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

[Fahrad Wagner]

A return to Quel'thalas is not a return to northern Lordaeron. Forget it people, properly manage expectations. A revamp isn't coming for Midnight, they would've said so otherwise.

We know nothing for sure of Midnight so far aside that Quel'Thalas is involved and revamped, and the Void is the main theme. So no, what you're saying is not true, it could very much still be a northern Lordaeron expansion. Just as much as it could be Quel'Thalas + 1/2 zones south of it, or solely Quel'Thalas in a glorified scaling, it could also be everything north of Thandol Span. I guess we won't know for sure until August!

[Xeladriel]

I still think that TLT is not a Northrend Revamped,instead i think we will go to Avaloren, but the prepatch chain will be on ulduar

[Wangming]

On that note, they should "get rid of" allied races and have us select a base race (dwarf) and then a subculture (bronzebeard / wildhammer / dark iron / earthen) from the race select screen. And the subculture influences what customisation options you have available to you. And obviously they could add high elves this way.

Frankly, a good chunk of races would (should, could) work as a sort of end game progression.
Worgen something, undead something, mecha something, void something, lightforged something. It would add more variety, and wouldn't lead to stupid shit like the worgen form in game not being that much stronger than a regular arse human. Also, only worgen monks get to use their hands, and we don't have a bite attack. Whyyyy?

Make it a choice we pick at the level cap, and give them each a talent tree or something. It can be as small as a Hero talent tree, for all I care.

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A return to Quel'thalas is not a return to northern Lordaeron. Forget it people, properly manage expectations. A revamp isn't coming for Midnight, they would've said so otherwise.

The Quel'Thalas we have in game now is two zones and a small hub. That can't be stretched into an expansion continent.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

A return to Quel'thalas is not a return to northern Lordaeron. Forget it people, properly manage expectations. A revamp isn't coming for Midnight, they would've said so otherwise.

Metzen said we were going back to Quel'thalas to help the elves. He didn't say we'd only go there.

For the time being, it's no exaggeration to speculate about Lordaeron.

[Dvalin]

Not this again. All of you should read the interviews. They were specifically talking about expanding the zones by upping the scale and details of it, making room for things like sub-cultures and all that. No mention of Lordaeron, only the 'fabled Kingdom of Quel'thalas'. And Northrend for The Last Titan.

I would also sugggest rewatching the video of the Worldsoul Saga announcement.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

The Quel'Thalas we have in game now is two zones and a small hub. That can't be stretched into an expansion continent.

They cannot stretch Quelthalas into a whole expansion, regardless of what Metzen said. It doesn't have enough diversity in themes.

It's not impossible. In addition to these two zones, there is Zul'aman and perhaps Northeron, according to the leaks. That's enough of a zone variety.

[Fahrad Wagner]

They cannot stretch Quelthalas into a whole expansion, regardless of what Metzen said. It doesn't have enough diversity in themes.

I think they could if they wanted to, TWW had 4 main zones, you can do that with QT: Eversong + Ghostlands + Amani Lands + 1 zone (could be a Suramar-style Silvermoon, could be Void Quel'Danas, could be a Naga zone, could be something else entirely). All four could be distinctly different from an artistic perspective (there is a risk of it being redundant yeah, but if done right it wouldn't be, the same way the Broken Isles were diversified, or Kul Tiras and Zandalar). Now I think they won't pass up the opportunity to tackle the rest of Northern EK, they know how much the player base loves that part of Azeroth and how iconic it is to the whole Warcraft Franchise? It would be silly from them to completely ignore Lordaeron, Eastwald and Gilneas/Arathi when it's literally right there and an easy win for the players. Also the latest Arathi questline about the Red Dawn? Feels an awful lot like a setup for a future storyline, to fluff the Scarlets a bit again.

[KyleEverett]

Remember that the devs at Blizzcon said "Midnight will be a full expansion, 4 zones, 8 dungeons, and a raid."

