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

[Cheezits]

11.0 won't be Pirates of Azeroth the same way BFA wasn't Islands n' N'zoth even though that's what it was. Pirates are happening because they got hinted at ingame, but it's not big enough to be an expansion theme.

Islands? Maybe, but too similar to DF expedition theme imo. Considering the new boat models are Blood Elf and Night Elf (and the Belf boat has the Horde flag on it) we should probably consider what that means first.

[Santandame]

Not that I like to put too much credence to what Towelliee says, but when MrGM asked on Twitter if people think the recent influx of pirate and nautical themes store items suggest what the next expansion will be about, the dude responded with: "Nope".

I don't think he's right necessarily, but it's still an interesting thought exercise. If the theme doesn't have anything to do with the sea, what else would make sense for 11.0?

Just a world revamp?
Avaloren but without emphasising the sea voyage there?

From most to least likely for me is:

- New World style expansion
- South Seas & Pirates
- Avaloren as your standard new landmass as seen every other expansion with Void as big bad
- World Revamp
- K’Aresh

[Shadowferal]

We either smash into that wall on platform 9 3/4, or we find magic.

Ow!

[Santandame]

11.0 won't be Pirates of Azeroth the same way BFA wasn't Islands n' N'zoth even though that's what it was. Pirates are happening because they got hinted at ingame, but it's not big enough to be an expansion theme.

Islands? Maybe, but too similar to DF expedition theme imo. Considering the new boat models are Blood Elf and Night Elf (and the Belf boat has the Horde flag on it) we should probably consider what that means first.

I honestly think it’s either us sailing to a new world to set up shop there as well as forge relations with the locals as we explore. Or South Seas with Azshara playing a role.

In both respects pirates fit as a pretty hefty theme, whether they be allies, enemies or both.

Plunder Isle would work amazingly as either an expansion capital city or a Suramar style open world city that we quest in.

[Cheezits]

Actually, both Teldrassil and Quelthalas make sense as places to sail from if it's the back of Azeroth, and Amirdrassil and Quelthalas if it's to the right of the Dragon Isles.

Buuuuut doesn't that imply a Quelthalas revamp? I just can't see that boat pulling up to Orgrimmar, not when they could just use the Forsaken boat or revamp the new Orc boat.

QT revamp would explain all the belf props this expansion.

[Lolites]

The difference seems to be quite a lot more than '5 month's of extra dev time'.

not really, seems one tier behind, which is kinda what it is with 5 months...

Lets also not forget that Legion was in a vastly more polished state compared to DF when it launched.

...you have to be joking, right? legion at launch was one hell of a buggy mess...

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DF had by far the most bugs and shit on launch of every expansion ever.

mate, have you NEVER played any expansion at launch? some were literaly unplayable (most memorably WOD), DFs launch was "smooth" compared to some expansions, and hell not really worse than legion, i would argue a tiny bit better but that might be subjective as i encountered very few bugs in DF myself

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If the next expansion is ONLY Avaloren/backside of Azeroth, it will be the third expansion now where the team creates a completely new area from scratch. I really hope they realize people are getting tired of that.

yeah bcs people were thrilled when they reused old zones... except al the whining about it and calling visions patch "empty" bcs it have reused zones rather than make new one...

[micwini]

As I said in the same post (which you conviently left out). I was talking about bugs only. WoD had far less bugs on launch than DF. As I said in the same post: DF's launch was very smooth, unlike that of WoD.
I've already explained in multiple posts why DF is factually more than a tier behind in terms of content at the same point in time as legion, so feel free to go back a few pages to check all of that out.
Every expansion has bugs on launch, but DF takes the cake. Just check the amount of hotfixes in the first few weeks. Just Prot paladin as a sole spec had an entire google spreadsheet document with 100s of bugs, some of which werent fixed until 10.1.

Please support your claims with facts instead of just flaming with smileys like the other guy. Otherwise, keep it to yourself. I'm sick of people only posting just to flame instead of having a mature discussion.

Like I told the other guy: Proper discussion, or don't bother replying.

