The dev team is likely working on 11.0 right now. I wanted to post a reminder that going overly cosmic or even time travel/alternative dimensions is not a good path. Shadowlands and Warlords of Draenor are examples of what not to do.
In 11.0, I would suggest revisiting some existing zones. Please do not have any link to the Shadowlands or Alternative Universe Draenor.
Warcraft is a fantasy universe.
P.S. Dragonflight is looking great!
Haha, so you saw the speculation that 11.0 could revisit the Lightbound from alternate Draenor?
Yeah, I hope not either. Too much AU/time travel stuff (yes I know WoW has always featured some time travel) ruins the stakes of the narrative.
I forget word for word what was said.
But I do know Ion did say something to the effect of “a larger threat will slowly show itself in DF”.
I just hope it’s something like Galakrond, and not Void Lords.
I would absolutely love to continue the trend of back to the basics.
Gnolls.
Quilboar.
Beasts.
Pirates.
Rebels.
etc.
I suspect a world revamp for 11.0
How many more islands can they add?
Wasn’t there some lore about a whole other half of Azeroth? Or maybe I’m imagining things.
A revamp does seem possible. A lot of changes have taken place in both the Horde and the Alliance since Legion (and especially since Cata).
My guess is that this expansion’s big bad is gonna be the Infinite Dragonflight, and if one wants to have fun with it …
Rafaam, because then you have a character that you can have fun with, has ties to Galakrond through an imagining of what Galakrond could be, and you have 5 different ways to inspired what this big-bad dragon could be and how to turn it into an even bigger threat
Void Lords are going to show themselves, and I do suspect that’s either going to be the next expansion or the expansion after that, I don’t think they’ll make Void Lords the big bad of DF unless they make it so Galakrond gets further corrupted by 'em … which would be an immensely interesting foe
A primal dragon that incited the creation of the dragonflights, resurrected in some capacity, and then corrupted further
It would be akin to fighting the Soul of Argus, a being so powerful we needed the help of the titans to just barely defeat it, which is kinda debatable if we even did because … how do you kill a world soul?
Point is this though, I suspect Infinite Dragonflight to become involved, Galakrond to become a central piece, and that the set up for Void Lords will show themselves one way or another, but not in a "I did it for the greater good* sort of excuse but them actually showing themselves in some aspect, such as making one of the greatest foes in Azeroth’s history even more dangerous
WoW has a vast unexplored underground, and I’ve always wanted to see Undermine outside of books and NPC chatter.
Best of all! It doesn’t need a new island. The entrance to Undermine is under Kezan.
I wouldn’t mind this too much. It would still distinctly feel like “wow” to me. Unlike shadowlands.
Besides, fighting a futuristic faction that has tech that rivals our would be nice.
That’s one thing the Legion had going for it.
I’m starting to have island fatigue. An existing updated zone could have unique gameplay and the aesthetics can change a bit too. I think Cataclysm was a disaster that the team is still concerned about.
I would like it if they took on the revamps a continent at a time. A new expansion set in Lordaeron would be very interesting.
Revisiting the Lightbound wouldn’t be the worst… if they didn’t dwell on the whole AU thing too much.
In general though I also don’t want an expansion where the Light is evil and we’re what, punching a naaru in the face? It just sounds like a bad idea.
If they keep following the expansion pattern, so many!
The AU thing doesn’t really matter.
They’re here an invading. That’s what matters.
In my Opinion WoW is always at its best when it’s “Army Versus Army” that gets us the best aesthetics and the most “Warcraft-y” vibes. Since this game ultimately came from an RTS series.
Kul’Tiras Vs Zandalar.
Humans Vs Orcs.
Night Elves vs Goblins in the Darkshore warfront.
Everyone vs the Legion.
It’s one of the reasons shadowlands SUCKED. It was just us following around the jailer for a whole expansion as he said obvious villain line after obvious villain line.
The Light isn’t evil. It’s just one of the 6 cosmic forces in the universe. (If you read WoW: Chronicles)
The people who use it can absolutely be evil though.
Generally agree. Constant scale escalation has the opposite of the intended effect — when everything is epic, nothing is. For powerful entities to feel powerful, the player needs to be grounded.
For a more specific theme, I’m going to continue to advocate for an “unclysm” expansion. The cata revamp of EK+Kalimdor is now older than the original, has bits that are broken, is full of heavy-handed references and memes that have aged like milk, and is generally depressing with all the destruction stuff. It’s time for another do-over that fixes all that. I don’t care how the lore has to be fudged to make it happen… maybe Chromie gets a bad cold and sneezes Azeroth back into a repaired state, whatever. Just do it.
The dev team has been working on 11.0 for quite some time, Alpha release was a while ago and Beta release was just this week… that means the story, game mechanics, and other systems are likely finished and they are just working on “tuning” throughout the Beta period up until (and through) pre-patch.
The story for 11.1 and 11.2 is also hopefully solidified by now as well… nothing worse than pulling “a Star Wars sequel trilogy” without a least a storyboard defining intro, middle, and conclusion. Whether it’s cosmic or not, it’s probably already set.
Edit: Disregard. Just realized you said 11 (Expansion After DF) and not 10 (Dragonflight).
I got a feeling we’re going to find some interesting stuff coming up about the structure of our universe more than the dimensions .I seen some relative cross between.I’ll save that for later.
On the contrary, please make 11.0 cosmic so we can visit K’aresh and deal with Light + Void + Arcane lore.
excuse me Mr. Spinal Tap, but that’s actually 10.0
You mean something like…Warfronts? Just good ol’ Warcrafty goodness?
“other side of Azeroth” is always something they could pull our of their butts if they wanted, but realistically, that’s not how maps work. Map show all of Earth. Globes exist in-game that show what we already have covering the whole world. “the other side” isn’t something established in lore AFAIK. It’s just fans trying to come up with excuses for more landmasses.
And it’s something they might well do at some point, but there’s nothing saying it IS a thing currently. That I’ve seen.
I am okay if part of Dragonflight is similar to Ulduar and all of that genre of lore. But anything past that when it comes to space and such is too far. I like Ulduar-style cosmic stuff, not Shadowlands/WoD cosmic stuff. Keep it related to Azeroth please!
Thankfully, Blizzard disagrees and we’re getting time travel as a major theme in DF.
The Temporal Flux in Thaldrazus is probably the only part of DF that’s actually “exciting” in that sense, as everything else is literally just a hodgepodge of existing zones (Burning Stepps / Nagrand / Borean Tundra / Storm Peaks) as well as existing concepts.
10.0 centering on the hopeless Razageth but the expansion is likely to open up as the campaign proceeds when we get the continuation of the Nozdormu storyline.
All that said about the zones themselves, I really do dig the dungeons. Brackenhide hollow is a clear S-tier and I think Lifepools and Nokuhod are A-tiers. Uldaman seems like a C-tier so far though.
I will say this - Zovaal kneecapped Razageth. Razageth has zero teeth. None. She’s done nothing, will do nothing, will go out like a total chump even though she’s the focus of the 10.0 leveling campaign. And that’s because someone like Razageth who the player character and Khadgar double-team and push back is never going to pose a real danger when we just stopped the annihilation of the multiverse.