History WorldOfWarcraft / TropesAToB

** Players used to have to stand next to a [[http://wowpedia.org/Lexicon_of_Power Lexicon of Power]] in order to apply glyphs, but this requirement was removed in a patch. The Lexicons are still around, however, probably because they just [[RuleOfCool look cool floating in the back of shops.]]

* ArtImitatesArt: [[http://www.wowhead.com/item=88417 Gokk'lok's Shell]] is a novelty item that makes your character stand naked inside a large clam shell, à la ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_%28Botticelli%29 the Birth of Venus]]''.

** This is to say nothing of races hybridized with mythical creatures, such as [[DraconicHumanoid Dragonspawn]], Mogu[[labelnote:*]]Based off of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_guardian_lions shíshī lions or "foo dogs"]][[/labelnote]] or [[FierySalamander Flamewakers]].

** Most infamously [[http://www.wowwiki.com/Thunderfury,_Blessed_Blade_of_the_Windseeker Thunderfury]], a one-hand sword bigger than most of the game's two-handers, but almost all weapons are rather oversized, in keeping with the "comic book" style of the game.

** The pandaren race. In fact, their surprising agility is part of their backstory: they turned out to be much, much better than the mogu in hand-to-hand combat, as the mogu favored huge, unwieldy weapons designed to inspire fear, on top of already being slow. The pandaren even acknowledge their obesity, and prefer to call it [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord "size training."]]

* BleakLevel:´

** Each expansion has included a players-vs.-computer arena event. The names of these include the Amphitheater of Anguish, the Crucible of Carnage, the Arena of Annihilation, and the Fields of Ferocity.[[http://www.wowhead.com/quest=27868 The Crucible of Carnage]] had alliterative quest titles and alliterative rewards for completing the event.

** Content scaling introduced during ''Legion'' opened up more possibilites to go through questlines out of order. Combined with the above Allied Races issue, it's entirely possible for a Nightborne character to be inducted into the Horde through the Blood Elves... and then go through the Ghostlands questlines which ultimately induct the Blood Elves in turn.

** LeeroyJenkins is immortalized in-game by a dungeon achievement[[note]]"Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy!" - Kill 50 rookery whelps within 15 seconds[[/note]] and player title[[note]]"Jenkins", awarded for completing the achievement[[/note]], as well as having his own trading card and miniature. In ''Warlords of Draener'', you can get him as a Garrison follower.

* TheAce: The player character. In addition to being a lifelong fighter and adventurer, various quests involve you (expertly) writing, painting, negotiating, [[UniversalDriversLicense driving vehicles]], mixing chemicals, assembling uniforms from scrap materials, posing as the enemy without breaking character, and many other things.

** The pandaren race. In fact, their surprising agility is part of their backstory: they turned out to be much, much better than the mogu in hand-to-hand combat, as the mogu favored huge, unwieldy weapons designed to inspire fear, on top of already being slow.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer:
** Undercity is a unique case, being a subterranean city with the sewers ''above'' it, used as the entrance. They're spacious enough to fly a winged mount through. Justified in that the Undercity was specifically designed to be a hidden military base and was then expanded into a place for the Forsaken to "live" in.
** There are many examples in the dungeons and raids as well. Most "impregnable strongholds" in the game are accessed by the players via a sewer, a cave system under the building, or a tunnel into some forgotten lower levels. In fact, it's probably easier to count the number of end-game instances that DON'T use this.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Grandma Wahl in the Worgen starting zone is able to shift back and forth from Human to Worgen long before the Night Elves show up to give Worgen the means to go back and forth at will. She apparently does this by the power of senility, as when she transforms to protect her cat she doesn't seem to be aware she's a Worgen in the first place, let alone in a ShapeshifterModeLock.

