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

[Raetary]

That's not a good alternative. Bel'Ameth is not a true city hub. It would be if it had an AH and a bank, which it doesn't.

It's a narratively significant alternative that gives Blizzard the freedom to fully use the city for endgame content for most of the expansion.
You not liking it doesn't make it bad.

I used Bel'Ameth as an example as a subzone that became a player hub, not advocating that they should just copy it 1 to 1 and avoid utilities.

Bel'Ameth lacking them does not prevent Silvermoon from having them, especially when Silvermoon already has them and Blizzard doesn't need to spend any additional effort in adding them or creating a space for them.

[Joshuaj]

This is what I expect (May not happen, but I can dream)

12.0 Zones are Quel'thalas (Eversong and Ghostlands), the Amani region (Includes Zul'Aman, etc), the Northlands (A combo of the Eastern/Western Plaguelands, Hinterlands, and Arathi Highlands), and "Lordaeron" (A combo of Gilneas, Silverpine, Tirisfal, and Hillsbrad Foothills).

As for what lays north of Stratholme? One of 2 things: 1. They made Stratholme a "city state", with it taking up most of the northern Plaguelands area.

Or 2. It becomes a Night Elf hub/port area, so they have a place to vibe at by Quel'thalas.

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I think we'll see a neutral Zul'Aman as the hub in Midnight and Silvermoon will be the questing area with a raid in the middle. Playable Amani will be available to both factions, much like Earthen in TWW.

I was thinking Zul'Aman could be the raid, cause the Void would most likely want to reawaken that C'Thrax underneath the area.

[Sondrelk]

It's a narratively significant alternative that gives Blizzard the freedom to fully use the city for endgame content for most of the expansion.
You not liking it doesn't make it bad.

I used Bel'Ameth as an example as a subzone that became a player hub, not advocating that they should just copy it 1 to 1 and avoid utilities.

Bel'Ameth lacking them does not prevent Silvermoon from having them, especially when Silvermoon already has them and Blizzard doesn't need to spend any additional effort in adding them or creating a space for them.

Let's not forget that there is nothing preventing Bel'ameth from getting them later anyways. It's already a bit off that it doesnt.

[Xilurm]

It doesnt, but it easily could have. So that is more an argument for the developers being lazy than Bel'ameth being a bad hub.
It is more importantly a true Nelf hub that players will want to go back to for more than just RP or the odd quest to talk to a faction leader.

I don't think they're being lazy, but that they just don't want to. It's a design choice. There's plenty of buildings they could've utilized.

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It's a narratively significant alternative that gives Blizzard the freedom to fully use the city for endgame content for most of the expansion.
You not liking it doesn't make it bad.

I've had my Hearthstone set in Bel'Ameth since 10.2.5 and will not change it until they revamp Northern Kalimdor.

[Joshuaj]

Bellular assumes Avaloren will be the setting for Midnight...but wasn't the whole point of Midnight that it'd take place in Quel'Thalas and the Eastern Kingdoms?

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Also, "leaked"? What does he mean by this? What leaked?

[Sondrelk]

[video]

Bellular assumes Avaloren will be the setting for Midnight...but wasn't the whole point of Midnight that it'd take place in Quel'Thalas and the Eastern Kingdoms?

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Also, "leaked"? What does he mean by this? What leaked?

I suppose you could stretch and assume we return to Quel'thalas in the same way we returned to Darkshore and Teldrassil at teh start of BfA.
I don't buy it at all given Metzen was making a big deal about how excited players were for a world revamp. But I suppose there is also the slim possibility that it's asplit continent deal, and that one of the zones is a revamped Quel'Thalas, and the rest is an island, or several, east of EK where the Arathi are.

[Marlamin]

Also, "leaked"? What does he mean by this? What leaked?

Outside of the Warcraft 2 Remastered Battle.net images I wouldn't say anything else mentioned there was really a leak.

