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

[Sondrelk]

The expac does seem to be retreading a lot lore snippets from TBC, wouldn't surprise me if we got a unified Azuremyst/Bloodmyst with the new draenei city some point in the expac or if we went to Ka'aresh sometime then.

Would be interesting as patch content. Maybe as a lead-in to K'aresh.
Though it might make it feel too much like Legion.

Can't really see it being launch content. It's too far away from Quel'thalas. And I really can't see Midnight being a BfA situation with a split continent. Or worse still, a Cata deal with several disconnected zones.

[Joshuaj]

The expac does seem to be addressing some lore snippets from TBC, wouldn't surprise me if we got a unified Azuremyst/Bloodmyst with the new draenei city some point in the expac or if we went to Ka'aresh sometime then.

I think updating Gilneas and Tirisfal would make more sense, given their more "local" nature, as well as the fact that Gilneas has been reclaimed.

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Would be interesting as patch content. Maybe as a lead-in to K'aresh.
Though it might make it feel too much like Legion.

Can't really see it being launch content. It's too far away from Quel'thalas. And I really can't see Midnight being a BfA situation with a split continent. Or worse still, a Cata deal with several disconnected zones.

My thoughts were this:

12.0: Quel'Thalas (Eversong and Ghostlands) gets revamped and made into 1 big zone (With Silvermoon getting a whole revamp as well), the Plaguelands get revamped and made into 1 zone, Zul'Aman either becomes a city state + a raid or an entire zone as well, and Tirisfal becomes 1 big zone which would include Silverpine and Gilneas.

12.1 would give us the Isle of Quel'Danas as a patch zone (With maybe the addition of an update Amethyst and Bloodmyst Isle in Kalimdor, but I doubt it). Think of the Isle of Quel'Danas as the Broken Shore of Midnight.

And 12.2 would give us the Ruins of K'aresh.

[Raetary]

A mirror image in an enchanted amulet? My god, this has to be the worst way to bring back a character ever. If that is possible, every WoW mage should do that.

I think people are getting a bit overexcited about this.

it's not his soul, or part of his soul, it's just a mirror image.
And it doesn't exist anymore halfway through the questline, after you finish up with the necklace it loses its magic and the mirror image ceases to exist.

Then later the necklace gets blown up/disintegrated by the Kirin Tor mages in their mourning ceremony.

So there is nothing to bring back, even in a Tyr or Sindragosa-esque fashion.

it's just a cameo, to point out the Kirin Tors history.

[NikolaiShade]

I'm a little (a lot actually) out of date, but looking through new items added in 11.0.7 ptr i found theese two weapons on Wowhead

https://www.wowhead.com/ptr/item=232...efenders-spear
https://www.wowhead.com/ptr/item=232...fenders-shield


Edit: Btw, sorry if it was already posted

[Dracullus]

I'm a little (a lot actually) out of date, but looking through new items added in 11.0.7 ptr i found theese two weapons on Wowhead

https://www.wowhead.com/ptr/item=232646
https://www.wowhead.com/ptr/item=232647


Edit: Btw, sorry if it was already posted

I really doubt about it, this thread is so often lost in meaningless lore discussions that they even forget there is new PTR.

Really nice find, Rootlands for 11.1 and Worldcore for 11.2 look more likely to me with each new information.

[Sondrelk]

I think updating Gilneas and Tirisfal would make more sense, given their more "local" nature, as well as the fact that Gilneas has been reclaimed.

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My thoughts were this:

12.0: Quel'Thalas (Eversong and Ghostlands) gets revamped and made into 1 big zone (With Silvermoon getting a whole revamp as well), the Plaguelands get revamped and made into 1 zone, Zul'Aman either becomes a city state + a raid or an entire zone as well, and Tirisfal becomes 1 big zone which would include Silverpine and Gilneas.

12.1 would give us the Isle of Quel'Danas as a patch zone (With maybe the addition of an update Amethyst and Bloodmyst Isle in Kalimdor, but I doubt it). Think of the Isle of Quel'Danas as the Broken Shore of Midnight.

And 12.2 would give us the Ruins of K'aresh.

