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

[Nymrohd]

I think it makes sense for this council. The other three Earthen councilmembers are all ancient and experienced, there needed to be one who was inexperienced in comparison.

Why would you want someone who has no experience whatsoever in combat to lead the military division of the Earthen???
It's like making a horse groomer the lead of your cavalry. She probably has solid potential as a shaman but you don't put a novice to lead in a time of war. Especially given Olberig gets Baelgrim's Stormrook at the end. This is some YA shit. I'd call it CW writing but no one is hot enough.

Like Brinthe was set up perfectly to take over. She was right below Eirich in the hierarchy, she is respected by everyone in Gundargaz and she makes it clear she knows what she is doing. Plus she is chosen by the people. Anyone who complained about her being a woman replacing a man should really consider wtf is wrong with them that they feel that way. But Lufsela? She was chosen by . . . Thrall of all people?

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I've had zero issues with cutscenes.

Both of the new ones just did not fire up for me which is annoying. I had to check them out on WoWhead.

[Ersula]

Blizzard has classified G'huun as an Old God - regardless of if G'huun was thrown across the cosmos by the Void Lords, or was accidentally created. And this was established years ago in IRL time. It's time to move onto another dead horse.

Blizzard does not consider G'hunn an old god in any way that matters. G'hunn did not rule the Black Empire & Xal'atath won't be trying to resurrect him. She literally did not care about G'hunn in the slightest during her BFA quests.

[Santandame]

I didn't know we were gatekeeping what's speculation now.

That guy has consistently and historically been the most contrarian and pedantic person in this thread. More often than not they don’t contribute anything to what’s going on in terms of speculation other than to purposefully antagonise people for no apparent reason. At this point, no one should bother engaging.

[Skytotem]

I get they needed to give Thrall something to do and given he is a shaman he is the natural fit for the stormrooks but I just wish Kurdran was involved since the Stormriders and the Wildhammers have crazy thematic overlap.

Also the cinematic did not go off, once again proving the best way to see this game is to just watch the quests on youtube. . .
Also ofc Baelgrim was replaced by another female character. And ofc one that is presented as a younger person instead of Olbarig or Vokmar who actually were combat trained. But no, plucky young person is the obvious replacement for a warrior order even though she knows nothing of what she'd need to lead them in combat.
Which yes, shouldn't matter. But at some point it just feels too on the nose.

Also the cutscenes just fail to run constantly for anyone else?

Doesn't Kurdran help train them in riding and thrall train them in element stuff?

[Steampunkette]

Doesn't Kurdran help train them in riding and thrall train them in element stuff?

Yup. Also Olbarig actively chooses her because he recognizes she's a better leader than he is since she was able to instantly resolve the argument he and Baelgrim had SO MANY TIMES by just having an outsider's perspective that hybridized their arguments.

Something they -should- have done at some point in their (insert millennia since the Titans left here) years they'd been arguing. But both were too stubborn and pigheaded to consider any viewpoint but their own.

Which, you know. BAD FUCKING TRAIT for a leader.

She was the only reasonable choice, in the end. Able to see things from a new perspective, first Earthen to be chosen by a Stormrook, had spent millennia caring for and protecting Stormrooks, used the relic to call more Stormrooks...

Nymrohd's just bitching 'cause she's a female character and thus automatically unqualified.

Had she been a dude this wouldn't even be a point raised.

[Jastall]

So far so good, midway through the Ringing Deeps but I keep disconnecting so I'll continue tomorrow. Blizzard took their time fleshing out the Earthern and it shows, they're already more interesting than any of the throwaway allies in Dragonflight were. Coupled with having actual stakes due to the Dalaran intro -on the nose as it was- and Xal being a better villain in one scene than anyone has been since Denathrius and I'm feeling hopeful the story can be enjoyable, even if not that great.

Also the High Speaker guy cracked me up with his throne. Kinda wish he'd become a recurring character dragging his oversized chairs to the unlikeliest of places to deliver a pompous speech then leaving after refusing to elaborate.

[MCMLXXXII]

Just a tip, also do the side quests, most of them are even better then the campaign storyline.

[Nightshade711]

Looks like they didn’t add the Dragonflight PvP ensembles yet.

[milkmustache]

I love the Arathi reestablishing relations side quest. Really smart of them to include the Trading Post NPCs into the world rather than just being a player interacting group.

