9.0 General Discussion

[Grimfrost]

To be frank, I'm suspicious as well.

I mean, people have been releasing various Shadowlands "leaks" for months. Then we get an add with a cinematic still that is too good to not be true with the Shadowlands name. Then the image is found unprotected in Blizzard's site, for all to see.

I mean, the image obviously is true and we will get a Bolvar cinematic next friday. But that does not mean the Shadowlands name, logo and everything else are real.

I wouldn't doubt if someone found the image first and made up a new leak, or even if people in Blizzard decided to release a true image with a fake expansion name that was in leaks for months just so people would stop trying to guess what the expansion is really about.

Releasing a Bolvar image early is not even a big spoiler since 8.3 datamining had very obvious DK and Bolvar stuff already and everyone in the forums was already discussing that stuff.

But, of course, I remember the WoD fiasco. I totally refused to believe such horrendous timeline-hopping plot could be real, and look how wrong I were.

Having a main cinematic with bolvar and the leak stating bolvar will take us to SL .. I'm kinda certain it'll be shadowlands

[Khaza-R]

Oh, I absolutely agree. Unless there's more to the ad (like this is one of a pair/series of images made and only this one leaked), then I wouldn't hold my breath for a new class.

That's literally how they advertise every expansion. By feature

Look at MoP for example

Discover a Lost Continent
Explore the ancient kingdoms of Pandaria and mount your defense against a newly awakened evil stirring in the continent's dark corners.

Unleash the Mighty Pandaren
Set out as a member of the enigmatic Pandaren -- World of Warcraft's first neutral race -- and join the ranks of either the Horde or Alliance as you enter the conflict brewing on Pandaria's shores.

Master the Path of the Monk
Learn the mystic powers of the Monk, World of Warcraft's newest playable class. Destroy foes with the Windwalker's devastating attacks, replenish allies with the Mistweaver's spiritual energies, and shrug off enormous damage with the Brewmaster's unyielding strength.

Notice how the major selling feature, new continent, new class and new race are all elaborated separately. If the leaked promo is real then its most definitely only talking about exploring the Shadowlands and not whatever other features might be in 9.0

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

Why is Tinker back in the discussion again, did we get new info? Or does an older leak suddenly seem more credible?

The original leak seemed more credible after comparing it to the ad and 8.3

[Grimfrost]

Why is Tinker back in the discussion again, did we get new info? Or does an older leak suddenly seem more credible?

I think shadowlands is the one . Sadly. Pic of bolvar cinematic etc just points at it more

The loading screen pic that looks like a city of spirit healers (To me)

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

Why is Tinker back in the discussion again, did we get new info? Or does an older leak suddenly seem more credible?

Copy/pasting my analysis from earlier:

"World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
Two new continents: Dragon Isles, Shadowlands. New class: Tinkerer DPS with turrets, bombs and ‘ghost buster’ gimmicks. Also healer and tank specs. Uses mail armor. Primary stat is intellect. Vestiges of Power (secondary talent system a la artifacts/essences). Level squish postponed. No world revamp. New scaling tech that will do away with the frequent item level & stat squishing. Raid tier sets are not returning, but there will be class-specific challenge sets. Champion system: We will reunite with the spirits of fallen heroes: Uther, Cairne, Vol’jin, Varian, Saurfang, Rhonin, etc. But also certain villains. The Old Gods are not dead. They are sleeping in Ny’alotha. N’Zoth has been redirecting souls to fuel the Old Gods’ ascension back into the world. The Black Empire will rise again very soon. This is what Azshara saw when she died.

Forces of death aka “Death’s Vanguard”:
Elune, Helya and others are working together to fight the Void incursion into the Shadowlands. Bolvar brings us there. Sylvanas has been honoring a pact, waging war in Helya’s name. Elune’s night warrior also transports the souls of its victims to the Shadowlands. Alliance has inadvertently helped the war against the Old Gods in the Shadowlands. They will be reunited with all of the casualties (almost). Bwonsamdi is working for Hakkar the Soulflayer, who seeks power for himself, also by consuming souls. Old Gods: The void exploited the defeat of Argus to gain access to the Shadowlands. Xal’atath may have sold us out. Ny’alotha is threatened by the advance of Death’s forces N’Zoth instigated the battle for Azeroth to cause death & consume more souls. Sylvanas propagated the war to usher souls toward Helya instead of Ny’alotha.

