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

[Cheezits]

Only way .2 is the final patch is if 11.0 releases around Aug, which I don't see happening since a Nov release is near the 20th anni.

Or they really do not care about the 20th anniversary. We have never seen them refer to it, so...

[Santandame]

Tomorrow's announcement is so close, I can taste it.

- Emerald Dream! Gimme all those lovely little cosy nooks inside the dream!
- Amirdrassil raid!
- Druids for all races!
- Paladins for all races (possibly kept for 10.2.5 though)!
- Night Elf capital city!
- Amazing transmog!
- Resolution to the Primal Incarnates storyline!

Predictions for the raid bosses:

- Emerald Dream native creature(s) that's gone feral, stressed out by the invaders.
- Some type of thicket with wild plants seeking to keep everyone out. Thorns, strangling vines, toxins, etc. Perhaps it's the tree itself lashing out at anybody in desperation.
- A green dragon that has been corrupted in Fyrakk's vision, bursting with Shadowflame and twisted Life magic.
- A Keeper of the Grove, perhaps with Dryads and stuff aiding it, turned by the living flame and now serving Fyrakk.
- Some Druid of the Flame badass who's just pure fire and pure rage. Maybe a Night Elf or former dragon.
- Possibly a manifestation of Death, inspired by the Night Elf souls and Ardenweald. Maybe some spirits turned bad and need to be cleansed from the tree?
- Some unexpected type of event boss. Maybe a Moonwell or some shrine of Elune which just spouts out wild Life magic. A bit like the Dreamsurges.
- Some ultimate manifestation of the Shadowflame, with emphasis on Shadow. Perhaps a being of the Void, just to remind us of that part of it.
- Any remaining leaders of the Primalists and Druids of the Flame. Not sure who remains atm. They might be in charge of corrupting the tree and all wildlife around it.
- Fyrakk himself, obviously. Perhaps we're being aided by Vyranoth in this one. Probably at the heart of the tree, up top or magically inside of it.

I hope, dearly, that there will be some type of zone-specific feature involving herbs, fishing, or whatever. Something to really push us out into the pastures for some good old frolicking.

There will 100% be a boss related to Xavius. Whether it’s an echo, memory or remnant. He is the quintessential Emerald Dream villain. I know we fought him in the Nightmare before but it would be a massive missed opportunity if Blizz don’t do this. It would be so much better than just a random plant, green dragon or elemental boss. Could even be in the tree form that Malfurion trapped him in before.

Also think there will be an overtly Void themed boss. We saw the “remnant of the void” that Ysera’s ghost walked towards at the end of the Nightmare raid. This seems like the perfect opportunity to explore it further.

[Well Done Steak]

Or they really do not care about the 20th anniversary. We have never seen them refer to it, so...

Of course they care...

Not only is it the 20th anni for wow, but the 30th for the warcraft franchise AND the 10th exp

[Cheezits]

Of course they care...

Not only is it the 20th anni for wow, but the 30th for the warcraft franchise AND the 10th exp

Several game devs lately have shown little interest in celebrating big anniversaries. The biggest sign that Blizzard cares about anniversaries is the 15th anniversary event in the Caverns of Time which is still not very huge.

While I think it's unlikely, there's still a decent chance that these cornerstone dates will not affect the next expansion.

[Hitei]

What is considered "degrenerate gameplay" anyways.

Gameplay that represents a deterioration of the intended loop in an excessive and unhealthy way. Like making an evoker, leveling it to 70, doing KP quests, deleting the character, and repeating the process dozens or hundreds of times to max out profession trees. Or the absurd double group order bait farms that were popular early on in DF.

[Well Done Steak]

Several game devs lately have shown little interest in celebrating big anniversaries. The biggest sign that Blizzard cares about anniversaries is the 15th anniversary event in the Caverns of Time which is still not very huge.

While I think it's unlikely, there's still a decent chance that these cornerstone dates will not affect the next expansion.

Perhaps they have something hugged planned and want it to be a surprise

[Hitei]

I do not think that it would discourage interactions between players. It might even increase it. The vast majority of players would not level all professions. Hell, I do not think that there are a lot of players that even level their two professions.

I do not think that it would affect Work Orders that much, because, let us be real, they are already dead.

Account-wide progression is like account-wide quests and reputations. A necessary step for the health of the game. Because is such fun to level fishing in your fifth character, right? Or re-learn and find again those rare recipes, right?

That you think work orders are "already dead" tells me how frighteningly little you understand of the actual state of professions. And that you don't understand that more players would level multiple professions if available account-wide than currently level professions on alts, thus lowering their need to purchase items from other players discourages interactions without the need for someone to "level all professions" tells me you don't understand basic player logic enough to declare anything "for the health of the game".

If you find fishing unfun, why are you leveling it on a fifth alt for absolutely no reason?