[Xeladriel]

Not this again. All of you should read the interviews. They were specifically talking about expanding the zones by upping the scale and details of it, making room for things like sub-cultures and all that. No mention of Lordaeron, only the 'fabled Kingdom of Quel'thalas'. And Northrend for The Last Titan.

I would also sugggest rewatching the video of the Worldsoul Saga announcement.

Northred is only mentioned when he said we will go ulduar, (he said we return northrend, especifically ulduar).

We went many times to northrend, in legion with artifact chains, in shadowlands to go shadowlands.

I think that is impossible that they revamped northrend, is the biggest continent at date

[Nymrohd]

I've been hoping for a proper Wildhammer AR and Wildhammer druids for a while now, whereas AR won't happen cause it's kind of been mixed with BB dwarves with the tattoo customisations, Wildhammer druids would be pretty cool!

My hope is for a race redesign where ARs are perhaps folded into races maybe with a new system for racials that gives you multiple choices for each race. So you'd have Dwarves and then options under Dwarves. Same for things like the various versions of High Elves or Trolls.

[Fahrad Wagner]

Not this again. All of you should read the interviews. They were specifically talking about expanding the zones by upping the scale and details of it, making room for things like sub-cultures and all that. No mention of Lordaeron, only the 'fabled Kingdom of Quel'thalas'. And Northrend for The Last Titan.

I would also sugggest rewatching the video of the Worldsoul Saga announcement.

And before we had more information about Khaz Algar, no one expected the Arathi or a Nerubian zone necessarily. They can take any direction they want, the fact the main focus is on Quel'Thalas doesn't mean Quel'Thalas is all we'll get. And we also have to differentiate content on release and patch content. Because we'll likely have 12.0.5, 12.0.7, 12.1, 12.1.5, 12.1.7, 12.2, 12.2.5 and 12.2.7 and all of those could include Northern EK bit by bit. Or not, it's also a possibility we'll just stay in Quel'Thalas (but I don't think we will, it's fine for the 4 zones at launch but it'll grow old through the cycle of the expansion)

[Wangming]

It's not impossible. In addition to these two zones, there is Zul'aman and perhaps Northeron, according to the leaks. That's enough of a zone variety.

Northeron is the northern tip of the Twilight Highlands. That is pretty far south from QT and even Lordaeron. Also, I'm not sure how large you'd think Zul'Aman would be. It is a city.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

Not this again. All of you should read the interviews. They were specifically talking about expanding the zones by upping the scale and details of it, making room for things like sub-cultures and all that. No mention of Lordaeron, only the 'fabled Kingdom of Quel'thalas'. And Northrend for The Last Titan.

I would also sugggest rewatching the video of the Worldsoul Saga announcement.

He wasn't going to spoil the whole expansion either when TWW wasn't even out yet. Again, we don't know if it will be ONLY Quel'thalas. We'll have to wait another 2 months to be sure.

[Dvalin]

Northred is only mentioned when he said we will go ulduar, (he said we return northrend, especifically ulduar).

We went many times to northrend, in legion with artifact chains, in shadowlands to go shadowlands.

I think that is impossible that they revamped northrend, is the biggest continent at date

He specifically mentioned Northrend first. Returning to a revamped/expanded Quel'thalas and Northrend gives the devs ample opportunity to seed future continents.

Anyway, the devs have been specific enough. People are headcanoning here, because they think they may not like the outcome, otherwise. Even though the revisiting of Quel'thalas/Northrend could be very cool and ambitious on itself.

[Xeladriel]

And before we had more information about Khaz Algar, no one expected the Arathi or a Nerubian zone necessarily. They can take any direction they want, the fact the main focus is on Quel'Thalas doesn't mean Quel'Thalas is all we'll get. And we also have to differentiate content on release and patch content. Because we'll likely have 12.0.5, 12.0.7, 12.1, 12.1.5, 12.1.7, 12.2, 12.2.5 and 12.2.7 and all of those could include Northern EK bit by bit. Or not, it's also a possibility we'll just stay in Quel'Thalas (but I don't think we will, it's fine for the 4 zones at launch but it'll grow old through the cycle of the expansion)

12.1 Draenei Islands Revamped, if you going to revamp quel'thalas, the draenei islands should be too

TBC 3.0 (2.0 was wod)

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

Northeron is the northern tip of the Twilight Highlands. That is pretty far south from QT and even Lordaeron. Also, I'm not sure how large you'd think Zul'Aman would be. It is a city.

