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

[Kiria]

Either a Void expansion or a World Revamp would suit me fine :3

[Revamp Man]

It'll probably end up like most of the ones you mentioned, technically accurate inside the context that was said in (e.g. no allied races in 7.3.5 "release" but 2 weeks later with the preorder, 3rd spec was specifically about 10.1 but came in 10.1.5, etc). So, depending on how you interpret the tweet and the tweet its replying to, maybe not the main theme for 11.0, but could definitely be one of the subplots later on in the expansion.

A naval setting doesn't mean pirates

[Cherry123]

Yes, most likely we will really have an expansion about pirates. I remembered Lortemar's wedding, it said that Jaina didn't come because she had problems with the pirates. Pirates is a good expansion, but the problem is that this is a 2nd filler expansion. It seems to me that there must be something global, Light and Shadow are the most global.

But people don't like the old gods location designs and stuff, they're dark and ugly. Perhaps Blizzard is now focusing on light expansion where there is a lot of greenery and colors.

[Skildar]

...Funny thing is, that was the original first concept for Warlords before it became an alternate timeline plot. It was even hinted at in War Crimes where Garrosh saw himself more like Arthas.. he was going to to go to Outland and resurrect the dead Warlords as spirits, and we would end up going back to Outland again... This probably could've helped hint at Shadowlands.. but whatever... what's done is done.

Do you have a sauce on that?

[Teriz]

Guys pirates is out the window. MY ain't just gonna flat out lie like that

It's for sure light vs void.

Setting will either be avaloren or karesh.

The events of the truce between the infinite and bronze next patch will start the domino effect of causing yrel to come to our timeline.

The forsaken heritage will reintroduce the scarlet crusade once more to prep them joining forces with yrel's lightbound.

That'll be team light....

Team void will be iri, xal, and azshara.


Both extremes will be dangerous and we'll be caught in the middle.

I don’t think we’ll be doing Karesh for a long time to come, given Blizzard’s push to keep us on Azeroth going forward.

I also believe that a straight on void expansion is unlikely, due to their simply not being a recognizable antagonist for us to battle against. Again, look back to Shadowlands and how unpopular the Jailer was as some dark omnipresent force. People didn’t like that, so a faceless bunch of voidlords wouldn’t be compelling villains either.

In the end, if we’re going cosmic, we need an anchor to keep us engaged. In TBC that was Illidan and Kael’theas. In WoD that was Grom, Garrosh, Gul’Dan, Velen, and Durator. SL had no anchor, because Sylvanas’ machinations were murky and increasingly silly. So in short, if we’re zipping into the void we need charismatic and established characters to make that journey enjoyable.

We don’t have them yet.

[Santandame]

Yes, most likely we will really have an expansion about pirates. I remembered Lortemar's wedding, it said that Jaina didn't come because she had problems with the pirates. Pirates is a good expansion, but the problem is that this is a 2nd filler expansion. It seems to me that there must be something global, Light and Shadow are the most global.

But people don't like the old gods location designs and stuff, they're dark and ugly. Perhaps Blizzard is now focusing on light expansion where there is a lot of greenery and colors.

I don’t think the expansion will be purely pirates as the threat, just that they will play a key role. Similar to that of say the Kul Titans and Zandalari in BfA, the Nightborne in Legion etc.

That said, there are numerous ways to make pirates as the main threat into a decent expansion and to expand on their threat level. It just takes some imagination and creativity outside of “lol pirates = Johnny depp”.

[Sondrelk]

Pretty much. Feels like people are letting their personal bias get in the way of reasonable thinking here just because they don’t want to see pirates.

If Qwik turned around and said “no world revamp” people here would be getting themselves worked up into a frenzy explaining how a world revamp is imminent.

