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

[Aeluron Lightsong]

It all sounds cool and dandy, but it does not fix a problem of WoW being unable to attract new players.

...To say WoW isn't able to attract new players is kinda false.

Easy fix: endgame content + quests for current level that also take place in the revamped world, instead of away from it like Cata.

People just want quests, dungeons and raids in Lordaeron, Barrens etc instead of a new island or dimension. Can easily be max level.

They should revert the world quest timer to every 3 days to daily. It was better that way until in DF they changed it.

[Santandame]

Just had a fun thought about a potential Gilneas theme and story for the prospective world revamp.

We’ve yet to see the werewolf vs. vampire trope in WoW despite two races fitting those roles. I think a rebuilt/repopulated Gilneas with a focus on a schism in the Gilnean political court that’s been sowed by Dreadlords posing as noblemen could definitely be an interesting story direction for a Gilneas based storyline.

Potentially even expand Greymane Manor to be much larger and turn it into a dungeon with the Dreadlord(s) using it as their main base in Gilneas. It would be a cool throwback to Waycrest Manor which was one of the more popular aspects of BfA. A fun, whimsical at times but also dark gothic manor dungeon with vampires and werewolves. In ways it could feel like a new Karazhan.

Maybe even have a group of Venthyr migrate over from the Shadowlands and settle in Gilneas, integrating themselves in Gilnean politics and supporting the incognito Dreadlords.

[Raetary]

It all sounds cool and dandy, but it does not fix a problem of WoW being unable to attract new players.

I'd say wow is perfectly capable of attracting new players.
Especially if the marketing team pulls its own weight.

The problem the game has is that it's unable to retain them.

Which, as i said in a previous post, is something that can only be solved by lessening the major system bloat within the game and shelving all the old content for a simple, streamlined, 'return to their roots' experience.
Which, again, can only be really done with a revamp.

[Makabreska]

It all sounds cool and dandy, but it does not fix a problem of WoW being unable to attract new players.

And yet plenty of players who started playing in BfA and later in my guild.

[Dracullus]

Then it is more accurate to call Cata 2.0 rather than WoW 2. Just to lesser confusion.
Old world revamp is pretty much possible, but is it even needed? I mean, world revamp means low-level experience revamp. For old players it is not very needed, maybe only for leveling alts. And for new players it does not fix a problem of WoW being fundamentally outdated and unfriendly to zoomers.

Nope, not needed since SL not only fixed leveling, but also implemented autofix for future (in 11.0 replace BfA with DF for default experience and voila). "Return to Azeroth" can be achieved by picking any nostalgia heavy piece of Azeroth and rebuilding it as new continent (not Cata refresh, with current skills they could make much bigger and detailed zones).

And yet plenty of players who started playing in BfA and later in my guild.

It's pointless to argue, people for years are spawning nonsense that WoW has no new players without any evidence.

Same with overall population of WoW, every time I read how dead it is I check game and see 10+ full servers and A LOT of high. Yet hardcore Classic which had TWO full servers was perceived as new shit everyone plays. xD

[Nymrohd]

Maybe even have a group of Venthyr migrate over from the Shadowlands and settle in Gilneas, integrating themselves in Gilnean politics and supporting the incognito Dreadlords.

If we want to keep Shadowlands lore relevant, it absolutely would make sense for Vashj or other members of the house of Eyes to approach us, possibly with Venthyr help to inform us that they have been tracking Denathrius and found significant dreadlord presence in Gilneas

[Hitei]

11.0 will certainly be something about other side of Azeroth. It's initial theme will be about pirates, sea, maybe nagas, exploration of new lands, probably some hidden titanic stuff, and it will eventually lead to some Void stuff, which will be a gateway to 12.0

11.0 will "clearly" be a lot of things, but if like 6 rounds of these threads has taught me anything it's that the expansion is rarely the thing everyone clearly thought it was going to be even when it's the expected theme/villain.

[Fahrad Wagner]

11.0 will "clearly" be a lot of things, but if like 6 rounds of these threads has taught me anything it's that the expansion is rarely the thing everyone clearly thought it was going to be even when it's the expected theme/villain.

Errrrr I don't know Legion, BfA (at least KT and Zandalar), SL and Dragon Isles were favourites of a great deal of people here. I feel like only MoP and WoD were the true outsiders that no one saw coming-

[Nymrohd]

Errrrr I don't know Legion, BfA (at least KT and Zandalar), SL and Dragon Isles were favourites of a great deal of people here. I feel like only MoP and WoD were the true outsiders that no one saw coming-

And both got leaked real early so it's not like people had a chance to make that many theories.

