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

[Cheezits]

Remember how people thought Khoranos was a Dragonmaw Orc, or even Garrosh, and they were imprisoning Alex?

Also I think Ankoan will leak somehow, be them playable or not.

[Imotbh]

Wasn’t the bastion artwork and the legion leak in the 8.0 thread and the legion Chinese riddle („the sliver hand“) weeks before announcement?

I don't remember for sure when it was for Legion tbh. For SL I'm pretty sure it was leaked 1-2 days before but I can be mistaken (it was the Bastion artwork).

[Hitei]

Wasn’t the bastion artwork and the legion leak in the 8.0 thread and the legion Chinese riddle („the sliver hand“) weeks before announcement?

I think the majority have been within 10 days of announcement. Basically when Blizzard has to start outsourcing to prepare for an event and third parties that they have less control over get involved.

Which makes the like seven months of dozens of supposed leaks all pretty silly.

[abyss24]

New location is called the Abyss. Tiered area, with Kezan on the top, the Undermine beneath it, a Nerubian zone beneath that, and then Khaz Algar at the bottom (at launch at least).
Incarnates succeeded in drawing the Titans to Azeroth since Iridikron tainted the world soul.
Nerubian neutral race. All non-hero classes for all races.
Battlegrounds revamp, keystone raids, permanent timewalking (merged with Chromie time).

[Hitei]

New location is called the Abyss. Tiered area, with Kezan on the top, the Undermine beneath it, a Nerubian zone beneath that, and then Khaz Algar at the bottom (at launch at least).
Incarnates succeeded in drawing the Titans to Azeroth since Iridikron tainted the world soul.
Nerubian neutral race. All non-hero classes for all races.
Battlegrounds revamp, keystone raids, permanent timewalking (merged with Chromie time).

Wild.

I was actually thinking earlier today about what sort of shape 11.0 might take since they probably won't want to do a basic round island right after DF, SL was separate islands and BfA was split continents. And the first thing I thought of was a vertically distributed expansion with each zone above/below the next. Only I was picturing Undermine at the "top" (Kezan is hardly even worth mentioning when it's super tiny and just surface Undermine), and then standard cave layers, Nerubian layer and a sort of time-capsuled "Black Empire" layer at the bottom.

Really don't see keystone raids happening. Is raid loot infinite? Are they timed? Do bump your keystone up would you have to complete the entire raid? Seems like a ridiculously niche feature, can't imagine most players would be interested in running multiple affixed iterations of a raid instance per week.

[Woggmer]

I wished that for dragonflight we would have had a bit of background to how the hell primalists, aka twilight 2.0, came to existence and recruited so many people. It feels like Blizzard didn't learn from cataclysm

That isn't true, in the Cata pre-patch we actually see how they recruit people and actually had to go in and disguise as one ourselves to learn more about their goals. Plus it is a Cult for a reason, they were exposed to void magic similar to what Cho'Gall saw and all they were hell bent on was fulfilling a prophecy that the Old Gods foretold.

Unlike the Primalists, the Twilight's Cult was actually smart enough to commit two mass murders in Ashenvale to spark tensions between the Alliance and Horde so that nobody would be aware of whats going on and assumed it was faction tension again.

at least their mission statement is not let's bring the end of the world

While it isn't "destroy the world," "destroying all the titan's work" isn't any better because most of the races on Azeroth are all byproducts from the Titan's work. From the Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Vrykul and titan constructs that got hit with the curse of flesh.. to Wild Gods and Elves.... The only ones exempt of this rule are Trolls (who are the oldest known race in WoW) and Yaungol (which we don't know if they lived on Azeroth before the Titans showed up or were the result of a Wild God).

So when they say, "destroying the Titan's work" that to me translates as "destroy all sentient life on Azeroth." Which makes me question what the Primalists have to gain from doing all this? They get Elemental Power sure.. but they aren't a cult like the Twilight's Hammer so it isn't like they were brainwashed, mind controlled, or corrupted into joining.

We probably won't ever get a straight answer about it until a later patch.. but my only underlying theory is that Magetha Grimtotem (who went missing after Legion) was involved somehow and she only took up the Incarnate's bargain mainly to get an army big enough to get the Doomstone back from the Earthen Ring.

[Dragon ANX]

Ancient.

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/...aconcept_maps/

I'm just curious, did you remembered the post or you just "googled" the image?
If you remembered this post that is quite the good memory my fella, GJ!