This seemed way more like a flat out statement rather than a deflection though. All the mentioned stuff here is either things that could have changed mid development, or possibly even flat out false.
I am fairly certain we never got a confirmation that Sylvanas didnt burn down the tree. What we got was a statement that there was going to be more to the story than what we saw with Sylvanas standing in front of a burning Teldrassil. It was true, just wildly disingenous.
Stuff like Belves with Blue Eyes or Evokers with 3rd spec are things that could be changed during development as well don't forget.

No Pirates would very much be a bold faced lie if the next expansion is Pirate themed. But still leaves room to be disingenous when pirates inevitably show up at some point or the other like they always do.

[Hitei]

I have to disagree. The concept that it would be confusing to have areas set at different times is proven wrong by how that is already true within even singular zones. You can already fly around the Dragon Isles and see the Shattered Flame attack us when just a zone over we are in the process of integrating them. Or how the drakonid rebellion is still ongoing just down the hill of where Alexstrasza forged a peace.

Those aren't comparable situations. Nearly every single quest is time-independent. Every time you kill a named NPC, that named NPC respawns in 60-120s and is alive despite you having done a quest to kill them. You are just describing the nature of narrative.

That is not even remotely the same thing as having a continent split over three different time periods with totally arbitrary lines where you do Silverpine quests helping the Forsaken push back the Gilneans and then step over into Tirisfal and half the zone is on fire and the other half is blighted and Undercity is a wiped out ruin that Sylvanas abandoned the region.

Seeing shit at the end of quest lines and knowing that if you go back, stuff you will have addressed is still there for other people to deal with is not the same thing as the zone you're in having an imaginary line around it that when you step past shifts you into a whole different time with completely different ongoing issues.

It would be strange to have EK or Kalimdor piecemeal over several expansions, but I honestly don't see what would be wrong with having say, the Plaguelands exist in a hypothetical limbo until 11.2 or whatever when we actually go there properly.

It completely destroys any sense of immersion and also feels like you're getting an incomplete location. Do people not remember WoD Hellfire? Even putting aside the content there, there was no point in WoD where it was like "omg, it's so cool having an updated version of this zone coming at this location later, I can't wait". It's just an entire zone that you know should be there that is very meta locked off because it doesn't exist in a playable form yet, that either obnoxiously teleports you out for some contrived reason or obnoxiously doesn't let you in for some contrived reason.

There's really nothing appealing about this shit:


It just feels like an incomplete thing that you're not going to get the actual proper area of until a year and a half later. Especially when it's a place you already know and have been visiting for 20 years but nicer looking that you've been able to explore and travel across wholesale up to this point. Who the hell wants to play an expansion where you you go to Arathi and try to fly or walk south and get told "lolno, sorry. Those dwarven and human lands you've been travelling through since 2004? They're off-limits now. The entire kingdom of stormwind is closed, not for any actual reason, when it unlocks it's gonna be evergreen quests about dealing with small threats, it's just walled off for now because it's in development :^)"

What a way to absolutely butcher any cohesive, immersive experience of a landmass.

[Well Done Steak]

I don’t think we’ll be doing Karesh for a long time to come, given Blizzard’s push to keep us on Azeroth going forward.

I also believe that a straight on void expansion is unlikely, due to their simply not being a recognizable antagonist for us to battle against. Again, look back to Shadowlands and how unpopular the Jailer was as some dark omnipresent force. People didn’t like that, so a faceless bunch of voidlords wouldn’t be compelling villains either.

In the end, if we’re going cosmic, we need an anchor to keep us engaged. In TBC that was Illidan and Kael’theas. In WoD that was Grom, Garrosh, Gul’Dan, Velen, and Durator. SL had no anchor, because Sylvanas’ machinations were murky and increasingly silly. So in short, if we’re zipping into the void we need charismatic and established characters to make that journey enjoyable.

We don’t have them yet.

Easy, turalyon and alleria will be the good reps of each cosmic force.

Idk what thrall's role is but I have a feeling it has to do with the maghar's and lightbound's conflict

[Woggmer]

10.0 has already been all about the elements.

