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

[Joshuaj]

???

They've already pitched in the press release synopsis that the initial campaign is all about re-uniting the High Elf tribes preparing for imminent invasion of the Sunwell. There's an outpost to the north of EPL which makes further sense that northern EPL will just be a Chrome Time zone for the campaign and an outpost in The Hinterlands which will also see The Raventusk Trolls become involved - They're pretty much the Sweden of WoW who have never been politically arsed about War but with full blown war on their doorstep they'll have to do something for once.

The 2nd part of the campaign is obvious already. Zul'Aman is built on top of the most powerful C'Thraxxi currently in slumber which will be Xala'Tath's 2nd biggest prize, but there's huge historical differences with the Amani Trolls.

Any sort of complete continent map change will very more than likely wide of the mark but they'll no doubt expand or merge certain zones, Hinterlands conventially borders EPL to the South and then you have the Isle of Quel'Danas where the Sunwell is located, will have to be brought closer inland as it borders nothing, it's just there in the middle of nowhere.

Great news if you like Troll lore however, because there's going to be alot of that.

Where did you find this press release synopsis again?

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Are you talking about what Metzen said? Cause that's a VERY vague, simple explanation of the general plot.

[Golden Yak]

Release Raid: Zul'aman with void loa or whatever. (I hope we get loa-themed tier sets like the ones from Rastakhan's Rumble in Hearthstone)

Lorewise, there's a powerful c'thrax buried beneath Zul'Aman. I think that's a prime candiate for some big nasty beastie to fight in a ZA raid.

I can definitely see things going down broadly this way. I would also anticipate Azshara being involved at some point.

[Joshuaj]

Lorewise, there's a powerful c'thrax buried beneath Zul'Aman. I think that's a prime candiate for some big nasty beastie to fight in a ZA raid.

I can definitely see things going down broadly this way. I would also anticipate Azshara being involved at some point.

I'm just saying...

This could be the first raid for Midnight

[Golden Yak]

That would be my first guess too.

[Worldshaper]

I can sort of see this, but I'd prefer a big Northern EK update. With the Arathi likely being a thing brought forward to Midnight, it would make sense for them to have a plot in the "Arathi Highlands" and whatnot.

Also, I genuinely believe we'll get the Isle of Quel'danas as a patch zone. Just feels right.

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The Dragon Isles was a Classic WoW concept that was repurposed for something new. Metzen, while not in anything big at the time, was still working with Blizzard on the expansion. Heck, he's a big reason for why the Incarnates are a thing.

While it's true that the Dragon Isles existed as an unused island with the Old God-like statue etc., it's not reused since it was never officially introduced in Vanilla. Like with Shadowlands, they approached a preexisting concept, asked themselves "how can this become a thing?" and made an expansion from it.

WoD is more of an example of using what's already there - something we've explored - and approaching it again from a different angle.

Technically the same with Cataclysm's revamp, and to a lesser extent WSG, AB, Arathi Highlands and Darkshore.

Quel'thalas would fall under that category as well.

[Joshuaj]

While it's true that the Dragon Isles existed as an unused island with the Old God-like statue etc., it's not reused since it was never officially introduced in Vanilla. Like with Shadowlands, they approached a preexisting concept, asked themselves "how can this become a thing?" and made an expansion from it.

WoD is more of an example of using what's already there - something we've explored - and approaching it again from a different angle.

Technically the same with Cataclysm's revamp, and to a lesser extent WSG, AB, Arathi Highlands and Darkshore.

Quel'thalas would fall under that category as well.

Fair enough. I just hope it's more than just Quel'Thalas, ya know?

[Darkarath]

As much as I would like to revisit Lordaeron, I kind of agree with the opinion that Quel'thalas will be expanded to have 4 zones.

Two are pretty obvious: Silvermoon and its surroundings, and the Ghostlands.

A third one is almost guaranteed: Zul'Aman. The trolls deserve so much more than we got and it could be a very cool zone with dense, dark forests.

