All we can do is think about what’s most likely to happen. For me, this is too detailed to not be it. Way too much more that’s been revealed than just a map.
We’ve had in game cinematic screenshots so it’s quality doesn’t intrinsically make it true and some of the parts of this doesn’t line up.
Like if you look at the T shirt screenshot there’s a lot of signs that points to the text itself being doctored.
Like all leaks before this one, nothing has been confirmed and lying about it being confirmed only further spreads misinformation.
Could this be legit? Maybe. Could this be a very elaborate hoax? The internet has faked far more elaborate things before this for a cheap laugh.
But either way nothing has been confirmed.
It would seem that’s the only way to put a text over an area like that.
Usually if leaks are fake, they’re about different expansions, not all about shadowlands. I’m gonna be sorta pretentious and say I have seen a lot of leaks in my day, and I’d bet money on this one, but you’re also right that it’s not 100% confirmed until it’s confirmed.
One thing is absolutely certain: Everything under the helm of domination is completely original artwork.
If you look at the text, the lines in the background don’t show up for a lot of the blue text. There’s a diagonal pattern that doesn’t show up in much of the Shadowlands related text.
Likewise, a lot of the Shadowlands leaks that we’ve seen…while all being Shadowlands…have been directly contradictory or doesn’t line up with how the story has developed. Many also show up based on the speculation whats going to happen, such as a Shadowlands leak prior to 8.2.5 that was about everyone dying in a Siege of Stormwind situation.
The thing is just because all the leaks say the same basic thing doesn’t make it true. It makes it low hanging fruit for people looking for their 15 minutes of fame.
I personally doubt all of the story information. All of it. I can only go off the artwork, the map, the painting of the new city, and the new logo.
I’m not quite seeing what you’re seeing, perhaps due to the low quality of the picture.
Clearly fake =/
Prideful Nah
There’s nothing clear about this. That’s original artwork.
Ya, but the eyes…
there blue, and bolvars are red >.>
With all that effort put in to make the artwork, you think they’d miss a detail such as that, especially with the rest of the body being red?
Also, there’s no challenge to switch the color of the eyes if needed. I could take the image and do so right now.
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still, not gonna believe it till it happens =/
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You know what, that is fair. It would be awesome if when typing a post there was a “Post Formatting Guide” link or something.
I mean, both EU and US forums have post formatting guides pinned to the top of the forums but it would be nice to have a direct link when typing a post for easy access.
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If you look at the picture, the portion with the text, you’ll see that the background is a bunch of diagonal stripes. In the black text portion, those diagonal stripes are visible, but in the blue portion, most of the stripes are distorted or even blurred out.
Furthermore, on criticism of the artwork, I would say that it doesn’t even match Blizzard’s trademark bulky style. Bolvar in it is much more lithe (comparatively) and it doesn’t help that most of his body is concealed by shadows…which is another thing; Blizzard is very particular about their use of shading so as to show off all the lovely little details of their artwork. This does the opposite; most are obscured. It doesn’t even look Blizzard like to me.
Likewise, at least on MMOC when this leak was put up, the story surrounding it was a security guard had access to a developer’s PC and uploaded this to a USB? That sounds hella fishy to me from the beginning.
We’ll see at Blizzcon, but until then, nothing is certain nor should it be taken at face value without skepticism.
All I know is if someone wanted to fake this, they wouldn’t have included blue eyes in any way shape or form. Why risk that much discredit to your own fake?
Here’s proof on how easy it would be to do so:
The only reason I can see him having blue eyes is Ner’zhul still being stuck in there, or using his power to open the rift to the underworld that exists around Icecrown.
Or even, because he was stuck in ice like Arthas was during his transition, that he finally unified with the other wills inside the helm.
As for your comparison of blizzard’s artstyle, to me it’s in the same quality of the last BFA cinematic. Your mention of the shades could also be due to the low quality of the image itself. It is just a screenshot of a cinematic, it would seem.
It could just be that The Bolvar was about to cast a frost spell at that point in cinematic, and the eyes glow blue momentarily for dramatic effect.
Not saying it’s real, mind, just that we may be reading too much into the color.
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I’m also looking at the WotLK cinematic right now, there’s a moment where he almost looks like he’s in the same pose as the screenshot, but it’s still tilted in every single frame differently than shown. I think even the helm is original art.
edit: In the WotLK cinematic, he has ice sickles on his helmet as well, while Bolvar has absolutely none.
His eyes turning blue while reactivating the Scourge perhaps.
Confirmed speculation
What does that mean?
Ner’zhul’s spirit was killed by arthas and trapped in frostmourne while he laid dormant pre wrath, he only exists as an echo in the blades of the fallen prince in legion. Ner’zhul has been out of the picture for a decade and chris metzen said in an interview during wrath that ner’zhul served his purpose and wont be returning.
All the helm of dominion does now is grant telepathic control of the scourfe and nothing more, bolvar is bolvar and nobody else.