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

[Worldshaper]

Absolutely. If 11.0.7 were coming out in 2025, that means season 1 would last at least 6+ months; absolutely not. 11.1 is coming out last week of February at the absolute latest. We can expect 11.0.7 in 3 or 4 weeks.
If anything the Direct is going to cover 2025 developments, not 2026. I don't care what people are saying 12.0 is 100% not coming out in 2025
I expect there will be more of them. Though I think it would be possible for a Tank Shaman to get two wholly original hero specs mid expansion. That would free them up to add an odd number of specs with or without the pretense of an expansion release. Either one new hero spec for each class (not each spec) per expansion, or at least one new hero spec for all existing specs over the course of the entire saga.

I would prefer Shaman, Druids & Paladins for all instead, tho.

Dragonflight lasted 21 months, didn't it?

If Midnight is released in 2026, then War Within will have lasted at least 16 months.

If they're meant to be shorter from now on, I can't see it going beyond that. I think late 2025 - early 2026 is a likely release window. November - February.

[Joshuaj]

Murmur predates the establishing of the current lore. I'd just ignore it.

So do lots of other guys, yet Blizzard still repurposed them for the current lore. Heck, look at Dimensius, who was introduced in TBC as well.

[Ersula]

if Midnight is released in 2026, then War Within will have lasted at least 16 months.

...or 28 months. Why are you proposing Midnight would be less than 16 months? Are you saying its more likely to be released in 2025 or 2027? Because both ideas are ridiculous. Midnight is coming out in 2026. They didn't say TWW would be shorter than Dragonflight, they just said people won't have to wait till the end of 2026 for Midnight come out.

[Scyth]

Interesting to see that Siren Isle will experiment with a "hard mode" of sorts that prevents flying. Hopefully it's a success so it can be replicated across the entire world later. So much content that feels wasted when you just skip over it ignoring everything.

Yeah I don't mind it. I honestly don't like being able to fly immediately as we set foot on a new continent. Just doesn't let me enjoy the zones as much as grout flying does.

[Worldshaper]

Again, with the Dragonflight lifespan, War Within would last until around May or June of 2026, which isn't really a shorter expansion at all.

So if they want to check that box and fulfil their promise of faster expansions, then they'd have to release Midnight in February of 2026 at the latest imo. They would then have cut about 3-4 months off the expansion lifespan, which seems all right.

But up to 6 months or so could also be possible, meaning around November 2025 at the earliest for Midnight.

If we assume it's February 2026 and also that Midnight and TLT will last about as long as WW, then the Worldsoul Saga would be done by around the Holidays of 2028/2029, which fits with what Blizzard has said.

[Xilurm]

Again, with the Dragonflight lifespan, War Within would last until around May or June of 2026, which isn't really a shorter expansion at all.

So if they want to check that box and fulfil their promise of faster expansions, then they'd have to release Midnight in February of 2026 at the latest imo. They would then have cut about 3-4 months off the expansion lifespan, which seems all right.

But up to 6 months or so could also be possible, meaning around November 2025 at the earliest for Midnight.

If we assume it's February 2026 and also that Midnight and TLT will last about as long as WW, then the Worldsoul Saga would be done by around the Holidays of 2028/2029, which fits with what Blizzard has said.

But they already did, with TWW. 10.2.7 was in May, then TWW pre patch was in July. That's two months. Not even a drought.

Midnight could come out in January 2026 if a 11.2.6 patch doesn't exist like last time.

From 10.0.2 until 10.2.5 the 8 week cadence was solid. Logically the next patch would've been 10.2.7. Except they changed it a bit.

• 10.2.5 - January 16, 2024
• 10.2.6 - March 19, 2024 - Plunderstorm
• 10.2.6a - April 23, 2024 - Season 4
• 10.2.7 - May 7, 2024 - MoP Remix

If they skip a x.2.6 then it will come out in January. If they don't then it's coming out in March.

[huth]

So do lots of other guys, yet Blizzard still repurposed them for the current lore. Heck, look at Dimensius, who was introduced in TBC as well.