The fourth one is the tricky one. IMO, there is no chance that we are getting the Isle of Quel'danas on launch. Besides, is way too small to be an initial expansion zone. Some talk about the north part of Stratholme, Northeron, as a zone, but I feel that if they go that way it would be just a part of the Ghostlands. There is the possibility of a Naga underwater zone, but it would come from nowhere. One would think that the Blood Elves would be aware of such a threath so close to their shores. So maybe Void flying platforms as a zone? It would be cool to have the first zone in the air.

[TheWizardFan88]

I think that Midnight will be a copy of Legion, and I'm all for it if it is, something like...

The expansion starts like Legion, but in the intro experience we go to the Isle of Quel'danas instead of the Broken Shore, the void opened a portal to K'aresh using the Sunwell and we go there to close it. We fail and some important characters die. The Isle is unreachable now.

Expansion release zones: Silvermoon City (think Suramar), Quel'thalas, Ghostlands, and Zul'aman.
Release Raid: Zul'aman with void loa or whatever. (I hope we get loa-themed tier sets like the ones from Rastakhan's Rumble in Hearthstone)

The Arathi navy appears and maybe Yrel too (the army of the light assembles), helping us reach Quel'danas again.

Patch 12.1: Return to the Isle of Quel'danas, and Sunwell raid where we defeat whoever is guarding the portal, Xal'atath? Crazy Alleria?

Patch 12.2: Instead of closing the portal we go through it and reach K'aresh with the void lord Dimensius as the final boss.

The void gets defeated ''forever'' or until another void lord tries to come for us, but as Metzen said, things may spiral out of control. Now that the light is the only power that dominates Azeroth, the Beledar shoots a beam of light towards the core of the world to try to infuse the worldsoul with light and claim it, triggering the titan alarm, causing the titans to come back.

Kinda predictable? sure, but Legion was probably the most epic expansion in terms of cool moments with the whole Illidan questline + the cinematic where he kills Gul'dan, then Illidan opening the portal to Argus making the planet appear in the sky, and finally Sargeras getting trapped, personally I would be happy just with that.

I would love to see K'aresh as it's own expansion given the fact we hadn't gotten a outlands theme in over many years since TBC and Argus was bit small with just 3 mid zones, 1 dungeon, and raid. If we do go into like the Void Expansion that of K'aresh the ethereals as a playable race would be a great start for the expansion feature. Also the return of the remnants of the burning legion.

[OCoyne]

Expansion release zones: Silvermoon City (think Suramar),

There's pretty close to 0% chance of that happening as they've already retconned the Ranger General of Silvermoon title and given it to Alleria despite the fact Halduron Brightwing is alive and well chilling in Dornogal. Add in the Blood Elf association with Vareesa, Arathor etc there's not going to much opposition to Alliance members in the city although certain characters will dislike it but they the point is they've already started randomly changing shit without a single explanation to fit so it can be the neutral AFK hub of the expansion

[berniemikeus]

Dark horse candidate for how Midnight could flow...

Return to Quel'Thalas (updated versions of Ghostlands/Eversong, maybe Quel'Danas) that is the pre-patch and or opening questline area. "Reuniting the Elven tribes" was used and we just learned of a new elven tribe (sort of) with the Arathi. I can see us going to the Arathi Empire for the bulk of the questing/leveling and new Quel'Thalas will ultimately be a max-level activity zone, like the Maw from Shadowlands.

One, I believe that the hints of Avaloren in Dragonflight is the continent of the Arathi Empire, And I don't think this fabled location is going to be something Blizzard wants to sit on for four expansions or more.

Two, Revamping Quel'thalas to be equivalent in size to modern "continents" would feel a bit jarring and would loose a lot of what makes the concept of returning there exciting, as it wouldn't really resemble it in any meaningful way. Or making the continent of 12.0 into four rather smalls zones would be just as much of a let down.

That being said they mentioned that the plan is to have to Woldsoul Saga go by quicker, so updating smaller regions of known Azeroth might be the way of accomplishing just that.

[OCoyne]

Two, Revamping Quel'thalas to be equivalent in size to modern "continents" would feel a bit jarring and would loose a lot of what makes the concept of returning there exciting, as it wouldn't really resemble it in any meaningful way. Or making the continent of 12.0 into four rather smalls zones would be just as much of a let down.

