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

[Avikur]

Has it been said when 11.1 will go on the PTR? Before or after the Christmas break?

[Sondrelk]

Worldsoul Saga predictions:

11.2: Rootlands raid
12.0: Naga Raid
12.1: Scarlet Monestary Raid
12.2: Sunwell Raid
13.1: Iridikron's Lair Raid
13.2: Scourge Remnant Raid
13.3: Coreway Raid Via Silithus Sword

The big twist will be Xalatath is the part of Azeroth that was removed, as foreshadowed by the Earthen Memory System. The Titan Facilities were made to both filter out corrupting forces but also convert Azeroth into a Titan. Xalatath is Azeroth's free will & was removed, manifesting as an independent entity at the same time the Old Gods came into their power. She obviously resents the descendants of the Titans and wants to unite with the rest of her essence.

Personally I can't see Midnight being contained fully in the starting zones like what this sets up. I imagine a Sunwell or Silvermoon raid is the second raid at the latest. And the 12.2 raid will be something in a new zone, like the potential Ethereal raid that was datamined.
Scarlet Monastery for the intro raid to tie up all the story threads in Northern EK that are not strictly Elven themed would be a great idea though. And it would let us build up to a Sunwell raid even more.

All with you on the TLT predictions though.

[Mecheon]

The only weird thing with Rootlands is that it seems like it was originally supposed to be part of the launch content, but that may be before they restructured TWW to tie into the WSS saga since zone layout would have been done first. Hence the harronir in the cinematic although they play a minor role so far.

Don't forget those alpha screenshots of Dragonflight where we saw a stand-in for Amirdrassil very visible from the plains. They may just keep it all in place at the start to split out later

[Cheezits]

Has it been said when 11.1 will go on the PTR? Before or after the Christmas break?

Ion said the end of this year, so probably the 2nd or 3rd week of December.

[Nymrohd]

Ion said the end of this year, so probably the 2nd or 3rd week of December.

That would be weird. Put it on the PTR at a time when you cannot actually do much with it? I guess they mostly care about metrics collected in testing than feedback though.

[Joshuaj]

Worldsoul Saga predictions:

11.2: Rootlands raid
12.0: Naga Raid
12.1: Scarlet Monestary Raid
12.2: Sunwell Raid
13.1: Iridikron's Lair Raid
13.2: Scourge Remnant Raid
13.3: Coreway Raid Via Silithus Sword

The big twist will be Xalatath is the part of Azeroth that was removed, as foreshadowed by the Earthen Memory System. The Titan Facilities were made to both filter out corrupting forces but also convert Azeroth into a Titan. Xalatath is Azeroth's free will & was removed, manifesting as an independent entity at the same time the Old Gods came into their power. She obviously resents the descendants of the Titans and wants to unite with the rest of her essence.

Uhhmmm...seems our theories are different in that regard:

11.2: Worldcore Raid.
12.0: Zul'Aman Raid.
12.1: Sunwell Raid.
12.2: K'aresh/Renilash Raid.
13.0: Azeroth/Primal infused Chromatus (Unleashed and Infused by Iridikron) and Helya Vs Keepers Raid at Ulduar.
13.1: Trials of the Titans Raid.
13.2: Final Battle with Iridikron Raid!

[Ersula]

Uhhmmm...seems our theories are different in that regard:

I guarentee you no one currently working at Blizzard remembers who Chromatus is, and that includes Metzen.

[Marlamin]

That would be weird. Put it on the PTR at a time when you cannot actually do much with it? I guess they mostly care about metrics collected in testing than feedback though.

There's actually a good chance for more feedback over the holidays as people have time off. They definitely couldn't do much with it at that exact time, but there would be a solid amount of people who would check out Undermine over their holiday break.

Don't forget those alpha screenshots of Dragonflight where we saw a stand-in for Amirdrassil very visible from the plains. They may just keep it all in place at the start to split out later

Yeah, I would not be surprised if that big unused spot on the development map where we assume Rootlands would go was actually just 'reserved space' for it, just like the tree (and intentionally blotted out zone on the world map) was in DF pre-alpha.

[Joshuaj]

I guarentee you no one currently working at Blizzard remembers who Chromatus is, and that includes Metzen.

They included the victim of Chromatus in Dragonflight. Heck, he's included in the recent Dragonflight Codex book. Why wouldn't they include the 5 headed Dragon?

[Telogrus]

Uhhmmm...seems our theories are different in that regard:

11.2: Worldcore Raid.
12.0: Zul'Aman Raid.
12.1: Sunwell Raid.
12.2: K'aresh/Renilash Raid.
13.0: Azeroth/Primal infused Chromatus (Unleashed and Infused by Iridikron) and Helya Vs Keepers Raid at Ulduar.
13.1: Trials of the Titans Raid.
13.2: Final Battle with Iridikron Raid!

