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

[Paula Deen]

No one wants optimism

Yeah you know the Shadowlands was a great Benchmark we should just do that again.

[Eldryth]

Worgen intro I think qualifies as well. Another one I think that was well done. The mistake was having their story progression locked behind the Forsaken Silverpine quests. The whole thing when told together is honestly imo, one of the best stories in WoW to date.

And Wrathgate, and the Icecrown dungeons. Arguably Sanctum of Domination too, though it's very understandable that people would want to forget that.

Halls of Reflection made a really great framework to have us actually lose a dungeon or raid and still have it be satisfying, so it's kind of a waste that they never used it again. Just have the final fight be about us escaping from an overwhelming foe. It still ends with us "winning" the encounter so it feels like a victory, then continue the story with us regrouping and finding a new strategy for the next tier.

[Wangming]

Worgen intro I think qualifies as well. Another one I think that was well done. The mistake was having their story progression locked behind the Forsaken Silverpine quests. The whole thing when told together is honestly imo, one of the best stories in WoW to date.

Worgen storyline is pretty much:
Starting area for Worgen
Silverpine
Duskwood (Stalvan 2.0)
Cata artifact weapon storyline
Legion (Stormheim + Rogue)
Worgen heritage armor
Reclamation of Gilneas

[Darkarath]

That's your wishful thinking, not a fact. Something like WoD is far more likely.

So... A full revamp made from the scratch? Yeah. That's what I want and that's what we are getting.

Halls of Reflection made a really great framework to have us actually lose a dungeon or raid and still have it be satisfying, so it's kind of a waste that they never used it again. Just have the final fight be about us escaping from an overwhelming foe. It still ends with us "winning" the encounter so it feels like a victory, then continue the story with us regrouping and finding a new strategy for the next tier.

True. Halls of Reflection worked pretty well. It was very cool at the time.

Worgen intro I think qualifies as well. Another one I think that was well done. The mistake was having their story progression locked behind the Forsaken Silverpine quests. The whole thing when told together is honestly imo, one of the best stories in WoW to date.

Everything involving the fight between Worgen and Forsaken in Cataclysm was very cool IMO.

I have been thinking about the new player experience that Blizzard would most likely introduce in Midnight. I doubt that they would give us new starting experiences for each race ever again. Blood Elves would at least have a problem with that approach with QT stuck in Midnight. Plus I don't think that Blizzard would put the effort when they know that most players would level doing dungeons.

We have the Lorewalking feature, that scales all the world to your level and allow us to quest wherever Blizzard wants without messing with the "real" world.

I believe that Blizzard would use this tech to make a Main Questline for new players that speeds them up to max level, like 11.0 Main Questline, while explaining well how their class work and the main WoW's systems.

Bonus points for Blizzard if decides to do, instead of a Main Questline, Class Questlines, which would probably share a fair deal of quests, but with enough differences to give them some flavour.

Factions and races wouldn't matter much in such a system. Of course there would be some differences, but I can see Blizzard taking the approach that they have been following since Shadowlands. Meaning that no matter if we belong to Horde or Alliance, we do the same quests and ally with the same factions.

Such a feature would allow Blizzard to do whatever they want with any zone, old or new, as leveling would be "instanced".

[Dracullus]

Except we don't. That's just something you convinced yourself is happening. We don't even know to what extent Northrend will feature in TLT and whether there are any plans for Kalimdor at all.

We never know, it's speculation thread. But we can observe that expansion set in old world require exactly same work from Blizzard, but generate more hype. Of course we can still expect expacs like Avaloren, but prediction that from 12.0 we will see more "remake" expansions than new continents is far from delusional.

And to be honest, taking Quel'Thalas from TBC and expanding it to full continent is not that different that taking Northrend, Broken Isles from Warcraft III and expanding it to full continent. So it's not even new concept, just another round of exploring Azeroth.