I actually don't mind it, I like to see how the world has changed and developed since the major world events. Seeing Northrend in TLT without scourge is gonna be unique and strange.

Btw. Sylvanas is absolutely showing up in Midnight. I just hope they didn't forget about Nathanos this time like the hopeless writers did in SL

[Nymrohd]

When it comes to Midnight zones, being able to fly from the rest of EK into Quel'thalas is one of the most common requests among the players since TBC
So I assume that Midnight will be properly attached to existing EK and somehow still be large enough to be comparable in size to Dragon Isles. They have ample space to make Zul'aman/Hills of Maisara a fairly large zone; it did appear to be significantly large in all older maps after all. And they could increase the size of IQD. But Ghostlands and Eversong together are maybe as big as a modern zone. You still need a fourth zone.

[FossilFree]

When it comes to Midnight zones, being able to fly from the rest of EK into Quel'thalas is one of the most common requests among the players since TBC
So I assume that Midnight will be properly attached to existing EK and somehow still be large enough to be comparable in size to Dragon Isles. They have ample space to make Zul'aman/Hills of Maisara a fairly large zone; it did appear to be significantly large in all older maps after all. And they could increase the size of IQD. But Ghostlands and Eversong together are maybe as big as a modern zone. You still need a fourth zone.

I think when they were deciding on making Midnight, it was after looking around and saying, "What needs to be updated still?" TBC content is now the oldest content around that hasn't had updates, followed by Wrath. They did remake the Outland zones in WoD, but they left out the parts that existed in the old world, like Quel'thalas and the draenei isles.

With that in mind, I think the fourth zone will be a combined Azuremyst/Bloodmyst Isles zone. They already teased a new draenei city, and if they are going to update Quel'thalas for flying, it makes total sense to update the Exodar and the isles at the same time.

[Nymrohd]

I think when they were deciding on making Midnight, it was after looking around and saying, "What needs to be updated still?" TBC content is now the oldest content around that hasn't had updates, followed by Wrath. They did remake the Outland zones in WoD, but they left out the parts that existed in the old world, like Quel'thalas and the draenei isles.

With that in mind, I think the fourth zone will be a combined Azuremyst/Bloodmyst Isles zone. They already teased a new draenei city, and if they are going to update Quel'thalas for flying, it makes total sense to update the Exodar and the isles at the same time.

Split zones are a disaster. They were bad at Cata, they were horrible at SL. They somewhat worked in BfA cause it was very generous with portals and the opposing faction island had far less content for you so you could just visit it once a week. Having a zone that is in a completely different part of the continent is just a bad idea unless you really make it available with open portals.

My personal take would be to take EPL and the Northern Lordaeron areas as an additional zone. They'd be large enough to work. I also enjoyed urban questing and would rather have Silvermoon NOT be the expansion capital; I'd have it be a zone (together with IQD). I'd make Stratholme the expansion capital; retaken by a multiracial Argent Dawn during the timeskip with a patchwork Stratholme Bay port area as the player focus.

[Worldshaper]

Imagine if Silvermoon has already fallen in 12.0, and is effectively a raid, reclaimed in 13.0. Would be an interesting twist.

[Sondrelk]

For zones in Midnight I will say what I have always said. Once you accept that the Scourge and Amani makes sense as elements in Midnight, there is no reason to not make at least Eastern plaguelands a zone due to the massive nostalgia of Stratholme as a location.

Making Quel'thalas behind s portal is just as jarring to players as just making the zones larger. And I do very much think we are going for something like WoD again where the zones are primarily changed in appearance, not really size. And since the zones mentioned have a set appearance in terms of shape, you can't really make them larger, so you need different zones as well.
Going for the rest of the zones north of Thandol Span lets you reuse several iconic locations like Jintha'alor for trolls. Forsaken with Sylvanas. Worgen if you need a place for nIght Elves to "start". Not to mention that the Arathi Empire are massively relevant, and these zones are all very much relevant. Not just Arathi Highlands, but Lordaeron, Quel'thalas, the Scarlet Crusade, etc


For exoansion hub I can definitely see the argument for Silvermoon. Though i think that would be a mistake. Both for the reason that it is a Horde city, even with the void elves and Almeria and all of that. But also because I think it would be better served as a proper hostile hub like Suramar was. With retaking it being a big moment later in the expansion.
For expansion hubs I would therefore either argue for Lights Hope or rebuilt Dalaran if you need a neutral hub. Or, perhaps more ambitiously. Remaking Gilneas and Lordaeron into properly functioning faction hubs and making those the main expansion hubs. Gilneas is definitely very far away, but I think people would accept this given it would remake such an iconic location.

