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

[Nathanyel]

(cropped image from earlier post)

Is this going to be another example of a character talking figuratively & metaphorically and then people take it to be a literal explanation of how the actual mechanics of the world work?

Really hope it's that. I'd hate for Sunwalkers and Prelates to "channel the Light, actually". They are like Light Paladins, but they worship deities aligned with Nature. This similarity explained Sunwalkers working with the Silver Hand in Legion.
And going the route that any belief system can create "Paladins" would make it much easier to justify Paladins for every race.
Also, not to gush about Class Skins again, at least color variations for spells would be awesome. Be it fiery, arcane-white, fel-green or void-purple. A Paladin of Darkness. A Crusade of Contempt.

Do we know already how farming transmog work in Midnight?

like this:
game checks if you have full mythic set -> you get all lower sets

or like this:
game gives you all lower version of item X if you have transmog from this item on lower difficulty

Hope for version #2 and it applies to weapons, otherwise to complete stuff you would have to clear lower difficulties anyway for them.

I think that'll only come with the Beta, not too long now.

My fear is that it'll be the first, and will ONLY include Tier items. Maybe it will count lookalike items for completion of a set, but then you'll only receive the appearances of lower-difficulty Tier items, not the lookalike items without class restrictions.
There is sadly precedence for that, the Mythic-effect variants for non-Mythic items from the "Season Hero" achievements only exist in a class-restricted form, you are not given versions for non-Tier lookalikes.

And yeah, unless there's something for weapons as well (like considering all weapons from a raid a "set", see Arsenals) then you do indeed need to run lower difficulties anyway to farm all mogs.

I wonder if blood elf characters will get any rep bonuses with any of the factions, it'd make sense for blood elf paladins to get blood knight bonus exp at least. You are literally a blood knight lmao

The Human rep bonus was just removed, and you want to bring it back in a class-based form? And what would even be the reasoning for that bonus? Imagine you are in need, are you somehow more thankful when someone from your nation/caste/club helps you, than when someone outside your group does?

That dev lead lady said in an interview or QA (don't remember) that the black blood is not longer a thing, it won't be mentioned again.

TBH when people straight up ask about things happening several patches down the line, devs should be allowed to straight up lie to them.

[Nymrohd]

TBH when people straight up ask about things happening several patches down the line, devs should be allowed to straight up lie to them.

Or I don't know just say "You know I cannot answer that question"

[Raetary]

Dimensius was one of the most "HURR DURR ME SMASH" 1 dimensional villains we ever got.

Which is perfectly fine.

Dimensius is not a personalized character, he is a force of nature.
A sentient embodiment of consumption, and his aesthetic presentation was perfect.

The problem is literally everything else surrounding him is lacking.
It was a development that was hamfisted in solely to bridge TWW and Midnight, that ended up devaluing him and the Void as a cosmic faction as a whole.

The out-of-game reveal that he was the last Void Lord, that his threat was dealt with solely as a means to build up Xal'atath, who turns out has the main goal of just emulating him, it's all just underwhelming at best and flat out crap at worst.

[Nymrohd]

Dimensius worked just fine for me. The actual encounter was amazing. The audio story sold his concept perfectly; his very presence slowly reduces everything to dust. His name is still cringe and that could have been saved (someone could have told us his name in Shath'Yar which could have been something cool or even better, something meant to be unpronounceable that only Xal would be able to say (make it sound like static or something similar).

The issue is, his only proper build up was in external material.

I still think Harrandar as the last zone with a Black Blood storyline (expand the Rift of Aln to a full raid instead of a single boss area) would have been better for TWW (and Harranir become available in 11.2.5 or 11.2.7). Then Dimensius could have been the first boss of Midnight with the Shadowguard starting the invasion and Alleria being forced to ally with Xal'atath or watch Quel'thalas be destroyed by the Void. Then we get the TWW Season 3 story in Midnight Season 1 as is with Xal eating Dimensius, betraying Alleria and turning her Void and March of Quel'danas happens just the same only with an extra Alleria encounter.

[Nathanyel]

Or I don't know just say "You know I cannot answer that question"

I would also accept light sarcasm. People are people, and should be allowed to react as people, fuck "corporate friendliness".

Although on second thought, any "I can't answer that" will be taken as "soon" anyway, so that's not really productive either, as people will then get angry when it doesn't happen. Blizzard already learned that lesson the hard way. Ghostcrawler snapping at people with "GHOSTCRAWLER PROMISED ME A PONY" was one of the most human reactions in Blizzard history.

[Joshuaj]

Want me to honest? I hope they take Dimensius's encounter design and utilize it in TLT for a Sargeras encounter!!!

[SaintBigfoot]

https://x.com/portergauge/status/198...Q5yrID63Oheoag

They changed the quest where you were forced into slaughtering the Amani even though you knew they weren’t the actual threat

[Nymrohd]

https://x.com/portergauge/status/198...Q5yrID63Oheoag

They changed the quest where you were forced into slaughtering the Amani even though you knew they weren’t the actual threat

Is any of the existing lore about how the Amani have acted in their conflict with the elves around? The torture, mutilations etc?

[Xilurm]

I can see how my different characters would do this quest differently. Races from the EK would fight the Amani while races from Kalimdor would try to de-escalate.

[Vakir]

Decent-ish change on the Amani quest - reminds me of the dig out vs. bonk in quest in Hillsbrad only played for drama instead of humor. Everything else surrounding it though is still a huge problem with the glaring point being Arator.

Recap from the last 7 days of time-out: Yup, those sure are bad voices. I absolutely blame direction or a lackthereof. Whether they're trying to make it more twee and Disney on purpose, or they're letting voice actors do whatever they want, it is a voice director's job to give context to the line and guide a performance. It reminds me so much of how the quality fell off in Dawntrail that was based in a lack of direction and poor recording quality.

