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

[Hitei]

I am curious, how would you feel if Blizzard's aim is to revamp all the world through several expansions? Including all the continents, except Outland, Draenor and the Shadowlands. They can give us a cosmic patch from time to time, a new Azeroth continent... but the focus would always be in Azeroth, making (in due time) every continent evergreen, with the Dragon Isles as the start of this new world.

Unless they're remaking them from scratch, that sounds like a really unexciting six+ years.

[Darkarath]

Unless they're remaking them from scratch, that sounds like a really unexciting six+ years.

That is the idea.

I always have said that any revamp has to follow the "Draenor treatment" or it is bound to fail.

[Santandame]

After looking over that Voidstorm leak, name aside, that would be the perfect best expansion for me if we aren’t getting a revamp.

Though, the more thought I give it; I’m a lot more open to an expansion set on just K’aresh or Nathreza than I was previously.

[Cheezits]

I don't think they are going to touch old expansion continents besides EK/Kalimdor. Have people noticed that every Outland reference lately is people LEAVING Outland for Azeroth?

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this leak posted August 27th fits a lot of what we have been seeing the past few days/weeks

ka'resh -from the scale face leak

undermine from the toweliee cave stuff

underwater zone with naga- we got the naga backpack and hints of a Azshara return in-game

traveling by boat- we have all the new boat models

thrall having a campaign - he's the key art for Blizzcon

I didn't really think anything of this leak but it seems like it could be piecing together. I guess we will see if the trademark comes soon as said by the exdev Twitter account, it's also interesting that the exdev account posted all their stuff in late August as well.

No pirates though, remember!

I think the leak is fake and just putting things together based on clues and things in the file. For example the "underwater race" is definitely Jinyu and they are pretending not to know.

[Hitei]

That is the idea.

I always have said that any revamp has to follow the "Draenor treatment" or it is bound to fail.

I think a full remake is functional in terms of replacing a continent as a location setting, but I think it also comes with a lot of secondary issues like evergreen stories necessitating a lot of self-contained, continuity isolated, low-stakes plotlines.

I also feel like it doesn't solve most of the issues people seem to think it will. Like onboarding brand new players or resolving time jumps between bits of content.

[Foolicious]

Did we ever figure out whats up with that two headed dragon in traitor's rest in azure span?
Just remembered it while doing dreamsurges today. With 10.2 i think its the only weird thing besides vrakthros that didn't get any lore yet and just sits there unused.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

Next expansion will get revealed and Metzen will try to sell us leper gnomes and giblins as new playable races.

[Teriz]

Perhaps, but there's a difference between releasing a new spec and an entirely new class.

There is, and I can see the logic in either approach;

You introduce a new class with a support spec so that you don't have anger among players whose class of choice didn't get a new spec, and you don't have to worry about balancing too many new support specs at once.

You introduce 3-4 new specs in existing classes in order to provide a wider variety of options for players.

In an Undermine expansion you get option 1. In a Yrel expansion you get option 2. Either way, I think we're getting new support specs of some kind next expansion.

The interesting thing is that Undermine lines up with Thrall on the keyart, Towelilee's statements, Blizzard's statements in regards to Zaralek cavern, WoW's 20th anniversary, the Chinese predictor talking about an elemental expansion in 11.0, the strange batch of tech items we got, and fits the need for a new support spec.

I still think the frontrunners here are Yrel Lightbound, or Underground expansion.

[lostsoup]

So Voidstorm would have an underwater race that's not any known one like Naga or Jinyu, and K'aresh (which would be the planet shown in the Scaleface/wowexdev pictures) is a patch island that wouldn't be fully accessible at launch.

Not sure that lines up particularly well with the datamined Terrarium having a Naga front and center, and the void planet pictures supposedly being promotional art (why promote a patch...?) with Dreadlords.

Also, "a glyph" for silver light of all things is a dead giveaway that it's fake. Glyphs only apply to single spells, and it'd be a waste of the art team's time for such a small change.

[Cheezits]

So Voidstorm would have an underwater race that's not any known one like Naga or Jinyu, and K'aresh (which would be the planet shown in the Scaleface/wowexdev pictures) is a patch island that wouldn't be fully accessible at launch. Not sure that lines up particularly well with the datamined Terrarium having a Naga front and center, and the void planet pictures supposedly being promotional art with Dreadlords.