Quel'danas would actually kinda work as the 0.7 patch zone if they keep having those in the future. It's very small, and you could easily make it about ground movement like what Siren Isle seems to be designed as.

Zul'aman could be the intro raid. It would kinda fit, though I think it's more likely it will just be a dungeon. Possibly alongside a second one in the Hinterlands.

As for zones I would also argue we will see Arathi Highlands be incorporated into a zone. Even if its just empty. Thandol Span just makes for a perfect natural cutoff point for the expansion continent. Maybe it could be filled with pirates to harken back to Plunder storm, and to have a pirate themed dungeon for variety.

[Joshuaj]

Quel'danas would actually kinda work as the 0.7 patch zone if they keep having those in the future. It's very small, and you could easily make it about ground movement like what Siren Isle seems to be designed as.

Zul'aman could be the intro raid. It would kinda fit, though I think it's more likely it will just be a dungeon. Possibly alongside a second one in the Hinterlands.

As for zones I would also argue we will see Arathi Highlands be incorporated into a zone. Even if its just empty. Thandol Span just makes for a perfect natural cutoff point for the expansion continent. Maybe it could be filled with pirates to harken back to Plunder storm, and to have a pirate themed dungeon for variety.

It being the 12.0.7 zone could definitely work, but then I'd have to wonder what the 12.1 zone could be. Hmmm...

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But I agree with the Thandol span stuff. Honestly, the upper half of the Eastern Kingdoms being updated would work just fine imo, especially since most players vibe with the Southern Eastern Kingdoms, and much of the upper EK has been rather abandoned for a while now.

[Darkarath]

I think people are getting a bit overexcited about this.

it's not his soul, or part of his soul, it's just a mirror image.
And it doesn't exist anymore halfway through the questline, after you finish up with the necklace it loses its magic and the mirror image seizes to exist.

Then later the necklace gets blown up/disintegrated by the Kirin Tor mages in their mourning ceremony.

So there is nothing to bring back, even in a Tyr or Sindragosa-esque fashion.

it's just a cameo, to point out the Kirin Tors history.

I thought that the mirror image escaped to cause mischief in the future. At least that is what some people here seemed to imply. If it dissapears after a while this is perfectly acceptable. A small cameo about a character that has died too many times in this universe and should stay that way.

[Golden Yak]

I'm really looking forwards to seeing what will be involved with the Midnight revisions to the Quel'thalas region. The big question is - will they keep the general geography the same and just update the art, or will it be a true rebuild with expanded geography? A retro-active overhaul making the zones into modern-sized ones designed around dragonflying? You could then make the Isle of Quel'Danas as big as you wanted. You could expand Zul'Aman into a massive zone. You wouldn't need to have content outside Quel'thalas or move things into Lordaeron - not against that, you just wouldn't need to.

[Darkarath]

I'm really looking forwards to seeing what will be involved with the Midnight revisions to the Quel'thalas region. The big question is - will they keep the general geography the same and just update the art, or will it be a true rebuild with expanded geography? A retro-active overhaul making the zones into modern-sized ones designed around dragonflying? You could then make the Isle of Quel'Danas as big as you wanted. You could expand Zul'Aman into a massive zone. You wouldn't need to have content outside Quel'thalas or move things into Lordaeron - not against that, you just wouldn't need to.

All Midnight and TLT zones should be made from the scratch, like Draenor was. Anything else would not work at this point. Moreover, the backlash from players would be strong. We would see thousands of post of "Blizzard lazy", "Blizzard scammers", and so on.

[Sondrelk]

I'm really looking forwards to seeing what will be involved with the Midnight revisions to the Quel'thalas region. The big question is - will they keep the general geography the same and just update the art, or will it be a true rebuild with expanded geography? A retro-active overhaul making the zones into modern-sized ones designed around dragonflying? You could then make the Isle of Quel'Danas as big as you wanted. You could expand Zul'Aman into a massive zone. You wouldn't need to have content outside Quel'thalas or move things into Lordaeron - not against that, you just wouldn't need to.