[damonskye]

Bellular assumes Avaloren will be the setting for Midnight

I am positive he is wrong about this.

I'm certain that Avaloren and the Arathi Empire are both hooks for the story to come AFTER the Worldsoul Saga. Pretty sure that once we wrap up Midnight & The Last Titan, the next "great adventure" is westward to the new world -- a parallel to our own history -- where we'll find great empires and new conflicts. Blizzard loves to seed stories many expansions before they actually happen (<cough> Zalatath </cough>)

[Xilurm]

I was going to say he forgot about Quel'thalas since he doesn't even mention it, but I rewatched that segment twice and nowhere does he say he thinks Midnight has Avaloren.

He says that they might talk about Midnight and if they don't they will probably announce it at Gamescom next year. Then he changes the subject and talks about the long term of WoW and then mentions Avaloren.

[Darkarath]

Bellular assumes Avaloren will be the setting for Midnight...but wasn't the whole point of Midnight that it'd take place in Quel'Thalas and the Eastern Kingdoms?

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Also, "leaked"? What does he mean by this? What leaked?

I have watched the video and I could not find anything related to Bellular telling that Avaloren will be the setting for Midnight. Would you be so kind to share the minute in which he talks about it?

I think that Avaloren being part of Midnight is unthinkable, especially because Metzen especifically hyped the revamp of old zones, although it would be a fairly interesting approach. But again, chances of that happening are so slim that is not even worth talking about. Realistically there are two options for Midnight:

1- Quel'thalas expanded to have 4 zones, all of them above the Plaguelands.
2- A full revamp of every zone above the Thandol Span.

I think that most players dream about option 2, but deep down we know that we will get option 1.

Changing the subject, Plunderstorm directly integrated into Retail's servers would be pretty cool. Similar to TW, it would come from time to time. We will not need to create a new character to play it.

[Ersula]

Also, "leaked"? What does he mean by this? What leaked?

Have you not been watching Bellular long? When he's talking about potential future content he's completely wrong half of the time.

[Joshuaj]

I was going to say he forgot about Quel'thalas since he doesn't even mention it, but I rewatched that segment twice and nowhere does he say he thinks Midnight has Avaloren.

He says that they might talk about Midnight and if they don't they will probably announce it at Gamescom next year. Then he changes the subject and talks about the long term of WoW and then mentions Avaloren.

I probably should've worded it better, but the video does have him make mention of it being a "massive potential".

8:00 shows it in his bullet points.

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I have watched the video and I could not find anything related to Bellular telling that Avaloren will be the setting for Midnight. Would you be so kind to share the minute in which he talks about it?

I think that Avaloren being part of Midnight is unthinkable, especially because Metzen especifically hyped the revamp of old zones, although it would be a fairly interesting approach. But again, chances of that happening are so slim that is not even worth talking about. Realistically there are two options for Midnight:

1- Quel'thalas expanded to have 4 zones, all of them above the Plaguelands.
2- A full revamp of every zone above the Thandol Span.

I think that most players dream about option 2, but deep down we know that we will get option 1.

Changing the subject, Plunderstorm directly integrated into Retail's servers would be pretty cool. Similar to TW, it would come from time to time. We will not need to create a new character to play it.

I'll most likely be Option 1, but with the recent Arathi storyline (Which Ion confirmed would be something that'll be expanded upon across the entire Worldsoul Saga), the reclamation of Gilneas and whatnot, it'd be weird if they didn't revamp the entire Northern Eastern Kingdoms.

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I am positive he is wrong about this.

I'm certain that Avaloren and the Arathi Empire are both hooks for the story to come AFTER the Worldsoul Saga. Pretty sure that once we wrap up Midnight & The Last Titan, the next "great adventure" is westward to the new world -- a parallel to our own history -- where we'll find great empires and new conflicts. Blizzard loves to seed stories many expansions before they actually happen (<cough> Zalatath </cough>)

I was thinking Order Vs Disorder, and THEN we could discover new Azerothian lands, but I wouldn't be mad at this.

