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

[Sondrelk]

Oh, definitely. There's much more stuff than has been reported on as well so far, even going back as far as 10.0.0. It'll be a lot of fun to see how many of those predicted dots actually end up connecting, and more interestingly, if not, why?

I am curious whether the predictions will follow the same pattern they tend to.
An obvious candidate will be available long before. In this case Avaloren/Backside of Azeroth. Though world revamp is actually a highly likely one for once, and not just the memes.
We will get lots of prediction based on the obvious candidate, but as the predictions roll by we will eventually switch tracks to something that is only vaguely set up in the final patch. Dragon Isles leading up to SL for instance.
Eventually the unlikely prediction will be the only one getting all the in-depth leaks.
Blizzcon rolls around and lo and behold, it was the obvious choice everyone guessed months ago.

[DelusionalBear]

(because no human would want to go over the tens of thousands of old gear just to give it an high rezz upscale):

its called job. they are paid money to do it. 'want' have nothing with it

[Ersula]

I still don't get why some people are so hell bent on getting another raid after Amidrassil .... I would rather have a few months of relaxed fated farm raids instead of having to do progress until the last minute. Also new expansion > any patch, so I would rather get 11.0 in late summer instead of another dragged out raid tier.

The average length of every expansion has always been 24 months. Releasing this next expansion in August would throw that average way off. It's most likely going to come out November 2024 while an August 2024 release is as likely as a February 2025 release.

It seems like they are also slowly changing old armour to give it a HD look via AI (because no human would want to go over the tens of thousands of old gear just to give it an high rezz upscale):

Some Dataminers in reply to that post are saying it likely isn't AI upscaling, but that the original in house versions of these files were higher res. Artists generally don't like digital paining with big pixels. The artists who make the textures originally created higher resolution textures, that were compressed (downscaled) for implementation when they first appeared in the game. And now they're using the original production higher resolution textures.

That's almost certainly a store/cross promo set. Maybe Trading Post.

My deepest desire for WoW has always been for them to do a post-apocalyptic themed expansion. I was hoping they'd commit to the time difference in Shadowlands & Jaina, Thrall, Anduin & Baine return to find Azeroth got destroyed from something ubiquitous & everything is Mad Max Fury Road

Y'all think there is a domain of Life or not?

I just don't think we should conceptualize it as a physical space. According to the Cosmology chart, The Material Plane, Ethereal Plane, The Elemental Planes, the Shadowlands & The Dream are physical locations. The things outside that are meant to be spheres of influence: Each cosmic force has a seat of power that we could go visit, but its not its own dimension. The forces of Life simply exist within all living things.

We know there's a Zereth Vitae, but I have no idea what they'd be doing there, as it was established Zareth Mortis both builds afterlives, but was also where they created the base models for all living things. And that life energy comes from the Great Cycle, aka Ardenweald funneling Anima back into the material plane.

If 10.2 was the last patch PERIOD, it would still have more content added from launch to end than Legion.

Only if you count stealing Final Fantasy XIV's crafting system "new content".

[Cheezits]

Unless Amirdrassil is the main hub for an Avaloren expansion (it is on the edge of the map) then it also implies a revamp because otherwise it is immediately irrelevant.

- - - Updated - - -

The Gnoll Decay boss surviving screams revamp hook to me. It’s a way of making the Gnoll’s more of a significant threat as opposed to them just being cannibalistic bandits living in the woods. Wratheye can teach decay magic to the wider Gnoll populace and begin to Marshall them under one clan.

I can see it, but I can also see her being involved in some final plot to poison the waters of Tyrhold similar to how Galakrond was created.

I would prefer we get lots of Gnolls in a revamp or to have her make the Mongrel Horde that is stacking different areas.

[Hellspawn]

Unless Amirdrassil is the main hub for an Avaloren expansion (it is on the edge of the map) then it also implies a revamp because otherwise it is immediately irrelevant.

How would it be relevant if it stays on the dragon isle?

[Cheezits]

How would it be relevant if it stays on the dragon isle?

Quests, ships and portals to new content if it stays on the isles.

[Ersula]

Unless Amirdrassil is the main hub for an Avaloren expansion (it is on the edge of the map) then it also implies a revamp because otherwise it is immediately irrelevant.

That's a good point. Amirdrassil can't really function as a City Hub for an old world revamp if its in the Dragon Isles. But I'd guess if they revamped Kalimdor & Eastern Kingdoms It'd be like Vanilla Launch, where there were 8 races but only 6 faction cities.