I really can't see a situation where they scale up just Eversong, Ghostlands, and Isle of Quel'Danas to be an entire expansion launch worth of content. There simply isnt enough variety within to really make it work. Even assuming you make Zul'aman its own entire zone, you would still have to make Silvermoon the size of an entire zone just to get the requires 4 zones, and that just doesnt feel realistic.

I am going to guess that Eversong and Ghostlands will become one big Quel'thalas zone. Zul'aman will be part of this zone and made larger, but not so much so it will be an entire zone.
Eastern and Western Plaguelands will be one zone. Possible including Zul'Aman depending on how big that gets.
The Forsaken zones like Tirisfal, Silverpine, and Hillsbrad will be made into one Lordaeron themed zone. And then the Hinterlands and Arathi Highlands will be the remaining zone there mostly to fill out the remaining bits north of the Thandol Span.
(Gilneas could be either revamped or ignored depending on whether the developers want to give the Alliance parity with a potentially updated Undercity/Lordaeron City)

All of these together adds up to an area the same size as the Dragon Isles, which seems reasonable.
It wouldnt require much work. And while the zones are not really designed for Dragonriding, I think it's unlikely we will get a zone that really fits that bill outside completely new ones anyways, as it would require changing the zones too much to be recognizable.

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All Midnight and TLT zones should be made from the scratch, like Draenor was. Anything else would not work at this point. Moreover, the backlash from players would be strong. We would see thousands of post of "Blizzard lazy", "Blizzard scammers", and so on.

They should be remade. But even then, most of the zones do still have to stick to the established aesthetic and layout. Draenor could get away with a lot by just saying the new pieces were lost when it fell apart, or got got changed by fel magic.
The best you can really get with the zones in EK is adding some mountain ranges where the old zone coundaries are, and stuff like Northeron, and the area behind the Zul'Aman dungeon portal.

[Darkarath]

They should be remade. But even then, most of the zones do still have to stick to the established aesthetic and layout. Draenor could get away with a lot by just saying the new pieces were lost when it fell apart, or got got changed by fel magic.
The best you can really get with the zones in EK is adding some mountain ranges where the old zone coundaries are, and stuff like Northeron, and the area behind the Zul'Aman dungeon portal.

I think that they will maintain the current themes for the most part, but they can do whatever they want with these zones, especially with BC and WotLK zones.

We have not seen the effects of the Cataclysm in these zones. The Legion invasion, the Fourth War, the Death invasion (just a little questline in the case of the Ghostlands)... And the Void is coming, so, plenty of excuses to make some enormous changes if they want to chase that idea.

[Sondrelk]

I think that they will maintain the current themes for the most part, but they can do whatever they want with these zones, especially with BC and WotLK zones.

We have not seen the effects of the Cataclysm in these zones. The Legion invasion, the Fourth War, the Death invasion (just a little questline in the case of the Ghostlands)... And the Void is coming, so, plenty of excuses to make some enormous changes if they want to chase that idea.

There is a limit to that. And øet's not forget players didnt like Cataclysm precisely because of how much got changed and permanently destroyed.
I imagine the artists will want to be a lot more conservative with the zone updates in order to ensure that they can reuse the zones again in the future without them being too tied to Midnight specifically. Stuff like the void invading Silvermoon will probably even be a toggle by the end I imagine, just for the sake of RP if nothing else.

Anyways, I don't foresee many drastic changes. Mostly just stuff like removing invisible walls and ensuring the space is used efficiently. Meaning that mountain ranges might either be removed or have new stuff added. Or even just stuff like making Stratholme somewhere you can go inside without needing to go through a dungeon portal.

[Joshuaj]

I'm really looking forwards to seeing what will be involved with the Midnight revisions to the Quel'thalas region. The big question is - will they keep the general geography the same and just update the art, or will it be a true rebuild with expanded geography? A retro-active overhaul making the zones into modern-sized ones designed around dragonflying? You could then make the Isle of Quel'Danas as big as you wanted. You could expand Zul'Aman into a massive zone. You wouldn't need to have content outside Quel'thalas or move things into Lordaeron - not against that, you just wouldn't need to.

