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The Dark Below - Speculation Thread
BadSpock
Member UncommonPosts: 7,979
Finding out Reaper of Souls is like, 99% likely to be D3 expansion, which makes "The Dark Below" a good 80-99% likely to be next WoW expansion...
Makes me happy.
Let the speculation begin!
My guess is:
-You find out Garrosh was infected by the demonic blood of the Burning Legion like his father, his war mongering was meant to weaken Azeroth and divide the Horde, bring the Alliance vs. Horde war back to weaken the realm in preparation for invasion by the Legion
- no new classes
-level cap to 100
- number "crunch" - instead of 500k + health etc. etc. all the numbers are cut to 1/10th and all of 1-90 is re-balanced #'s wise to match. Smaller stat increases 90-100. So like 500k health at 90 becomes 50k, at 100 you are at maybe 55-60k
-players get really big buffs when entering old instanced content (raids/dungeons) so they can still be solo/ farmed for transmog gear etc.
-3 new races : ogres, Naga, some kind of bird-like race - ogres for the Horde, bird race for the Alliance, Naga able to choose which side to join (split faction)
-rework of every profession - much easier to level up to 600 (current cap) - then like "normal" 600-675 (new cap)
-bigger focus on public quests / open world events (not even going to use the "dynamic" buzz word) - like Azeroth is invaded by burning legion, go back to "new" versions of old zones (done w/ phasing) for main story line 90-100, mixed in with tons and tons of new public events / event chains - fighting invasion. Each patch new zones are opened up to events, others become "cleared" and no longer under attack. Also opens new dungeons/raids/BGs as usual.
-ANOTHER re-org of the talent tree system: at 15,30,45,60,75,90,100 you get to pick a special ability like it is now, but then they'll add an AA system you unlock at 95 and start putting points into to increase you stats (passive) with multiple tiers and paths like the old talent trees kind of... you earns points past the level cap of 100 of course, so you continue your progression far past hitting 100 before you "max out" your AA's. All classes share the same AA system, so you choose your path based on your class/spec and role... theme has to do with infusing yourself with power of the Light to fight the Legion, or Demonic power stolen from Legion to use their own power against them etc.
-most of new 90-100 in Azeroth, high level public quests (like new daily hubs) and some instances/raids actually in Twisted Nether (The Dark Below) bringing fight to the Legion's doorstep, killing off various sub-bosses and captains etc. with final patch of expansion cycle = invasion of Azeroth by Sargeras himself - culminating in him attacking the new World Tree trying to get to the Well of Eternity and unleash it's power, trying to finish what Archimonde could not do, you fight him to save Azeroth and finally destroy the burning Legion.
-some kind of alternative to the 1-90 leveling process- like a new alternative path to the current quest progression... something to do with daily events and public quests and like weekly "missions" like - complete X public quests to fight the legion etc.
-and the biggest crazy prediction - one new talent tree per class - all have to do with Burning Legion or the Holy Light from the Titans. Like, Hunters get a melee DPS tree called Demon Hunter, Warrior get a ranged DPS tree called Spell Breaker, Warlocks get a healing tree using dark magic to heal called Nethermancer, Priests get a tanking tree called Cleric, etc.
Comments
You hear that Blizz?
LOL thanks
I have learned that it is wise to not speculate to much, and especially to not build up to much hype from said speculations.
TDB could be anything... heck it could be a Hearthstone expansion.
This have been a good conversation
It's fun to throw wild guesses and speculations and hope for what we'd like to see.
It is wise to not attach yourself to these speculations so if/when they are revealed to be untrue, you aren't hurt by it.
I want one big feature – the removal of flying mounts;
1. Make it so only a few can get them – think legendary.
2. You hire them on a 1hour “flying” time basis from an NPC for quite a bit of gold (also helps remove gold from the ecom)
3. Remove them all together
I can only see downsides with flying mounts;
1. Players skip over content
2. Zones feel empty cus payers are not passing through
3. Less World PvP
4. Blizzard cannot hide or hint at future content and mystery, think the greymane wall in vanilla or the AQ gates, we all wanted to know what was beyond at the time, right now anything like that players just fly over.
