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

[Worldshaper]

I do not think there will be any mention of future patches other than 10.2 today. They need to save something for BlizzCon, and it makes sense to go over 2024's roadmap there. There is likely to be even more encrypted content in 10.2 than there was in 10.1.7, so they'll have no rush.

That said, I would welcome something entirely unexpected tonight. For example, instead of simply going to the Emerald Dream to face off with Fyrakk, they pull the rug out from under us.

Scenario:

Fyrakk is seen breaching the barrier to the Dream in a cinematic. But as he does, Life magic just completely envelopes him and crushes him to death in seconds. The tree has become so powerful, it is getting out of control.

We're given a 10.2 cinematic (a real CGI one) where forces of Life suddenly begin emerging from within the Dream. Appearing all over Azeroth. Sort of feral versions of creatures you'd expect to find in the Dream. Maybe Botani and stuff, too.

Guardians of the Dream becomes unexpectedly a patch where we need to restore the Dream to what it was, tranquilize it.

[Reive]

let's hope today's announcement brings us good things. I'm striving for new and good content.

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

i feel like 10.2 is the last patch but that would also mean we end on a weird note without solving the aspects regaining their power, alexstrasza's rumored corruption, iridikron, and wrathion's proper ending to his DF arc

[Marlamin]

PTR realms are on 10.2.0.51239 so if there are no further issues the only thing left is for them to push a client, maybe as soon as right after the announcement?

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Hell yeah for some more orc stories!

Orcs > elves any day.

[Darkarath]

PTR realms are on 10.2.0.51239 so if there are no further issues the only thing left is for them to push a client, maybe as soon as right after the announcement?

I take that for granted. Hopefully two months of testing will be enough for an early November release.

[Scyth]

Hell yeah for some more orc stories!

Orcs > elves any day.

Belves over any of them though

I'd love it if we got a cinematic involving Fyrakk, druids of the flame and the Greens. DF's cinematic was probably the worst one (for me) so getting another one would be amazing. Fingers crossed but not putting my hopes up.

[Nebron]

Wasn't there some guy in a leading role who left the cinematic team a few years ago? I wonder if that's when the change you've observed started happening. Can't remember his name off the top of my head.

Re: all the comments about the Keeper of the Grove and it looking non-Warcrafty, there might be a similar situation with the art direction for WoW going on. IIRC a guy called Chris Robinson used to headline many of Blizzard's panels when it comes to art. He was some type of Senior Art Director. Haven't seen him in a few years, did he quit?

Not sure about the artists or leading designer, but I see some pattern from Legion to Shadowlands cinematic of how the characters look.

I guess it has a lot to do with the fact, that cinematics after Warlords of Draenor portrayed humans, or human-like beings (Sylvanas). And as far as I know it's incredibly hard to pull-off human faces, so that they don't fall into that weird pit of "uncanny valley". In my opinion, Varian from Legion cinematic is a perfect example of that issue - he's detailed and yet something feels off about his face and gestures. Same with Sylvanas.

I assume it's much easier to go with Saurfang, Grom or Greymane, as there is no direct comparison to real thing.

But that aside, what I loved about Warlords of Draenor is the story chunk it presented. It felt like a excerpt from TV series or something, wasn't too pathetic, perfect work of light in the dark surroundings. Build-up music. Even the shot, where Grom take up the Iron Star machine and aims on Mannaroth, there's a little zoom that may go unnoticed and yet, it gives a feeling of dynamic.
Legion was pretty boring, Shadowlands had a bit of nostalgia ride, but was to narrow in story scope. Battle for Azeroth was too pompous for my taste, but it felt better in context of other CGI series like Old Soldier and Mak'gora cinematic.
Dragonflight - well, I was suprised how boring it was really - beautiful but boring.

I have they can give us something like WoD again

[KurtMash]

The angle looks fine to me between the image and the corner. It's the text that seems utterly fucked.



Here's the picture adjusted to no longer be at roughly the angle I would expect it to be if the camera were aligned, going by the position of the corner. Now that I look at it, the figure in the background is also at a very unusual angle.

That's not how perspective works. Here is the same photo with fixed perspective. It looks fine.

[Le Conceptuel]

That's not how perspective works. Here is the same photo with fixed perspective. It looks fine.

Thanks for catching it. My spatial estimation was faulty and I assumed a different point of perspective. This seems more believable. I still have my suspicions, but the text seems clear.

[RahEndymion]

This image leak, on the background character the things that people keep saying are artifacts or horns look an awful lot like sails in the distance to me? The background even looks like land/sea meeting..

Am I loosing my mind here?

[Teriz]

Another reason I think the leak is real is the "randomness" of it. What I mean is that fake leakers usually tend to draw from popular theories since they know it'll stir the pot.

For 11.0, the popular theories are pirates, titans, and light v void.

The leak has none of that.

I'd be more inclined to call bullshit if the leak was a random naaru, or a boat or some titanic figure.