There will probably be expansions and changes to the zones (Especially Zul'Aman), but idk if the zones will be made big enough to excuse the whole :
"4 zone" stuff. That's why I agree with the idea of them including the rest of the upper Eastern Kingdoms (Especially since I don't think Quel'Danas is going to be launch content).

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Tho, Eversong, Quel'Danas, Ghostlands, and Zul'Aman being the 4 zones would also make sense. I just like the idea of Midnight also incorporating the Plaguelands and whatnot as well, especially if we're having Light and Shadow conflicts. The Scarlet Crusade, the Silver Hand, the Argent Crusade, and the Army of the Light would have to be included for Midnight, yeah? So why not.include the rest of the Northern Eastern Kingdoms?

[Darkarath]

There is a limit to that. And øet's not forget players didnt like Cataclysm precisely because of how much got changed and permanently destroyed.
I imagine the artists will want to be a lot more conservative with the zone updates in order to ensure that they can reuse the zones again in the future without them being too tied to Midnight specifically. Stuff like the void invading Silvermoon will probably even be a toggle by the end I imagine, just for the sake of RP if nothing else.

I think that the main issue of Cataclysm was that it removed the old zones, not the changes of the Cataclysm itself (among other things).

It would be incredibly stupid if they remove the old versions of the zones that Midnight and TLT use. One would think that they have that lesson learned by now.

But this is the main point of interest of Midnight. What the hell are they doing with the old zones? How are they going to integrate the new and much bigger zones of Midnight with the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms? Probably, as someone pointed to me here months ago, they will be apart from the rest of the world through a loadscreen, like all expansions.

[Joshuaj]

I think that the main issue of Cataclysm was that it removed the old zones, not the changes of the Cataclysm itself (among other things).

It would be incredibly stupid if they remove the old versions of the zones that Midnight and TLT use. One would think that they have that lesson learned by now.

But this is the main point of interest of Midnight. What the hell are they doing with the old zones? How are they going to integrate the new and much bigger zones of Midnight with the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms? Probably, as someone pointed to me here months ago, they will be apart from the rest of the world through a loadscreen, like all expansions.

They said they were gonna keep the old version of the zones. Can't really do anything with them, since they're in a completely separate map from the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms.

[Sondrelk]

I think that the main issue of Cataclysm was that it removed the old zones, not the changes of the Cataclysm itself (among other things).

It would be incredibly stupid if they remove the old versions of the zones that Midnight and TLT use. One would think that they have that lesson learned by now.

But this is the main point of interest of Midnight. What the hell are they doing with the old zones? How are they going to integrate the new and much bigger zones of Midnight with the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms? Probably, as someone pointed to me here months ago, they will be apart from the rest of the world through a loadscreen, like all expansions.

I still think it's a point to make sure the revamped zones are as easy to reuse as possible. Even if it's not immediately apparent for what reason.
A future expansion could focus on Forsaken characters, in which case it would be nice to be able to reuse Tirisfal without getting constant void flashes, or seeing the old version from Cataclysm.
I really think the developers are more cognizant of the possibility that an area might be relevant in the future at some point, and therefore wish the zones be as evergreen as possible.


As for size differences. This is why I really champion the idea of revamping all of the northern EK. You don't need to make it significantly bigger in a way that makes it look terrible when viewed from the older zones. And the Thandol Span being the only physical connection between the two areas means there isn't horrible visuals where the zones meet, and no need for a loading screen.

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There will probably be expansions and changes to the zones (Especially Zul'Aman), but idk if the zones will be made big enough to excuse the whole :
"4 zone" stuff. That's why I agree with the idea of them including the rest of the upper Eastern Kingdoms (Especially since I don't think Quel'Danas is going to be launch content).

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Tho, Eversong, Quel'Danas, Ghostlands, and Zul'Aman being the 4 zones would also make sense. I just like the idea of Midnight also incorporating the Plaguelands and whatnot as well, especially if we're having Light and Shadow conflicts. The Scarlet Crusade, the Silver Hand, the Argent Crusade, and the Army of the Light would have to be included for Midnight, yeah? So why not.include the rest of the Northern Eastern Kingdoms?