* ALighterShadeOfGrey: The Alliance and the Horde, being both examples of TheAlliance, start out as equally gray in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' -- both of them sport prejudice and self-righteousness and have committed their fair share of war crimes (such as creating concentration camps). However, both were born from the desire to protect Azeroth from the LegionsOfHell and other powerful menaces and are a source of comfort for the races that comprise them. That is until Garrosh replaces Thrall as Warchief in ''Cataclysm'' and becomes more bellicose and radical in ''Mists of Pandaria''. Unlike his predecessor Thrall, Garrosh is more ruthless, racist, and war-mongering who later orders the Horde to commit genocide. If you add to it that one of the Horde's more reviled factions, the Forsaken, get used as cannon fodder, get fed up, and start creating more of them (raising more Undead is always seen in a bad light)... It all culminates when the Forsaken's leader is crowned as the new Warchief and keeps doing more villainous acts. The Horde is only saved from falling into full black by the fact that both Warchiefs gradually lose the faction's approval and are ousted.

** Poor Gamon in Orgrimmar was a level 12 NPC, who was put in the center of town and made attackable for a pickpocketing quest. Instead, bored players would [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill him the instant he respawned]], over and over for six years. What's more, whenever a new Death Knight player arrived from the starting zone, the otherwise non-aggressive Gamon would [[SuicidalOverconfidence leap into action]] to defend the city, which rarely ended well. When ''Cataclysm'' hit, Blizzard took pity and made Gamon a [[TookALevelInBadass level 85 elite who is immune to crowd control and hits like a freight train.]] Later, he appears in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid in ''Mists of Pandaria'' and can be freed to help the raid defeat General Nazgrim.

* AuthorityGrantsAsskicking / AsskickingLeadsToLeadership:
** This is pretty much how all of the Orcish leaders (of every faction) have gained their positions.
*** Averted for the Alliance. While the Alliance leaders have both authority and badassery, one is rarely the result of the other. At least, in the lore. From a gameplay perspective, AuthorityEqualsAsskicking is in full effect as the racial leaders are all powerful raid bosses.
*** Also averted for most of the Horde. Despite the Horde's general trend of respect for personal might and little taste for politics, most of the other racial leaders did not gain their position based on their badassery. Baine and Vol'jin inherited it from their fathers. Sylvanas rallied her people after they broke free of slavery by virtue of being the only person with a plan to get revenge. She then gained the title of Warchief by appointment. Gallywix is the de facto leader of the Horde Goblins due to being the richest. He's fat, lazy, and not big on fighting.
** The Pandaren leaders on both factions are the highest ranking members of their dojos and trained under the OldMaster on the Wandering Isle.
** ''Your'' character is both. When you get to Lvl 100, you gain high rank in your factions army, and can gain followers through the garrison system. All this while personally crushing the big names of the Legion. This carries over in ''Legion'' when you take control of your Class Order Hall, becoming the de facto leader of nearly all members of your class.
** Both tend to be in full effect for just about every raid and dungeon boss in the game, as well as all of the city leaders being ridiculously powerful.
** Though there is a subversion in a new quest chain with Salhet, who is shown to be pretty much the worst soldier in Ramkahen but proves himself as an accomplished tactician and becomes a high ranking commander in the war with the Neferset.
** The Lords of the Burning Legions are titanic demons able to kill most any character with a simple backhand. Of course, nobody expects a player to fight one alone. The Commander demons under them are pretty powerful too.

** Many female NPCs also wear midriff-baring clothes, notably Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, and Alextrasza the Life-Binder, among others. In ''Legion'', Sylvanas finally covers up her midriff at the same time she becomes Warchief.

* BareYourMidriff:
** Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, and Alextrasza the Life-Binder, among others. Also a recurring theme with player female chest armor in Vanilla and ''Burning Crusade.'' The males get a few as well.
** In ''Legion'', Sylvanas finally covers up her midriff at the same time she becomes Warchief.

** Certain achievements that rewarded players with things such as access to allied races or flight in zones later became unlocked by default since a lot of these required raiding. ''Shadowlands'' allegedly will unlock every allied race for those who have difficulty trying to do ''Legion'' content, especially since the Nightborne required a raid to obtain - a raid that is no longer available via Raid Finder and is not soloable.