[Ersula]

Do you know exactly where they were when they lost their families

Do you? Either way the improbability of the situation (which is huge) is irrelevant. Bolvar would have known if Calia was the mother of his daughter. If the developers intended it, they could have established if Taelia or Lilian was Calia's daughter at a point in the story that made sense, but they didn't. At this point it would not make sense.

If they are taking this long with Tyr, I can definitely see him being either the gate between DF and 11.0 (10.2.5 awakening?) or there being a patch just to deal with him.

The Tyr's Guard feel like absolute bait and the vibe I get is that they are setting Tyr up to be this wonderful nice guy when that's... not the case we're getting from the hints. I think he's going to go full Evangelion on the baby paladins and they are gonna fight each other.

Based on Tyr's transcripts, he seems like they were setting him up to be a twist villain, but then they showed him sacrificing his life to defend the mortals. I think that eliminated the possibility of Tyr being a Villain.

Also the Forsaken Heritage quest makes it sound like the reclamation of Lordaeron happened after the timeskip.

I think it happened the way it was deployed.

Shadowlands > Removing the Blight > Time Skip > Scarlet Crusade Siege

Although what is extremely jarring is for any new players, it feels like the Dark Ranger Customization questline & the Heritage Armor Questline is one questline. So immediately after fighting the Giant Blight Kaiju the city is getting sieged by Scarlets, with nothing indicating there is a 5 year time skip between those two quests.

[Cheezits]

I think it happened the way it was deployed.

Shadowlands > Removing the Blight > Time Skip > Scarlet Crusade Siege

Although what is extremely jarring is for any new players, it feels like the Dark Ranger Customization questline & the Heritage Armor Questline is one questline. So immediately after fighting the Giant Blight Kaiju the city is getting sieged by Scarlets, with nothing indicating there is a 5 year time skip between those two quests.

Except Voss claims "just as we got settled" or something similar when you first talk to her, and EVERYONE is in the same place as they were in the first questline. Nothing implies that five years passed and as you said it feels and acts as though the two quests are just one long megaquest.

- - - Updated - - -

Based on Tyr's transcripts, he seems like they were setting him up to be a twist villain, but then they showed him sacrificing his life to defend the mortals. I think that eliminated the possibility of Tyr being a Villain.

That very same quest hints that Tyr will fight Alexstrazsa, implying he will be an antagonist.

[Ersula]

You don't lose your recipes or progress. And it doesn't have to be account-wide, if only way to earn knowledge will be quests on max level, it will be exactly as limiting at it is now.

I don't think that's a good idea because it suddenly feels like a disadvantage to have alts. That's my problem with FFXIV: My character can be anything so they feel like they don't have much of an identity & making an alt is going to make me re-do a ton of content that was only fun exactly once. Maybe if they could balance it perfectly where its neither adventageous or disadventageous to have one character or many characters it could work, but if not, full stop.

Except Voss claims "just as we got settled" or something similar when you first talk to her, and EVERYONE is in the same place as they were in the first questline. Nothing implies that five years passed and as you said it feels and acts as though the two quests are just one long megaquest.

Then when did the Scarlet Propaganda get put up? Why are they attacking Lordaeron City if it was just uninhabitable minutes ago? That doesn't make sense.

That very same quest hints that Tyr will fight Alexstrazsa, implying he will be an antagonist.

If one of them gets mind-controlled, sure, but Blizzard has never been big on creative foreshadowing.

[Scyth]

I'm ready to be disappointed when blizz announce Druids and Paladins for all races this week, leaving Shamans in the mud.
At least give me an updated Ascendance model, please. Current one has not been touched since Cata ffs..

[huth]

That very same quest hints that Tyr will fight Alexstrazsa, implying he will be an antagonist.

Even presuming the claim is true to begin with, there is no guarantee there will be any sort of fight nor would it be clear which side if any would be antagonistic from our perspective.

[Worldshaper]

I'm ready to be disappointed when blizz announce Druids and Paladins for all races this week, leaving Shamans in the mud.
At least give me an updated Ascendance model, please. Current one has not been touched since Cata ffs..

I think Shamans will arrive with a BANG in pre-patch to 11.0, as Thrall returns. It'll probably feel super cool to roll a Shaman, since a lot of the story is likely to concern the Elements early on. Also lots of good transmog, probably.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I would guess something like fueling all knowledge from multiple chars into one tree. But honestly if I think about it, people who need stuff like that are doing exactly same mass alt leveling for splits.

Ok. I don't hate people leveling alts but.... I don't think gameplay should keel before alt levelers. I don't know how that translates into gameplay but sometimes I feel like if you just have one main char and thats mostly your gametime and alts are minimal at best, sometimes its very limited.