There is just too much relevant stuff in northern EK to just ignore I think.
The scourge is hugely important to the lore of Silvermoon, and given the Plaguelands borders the Ghostlands it would just be silly to ignore it.
Similarly the Forsaken are very much tied to the Blood Elves. Both through the scourge, but also Sylvanas. So ignoring Lordaeron doesn't make sense either. Even more so now that the Arathi Kingdom is a thing.

Once you accept these two areas you have a very obvious continent sized chunk if you add the Hinterlands and Arathi Highlands. The Hinterlands even being able to reuse the Earthen stuff with the Wild hammer Dwarves. And Jintha'alor being troll stuff to go along with the already existing troll stuff in Zul'aman.

[Worldshaper]

I'm really looking forwards to seeing what will be involved with the Midnight revisions to the Quel'thalas region. The big question is - will they keep the general geography the same and just update the art, or will it be a true rebuild with expanded geography? A retro-active overhaul making the zones into modern-sized ones designed around dragonflying? You could then make the Isle of Quel'Danas as big as you wanted. You could expand Zul'Aman into a massive zone. You wouldn't need to have content outside Quel'thalas or move things into Lordaeron - not against that, you just wouldn't need to.

Google "misty forest," and look at the images. Zul'Aman should look exactly like that. Hills with pine trees and lots of mist, and temples dotting the landscape.

[milkmustache]

There will probably be expansions and changes to the zones (Especially Zul'Aman), but idk if the zones will be made big enough to excuse the whole :
"4 zone" stuff. That's why I agree with the idea of them including the rest of the upper Eastern Kingdoms (Especially since I don't think Quel'Danas is going to be launch content).

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Tho, Eversong, Quel'Danas, Ghostlands, and Zul'Aman being the 4 zones would also make sense. I just like the idea of Midnight also incorporating the Plaguelands and whatnot as well, especially if we're having Light and Shadow conflicts. The Scarlet Crusade, the Silver Hand, the Argent Crusade, and the Army of the Light would have to be included for Midnight, yeah? So why not.include the rest of the Northern Eastern Kingdoms?

There is the option of Silvermoon City being an entire zone (which I think would be incredible), but I think this is mostly right. I can't imagine we don't get into the Plaguelands because you're completely correct that this theme needs to be played upon.

I think the Scarlets also give a perfect opportunity for the non-Hallowfall Arathi to enter the fray and perhaps become more antagonistic. I expect Hallowfall Arathi to join the Alliance at the end of the expansion (maybe as Anduin retakes the throne?), and if connection is established with the Empire, the Scarlets are their first friends IMO.

Regarding Zul'Aman, I believe Hills of Maisara was a zone from the old RPG that they inhabited.

[Xilurm]

I really can't see a situation where they scale up just Eversong, Ghostlands, and Isle of Quel'Danas to be an entire expansion launch worth of content. There simply isnt enough variety within to really make it work. Even assuming you make Zul'aman its own entire zone, you would still have to make Silvermoon the size of an entire zone just to get the requires 4 zones, and that just doesnt feel realistic.

I am going to guess that Eversong and Ghostlands will become one big Quel'thalas zone. Zul'aman will be part of this zone and made larger, but not so much so it will be an entire zone.
Eastern and Western Plaguelands will be one zone. Possible including Zul'Aman depending on how big that gets.
The Forsaken zones like Tirisfal, Silverpine, and Hillsbrad will be made into one Lordaeron themed zone. And then the Hinterlands and Arathi Highlands will be the remaining zone there mostly to fill out the remaining bits north of the Thandol Span.
(Gilneas could be either revamped or ignored depending on whether the developers want to give the Alliance parity with a potentially updated Undercity/Lordaeron City)

All of these together adds up to an area the same size as the Dragon Isles, which seems reasonable.
It wouldnt require much work. And while the zones are not really designed for Dragonriding, I think it's unlikely we will get a zone that really fits that bill outside completely new ones anyways, as it would require changing the zones too much to be recognizable.

That's not really just Quel'thalas though. I wonder if they'll scale up Northrend though.