We have datamined leaks of Thermaplugg, new dreadlord models and NPCs, you name it… it has me honestly jittery in anticipation for what the entirety of 9.1 and other future patches could bring in to surprise us… what are your wild predictions?
Mine is that Illidan, Khadgar, Velen, and countless others will step in to help us out in the final battle against the Jailer, along with all the covenant forces and Azerothian heroes… imagine a massive battle – army vs army – just like Broken Shore before the Tomb of Sargeras raid, but even larger…
I don’t think Khadgar, Illidan, and Velen are tremendously relevant to the plot of Shadowlands. The appearances will likely be characters who are dead rather than characters who are alive, but waiting for their relevant expansion again.
I really doubt those big names will show up, if nothing else because they don’t really have much in the way of relevance (beyond their power scaling). Velen & Illidan have had strong resolutions to their personal character arcs. Kadghar is in a holding pattern until the Medive storyline kicks off again. Not to mention, none of these guys really have much in the way of “growth” they could gain from interacting with the dead.
I would like to see something meaningful for Baine occur. If Benedictus is showing up in the Maw, it sure be nice to get some work put into Lil. Rommath is THE character I want to interact most with Keal’thas after all this time. There are TONS of these sorts of characters that could really benefit from interacting with Dead characters here.
Bold of you to assume we are getting anything beyond a 9.2 with current patch cadence unless we have a 2.5/3 year expansion (which I wouldn’t mind).
In 9.0 there are three remaining gate/portal spaces in the Oribos Ring of Transference. In 9.1 one space is used for the Maw (next to Revendreth gate), and a flightmaster to Tazavesh was datamined and implemented (meaning it’s probably going to be a questing hub, so we’re getting two small zones) so that’s another gate
That leaves one gate left, so hopefully one giant zone.
Wish list:
A Drust raid
A full and proper Other Side zone;
Malfurion + /Talanji/Bwonsamdi show up to help against the Jailer, with the surviving Nelf Ancients and Troll Loa, after Bwonsamdi tells Talanji/Malfurion what almost happened to Ashamane, Shadra, and Hireek (and what happened to Rezan).
Having just Odyn show up is beyond tedious, nobody even likes him that much, and it would be cool to see the Loa and Ancients work together since we have never seen that beyond WoA flashbacks.
Shandris and Lilian/Calia must be added to the Sanctum of Domination raid.
The penultimate 9.1 chapter is titled “The Power of the Night”, so presumably we are getting Tyrande’s resolution there. However, none of the 9.1 chapter titles gesture to Forsaken story progression.
I expect Lilian to appear given her dad is in one of the cells next to Helya in 9.1
Amber Kearnan is one of the NPCs from Maldraxxus that can help you in the assault quests in 9.1 I think it would be cool to have some Uncrowned characters (at least Garona, Shaw, and Ravenholdt) be present as well
Again, since Blizzard is choosing to use Legion characters, it would be cool if Natalie Seline/Cult of Forgotten Shadow and the Council of the Black Harvest show up to help Sin’dane since a lot of the House of Rituals betrayed her for Kel’Thuzad
edit:
Medivh probably, given his Karazhan dungeon quote, and the fact Torghast new wing is called “Forgotten Catacombs”, and Karazhan’s magical nexus was created using Ulthalesh, which is a magical scythe that contains a Dreadlord
I REALLY hope not! There is no one that I want to see less than Khadgar. I haven’t read too data mined info so I don’t know who all is coming but, I wouldn’t mind seeing some ancient Kaldorei souls like Haidenne, the first high Priestess of Elune.
Honestly hoping we see Varimathras at some point with all these Nathrezim popping up.
Yeah we ‘killed’ him for good on Argus, but it turns out Dreadlord’s aren’t actually creatures of Chaos but rather Death - when he died he should have been sent back to the Shadowlands instead of being banished to the Twisting Nether like a regular demon.
I’m sure he’d have some interesting insight into Sylvanas’s schemes with the Jailer and might even be willing to share given how his words to us last time we encountered him were warnings about what she was doing.
As much as I love Arthas, I really do and would love to see him. . . I fear what blizz would do with his character, I mean Ner’zhul after being freed from the helm immediately became a mawsworn construct upon entering the maw, my hopes aren’t high for how they’d handle Arthas.
He dead dead at this point, once you become a demon your soul is forever changed and therefore bound to the same fate as every other demon of the nether.
I wouldn’t bet money on that being the case if I were you, what with Malganis still being around. All we need is Tichondrius to pop up again and we can have a council of the Dreadlord’s fight.
Well Malganus wasn’t killed in the nether, neither was Tichondrius. Varimathras however was killed in Antorus which is steeped in feel energies and apart of the nether, so his immortal soul was destroyed.
It would be fun to have him back don’t get me wrong but then they’d be walking back or retconning more lore.
They already have retconned things by saying that Dreadlord’s were never demonic, but rather creations of Sire Denathrius. Yes they ingested Fel to pass as demons, but I doubt Lothraxion would return to the plane of Light if you killed him.
Except I’m pretty sure anything fel-infused goes to the Twisting Nether – remember Illidan, who also confirmed this is the case for DH characters in their starting questline if you choose the self-sacrifice option? – but then why are green orcs in the Shadowlands? Maybe it depends on how much fel is consumed?
Well if rescue Ner’zhul from the raid, over just obliterating his soul, then I could easily see Dommhammer and Blackhand stepping in… and the orc racial armor involving a quest called “Warchiefs of the Orcish Horde” where orc players speak with each orc Warchief (Blackhand, Doomhammer, Ner’zhul, and Thrall).
This reminds me of back in WotLK when everyone was predicting that every major character in the universe and their mother would play a part in the Lich King fight but Blizzard wisely decided to go subtler and make the players the stars of the encounter.