[Fahrad Wagner]

And both got leaked real early so it's not like people had a chance to make that many theories.

WoD didn't get leaked early, it was leaked a few days before reveal on Blizzcon I believe- and even more so a few hours with that video with the logo in the background?
As for MoP yes it did get leaked early with the registration of the expansion name, but people believed it would be either a phone minigame or something related to food at the time

[Aeluron Lightsong]

We didn't believe the WoD leak(Me to). Then a little bit before Blizzcon there was a leaked image of Dave Kosak with a banner behind him of the what we know as Warlords of Draenor today. It was a bit of a shock.

[Fahrad Wagner]

We didn't believe the WoD leak(Me to). Then a little bit before Blizzcon there was a leaked image of Dave Kosak with a banner behind him of the what we know as Warlords of Draenor today. It was a bit of a shock.

Exactly this- I remember how we were all stunned at this like "wtf? it's real?"

[Berkilak]

Exactly this- I remember how we were all stunned at this like "wtf? it's real?"

It was a trash tier leak.

[Nymrohd]

Hmm I remember thinking MoP might be real but I guess I don't remember WoD well enough. I do think that when the pre Blizzcon leak happened it was very clear.

[Teriz]

WoD didn't get leaked early, it was leaked a few days before reveal on Blizzcon I believe- and even more so a few hours with that video with the logo in the background?
As for MoP yes it did get leaked early with the registration of the expansion name, but people believed it would be either a phone minigame or something related to food at the time

Actually there was an Iron Horde texture file leaked way before the expansion announcement. There were posts about it at the time.

[Kiivar86]

Memory serves, MoP's title itself leaked a while before the reveal, right? I remember a lot of arguing over it as some claimed it "didn't sound like an expansion" which always made me laugh because the idea Blizzard has rules about it is hilarious.

People said the same thing about Cataclysm, too.

[Teriz]

In regards to the early Iron Horde leak;

Iron Horde and the next WoW expansion

[Hitei]

Errrrr I don't know Legion, BfA (at least KT and Zandalar), SL and Dragon Isles were favourites of a great deal of people here. I feel like only MoP and WoD were the true outsiders that no one saw coming-

Hence the "even when it's the expected theme/villain".

A lot of people were expecting a 'Burning Legion' expansion coming down the pipeline. No one was expecting a Broken Isles expansion with Extra-Night Night Elves, the Emerald Nightmare, Mountain Tauren and Vrykul directly serving a titan watcher. When we got the picture leak that had Illidan, the Illidari, Syvlanas, Ashbringer, the Silverhand, Naga and Wardens, people thought it was ludicrous.

People, even the week leading up to BfA announcement and when we got the Lordaeron symbol leak, thought BfA was going to be a Lordaeron 2.0 revamp/Council of Glades sort of thing. When the entire Lordaeron bit was just a prepatch thing. Even with the KT armor set people weren't expecting a dual continent KT/Zandalar world-spanning expansion about a war for crystallized titan blood that progresses into going to Nazjatar and Ny'alotha which is actually a dream state of reality not a physical plane or place.

SL and Dragon Isles were only "accurate" in the sense that both those locations were so completely vague prior to the two expansions, that there was nothing to actually 'see coming' besides the name of the place.


My point is that the expansion has pretty much never actually been what was assumed. It could very well be Avaloren... and Avaloren could be the Titan designation for one of the two moons of Azeroth, and 11.0 could be some sort of BC-esque extremely exotic environment fantasy expansion. It could be a revamp but at the end of 10.2.5 or 10.3 the player characters and some NPCs get stasis locked and 11.0 takes place 250 years in the future in a totally different looking Azeroth. It could be a void expansion but it's not K'aresh, that's just 11.3 or the final raid, and the continent is Azjol'Nerub under the unified Nerubian/Naga forces as a new void empire.

So the idea that any given expansion is "clearly" going to be some specific idea is sort of self-contradictory, every guess that isn't just an outright leak is just a shot in the dark hoping to graze part of some nebulous whole.

[Santandame]

If I recall correctly, during pre-WoD leak season is when Heroes of the Storm was trademarked and we knew nothing about it apart from the name. Some of the folk here were predicting that could have been the WoW expansion, with theories relating to again, Outland, as well as potentially an elemental planes expansion. It was a very long time ago though so my memory of it is a bit sketchy. Just vividly remember discussion surrounding the HotS name.

[Berkilak]

Actually there was an Iron Horde texture file leaked way before the expansion announcement. There were posts about it at the time.

Pretty useless as a leak when we had no concept of “Iron Horde” at the time, though.