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

[Marlamin]

...

But that's not exactly gonna keep the thread going until 11.1.5 hits the PTR, and if the response to that revelation is "it's okay for the thread to slow down when there's nothing new to discuss", then what is even the problem with people using the thread to discuss the tangential lore stuff in the first place, since it isn't stifling some other budding conversation?

"it's okay for the thread to slow down when there's nothing new to discuss" is perfectly fine, though. Lore discussions and what they might mean for the future is fine, but whenever they get as deep and argumentative (usually between the same people) it in my opinion actually does stifle out other things and is largely demotivating for others to start posting about anything remotely relevant in as it'll likely get drowned out by the back and forth drivel. That's the case for me, at least.

MoP Remix while maybe not a part of the story (well, mostly) was something worth discussing to an extent as it is patch content and something new Blizz is doing and will likely keep doing going forward. The same goes for Plunderstorm (which is coming back in like a week) and wherever that may go is relevant as well.

It likely clashes with people who prefer story speculation, but this isn't exclusively a story speculation thread nor has it ever been. It is also for speculating and discussing about where certain features might go or what new features will contain as well as basically anything else that the future game might or might not contain.

There should be some sort of balance between those things, which there currently isn't and bringing anything else up basically feels like derailing when there's such deep lore discussions going on. I think that's the reason why the mod warnings exist. Not "no lore discussions" but "at least talk about some other shit too or this thread might as well be moved to the lore subforum".

[Nymrohd]

Btw have Plunderstorm abilities and rewards been datamined?

[Marlamin]

Btw have Plunderstorm abilities and rewards been datamined?

They're using the new account store system (which I feel like is going to be used for player housing as well) that uses Plunder as a currency (max of 15K), but I believe they're largely the same rewards as last time. iMX3 posted a guide on the changes/new system here (the listed prices are outdated though, many have been halved/reduced).

As for abilities, I'd have to check.

[Nymrohd]

They're using the new account store system (which I feel like is going to be used for player housing as well) that uses Plunder as a currency (max of 15K), but I believe they're largely the same rewards as last time. iMX3 posted a guide on the changes/new system here (the listed prices are outdated though, many have been halved/reduced).

As for abilities, I'd have to check.

Yeah I found the rewards after a bit of searching myself. It is mostly (or entirely?) recolors. But could not find anything on the abilities.

[Marlamin]

Yeah I found the rewards after a bit of searching myself. It is mostly (or entirely?) recolors. But could not find anything on the abilities.

Some new abilities: #1, #2, #3 and #4, #5.

[Hitei]

I was hoping Blizzard could remake the Mirage Raceway, but have it serve as a floating stadium with a massive race track!

I actually think that mirage is probably the least interesting of their options, because it's just a flat simple loop. Assuming it works exactly as it sounds, you don't need an actual track, it's just a dragonriding race but on the ground, which means you just need a path that a regular (albeit drifty) ground mount can fit on. So the best options are going to be very curvy and interesting road areas rather than proper racetracks. Like Mario Kart.

[Golden Yak]

Oh shit. Racing around Naxxramas would be fire emoji.

Yeah, this DRIVE thing could be big. Pet battles big.

[Sondrelk]

Oh shit. Racing around Naxxramas would be fire emoji.

Yeah, this DRIVE thing could be big. Pet battles big.

I just hope it's implemented well enough the devs feel bold enough to attempt to not have flying at launch again.
Midnight strikes me as an expansion that really wouldnt benefit from being able to fly everywhere. And dynamic ground mounts being faster than flying does make it easier to argue you don't need to fly above everything all the time.

[Khaza-R]

Having a bunch a different race course could be really dope.

I kind of hope we see the dynamic ground mount system expanded on to mounts other than just vehicles. That would be a pretty awesome way to make older ground mounts or even just newer ones feel relevant again.

[Joshuaj]

Oh shit. Racing around Naxxramas would be fire emoji.

Yeah, this DRIVE thing could be big. Pet battles big.

Exactly! Y'all see the vision too!

- - - Updated - - -

Y'all think we'll see the PTR tomorrow? Or later this week?

[Golden Yak]

I just hope it's implemented well enough the devs feel bold enough to attempt to not have flying at launch again.
Midnight strikes me as an expansion that really wouldnt benefit from being able to fly everywhere. And dynamic ground mounts being faster than flying does make it easier to argue you don't need to fly above everything all the time.

I'd be down for something more grounded, pun very much intended. Quel'thalas isn't especially vertical in its current incarnation. Though that might change if they rebuild it from scratch, which I would be fine with.

Man, what if the elves actually lift the Isle of Quel'Danas into the air to try and protect it from Void incursions coming by land and sea? That'd be somethin'...

[Nymrohd]

I'd be down for something more grounded, pun very much intended. Quel'thalas isn't especially vertical in its current incarnation. Though that might change if they rebuild it from scratch, which I would be fine with.

Man, what if the elves actually lift the Isle of Quel'Danas into the air to try and protect it from Void incursions coming by land and sea? That'd be somethin'...

That should mess up the Sunwell's connection to the leylines though.

[Marlamin]

DRIVE has potential for sure but until I try it out I'm hesitant to speculate too much about its future. It's built similarly to dynamic flight, but there's always the chance it doesn't feel great when translated to the ground. The system with the upgrades letting you change the way it handles seems interesting and promising, but applying that to other ground mounts outside of existing mount equipment is going to be a tough job if they proceed with it outside of Undermine to begin with.