[Hearthfinder]

Two fun twists they could do with the expansion theme:

- 'Old world' was literal and we have to travel to Quel'Thalas in the past, because the present one is destroyed by the Void. Meet legendary elves like Anasterian Sunstrider, and the entire Windrunner family. Find the key to stopping Xal'atath in the past, in order to save the future.

- The expansion does begin in Quel'Thalas as the Void invades, but swiftly becomes a story about the Light. We explore dubious forms of Light worship with the Blood Knights, the Red Dawn, and the Arathi before finding a more pure expression of faith with the Scion and the naaru. Even the Knights of the Silver Hand have got some self reflection to do. Expansion ends as we travel to Avaloren, resolving the Light-conflict and setting things up for TLT.

[-Midnight-]

Blizzard told us we will be going to Quel'thalas and it will be scaled up to the size of a modern continent. There isn't much debate on that.

Northrend will be weird. It's around the same size as the Dragon Isles, so it wouldn't need to be upscaled, however a modern continent with 10 zones is unheard of. We're used to 4 since Legion. Do you think they will merge some Northrend zones?

[Scyth]

For Midnight’s cinematic I just want to see action, the Void vs Belves/Velves or something like that.
Anything is better than the cinematics we got for DF and TWW tbh.

[Xilurm]

Blizzard told us we will be going to Quel'thalas and it will be scaled up to the size of a modern continent. There isn't much debate on that.

Northrend will be weird. It's around the same size as the Dragon Isles, so it wouldn't need to be upscaled, however a modern continent with 10 zones is unheard of. We're used to 4 since Legion. Do you think they will merge some Northrend zones?

That doesn't mean they can't ship an expansion with more than that. Especially when so much of the work is already done for them.

[Dvalin]

Blizzard told us we will be going to Quel'thalas and it will be scaled up to the size of a modern continent. There isn't much debate on that.

Northrend will be weird. It's around the same size as the Dragon Isles, so it wouldn't need to be upscaled, however a modern continent with 10 zones is unheard of. We're used to 4 since Legion. Do you think they will merge some Northrend zones?

I think some merges are in order, with some of the original zones turning into subzones. I guess the landscape will change here and there, as well. Maybe some terraforming/ordering devices built by the Titans, deep crevaces in the ground, you name it. All to make Azeroth comply to their will.

[Viridiel]

I really just don't know what they could do with Zul'Drak. Most of the other zones have multiple other zones they share soft transitions or a mountain border with (which could easily be destroyed by Iridikron), but Zul'Drak has a hard edge with every single adjacent zone. It would need some serious changes to make sense merging with another zone, which is partly why I've advocated for it just being blown off the map before.

The only thing that's certain for me is that Grizzly Hills and Howling Fjord will be merged. They're basically the exact same zone with a couple of big mountains in the middle.

[Wangming]

Two fun twists they could do with the expansion theme:

- 'Old world' was literal and we have to travel to Quel'Thalas in the past, because the present one is destroyed by the Void. Meet legendary elves like Anasterian Sunstrider, and the entire Windrunner family. Find the key to stopping Xal'atath in the past, in order to save the future.

I mean, Seasons of Discovery showed 'maybe Xal'atath' active in the Vanilla era. She could have done something that helps her against Quel Thalas in the present. So it is possible.

Okay, here is how I think it could work, and it ties back into features we could see.

Time travel to be more open world and dynamic. Like, at places you are phased into a past version to look around and maybe even affect the present. Or get into a collapsed cave by rewinding time to when it was acessible. It could be a nice way to make exploration more fun, and to do environmental puzzles.

[Dvalin]

We already had the 'timetravel'-expansion, no more please. Some Bronze Dragon shenanigans are okay sometimes, but it's generally a flawed plot-device.

[Nymrohd]

I really just don't know what they could do with Zul'Drak. Most of the other zones have multiple other zones they share soft transitions or a mountain border with (which could easily be destroyed by Iridikron), but Zul'Drak has a hard edge with every single adjacent zone. It would need some serious changes to make sense merging with another zone, which is partly why I've advocated for it just being blown off the map before.

