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

[Enrif]

I think so. I couldn't find a matching one at least.

The fact that they chose an Alliance Thalassian Elf (instead of something like a Human or Orc), but were so careful to hide half of his face, always made it suspicious to me. Sure, I wouldn't say with 100% certainty that it has to be High Elves- it could be major new customization options for Blood and Void elves- but I don't see any point in hiding the face like that if they weren't teasing something there. It really stands out that they took great care to hide his eyes throughout the whole trailer.

What if it is the eyes? Blood Elves and Void Elves have glowing eyes. What if a high elf race would have the option for eyes that don't glow? Allowing brown and grey eyes. Also, perhaps the model for high elves is actually a "half elf" model, as we may deal with a few half elfs in midnight, Arathor and the Twins of Varessa. And the Arathi used mostly just human models with slightly pointy ears. A half elf that is closer to the thalasian elves but with some human traits. Straight standing, option for even shorter ears, no glowing eyes, perhaps a bit buffer compared to blood/void elves but not human level of buff.

This would also seed some more variety once we go to the Arathi empire. Human, Kul Tian, High Elf and Half Elf models to represent the Empire.

[Eldryth]

What if it is the eyes? Blood Elves and Void Elves have glowing eyes. What if a high elf race would have the option for eyes that don't glow? Allowing brown and grey eyes. Also, perhaps the model for high elves is actually a "half elf" model, as we may deal with a few half elfs in midnight, Arathor and the Twins of Varessa. And the Arathi used mostly just human models with slightly pointy ears. A half elf that is closer to the thalasian elves but with some human traits. Straight standing, option for even shorter ears, no glowing eyes, perhaps a bit buffer compared to blood/void elves but not human level of buff.

This would also seed some more variety once we go to the Arathi empire. Human, Kul Tian, High Elf and Half Elf models to represent the Empire.

I do think that's a possibility- though I had been wondering more about if maybe High Elves might have stopped feeding on magic entirely and lost their glowing eyes. Half-Elves could be interesting too, but from recent art of Arator, they seem to have glowing eyes just like Blood Elves.

It does really stand out that they never showed the teaser character's eyes, though, so him having different eyes does seem like one of the most likely reasons to me. The other possibility that comes to mind is that he could have some of the war paint that High Elves (and Alleria) tend to use around his eyes, which I'd personally love whether it's a High Elf or just an option added to Blood/Void Elves.

[huth]

I mean we basically did in Tomb of Sargeras. We had beaten the invasion. Argus was us taking the fight to the Legion and destroying it pretty handedly.

Then you've seriously misunderstood the story. We momentarily inconvenienced them, nothing more. And Illidan opening the big gate to Argus meant they could just send an even bigger invasion over at trivial cost to them. Argus was a desperate dash to destroy their command infrastructure before they won that would have failed if it hadn't been for the Pantheon being there.

[KyleEverett]

Then you've seriously misunderstood the story. We momentarily inconvenienced them, nothing more. And Illidan opening the big gate to Argus meant they could just send an even bigger invasion over at trivial cost to them. Argus was a desperate dash to destroy their command infrastructure before they won that would have failed if it hadn't been for the Pantheon being there.

I think you're misunderstanding the story too. We killed Kil'Jaeden, their main commander. All a sudden the world that was supposed to be easy to conquer was suddenly on their home turf. Was it a gamble? Yes, Illidan gambled big time, but he was right. The Legion FAILED in Tomb and Argus was us walking right into their heart and destroying them.(Likely due to Dreadlord sabotage yes, but regardless.) The only thing that stood in our way was Argus but we had already freed the Pantheon. We also forced Argus to be used early as a last ditch effort. Everything about the Argus patch was the Legion was on the back foot shocked we had the gumption to bring the fight to them.

[huth]

I think you're misunderstanding the story too. We killed Kil'Jaeden, their main commander. All a sudden the world that was supposed to be easy to conquer was suddenly on their home turf. Was it a gamble? Yes, Illidan gambled big time, but he was right. The Legion FAILED in Tomb and Argus was us walking right into their heart and destroying them.(Likely due to Dreadlord sabotage yes, but regardless.) The only thing that stood in our way was Argus but we had already freed the Pantheon. We also forced Argus to be used early as a last ditch effort. Everything about the Argus patch was the Legion was on the back foot shocked we had the gumption to bring the fight to them.