Not really. There are primalists, but something about it seems off... like the Earthen Ring isn't involved when they should be. Magetha isn't involved either and yet one of her disciples is one of the most powerful of the primalists. Thrall isn't involved either...

[Sondrelk]

Those aren't comparable situations. Nearly every single quest is time-independent. Every time you kill a named NPC, that named NPC respawns in 60-120s and is alive despite you having done a quest to kill them. You are just describing the nature of narrative.

What a way to absolutely butcher any cohesive, immersive experience of a landmass.

I don't see how it's different to stretch the concept of a flowign narrative over the entire expansion though. It would be weird to go from Dun Murogh in the middle of a rebellion plotline, take the train to Stormwind and go outside the gates back into Cataclysm for sure, but not really all that worse than any other case where a story should be ongoing just over the hill but somehow isnt.

And I do remember Tanaan not being available until 6.2. I honestly thought it built up the mystery, even if it was impossible to properly explain within the context of the game why there was an invisible wall at the beach.
The story in a hypothetical procedurally revamped EK/Kalimdor would simply never give us any reason to go to a specific zone until it's actually finished, much in the same way the Blue Dragonflight questline in 10.1 simply never acknowledges that the areas you go to should look wildly different. Why for instance is Dalaran still above Crystalsong forest despite knowing it's moved years ago? Or why is Booty Bay still partially ruined when it's been years since the tidal wave happened? Did the inhabitants decide they liked the look?`

In the map you linked you would simply look over the Thandol Span at launch and know that whatever is on the other side simply isnt relevant yet. Just like how you look at the ship going to Northrend in Stormwind and pretend like the Northrend it's going to looks different.

[micwini]

It'll probably end up like most of the ones you mentioned, technically accurate inside the context that was said in (e.g. no allied races in 7.3.5 "release" but 2 weeks later with the preorder, 3rd spec was specifically about 10.1 but came in 10.1.5, etc). So, depending on how you interpret the tweet and the tweet its replying to, maybe not the main theme for 11.0, but could definitely be one of the subplots later on in the expansion.

Pirates in 11.1 confirmed!

[Ielenia]

I believe the fact that Blizzard just confirmed that there will be no pirate stuff next expansion proved my point. A pirate theme can't carry an expansion,

No. No, it does not. Mike Ybarra saying the next expansion is not going to be about pirates in no way shape or form means that a pirate theme is not enough to carry an expansion. You're making leaps of logic so huge here that they all fall into falsehood territory.

and a pirate-based expansion would be too much like BFA.

Which is your opinion, and even then is a meaningless one because we already expansions that share themes, such as TBC and Legion, and Wrath and Shadowlands.

Except Shadowlands WAS different than WotLK.

And so would a pirate expansion be different from BfA.

People here were suggesting a beat for beat retread of BFA.

No, they weren't. Because people were asking for an expansion centered around pirates, and not another 'faction conflict'-centered expansion.

[Woggmer]

Do you have a sauce on that?

Kosak: We wanted to get those warlords and we were like what was he doing, raise them from the dead, bring them back. Where do we put them? Where do we put this expansion?

Afrasiabi: And we actually did that. We initially when we’re going to, Garrosh is going to go to the outland itself. He is going to be exiled or something like that. He is going to use some kind of ancient horn and resurrect the fallen warlords and then invade Azeroth as well. Then as we started to look at what that would look like the world design perspective, I think we all were a little over Outland as it exists now. Then we thought about, Wow this, there is something here though, there’s a world here with a story to tell. And so how do we get that world? How do we get that version about Outland to our players who have never seen it and get our warlords; and I think this is how we started going down this path of what we have now which is the Warlords of Draenor, and Draenor thirty years ago.

Full quotes here: https://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/com...l-transcript/2

[Makorus]

I agree that Pirates are not enough to carry an expansion. However, Pirates would be a good secondary/tertiary threat like the Mantid or Gnolls.

