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

[Santandame]

what are they even going to announce for wow? november 2026 is too early for the last titan. maybe classic+?

Is it? TWW released in August 24, Midnight announcement was August 25. Exactly a year.

Midnight will launch February 26. A couple months short of a year isn’t that much of a difference for an announcement.

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I still think there's a remaster for the pleaguelands on the way, either for 12.1, or 12.2. To me it seems like the most logical move, and really prefer to have old zones revamped with modern game philosophies, than new unexplored zones.

Why is it the most logical move? Just because geographically it’s next to Quel’thalas?

I don’t know why people want to waste the Plaguelands as patch content when Lordaeron could quite easily carry its own expansion.

[Enrif]

Why is it the most logical move? Just because geographically it’s next to Quel’thalas?

I don’t know why people want to waste the Plaguelands as patch content when Lordaeron could quite easily carry its own expansion.

while i don't think we get a lot of lordaeron stuff, there are multiple reason why some could make sense:

1. Lights Hope Chapel hosts a grave that was concentrated enough by the light to repel Arthas and the Deathlord from winning there. And with light being a big part of MID it could make sense to have that area back.
2. Similarly, the areas of Tyr's Hand and Tirisfal as a whole relate to Keeper Tyr, who has strong light association, so he might make his appearance there.
3. Lastly, if you played Lemix recently, or even back in Legion, the complex of Tomb of Tyr was used for three different artifact weapons: Thoradins Weapons Strom'kar, which relates to the Amani inderectly, but was used to kill the C'thrax Zakajz. Xal'atath absorbed the energy of the dead Zakajz, and lastly Tyr's Hand. It is interesting how strongly the themes of this tomb match Midnight now.

[allegrian]

I don't think patch content will focus on revamping maps as they were quite afraid of Midnight feedback where players would be angry at reused zones instead of new ones. They now see the bast majority of players like the idea so we could see more of that in TLT and beyond.

[micwini]

From reddit. Any ideas?

[Cheezits]

From reddit. Any ideas?

Someone in the comments explained it. Fun trivia- TL;DR its a skybox trick for the Seething Shore BG.

Hi! I can actually answer this!

So this has been there since the original BG was first released in Battle for Azeroth.

So what happened?

Due to some hardware limitations during BFA, the problem with the Battleground was that they wanted the Sword of Sargeras to be the main focus in the background. But also it was too far away from the island to be visible on some clients.

So what the devs ended up doing is shifting the sword of Sargeras closer to the Battleground itself, while also forming the mountains you see. Because from your perspective on the Battleground, it still looks like the Sword is still inside Silithus, as you can't see over the mountains.

Now, why change the water level? That's more just a incidental design change when making the Battleground. More than likely they used a Ocean-Size tile to fit the battleground's shores. Incidentally what occurs is when the tile is also too big, you see how it effects other zones. It's also why you can still see structures beneath the water as it was unintended/never going to be seen by the player to begin with.

This entire map file is just one big illusion for the Battleground.

Fun fact: Isle of conquest is actually designed in the North west corner of Ice crown. As if you look around, a lot of the assets are from the Scarlet monastery/Vykrul keep in Ice crown.

[milkmustache]

From reddit. Any ideas?

Seems to be clarification in the post. Was a scrapped BG from BFA. The water comes from an ocean tile. There's other examples with flooded Mulgore.

[Darkarath]

I don't think patch content will focus on revamping maps as they were quite afraid of Midnight feedback where players would be angry at reused zones instead of new ones. They now see the bast majority of players like the idea so we could see more of that in TLT and beyond.

Ehhhh this argument is debunked by TWW.

After Zaralek Caverns very few believed in the possibility of getting an underground expansion, myself included.

I remember plenty of people here saying that they won't play an underground expansion because it would feel claustrophobic.

Yet Blizzard had the balls to make it even after Zaralek Caverns wasn't very well received.

