History WorldOfWarcraft / TropesAToB

* BonusFeatureFailure: ''Shadowlands'' features a new way to level for alts called "Threads of Fate", which allows you to entirely bypass the story quests and go straight to world quest and other stuff to level your alt. Unfortunately, the feature happens to be AwesomeButImpractical, as [[https://www.wowhead.com/news=319505/leveling-alts-in-shadowlands-is-threads-of-fate-better-than-replaying-the-storyl Pointed out by wowhead]], leveling this way is slower than just doing the storyline quests(and keep in mind, questing is generally faster than anything else this days outside specific exceptions). While you can make it a bit faster by grouping with friends, the feature is ultimately far slower than just doing story quests properly and has too many downsides to be worth considering.

** All manner of ranged physical attacks, be they bows, guns, or crossbows, used to have a minimum range. If the enemy got too close, you were forced into melee combat. This was removed in ''Mists of Pandaria'', though certain turrets and siege weapons still have a minimum range.

** A major issue with expansion launches in the past had been people (usually {{Troll}}s) parking enormous mounts on top of the quest [=NPCs=] and preventing anybody from interacting with them. The pre-launch event for ''Shadowlands'' introduced no-mount zones with a small radius around said [=NPCs=] to prevent this.

** The Halls of Reflection has the Lich King himself as a Walking Wall of Doom; to escape him you have to kill mobs while Jaina/Sylvanas destroys the actual walls.

** An achievement "Stood in the Fire"[[note]] the name of which is in and of itself, a reference to TooDumbToLive behavior in boss encounters[[/note]] required players to get killed by Deathwing when he strafed zones. It was actually harder than it sounds, given how random Deathwing's attacks were. Played even straighter after Deathwing became killable when the achievement was modified to include dying during either the Spine of Deathwing or Madness of Deathwing raid encounters. Not only does it retain its dubious value, but it now also signifies that it is likely the recipient's first time fighting Deathwing on that character.

* ArbitraryMinimumRange:

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Quite a few. [[BottomlessMagazines Ranged weapons don't run out of ammunition any more]], [[AutomatonHorses your mounts can fly or run indefinitely]], [[HyperactiveMetabolism eating or drinking heals all wounds]], you can carry hundreds of items with you without so much as a bulging backpack showing, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and you can swap pants without ever getting off your horse, as long as you're not in combat]].
** InUniverse, Warlocks, Demon Hunters, and Death Knights are not very well trusted. Warlocks and Demon Hunters must work ''very hard'' to ensure their demonic powers do not get the better of them, and death Knights were ''hated'' for well, being (former) agents of the Scourge who caused a lot of ruin. (This was even shown with how, with the exception of the Undead, Warlock class trainers tended to be in back alleys or behind buildings while everyone else was front and center and how Death Knights had to go to Archeus to train.) Yet they all start with the same neutral faction and never have to worry about hate crimes or the rogue person who ''still'' does not trust them.

** Class trainers. In older versions of the game, you'd need to hoof it back to the class trainers around town to get new skills whenever you leveled up, and you'd have to pay money too. You'd even have to make sure you replaced your spell with the newer version of it, and many people would lose track of whether they had the latest and greatest - it became such a problem that there were addons that would warn you and the rest of the group if anyone in your party or raid wasn't using the most powerful version of a spell, but now spells just have one version that scales with you. Certain very special skills had entire sub-quests built around them, like warlocks learning to summon imps or hunter getting their first pet. Now you get your skills automatically by leveling up, and start off with your first pet immediately, so now class trainers mostly just hang around as living tutorials for talents and as a way to reset your talents or class specializations. And now in ''Legion'', it's possible to change specializations when out of combat, and talents when in a rest zone.

** Starting with patch 9.1.5, many sexual or crude bits that were otherwise in the game for years have been removed or replaced: a vanilla-era painting found in SI:7 of a woman in a robe was updated to a higher-quality version with a more modest outfit, a reclining nude painting in Ravenholdt was replaced entirely with a still life painting of a bowl of fruit (the decision of which was subject to a lot of {{memetic|Mutation}} mockery), the Anglers NPC Master Baiter was renamed Jiang Ziya, multiple jokes and flirts removed, etc.

** Starting with patch 9.1.5, many sexual or crude bits that were otherwise in the game for years have been removed or replaced: a vanilla-era painting found in SI:7 of a woman in a robe was updated to a higher-quality version with a more modest outfit, a reclining nude painting in Ravenholdt was replaced entirely with a still life painting of a bowl of fruit, the Anglers NPC Master Baiter was renamed Jiang Ziya, multiple jokes and flirts removed, etc.

* AttackReflector: The Warrior ability Spell Reflect, plus a variety of similar abilities used by various creatures and bosses. Priests and Mages can optionally enhance their [[BarrierWarrior magic shields]] to reflect damage, though Mages' shields are limited to reflecting magic damage. Ozruk in the Stonecore has an ability that reflects spells back at players, and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard players must take advantage of this to reflect a damage over time spell on themselves to break his paralyzing effect and be able to move to avoid his Shatter ability]]. Windwalker Monks get Touch of Karma, which converts all damage the Monk takes up to their max health in damage, making use of this ability when a boss uses their most damaging ability an incredibly effective way of squeezing in more damage. In ''Warlords of Draenor'', the Hunter's direhorn pet have a skill that lets it reflect spells back at the user(s) in front of them with their frills for 6 seconds.