I very much doubt they considered Azeroth easy to conquer given that they had already failed twice before. And it being right on their doorstep was an advantage for them, not us.

And it only worked because we got lucky that the Pantheon was there, otherwise we'd have powerlessly stood on Argus while Sargeras would have won with us being unable to do anything about it. That's not so much a gamble as blind luck following an utterly retarded move by Illidan.

[Alanar]

They wouldn't unlock Troll and Void Elf Paladins purely from a preorder bonus would they?

They could, however they said paladin etc will be for all races eventually. We dont know how they will roll that out, but it was announced a while back already.

[Enrif]

I do think that's a possibility- though I had been wondering more about if maybe High Elves might have stopped feeding on magic entirely and lost their glowing eyes. Half-Elves could be interesting too, but from recent art of Arator, they seem to have glowing eyes just like Blood Elves.

that they lost their eye glow due to their mana diet would also be a good explanation. For Arator we have only seen a book cover, no model or CG render, as book covers can show characters vastly different, to how we see them in game.

[Nymrohd]

I very much doubt they considered Azeroth easy to conquer given that they had already failed twice before. And it being right on their doorstep was an advantage for them, not us.

And it only worked because we got lucky that the Pantheon was there, otherwise we'd have powerlessly stood on Argus while Sargeras would have won with us being unable to do anything about it. That's not so much a gamble as blind luck following an utterly retarded move by Illidan.

With no help from the Pantheon we had already shut down the Legion's portal nexus, main command and weapon production, trolled them all over their main staging grounds and taken down Aggramar. We only faced Argus so we could shut down their infinite regeneration for good.
I mean Sargeras would have taken Azeroth in the meanwhile but that's on the faction leaders and dragonflights doing nothing while we were working overtime.

[rainhard]

With no help from the Pantheon we had already shut down the Legion's portal nexus, main command and weapon production, trolled them all over their main staging grounds and taken down Aggramar. We only faced Argus so we could shut down their infinite regeneration for good.
I mean Sargeras would have taken Azeroth in the meanwhile but that's on the faction leaders and dragonflights doing nothing while we were working overtime.

What could anyone have done against sargeras though? especially since the aspects were fractured/weakened too but even if not it still seemed helpless, and on the demon regeneration was argus their source of immortality or just a speedup for the process? i am unsure...

[Nymrohd]

What could anyone have done against sargeras though? especially since the aspects were fractured/weakened too but even if not it still seemed helpless, and on the demon regeneration was argus their source of immortality or just a speedup for the process? i am unsure...

My understanding is that he sped up the process. On what could be done about Sargeras, dunno. But it's not like he was why we went to Argus. In the entire campaign we seemed pretty oblivious to the fact he was there or at least I never understood he was meant to be right outside Azeroth.
Keep in mind Sargeras' plan by the Chronicle was to corrupt Azeroth, not destroy it. So we had time.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Hopefully midnight has some badass cinematic, in my opinion most of the stuff that was produced for TWW was pretty boring not worth coming back to rewatch.

Writing was also astrocious, especially for Alleria that with edgy makeover, made her acting like dumb teenager in her emo phase too, not being able to even have one convincing sentence fitting her status of very experienced veteran.

[Melorandor]

Hopefully midnight has some badass cinematic, in my opinion most of the stuff that was produced for TWW was pretty boring not worth coming back to rewatch.

Writing was also astrocious, especially for Alleria that with edgy makeover, made her acting like dumb teenager in her emo phase too, not being able to even have one convincing sentence fitting her status of very experienced veteran.

Been reading around that a majority of TWW up until 11.1 was leftover Danuser stuff.

[Dvalin]

Been reading around that a majority of TWW up until 11.1 was leftover Danuser stuff.

Dialogue and the like are not a one-man endeavour.

For those thinking we're going to Avaloren in the Midnight expansion: they're clearly seeding the other side of Azeroth for post Worldsoul Saga, I mean, they know shadowdropping new landmasses doesn't work when doing proper worldbuilding. It's called the 'door-ajar'-method; You hint at things in the broader world, with some names and vague descriptions, and you flesh it out when the time has come. Avaloren/Arathi Empire pretty much abide by this logic; They're slowly being seeded as if they were always a part of the setting, but they still need some time in the oven (read: more seeding/hints in the coming expansions).