[Syegfryed]

Cataclysm barely worked because it was all over the place

i don't rly think that was the reason, there was a lot of misses like Thrall questline, but the thematic was quite good

[huth]

I wished that for dragonflight we would have had a bit of background to how the hell primalists, aka twilight 2.0, came to existence and recruited so many people. It feels like Blizzard didn't learn from cataclysm

at least their mission statement is not let's bring the end of the world

They're literally Twilight Hammer 2.0. It's the same general cult. They just went underground after the whole deal with Deathwing didn't quite work out.

"So many" also seems like a bit of an overstatement. We haven't really seen much activity from them outside the Dragon Isles and i doubt they're cooperating with the Qalashi because they like them so much.

[Hitei]

I'm just curious, did you remembered the post or you just "googled" the image?
If you remembered this post that is quite the good memory my fella, GJ!

They get discussed now and then, so it's not like I was remembering them from vanilla days. I recognized the map and then googled "wow concept map" to find a(ny) link proving it had been around a while and wasn't a new leak or anything.

[Mecheon]

I'm just curious, did you remembered the post or you just "googled" the image?
If you remembered this post that is quite the good memory my fella, GJ!

If you checked out a lot of the old early design stuff its a recognisable image. Its been around the traps for a long while, dates back to those "Naga, goblins and demons among the playable vanilla races" early ideas

[Skildar]

i don't rly think that was the reason, there was a lot of misses like Thrall questline, but the thematic was quite good

Deathwing being made a braindead brute that is absent for the whole expansion except the last two fights sure doesn't help either.

My point didn't matter much as narrative and lore will almost never be the reason why people do not engage with the product as people don't care about the story and quests. They want epic moments like we have in the cataclysm opening cinematic.

[Shadowferal]

My point didn't matter much as narrative and lore will almost never be the reason why people do not engage with the product as people don't care about the story and quests. They want epic moments like we have in the cataclysm opening cinematic.

Epic moments aren't so "epic" when there's zero leading up...and zero engagement. And for that you always need story and quests.

[Darkarath]

So, I believe that this week we will get the 10.1.7 trailer and the 10.2 reveal. I would like to speculate a bit about 10.2 story and content.

STORY:

- The zone would be in Ohn'ahran Plains. I do not expect to see a full grown Amirdrassil, but maybe the start of it, its gigantic roots. There would also be a zone in the Emerald Dream, or at least part of the raid would be there.

- Focus on the Green Dragonflight, powering up Merithra and developing Ysera's new role. Elune's lore would be extended a little, but I do not expect anything major yet. I certainly hope to see Night Elven lore, and hopefully more about the Primalists. We might get a questline involving the Druids of the Flame coming back to Night Elven society, therefore unlocking new skin options for Night Elves.

- Fyrakk and Vyranoth want to enter the Emerald Dream, probably to cause the reorigination of Azeroth, so that everything goes back to their Primalist times. Tyr would help us, but we might start to see a rupture between him and the Aspects. I think that Fyrakk would die. He is going to be the focus of 10.1.7. He will have by 10.2 more development as a character than Raszageth when we killed her. Vyranoth would still be alive at the end of 10.2. What she would do in the Emerald Dream I cannot grasp, but something bad. If 10.2 is the final patch of DF (hopefully not) and 11.0 is a world revamp (unlikely), reoriginating Azeroth from the Emerald Dream or destroying the Emerald Dream could be a justification for a progressive world revamp, as everything is messed up and we re-explore patch by patch and expansion by expansion Azeroth.

- We might also get some Djaradin lore. I think that they are related to the Emerald Dream, as I am pretty sure that what we see in this picture are Djaradin:https://i.imgur.com/Zz6YObG.jpg

FEATURES: I do not expect all the following to happen, but hopefully some stuff will make it.

- New zone (as described above).

- New raid (part of it in Azeroth and part in the Emerald Dream). Fyrakk as the final boss and probably some Void related boss.

- Shamans / Paladins for all races (one of the two, Druids for 10.2.5 or 10.2.7).

- New neutral race: Dragonkind (the questlines associated with them seem to indicate that this is a possibility).

- PvP new BG (meh) or PvP Overhaul (hopefully this). Adding more content in the way of arenas or BGs, while welcome, will not fix PvP. They can keep the gearing system, but the rewards and the gameplay need to be changed. I would love them to have the balls to make a PvP exclusive talent tree. Something simple. When you enter PvP, regardless of your level, you receive fixed skills depending on your spec, of which you can choose one modifier in the PvP talent tree. Add ultimate skills that change the battlefield, deactivate them for arenas, but we want to have fun in BGs, could not care less about the balance in Arena tournaments.

- Evergreen Brawler's Guild. Ion stated that they are doing it, but I hope that it is not a feature of 10.2, but a minor feature of 10.2.5 or 10.2.7.

