We know we’re going back to the old world, and we know things are happening in Quel’Thalas, but what about other areas? Will we see a Catacalysm-style revamp of the Eastern Kingdoms? Just new phases for specific areas? Or will it be centered just around Quel’Thalas and some outlying areas?
I’d love to see a post-Scourge Eastweald, a new version of Silverpine where both factions have a presence, or finally finding out whatever the hell that tiny spot you can’t click on above the Eastern Plaguelands is.
Most of all though, I desperately want to see them revisit Hillsbrad and Altraec. I dearly miss Southshore and in canon it’s rebuilt. Plus, we never really got to see the full potential of the Syndicate and their conflict with Ravendolt. So much of it was left undeveloped, and for what an important place Altraec is, it should definitely be made a bit bigger.
I think it’s dangerous to imagine that we’ll get much more than what’s been promised. A revamped and rescaled Quel’thalas. They can easily do that to this specific zone because it’s instanced and not part of the contiguous world. Doing the same thing for a vanilla/cata zone is an entirely different proposition.
I suspect future patches will bring us to K’aresh or similar cosmic zones, rather than south into other parts of Azeroth.
We know we are getting Quel’Thalas revamp and probably Northrend in TLT. Anything beyond that is going to be uninformed speculation. I think it is probably a safe bet that what follows the Worldsoul Saga will be a much changed world revamp. Player Housing showing up is likely a good indicator that they’re working on updated models for all architecture styles.
Quel’Thalas upscaled/remade is all that they have promised us. So Eversong Woods, Ghostlands, probably Zul’Aman and Quel’Danas too to round out the zone numbers.
I would not at all expect a Cata style revamp of the EK. They’ve made it clear many times over the years that a Cata 2 won’t happen again. At most they might do something with that unused elf tower that you can swim to from Tirisfal.
Most of the Eastern Kingdoms don’t even need to be remade or revisited tbh. IMO, everything south of the Arathi Highlands has been handled pretty well. It’s only places like Altaerc and Hillsbrad that haven’t quite seen their full potential, just like the Arathi Highlands hadn’t seen their full potential before BfA.
That is no longer the case. More recent Ion interviews indicate it is on the radar, but they want to avoid the mistakes of Cata. That doesn’t mean it is for sure happening, or that it will be an entire world revamp all at once. I feel like The Titans returning (and in an antagonistic way, likely) and Azeroth waking up is the right time to shake things up, though.
Also: keep in mind that Classic servers are a release valve for preserving older content that weren’t available until recently.
Yeah. Like, people forget that both DF and Khaz Algar have FOUR leveling campaign zones. Giving us what would basically be a zone and a half for the first season of midnight isn’t going to go over well for a lot of people
I feel like we are forgetting they are gonna size up the zones to be bigger. So they will be about the same size as DF and War Within zones I imagine.
With that said I would love if we got more zones other than Quel’thalas updated for Midnight. I doubt we get ALL of Eastern Kingdoms updated, but the northern half would be cool.
Curious to see Stromgarde as a full hub in midnight, especially with talks about the Amani and the rebuilding of the eatern kingdoms, makes a good war vibe brewing in here.
Alot of memories, and bitter ones with all the races.
Factions like the Bloodfang Worgen, the Syndicate, the Scarlet Crusade and the various troll/ogre tribes all have a lot potential to get stirred up and causing trouble.
If Blizzard has any sense of fairness elft they will NOT turn a starter zone into endgame content that will never again be relevant after hat. Blood elf fans would burn down all forums.
They would just partition the original content in a time locked phase and treat the new zones as a separate thing. Unless they radically shift design paradigms, obsolete content will continue to be a thing.
Not to mention the starter zone would still be 100% accessible and probably remain more relevant years after the expansion has come and gone, just by virtue of being a starter zone. There are a whole lot more players in Goldshire than Pandaria.
Of course, just because expansion areas are “less” visited doesn’t mean they’re irrelevant, especially with Chromie Time now. There are people who love to level in old expansion content. Heck, I dumped like 10 hours into Suramar content I outleveled long ago, just because i wanted this sweet Battlelord armor.
Nobody plays dragonflight zones anymore. Thas is the problem of that. That is why there was no other revamp after Cataclysm. Old world is sacred for players.
I’m very excited to see which areas will be revised.
But one thing is clear: Eversong Woods, Ghostlands and Quel’thalas are included.
Not to mention they are old areas that are small and I think Blizzard is making them bigger.
I think Quel’thalas will be an endgame zone. For the level campaign zones there are Eversong Woods and Ghostlands. The content will be a lot about elves, but also about trolls and the undead.
There are still 2 zones missing and I’m hoping for Gilneas or Silverpine Forest for the Worgen.
Finally, Tirisfal Glades or Western Plaguelands for the Forsaken.
Maybe it will be more than expected since Blizzard doesn’t have to create the areas from scratch. But I doubt there will be more than 4 areas.
It shouldn’t be a endgame zone. It would ruin the appeal and suffer the same fate as Darkshore. Being irrelevant for the plot the moment Midnight is over. Something that happens in every expansion.