* BrokenRecord: The rare encounter Bashiok in Gorgrond has only one line, repeated many times with different inflections: "I am Bashiok!"

* BalefulPolymorph:
** Mages' "Polymorph" spells can turn an opponent into one of the following: sheep, pig, rabbit, turtle, cat, or penguin. All look different but are functionally identical: they make the victim unable to use any abilities or control their movement. Meanwhile, Shaman have a spell called "Hex" that turns an opponent into a frog. Quite a few mobs and bosses have access to these spells as well.
** Nefarian combines it with ShapeshifterModeLock for Druids -- he forces them into cat form during the fight.

** The Celestial Planetarium in Ulduar, home of [[BonusBoss Algalon the Observer]]; when he's engaged, the dome of the room displays stars in space.

* BonusBoss: Several, unlocked under varying conditions

** Algalon the Observer in Ulduar, unlocked by doing the "hard mode" for the Assembly of Iron, then doing the "hard modes" for Hodir, Thorim, Freya and Mimiron to get their sigils.

* AbsoluteCleavage:
** Quite a few robes and vests early in the game. Females of any race have some pretty good cleavage, even the Gnomes and Goblins.
** Averted later though - while heavy female armour is definitely more ''shapely'' than any male equivalent, for the most part it's realistically concealing.
** Some of the robes and tunics [[https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/466704.jpg even give the males some nice]] AbsoluteCleavage.

** Starting with patch 9.1.5, many sexual or crude bits that were otherwise in the game for years have been removed or replaced: a vanilla-era painting found in SI:7 of a woman in an AbsoluteCleavage-bearing robe was updated to a higher-quality version with a more modest outfit, a reclining nude painting in Ravenholdt was replaced entirely with a still life painting of a bowl of fruit, the Anglers NPC Master Baiter was renamed Jiang Ziya, multiple jokes and flirts removed, etc.

** In the ''Shadowlands'' beta, in an attempt to "soften" video game language, Garrosh's response to Sylvanas' snarky comment in the quest [[https://www.wowhead.com/quest=26965/the-warchief-cometh The Warchief Cometh]] has been changed from "Watch your clever mouth, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]]" to simply "Watch your clever mouth."

* AtlantisIsBoring:
** Seemed to be the case before ''Cataclysm''. Most of the underwater areas were quite plain, the few UnderwaterRuins all looked similar and were inhabited by Naga. This was not helped by the fact that underwater gameplay was very frustrating before ''Cataclysm''; drowning, slow movement, line of sight issues, and mobs that love to immobilize players.
** Averted when ''Cataclysm'' introduced Vashj'ir which features [[SceneryPorn beautiful scenery]] and a continuous and very dark storyline that spans across all three of its subzones. ''Cataclysm'' also introduced unique mechanics in each underwater area, usually eliminating the first two problems entirely and the others generally avoided through design choices.
** An underwater raid was originally planned to be released during ''Cataclysm'' as a counterpart to the Firelands raid. However the developers decided they couldn't make it fun due to the annoyance of navigating the environment.
** ''Battle for Azeroth'' sidestepped the issue of the underwater environment entirely by having Azshara split the sea and leave Nazjatar open to the air.

* BlindingBangs: Tauren as of ''Shadowlands'' have this as a cosmetic option.

** The Sha of Hatred gives a shorter "No!" followed by this when it's expelled from Taran Zhu's body.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Several. Lesser notes are a few Flight Masters. The one in Westfall being named [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] and the Flight Master for the Horde outpost in the Badlands being named {{Gorn}}. There's also another one in Westfall called Hoboair; Sadly, the flying mount isn't replaced with a crate being launched out of a makeshift catapult.

** Priests in general, but Discipline Priests take it UpToEleven: they can cast a stronger barrier more frequently; their barriers can [[AttackReflector reflect some damage back at the attacker]], and heal anyone the barrier is cast on. In ''Cataclysm'', Discipline Priests can [[HolyHandGrenade effectively attack enemies]] and create a new, larger barrier that multiple people can hide in.

* BossBanter: Most dungeon bosses will talk to you in combat, starting from the earliest dungeons. Standard ones have an aggro speech and a HaveANiceDeath speech. Later ones have CallingYourAttacks, some mid fight speech, and LastWords. Some later final dungeon bosses even do a HannibalLecture when you enter the room they are in. All comes in both SpeechBubbles/chat log and [[ChewingTheScenery audio]] of course to crank it UpToEleven.

** Bags. Everyone loves cool-looking armor or an impressive mount, but few things are less visible or more valuable in the long run than huge amounts of bag space for picking up that one last item, be it a valuable weapon or simple VendorTrash to sell for money.