Northeron was originally located south-east of Quel'thalas, before being retconed as an irrelevant corner of the twilight highlands. It's no exaggeration to think that they could go back. Especially since Chronicles mentions an icy deadly zone, which matches Northeron's description.

As for Zul'aman, it's supposed to be an entire area, not just a city. Trolls live there.

[Fahrad Wagner]

My hope is for a race redesign where ARs are perhaps folded into races maybe with a new system for racials that gives you multiple choices for each race. So you'd have Dwarves and then options under Dwarves. Same for things like the various versions of High Elves or Trolls.

Amen to that I've been advocating for AR to be baked into their regular races for a while, with a whole revamp system introducing the notion of background or clan for relevant races. I liked the leak that mentioned that (which makes me think it's 100% fake), but yeah it'd be cool to add some flavour to each race and it would help solve the bloating for some races (you could add the Quel'dorei without making a third duplicate of the same race, just bake the Blood Elves and the Void Elves into one race, add High Elves cosmetic options, and add a lore field where you can choose between Sin'dorei, Quel'dorei and Ren'dorei. AR should have never existed in the first place, they should have been customisations of their parent race, and when impossible to do so (Nightborne, Vulpera) then they should have been normal races.

Northeron is the northern tip of the Twilight Highlands. That is pretty far south from QT and even Lordaeron. Also, I'm not sure how large you'd think Zul'Aman would be. It is a city.

They could easily retcon that, Cataclysm shenanigans having split Northeron in two + Zul'Aman we only knew the city bit from the raid but the troll lands could be extended much deeper into some sort of dark forest. It wouldn't be the first zone retcon Blizz makes (and most of them worked out pretty well). I mean let's not forget the whole shape of the EK today in WoW is a succession of retcons

12.1 Draenei Islands Revamped, if you going to revamp quel'thalas, the draenei islands should be too

TBC 3.0 (2.0 was wod)

Draenei Islands would be cute, but I hardly see how it would fit Midnight - that being said if Blizzard wants to make it fit the narrative, they'll find a way just like they did with Undermine and K'aresh

[Dvalin]

I've posted this bit from an interview earlier, but I will do so again:

"We’re giving our world builders some free rein to expand. Those areas may be geographically larger than they were. That’ll give them more opportunities to introduce some of the smaller points of interest where you’ll have a culture or a local tribe and give them the ability to have storylines that center on that. We don’t want people to feel like, oh, wait a minute, it’s that same place I know. It’s gonna feel like the same place; it’s just that it is literally going to be a little bit larger than what you’ve experienced. Flight being much more accessible, we need to have a larger landmass for people to be able to explore.”

- This is regarding the expansion of 'existing' zones (they'll probably be on a separate subcontinent, still, like the two versions of Dalaran we got).

Also, this is what Metzen said, word for word:

Metzen on Midnight: 'In this expansion you'll be returning to the old world, to the fabled lands of Quel'thalas...'
- Doesn't sound like Lordaeron to me. Quel'thalas clearly being the continent we're going to visit.

Metzen on the Last Titan: 'In this chapter you'll again be returning to the old world. This time, to the wintery lands of Northrend. And there, at Ulduar, you'll bear witness to the return of the Titans.'
- A clear reference to Northrend being the centre stage continent for this expansion.

- Come on people. It's not that difficult. Also take in consideration the '4 zones, 8 dungeons, 1 raid' principle.

[KyleEverett]

The ruins we have in game look like it fell into the sea.

[Dvalin]

Also, one of the Trading Post themes will be Dwarves. I think that's what the Gryphons are for. Not every Trading Post description is a hint towards the next expansion.