[Hitei]

Not really. There are primalists, but something about it seems off... like the Earthen Ring isn't involved when they should be. Magetha isn't involved either and yet one of her disciples is one of the most powerful of the primalists. Thrall isn't involved either...

It's not just "There are primalists".

•Entire pre-patch event was about the four elements
•Every single zone, including both patch zones, has large elementally infused areas and areas being occupied by elementals.
•Professions not only use elemental materials, the Dragonflight trees nearly all have sections based on elements, Frost and Air potions and phials for alchemy, molten armor and weapons for BS, element themed darkmoon decks, element themed gem sets, flame-infused LW sets, engineers make devices for capturing elemental souls
•Gathering nodes come in special element-infused varieties
•Leather and cloth come in element-infused varieties
•The primary antagonists* are four proto-dragons each representing one of the four elements
•Entire first tier is an elemental raid of nothing but elemental bosses
•First added zone invasion event is elemental storms hitting specific areas
•Second event is fire specific elementally infused enemies attacking specific areas
•Elemental-themed trinkets, effect rings, embellishments, etc. all over the place

Like what are you expecting to happen here? That there's going to be a whole SECOND expansion where every aspect is element themed? This is the element expansion. They didn't go through and make literally everything element themed so that they could do an element expansion later. If they were planning to make an elemental expansion next, they would have just leaned very very hard into the flights aspect. You'd have gathering nodes with Green, Blue, Bronze, Black and Red infused special forms and proto-drake/drakonid standard invasions, and the Primalists would be a minor secondary enemy that shows up in 10.3, not the primary from pre-patch through every zone and into each patch location.

[Nibelheimy]

Subjective.

I would love that DF ends with a cataclysmic event that destroys a good part of the world. 11.0 brings zones of the Old World revamped and we rediscover everything that we have visited through the years along, of course, new zones.

Everything would be new and shiny while nostalgic.

I would love that they have the balls to do that, but I know that I am just daydreaming.

Agreed. I think I first tossed the idea back in the beginning of June of maybe Iridikron destroying the elemental planes in some way, forcing the elementals to emerge on Azeroth. 11.0 would be entirely a remade Kalimdor. Which conveniently has the caverns of time in, so they could put a way to add old Kalimdor in through there.

My hope is that new Kalimdor would focus on the races from Kalimdor, the elements, the new world tree (if it doesn't get put in dragon isles). We've conveniently just gotten Centaur remodels too, Thrall on the blizzcon poster, and a huge lack of element lore in this expansion, a new grintotem boss with no Magatha, and a few more things I noted back then that I can't quite remember at this time.

Although a lot of people on this forum will REE at the idea of it, they could do a whole expansion in Kalimdor and save EK for 12.0. Spend a bit more time building up for the human, forsaken, scarlet and light bound plots for that next big expansion that feel a little too far out of left field to be relevant next. Then they already have Cot ready to add a way to access old Eastern kingdoms.

Even if it was both continents in one expansion. The first raid for the new expansion with all these big anniversaries could be a return to Blackrock mountain, truly eliminating a returned Ragnaros who now belongs on our plain of existence. Thrall and smolderon would need some help with that.

If its purely Kalimdor.. A reimagined maraudon and dire maul would be really cool. We've just had a timeskip, and maybe the Harbringer is on her way to consume/rez/whatever other old gods and C'thun is first on the list. Better go back to Ahnqiraj and get your hd remodeled black Qiraji mount.

[Makorus]

It's not just "There are primalists".

