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

[Izalla]

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

"They have to call Grom 'Grommash' instead because of a motorcycle" was laughed at at the time and seen as a sign it was nonsense

[Cheezits]

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.

If it's not some nebulous "multi-theme on the box" expansion, I can see it being Scarlets as the main figures for a Light expansion. Even if they were mooks in the past they are hugely popular and the build-up is there. New Avalon/Avaloren as well.

Nobody is really expecting the Scarlets in a large capacity either. It's usually Light/Yrel/Turalyon.... and Scarlets too, or something similar.

[Izalla]

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.

I wanna say The Dark Below was around this time as well? I could be mistaken.

[Kiivar86]

"They have to call Grom 'Grommash' instead because of a motorcycle" was laughed at at the time and seen as a sign it was nonsense

Honestly I am still baffled by having to call Grom Grommash because of the motorcycle thing. Grom existed well before Honda made the thing. Its not like there'd be confusion between the two, too.

I wanna say The Dark Below was around this time as well? I could be mistaken.

I believe that was then too yeah.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Next 6 month sub mount probably will be some kind of tease.

[Nymrohd]

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.

Have to agree. We will probably have a good idea on some elements but at the end of the day there will be far more that will be completely different to speculation.

Heck look at Evokers. We DID speculate about a race that is also a class and is draconic themed but nothing like what was delivered.

[Kiivar86]

Heck look at Evokers. We DID speculate about a race that is also a class and is draconic themed but nothing like what was delivered.

And at one point it was thought that evokers were going to take a lot of stuff from Arcane Mages, too, but in the end it was only the name Evoker.

[Santandame]

I wanna say The Dark Below was around this time as well? I could be mistaken.

Corgis Unleashed too which was rightly seen as a joke by most but a few posters theorised Corgis could be a Void Lord lol.

[Zoupa7]

Personally I think we are looking at 1 more major patch and 4 more minor patches.

10.1.7- mid september
10.2- late November
10.2.5- Early February
10.2.7- Early April
10.2.9- Early June all 3 raids in one patch with a small amount of new world content
11.0 prepatch- early November.
11.0 expansion- late November
11.0 raid launch- Somewhere around December 9th.

They will probably do fated raids again after 10.2. I don't see what else they would do that's very significant.

[Walrusking]

The story behind the WoD leak (I may be misremembering some things.)
I was an active member of Scrolls of Lore, and another active member worked at blizzard as customer service or something. A couple weeks before blizzcon, it was "all hands on deck", so most of the company got a glimpse of what was being announced.
He wrote up the "leak" in an email and sent it to me, Red shirt guy, and maybe 5 to 10 others that he felt were trustworthy. One guy (wasn't me) copy-pasted it to Mmo champ and SoL.
Hoping to protect the leakers identity so that he didn't get fired, RSG asked one of the mods of SoL to remove the post. That mod was an intern at blizz and simped hard for the dev team, so instead of helping the guy, he ratted him out which got the leaker fired, sent back to his home country, and aided in the eventual death of SoL.

[Santandame]

If I recall correctly, these were the main leaks/theories discussed the last few leak seasons.

Pre-WoD:

- The actual WoD leak.

- I vaguely remember some discussion around the WoD name being accurate but the content not, and that the Warlords would be Legion commanders on a new part of Outland.

- The Dark Below

- Heroes of the Storm

- Corgis Unleashed. Rightfully seen as a meme by most but was some genuine discussion surrounding Corgis being the name of a Void Lord. Yes, that happened.

Pre-Legion:

- Azshara/Naga centric expansion, mainly South Seas. Purely because of the shipyard.

- Council of Glades. I remember at the time of this being “leaked”, the majority of folk were happy to assume this would be the one.

- Ogre island south of Draenor was discussed, with Legion influence. Corrupting the Ogres instead of the orcs.

Pre-BfA

- World revamp because of Sargeras sword.

- Kul’Tiras because of the data mined items.

- An expansion focused on reclaiming Lordaeron.

Pre-SL:

- Dragon Isles cause of Wrathion mentions and Island Expeditions

- The fake Shadowlands map leak that Asmongold and Pyromancer were championing.