- Timewalking ''revamp''. BfA Timewalking accompanied by TW World Content. From 10.2 on every week has a TW expansion. TW currency is now account bound. New rewards and farmeable items to get transmogs and mounts from old content.

- Journal feature / Archaeology revamp. These might be two different things but I expect them to be mixed together in one feature. Ion talked about both ideas. IMO an adventurer journal in which we get notes about everything that we see (enemies, dungeons, world locations, NPCs...), with some lore and cosmetic rewards tied to it, would be a simple cool evergreen feature. They could mix it with a kind of New Game +. If our journal records our questlines and cinematics, we can select what chapters we want to replay. Also, I think that in our journal we would be able to write our notes while searching for artifacts or secrets. The ''Secrets of Azeroth'' event that is coming is a test for the new archeology IMO.

- Account bound reps and quests. Similar to the exploring achievements, of which we can buy a toy to unlock them. You get the same reps of your character with more exalted reps.

- Improvements to professions to make them less complex and new recipes.

- Adjustments to the Upgrade Gear system and hopefully to Mythic +.

- Evergreen follower system and housing system. Nah I am joking, these are features for a new expansion, but hopefully we will see them in 11.0. I think that they should be tied together

[Woggmer]

- Shamans / Paladins for all races (one of the two, Druids for 10.2.5 or 10.2.7).

This one is unlikely for a couple of reasons... but based on the images of those training dummies in Tyrshold. They may just be there to get the Silver Hand or the Tyr's Guard stationed and ready for Tyr's arrival. If anything, I could see Tyr being the one to train new Paladins because his Silver Hand has been the biggest symbol among Paladins.

I'd rather they do Paladins right instead of like what they did with Warlocks where we don't get much explanation other than "they've always had that option, it just never occurred to them that it was an option."

Shaman? Well, we don't know how the Incarnates were able to get so many people to join the Primalists... so until we figure that out then we probably won't see Shamans for everybody.... (Also side note, shouldn't these Primalists raise the attention of the Earthen Ring to be involved instead of just a handful of them involved in the Expedition?)

[Skildar]

I would think that mythic plus dungeon is in its best state since its introduction and it is a rather solid one. The gearing system though I can't say the same.

They should for sure reduce the number of steps for item types and types of consumables.
- remove whelping crest and aspect crest
- make any upgrade that required whelping crest use drake crest
- make any craft and upgrade that required aspect crest use 3x wyrm crest for each aspect crest it used to cost
- mm+ 16 and above and mythic raid bosses give 3x more wyrm crest than other sources
- merge explorer, adventurer and veteran into adventurer

This way it is clearer what currencies are used for and less counter intuitive what the naming of the items mean

[Cheezits]

Honestly I could see the Silver Hand stuff being a red herring of sorts: what if it's building up to everyone getting hype for Tyr and welcoming him with open arms, but then he does something that causes them to reconsider his influence? It may be a meta plot based on how people didn't like the Legion Silver Hand encompassing all races and cultures.

Alternatively, some of the Silver Hand becomes antagonists with him, and we end up having to fight some of them.

- - - Updated - - -

New location is called the Abyss. Tiered area, with Kezan on the top, the Undermine beneath it, a Nerubian zone beneath that, and then Khaz Algar at the bottom (at launch at least).
Incarnates succeeded in drawing the Titans to Azeroth since Iridikron tainted the world soul.
Nerubian neutral race. All non-hero classes for all races.
Battlegrounds revamp, keystone raids, permanent timewalking (merged with Chromie time).

I don't think Kezan AND Undermine would happen, too much of the same theme. Otherwise kind of a neat idea.

[huth]

This way it is clearer what currencies are used for and less counter intuitive what the naming of the items mean

You mean "this way, people can just replace capability with time".

Because that's the main result of your changes.

[milkmustache]

Alternatively, some of the Silver Hand becomes antagonists with him, and we end up having to fight some of them.

I know a lot of people are eager for the Scarlets to return to relevance, this could maybe be an interesting route in a purely hypothetical sense. Then of course leading into whatever Light fanatic Lordaeron takeover plot we want

[Cheezits]

I know a lot of people are eager for the Scarlets to return to relevance, this could maybe be an interesting route in a purely hypothetical sense. Then of course leading into whatever Light fanatic Lordaeron takeover plot we want

I think Tyr is going to be the lead-in for antagonistic Light stories on Azeroth, similar to how Iridikron is leading Void stories right now. He can be tied to Turalyon and the Scarlets through Paladins in general, and then can probably access Yrel through Titan tech (similar to how the Tyrhold beacon currently works).

Throw Lothraxion in there and boom.