The only thing that's certain for me is that Grizzly Hills and Howling Fjord will be merged. They're basically the exact same zone with a couple of big mountains in the middle.

Imagine if in the cinematic we see the Storm Peaks pretty much exploding as the different underground titan machinery below it comes alive and rises further up, the mountains collapsing. The Halls of Valor arrives and joins into a new Ulduar zone that takes up the entire space. Zul'drak effectively get buried beneath the avalance and becomes part of the new zone. Part of the questline there would be about Talan'ji trying to salvage relics of the Drakkari and help what is left of the local Loa.

[Wangming]

For Midnight’s cinematic I just want to see action, the Void vs Belves/Velves or something like that.
Anything is better than the cinematics we got for DF and TWW tbh.

I want them to lean a bit into the horror side, if it is the Void.

Here is my 'script'

Alleria is walking around in Silvermoon, finally rebuilt from the Scourge attack.
But suddenly entities from the Void manifest and attack the people. Alleria tries to shout at them to run, but a hand covers her mouth. It is Xal'atath.
She helplessly watches as people are slaughtered and buildings toppled.
As a tower would just fall on someone important, Alleria wakes up.
It was just a dream, everything is alright.
Outside her window a smirking Xal'atath is floating.

[Xilurm]

Time travel to be more open world and dynamic.

Jesus please no...

maybe even affect the present.

GOD PLEASE NO!

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Outside her window a smirking Xal'atath is floating.

This has tremendous meme potential.

[Raetary]

I want them to lean a bit into the horror side, if it is the Void.

Here is my 'script'

Alleria is walking around in Silvermoon, finally rebuilt from the Scourge attack.
But suddenly entities from the Void manifest and attack the people. Alleria tries to shout at them to run, but a hand covers her mouth. It is Xal'atath.
She helplessly watches as people are slaughtered and buildings toppled.
As a tower would just fall on someone important, Alleria wakes up.
It was just a dream, everything is alright.
Outside her window a smirking Xal'atath is floating.

I dunno, i also want them to lean into the horror side, but i find dream sequences pretty cheap.

I'd rather watch it actually happen.

[Hitei]

I really just don't know what they could do with Zul'Drak. Most of the other zones have multiple other zones they share soft transitions or a mountain border with (which could easily be destroyed by Iridikron), but Zul'Drak has a hard edge with every single adjacent zone. It would need some serious changes to make sense merging with another zone, which is partly why I've advocated for it just being blown off the map before.

The only thing that's certain for me is that Grizzly Hills and Howling Fjord will be merged. They're basically the exact same zone with a couple of big mountains in the middle.

It's no different than Boralus having hard edges and being part of Tirigarde Sound, or Suramar City have a hard edge and being part of the larger Suramar zone. Or even any different than how Azure Span has cliffs that carve the zone into different subsections or Drustvar is split in the middle into two sections by a mountain range. They'll just have it be the upper section of the Howling Fjord-Grizzly Hills-Zul'drak zone.

[Wangming]

We already had the 'timetravel'-expansion, no more please. Some Bronze Dragon shenanigans are okay sometimes, but it's generally a flawed plot-device.

Yeah sure. Not like it worked in Shadowbringers or Endwalker. No, sir. Not at all.

But if you prefer rule of cool MCU type storytelling that fits WoW better, I have news for you.

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I dunno, i also want them to lean into the horror side, but i find dream sequences pretty cheap.

I'd rather watch it actually happen.

Yes, I totally get that. But on the other hand, weird visions that drive you mad, are pretty much a given for the Void.
I mean, Xal doesn't even have to necessarily attack Quel'Thalas. Just torment Alleria with hallucinations of the fall of Silvermoon and she will run there ready to fight. The void presence she brings shall do the rest.

[Nymrohd]

I dunno, i also want them to lean into the horror side, but i find dream sequences pretty cheap.

I'd rather watch it actually happen.

I think something similar to the visions Anduin got on his BfA meeting with Wrathion can work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCXN8rqhNkE

Damn, watching this again I know the fujos went crazy here.