- Wrath of the Bolvar

- Wrath of the Lich Queen (Sylvanas takes the crown, revamped Northrend)

- The Undead in SW harbour.

[Worldshaper]

It seems quite likely we'll get a patch 10.2.5, 10.2.7, and 10.3.

Why? Well, 4 seasons is the norm right now. For Dragonflight, seasons release with major patches. So with season 3 coming in 10.2, it stands to reason that season 4 comes with 10.3.

It also makes a lot of sense to keep going with the same patch cadence people are used to, at least for the first six months of 2024 (Dragonflight's third quarter, if you will). So with 10.2 coming out in early November most likely, we've easily got room for 3 more patches before we head into a six month content gap before 11.0.

Besides, the story might necessitate another few patches.

We've done the stories for the Black, Blue, and Bronze flights once we head into 10.1.5. Green will probably get some build-up in 10.1.7 and then conclude in 10.2, just like they did for the Black flight. Then after that, the remaining patches will be for the Red flight as well as some general story progression Void/Elementals/Etc.

There's even a tiny chance 10.3 might be the World Revamp, or the moment when the Old Gods take over Azeroth and thus leaving the revamp for later.

[Nightshade711]

Pre-Legion:

- Azshara/Naga centric expansion, mainly South Seas. Purely because of the shipyard.

So I remember this because “Eye of Azshara” was trademarked (or copyrighted?) by blizzard a good bit before the announcement so we thought it was the name of the expansion.

But it ended up just being the name of the dungeon.

[Worldshaper]

If I recall correctly, these were the main leaks/theories discussed the last few leak seasons.

Pre-WoD:

- The actual WoD leak.

- I vaguely remember some discussion around the WoD name being accurate but the content not, and that the Warlords would be Legion commanders on a new part of Outland.

- The Dark Below

- Heroes of the Storm

- Corgis Unleashed. Rightfully seen as a meme by most but was some genuine discussion surrounding Corgis being the name of a Void Lord. Yes, that happened.

Pre-Legion:

- Azshara/Naga centric expansion, mainly South Seas. Purely because of the shipyard.

- Council of Glades. I remember at the time of this being “leaked”, the majority of folk were happy to assume this would be the one.

- Ogre island south of Draenor was discussed, with Legion influence. Corrupting the Ogres instead of the orcs.

Pre-BfA

- World revamp because of Sargeras sword.

- Kul’Tiras because of the data mined items.

- An expansion focused on reclaiming Lordaeron.

Pre-SL:

- Dragon Isles cause of Wrathion mentions and Island Expeditions

- The fake Shadowlands map leak that Asmongold and Pyromancer were championing.

- Wrath of the Bolvar

- Wrath of the Lich Queen (Sylvanas takes the crown, revamped Northrend)

- The Undead in SW harbour.

Good list. IIRC, there have been more discussions around datamined items. Wasn't there some metal object or whatever in 5.4 that said Iron Horde?

Oh and when was Wrath or Eye of Azshara?

[Zoupa7]

If I recall correctly, these were the main leaks/theories discussed the last few leak seasons.

Pre-WoD:

- The actual WoD leak.

- I vaguely remember some discussion around the WoD name being accurate but the content not, and that the Warlords would be Legion commanders on a new part of Outland.

- The Dark Below

- Heroes of the Storm

- Corgis Unleashed. Rightfully seen as a meme by most but was some genuine discussion surrounding Corgis being the name of a Void Lord. Yes, that happened.

Pre-Legion:

- Azshara/Naga centric expansion, mainly South Seas. Purely because of the shipyard.

- Council of Glades. I remember at the time of this being “leaked”, the majority of folk were happy to assume this would be the one.

- Ogre island south of Draenor was discussed, with Legion influence. Corrupting the Ogres instead of the orcs.

Pre-BfA

- World revamp because of Sargeras sword.

- Kul’Tiras because of the data mined items.

- An expansion focused on reclaiming Lordaeron.

Pre-SL:

- Dragon Isles cause of Wrathion mentions and Island Expeditions

- The fake Shadowlands map leak that Asmongold and Pyromancer were championing.