There's no real reason to have more than 1 hub per expansion, or 2 if they separate them by faction. I bet a Revamp expansion would extensively revamp Stormwind & Orgrimmar but the other cities are treated like a small village with a bank. Like the Night Elf capital is Amirdrassil, like Suramar, but some Night Elves go back to the Ruins of Teldrassil & clean it up, setting up a military base at the very least.

Let's not forget that chart was explicitly made by somebody who is neither objective nor has access to the full picture, especially regarding things not pertaining to the Shadowlands.

Yes, but then we got a second perspective in the form of the Broker's map, which was almost entirely the same: They just grouped the physical reality, shadowlands, emerald dream middle section of the Titan map into its own sphere called "the Great Cycle". It's accurate for its purposes.

The Warlands AU fits perfectly

I'm still thinking about that leaked cinematic shot. If its real, and it is an Orc in Blue & a Human in Red, we might be getting an AU Azeroth.

[Hellspawn]

Honestly I'm good with Amirdrassil not being a mainhub now or in the future. I could only see it if lifelands would be the next expansion.
Its too far of for Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms and if we go to Avaloren, there will be a hub over there.

[Dracullus]

Honestly I'm good with Amirdrassil not being a mainhub now or in the future. I could only see it if lifelands would be the next expansion.
Its too far of for Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms and if we go to Avaloren, there will be a hub over there.

It's strange to me why people want so much new tree taken out of blue. In revamped world I would prefer Hyjal as start and capital for Nelfs. That's even more iconic than Teldrassil.

[Hellspawn]

It's strange to me why people want so much new tree taken out of blue. In revamped world I would prefer Hyjal as start and capital for Nelfs. That's even more iconic than Teldrassil.

... this assumes that in a revamp they would do race based starting Zones again. (which I doubt would happen)
But assuming they do that, starting in Amirdrassil and then port over to (via dreamway) Hyjal or even Darkshore is really not thaaaat different then going over from Teldrassil to Darkshore. I would still put the main hub on Hyjal (and make Amirdrassil just the starting zone).

[Fahrad Wagner]

Do you think if Amirdrassil becomes the capital of the nightelves, they will build on top of it like they did with Teldrassil? Or more likely around the roots of the tree?

[Ersula]

It's strange to me why people want so much new tree taken out of blue. In revamped world I would prefer Hyjal as start and capital for Nelfs. That's even more iconic than Teldrassil.

That's interesting because I always imagine the canonical Azeroth to be more urban than it seems in classic, at least it should be at this point in the timeline. Hyjal should at least have more of the buildings we see in Valsharah, as well as I hope a revamp will show a more urban Elwynn & eastern steppes (replacing that mountainous area north of stormwind with their canonical residential area.)

Goblins have Shamans, Orcs have Shamans, and Belves are in fact elves. All of them have a preexisting link to a nature themed class like Druid, even if noone we have seen of those races so far have been a druid. Just like how Dwarves don't have any druids, but we still accept that it would make sense given Wildhammer dwarves are a thing.

The "druids for all" seeds are being planted, if you'll forgive the pun. It feels like a natural progression for Paladins & Druids to be options for all (non hero class) races before 11.0

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/stat...34213449613331

There are a bunch of children projecting themselves into the Emerald Dream. (I've seen Pandarian & Human) and they explain it as small children being able to do this innately. This upturns the paradigm that you needed the blessing of a Wildgod in order to access the Dream and therefor be a real druid.

[Dracullus]

That's interesting because I always imagine the canonical Azeroth to be more urban than it seems in classic, at least it should be at this point in the timeline. Hyjal should at least have more of the buildings we see in Valsharah, as well as I hope a revamp will show a more urban Elwynn & eastern steppes (replacing that mountainous area north of stormwind with their canonical residential area.)

That's why I would prefer spliting EK/Kalimdor revamp at least over 2-3 expansions, so each zone would have size and level of detail from Dragon Isles. Also capitals would be more fleshed out this way cause they would serve as main hubs.

[Cheezits]

Do you think if Amirdrassil becomes the capital of the nightelves, they will build on top of it like they did with Teldrassil? Or more likely around the roots of the tree?

I think the top of the tree, because they are making a big deal of it not being fully grown yet. If it's just like Hyjal with settlements underneath, why does it matter how big it is?