DARKFRONT:
“Starting point” for Shadowlands. Three minor factions: Night elves, death knights, Helya/Sylvanas. Helya is kinder now & prettier. Main goal is to prevent Ny’alotha from consuming the souls of the fallen. Huge rivers of souls run through each zone.

MORBARA:
All the blood trolls we killed in Nazmir are here. Bwonsamdi has been roped into working for Hakkar the Soulflayer. We help him overthrow Hakkar and reclaim his title as the loa of death. ALNIR RIFTLANDS: A crucible for the primordial energies that comprise the fabric of all realities, with portals to each one. Everything is spilling in and out of rifts. Source of void incursions on Dragon Isles and Emerald Dream.

XIROS:
Semi-peaceful zone where spirits go to rest according to lore. Main city and sanctuary is here. Lots of questlines and two dungeons. Greek inspired, a la “Hades’ front yard”. Ethereals have a big presence here.

There will likely be 9 dungeons total at launch, 5 in Shadowlands and 4 on Dragon Isles. No names for them yet.

Dragon Isles:
Don’t know much, but it has void dragons. We will help rebuild the black dragonflight. Storylines for each dragon aspect."

Breaking it down piece-by-piece, there's a lot going on that matches current lore which hadn't been available yet (albeit predictable lore).

I mentioned before, Sylvanas' easy redemption arc, Blizzard loves those.
Tyrande finding her closure with Elune.
Saurfang being dead.
Bolvar playing a role.

Now, all of these things could have been predicted in July. In a bubble, it's nothing more than flavorful speculation.
However:

DARKFRONT:
“Starting point” for Shadowlands. Three minor factions: Night elves, death knights, Helya/Sylvanas. Helya is kinder now & prettier. Main goal is to prevent Ny’alotha from consuming the souls of the fallen. Huge rivers of souls run through each zone.

Death Knights/Night Warrior Night Elves/Helya+Sylvanas being the three factions in the Shadowlands also perfectly mirrors how 8.3 developments are looking.

XIROS:
Semi-peaceful zone where spirits go to rest according to lore. Main city and sanctuary is here. Lots of questlines and two dungeons. Greek inspired, a la “Hades’ front yard”. Ethereals have a big presence here.

That sounds a hell of a lot like the concept art for the Shadowlands leak:



Honestly, this seems like it can go one of three ways:

1. This is the real deal.
2. The person who made the leak got lucky with educated guesses regarding plot, and really lucky this picture corroborated his description of Xiros.
3. The person who made this leak also fabricated the Shadowlands ad, which is why the ad matches Xiros.

3 seems the least likely to me, just because the art is in-line with Blizzard concepts and requires a deeper skillset than just posting random bullshit to 4chan. I also wouldn't expect him to change the name from Xiros to Bastian for no reason.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Its probably Shadowlands... if it ended up not...well obviously I'll be surprised. Sylvanas getting a redemption story? That would make Teldrassil burning kinda lose its oomph. We all know Sylvanas is aligned with Death so I don't think she's getting a redemption story.

[Scayde]

This was just posted elsewhere on the forums. Interesting if nothing else.

Edit: See link for higher res (I promise it's not the stupid picture)

https://i.ibb.co/sPRzy1m/Shadowlands.jpg

I debunked this in the other thread. The serial number is for BFA.

[Craaazyyy]

Copy/pasting my analysis from earlier:

this looks awful.. just again new zones, no world revamp, no level squish, stupid tinkers, no sets

typical copy paste bs

[George Costanza]

That leak is debunked so hard it is ridiculous.

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

I debunked this in the other thread. The serial number is for BFA.

Yeah, my mistake. I got excited and jumped the gun.

- - - Updated - - -

Its probably Shadowlands... if it ended up not...well obviously I'll be surprised. Sylvanas getting a redemption story? That would make Teldrassil burning kinda lose its oomph. We all know Sylvanas is aligned with Death so I don't think she's getting a redemption story.

I would agree if it weren't for the fact that she still had a good portion of the Horde backing her before she called them worthless and ran away. Not the most difficult thing to walk back from.

[DeicideUH]

Having a main cinematic with bolvar and the leak stating bolvar will take us to SL .. I'm kinda certain it'll be shadowlands

Bolvar getting a cinematic does not make any leak automatically true.

