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

[Well Done Steak]

There has to be a 10.3 if 10.2 comes.out in November unless 11.0 comes out In August

[huth]

By the time 11.0 comes that will have been 6 years ago. More than 1/4 of WoW's entire history. It's not really a "we just had that" thing.

It's also consistently being overstated. The main focus of the Alliance Kul Tiras campaign was politics and reuniting the country, with pirates only making up part of one zone. The nautical theme was more of a general background of that country, too.

It'd be like saying Horde had a Blood Troll and Wakanda theme.

[Santandame]

Yeah, it's subjective, but first of all I personally don't like sea/pirate theme. Because it's...boring? And even it Metzen himself will say "We did it wrong back in BFA - let's give it a second try", it still will be some kind of bad comedy. Whole BFA was advertized as sea/pirate xpack. But this theme was simply wasted there along with Old God theme. And now they will just say "Let's forget about BFA and do it again"? No. This chapiteau will never work for me, even if systems/content/gameplay will be super great in this xpack (They won't).

BfA was literally advertised as a faction war expansion. It was also advertised as having a major naval theme, but that which lent more into naval warfare as opposed to a high seas sailing adventure.

All these people saying BfA was a pirate expansion are being completely disingenuous. Pirates played a part in the storyline of one zone, and were present in one dungeon. It’s pretty much saying the following:

- Dragonflight is a Gnoll expansion.
- Shadowlands was a Drust expansion.

And so on with threats that appeared in an expansions story for one zone such as Vrykul, Botani and Mogu.

[Cheezits]

It's also consistently being overstated. The main focus of the Alliance Kul Tiras campaign was politics and reuniting the country, with pirates only making up part of one zone. The nautical theme was more of a general background of that country, too.

It'd be like saying Horde had a Blood Troll and Wakanda theme.

I think people would definitely raise a stink if the first Faction expansion in 4 years is another island adventure with ships, regardless of whether or not Pirates were or were not a main theme (they weren't).

This will be the first time (potentially) Factions are used in any serious way since BFA so I think they will be careful to distinguish it from BFA. If there are Pirates/Ships it won't be the focus, it will just be a part of the overall expansion.

Considering the Nightsquall book talks about a whole area undiscovered that ISN'T South Seas/Plunder Island... it's not going to be Pirate World 2.

[huth]

I think people would definitely raise a stink if the first Faction expansion in 4 years is another island adventure with ships, regardless of whether or not Pirates were or were not a main theme (they weren't).

This will be the first time (potentially) Factions are used in any serious way since BFA so I think they will be careful to distinguish it from BFA. If there are Pirates/Ships it won't be the focus, it will just be a part of the overall expansion.

Considering the Nightsquall book talks about a whole area undiscovered that ISN'T South Seas/Plunder Island... it's not going to be Pirate World 2.

I'd rather not have another faction expansion ever again anyway, so that's fine with me.

[Woggmer]

I think people would definitely raise a stink if the first Faction expansion in 4 years is an island adventure with ships, regardless of whether or not Pirates were or were not a main theme (they weren't).

This will be the first time (potentially) Factions are used in any serious way since BFA so I think they will be careful to distinguish it from BFA. If there are Pirates/Ships it won't be the focus, it will just be a part of the overall expansion.

Considering the Nightsquall book talks about a whole area undiscovered that ISN'T South Seas/Plunder Island... it's not going to be Pirate World 2.

The only way if Pirates worked their way into a true Faction War story would be something like Gallywix paying Pirates to start up tensions between the Alliance and Horde just to fuel a war economy that Gallywix can make a large profit from... (And remember, it wouldn't be the first time he employed pirates to do his dirty work. The Goblin starting zone is evidence to that.)

[Cheezits]

The only way if Pirates worked their way into a true Faction War story would be something like Gallywix paying Pirates to start up tensions between the Alliance and Horde just to fuel a war economy that Gallywix can make a large profit from... (And remember, it wouldn't be the first time he employed pirates to do his dirty work. The Goblin starting zone is evidence to that.)

It's not going to be a Faction War, that ship has sailed. But an expansion that ACTUALLY features the factions doing faction stuff is overdue.

Gallywix and the Pirates is a good angle but it couldn't be a whole expansion.

[ChairmanKaga]

*snip
All these people saying BfA was a pirate expansion are being completely disingenuous.

I mean I understand completely if people don't like BfA and/or Pirates but the argument that BfA was a pirate expansion is absurd. That said I don't think any future expansion would be pirate centered/themed. I don't think in this game world that would be the central pillar of any expansion.

- - - Updated - - -

It's not going to be a Faction War, that ship has sailed. But an expansion that ACTUALLY features the factions doing faction stuff is overdue..

I think it could be more akin to Mists with each faction racing each other for resources/colonize/make new allies from a new land type of adventure

[Santandame]

I think the entire argument against Pirates as a decent major theme for an expansion from a lot of people I’ve seen in this thread boils down to the fact they’re lumping Pirates in with the camp, Jack Sparrow theme and are either unaware of the copious amounts of media out there depicting them in a completely different way or are just outright disregarding it. It just shows a complete lack of imagination.

- Euron Greyjoy being a sadistic, Machiavellian, sorcerer pirate king who has a horn that can controls dragons, the seeming ability to control sea creatures and manipulate storms, as well as fleets of warlocks on his ships. That’s not even scratching the surface of what else we may see if the books are ever finished.