- - - Updated - - -

That's interesting because I always imagine the canonical Azeroth to be more urban than it seems in classic, at least it should be at this point in the timeline. Hyjal should at least have more of the buildings we see in Valsharah, as well as I hope a revamp will show a more urban Elwynn & eastern steppes (replacing that mountainous area north of stormwind with their canonical residential area.)The "druids for all" seeds are being planted, if you'll forgive the pun. It feels like a natural progression for Paladins & Druids to be options for all (non hero class) races before 11.0

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/stat...34213449613331

There are a bunch of children projecting themselves into the Emerald Dream. (I've seen Pandarian & Human) and they explain it as small children being able to do this innately. This upturns the paradigm that you needed the blessing of a Wildgod in order to access the Dream and therefor be a real druid.

It sound be mentioned however that the child in question is Pandaren, an animal race heavily connected to wild gods. And the other person is an Troll, also connected heavily to wild gods.

The lore can expand to other races but it felt a lot like a Pandaren Druid tease to me more than anything else. If it was an explicitly not druidic race like a Goblin I would think it's druids for all.

[Palapop]

How is it not true? Did you play 7.2?
The only thing Legion had a lot of was different class campaigns, and most of those have been grossly overstated in how in-depth they were.

DF will have two full new zones and a revamped one that didnt do anything at launch. You would have to somehow argue that Argus' three small zones are somehow actually outstripping Dragonflight and it's two full large zones to have the same amount of area added.

5 raids with lore attached to it
Suramar which has longer quest story than whole of 10.1 alone.
And Suramar was added in 7.0.

This comes from someone who doesnt like Legion as much as others do.


Creating empty zones with oversized stuff to compensaye the emptiness is not QUALITY. Its QUANTITY.

And thats what Zaralek is.
It has couple of time consuming events/rep grind/daily quest. And thats it.
Lore is...... not well received by many. Sadly.

[Santandame]

Do you think if Amirdrassil becomes the capital of the nightelves, they will build on top of it like they did with Teldrassil? Or more likely around the roots of the tree?

I don’t think it will be the capital. I imagine it just to be the new base of operations for the Cenarion Circle and the Green Dragonflight.

If world revamp is next, then I think the main Night elf zone will be either Hyjal or Ashenvale. With Nordrassil or Astranaar being built upon and expanded into becoming capitals.

This would switch things up for the levelling/zone progression in Northern Kalimdor. If you start in Ashenvale or Hyjal, we can move into Felwood next as it’s partially cleansed and we double the efforts to cleanse it and repopulate the zone. Then onto Winterspring for something a little more light hearted, before moving into Darkshore and the remains of Teldrassil for the “endgame” of the Northern Kalimdor story.

[Cheezits]

There is a Nelf NPC who says that Amirdrassil is to be their home. I wonder if they won't show it until Blizzcon to show what's going on with Nelves on Kalimdor at the same time.

The heritage quest shows they aren't abandoning it entirely.

I honestly wonder if the idea is just that their plans for Kalimdor can't physically handle a giant tree model? Or two of them, if they upgrade Hyjal.

[Santandame]

Unless Amirdrassil is the main hub for an Avaloren expansion (it is on the edge of the map) then it also implies a revamp because otherwise it is immediately irrelevant.

- - - Updated - - -



I can see it, but I can also see her being involved in some final plot to poison the waters of Tyrhold similar to how Galakrond was created.

I would prefer we get lots of Gnolls in a revamp or to have her make the Mongrel Horde that is stacking different areas.

I’d be all for Mongrel Horde and it could be the main focus of the central Kalimdor zones story. Desolace, Feralas, Thousand Needles, Stonetalon and parts of the Barrens are all places with a high concentration of Gnolls, Centaur, Quilboar and Harpies.

[Raetary]

Do you think if Amirdrassil becomes the capital of the nightelves, they will build on top of it like they did with Teldrassil? Or more likely around the roots of the tree?

At best there'll be some buildings/walkable places around in the crown, but another Darnassus is not gonna happen.

Blizzard designed the tree to have a giant open space beneath its roots for a reason.

[Cheezits]

At best there'll be some buildings/walkable places around in the crown, but another Darnassus is not gonna happen.

Blizzard designed the tree to have a giant open space beneath its roots for a reason.

It's not really that big of a space to fit a town, let alone a city.