•Entire pre-patch event was about the four elements
•Every single zone, including both patch zones, has large elementally infused areas and areas being occupied by elementals.
•Professions not only use elemental materials, the Dragonflight trees nearly all have sections based on elements, Frost and Air potions and phials for alchemy, molten armor and weapons for BS, element themed darkmoon decks, element themed gem sets, flame-infused LW sets, engineers make devices for capturing elemental souls
•Gathering nodes come in special element-infused varieties
•Leather and cloth come in element-infused varieties
•The primary antagonists* are four proto-dragons each representing one of the four elements
•Entire first tier is an elemental raid of nothing but elemental bosses
•First added zone invasion event is elemental storms hitting specific areas
•Second event is fire specific elementally infused enemies attacking specific areas
•Elemental-themed trinkets, effect rings, embellishments, etc. all over the place

Like what are you expecting to happen here? That there's going to be a whole SECOND expansion where every aspect is element themed? This is the element expansion. They didn't go through and make literally everything element themed so that they could do an element expansion later. If they were planning to make an elemental expansion next, they would have just leaned very very hard into the flights aspect. You'd have gathering nodes with Green, Blue, Bronze, Black and Red infused special forms and proto-drake/drakonid standard invasions, and the Primalists would be a minor secondary enemy that shows up in 10.3, not the primary from pre-patch through every zone and into each patch location.

The only thing missing is the literal Elemental Lords, but I would not be surprised if we got Ragnaros 3.0 in 10.2

[Worldshaper]

It's not just "There are primalists".

•Entire pre-patch event was about the four elements
•Every single zone, including both patch zones, has large elementally infused areas and areas being occupied by elementals.
•Professions not only use elemental materials, the Dragonflight trees nearly all have sections based on elements, Frost and Air potions and phials for alchemy, molten armor and weapons for BS, element themed darkmoon decks, element themed gem sets, flame-infused LW sets, engineers make devices for capturing elemental souls
•Gathering nodes come in special element-infused varieties
•Leather and cloth come in element-infused varieties
•The primary antagonists* are four proto-dragons each representing one of the four elements
•Entire first tier is an elemental raid of nothing but elemental bosses
•First added zone invasion event is elemental storms hitting specific areas
•Second event is fire specific elementally infused enemies attacking specific areas
•Elemental-themed trinkets, effect rings, embellishments, etc. all over the place

Like what are you expecting to happen here? That there's going to be a whole SECOND expansion where every aspect is element themed? This is the element expansion. They didn't go through and make literally everything element themed so that they could do an element expansion later. If they were planning to make an elemental expansion next, they would have just leaned very very hard into the flights aspect. You'd have gathering nodes with Green, Blue, Bronze, Black and Red infused special forms and proto-drake/drakonid standard invasions, and the Primalists would be a minor secondary enemy that shows up in 10.3, not the primary from pre-patch through every zone and into each patch location.

Elements as a theme isn't guaranteed for 11.0, but it's possible.

Warlords of Draenor had lots of Legion stuff going on, especially the last patch. A lot of us weren't expecting more Burning Legion again so soon. Then, bam. Legion announced.

Battle for Azeroth had lots of Sylvanas, Anduin, Jaina, QQing Night Elves, and hints about Mueh'zala, Bwonzamdi, etc. going on. Then, bam. Shadowlands.

It's fully possibly, especially given that Thrall is the poster boy for it, that 11.0 has some Elemental content going on. Basically anything you found in Cataclysm is possible for both Dragonflight and 11.0. Void, Old Gods, Elements, Elemental Lords, Azshara, Dragons, Thrall, World Revamp, etc. It's all on the table.

[Sondrelk]

Elements as a theme isn't guaranteed for 11.0, but it's possible.

Warlords of Draenor had lots of Legion stuff going on, especially the last patch. A lot of us weren't expecting more Burning Legion again so soon. Then, bam. Legion announced.

Battle for Azeroth had lots of Sylvanas, Anduin, Jaina, QQing Night Elves, and hints about Mueh'zala, Bwonzamdi, etc. going on. Then, bam. Shadowlands.

It's fully possibly, especially given that Thrall is the poster boy for it, that 11.0 has some Elemental content going on.

I don't see how you could go more Elemental in theme than Dragonflight is doing though. At least not without doing what Cataclysm did and actually have us to back to the Firelands or Deepholm.
I guess you could focus more on actual elementals as characters, but that feels like a bit of a sidegrade to what we have now with the Incarnates.