* ALighterShadeOfGrey: The Alliance and the Horde, being both examples of TheAlliance, start out as equally gray in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' -- both of them sport prejudice and self-righteousness and have committed their fair share of war crimes (such as creating concentration camps). However, both were born from the desire to protect Azeroth from the LegionsOfHell and other powerful menaces and are a source of comfort for the races that comprise them. Up until ''Cataclysm'', that is -- then, the Horde's War Chief is replaced with a more ruthless, racist, and war-mongering war who orders the Horde to commit genocide. If you add to it that one of the Horde's more reviled factions, the Forsaken, get used as cannon fodder, get fed up, and start creating more of them (raising more Undead is always seen in a bad light)... It all culminates when the Forsaken's leader is crowned as the new War Chief and keeps doing more villainous acts. The Horde is only saved from falling into full black by the fact that both War Chiefs gradually lose the faction's approval and are fired.

** Each expansion has included a players-vs.-computer arena event. The last three are the Amphitheater of Anguish, the Crucible of Carnage, and the Arena of Annihilation. [[http://www.wowhead.com/quest=27868 The Crucible of Carnage]] had alliterative quest titles and alliterative rewards for completing the event.

** Naga are serpentine creatures derived from elves who wear nothing on their snake-like lower halves. On the top half, males don't wear anything except for armor; female naga have breasts, and wear tops, except for some who rely on their scale covered BarbieDollAnatomy. More recent expansions have Naga of both genders with armor on their tails and limbs and females with trimmed robes or shirts

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking / AsskickingEqualsAuthority:

** In gameplay, the guards of race leaders are much, much weaker than [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority the actual leaders themselves.]] Downplayed in the lore.

* BigOlEyebrows: [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071223192345/wowwiki/images/thumb/b/ba/Dwarfbaby.jpg/549px-Dwarfbaby.jpg Dwarf babies.]]

* BleakLevel: Gilneas, particularly pre-bite.

* BlindSeer: Drek'thar.

* BigRedDevil:
** Illidan is the most famous example. Several other demons including the Succubi, the Eredar and especially the Doomguard also qualify.
** A male Draenei player character can be made to look like the classic cartoony depiction of the devil, as long as you'll accept "a distinctly reddish purple" in lieu of actual red.
** Kil'jaeden, too.

* UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents: The Goblin race has variations on a pretty awful New York accent to go with their fascination with violent explosions. As a result they often sound like they're about to hustle you.
** They're ''goblins''. They hustled you five minutes ago.

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Many quests reward players with strictly cosmetic rewards, such as clothes or off-hand items with no other use other than appearance. Also, one of the rewards of reaching exalted reputation with most factions during the ''Burning Crusade'' expansions was the faction's tabard, which also qualifies as CosmeticAward if you don't like wearing your guild tabard.

* AnotherSideAnotherStory: Several contested zones have the same events played out from the perspective of the Horde and the Alliance, usually as they fight each other; averted in cases where players work for a third party as Horde and Alliance players get the same quests and story.

* ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge: Hunters and Warriors can choose among rifles or bows. The competence and damage difference is negligible. That's of course, when they aren't using axes, swords or hammers...

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In the Northern Barrens, an orc running a caravan trading post complains that plainstriders are stupid, they can't fight, and they break the axles of her wagons. But her greatest problem seems to be that they are gamey.

* {{Auction}} House: Forms a core part of the game's player-driven economy; one of the best ways in the game to earn gold is to play the market, following the basic rule of "buy low, sell high". Even if you don't become the [=WoW=] equivalent of a stock trader, you can still earn a lot of gold by selling off your unneeded stuff... or go broke in record time buying stuff.

* AutomatonHorses: The mounts never need rest, feed, air or in the case of mechanical ones, repair. The flying ones can hover indefinitely, in quiet defiance of logic.