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Imagine if Silvermoon has already fallen in 12.0, and is effectively a raid, reclaimed in 13.0. Would be an interesting twist.

I honestly think this is the better choice. Make it a completely hostile city, and make reclaiming it a focal point for much of the expansion. Once it is retaken you allow a toggle to make it a fully functioning faction Hub for Horde. Possibly with Alliance being allowed in similar to Bel'ameth.

[Worldshaper]

For zones in Midnight I will say what I have always said. Once you accept that the Scourge and Amani makes sense as elements in Midnight, there is no reason to not make at least Eastern plaguelands a zone due to the massive nostalgia of Stratholme as a location.

Making Quel'thalas behind s portal is just as jarring to players as just making the zones larger. And I do very much think we are going for something like WoD again where the zones are primarily changed in appearance, not really size. And since the zones mentioned have a set appearance in terms of shape, you can't really make them larger, so you need different zones as well.
Going for the rest of the zones north of Thandol Span lets you reuse several iconic locations like Jintha'alor for trolls. Forsaken with Sylvanas. Worgen if you need a place for nIght Elves to "start". Not to mention that the Arathi Empire are massively relevant, and these zones are all very much relevant. Not just Arathi Highlands, but Lordaeron, Quel'thalas, the Scarlet Crusade, etc


For exoansion hub I can definitely see the argument for Silvermoon. Though i think that would be a mistake. Both for the reason that it is a Horde city, even with the void elves and Almeria and all of that. But also because I think it would be better served as a proper hostile hub like Suramar was. With retaking it being a big moment later in the expansion.
For expansion hubs I would therefore either argue for Lights Hope or rebuilt Dalaran if you need a neutral hub. Or, perhaps more ambitiously. Remaking Gilneas and Lordaeron into properly functioning faction hubs and making those the main expansion hubs. Gilneas is definitely very far away, but I think people would accept this given it would remake such an iconic location.

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I honestly think this is the better choice. Make it a completely hostile city, and make reclaiming it a focal point for much of the expansion. Once it is retaken you allow a toggle to make it a fully functioning faction Hub for Horde. Possibly with Alliance being allowed in similar to Bel'ameth.

Yes. The city being overrun would also make fot a very compelling premise for the reunification of Elves. They all feel some kind of loyalty and duty towards the city, regardless of political affiliation.

Void Elves using their skills to infiltrate the enemy lines etc.

[Dracullus]

I honestly think this is the better choice. Make it a completely hostile city, and make reclaiming it a focal point for much of the expansion. Once it is retaken you allow a toggle to make it a fully functioning faction Hub for Horde. Possibly with Alliance being allowed in similar to Bel'ameth.

It doesn't work like that in WoW. If it will be retaken, it will turn into dead/completed zone like Suramar or Amirdrassil.

For city to be alive in game it needs to be hub, and hubs are established in the beginning. So if they wouldn't give us Silvermoon hub after 20 years of this cardboard copy that pretends to be a city, it would be huuuge L from Blizz.

Personally I think Silvermoon will not only be a hub, but also first iteration of housing.

[Raetary]

Imagine if Silvermoon has already fallen in 12.0, and is effectively a raid, reclaimed in 13.0. Would be an interesting twist.

Is that not what people expect?

Silvermoon is just a short boat ride away from Quel'danas, and a void corrupted Sunwell isn't just gonna sit there, it's gonna radiate a ton of corruption.

Additinally, the Blood elves are connected to the well and its sating their thirst for magic.
So when the well gets corrupted, so will the elves.

I think its pretty safe to say that Silvermoon is gonna get overwhelmed pretty quickly and then conquered by Xal'atath and whoever else leads the Void.

[Xilurm]

Silvermoon can be a hub with a raid portal inside. They've done that so many times already.