The terarrium probably isn't related to the next expansion, otherwise it would be encrypted.

Also the Void Dreadlord picture is probably fake as it has some wonky AI anatomy, particularly the wing on the right.

I don't think we've gotten any genuine leak yet.

[Makorus]

I still don't see how Thrall = Undermine, other than he is a shaman which is a vague connection to begin with.

[Pyrophax]

I don't think they are going to touch old expansion continents besides EK/Kalimdor. Have people noticed that every Outland reference lately is people LEAVING Outland for Azeroth?

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No pirates though, remember!

Outland need to go. We can have all that questlones about mass migrating to Azeroth. Imagine Swamps of Sorrow filled by Sporeggar. Zangarmarsh that we didn't had in Draenor.
Our maghars, kurenai. And ofc brokens.
Red orcs akin man'ari with questlines.
Ogres of Ogri'la in Dustfallow or Dire Maul
Tempest Keep as capital of Draenei. One or two parts can be taken by Blood elves. Or even dungeons.
Zones near dark portal can be filled by Outland species. Maybe some Kalimdor zones too. Desolace, I'm talking about you.

[Nightshade711]

The terarrium probably isn't related to the next expansion, otherwise it would be encrypted.

Not necessarily true. Every year something slips by under the radar.
Even in recent history blizzard’s messed up forgetting to encrypt stuff, like us knowing we’d get an emerald dream zone because of the “emerald dream outdoor” glaive that was datamined.

[Cheezits]

I still don't see how Thrall = Undermine, other than he is a shaman which is a vague connection to begin with.

Technically the Bilgewater did save him, and Kezan would make a lot of sense aesthetically for a Iridikron and Thrall showdown, but that's pretty much it.

[ImTheMizAwesome]

I think it would be cool if they did even more with outland races migrating to azeroth, because outland state is getting worse and worse, eventually will be destroyed.

I wonder where they will put orc clans, mok'nathals from orc heritage questline, at least i hope they will do some changes and make them appear somewhere so you can find them.

[Cheezits]

Not necessarily true. Every year something slips by under the radar.
Even in recent history blizzard’s messed up forgetting to encrypt stuff, like us knowing we’d get an emerald dream zone because of the “emerald dream outdoor” glaive that was datamined.

That was an icon, and the model didn't even ship that build. This is an icon, two models, and I THINK a description? All pointing to it being trading post stuff.

There currently are encrypted files that are probably collectors edition stuff. That could be what the Magic Bird is related to.

https://x.com/keyboardturn/status/16...577425408?s=46

[Sondrelk]

Not necessarily true. Every year something slips by under the radar.
Even in recent history blizzard’s messed up forgetting to encrypt stuff, like us knowing we’d get an emerald dream zone because of the “emerald dream outdoor” glaive that was datamined.

I stand by my old theory that stuff like that isn't accidental. It's a calculated move to build up hype around new rounds of datamining.
Instead of it just being new models and all that, there is a real possibility that you find an actual hint towards the next patch or expansion.

[Cheezits]

I stand by my old theory that stuff like that isn't accidental. It's a calculated move to build up hype around new rounds of datamining.
Instead of it just being new models and all that, there is a real possibility that you find an actual hint towards the next patch or expansion.

That's what I think the boats are this patch. They definitely intentionally leak things, and then others (Jinyu) slip in naturally.

[Sondrelk]

I think it would be cool if they did even more with outland races migrating to azeroth, because outland state is getting worse and worse, eventually will be destroyed.

I wonder where they will put orc clans, mok'nathals from orc heritage questline, at least i hope they will do some changes and make them appear somewhere so you can find them.

I imagine they will stick to either the Barrens, of Feralas.
Barrens because it's the place closest to what Gorgrond looks like, Feralas for the same reason. I also still standby that Feralas would be a perfect place for a Botani plotline, so having the orc clans close to it would make sense.

Suppose there is also Desolace. With even more druid magic we could have plains that look similar to Nagrand or Ohn-ahran plains, which would fit the Warsong aesthetic.

[Cheezits]

Actually I think that the CE mount for Dragonflight , the green dragon, got leaked/spoiled ahead of Blizzcon. I think it's possible that the next CE mount is in the files right now or at least assets attached to it.

Maybe related?

https://x.com/keyboardturn/status/16...851294770?s=46