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

[Dracullus]

11.1.5 also had its features timegated by weeks, something they never did in recent years as far as I know, which again is a sign, to me at least, that they're trying to buy some extra time.

There is one tiny problem with your wild theory, 11.0.7 PTR is already up for weeks and nothing suggest there is something wrong with schedule. Stuff could be cut from patches, release may be rushed and full of bugs, but looks like for post-SL Blizzard this "patch every other month" rule is sacred.

Not to mention "something they never did in recent years" was literally during last small patch, 11.0.7. Siren Isle was in December, Turbulent Times early January, Plunderstorm mid January.

[Worldshaper]

Told you multiple times, most patches have 8 week cadence, but deviations happen so often it's impossible to put exact patch date. Checked my data, out of 16 patches, we had only 6 exact 8 weeks patches + 2 exact 5 weeks pre-patches. That's only half. Other patches are balanced so 8 weeks is exact AVERAGE.

We already had one 10 weeks patch in TWW, so 10.1.7 could be earlier, 10.2 could be earlier or both could be 7 weeks. You just never know exactly.

It's no use looking 16 patches back, because the second half of Dragonflight was quite inconsistent.

It's more useful to look only at The War Within. For this expansion, every patch has lasted 8 weeks, been announced on the Wednesday after the last patch release, and had a time from announcement to release of 6 weeks and 6 days. The one exception was when 11.1 was announced early because of Warcraft Direct and Christmas, which then also impacted 11.0.7 (lasted 2 weeks longer than usual).

[Nymrohd]

It's no use looking 16 patches back, because the second half of Dragonflight was quite inconsistent.

It's more useful to look only at The War Within. For this expansion, every patch has lasted 8 weeks, been announced on the Wednesday after the last patch release, and had a time from announcement to release of 6 weeks and 6 days. The one exception was when 11.1 was announced early because of Warcraft Direct and Christmas, which then also impacted 11.0.7 (lasted 2 weeks longer than usual).

If you don't look at least a bit back, you don't have an adequate sample. You can't establish a pattern with 4 points of data.
Well you personally can, but I am sure you establish patterns when looking at cloud shapes.

[Ersula]

If you don't look at least a bit back, you don't have an adequate sample. You can't establish a pattern with 4 points of data.
Well you personally can, but I am sure you establish patterns when looking at clouds.

If the point was "it has to be 8 weeks between patches" when we have all these examples that weren't 8 weeks, there is no pattern. 6 weeks makes sense considering how dinky the 11.1 patches are. (Don't try to say they're not, they're damn miniscule compared to Dragonflight minor patches.)

[Dracullus]

It's no use looking 16 patches back, because the second half of Dragonflight was quite inconsistent.

It's more useful to look only at The War Within. For this expansion, every patch has lasted 8 weeks, been announced on the Wednesday after the last patch release, and had a time from announcement to release of 6 weeks and 6 days. The one exception was when 11.1 was announced early because of Warcraft Direct and Christmas, which then also impacted 11.0.7 (lasted 2 weeks longer than usual).

So.. you put strange theory that every patch must last exactly 8 weeks without any wiggle room, then narrow timeline to fit it, when even that fails, you straight up throw away data that doesn't fit even in that narrow timeline. Awesome, now every patch last 8 weeks.

[Illuminance]

A major patch and you have one of the main NPCs completely unvoiced?

Renzik's VA (assuming they intended to keep the same VA) is a member of the SAG-AFTRA union that has been on strike for the majority of the past year or two. If I had to guess, that's why Renzik was unvoiced. In other games with SAG-AFTRA actors, upwards of 50% of the cast for some patches are completely silent.

Agreed on Siren Isle being complete filler material. Undermine obviously took a lot of effort, but I am wondering to what extent either Metzen's return or Microsoft's layoffs have upended the direction of the story. They might be still trying to figure it out as they go.