I'm impressed overall. The flow of these zones are incredible, the stories (particularly sidequests) are great, the worldbuilding and all is really well done. This is a dramatic step up from Shadowlands and Dragonflight, definitely gives more of a Warcraft feel. There's a lot of remnants of the SL/DF narrative writers in some of these quests, but I think it's scaled back in the heavy handedness.

I'm impressed with how well done the Earthen are. The dragonkin in Dragonflight were so misused, but the Earthen are absolutely incredible, there's a real society here that feels tangible. I think once Earthen get characters established in factions, it'll be hard to imagine them without it. Also, Tinker please.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

World of Warcraft: The War Within

I have been playing for 2.5 hours. I finished the Isle of Dorn questline and was at the part where you go underground, but I decided to turn back and go complete the sidequests up above on the surface.

My current chief complaint is that the expansion is braindead easy. Be it fighting overworld mobs or delves or doing the first dungeon. I don't think my HP has ever gone below 90%, not even when I was mass pulling everything in sight as a DPS spec. For the story delve, you are FORCED to pick the tier 1 difficulty. And then for the dungeon, you are FORCED to go through the dungeon with NPC followers, and again I could pull everything in sight and just not care, and the bosses died so fast I didn't even get to see all of their mechanics or RP. Even FF14 Dawntrail was more challenging than this, when mass pulling FATE mobs while levelling up my other jobs, or the threatening and engaging dungeon bosses where you have to be paying attention and can't be absent mindedly playing. That being said, the moment to moment gameplay of TWW is a little more engaging than Dawntrail was, as Dawntrail was hours and hours of a visual novel with a very boring, low tension story occasionally punctuated by an exciting dungeon or boss fight, vs WoW The War Within where you are constantly running around clicking on objects in the game world and constantly killing stuff.




The story had me engaged early on with the tension of the sudden devestating attack on Dalaran with people dying in the streets, people being kidnapped and carried away by evil spiders, buildings collapsing, etc. And then you and the survivors fighting for your lives on a beach, and then when Baelgrimm arrives it seemed he was going to arrest us and throw us in prison and we were going to have to break out. But after that it turns out that the Earthen are chill with us, and the tension dissipates and the story becomes kinda boring as you run around doing whatever.




The destruction of the Cinderbrew Meadery was underwhelming. I was expecting a huge, devestating explosion that would leave nothing but a smoking crater left, but then in the cutscene the stonework and even the wooden barrels that supposedly exploded are still intact. EDIT: upon rewatching the scene, apparently Baelgrimm actually kills the Nerubain lieutenant with just his leap, and there weren't any other living Nerubians around, so why did we blow up all of this mead again?

I finished the prologue AND the first zone storyline in only 2.5 hours? We only have three more zones to go and then the raid? How short is this expansion's campaign?

It is disappointing that we haven't heard word about what is going on the rest of the world at this moment. Dalaran - one of the most advanced cities/nations of the world and the world's center of magical learning, and a pillar of the world's infrastructure - was just wiped out in 20 minutes. There should be world wide panic and every nation going on red alert and mobilizing their flying cavalry, airships, mage portals, etc, and sending an immediete punitive expedition. Not just the nations, but also military orders such as the Ebon Blade, the Silver Hand, the Tyr's Guard, etc.

There is a moment in the storyline when a character says "Storm" three times in a row. "The stormborn" and "the stormriders" and "the storm something".

Aggravating feminist writing where the strong man who does his job and protects everybody gets shat on in favor of the woman girlboss who deserted her post. Also, women with beards. Won't waste more words on that.









I like how verdant the new city of Dornogal is, and I like the celtic knot designs in the trim. I do not like how overall blocky/square the architecture is, though. So Valdrakken and Oribos was preferrable in that regard. There was some neat stuff such as gardeners spraying water magic to water the plants instead of using a watering can or a hose.






It's cool how the Earthen do the Utawarerumono thing and have use crystals for lighting, embedding it into their walls or having it in place of candles on top of stables or on lampstands, but the glow/lighting effect is not very strong/good.




I find it unbecoming that Madam Goya has set up shop in a small room in a dilapidated alleyway filled with litter and rats and common ruffians. The same Madam Goya who ran the Black Market Auction house out of a nice house on a mountaintop next to a hot springs resort in Pandaria, and was using a palatial stone alcove house in Valdrakken. She has been exchanging highly coveted magical weapons and dragons that sell for millions of gold each for 10 years. She can afford some place nicer. It's like a bank. Going to an auction house is like going to a bank; it needs to look nice and prestigious so when you feel confident about handing over lots of your hard earned money. This is bad form.