PTR maintenance started late last week, so hopefully we'll see the build come out properly and realms go up very soon. Notably, the half-pushed 11.1 build from before the holidays did not contain the mount records for the DRIVE mount(s), but hopefully the next one will (or they hotfix it in).

[Avikur]

So it’s looking promising for the PTR this week then?

[Nymrohd]

So it’s looking promising for the PTR this week then?

It would be crazy NOT to have PTR this week. I'd be worried that the build is too unstable to be pushed if it's not up by Thursday the latest. Speculation for 11.1 launch is Feb 25-26 or Mar 4-5 right after Plunderstorm and Turbulent Timeways are over. If it's not up by then, it's because something went wrong. Otherwise either of those events would have started later or lasted longer.

[Lady Atia]

I just hope it's implemented well enough the devs feel bold enough to attempt to not have flying at launch again.
Midnight strikes me as an expansion that really wouldnt benefit from being able to fly everywhere. And dynamic ground mounts being faster than flying does make it easier to argue you don't need to fly above everything all the time.

Yeah, I recently thought about it and there are basically two options:

1) Like they do with Undermine, having one specific ground mount for a specific zone, although you can't make that too often or it will get stale. Big issue with that is that you are forced to that specific mount, basically the dragonflight dragonriding issue x 100.

2) You enable them for the early expansion and give out a pathfinder early, and each new zone works like Siren Isle.

I could see them focusing on QT style mounts first, and than expanding on them (and hopefully enabling old mounts earlier than what they did with dragonriding). Hawkstrider, Bear, Lynx and Horse/Undead Horse could work quite well for an expansion setup with some different movesets between them. For customizations I could see them going more into different armours (f.e. troll, elf, void style) aswell as fur colours / spectral versions instead since ground mounts are generally smaller and more limited than dragons, you can only go so far with different bear noses haha.

[Sondrelk]

Yeah, I recently thought about it and there are basically two options:

1) Like they do with Undermine, having one specific ground mount for a specific zone, although you can't make that too often or it will get stale. Big issue with that is that you are forced to that specific mount, basically the dragonflight dragonriding issue x 100.

2) You enable them for the early expansion and give out a pathfinder early, and each new zone works like Siren Isle.

I could see them focusing on QT style mounts first, and than expanding on them (and hopefully enabling old mounts earlier than what they did with dragonriding). Hawkstrider, Bear, Lynx and Horse/Undead Horse could work quite well for an expansion setup with some different movesets between them. For customizations I could see them going more into different armours (f.e. troll, elf, void style) aswell as fur colours / spectral versions instead since ground mounts are generally smaller and more limited than dragons, you can only go so far with different bear noses haha.

Pathfinder early and for each patch seems the most likely to me. Players will kick up a fuss about it, but so long as dynamic mounts is faster than flying mounts would be it will probably be accepted for a while.

Dynamic ground mount options being available to all ground mounts seems like a definite to me.
Different mounts having different abilities sounds unlikely. Would just create questions of why X mount was given a terrible ability. Why does a dwarf shaman have to use a horse for ideal movement. Or why does a blood elf paladin need to use a bear. Stuff like that.

[Lady Atia]

Pathfinder early and for each patch seems the most likely to me. Players will kick up a fuss about it, but so long as dynamic mounts is faster than flying mounts would be it will probably be accepted for a while.

Dynamic ground mount options being available to all ground mounts seems like a definite to me.
Different mounts having different abilities sounds unlikely. Would just create questions of why X mount was given a terrible ability. Why does a dwarf shaman have to use a horse for ideal movement. Or why does a blood elf paladin need to use a bear. Stuff like that.

Yet they seem to give us different abilities / finetuning for the weird new car in Undermine. So maybe a ground mount talent tree with choice nodes would be the better solution?

And yeah, hopefully this time the "matching" types will have the better mounting enabled from day one, afterall if your customizable bear has the animations it shouldnt be to hard to give these to all old bear mounts in one swing. And if they fear that no one will use the new mounts than honestly, they just have to deliver with customizations so that people actually wanna use them over old stuff.

[Joshuaj]

DRIVE has potential for sure but until I try it out I'm hesitant to speculate too much about its future. It's built similarly to dynamic flight, but there's always the chance it doesn't feel great when translated to the ground. The system with the upgrades letting you change the way it handles seems interesting and promising, but applying that to other ground mounts outside of existing mount equipment is going to be a tough job if they proceed with it outside of Undermine to begin with.

PTR maintenance started late last week, so hopefully we'll see the build come out properly and realms go up very soon. Notably, the half-pushed 11.1 build from before the holidays did not contain the mount records for the DRIVE mount(s), but hopefully the next one will (or they hotfix it in).

I imagine dynamic ground mounts would function similarly to a fully upgraded D.R.I.V.E car, namely in that it's handling and whatnot will be steady and amazing, and that it's "acceleration" (Could be called dashes or whatever when provided to panthers, horses, etc) will either be at it's max or at a decent enough level.

- - - Updated - - -

Ya know, very similar to how they did skyriding.

[Nymrohd]

Pathfinder early and for each patch seems the most likely to me. Players will kick up a fuss about it, but so long as dynamic mounts is faster than flying mounts would be it will probably be accepted for a while.

Dynamic ground mount options being available to all ground mounts seems like a definite to me.
Different mounts having different abilities sounds unlikely. Would just create questions of why X mount was given a terrible ability. Why does a dwarf shaman have to use a horse for ideal movement. Or why does a blood elf paladin need to use a bear. Stuff like that.

The main reason people want flight is combat avoidance, not speed.