- Wrath of the Bolvar

- Wrath of the Lich Queen (Sylvanas takes the crown, revamped Northrend)

- The Undead in SW harbour.

Pre-SL leaks were almost entirely about Dragon Isles and Shadowlands. They ended up being the next 2 expansions.

[Catastrophy349]

https://twitter.com/MrGMYT/status/16...689204224?s=20

[Santandame]

Good list. IIRC, there have been more discussions around datamined items. Wasn't there some metal object or whatever in 5.4 that said Iron Horde?

Oh and when was Wrath or Eye of Azshara?

Yeah, I remember the Iron Horde datamined discussion. It was briefly flirted with as an expansion idea but the consensus seemed to be we wouldn’t have an expansion so similar to Siege of Org right after Siege of Org had ended.

Eye of Azshara was datamined during pre-Legion leak season. This was around the time when we began to take notice of Blizzard testing ideas and techs in the current expansion and utilising them to greater effect in the following expansion. The Halfhill in MoP leading to the Garrison in WoD was the main example. So the name, along with the shipyard introduced in the final WoD patch had us convinced for a time that the expansion that would end up being Legion, would be a seafaring South Seas expansion expanding on the Garrison and shipyard technology to give us our own ships as we take the fight to Azshara.

As @Nightshade711 has said though, that name ultimately ended up being used for the dungeon in Legion instead.

- - - Updated - - -

https://twitter.com/MrGMYT/status/16...689204224?s=20

On the subject of us lot discussing theories. Remember when a lot of us during Dragonflight leak season were convinced this guy was a Blizzard employee sent here to get discussion and hype riled up?

[Kiivar86]

The story behind the WoD leak (I may be misremembering some things.)
I was an active member of Scrolls of Lore, and another active member worked at blizzard as customer service or something. A couple weeks before blizzcon, it was "all hands on deck", so most of the company got a glimpse of what was being announced.
He wrote up the "leak" in an email and sent it to me, Red shirt guy, and maybe 5 to 10 others that he felt were trustworthy. One guy (wasn't me) copy-pasted it to Mmo champ and SoL.
Hoping to protect the leakers identity so that he didn't get fired, RSG asked one of the mods of SoL to remove the post. That mod was an intern at blizz and simped hard for the dev team, so instead of helping the guy, he ratted him out which got the leaker fired, sent back to his home country, and aided in the eventual death of SoL.

Former SoL poster here as well, that lines up with what I recall. Though honestly just sharing it was a bad idea, of course it would get back to Blizzard somehow.

I miss SoL sometimes, I must admit, but it also felt like it got super toxic near the end, sadly.

[Dracullus]

If 11.0 will launch in Summer, there is no need for 10.3, remaining time could be filled with small patches and S4 fated season could have proper length from March to August. Problem starts if expac is November again, it would mean seasons longer than 5 months and year+ last big patch. Something we had in the past, but we want things improved this time.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

If 11.0 will launch in Summer, there is no need for 10.3, remaining time could be filled with small patches and S4 fated season could have proper length from March to August. Problem starts if expac is November again, it would mean seasons longer than 5 months and year+ last big patch. Something we had in the past, but we want things improved this time.

We can wait a little bit for the expansion, they shouldn't remove 10.3

While I'd love a shorter expansion, it seems safe to assume they'll want to release 11.0 around the 20th anniversary. 23 November, 2024

Thats fine, no need to rush out another expansion, besides no yearly expansion nonsense(Or trying to do it).

Not sure what you mean by remove. It has never been announced. With 10.2 launching 1 year after DF release they won't do a 10.3. There isn't a single expansion that had a .3 patch with .2 releasing so late. They wouldn't start now with player count lower than ever between launches.

Look at BfA where 8.2 released in June and 8.3 releasing in October

How is 10.2 late? By what margin? Not being announced doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Its not impossible for them to show a roadmap that 10.3 would be next year.

10.2 will be the last patch and that was clearly planned. Then it will just be fated and some very minor stuff after that.

Thats a lot supposition. We don't even know what 10.2 is going to be composed of besides the Emerald Dream.