[SPOILERS/LEAK] SYNDICATE - 11.0 WoW expansion

[Blizzcon2023Leak]

The next expansion is set in the kingdom of Alterac, which has finally rebuilt and established itself as a local power. Since the events of Dragonflight, the Horde has all but disbanded due to mistrust, leaving the Horde with only Orgrimmar, the Darkspear Tribe, and the Mag’har. Because of Turalyon’s increased zealotry since the return of Xe’ra, the Alliance has been reduced to the Stormwind, Khaz Modan, and the Lightbound/Lightforged. (For the purposes of gameplay, factions are still intact and operate the same as they do in Dragonflight). With the major factions weakened, the criminal kingdom of Alterac has begun to encroach upon the rest of Lordaeron, and only the heroes of Azeroth have answered the call to put a stop to the Syndicate.

Alterac is the new ‘continent’ for 11.0. There are now two maps of Azeroth, pre-time-skip and post-time-skip. Joining the Dragon Isles, Alterac is the first part of the old world to be reintroduced in modern times. Alterac is much larger than we’ve seen before, rivaling the Dragon Isles in size. The Syndicate is only dealt with in 11.0. Each patch will be relatively self-contained, with future stories involving the Kirin Tor and Dalaran, and eventually even the story of Alterac Valley.

There are six new zones. Alterac City, the seat of the Syndicate, is a crime-ridden city with a dense sewer network controlled by rebel forces seeking to reform the kingdom towards good. Daggermask Pines is a frozen forest controlled by the Argus Wake on the surface and the Crushridge ogres in its subterranean cave system. Barov Plains are the wartorn, rocky remains of Tarren Mill and its surrounding area. Aerie Peak is a dense, Dream-like jungle inhabited by wildkin and the shamanistic Wildhammer. Darrowmere is a large island north of Alterac, haunted by ghosts and the few who remain in Scholomance. Lastly, a new starter zone alternative to Exile’s Reach is coming; Hillsbrad Fields. Hillsbrad Fields can be used by any race, but is also the racial starting zone of Alteraci Humans, the new neutral race for this expansion.

As well as being large, Alterac is going to be just as vertical as the Dragon Isles to accommodate Dragonriding. 11.0 expands Dragonriding to various breeds of gryphons found among the Alteraci, Wildhammer, and Ebon Blade.

The main story is dependent on the class order hall you belong to. 11.0 has 5 different order halls, with multiple classes sharing each organization. Each order hall has a different set of companions who will accompany you, level with you, and offer unique quests. Players will have to make tough choices on their quests, some of which may please or upset their companions. While the story of the expansion is set, the story your character takes is up to you. Most companions will be available for romance.

Mages and Rogues are receiving new specs, and the standard group size is being increased to 6. New body types with new animations are coming to dwarves and orcs at a later date. The Dragon Isles is the new default 10-50 experience, with 50-60 taking place in Alterac. Hearthstone is being integrated into WoW. A new challenging instance type called ‘Evil Mode’ allows you to play as a member of the Syndicate, Argus Wake, or Crown Chemical Co.

[Calfredd]

Isn't it too early for the fake leaks to be pouring in? Especially leaks this fake?

[GabrielKnight]

Wrath of the Barov confirmed.

[Faerillis]

.....Look I don't think it's a terrible idea in it's entirety, but this isn't a leak. This is fanfiction. They'd need to redo Eastern Kingdom, not just improving models of things but COMPLETELY remodeling every zone to twist around Alterac. Not to mention that they're literally going in and re-adding Classic Naxx and Classic Scholomance instances to the overworld in these regions, which would be additions they'd have to instantly redo for your setting to make sense.

An actual big, dense city is great and the game needs more of those and the sewer would be cool. Moving the advanced flying systems to have a few different forms with some different abilities would be awesome. New specs would be great, though why Mage and Rogue seems weird as both seem pretty well setup for new Tank roles and doubling up on Tanks when we just got Supports seems really weird. Companions you can Romance absolutely don't fit WoW's model. Integrating Hearthstone into WoW would be phenomenally stupid. Evil mode would take way too many resources with zero benefit.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The next expansion is set in the kingdom of Alterac

How is a continent sized Kingdom of Alterac going to be squeezed into the northern half of the Eastern Kingdoms continent? Are they remaking the Eastern Kingdoms too and upscaling it? Or do you just fly to a city gate in the Alterac Zone in the EK and that portals you to the Alterac Kingdom instance?

Since the events of Dragonflight, the Horde has all but disbanded due to mistrust, leaving the Horde with only Orgrimmar, the Darkspear Tribe, and the Mag’har.

While lore wise it doesn't make sense for most Horde races to be a part of the Horde, business wise it doesn't make sense to kill the Horde fantasy that Blizzard has been marketing to their costumers for 20 years.

