND a new zone (Rootlands) in 11.1.5? They’ve never given a megadungeon its own zone before, but there’s a first time for everything. Or maybe they could give us the Rootlands as a Forbidden Reach type zone in 11.0.5/7, and add a megadungeon to it in 11.1.5

They did give Mechagon its own zone, so it wouldnt be the first time, no.

And that is a fair theory. A split zone patch like 8.2 with Nazjatar as a main zone and Mechagon as a smaller zone is absolutely fair play. Really it all depends on how you prefer to divide the attention.
Personally I want Rootlands with heavy Goblin presence because that is an aesthetic that we don't really get anymore. And then splurge on the pure Goblin stuff with an Undermine raid.
I do know that some people want pure goblins with a dedicated Undermine zone and accompanying raid though. I just think that might end up a bit too much of one thing in a single zone.

[Telogrus]

They did do that with Mechagon.

My bad, forgot about that since I didn’t play BfA

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They did give Mechagon its own zone, so it wouldnt be the first time, no.

And that is a fair theory. A split zone patch like 8.2 with Nazjatar as a main zone and Mechagon as a smaller zone is absolutely fair play. Really it all depends on how you prefer to divide the attention.
Personally I want Rootlands with heavy Goblin presence because that is an aesthetic that we don't really get anymore. And then splurge on the pure Goblin stuff with an Undermine raid.
I do know that some people want pure goblins with a dedicated Undermine zone and accompanying raid though. I just think that might end up a bit too much of one thing in a single zone.

I just don’t see how they can make Venture Co into a credible enough threat, since they’re the only Goblin group I could imagine going out of their way to do something like that. It’d be weird if the Venture Co was too much for the Harronir to handle. And they didn’t make the Venture Co seem that hostile in that Niffen area in Azj Kahet