[Worldshaper]

So the 10.2 announcement is 5 hours away. 100% confirmed. For sure happening tonight.

[micwini]

So the 10.2 announcement is 5 hours away. 100% confirmed. For sure happening tonight.

Give me some of what you're having.
If its not this week, I hope they wait until the second week of 10.1.7. Would be stupid to have to play all the new content in 1 day to not get spoiled.

[Imotbh]

I suppose it'll be next week, as Towelliee said, and if so, I'd say on Thursday so people have done their 10.1.7 lore campaign already and there are no spoilers.

[Cheezits]

I suppose it'll be next week, as Towelliee said, and if so, I'd say on Thursday so people have done their 10.1.7 lore campaign already and there are no spoilers.

It could be a reveal today to ride the hype of the cinematic but next week is most likely.

[Worldshaper]

Give me some of what you're having.
If its not this week, I hope they wait until the second week of 10.1.7. Would be stupid to have to play all the new content in 1 day to not get spoiled.

Today.

By the way, anybody considered the idea that Thrall is back because they'd like to pay homage to Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, and its Exodus of the Horde campaign?

It's a long shot, but pretend that Blizzard's going to let the Void conquer Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms in 11.0. Some stubborn people decide to remain, whole others leave for a new home.

Thrall leads us across the sea once again, until we discover Avaloren.

Once there, we find Mount Even-Hyjalier, and the Super Barrens, and Stonetalôn Moüntainz. On a serious note, it might be a new home for the Horde and Alliance in the making, though.

It's an alternate explanation to all the HD models of guard towers, wyvern roosts, taverns, etc. instead of a revamp.

[Dragonborn]

After the Dragon Isles, it makes very little sense(also quite redundant) for the next expansion to be set on yet another newly (re)discovered island. But if we're going by the nautical theme from the shop items, It would be pretty cool to have an Age of Discovery type thing where everyone goes on a scramble to explore some new islands and some port-cities in the old world like Gadgetzan, Nendis, Bilgewater Harbor, etc. play a huge role and contain multiple explorer factions who each have different goals and often come in conflict with each other. Could even take away the new islands factor and make it a world revamp but everyone's into ships now. Still, that feels too close to BfA and even Dragonflight, so maybe not.

Personally I'm just hoping for a moon expansion with (void) Ethereals, Algalon and some other Constellars, and some Life stuff since it's got to have some connection with Elune. They could also do a lot of cool stuff with Cosmic Void that would set it apart from the fleshy Old God aesthetic that we're used to seeing.

[Catastrophy349]

I would love for 11.0 to be the discovery of a “New World” expansion, if only to hear all of the cry babies saying, “OMG! Blizzard copied FFXIV again!”. You know people will.

[Cheezits]

I would love for 11.0 to be the discovery of a “New World” expansion, if only to hear all of the cry babies saying, “OMG! Blizzard copied FFXIV again!”. You know people will.

I think combining New World and revamp makes the most sense.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Today.

By the way, anybody considered the idea that Thrall is back because they'd like to pay homage to Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, and its Exodus of the Horde campaign?

It's a long shot, but pretend that Blizzard's going to let the Void conquer Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms in 11.0. Some stubborn people decide to remain, whole others leave for a new home.

Thrall leads us across the sea once again, until we discover Avaloren.

Once there, we find Mount Even-Hyjalier, and the Super Barrens, and Stonetalôn Moüntainz. On a serious note, it might be a new home for the Horde and Alliance in the making, though.

It's an alternate explanation to all the HD models of guard towers, wyvern roosts, taverns, etc. instead of a revamp.

I doubt it - In orc heritage questline we finally got orc clans coming back from outland to kalimdor and the areas started the healing process with our help near orgrimmar.

I think it would be kinda stupid storywise to make them move again and ignore the storyline that happened during that questline.

[Woggmer]

Here's the big reason why I see a world revamp happening...

I remember in an interview that Ion did (I forget which one it was, it was before DF's announcement that much I'm certain) but he explained that the idea of a revamp would need to take several expansions to get it done right.. but the thing is that we're seeing the game slowly getting revamped since the start of DF.

