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

[Jolly Roger]

This leak season is going to be atrocious. It's going to be a lot harder to discern fake leaks from real leaks when everyone including the fakers know the name and underlying themes of the next 2 expansions. And they're going to be a lot less creative / entertaining.

12.0: the elven races must reunite after the sunwell falls to the void
12.1: the arathi empire has been corrupted by the influence of the scarlet brotherhood and the "heir" that has been given to the emperor we must help stop the elven genocide
12.2 the naga return and we must purify them to unite the final clans against a void emissary

[Mecheon]

Would Silvermoon be the capital for both factions? At the end of the expansion, when the war is over and the reunification of the Elves has come to pass, I can see it as the Amirdrassil of the Horde. It would make perfect sense. But the thing is that you have Gilneas and the Undercity right there, both completely unused for years, and you have the perfect opportunity here to give them a proper treatment and make them relevant again.

The thing is, the expansion is about Quel'thalas. Undercity's close, sure, but Gilneas has sweet FA to do with Quel'thalas or the void.

My prediction is we're getting a new Silvermoon and its gonna be neutral, to justify the costs of developing a new Silvermoon and given that Horde can tromp into Gilneas and Amirdrassil, there's a little Alliance embassy area to hold the Alliance while we deal with the larger problem of void.

They're not going to redevelop three cities in one expansion, especially when two of them have nothing to do with the core theme. We have no reason to go as far south as Lordaren, yet alone all the way to Gilneas.

[Darkarath]

They're not going to redevelop three cities in one expansion, especially when two of them have nothing to do with the core theme. We have no reason to go as far south as Lordaren, yet alone all the way to Gilneas.

It is unlikely, but certainly possible.

BfA gave us Boralus and Dazal'alor, two magnificent capital cities. Plus 6 zones, BTW.

Legion gave us a revamped Dalaran and Suramar. Is that much to have Gilneas and the Undercity revamped as Dalaran and Silvermoon as the new Suramar?

We all know that it's perfectly possible.

[FossilFree]

I fully expect Northeron to be part of Midnight. That little zone north of Stratholme that shows on the map but has nothing there. (The name was later reused in Twilight Highlands, but they are two separate areas.)


https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...eron_from_the/

I think that whole messed up area up there, from Quel'thalas, to Northeron, to the weird smoke wall of Stratholme, being on the TBC servers, and the loading screens, will be repaired and updated for flying. This area has needed more work since Cataclysm, and I think Midnight will just be an excuse to fix all of that stuff. Since the devs have made it clear that they will only go back and update old stuff when there is a narrative reason to do so.

[Joshuaj]

I fully expect Northeron to be part of Midnight. That little zone north of Stratholme that shows on the map but has nothing there. (The name was later reused in Twilight Highlands, but they are two separate areas.)


https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...eron_from_the/

I think that whole messed up area up there, from Quel'thalas, to Northeron, to the weird smoke wall of Stratholme, being on the TBC servers, and the loading screens, will be repaired and updated for flying. This area has needed more work since Cataclysm, and I think Midnight will just be an excuse to fix all of that stuff. Since the devs have made it clear that they will only go back and update old stuff when there is a narrative reason to do so.

Okay, quick question...

Is it possible that little area could end up being where the Alliance Neighborhood's located? Or?

Probably not, but still.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, since there is a coastal region in the Alliance and Horde Neighborhoods, that makes me wonder, will we be able to throw beach parties?

[Hitei]

If Midnight was all of Lordaeron then they would of just said Lordaeron as opposed to Quel'thalas when they revealed it.

Some of you are setting yourselves up for disappointment.

I've been saying this since the day of Blizzcon. Those presentations are fundamentally marketing and Blizzard isn't stupid, people have been going "Lordaeron revamp!?!?!" for like a decade now, since like the Legion-BfA rumor cycles. If they were doing Lordaeron and Quel'thalas, there's no reason why they'd have not only lead with Quel'thalas, but gone a step farther and not mentioned Lordaeron at all anywhere at any point.

I would be disappointed (but not shocked) if they pull some Northern Lordaeron bits to extend Quel'thalas's zone space farther to the southwest, on the back side of Stratholme with Scourge stuff (pleasantly surprised if instead they rebuild Strat into a proper Argent city. I do not see them going down into the plaguelands proper, or Trisifal, let alone random, largely irrelevant places like Silverpine, Hillsbrad, or the Hinterlands.