For what it's worth, the only voice director I remember is the one that took the female character panel and made it insufferable, completely pulling focus from the voice over people and just jerking herself off. That was like 8 years ago. So it can't just be some only recent change without the modern shift being based on a total lack of leadership.

The Garrosh quest changes are...better. I still think a schism group that is more aggressive and conquest-minded in the future would be interesting rather than it being almost unanimous to hate him. But that would require a lot of development and would likely be a central conflict.

The Nisha quest is a perfect example of "Yay, more focus for this character! Oh no, more focus for this character." Is it better to have nothing for an underrepresented group, or have something that ends up being a stupid direction for them? The nice thing would be "Don't have 1 of 3 existing characters retire" but we're not dealing with the brightest people penning things here.

I think with discussion of the Midnight cinematic, it's interesting to look at the actual concept art of Liadrin in that cinematic and comparing it to how bad the render looks. It's not just the lack of glowing eyes - everything about the proportions and expressions feels "off." Lor'themar less so, but he still looks oddly waxy. But that, to me, reveals a lot of either incompetence or a huge structural problem in the pipeline rather than any malicious intention. I'm genuinely at a loss how it looks so disconnected from her concept.

[Sondrelk]

https://x.com/portergauge/status/198...Q5yrID63Oheoag

They changed the quest where you were forced into slaughtering the Amani even though you knew they weren’t the actual threat

Nice to see them adding the change while still letting the problematic elements of Blood Elves shine through. If they can just change the Turalyon stuff to have the same level of nuance, where this seemingly perfectly selfless man becomes a zealot gradually, rather than always having been one I will be happy.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

Can we all agree that the pre-Chronicle Old Gods were way more interesting than the modern Void ended up being?

I'm half expecting to find out that the old gods aren't actually pure void creatures, but some mix between void and azeroths energy, accidently created by the titans during their experiments on her/their attempts to purify her.

Between the curse of flesh being like a bastardized version of her free will aura, and ghuun being a literal titan old god experiment.

I dunno though. I agree wholeheartedly that there is way too much going on with the old gods for them to seem like pure void creatures. They represent this bastardization of life where the void seems more elemental. Way cooler and more ominous that the void has ever been.

Agreed the old gods are easily the coolest and most interesting and powerful void related creatures compared to the void lords/pure void. And also think they are slowly trying to retcon them into non pure void beings or transcendent void beings that have been the ones in charge or running the show through the void lords. And than they'll come back or have another big epic plan in store.

I'm hoping against hope that the major patches ramp the scale of this supposed ragnarok up massively. Damn near every ally and villian in the entirety of wows history has a stake in this fight. Dragons, titan keepers, Velen, Anduin, all the titan constructs we've met over the years, old gods, the burning legion. Damn near everyone and everything has led to this fight yet it feels so small and isolated.

That should happen in The Last Titan.

The Burning Legion in Legion is still the most powerful and largest villains we've ever faced in the history of WoW but the Last Titan will be the one that would surpass even that where every major faction would get involved. And we'll be facing against Sargeras whose still by far the most powerful beings ever and the Pantheon Titans who are above all besides Sargeras and we'll learn how they were so much more powerful than everything else because they been gaining World Soul beings faster than others.

- - - Updated - - -

Is it just me or did N’Zoth seem stronger than Dimensius? We needed to use the power of Azeroth herself to beat him.

He is and he's not even in his true non vision prime body. A prime old god is still above anything we've faced in WoW so Chronicles 5 and future lore is definitely going to update stuff on the old gods.

If someone resurrects Yshaaji's corpse that's floating in the great dark and crashes back than we got ourselves the mightiest being ever with the exception of the Prime Titans and Sargeras because they are world souls.

[allegrian]

I can see how my different characters would do this quest differently. Races from the EK would fight the Amani while races from Kalimdor would try to de-escalate.

Yeah but alliance players would not like to put Sindorei banners.

[Ersula]

Yeah but alliance players would not like to put Sindorei banners.

But the alliance loves false flag operations.

[Xilurm]

Yeah but alliance players would not like to put Sindorei banners.

What if it was a Void Elf?

[Nymrohd]

What if it was a Void Elf?

I think Void Elves get a different interaction

[GeometryWizard]

Yeah but alliance players would not like to put Sindorei banners.

That brings up the weird discrepancy between what they say about the factions and what is actually there. The Alliance isn't really in Midnight so much as it is Alliance paladins and priests and the Horde isn't really there either it's just blood elves. The whole Midnight story basically only makes sense if you are a paladin/holy priest or a blood elf at home because they only show the Sunwell summoning paladins and priests and there's no organized Horde presence so basically you're the literal one exception to who the Sunwell summons since there's no other NPCs that suggest otherwise

Like there's no real Alliance vs. Horde tension in Silvermoon it's just paladins of all races including Horde ones antagonizing blood elves. Literally all the actual tension is about the Light being bad

[Xilurm]

I think Void Elves get a different interaction

Ok, that's a bit confusing. Void Elves don't get to put sin'dorei banners but the rest of the alliance does?

[Nymrohd]

Ok, that's a bit confusing. Void Elves don't get to put sin'dorei banners but the rest of the alliance does?

Nah, Void Elves get the same interaction with the Blood elves; they get more indignant responses by the blood elves if they try to ask them not to attack the Amani.

I am not going to be attacking the Amani as the quest is now given they are clearly not attacking you.

[Pheraz]

Do most streamers just dont build NE houses or did they still not add NE exteriors to the alpha?