Dynamic events / elite spawns will definitely make an appearance
Number crunch - yes, but I'm also anticipating an ability crunch. More games keep using the limited hotbars, Blizz may or may not be interested in that for WoW.
Talent/class rework - Blizz has done something for each expansion so far, so I imagine that they will continue. The question for me is, did they take notes on what worked and what didn't from Cata & MoP. They lost a lot of players, they have to be looking at their decisions closely (at least I hope they are). I like the "choose a major ability" talent system, I think it works really well in D3 where you can really customize your character via skill + rune choice. I hope they go that route and expand the skills to be more customizable. Or possibly add a new "stat" point tree or something like it to bring back some old school rpg flavor.
3 new races? That sounds like a stretch for Blizzard considering the pace they release things at. Although, they did reallocate most of the titan team back to existing projects, so they could do something like this. Naga would be cool and has been asked for a lot, ogres I'm sure are low on their list and I dunno about birds (I know they have the BC bird thingys from M. Night Shamalamanadingdongs "The Village" so I it's not completely out of left field).
Demon Hunter Class - Yes. This will happen. Dark below = demons and infernals. Death Knight was DPS/Tank, Monk was DPS/Tank/Heals, Demon Hunter will be Caster/Melee DPS! Battlemage time! It will be sooo popular and I won't care, I will roll one so hard.
Level cap 100 - I hope so, they've been going by 5 lately, but maybe they really want to impress and will go big or go home.
Subterranean zones - If I know anything about Blizzard is that they are amazing at stealing other people's thunder. I am fully expecting subterranean levels in various parts of the world, not separated by instance portals, and if they're feeling extra ballsy, they will add a few zones with destructible environment! It's called The Dark Below, and I imagine that we'll be able to travel below. Tier 1 = 90-95 and Tier 2 = 95-100, would make sense and really wouldn't put it past Blizzard to do this just to troll SOE.
World events will be a thing. Like GW2 Living Story and EQN's Living Stor . . . Er, I mean Rallying Call.
Role rework - Possibly a softening of the trinity, we've seen Health pools get closer and tank damage increase - are we going to see any attempt at "action combat"? Not sure if this is even possible with their existing engine at this point, but stuff like blink exists so I don't see why they could create a tumble animation and call it "dodge roll" and give it a shorter distance. Unlikely, but stranger things . . .
I also think they're going to re-assess dailies - I know they got a lot of feedback on what people felt were an excessive amount of dailies, and perhaps find a more open alternative to faction rep and gating items. Kind of like GW2 which grants you laurels for completing 5 daily tasks of your choosing instead of having to do the same ones in the same area all the time.
Yep, Blizz has said many times that Vash'jir (underwater zone in Cata was cool) but they'd never do it again (as players hated it more often then not).
I foresee more so that maybe raise the ancient Naga kingdom from the sea (new zones) and the Nerubians will rise from the depths of the world to attack the overworld - with us only going underground sometimes-
Or the whole thing will be burning legion which means portals and hellfire raining from above.
It's probably more likely we'll get Old Kingdom / Gods and Naga/Nerubians this expansion, maybe also some Emerald Dream here and there, then Burning Legion and final defeat of Sargeras in the one after this - which will probably be the final major WoW expansion.
I hope not though, I hope Burning Legion and everything I mention would be this time around.
http://wowpedia.org/Dark_Below
The only known mention of the Dark Below in official Warcraft canon sources is in the title of the boss http://wowpedia.org/Ozumat
<span npclink"="">Ra-den in Throne of Thunder is telling the players when defeated about some kind of darkness beneath us. The quote: "But there is a yawning chasm of darkness beneath you mortals, vast, endless, and all consuming."
EQ2 fan sites
Blizzard orginally planned for a whole underground sequence of zone in Wrath, looks like SOE copied blizzard
It was talked about at blizzcon prior to wraths released, they scraped the idea and jsut made some dungeons.