There are enough other hypothetical patch-zones to visit in the meantime.

[blaatschaap]

Brainiacs will still be scapegoating Danuser when wow patch 15.2 releases in 2034.

[Cheezits]

It's too much to say it was just one person, but the early plans for TWW (which were foreshadowed in early Dragonflight, far before Metzens return) were definitely changed, so you can say it was "the early team's" story that was changed. Kotick of all people, unfortunately, backed this up in an interview.

What I'm curious about is if Undermine was originally planned or not. Considering how developed it is, and it being a no-brainer for an underground expansion, it feels likely... but the story is very disconnected.

However the focus on the black blood may have played straight into the Worldcore so I'm gonna say 70/30 on it being the plan.

[Dvalin]

It's too much to say it was just one person, but the early plans for TWW (which were foreshadowed in early Dragonflight, far before Metzens return) were definitely changed, so you can say it was "the early team's" story that was changed. Kotick of all people, unfortunately, backed this up in an interview.

What I'm curious about is if Undermine was originally planned or not. Considering how developed it is, and it being a no-brainer for an underground expansion, it feels likely... but the story is very disconnected.

However the focus on the black blood may have played straight into the Worldcore so I'm gonna say 70/30 on it being the plan.

It's basically a plan that got expanded, and split in different parts with new additions inbetween. Probably early enough in production before proper in-game assets, voice-overs, etc. were being made for the patches. These changes maybe came a bit later than usual in the production-process, that we do not know (a lot of things change within a production-cycle, with most of it not reaching our ears). As Marlamin confirmed that the background data shows Undermine and K'aresh assets being made around the same time.

I don't think we can attribute a certain disconnection people feel (whether it's justified or not, 'cause I think the narrative makes total sense for what the devs want to do) to changes late in the production, as some Undermine hints and assets were already there hidden in the files when TWW launched, as well as Goblins in the Ringing Deeps. It does seem that the Titan-related plot, the Worldcore, etc. have been spread over the trilogy, and will probably be elaborated-upon during The Last Titan when we travel to Northrend. That I do not doubt.

[Dracullus]

Oh yeah, I have high expectations from CGI. Combo of TWW intro quality + finally some war action Legion/BfA style - that could produce something on par with Diablo 4 best cinematics.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

of course im not one to say with rose tinted glasses that wow had some oscar worthy writing always when it comes to main story characters, but somehow to me TWW falls very flat and hardly believeable or disconnected, even for wow standards.

I feel like the main story is not coinciding with the "beat" and the main characters that have decades of experience have the type of writing that is not convincing at all, it's either too preachy like someone was adding their journal motivational IRL qoutes or too dumb, even for WoW characters, the script lines rival the worst CW or SyFy shows conversations between characters honestly.

I really have high hopes and was waiting for midnight more than TWW since the first reveal, i pray for some really bad ass epic moments like we had in the past, because i think the balance is very off when it comes to the amount of talking compared the amount of action that you go "fuuuck yeah" while watching.

[Enteroctopus Magnificus]

Hopefully midnight has some badass cinematic, in my opinion most of the stuff that was produced for TWW was pretty boring not worth coming back to rewatch.

Writing was also astrocious, especially for Alleria that with edgy makeover, made her acting like dumb teenager in her emo phase too, not being able to even have one convincing sentence fitting her status of very experienced veteran.

Unfortunately, we'll never have quality cinematics like before Shadowlands again. The teams aren't the same anymore, and I think I read that the budget has been significantly reduced, but I might be making up some bullshit on that one. Gone are the days of epic cinematics that sweat testosterone with muscular, oiled-up guys fighting. Make way for sentimentality and tears. I would be surprised if Alleria doesn't show up to cry and show how much she doubts herself but has to protect her family.

[Dvalin]

Unfortunately, we'll never have quality cinematics like before Shadowlands again. The teams aren't the same anymore, and I think I read that the budget has been significantly reduced, but I might be making up some bullshit on that one. Gone are the days of epic cinematics that sweat testosterone with muscular, oiled-up guys fighting. Make way for sentimentality and tears. I would be surprised if Alleria doesn't show up to cry and show how much she doubts herself but has to protect her family.

This is so passive agressive/nihilistic, I sighed reading this.