Sure, but he was always associated with the Void. Murmur doesn't fit in the new paradigm, and didn't really fit in even in BC.

[Worldshaper]

But they already did, with TWW. 10.2.7 was in May, then TWW pre patch was in July. That's two months. Not even a drought.

Midnight could come out in January 2026 if a 11.2.6 patch doesn't exist like last time.

From 10.0.2 until 10.2.5 the 8 week cadence was solid. Logically the next patch would've been 10.2.7. Except they changed it a bit.

• 10.2.5 - January 16, 2024
• 10.2.6 - March 19, 2024 - Plunderstorm
• 10.2.6a - April 23, 2024 - Season 4
• 10.2.7 - May 7, 2024 - MoP Remix

If they skip a x.2.6 then it will come out in January. If they don't then it's coming out in March.

While Dragonflight was a couple of months shorter than BfA and SL, I think that's just the start. They have three teams developing for one expansion each now, but they haven't had it for that long, and they also had to undergo a ton of changes internally recently.

TWW is basically 50% pre-Metzen's return and 50% current team.

This was likely evidenced by the fact that we still had a normal "content drought" at the end of DF, but the live content team was able to somewhat remedy it with Plunderstorm and Remix. The actual story of DF ended in the spring of 2024.

So my bet is still a Nov 2025 - Feb 2026 release window for Midnight.

[Xilurm]

While Dragonflight was a couple of months shorter than BfA and SL, I think that's just the start. They have three teams developing for one expansion each now, but they haven't had it for that long, and they also had to undergo a ton of changes internally recently.

TWW is basically 50% pre-Metzen's return and 50% current team.

This was likely evidenced by the fact that we still had a normal "content drought" at the end of DF, but the live content team was able to somewhat remedy it with Plunderstorm and Remix. The actual story of DF ended in the spring of 2024.

So my bet is still a Nov 2025 - Feb 2026 release window for Midnight.

I assume the team creating TLT started on it as soon as TWW finished development. Which means if they follow the same content cadence as DF it will have been 4 years in development by the time it launches.

IIRC we already had reports that the zones of Midnight were being worked on during Blizzcon time last year, or was it early 2024? Either way, if there's a x.2.6 patch in the mix then by the time it comes out it would've been 2 years and a couple of months.

The Dark Heart epilogue quests came out in May, but again if it wasn't for Plunderstorm they would probably come out in March. Since the TWW pre-patch came out in June, that would have left us with 4 months of "content drought". I wouldn't call what actually happened "drought" because the time between the last patch of DF and the pre-patch of TWW was indeed 2 months, which is what they promised.

I actually wouldn't mind waiting that amount of time for each expansion though. Can you imagine what an expansion that was worked for 4 years instead of 2 would be? If they keep the same size of the team, then every expansion after Midnight would be in development for 4 years.

The DF-TWW cycle is more than enough for me.

[Dracullus]

If TWW will last as long as DF, Midnight will launch in late May 2026 and Last Titan in late February 2028. So I can see both expansion cut by around 6-8 weeks (compared to DF), so Last Titan would have hot November release and Midnight March or April 2026. Maybe we just won't have X.2.6 patches, just X.2.5->X.2.7->pre-patch.

Don't see why people still think about yearly expansion. They said they want wrap up this saga before 2030, not 2027.

[Xilurm]

Mind you, when Metzen said they wanted to get expansions a little bit faster, that was 8 months before TWW. So he could've very well been talking about that. And he wasn't wrong either.

[Raetary]

Mind you, when Metzen said they wanted to get expansions a little bit faster, that was 8 months before TWW. So he could've very well been talking about that. And he wasn't wrong either.

He They said they wanted the whole saga out quicker so people don't have to wait till 2030 for a conclusion.
So it's definitely not TWW, but all 3 expansions.

I think they just intend to shave off as much of the in-between expansion cycle as they can.

[Dracullus]

Mind you, when Metzen said they wanted to get expansions a little bit faster, that was 8 months before TWW. So he could've very well been talking about that. And he wasn't wrong either.

