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

[Aeluron Lightsong]

That's the real ending to the faction war plot though, and therefore the """main""" plot of the expansion.

This is starting to sound like Blizz realizing you don't NEED three patches to tell an expansion story, and should cut it up to keep expansions more concise/faster produced instead of juggling two big themes (War/Nzoth, Dragons/Titans) in the same expansion.

They kinda do. There's nothing wrong with having 3 big patches in an expansion. Trying to rush it and finish it is a bad idea.

[Nymrohd]

Sure, but I feel like this just stings a lot harder and is pretty bad PR wise to just rugpull your audience into without any clarification or statements about the future of the game.

Because this team, whose leadership has not significantly changed, just slightly shifted posts, has historically been so great with communication and PR.

[Sondrelk]

They can move the ending to 10.2.7. The ending doesn't have to be in a raid or a dungeon.

No. It kinda has to be. That is just how expansions work. For a game so focused on the PvE experience you can't just ignore that bit for the actual finale. The story structure in WoW always ends with a big challenge, not just because that is how WoW does it, but because that is how video games do it.
Even if it's just a 3 boss raid you do need an actual ending to bookmark the expansion.

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That's the real ending to the faction war plot though, and therefore the """main""" plot of the expansion.

This is starting to sound like Blizz realizing you don't NEED three patches to tell an expansion story, and should cut it up to keep expansions more concise/faster produced instead of juggling two big themes (War/Nzoth, Dragons/Titans) in the same expansion.

And BfA felt like a jumbled mess because the main plot unceremoniously ended outside Orgrimmar, only for us to then go to a storyline that had nothing to do with it somewhere else.

And you don't need three patches. You just need a good ending that makes sense.

[Reive]

having only 2 major patches means dragonflight was another low effort expansion. don't care if we got 10 patches with 10 minutes of questlines in each of them. the content of this expansion has been underwhelming. losing a main patch would be the nail in the coffin for me.

[Jaggler]

Also if 10.2 is the final patch, it means we are just before the final patch and still don't know the villains motivation and plans.

What are you talking about. We know Raszageth's motivation to free her siblings, we knew Sarkareth's motivation to claim Neltharions legacy and we know Fyrakk's motivation. The only one we don't know fully now is Iridikron but he is shelved at the moment.

[Nymrohd]

They kinda do. There's nothing wrong with having 3 big patches in an expansion. Trying to rush it and finish it is a bad idea.

I feel that since the playerbase has shifted to M+, they are effectively deciding that raids are not the center of the story anymore. Which, fine. It can work if it is done properly and is cinematic enough. Some clarity on the paradigm shift would have been welcome ofc but it already happened in 10.1; the story that ended in the dungeon is imo far more important to the narrative than the one that ended in the raid.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I feel that since the playerbase has shifted to M+, they are effectively deciding that raids are not the center of the story anymore. Which, fine. It can work if it is done properly and is cinematic enough. Some clarity on the paradigm shift would have been welcome ofc but it already happened in 10.1; the story that ended in the dungeon is imo far more important to the narrative than the one that ended in the raid.

M+ is meant for those that want to indulge in it and those that don't care for raids. Has nothing to do with the whole playerbase.

And you don't need three patches. You just need a good ending that makes sense.

Kinda do, unless you want less. Blizzard doesn't need to tinker with the amount of Content Patches for each expansion so much.

[Hitei]

Also if 10.2 is the final patch, it means we are just before the final patch and still don't know the villains motivation and plans.

That's not abnormal. Especially since most of the time X.2 is a side step.

We typically don't know the final villains' actual strategy until the very end.

[Nymrohd]

What are you talking about. We know Raszageth's motivation to free her siblings, we knew Sarkareth's motivation to claim Neltharions legacy and we know Fyrakk's motivation. The only one we don't know fully now is Iridikron but he is shelved at the moment.

We have no idea why the Incarnates even came to be other than a passing comment from Vyranoth that is definitely leading but not explanatory. We have no real knowledge of what the Incarnates are after except committing what would amount to acts of terrorism without a manifesto. Iridikron has alliances that are unclear to us and maybe is planning to bring the Titans to Azeroth because he believes he can ... stare them down? But sure, we know everything!

[Sondrelk]

I feel that since the playerbase has shifted to M+, they are effectively deciding that raids are not the center of the story anymore. Which, fine. It can work if it is done properly and is cinematic enough. Some clarity on the paradigm shift would have been welcome ofc but it already happened in 10.1; the story that ended in the dungeon is imo far more important to the narrative than the one that ended in the raid.