If it feels worthwhile to level up and gear your characters to be ready for 11.2, a lot of people will. But if there's no news for a while (or worse yet, if the news is disappointing), it can severely impact player engagement and subscription numbers negatively. Not the kind of thing they want to happen before the Midnight news dump and pre-purchase goes live.

Out of all of the things I could criticize Blizzard for in TWW, engagement would not be one. Are you worried about player retention? It feels like there's an overwhelming amount of stuff to do albeit with varying quality/appeal. They're padding the downtime with leveling events and the upcoming turbo boost, and we still have the rest of 11.1.5 to be deployed (Horrific Visions/Dastardly Duos).

[Dracullus]

Out of all of the things I could criticize Blizzard for in TWW, engagement would not be one. Are you worried about player retention? It feels like there's an overwhelming amount of stuff to do albeit with varying quality/appeal. They're padding the downtime with leveling events and the upcoming turbo boost, and we still have the rest of 11.1.5 to be deployed (Horrific Visions/Dastardly Duos).

And on top of that is MoP Classic, which beside nostalgia crowd is suited more for retail than classic oriented players.

[Worldshaper]

If you don't look at least a bit back, you don't have an adequate sample. You can't establish a pattern with 4 points of data.
Well you personally can, but I am sure you establish patterns when looking at cloud shapes.

It's not just 4 points of data, though.

11.0
11.0.5
11.0.7
11.1
11.1.5
11.1.7

That's 6.

On top of that, we're not just looking at one data point per patch, but 3. Their announcement day, their duration, and the amount of time that passes between their announcement and release dates.

You could argue 11.0.7 and 11.1 don't count since they're inconsistent.

But guess what you get if 11.1 had been announced on December 25th instead of the 19th (the day it got its deep dive video)?

Suddenly, it fits the established patch cadence:

1. Being announced the Wednesday after the previous patch came out.
2. Coming out 6 weeks and 6 days after its announcement, because and 11.0.7 would've lasted 8 weeks. (So 11.1 would've come out on Feb 11.)

- - - Updated - - -

So.. you put strange theory that every patch must last exactly 8 weeks without any wiggle room, then narrow timeline to fit it, when even that fails, you straight up throw away data that doesn't fit even in that narrow timeline. Awesome, now every patch last 8 weeks.

What data did I throw away? Dragonflight and TWW are literally two different expansions, just like Shadowlands and Dragonflight were different.

While it's true DF and TWW started out virtually identical, that has already changed since 11.0.7. Additionally, TWW doesn't have a X.2.6 patch as far as we know, so we know they can't match in the latter half either.

[Marlamin]

First weekday after the 30th anniversary event, are the usual suspects in town for more than just the event/PAX? What did the content creators do with Blizz that wasn't allowed to be streamed/posted about on social media? Put on your tinfoil hats, today is the first day of possible info dumpage or self-hype induced disappointment.

[Worldshaper]

Out of all of the things I could criticize Blizzard for in TWW, engagement would not be one. Are you worried about player retention? It feels like there's an overwhelming amount of stuff to do albeit with varying quality/appeal. They're padding the downtime with leveling events and the upcoming turbo boost, and we still have the rest of 11.1.5 to be deployed (Horrific Visions/Dastardly Duos).

I don't speak for all players, but I'm willing to bet a lot of players want to know what shiny new thing is on the horizon for their time investment to feel worthwhile. Otherwise WoW is just a pointless grind for the sake of grinding. You need to feel like all that work is part of a cohesive whole. A larger story that evolves and excites you.

[Dracullus]

Other people, I am so sorry for prolonging this discussion.

It's not just 4 points of data, though. [let's count!]

11.0 oone
11.0.5 twoo
11.0.7 you ignored that one, don't you remember?
11.1 three
11.1.5 that's in the future, in this thread only you know 11.1.7 date
11.1.7 that.. that patch didn't even started

That's 6.

That's three.

First weekday after the 30th anniversary event, are the usual suspects in town for more than just the event/PAX? What did the content creators do with Blizz that wasn't allowed to be streamed/posted about on social media? Put on your tinfoil hats, today is the first day of possible info dumpage or self-hype induced disappointment.