"Little bit faster than we used to" fits perfectly to DF 21 month lifespan. Last 3 expacs was 2 year SL, over 2 year BfA, 2 year Legion.

He said they wanted the whole saga out quicker so people don't have to wait till 2030 for a conclusion.
So it's definitely not TWW, but all 3 expansions.

Don't make up shit. Metzen only said we will get expac little bit faster than we used to (again, it was said months before DF concluded). In later interview they clarified they want end Saga before 2030.

[Raetary]

Don't make up shit. Metzen only said we will get expac little bit faster than we used to (again, it was said months before DF concluded). In later interview they clarified they want end Saga before 2030.

Ok, so i guess i misremembered the announcement and conflated it with the interview.
You could've conveyed that without being weirld confrontational about it.

Anyway, my point still stands.

[Worldshaper]

Metzen said they're working on ways to deliver the content faster to us than what we're used to, so our grandchildren don't have to see the conclusion of the Worldsoul Saga.

In an interview, they said it'll conclude before 2030.

I doubt they meant New Year's Eve 2029 for the final raid cinematic of TLT, or the release of 14.0. I'm sure they meant that "hey, this isn't a 2030s thing. Don't be worried. This is done well before that," in order to quell player concerns about this taking forever to experience.

But I'm also not suggesting annual expansions. I think they like the current format of 2 major patches with some random event-based content strewn in between those.

That said, cutting down from 2 years to 21 months wouldn't have enough of an impact.

I think that by this time of next year, the TWW story will have concluded already, and we'll all be eagerly anticipating the pre-patch roughly around the new year.

[Valysar]

Quest in the Dornogal main hub room thing that has the portals/council seats/renown vendor.

Thanks ! I was looking for Skaggit directly, not an Earthern

[Nymrohd]

Thanks ! I was looking for Skaggit directly, not an Earthern

I have to say, while it was somewhat annoying (for alts mostly) how from Legion to DF every time you logged in a new patch the new quests would just invade your screen and ears one after another, the fact that they are not doing breadcrumbs in TWW is so weird to me. I'd rather be momentarily annoyed than have to fly around to even find the quest.

[Ersula]

So if they want to check that box and fulfil their promise of faster expansions,

"Their promise of faster expansions?" Nobody wanted faster expansions; we just wanted more content & smaller gaps in that content. And they didn't promise that: All they said was "You won't have to wait till the end of 2026 for Midnight. Meaning, its coming out sooner than December 2026. If it comes out in the middle of 2026 the average length of expansions haven't even changed. (24 months)

If expansions get shorter than a year and a half people will stop playing, and they should. Having to buy a new expansion that often is extremely anti-consumer behavior. The only reason ESO does it is because the number of people with an actual subscription is mathematically irrelevant because they rely on microtransaction whales.

Metzen said they're working on ways to deliver the content faster to us than what we're used to, so our grandchildren don't have to see the conclusion of the Worldsoul Saga.

In an interview, they said it'll conclude before 2030.

Are you an AI? You're constantly contradicting yourself. If 14.0 is in 2030...that's not a faster expansion rollout. That's still a 2 year cadence. Unless you're saying one of the expansions is going to be 3+ years long....

[Xilurm]

He They said they wanted the whole saga out quicker so people don't have to wait till 2030 for a conclusion.
So it's definitely not TWW, but all 3 expansions.

I think they just intend to shave off as much of the in-between expansion cycle as they can.

Well yeah. What I mean is that he probably meant that they would start with TWW, not that TWW won't be fast but the other 2 will be.

- - - Updated - - -

The current patch cadence is perfect. No need to fix what isn't broken.

[Nymrohd]

I think the reality is that as a new expansion launch approaches even if they have two or three teams, they need all hands on deck to deliver the product at some point. They probably did NOT do that to the same extent as before with TWW which is why this expac, solid though it is, is riddled with bugs. So I am not entirely sure on whether they can keep up unless we get longer fated seasons and buggier products.