M+ are most certainly not the core of the storytelling. That's like arguing that PvP would be the core of the storytelling if more people started playing it.
M+ is the lifeblood of the game I would say. It's the best tool the developers have to ensure player retention over time now that each season is markedly different from the last one.
Raids or otherwise Dungeons are still the end all, be all of WoW storytelling. It's what they do the best, and it's the best tool they have to actually cap off a storyline, barring the epilogue quests you usually get.

[Cheezits]

Apparently the Nelf heritage quest is rather mid, so they best start explaining 10.2 reallllllllll fast.

[Makabreska]

having only 2 major patches means dragonflight was another low effort expansion. don't care if we got 10 patches with 10 minutes of questlines in each of them. the content of this expansion has been underwhelming. losing a main patch would be the nail in the coffin for me.

Doing a biggest ever class/spec overhaul that kept them busy entire expansion is hardly low effort. But hey, peeps can't see past number patches.

[Cheezits]

Status update from everyone's favorite certain Forsaken character!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yUamzm8OAo

[Santandame]

I feel that since the playerbase has shifted to M+, they are effectively deciding that raids are not the center of the story anymore. Which, fine. It can work if it is done properly and is cinematic enough. Some clarity on the paradigm shift would have been welcome ofc but it already happened in 10.1; the story that ended in the dungeon is imo far more important to the narrative than the one that ended in the raid.

This is an excellent point.

I feel in expansions past, Aberrus would have cut down on a couple of bosses and would have been the mega dungeon of the expansion. With Dawn of the Infinites being the raid with the big story implications.

I am fine with this if this is a new trend. I would happily sacrifice the .3 patch in future expansions, instead ending on .2.5 but with another mega dungeon or dungeon to bookend the story.

3 raids and two mega dungeons is fine by me.

[Ersula]

Also if 10.2 is the final patch, it means we are just before the final patch and still don't know the villains motivation and plans.

What do you mean? Iridikron states his motives & plans concisely at the end of Dawn of the Infinite.

We have no idea why the Incarnates even came to be other than a passing comment from Vyranoth

They're Galakrond's clutchlings. He mated with a female protodrake who gave birth to them, at least that's what I infer assuming Galakrond didn't reproduce asexually.

[Foreign Exchange Ztudent]

What do you mean? Iridikron states his motives & plans concisely at the end of Dawn of the Infinite.

None of the events that Iridikron spoke of is taking place in this expansion. Well the verdict is still out on the Harbingers' arrival and what not but other than that none of the events are transpiring in this expansion.

[Sondrelk]

This is an excellent point.

I feel in expansions past, Aberrus would have cut down on a couple of bosses and would have been the mega dungeon of the expansion. With Dawn of the Infinites being the raid with the big story implications.

I am fine with this if this is a new trend. I would happily sacrifice the .3 patch in future expansions, instead ending on .2.5 but with another mega dungeon or dungeon to bookend the story.

3 raids and two mega dungeons is fine by me.

Why would you not just make the final megadungeon a raid though? You wouldnt really have time to make it into a M+ dungeon like you could with the earlier one, which seems to be the main point to catering to the M+ crowd. And you would be alienating the Mythic raid WF players who bring in free advertisement with their livestreams.

[Jaggler]

We have no idea why the Incarnates even came to be other than a passing comment from Vyranoth that is definitely leading but not explanatory. We have no real knowledge of what the Incarnates are after except committing what would amount to acts of terrorism without a manifesto. Iridikron has alliances that are unclear to us and maybe is planning to bring the Titans to Azeroth because he believes he can ... stare them down? But sure, we know everything!

They are powerful proto-dragons who opposed the "Gift" of the Titans and want to get revenge on the Dragonflights in one form or another. That's literally their MO since day 1.

[Darkarath]

After watching the cinematic of Vyranoth betrayal to the Incarnates and joining the Aspects, I really really hope that they are messing with us, that they knew that we were observing them all the time, and planned accordingly, just to Vyranoth to do some real damage when she shows her true colors. If this does not happen, the narrative that has lead to this point is so pathethic, the justification of Vyranoth actions so swift and weak, that it would make me lose a lot of the good faith that DF was building.

[Fiercelord]

Status update from everyone's favorite certain Forsaken character!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yUamzm8OAo

Interesting. Glad to see "that dearest one" remembered by Blizzard.