[Limayria]

Imo each zone needs three themes. So for my example
Eastweald would have Stratholme Bay area which would connect with SM in Tirisfal and Hearthglen in WPL and thus give you Argent Dawn and a surprise Wildhammer appearance, then you have classic Plaguelands areas that are Scourge and finally you have Tyr's Bay which can be a mixture of Scarlet Crusade and Arathi or just a Red Dawn area
Quel'thalas would have Ghostlands and Eversong so that's easily three themes and more between Blood Elves, Forsaken (Tranquilien), Scourge and Amani, possibly add Naga by the coast.
Hills of Maisara is the Amani area, it can be divided by the local Loa (and we have at least 4 of those). You can move Zul'Mashar from EPL here to give us mummified trolls. Add Revantusk and Talan'ji plus some Void cultist trolls; perhaps Zan'do left some disciples that Xal'atath is tapping into since I expect the zone to lead to Kithix either in a raid or dungeon.
And then you have Silvermoon itself plus Quel'danas. I fully expect Naga here (IQD had a naga presence after all) and then you have the Void coming from a corrupt Sunwell

For dynamic flying I think the best solutions are
a) Teleportation accessible tall towers in Silvermoon. It fits the Blood Elven architecture since TBC, porting you up high with a crystal network and then you fly off from there.
b) Make the Hills of Maisara reasonably tall. If it is an elevated peninsula it can be used to access everything around
c) Do some fantasy elements with levitating areas. Maybe the Void blows things up and there are parts of IQD floating high in the air.

blood elves already have some floating areas in quelthalas so i deff think we will get more with flight enabled

also my crack theory is we're gonna get a restored tempest keep as a zone hovering over quelthalas

[Mecheon]

It is unlikely, but certainly possible.

BfA gave us Boralus and Dazal'alor, two magnificent capital cities. Plus 6 zones, BTW.

Legion gave us a revamped Dalaran and Suramar. Is that much to have Gilneas and the Undercity revamped as Dalaran and Silvermoon as the new Suramar?

We all know that it's perfectly possible.

Possible, sure, but incredibly unlikely. Silvermoon's been a semi-neutral city going back to Wrath (See the Quel'dalar quest chain and High Elves being allowed to go to the Sunwell), so its fairly primed as a neutral city that would be central to the expansion

Meanwhile, Lordaren and Gilneas have nothing to do with what the central thesis of the expansion is, which is Quel'thalas. They just don't fit the theme of the expansion at all, and Gilneas itself had its whole storyline thing in Dragonflight

We'll probably see Unusued Northern Lordaren zone, but I doubt we're going to even see the Plaguelands, yet alone Tirisfal, and certainly not Gilneas. The Ghostlands and that unused zone are as probably south as we're going.

[Hitei]

@Darkarath We've been at this earlier in this thread. Interviews indicate the devs expanding the zones to be the size of the usual continents we get. That means lots and lots of room for more never-before-seen details/subcultures, etc.

I know they said it. But I still really want to believe that expanding just means improving the zones, and adding some extra stuff where it makes sense.
Making two zones into one larger one with less of the Classic style mountains between everything is still expanding the zone.

I feel it's worth pointing out that this isn't quite what was actually said. They said they want it to feel familiar and that it'd be the same zone but a bit bigger, with space for more regional cultures/POIs. They also drew parallels to Darkshore/Arathi Highlands when asked about revamping old zones.

I still think it's unlikely that the plan is to have QT be the size of a modern continent. There's no way you can retain familiarity while like 3x-5x magnifying the size of a zone. I think people should expect WoD Nagrand vs BC Nagrand, which even at pretty similar scale often felt like a new zone inspired by old Nagrand rather than the same place.

WoD nagrand felt new and included a bunch of new places but the same general layout at a similar scale. I think that is what you should expect for QT, a bit bigger, with some new sections to pad out the size.

[Mecheon]

Okay, quick question...

Is it possible that little area could end up being where the Alliance Neighborhood's located? Or?

Probably not, but still.

I predict it'll just be a single Silvermoon-esque one with a designated HElf and VElf areas to be more Alliance-y.

[Hitei]

I predict it'll just be a single Silvermoon-esque one with a designated HElf and VElf areas to be more Alliance-y.

I expect that the formerly ruined half of SMC (the leveling area with Falconwing Square) will be restored and made into the High and Void Elf city.

[shoc]

There will be two classes at Midnight. A Void class and a counter class. I call it. That's my bingo.

Do you guys have a bingo for the Midnight reveal?

My guess is similar, I think for Midnight we will get a neutral Ethereal race and an Arcane/Void class, with spes themed after Ethereal archetypes that we see.