Instead we get some weird distorted orc looking creature and another one too blurry to tell.


If it was fake, why make something no one can recognize.

So here's some examples on leaks that were real.

So the bolvar leak, people thought it was fake since bolvar'd body was orange while the helm was blue.

I say that's what proved it was real, because why would leaker make his helm blue??? If it was fake then his helm would have been orange too, because that's what people expect.

Now for DF, the Alex print art gave it away because of the staff that Alex was holding.

Alex never held any weapons, so why would a leaker randomly give her a staff???

So basically the more random a cinematic leak is the more likely it's real since fake leakers wanna pull people in with what they know.

Yeah, this smacks of the Bolvar leak where people thought it was fake because the of the color of his body. It's the same "we've never seen that in game so it must be fake" argument that we're seeing with this. People need to understand that just because its never been shown before doesn't mean that Blizzard isn't going to do it in the future.

[Le Conceptuel]

Yeah, this smacks of the Bolvar leak where people thought it was fake because the of the color of his body. It's the same "we've never seen that in game so it must be fake" argument that we're seeing with this. People need to understand that just because its never been shown before doesn't mean that Blizzard isn't going to do it in the future.

One of the sticking points for me is the odd design of the figure in the background, which seems to have little rhyme or reason to it. I'm also a bit suspicious of the strange angle with the nostril of the figure in the foreground and the fact in itself that this was posted so early. I'm not going to dismiss it entirely, but I still need more to assuage my suspicions.

[Ersula]

That was me spitballing though I was going with it being a Scourge Orc (Scorc?) vs a Hordey Human.

That's my bet. Maybe its a world revamp reveal & they're showing recognizable characters fighting together in the new world? Like this could be Darian Morgraine & Nazgrim

Uhm excuse me but orcs are always incredibly ugly. No matter where and in which context or what games that's the whole point of orcs. I have no idea why blizzard and specifically metzen wanted to ride this horse of "orcs can be palls" until thrall was called green Jesus.

*marge potato meme* he just thinks they're neat

Here's the picture adjusted to no longer be at roughly the angle I would expect it to be if the camera were aligned, going by the position of the corner. Now that I look at it, the figure in the background is also at a very unusual angle.

You're not taking into consideration that the photo of the monitor isn't just askew, its also at an angle: so the right side is further from the camera than the left. If this is a leak its a good one. They've given us a good excuse for everything wrong with it.

[Santandame]

If the photo leak is real then I’m of the opinion that the race is the heretics of Avaloren.

They don’t look anything like Burning Legion demons we’ve seen, nor do they look anything like what a Light infused Orc is likely to look like.

Otherwise I’m leaning towards World Revamp cinematic showing various races and it’s a Drogbar.

[Le Conceptuel]

You're not taking into consideration that the photo of the monitor isn't just askew, its also at an angle: so the right side is further from the camera than the left. If this is a leak its a good one. They've given us a good excuse for everything wrong with it.

I'm aware. @KurtMash caught it for me already.

[vintage79]

if u see fyrakk here....
Some charater with 2h weapon and horned helm

- - - Updated - - -

[micwini]

Can someone do the "fake image detecting" stuff on this photo? Just like was done on the photo of the necropolis floating above Borean Tundra (which also went nowhere)

[Teriz]

Improvement? Obviously it’s subjective, but in my view Draenor cinematic in terms of quality is the best WoW cinematic ever released. Since Legion everything looks plastic and uncanny. The attention to detail in Draenor cinematic is crazy, even the drops of sweat on Grommash skin are there.

Again, why it has to be a cosmic force? Why it’s not a different sub-species? Why not a new race actually? Of all the things, why Light? Why not a twisted experiment?

I mean, you make a bold claim, but I can’t see any reason behind it other than - it’s a twisted character, I like the idea of Light Force as 11.0s theme, therefore it’s a character twisted by Light.

Mkay.

Improvement as in it doesn't look like a nasty, slobbering monster. It still looks monstrous, but it looks less slimy and gross as Grom looks in the WoD cinematic.

As for why do I believe it's a cosmic force, specifically the light? Blizzard almost never gives us a left field expansion, they always leave clues and breadcrumbs that lead us to future expansions. There's no basis for a new subspecies of Orcs, and a new Azerothian race that looks like a warped orcs doesn't make much sense. The only known source for new orcs twisted or otherwise would be AU Draenor or Outland since that's where they originate from. Frankly, these being Orcs from AU Draenor makes the most sense, because the timeline between AU Draenor and MU Azeroth is not stable. Thus you could be pulling the Lightbound army from multiple points in time. For example, these could be Lightbound orcs being warped by the Naaru for decades or even centuries after we freed the Mag'har.

I could be completely wrong about all of this, but I do believe this is what we're dealing with.

[micwini]

if u see fyrakk here....
Some charater with 2h weapon and horned helm

- - - Updated - - -

If horn 2 would go behind the halbert, there is no way the halberd fully hides horn 2, unless it is broken off.