That zone later became the instance for Azjol Nerub. You are right - originally Blizz wanted to make it a whole underground zone but later decided against it (probably for the best).
Just hope we don't have to wait till Blizzcon for new expansion announcement, as the final raid of MoP is coming in out in like 2 weeks, I'd HOPE they have the new expansion mostly done and releasing this November/December.
that wouild be a first,
altho Blizzard has been trying forever to have annual expansions
EQ2 fan sites
I think they will announce Reaper Of Souls next week at Gamescom, they said there will be a big announcement, and Dark Below at Blizzcon
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
why speculate when you have facts;
* we know the name of the 3rd old god.
could it get darker? could it be more below?
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
MMO-champ is back peddling REALLY, REALLY hard to try and convince us The Dark Below was/is just a prank/fake.
Almost like they got a "hey Boub dude WTF stop please" from Blizzard...
Almost like they wanted to tease the Reaper of Souls thing for D3 for Gamescon, but accidentally revealed The Dark Below too.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Good find.
It will be interesting to see what they come up with to try and curb the decline. Story/setting plays a big part....wotlk was their most successful xpac for a reason, and im sure the arthas storyline had something to do with it.
EDIT: The next WoW raid tier "seige of orgramar" is mostly set underneath orgramar, so thats probably what is being referred to, seeing as Throne of Thunder is the current tier.
expansion?
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/09/30/possible-trademark-filed-by-blizzard-for-heroes-of-the-storm/
Blizzard has possibly filed a new trademark for Heroes of the Storm.
related post at mmo champion
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1349283-Blizzard-trademarks-quot-Heroes-of-the-Storm-quot?p=22546497#post22546497
EQ2 fan sites
You can not take things away from people... they will react like little children when you take away their toys...
You can only add more and new things and hope they forget about the old stuff, which in the case of flying mounts will never work
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
seriously?
People will skip over content flying mounts or not. I don't even get that logic of yours on this one.
Zones feel empty whether you have flying mounts or not. If you FORCED people to run through xyz zones just to get to their destination, they're going to be doing just that, going by on their business, not stopping to chat or kill something so that a zone won't feel empty. Again where's the logic.
Less world pvp is actually a thing you got right but nowhere near as bad as you claim it to be. You see, the ones who get to skip out on world pvp are the highest lvls of a given expansion. You can't ride flying mount in outlands until lvl 68. You can't ride flying mount in Northrend until 78(or something like that) and etc. So there's still world pvp up until you're almost the highest level for a given expansion and even then, in the zones for that expansion, flying mounts don't automatically mean no world pvp since you still have to kill shit to do dailies and what on foot.
There's this thing called invisible walls you know. They still use them. Also there's this thing called roofs. They can be made of trees, of clouds, of whatever the fuck blizzard wants to make them.
Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!
What wow needs is an AA system, and max level versions of all zones both open world as dungeons that allow people to play those great stories and old dungeons and raids while gaining AA... A good AA system would make character development espescially at endgame an important feature, and exactly character development and improvement is one of those reasons people keep playing mmos.
on top of that, they should add a new hero class (starting at level 55) and a new race for those people that want something new.
They should allow everyone that has a single max level character to level new classes as a hero class starting at lvl 55.
they should add improved textures for all older races, they need more detail to atleast keep up with the time, panda bears have much better textures then the old races.
And then 10 more levels.... Become epic at level 100... Which will be the final max level, later expansions will only improve the AA level... Giving people a V- level which combines ilevel and aa level...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I know right, before flying mounts came players never ever skipped content, remember the classic WoW?? people were so slow at leveling because they were all doing quests and crafting and etc etc. ohh wait, no that was never the case, people always skipped content, within a week of classic release many players were level 50 skipping content.
Zones feel empty? blame the players who skipped content to level up faster and now /dance ing in org or sw.
less world pvp? i don't want to do world pvp, why are you trying to force me? i am not forcing you to do pve or do raid with me all the time.
flying mounts let me see more of a zone that otherwise i could not see before. i wish blizz would add flying mounts in BElf zones too.
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