I'm not saying that we are getting more revamped zones in Midnight but the possibility exists.

[Santandame]

It likely means nothing but Thrall being on the Blizzcon art gives me hope that he’ll play a prominent role in TLT.

TLT having a return to Orcs and Humans at the forefront for the factions in that expansion would be a lot of fun. Faction locked capitals with Warsong Hold in Borean for Horde and Valgarde in Howling for Alliance would certainly be welcome.

Even better if we get different opening levelling zones for the expansion too like we got with WoD. Horde starting in a combined Borean/Sholozar dealing with forces of Life and the elements spiralling out of control whilst touching down on Tauren/Taunka lore is plausible. Then the Alliance can quest in the combined Howling/Grizzly dealing with the Humans shared ancestry with the Vrykul. You could also have a Night Elf storyline with Vordrassil.

For parity (not that I think it’s needed) you could have a max level campaign in the opposite zone. The neutral Haranir would fit here as you could have Life out of control in Borean/Sholozar and then there would be Vordrassil in Grizzly/Howling so they would have a vested interest in pursuing both avenues.

Whilst I type this out I realise it’s incredibly unlikely.

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Ehhhh this argument is debunked by TWW.

After Zaralek Caverns very few believed in the possibility of getting an underground expansion, myself included.

I remember plenty of people here saying that they won't play an underground expansion because it would feel claustrophobic.

Yet Blizzard had the balls to make an underground expansion even after Zaralek Caverns wasn't very well received.

I'm not saying that we are getting more revamped zones in Midnight but the possibility exists.

They made Zaralek Caverns whilst TWW was in development. There is no way in hell they’d have had the time and resources to throw out all development of the next expansion halfway through the preceding expansion because some people would have found Zaralek claustrophobic. Regardless of whether Zaralek would have been well received pr not; at that point TWW was coming. Nothing has been debunked. It’s a lot different to them committing to revamping a couple of old zones for one expansion but being cautious with it as they would be concerned that people wouldn’t receive it too well.

[Darkarath]

They made Zaralek Caverns whilst TWW was in development. There is no way in hell they’d have had the time and resources to throw out all development of the next expansion halfway through the preceding expansion because some people would have found Zaralek claustrophobic. Regardless of whether Zaralek would have been well received pr not; at that point TWW was coming. Nothing has been debunked. It’s a lot different to them committing to revamping a couple of old zones for one expansion but being cautious with it as they would be concerned that people wouldn’t receive it too well.

It's a pretty similar situation IMO.

Feedback regarding Zaralek Caverns no doubt influenced TWW's underground zones. And while probably you're right that it was way to late to change TWW's zones into something else, we have the example of the Rootlands, clearly repurposed for Midnight when it was fairly developed for TWW.

Also, after the WSS announcement, any doubt regarding if players wanted more revamped zones should have been totally dissipated, so I would not be surprised if we get one as a patch zone during Midnight.

[Santandame]

It's a pretty similar situation IMO.

Feedback regarding Zaralek Caverns no doubt influenced TWW's underground zones. And while probably you're right that it was way to late to change TWW's zones into something else, we have the example of the Rootlands, clearly repurposed for Midnight when it was fairly developed for TWW.

Also, after the WSS announcement, any doubt regarding if players wanted more revamped zones should have been totally dissipated, so I would not be surprised if we get one as a patch zone during Midnight.

Are you telling me that Zaralek Caverns dictated an entire expansions zone content, 6 months before TWW was announced? You are aware that TWW would have been in deep development at this point?

[Enrif]

It likely means nothing but Thrall being on the Blizzcon art gives me hope that he’ll play a prominent role in TLT.

TLT having a return to Orcs and Humans at the forefront for the factions in that expansion would be a lot of fun. Faction locked capitals with Warsong Hold in Borean for Horde and Valgarde in Howling for Alliance would certainly be welcome.