* BadassBookworm: Jaina Proudmoore keeps her catchphrase from the RTS franchise: "All I ever wanted was to study."

* BareFistedMonk: The class added in ''Mists'', which all races except Goblin and Worgen can be. The Monk can tank, damage, and heal, specializes in DeathByAThousandCuts, and only uses equipped weapons for the Chi-building Jab attack.

* BareYourMidriff: Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, and Alextrasza the Life-Binder, among others. Also a recurring theme with player female chest armor in Vanilla and ''Burning Crusade.'' The males get a few as well.

* BasiliskAndCockatrice: Basilisks appear as gigantic, [[VertebrateWithExtraLimbs six-legged]], armored lizards who have an appetite for crystal gems and can temporarily petrify their opponents. Their aquatic equivalents, the crocolisks, are simply six-legged [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile crocodiles]] with no magical powers. Meanwhile, the giant flightless birds that blood elves ride were originally planned to be called cockatrices, but they got renamed to Hawkstriders before the game was released. The only in-game mention of cockatrices is the "Pygmy Cockatrice", a regular chicken that runs around at the Darkmoon Faire.
** Cockatrices seem to be at least a known legend, as a gnomish entrepreneur in Tiragarde Sound wants to utilize them as a "mystery" at his resort - by having you put mechanical snake tails on regular chickens.

* BeardOfEvil: Many characters qualify for this, but the Sha of Doubt's white beard-like growths stand out in particular.

* BeastMan: Most of the Humanoid races seen in Azeroth and Draenor visually resemble an animal crossed with a human, elf, or hunch-backed dwarf: Kobolds are rats, Gnolls are hyenas, Furbolgs are bears, Quilboar are pigs, Tuskarr are walruses, Wolvar are wolverines, Pandaren are pandas, Hozen are monkeys, Virmen are rabbits, Moonkin are mostly owls, Makrura are lobsters, Eredar[=/=]Draenei are goatish, Saurok resemble lizards, the list goes on.

* BeleagueredAssistant: Grisy Spicecrackle, one of The Rokk's assistants. The Rokk is Shattrath's Cooking Master, and he keeps doting on Grisy to hurry up; this is one case where the master is not incompetent, he's just bossy.

* BerserkButton: Mimiron, literally. To activate his Hard Mode you have to push a ''very'' BigRedButton behind him. Doing this will activate the self-destruct mechanism on his lab and make him VERY pissed. Other bosses that feature similar "hard mode" triggers include XT-002 Deconstructor and Sartharion.

* BigDamnHeroes: Several quests have a battle in progress between friendly and enemy [=NPCs=] which is in a stalemate, or where your allies are supposedly losing; the player then comes in to win the battle, or just to prevent your allies from getting wiped out, depending on whether that quest uses [[PerpetuallyStatic phasing or not]].

* BiggerOnTheInside: Many raid dungeons and some regular instanced dungeons. Mostly averted as the inside of most buildings and dungeons are exactly as big as the outside suggests they are; however, anything Mage related tends to warp the fabric of space, and Karazhan is the most blatant example. On the outside Karazhan is a crumbling tower, but inside it is huge, with large open spaces like a banquet hall, theater and library, which clearly can't fit in the narrow tower. In the Broken Stairs section, which takes place in the crumbling ruins and are sized to match the tower's outside, players can look down the corridor leading to the Menagerie and see that it extends into an area that is open space when viewed from outside.
** See AlienGeometries above.

** Nathanos Blightcaller was first encountered by players at the Marris farm in the Eastern Plaguelands back in "Vanilla" in 2004, as a questgiver for the Horde and a quest boss for the Alliance. [[spoiler:Players of both factions -or more exactly Tyrande Whisperwind- got to kill him there 16 years later during the pre-''Shadowlands'' event.]]

** A rather accurate description of the Alliance and Horde, really. Each has several races, and several classes within the races, with two or three specialties with each class. And all have little in common with each other except their actual faction.
** On a lesser scale, the small army of Nightfallen that mobilize against Suramar City. Even when more rebels join the cause, most have no combat experience or have had none for centuries, making them ill-equipped. Still, a crash course does wonders, as your small band is able to take down a rather powerful demon that makes a preemptive strike against Meredil rather easily.