Every older Shadowlands leak talk about the void or Nya'lotha or the Old Gods as the main enemy... except that we are invading Nya'lotha and killing the last(ish) Old God in 8.3. That alone makes me question the original Shadowlands leaks.

And now it seems a bunch of very popular but clearly false leaks actually hit the bullseye in regards to the expansion's name? Seems fishy to me.

[Three Faced Goddess]

Copy/pasting my analysis from earlier:



Breaking it down piece-by-piece, there's a lot going on that matches current lore which hadn't been available yet (albeit predictable lore).

I mentioned before, Sylvanas' easy redemption arc, Blizzard loves those.
Tyrande finding her closure with Elune.
Saurfang being dead.
Bolvar playing a role.

Now, all of these things could have been predicted in July. In a bubble, it's nothing more than flavorful speculation.
However:


Death Knights/Night Warrior Night Elves/Helya+Sylvanas being the three factions in the Shadowlands also perfectly mirrors how 8.3 developments are looking.


That sounds a hell of a lot like the concept art for the Shadowlands leak:



Honestly, this seems like it can go one of three ways:

1. This is the real deal.
2. The person who made the leak got lucky with educated guesses regarding plot, and really lucky this picture corroborated his description of Xiros.
3. The person who made this leak also fabricated the Shadowlands ad, which is why the ad matches Xiros.

3 seems the least likely to me, just because the art is in-line with Blizzard concepts and requires a deeper skillset than just posting random bullshit to 4chan. I also wouldn't expect him to change the name from Xiros to Bastian for no reason.

Still not convinced. Have you ever seen depictions of Tartarus? It's nothing like the picture in the ad, not to mention the ad hasn't been proven to be real. The description isn't even that detailed. Anything Greek inspired would match that description. Then there's mention of Ethereals which are those glowing mummies. They'd have no business in the Shadowlands as far as I know. Then there are other problems.

[Steve21092]

That 4Chan leaker sounds like a bullshitter. They allegedly played a demo of the expac, and remembers next to nothing. No names, no real info, just vague descriptions and then leaves within minutes lol.

[Grimfrost]

this looks awful.. just again new zones, no world revamp, no level squish, stupid tinkers, no sets

typical copy paste bs

This. I fully agree with you. It looks awful enough to be true. At least we will get a cool cinematic with bolvar. I was hoping new races, an actual cool class like necromancer, etc. I do think there will be a level squish though.

[Nyel]

That 4Chan leaker sounds like a bullshitter. They allegedly played a demo of the expac, and remembers next to nothing. No names, no real info, just vague descriptions and then leaves within minutes lol.

Yeah he basically acted like playing WoW for the first time because he knew absolutely nothing. Reeks as fake as it can be.

[ATZenith]

Idk if I'd love this or hate it: Bolvar raises Saurfang as a death knight

doubt it would happen but I found his death to be unsatisfying

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I would agree if it weren't for the fact that she still had a good portion of the Horde backing her before she called them worthless and ran away. Not the most difficult thing to walk back from.

You do not just walk away from the burning of Teldrassil where hundreds of innocent civilians die and among other things to get a redemption story a few years later. Thats just...absurd.

Every older Shadowlands leak talk about the void or Nya'lotha or the Old Gods as the main enemy... except that we are invading Nya'lotha and killing the last(ish) Old God in 8.3. That alone makes me question the original Shadowlands leaks.

And now it seems a bunch of very popular but clearly false leaks actually hit the bullseye in regards to the expansion's name? Seems fishy to me.

Its probably Shadowlands... unless that pamphlet is fake although it certainly looks legit.

no sets

Even in the expansion preview trailer we don't get a hint of tier sets so this small(I know I picked this one out but bear with me) thing to put in a features trailer.

[Khaza-R]

Why is Tinker back in the discussion again, did we get new info? Or does an older leak suddenly seem more credible?

From what I understand its a combination of WA updating their twitter location to "New Tinkertown" and a streamer trying to sell the old Shadowlands leak with Tinker in it.

So nothing but speculation.

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

That 4Chan leaker sounds like a bullshitter. They allegedly played a demo of the expac, and remembers next to nothing. No names, no real info, just vague descriptions and then leaves within minutes lol.

Not to mention the leak came out after all the other information we already have.

[Dinduffen]

Idk if I'd love this or hate it: Bolvar raises Saurfang as a death knight

doubt it would happen but I found his death to be unsatisfying

God keep him dead and gone