[Ersula]

I'm ready to be disappointed when blizz announce Druids and Paladins for all races this week, leaving Shamans in the mud.
At least give me an updated Ascendance model, please. Current one has not been touched since Cata ffs..

It seems like they're planning "Paladins for All" to be the conclusion to the Tyr Storyline.

"Druids for All" will probably play into the Emerald Dream storyline, so I'd guess 10.2

"Shaman for All" can be included in 11.0 with Thrall reclaiming his Shaman identity, if we're correct & he's going to be a major figure of the next expansion. Shaman for all would be a good Pre-patch-event feature.

[Gurahk]

This has been the only good expansion since Mists of Pandaria, are you fucking stupid?

The dragons really have not been portrayed that well, I feel like they leaned hard into the "comfy vibes" after Shadowlands. I'll have to agree with the others, it's just not that exciting, even if the expansion and gameplay itself is fine. I really hope with Chris Metzen back, they can find a balance between some of the DF storytelling that people like as well as the Warcraft roots, instead of leaning too hard into Danuser's storytelling.

[Myrrh]

Tomorrow's announcement is so close, I can taste it.
Predictions for the raid bosses:

- Emerald Dream native creature(s) that's gone feral, stressed out by the invaders.
- Some type of thicket with wild plants seeking to keep everyone out. Thorns, strangling vines, toxins, etc. Perhaps it's the tree itself lashing out at anybody in desperation.
- A green dragon that has been corrupted in Fyrakk's vision, bursting with Shadowflame and twisted Life magic.
- A Keeper of the Grove, perhaps with Dryads and stuff aiding it, turned by the living flame and now serving Fyrakk.
- Some Druid of the Flame badass who's just pure fire and pure rage. Maybe a Night Elf or former dragon.
- Possibly a manifestation of Death, inspired by the Night Elf souls and Ardenweald. Maybe some spirits turned bad and need to be cleansed from the tree?
- Some unexpected type of event boss. Maybe a Moonwell or some shrine of Elune which just spouts out wild Life magic. A bit like the Dreamsurges.
- Some ultimate manifestation of the Shadowflame, with emphasis on Shadow. Perhaps a being of the Void, just to remind us of that part of it.
- Any remaining leaders of the Primalists and Druids of the Flame. Not sure who remains atm. They might be in charge of corrupting the tree and all wildlife around it.
- Fyrakk himself, obviously. Perhaps we're being aided by Vyranoth in this one. Probably at the heart of the tree, up top or magically inside of it.

I don't think we'll get a full sweep of druid races, but 1-2 new ones seems reasonable for a major patch. Druids unfortunately bring a lot of design time baggage due to all the forms.

Boss list seems pretty in line with what I'd expect, though I like the idea of an Ardenweald/death-themed boss sneaking in there - they might even go with a Drust incursion. There will 100% be some sort of shadowflame corrupted being - an Ancient seems like a likely candidate, or could go a different direction and infuse a satyr. If the void theme starts to take over later into the raid, a spicy faceless general wouldn't be surprising. Re: your green dragon point - I think if they ever play around with another Valithria-style healer fight, it will be here.

Igira is still around, plus there is whatever weapon the djaradin claim to be constructing in the suffusion camps. I like to think a giant ballista would be pretty in character for them as habitual dragonslayers. Unfortunately this would probably mean another Hellfire Assault type boss. Sorry for putting that thought out there.

Decatriarch Wratheye from Brackenhide was weirdly left alive, and it would make sense for her to make a return and try to spread decay through the new world tree and/or Dream. Not as a Fyrakk ally or anything, just opportunistic and would serve as a bit of a thematic break from the fire and brimstone.

On Fyrakk, either he'll be split into two fights or his fight will have him dynamically transition into/out of his humanoid model. It's just too good not to use compared to yet another protodrake with annoying wings that get in the way of mechanics.

[Cheezits]

Random late thought: Female Satyr model, for sure.

[Kiivar86]

- A green dragon that has been corrupted in Fyrakk's vision, bursting with Shadowflame and twisted Life magic.

I wouldn't mind a callback to the firehawks since at least Alysrazor was a green dragon and all that before being reborn. I love those mounts. Plus if they do finally expand the dragon riding system to compatible mounts, they're among them after all.

[Ersula]

I don't think we'll get a full sweep of druid races, but 1-2 new ones seems reasonable for a major patch. Druids unfortunately bring a lot of design time baggage due to all the forms.

If what they're doing with Paladins is any indication. Who wants to bet they just add one set of generic druid forms everyone has access too, customizable in the barbershop. Say, the Nelf druid forms extend to all elves. The Tauren druid forms extend to all shamanistic races. The Kul Tiran druid forms extend to the human offshoots, etc. Maybe they'll make a cyborg set of druid forms for Gnomes & Goblins.