Music: haven't heard anything that would make it onto my favorite's playlist so far. I noticed that they are using a hammered dulcimer which is nice, but it isn't Timothy Seaman tier music. There was a playful sounding part around the Cindebrew Meadery, will have to look that up later. The inn music is okayish.

I have been mining and picking herbs and thus far haven't found any cool fantastical stuff like in Dragonflight like the air herbs that blew you back or the frost herbs that froze you.

[allegrian]

Only done 1 and a half zones, but so far I'm impressed coming from DF, which severely sucked story/writing wise. I also like that, while the writing is still politically correct, they don't try to shove it down our throats like in DF and are creative with it. Loving Earthen so far (and I was already excited about them). Can't wait to play my earthen warrior.

[milkmustache]

Well. Just did the Arathi mage quest line. These are intense lol.

[Chickat]

I dont understand people complaining about the level up difficulty. Its like its their first WoW expansion. The campaign is built to be easily completed by everybody for one. Also it has to be completable by below average players in Dragonflight levelup zone questing greens. So ofc if you jump in with 100 or 200 ilev above that and a functioning brain its going to be easy.

[huth]

I dont understand people complaining about the level up difficulty. Its like its their first WoW expansion. The campaign is built to be easily completed by everybody for one. Also it has to be completable by below average players in Dragonflight levelup zone questing greens. So ofc if you jump in with 100 or 200 ilev above that and a functioning brain its going to be easy.

Yeah, and it ramps up quite a bit as you level. A character decked in 480 pre-event gear is likely going to oneshot level 70 mobs when they first arrive. They sure aren't gonna do that to level 80 mobs. Health on everybody goes up way faster than damage.

Well. Just did the Arathi mage quest line. These are intense lol.

Well, i guess they ain't be goin' home anytime soon.

[Steampunkette]

I dont understand people complaining about the level up difficulty. Its like its their first WoW expansion. The campaign is built to be easily completed by everybody for one. Also it has to be completable by below average players in Dragonflight levelup zone questing greens. So ofc if you jump in with 100 or 200 ilev above that and a functioning brain its going to be easy.

I mean... part of it is probably that player being DF raid geared and walking into the zones expecting stuff to be hard.

Heck, walking in with the Pre-Patch 480s it was the 3rd zone of rushing the campaign before I started getting items that were upgrades.

[Enrif]

Happy War Within Launch!

Now available in The War Within:

<snip>

And with first weekly reset (about 17 hours from now in NA / about 27 hours from now in EU), you’ll see the introduction of the following:

Worldsoul: Spreading the Light

Gee... i wonder why. Surely, there is no light connection here, surely! /s

[Chickat]

Thank god they changed the spores in Fungal Folly to die after exploding now.

[Darkarath]

My current chief complaint is that the expansion is braindead easy. Be it fighting overworld mobs or delves or doing the first dungeon. I don't think my HP has ever gone below 90%, not even when I was mass pulling everything in sight as a DPS spec.

Same happens in every expansion launch in the first levels, especially if you have decent gear. I agree that this time was a little easier than usual, but as you progress things get normal.

For the story delve, you are FORCED to pick the tier 1 difficulty. And then for the dungeon, you are FORCED to go through the dungeon with NPC followers, and again I could pull everything in sight and just not care, and the bosses died so fast I didn't even get to see all of their mechanics or RP.

You are only forced to play level 1 Delves in the first Delve. Then you unlock Level 2 which you only have to do one time to unlock Level 3, which is currently the max level until the season starts. I might be wrong, but in the moment you unlock the dungeon, you can use the party finder to do it, no need to use followers.

I finished the prologue AND the first zone storyline in only 2.5 hours? We only have three more zones to go and then the raid? How short is this expansion's campaign?

It is more focused, which is a good thing IMO. If you want quests, rest at easy, there are maaaaany side quests.

It is disappointing that we haven't heard word about what is going on the rest of the world at this moment. Dalaran - one of the most advanced cities/nations of the world and the world's center of magical learning, and a pillar of the world's infrastructure - was just wiped out in 20 minutes. There should be world wide panic and every nation going on red alert and mobilizing their flying cavalry, airships, mage portals, etc, and sending an immediete punitive expedition. Not just the nations, but also military orders such as the Ebon Blade, the Silver Hand, the Tyr's Guard, etc.