[micwini]

Imagine throwing a decent raid or hostile area away for a spot where players just go AFK.

Imagine imagining they cannot do both (dazar'alor).

[Makabreska]

Imagine imagining they cannot do both (dazar'alor).

This. Dazar'alor is in my top 3 favourite raids and I could see it repeated with a nicely revamped Silvermoon.

[Sondrelk]

This. Dazar'alor is in my top 3 favourite raids and I could see it repeated with a nicely revamped Silvermoon.

It's still a case of losing out on a proper occupied Silvermoon to do quests in.
Besides, I think Isle of Quel'Danas would be a fun raid as well. Evne if it might be a tad derivative. And I somehow doubt we will get both Silvermoon, and the Sunwell as a raid unless we teleport to it at the end of the Silvermoon raid

[Worldshaper]

I wonder if the Worldsoul Saga will follow a traditional three-act structure, like Star Wars OT.

If so, it might imply things won't develop as dramatically with each expansion.

Exposition took place in Dalaran during the pre-quests and introduced us to characters like Dagran, Magni, Anduin, Alleria, Khadgar, Thrall, and Moira.

Alleria confronting Xal'atath in Dalaran as Khadgar beams her away was the inciting incident, and the rising action was us questing through Khaz Algar.

Then the first plot point saw us face Xal'atath as Alleria took aim for the Dark Heart. The second was us defeating Queen Ansurek.

Additional plot points will come with patches, before we reach the climax and thwart Xal'atath's ambitions in Khaz Algar.

But as with "Empire," were in for an ass whooping in Quel'thalas. I'm guessing an additional confrontation between Xal'atath and Alleria, in which Alleria gets her behind handed to her, and possibly loses Turalyon.

This is probably where things don't go according to plan, as Metzen described it. Perhaps the Sunwell acts out or explodes on the champions of the Light, or maybe Alleria accidentally/involuntarily slays Turalyon.

Either way, in TLT the action rises again as we travel further north, into the very heart of the Titans' power on Azeroth, and witness their return. We finally find out the Worldsoul was placed in stasis - is not a Titan - and that Elune and An'she, moon and sun, night and day, shadow and light, are both facets of the Worldsoul, desperately trying to free itself through us.

But as it stands, it is still corrupted, imprisoned, or in peril somehow. I can't decide if I think the Titans will die from Iridikron's trap or by our sword, because that will heavily impact our view of them.

Either way, Sargeras ends up being the Last Titan, or possibly Eonar, or someone yet unknown to us (like those introduced in Hearthstone).

We free the Worldsoul from its shackles and any corruption, before she sort of... becomes one with the land, or whatever.

Imagine the Earth-Mother, and how she'd rest on Azeroth to bring Life. Picture it as if she is the Worldsoul, kept in chains. But just as in the myth, she eventually becomes one with the land, blessing it in the process.



But either way, I'm sure

[Merryck]

Are they going to talk about Midnight at the direct, or is it way too early?

[Raetary]

Are they going to talk about Midnight at the direct, or is it way too early?

Yes, its obviously way too early.

TWW has not even had its first major patch announced yet, let alone the roadmap for the rest of the year.

[Enrif]

That is one way to look at it. The other is that making Silvermoon a tiny hub when it could have been a fantastic raid and ongoing story to retake is terribly boring compared to it just being a nice place to stay in.

Raids don’t need to repress the open world. See Battle for Dazar Alor and Siege of Orgrimmar. They don’t replace the hubs. If there is a Silvermoon raid(which I highly doubt as it would be the third horde city to be a raid), it can be as a small portal somewhere, while silvermoon can just be a hub.

[Joshuaj]

Are they going to talk about Midnight at the direct, or is it way too early?

Way too early. IF we get Midnight info, it'll probably be some extra details on the setting of the expac, but that's it, nothing else.