Xelphatol is a dungeon

[Felis]

It would be nice if the dungeon work as a passage to the Xelphatol region. And everytime we want to go to that region, we have to do the dungeon, because there will be no Aetheryte in Xelphatol for teleport.

[ADVSS]

It would be nice if the dungeon work as a passage to the Xelphatol region. And everytime we want to go to that region, we have to do the dungeon, because there will be no Aetheryte in Xelphatol for teleport.

And Emerald weapon is blocking the path to Gyr Abania lol

[Nalien]

Well the Library is pretty much the go to place to learn things. Perhaps we return to something something Soul Surrender?

Derplanders group has been slaying Primals (we've seen them take out Ravana, the recent short story implies they've been taking out plenty more), it makes more sense to me that we're going to Xelphatol for something related to that; Either they've taken out Garuda, or they're going to. We then go into Xelphatol to investigate or stop Derplanders group...

Gumball Library (Hard) strikes me as something similar to the Arboretum; Folks in Idyllshire want something from it. Yes Urianger, Elidiboo and Derplander had a fun little meeting there, but why would we need to go back in for that reason? Urianger/Alisaie can tell us anything important... If the MSQ goes "They were talking about this book, that we left in the Library!", then I'm just going to be annoyed... That's a lazy reason to go back there for the MSQ... Makes far more sense to me that the Ixali have had/will have some encounter with Derplander, and we're going there to get information from them/warn them/etc. "There is an important book in the Library and we left it there so go get it!" isn't going to work for the MSQ IMO, works fine for an Idyllshire sidequest, just like Arboretum...

pre 2.0 concept art strongly inferred Xelphatol is an un-traverseable mountain range above ground, and a sprawling subterranean area controlled by the Ixal, deep within .

Think floating balloon city interconnected by rope bridges, plus all of that underground in a massive cave.

I'd love to have this as a sort of open world dungeon, personally... SE needs to bring back Hamlet Defense and double down on the Besieged inspired aspects... Imagine defending Lily Hills from the Ixali and failing, then traveling into Xelphatol Subterrain in order save NPCs/reclaim the Astral Candycane... Why is Hamlet Defense still not a thing?! What the hell Yoshida...

[Theodric]

I suppose that it's possible that both of the new dungeons will be directly related to the MSQ's this time around. 3.4 and 3.5 are - presumably - the patches separating us from 4.0 so chances are the story is going to become very fast paced and answer a lot of questions. A lot of people also expected the next 'Hard' dungeon to be Snowcloak so the fact that it isn't and is instead Gubal could be very telling.

[ADVSS]

I suppose that it's possible that both of the new dungeons will be directly related to the MSQ's this time around. 3.4 and 3.5 are - presumably - the patches separating us from 4.0 so chances are the story is going to become very fast paced and answer a lot of questions. A lot of people also expected the next 'Hard' dungeon to be Snowcloak so the fact that it isn't and is instead Gubal could be very telling.

Ill accept that, it does seem pretty strange, outside of snowcloak being a msq dungeon to begin with, but then so was stone vigil, and we got a hard mode of that in 2.x. Now this interests me because, keeper of the lake may not get a hard mode either, i cant think of any reason to go back there....er well then again that seal on silvertear lake...totally got that hard mode prediction wrong personally

[Morningstar1337]

Ill accept that, it does seem pretty strange, outside of snowcloak being a msq dungeon to begin with, but then so was stone vigil, and we got a hard mode of that in 2.x. Now this interests me because, keeper of the lake may not get a hard mode either, i cant think of any reason to go back there....er well then again that seal on silvertear lake...totally got that hard mode prediction wrong personally

Halatali (I think), Qarn (at least until recently), Longstop, and the inital level 16-18 dungeons also MSQ dungeon, all of which got hard modes.

[SaitoHikari]

Crackpot theory:

Xelphatol isn't the story dungeon, Gubal Library (Hard) is considering two certain NPCs were already seen conversing in its halls before. Xelphatol is instead a dungeon linked to our new GC features in some way. And may be the eventual gateway into accessing the now-delayed exploration content for 3.5.

[Nestama]

snip

Well in one of the screenshots we've seen, Alisae is knocked out. What with is anyone's guess, but the library might have some answers (we probably meet Matoya, she goes "yeah, that's some advanced form of crotchsoul rot. I recall seeing a recipe for a cure in the library. I'd tell you, but I can't remember if it needed toad oil, or Malboro oil...").

[Nalien]

Well in one of the screenshots we've seen, Alisae is knocked out. What with is anyone's guess, but the library might have some answers (we probably meet Matoya, she goes "yeah, that's some advanced form of crotchsoul rot. I recall seeing a recipe for a cure in the library. I'd tell you, but I can't remember if it needed toad oil, or Malboro oil...").

Which would be an incredibly lame and boring plot point... Assuming they're wrapping up this whole Warriors of Darkness stuff by 4.0, would they really waste time sending us into the Library in the MSQ for busy work? Wouldn't it be better to actually advance the plot, rather than make up some excuse to repeat essentially the same reasoning we went in there the first time? Xelphatol I can see advancing the plot; Derplander has apparently been taking out Primals, no reason Garuda wouldn't be on that list...

Alisaie being knocked out is an interesting point though... Granted, we have no sense of the sequence of events with that picture, but last we saw her, Thancred saved her and Elidiboo told Derplander not to follow, so how did she get in such a state?

[KarstenS]

doubt that a hard mode dungeon becomes an MSQ one, but yea first time for everything.

Well the Library is pretty much the go to place to learn things. Perhaps we return to something something Soul Surrender?

Another idea: Both dungeons are part of the MSQ. It don't have to be the one or the other.