Considering that we already know TLT involves uncovering a grand Titan conspiracy, why would Iridikron be the final boss?

[Joshuaj]

Considering that we already know TLT involves uncovering a grand Titan conspiracy, why would Iridikron be the final boss?

Because he's wanting to throw hands against them and he very much doesn't like us?

[Telogrus]

Because he's wanting to throw hands against them and he very much doesn't like us?

The very obvious implication with the “grand Titan conspiracy” is that the Titans are up to something that we won’t be in favor of, so them (mainly Aman’thul) not being the main adversaries would not make much sense. Also, I love Iridikron, but he doesn’t have the hype to be the final boss of a 3 expansion long saga.

TLT is supposed to be Act 3 of the World Soul saga. Us fighting what are essentially filler bosses for the first 2/3rds of the xpac, followed up by a villain even weaker than most final xpac bosses, would be very anticlimactic

[Joshuaj]

The very obvious implication with the “grand Titan conspiracy” is that the Titans are up to something that we won’t be in favor of, so them (mainly Aman’thul) not being the main adversaries would not make much sense. Also, I love Iridikron, but he doesn’t have the hype to be the final boss of a 3 expansion long saga.

TLT is supposed to be Act 3 of the World Soul saga. Us fighting what are essentially filler bosses for the first 2/3rds of the xpac, followed up by a villain even weaker than most final xpac bosses, would be very anticlimactic

You act like Iridikron can't empower himself in the future

[Merryck]

We already beat the snot out of Iridikron in a dungeon. Can't take him seriously after that. The whole primalist movement just came across as whiny anti-vaxxers to me.

[Wazooty]

Didn't Metzen basically tell us Illidan will return in Midnight? I could see him taking over the reigns of the legion and using them to defend Azeroth. If he's returning, I assume Sargeras will have an important part to play.

[Ersula]

Rootlands being pushed back from launch to 11.2 in order to shift Worldcore content further down the line once the Worldsoul Saga was conceptualised does make a lot of sense.

I wonder how such a scenario would impact the lore of the rootlands.

If the lore surrounding Elun'Ahir and the Haranir is just "oh noes these roots are being used to do bad things to the worldsoul! You must aid us - its guardians - in purging it!" then I guess it doesn't matter a lot where they put it chronologically.

But its finale would have to be quite significant, unless they're planning for a big epilogue in 11.2.5/7 that connects Khaz Algar to Midnight.

Unless there's literally an Old God being regenerated at the base of the tree's roots. In that case I don't see how it could've been launch content.

The Middle raids are generally more tangentially related to what's going on. That's why I hypothesized that the Giant Sword bs would be saved for the climax of the Saga in TLT.

I would presume we stop all of Xalatath's plans in Khaz Algar, so her next option is the Sunwell. She has many options & she's just going for the path of least resistance.

You act like Iridikron can't empower himself in the future

The biggest argument against "Iridikron's Lair" not being the last raid of the saga is that "A showdown at Iridikron's lair" is basically the only teaser they gave us about TLT and they never outright tell you what the last raid of the expansion will be. If that's the first thing they tell us, its probably the first raid, if not a dungeon.

He might still be the final boss, but the climax of the Saga definitely won't be us going to his bedroom & murdering him.

[Golden Yak]

I think we'll fight Iridikron sooner rather than later, and wind up teaming up with him once it's revealed how shady the Titans plan ultimately is.

[Nibelheimy]

If the focus of the expansion is 'The Last Titan' It probably means Iridikons gambit is in the opening of the expansion, otherwise, the expansion isn't about 'The Last Titan' at all.

His lair also isn't really a big enough location for the final raid of the saga, can you imagine 7-9 other raidbosses hanging out at his house? Why?

I'd much more prefer him as a mage-tower/Zek'vir styled boss.

I've said it before in this thread, but my bet is he kills the titans who return to the planet in the opening cinematic of the expansion, he then does a Thanos and chills in his lair all expansion. We then can venture in and kill him. I'd love if he is seriously overturned all expansion so most people can't get it done till all the patch powerups are in, just to make him laughing at you as he kills you even funnier.

[Ersula]

The rule is if they're been in more than one expansion, its very unlikely they'll actually die when we fight them as a raid boss.

[milkmustache]

Didn't Metzen basically tell us Illidan will return in Midnight? I could see him taking over the reigns of the legion and using them to defend Azeroth. If he's returning, I assume Sargeras will have an important part to play.

Yes. When referencing TLT in the Wowcast he said something along the lines of “trust me… you are not prepared”. Sargeras and Illidan will have a lot to do with it.

Iridikron I imagine as a 13.0 raid boss who survives and we side with. I have a feeling he will kill one or more Titans in the expansion opener.