Even better if we get different opening levelling zones for the expansion too like we got with WoD. Horde starting in a combined Borean/Sholozar dealing with forces of Life and the elements spiralling out of control whilst touching down on Tauren/Taunka lore is plausible. Then the Alliance can quest in the combined Howling/Grizzly dealing with the Humans shared ancestry with the Vrykul. You could also have a Night Elf storyline with Vordrassil.

For parity (not that I think it’s needed) you could have a max level campaign in the opposite zone. The neutral Haranir would fit here as you could have Life out of control in Borean/Sholozar and then there would be Vordrassil in Grizzly/Howling so they would have a vested interest in pursuing both avenues.

Whilst I type this out I realise it’s incredibly unlikely.

i don't think this thrall is for TLT, but for MID. With 12.1 we go likely strong on Amani, but this expansion is about Blood elves. Both allies of the horde. 12.2 could be weighing down on Thrall, once again, as he brought in the Blood elves, spurning the amani. some orcs might still look more fondly to the amani (as do players) as their allies. but the amani would likely not want to join with the blood elves. So, what to do? And with no Warchief there is no real decision making in the horde, as the blood elves would likely automatically reject the amani. What if this is Thrall weighting the decision to reinstate the warchief? Which could make many horde fans happy, regardls of how Thrall turned out. But what that could mean for the blood elves? Do they go neutral for this? fullfiling the two wished: Amani for horde and "high elves" for alliance?

ah, we can just spitball ideas, but we have no idea in the end

[Merryck]

BlizzCon cover art means nothing.

[Darkarath]

Are you telling me that Zaralek Caverns dictated an entire expansions zone content, 6 months before TWW was announced? You are aware that TWW would have been in deep development at this point?

No, I didn't say that.

But is stupid not to think that the first truly underground zone of the game (guess that we can count Deepholm too) didn't influence TWW's zones.

For example, the main complain with ZC was that the ceiling was too low, making some players really uncomfortable, hence we have absolutely massive zones in TWW with plenty of open space.

[Enrif]

Also, that is not a sad Thrall, that is a very determined, serious Thrall. I don't think we have seen him like that in a long time?

[JDBlou]

Also, that is not a sad Thrall, that is a very determined, serious Thrall. I don't think we have seen him like that in a long time?

He's had it up to here with these goddamn Titans on his goddamn planet

[Xilurm]

https://x.com/BlizzHeroes/status/1986121395051634911

Have they done these before? It looks like they're trying to revive all their old games.

Sure hope this Blizzcon is better than the last, in all aspects. Apparently customer reception was really bad and it wasn't a problem in previous years.

[Raetary]

https://x.com/BlizzHeroes/status/1986121395051634911

Have they done these before? It looks like they're trying to revive all their old games.

Sure hope this Blizzcon is better than the last, in all aspects. Apparently customer reception was really bad and it wasn't a problem in previous years.

I would be over the moon if they actually revitalize Heroes of the Storm!

[Santandame]

No, I didn't say that.

But is stupid not to think that the first truly underground zone of the game (guess that we can count Deepholm too) didn't influence TWW's zones.

For example, the main complain with ZC was that the ceiling was too low, making some players really uncomfortable, hence we have absolutely massive zones in TWW with plenty of open space.

The reception to Zaralek Caverns would had had no bearing on the development of Khaz Algar zones as by the time Zaralek launched the Khaz Algar zones would have been finished or near enough.

[Ersula]

I would be over the moon if they actually revitalize Heroes of the Storm!

That would be nice. They announced support for Hots was ending when the market was oversaturated but League held on the same way WoW did for MMOs, so they might consider turning it back into a LoL competetor. Although what exactly did they have that skylanders studio doing? Blizzard acquired it right before they ended Hots support but before that everyone presumed they'd be working on Hots.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I would be over the moon if they actually revitalize Heroes of the Storm!

Only MOBA id ever return to, would be great to get even minor support for it and a couple new hero’s in a year.