An Ethereal-themed class writes itself, call it Nexus-Walker or something. From here you could do Arcane/Void-themed caster DPS spec (Warpweaver), a stealthy melee DPS spec (Phase-Thief), and a technomancy-based tank spec (Artificer).

[Hitei]

My guess is similar, I think for Midnight we will get a neutral Ethereal race and an Arcane/Void class, with spes themed after Ethereal archetypes that we see.

An Ethereal-themed class writes itself, call it Nexus-Walker or something. From here you could do Arcane/Void-themed caster DPS spec (Warpweaver), a stealthy melee DPS spec (Phase-Thief), and a technomancy-based tank spec (Artificer).

I think you'd be more likely to get an Alleria style void ranger spec than rogue 2.0

[Wyrt]

My guess is similar, I think for Midnight we will get a neutral Ethereal race and an Arcane/Void class, with spes themed after Ethereal archetypes that we see.

An Ethereal-themed class writes itself, call it Nexus-Walker or something. From here you could do Arcane/Void-themed caster DPS spec (Warpweaver), a stealthy melee DPS spec (Phase-Thief), and a technomancy-based tank spec (Artificer).

Next patch seems to be putting emphasis on Locus-Walker being the sole Ethereal to use the void and not be corrupted by it. Would be a weird heel-face turn to introduce them as a playable race and have them come with a void class. Any Ethereal learning from Locus-Walker at that point would be just as much a novice in the void as any other race except void elves.

[Mecheon]

Yeah if we're getting any class related stuff next expansion (which I don't think so, I reckon housing is the Big Thing), then I reckon its going to be elf/void themed hero talents being added to each class

[Bozzoltank]

On the topic of what sort of zones we could see in Midnight, I am expecting the following zones to be added:
• Either: the shared capital of Silvermoon City, or: Undercity for the Horde and Stratholme for the Alliance,
• The Eastweald (Eastern and Western Plaguelands, Tirisfal Glades),
• Quel'Thalas (Eversong Forest, Ghostlands),
• Zul'Aman (Possibly the Shrine of Ula-Tek, Maisara Hills, Kith'ix burial site, Tor'Watha),
• The Scintal Reef (A name taken from the WoW RPG. Possibly encompassing Northeron, Elven ruins and maybe a Naga stronghold),

This strikes a good balance between revamped zones and "new zones" (Zul'Aman exists, of course, but instanced).

[Scyth]

My guess is similar, I think for Midnight we will get a neutral Ethereal race and an Arcane/Void class, with spes themed after Ethereal archetypes that we see.

An Ethereal-themed class writes itself, call it Nexus-Walker or something. From here you could do Arcane/Void-themed caster DPS spec (Warpweaver), a stealthy melee DPS spec (Phase-Thief), and a technomancy-based tank spec (Artificer).

I'm very confident we are getting a void themed class especially as this is the last chance for us to get one. However, I am fairly sure it will be themed after Alleria, or at least one of the specs will be. We need another class that uses bows!

[Monkal]

We need another class that uses bows!

Preach. Wish Blizz would be bold enough to cook a ranged spec for rogues, warriors or DHs at least.

[Cheezits]

I'm very confident we are getting a void themed class especially as this is the last chance for us to get one. However, I am fairly sure it will be themed after Alleria, or at least one of the specs will be. We need another class that uses bows!

I still think Spellbow (or "Windrunner") with Void, Arcane and Death specs themed after the sisters would be the best fit. It also fits Quel'thalas (during Midnight) in general, especially if they do a Scourge zone.

Heavy moment themed class with warps and blinks. Each faction of the Thalassians (Void, High, Blood, Darkfallen) would fit it and it would make sense that they teach each other magics.

Also: the megadungeon is 100% going to be Stratholme, inspired by its two wings, IMO. I'm hoping there's a big Calia & Syvlanas story here to flesh the former out.

Maybe the name will be the "The X of Stratholme" as a callback.

[FossilFree]

I still think Spellbow (or "Windrunner") with Void, Arcane and Death specs themed after the sisters would be the best fit. It also fits Quel'thalas (during Midnight) in general, especially if they do a Scourge zone.

Heavy moment themed class with warps and blinks. Each faction of the Thalassians (Void, High, Blood, Darkfallen) would fit it and it would make sense that they teach each other magics.

Oh, I like the sound of that! If they were going to go that far, they should move Dark Ranger off of hunters and make it the death spec. Then give hunters a new BM/MM hero talent tree in its place.