As soon as the story begins, Thrall and Jaina go home to rally the Horde and Alliance, and I guess that we will see them come back to Khaz Algar in force sooner or later, like in MoP.

Aggravating feminist writing where the strong man who does his job and protects everybody gets shat on in favor of the woman girlboss who deserted her post. Also, women with beards. Won't waste more words on that.

I certainly do not see things in such way. Female Dwarves have beards in most fantasy settings and it is fantastic to finally see it in a game. I honestly do not give a shit if a male or female character does this or that as long as the characters are good, so I do not pay much attention to such things, but it is my impression that there are a good balance of questing with both genres, and having to make this comment is kind of embarrasing, honestly.

I have been mining and picking herbs and thus far haven't found any cool fantastical stuff like in Dragonflight like the air herbs that blew you back or the frost herbs that froze you.

There are such effects, you will find them eventually. They are pretty similar to DF, at least what I have encountered so far. There are MANY nodes, BTW.

Thank god they changed the spores in Fungal Folly to die after exploding now.

Glad that they changed it so quickly. Very curious to see how Delves evolve. Right now they are just something to change up the pace a little while leveling. I want to see their Season version, but they definitively have potential to be BIG.

[BaumanKing]

The fact that Danath, Kurdran, and Turalyon didn't react at all to Khadgar's death is very weird.

[Nymrohd]

Doesn't Kurdran help train them in riding and thrall train them in element stuff?

He shows up later in the quest. Thrall doesn't actually train them in anything shamanic, it is all skyriding after. It's just that you'd expect Kudran to show up immediately to interact with the new group that is completely stealing his clan's theme only with a visual upgrade.

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The fact that Danath, Kurdran, and Turalyon didn't react at all to Khadgar's death is very weird.

It is always weird when you have NPCs show up but they don't react to things they should be reacting.
Like when they first arrive, Alleria doesn't talk to Turalyon (she does talk to him later) and instead talks to Jaina and Thrall. And I get why she talks to Thrall (cause Horde players need to feel involved in what would otherwise be an Alliance gone neutral plot) but why Jaina and not Turalyon?

Still not as crazy as when you free Illidan at the end of Nighthold and Malf and Tyrande are right there yet have nothing to say.

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I'd say I am reasonably studied in Warcraft Lore so I often try to think if something is meta knowledge or if my character knows it. But then the game itself confirms my character has realized something and I am left wondering why nothing is being shared with NPCs.
Like, why are we not telling Steelstrike and the Arathi what happened with Sargeras and WHY their Day of Darkness happened?

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Yup. Also Olbarig actively chooses her because he recognizes she's a better leader than he is since she was able to instantly resolve the argument he and Baelgrim had SO MANY TIMES by just having an outsider's perspective that hybridized their arguments.

Something they -should- have done at some point in their (insert millennia since the Titans left here) years they'd been arguing. But both were too stubborn and pigheaded to consider any viewpoint but their own.

Which, you know. BAD FUCKING TRAIT for a leader.

She was the only reasonable choice, in the end. Able to see things from a new perspective, first Earthen to be chosen by a Stormrook, had spent millennia caring for and protecting Stormrooks, used the relic to call more Stormrooks...

Nymrohd's just bitching 'cause she's a female character and thus automatically unqualified.

Had she been a dude this wouldn't even be a point raised.

She has none of the skills required. She is supposed to be a military leader because she mediated a dispute? She is unqualified because she literally doesn't have any combat experience. Again, she is the stable groom and suddenly leading the cavalry. Her gender (why do Earthen even have gender?) isn't relevant in game it is the classic Young Adult fantasy of the younger (which she isn't actually, they just present her younger through Voice Acting, they are all ancient not that age ever makes sense in WoW) precocious character who has no experience suddenly being better and more suited for leadership than people with literally thousands of years of experience in that field. It's like Varian telling Tyrande how to do skirmish fighting only somehow worse because at least Varian had the basic skill set.

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I dont understand people complaining about the level up difficulty. Its like its their first WoW expansion. The campaign is built to be easily completed by everybody for one. Also it has to be completable by below average players in Dragonflight levelup zone questing greens. So ofc if you jump in with 100 or 200 ilev above that and a functioning brain its going to be easy.

This is really the crux. Most people are showing up with 500+ ilvl. That's not what the starting gear for DF is. Try taking half your armor off and dropping 200 ilvls and then see how long it takes to kill a mob and how fast a big pull murders you.