* ALighterShadeOfGrey: The Alliance compared to the Horde, in the light of recent actions taken by Hellscream and Sylvanas. It was more equal from ''Warcraft III'' until then.

* [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie And Then the Scarlet Crusade was Zombies]]:

* BigRedButton: The newbie questchain for goblins make you push one of these in order to destroy an oil rig. Oh, and this button is VERY BIG!

* BondCreatures: Warlocks and Hunters both have pets that they tame/coerce/summon and spend a great deal of time developing; this is one of the primary attractions of those classes. Several other classes can also call upon temporary combat pets of varying use and potency.

* 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 up.
** One particular case of BossBanter involves a dysfunctional demonic couple in The Arcatraz named Dalliah the Doomsayer and Wrath-Scryer Soccothrates bantering with each other in a rather amusing, and deliciously [[HamToHamCombat hammy]] manner.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Just about anyone listening to the Old Gods' voice for too long. Deathwing himself is the most blatant example. For the players, it's the Sanity mechanic in the Yogg-Saron encounter in Ulduar. It's so thorough that even if you die and are rezzed in-combat, you are ''still'' this trope.

* BreakTheCutie: Jaina, in spades. After Theramore was bombed during the lead-in to ''Mists of Pandaria'', Jaina went from being the biggest advocate of peace with the Horde to going on a total RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
** She was then [[HealTheCutie healed again]] over the course of ''Battle for Azeroth''.

* BrickBreak: ''Mists of Pandaria'' wouldn't be complete without barefisted monks breaking boards and bricks.

* BrickJoke: After you give the quest to Johnny Awesome, his Celestial Steed that he bragged about is found dead with its legs sticking out of the field in Hillsbrad with Johnny himself crying in a nearby house.
** Back in ''Warcraft III'', Medivh told Jaina "Your young prince will find only death in the cold north". But at the end of ''Wrath of the Lich King'', Arthas did indeed find "only death in the cold north."

* BroughtDownToNormal: In terms of ''political'' power instead of super power, this happens to goblin players. Players start out as the proteges of [[{{Jerkass}} Trade Prince Gallywix]], being groomed as the next trade prince(ss); but when [[BigBad Deathwing]] arrives to spoil the party, leaving you all on his ship fleeing Kezan, he decides you're more useful as slave labor.
** [[spoiler:The surviving Dragon Aspects]] at the end of ''Cataclysm''.

* {{Acrofatic}}: The pandaren race. In fact, their surprising agility is part of their backstory: they turned out to be much, much better than the mogu in hand-to-hand combat, as the mogu favored huge, unwieldy weapons designed to inspire fear, on top of already being slow.

* 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 [[{{Hammerspace}} 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]].

*** Averted with the Forsaken, however. Originally neither the quests, the [=NPCs=], or even the in-game voice-over were vague about the Forsaken joining the Horde only out of convenience and not having any real loyalty towards them. Over time the Forsaken appeared to begin developing some real camaraderie with the Horde until Cataclysm came and their queen was shown to be doing all sorts of shady things behind the backs of the other Horde leaders. Because of this, the Forsaken start out as Neutral with other Horde factions (except the Blood Elves, probably due to the Forsaken's leader being a former High Elf) rather than Friendly as all other races, on both factions, do.

* BittersweetSeventeen: Anduin Wrynn is 17 in ''Legion'', when his father is killed and he becomes King of Stormwind. WordOfGod[[invoked]] actually said they thought 17 was a good age for him to become King -- Young enough to still have the "Boy King" aspect of the character, but old enough to understand his duties and have agency in his decisions rather than being a PuppetKing whose kingdom is effectively run by his advisers.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Just about anyone listening to the Old Gods' voice for too long. Deathwing himself is the most blatant example.