Because of Turalyon’s increased zealotry since the return of Xe’ra, the Alliance has been reduced to the Stormwind, Khaz Modan, and the Lightbound/Lightforged.

Goodness gracious I hope a "what if the Light/Church was eveeel!" storyline never happens.

the criminal kingdom of Alterac

Who decides that a kingdom is "criminal"?

eventually even the story of Alterac Valley.

Golden opportunity to reintroduce large scale world PvP battles, with a zone dedicated to capturing keeps and escorting supply lines and pushing siege towers and so on.

Alterac City, the seat of the Syndicate, is a crime-ridden city with a dense sewer network controlled by rebel forces seeking to reform the kingdom towards good.

So... what? The surface of the city is policed by a protection racket or mafia? Why don't people move away?

Alterac is going to be just as vertical as the Dragon Isles to accommodate Dragonriding.

What is this supposed to mean? WoW touted the Dragon Isles as being vertical to support dragon riding. People drew comparisons to GW2 in which the maps were designed to be flown through, but in WoW that never happened. Once you obtained all of the glyphs, you just spammed spacebar 8 times and flew far over the ground. There is no flying low through the environments unless you are doing a dragon racing world quest or if you are in the caverns.

Players will have to make tough choices on their quests, some of which may please or upset their companions.

Given how Blizzard caved in and allowed easy and free Covenant switching, that is unlikely.

Most companions will be available for romance.

I wonder if this post was spat out by ChatGPT and somehow Bioware got mixed in there.

the standard group size is being increased to 6.

Okay, this would be a positive improvement for the game as it would allow specs that don't conform the the washed down holy trinity to be fit back into the parties again. You could have dedicated crowd controllers and people won't whine about a lack of DPS too much, but the content must be appropriately difficult enough or else people are going to whine about DPS because they aren't getting braindead tedious grinding over and done with quickly enough, and I don't see Blizzard making non-raider content difficult again.

Hearthstone is being integrated into WoW.

The Hearthstone game runs in Unity, so unless WoW is going to spend several seconds spinning up another game engine every time you play the minigame, then you're going to get a shoddy implementation of WoW.

[Skylarking]

Tis the season!

[MrLachyG]

this would absolutely kill the game.

possibly the worst ever "leak" I've ever seen

[Ielenia]

How is a continent sized Kingdom of Alterac going to be squeezed into the northern half of the Eastern Kingdoms continent? Are they remaking the Eastern Kingdoms too and upscaling it? Or do you just fly to a city gate in the Alterac Zone in the EK and that portals you to the Alterac Kingdom instance?

Just to entertain that silly notion, imagine if the entire expansion's zoning was done just like the old game City of Heroes was, where each zone was a different section/neighborhood of the city.

[SynDethroc]

Horrible. Try harder, please.

[rrayy]

MMO-Champion really needs to start cracking down on this. Immediate bans of anyone who does this and delete the threads.

[Nymrohd]

Alterac was never a "kingdom" to be fair. It was always a city state that controlled a mountain pass and thus an important trade route. That's it.

- - - Updated - - -

I wonder if this post was spat out by ChatGPT and somehow Bioware got mixed in there.

Nah ESO has added companions and Zenimax has said that down the line they might be romanceable.

[enigma77]

this leak reeks

[Mendzia]

Wow...
We start very early with CONFIRMED leaks this year.

[Nymrohd]

Sometime in October someone will post something that will be vaguely correct by pure coincidence.

No, sometime in October someone will post something that is largely correct because they will have gotten a glimpse of the press package just like it happens most of the time. Heck we've had even parts of the presentation leaked before.
And that's if Blizzard doesn't feed the leaks to improve the hype for what is likely to be a disappointing Blizzcon given they won't have that much to show.

What will happen is a lot of leaks with fairly solid "concept art" or logos attached to them built through AI.

[Lochton]

I instantly got confirmed that this was fake ss soon as you said it was going to take place in the ruined kingdom of Alterac.

[MrLachyG]

No, sometime in October someone will post something that is largely correct because they will have gotten a glimpse of the press package just like it happens most of the time. Heck we've had even parts of the presentation leaked before.
And that's if Blizzard doesn't feed the leaks to improve the hype for what is likely to be a disappointing Blizzcon given they won't have that much to show.

What will happen is a lot of leaks with fairly solid "concept art" or logos attached to them built through AI.

Blizzard should put out fake leaks, just to mess with people!

[chansmadish]

chatgpt can write better stories than this.

[Myradin]

Alterac city is a ruin infested by ogres since like WC2, why would it suddenly become a major threat with both bunch of plucky rebels and 'criminal' overlords?

And ah yes "hearthstone integration", the thing that every fake leak has included for years.

[PolarityER]

You know what, I think it sounds like fun. Definitely fake though.

[arkanon]

Wrath of the legion of burning pandas - The Battle of the Warlords of cataclysmic shadow dragons: CLASSIC REFORGED

100% confirmed, but i have said too much.