Talent trees are back, Professions (minus Archaeology) have been revamped, The game's UI has been revamped to be customizable along with new art to give it a new look along with changing the borders of the action bar to match the faction your character is in, even art assets for the mouse icon and several icons have been updated with new artwork.. they've never updated these things in over the past 18-19 years since WoW's inception.

I know some people will say that it might just be a coincidence; but think about it like this, they've never updated those assets in almost two decades since the game's launch. Every expansion they've kept things the same, and only now in DF that they decide to make to update it.

[Lolites]

So, how did Fyrakk find out about Amirdrassil anyway?

"The vassal of life disguises treachery. Beware the eyes of green."

wasnt there a q line where we stopped primalists allies from getting to it?
so they apparently knew about it sooner

[Worldshaper]

I doubt it - In orc heritage questline we finally got orc clans coming back from outland to kalimdor and the areas started the healing process with our help near orgrimmar.

I think it would be kinda stupid storywise to make them move again and ignore the storyline that happened during that questline.

Good point!

Here's the big reason why I see a world revamp happening...

I remember in an interview that Ion did (I forget which one it was, it was before DF's announcement that much I'm certain) but he explained that the idea of a revamp would need to take several expansions to get it done right.. but the thing is that we're seeing the game slowly getting revamped since the start of DF.

Talent trees are back, Professions (minus Archaeology) have been revamped, The game's UI has been revamped to be customizable along with new art to give it a new look along with changing the borders of the action bar to match the faction your character is in, even art assets for the mouse icon and several icons have been updated with new artwork.. they've never updated these things in over the past 18-19 years since WoW's inception.

I know some people will say that it might just be a coincidence; but think about it like this, they've never updated those assets in almost two decades since the game's launch. Every expansion they've kept things the same, and only now in DF that they decide to make to update it.

I think it's been happening since Battle for Azeroth, really.

The Warfronts feature still feels like something they just kinda did as an extra thing, with all the assets they had made for the Barrens, Ashenvale and Arathi Highlands. One Warfront seemingly got scrapped, so they used those assets in WSG instead. I recall an interview where they informed us that like 2 guys were in charge of that feature.

It just felt too random, you know? A supposed battle for the entire planet, yet they only revamped a handful of zones. Why even revamp those zones if it was just meant for those temporary content features, with no additional zone revamps coming over the next 5 years?

Zandalar and Kul Tiras also seem suspiciously similar to a lot of Vanilla zones. So do the Dragon Isles. Heck, they even did a test run to see what Baine would look like in that lush Ohn'ahran plains grass. xD

Even Shadowlands, tbh. First of all they used it to improve some assets, like character customisation options, the fire effect for bonfires, torches, etc., and some other things. But I'm sure the Revendreth assets come in handy for Gilneas and Lordaeron. Ardenweald has a lot of enchanted forest type of assets in it, Maldraxxus practically screams Eastern Plaguelands and Undercity, and so on.

[Nymrohd]

Here's the big reason why I see a world revamp happening...

I remember in an interview that Ion did (I forget which one it was, it was before DF's announcement that much I'm certain) but he explained that the idea of a revamp would need to take several expansions to get it done right.. but the thing is that we're seeing the game slowly getting revamped since the start of DF.

Talent trees are back, Professions (minus Archaeology) have been revamped, The game's UI has been revamped to be customizable along with new art to give it a new look along with changing the borders of the action bar to match the faction your character is in, even art assets for the mouse icon and several icons have been updated with new artwork.. they've never updated these things in over the past 18-19 years since WoW's inception.

I know some people will say that it might just be a coincidence; but think about it like this, they've never updated those assets in almost two decades since the game's launch. Every expansion they've kept things the same, and only now in DF that they decide to make to update it.

I am sorry but while I'd love a revamp, what are you talking about? The UI has had at least one more revamp in the past, professions have had several revamps (and the current "Revamp" was designed in such a way that makes it expansion content; it will have to scrap all progress and start again next expac by design) and talent trees have been redesigned multiple times. All of those things have been updated in the past 19 years since WoW's release.