Earlier someone said Taliesin straight up told about some "secret event" today. If that's legit, I guess they'll just record interviews, in few weeks give streamers NDA early access to record some gameplay and release info dump similar to 10.1 on patch reveal day. So imo nothing to be excited right now.

[Marlamin]

Earlier someone said Taliesin straight up told about some "secret event" today. If that's legit, I guess they'll just record interviews, in few weeks give streamers NDA early access to record some gameplay and release info dump similar to 10.1 on patch reveal day. So imo nothing to be excited right now.

Yeah, if it's today I'm not expecting much until later in the week or tomorrow at best for the first interviews to come out. Not sure they'll sit on it very long, though. Boston is apparently where the Proletariat/housing team is largely based, so I'm guessing it's focused around that.

[Nymrohd]

Yeah, if it's today I'm not expecting much until later in the week or tomorrow at best for the first interviews to come out. Not sure they'll sit on it very long, though.

I think three weeks from now. Next reset creators will be talking Turbo, week after they will be talking Horrific Visions. There is a gap between that and Dastardly Duos going live two weeks after.

[Worldshaper]

Other people, I am so sorry for prolonging this discussion.



That's three.

No, that's 6 * 3 = 18. And we do virtually have the 11.1.7 release date based on the in-game calendar.

I've literally just been proven right in my theory barely a week ago, it's hilarious that you keep questioning it.

[Dracullus]

No, that's 6 * 3 = 18. And we do virtually have the 11.1.7 release date based on the in-game calendar.

I've literally just been proven right in my theory barely a week ago, it's hilarious that you keep questioning it.

Something here is hilarious alright. But I'm not sadist, I check out from this discussion.

[Worldshaper]

Something here is hilarious alright. But I'm not sadist, I check out from this discussion.

Taking the L like a champ, kudos.

[Makorus]

June 25th is actually the most logical announcement date. It's the Wednesday after 11.1.7 comes out, which is typically when they announce new patches (except for 11.1 which was weird because of Warcraft Direct and the Christmas Holidays). The time from announcement to release is 6 weeks and 6 days in TWW, which gives us August 12th. It all makes a lot of sense.

That said, they did give us two lacklustre patches (at least story wise), and it's possible they want to head into the 11.2 hype period earlier than usual just to keep people engaged.

?????

They literally said "we will hear about some other things that people wanna hear about very soon" at the PAX panel, straight after saying there will be more housing info "in the coming weeks". What else would it be?

11.2 will be announced either this or next week. Thinking the patch isn't gonna be announced for another 1 1/2 months is batshit insane lmao.

[Nymrohd]

?????

They literally said "we will hear about some other things that people wanna hear about very soon" at the PAX panel, straight after saying there will be more housing info "in the coming weeks". What else would it be?

11.2 will be announced either this or next week. Thinking the patch isn't gonna be announced for another 1 1/2 months is batshit insane lmao.

If Turbo generates a ton of hate next week (I don't think it will but this is a fickle playerbase), they might drop it real fast to move the discussion imo.

[Makorus]

If Turbo generates a ton of hate next week (I don't think it will but this is a fickle playerbase), they might drop it real fast to move the discussion imo.

Honestly, wouldn't be surprised if Turbo generates complaints.

You'll have a reignited Dinar discussion, people realising that they suddenly have to farm 150+ crests, and have to recraft all their stuff and spend more gold.

[Worldshaper]

?????

They literally said "we will hear about some other things that people wanna hear about very soon" at the PAX panel, straight after saying there will be more housing info "in the coming weeks". What else would it be?

11.2 will be announced either this or next week. Thinking the patch isn't gonna be announced for another 1 1/2 months is batshit insane lmao.

Like I said a few posts ago, I think it is a legitimate possibility that they opt to announce 11.2 earlier than what the regular cadence would suggest.

They need something to excite people right now. I'd say it's 50/50 that they announce it next Wednesday. If not then, probably June 25th.