- Black Sails which is a television show that works as a prequel to Treasure Island as well as shining a light on the Golden Age of Piracy. Captain Flint being a former Navy Lieutenant who turns his back on England after suffering at the hands of the monarchy, resulting in him attempting to abolish the monarchy.

- Multiple portrayals of pirates in fantasy book settings such as the Liveship Traders, the Tide Child trilogy and the Gentlemen’s Bastards, to name a few.

The above are just a small amount of examples of Pirates that don’t fit the silly, camp interpretation of Pirates that we often see. There’s so much breadth to what Blizzard can do with them, that I just think it’s ignorant to disregard the theme and pigeon hole it.

[TheOtherGuy10235]

They are having secret 10.2 PTR Testing on the 11-25 of September.

[Makabreska]

Man, I member our ideas for BfA patches, and the most popular one was an entire undead fleet under Daelin Proudmoore. That could be sick.

- - - Updated - - -

They are having secret 10.2 PTR Testing on the 11-25 of September.

Very secret, I see.

[Cheezits]

I think the entire argument against Pirates as a decent major theme for an expansion from a lot of people I’ve seen in this thread boils down to the fact they’re lumping Pirates in with the camp, Jack Sparrow theme and are either unaware of the copious amounts of media out there depicting them in a completely different way or are just outright disregarding it. It just shows a complete lack of imagination.

I think the issue more is how to break the Pirate theme into 4-6 zones and 2-3 major patches. I think it would be spread very thin without getting into more ideas like the Void, Naga, etc, and those two were done very abundantly in BFA.

Can you do a Pirate expansion with 6 zones and 3 patches that are diverse enough to keep players interested? Yeah, but I'm not sure how. Even WOD had dueling Orc and Draenei cultures.

If anything it would be like Dragonflight where Dragons are on the box, Dragons drive the plot, but the Dragons are not very present in 80% of the areas and they do a bunch of different cultures/aesthetics instead. What those are I couldn't tell you.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Man, I member our ideas for BfA patches, and the most popular one was an entire undead fleet under Daelin Proudmoore. That could be sick.

Sylvanas has entered the chat.

[Cheezits]

They are having secret 10.2 PTR Testing on the 11-25 of September.

No chance they are keeping it hidden for that long.

[ChairmanKaga]

Did someone a few pages back mention a chinese leak? I tried going back through the thread but couldn't find whichever leak they were refering to.

[Catastrophy349]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/secrets...-launch-334761 What "secrets" will we learn?!?!

[TheOtherGuy10235]

They sent out Emails asking people for their classes that they play, how long that they will be able to put time into the PTR during these two weeks, and asking if they can even attend a Zoom call at 4 separate times during the day explaining, I'm assuming what they want "Us" (IE, those that get invited to this secret test) to test whatever is this secret build
I'm not saying there won't be a Public PTR, but there is definitely something more beneath it.

[Woggmer]

It's not going to be a Faction War, that ship has sailed. But an expansion that ACTUALLY features the factions doing faction stuff is overdue.

Gallywix and the Pirates is a good angle but it couldn't be a whole expansion.

I'm not suggesting we'd go back to a Faction War (even though we didn't even get that with BFA and most of it was focused on wasting N'zoth's potential) but that doesn't mean there isn't some level of tension going on.

And I can't see Gallywix being a villain of a whole expansion, but maybe as the final boss of an off-shoot raid. Pirates aren't the only thing under his belt, there's also a good chance that he seized control of the Venture Co. after he made us kill the former president back in BFA. [Aka the final boss of the Motherload dungeon]
(People might not consider these guys to be that much of a threat, but they've appeared in multiple expansions more so, if not, just as much than the Naga...)

[Santandame]

I think the issue more is how to break the Pirate theme into 4-6 zones and 2-3 major patches. I think it would be spread very thin without getting into more ideas like the Void, Naga, etc, and those two were done very abundantly in BFA.

Can you do a Pirate expansion with 6 zones and 3 patches that are diverse enough to keep players interested? Yeah, but I'm not sure how. Even WOD had dueling Orc and Draenei cultures.

If anything it would be like Dragonflight where Dragons are on the box, Dragons drive the plot, but the Dragons are not very present in 80% of the areas and they do a bunch of different cultures/aesthetics instead. What those are I couldn't tell you.

Yeah I don’t think they could or should take up the entire expansion. Definitely have them involved with either Azshara or whatever the main threat of Avaloren or the Other Side of Azeroth is. But I think a raid, a prominent storyline in a couple of the zones, and a capital city that is pirate themed is all definitely achievable.

To play devils advocate though, if Nightsquall is a villain you could have him and the threat he poses change radically over the course of the expansion. An idea could be:

11.0 - the pirate raid. Could be on Plunder Isle, features naval battles.
11.1 - Undermine as the “filler” raid where we deviate to another threat. Maybe Gallywix and the Venture Co are financially backing Nightsquall for whatever reason. Could also work in the Blingtron war here.
11.2 - Nightsquall desperate to achieve his goals allies with the Harbinger and Azshara. Much of his fleet is transformed into hideous grotesque monsters whilst backed up by Naga and other void entities.

[Cheezits]

They sent out Emails asking people for their classes that they play, how long that they will be able to put time into the PTR during these two weeks, and asking if they can even attend a Zoom call at 4 separate times during the day explaining, I'm assuming what they want "Us" (IE, those that get invited to this secret test) to test whatever is this secret build
I'm not saying there won't be a Public PTR, but there is definitely something more beneath it.

Might be a really big PTR then, do they usually do this? Maybe Argus 2 is in the cards.