History WorldOfWarcraft / TropesMToR

** The Cataclysm 4.2 patch completely broke the targetting system. This was especially hard on melee classes. You would hit an ability, the game would switch your current target to the closest dead enemy, give you a "your target is dead" error, but STILL put your ability on cooldown. The only workaround was to make a macro for EVERY ability to /focus current target, then cast ability on focus. It remained in this state for over *2 months* and required multiple patches to fix.

*** Due to the new talent system in 5.04, Holy Paladins were ridiculously over powered at lower levels - with their Holy Shock ability hitting for over 1k...at level 10. Needless to say, the nerf was nearly as quick as it was expected.

*** To be fair, that "tunnel" was originally built as part of Dalaran's sewer system. The designers probably didn't think that mages would take the city and magically lift the whole thing 500 feet in the air. :) Then again, in city full of mages in a magical city, they SHOULD have.

*** It's Arathi Highlands, not Alterac Valley. Alterac Valley is a PVP battleground.

* PowerCopy: The death knight spell 'Dark Simulacrum' allows them to copy the next spell their target casts and fire it as their own.

** In the [[spoiler:Corrupted Taran Zhu]] encounter in Shado-Pan Monastery, if the players' Hatred bar fills, they receive a significant boost to their damage, but [[AwesomeButImpractical their hit is reduced to the point at which they are almost completely ineffective]], and they must meditate for a few seconds in order to fight normally again. There is an achievement for defeating the boss while all players have maximum Hatred, but it's difficult to do unless the players wait until he has only a small amount of his health left before maximizing their hatred.

* PrecisionFStrike: [[spoiler:Garrosh called Dark Lady Sylvanas a bitch in post-cataclysm Silverpine Forest after she openly showed him that she was raising the dead and flippantly responded when called on her [[NotSoDifferent becoming like]] [[HeWhoFightsMonsters the LichKing]].]]

* {{Precursors}}: The Titans

** While some bosses use MindControl to force players to attack their fellow raid members, a few use it to force players to commit suicide, such as Nefarian in Blackwing Descent, and [[spoiler:Kaz'tik the Manipulator]] in Siege of Orgrimmar.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Cataclysm expansion, Twilight Highlands. The quest is entitled "Madness," and you're to accompany a horde negotiator to the leader of the Dragonmaw clan of Orcs. Along the way, he questions "Hey, does this RedShirt make me look expendable?" along with invoking {{retirony}}. And worse, at the end of the (unsuccessful) negotiations, he exclaims that "This is madness!" A Sparta kick into the flames behind him accompanies the following-

--->'''[[spoiler: Garrosh Hellscreams says:]]''' YOU ARE DISMISSED!

-->Garrosh Hellscream yells: GET!
-->Garrosh Hellscream yells: OFF!
-->Garrosh Hellscream yells: MY!
-->Garrosh Hellscream yells: SHIP!

** General Husam in Lost city of the Tol'vir:

--> *on dying* "Siamat must not go free. Turn back. before. it is. too. late."

** If you manage to defeat Garrosh Hellscream, you have a chance at getting some very powerful bind-on-account gear.
** Legendary Weapons. While not so game-breakingly powerful that you can curbstomp anything you come across with them, the amount of time and effort you put into getting them pays off significantly with higher stats than you'd find on any equivalent item of that raid tier. Each weapon usually also has a special passive effect that adds to its already amazing strength. In Mists of Pandaria, as a result of the legendary questline, you can equip a legendary cloak and a legendary meta gem in your helmet, both of which have good stats and powerful abilities, and can also add a Sha-touched gem or extra gem slot to certain weapons.

* PutOnABus: Gnomes return after a long absence, while Dark trolls disappear off the face of Azeroth.
** Turalyon and Alleria Windrunner. Originally the pair were supposed to appear in The Burning Crusade expansion, but two expansions later they have yet to make an appearance. Despite their son wandering around Honor Hold having visions of Turalyon's apparent death, WordOfGod says the pair are "stuck in a portal world".
* PyrrhicVictory: Silverpine Forest in Cataclysm. [[spoiler:The Alliance forces retreat to Gilneas, but have otherwise suffered fairly small losses. The Forsaken, on the other hand, have been severely weakened; their forces have been devastated by Worgen raiding parties, a group of newly raised Forsaken rebel and seize control of Shadowfang Keep, and Sylvanas is given a harsh reminder of her own mortality.]]
** In Mists of Pandaria, in the Dread Wastes the [[spoiler: Klaxxi are ultimately able to kill the corrupted Empress of the Mantid with the help of the player characters, ending the Swarm. But large portions of the the Dread Wastes are permanently damaged and life-giving Kypari trees are killed from the Sha corruption, and most of the Klaxxi High Council and one of their ten Paragons die in the process.]]

* TheQuisling: Drakuru sells out the drakkari ice trolls to the Lich King, starting out by [[UnwittingPawn tricking players]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero into breaking down the last magical barrier keeping the scourge out of Zul'Drak]].
** The game just gives the impression you're just empowering Drakuru with some artifacts you blindly give him and has you killing the last defenders and an Undead wind serpent thing that may or may not be affiliated with the Scourge. {{Mind screw}} from bad writing was all most players got from that quest chain.
*** Alternatively, it's a minor case of EnemyCivilWar as Drakuru is a replacement to the Undead creature.
* RaidersOfTheLostParody: About half of Uldum (an ancient Egypt-style zone) consists of helping "Harrison Jones" find a magic relic in an ancient temple and fight nazi goblins.

* RainbowPimpGear: Oh, yes. Often, especially while in Burning Crusade, the most statistically viable piece of gear for a certain slot doesn't match the other pieces you have on.

* RangedEmergencyWeapon: All ranged weapons, for all classes except Hunters. Their most common use is initiating battle from a distance in order to lure mobs to a more favourable position, although some abilities, such as Death Grip and Heroic Throw, have similar effects. For casters, wands are a backup weapon for when they run low on {{Mana}}.
** Mists of Pandaria did away with the ranged weapon slot (and the relic slot some classes used instead), instead having all ranged weapons equip to the regular weapon slots (two-handed for bows, crowsbows and guns, one-handed for wands) or done away with entirely in the case of throwing weapons. Rogues, who relied on the latter the most, instead received an ability to throw daggers when needed.

* RatedMForManly: Their commercials. They've been endorsed by Chuck Norris, Mr T, William Shatner, and Jean Claud Van Damme among others.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Both main factions and most of the individual races used to have these. All were systematically removed from power by Blizzard when the Cataclysm expansion came out, mostly because it was starting to stretch suspension of disbelief that they were still at war long after all their actual grievances had either been settled or rendered moot. Their replacements are all either ineffectual or psychotic.

* RedHerring: In Mogu'Shan vaults, you fight against the ghost of Feng the Accursed, a Mogu who kept reviving when four generals betrayed him, such that they had to destroy his body entirely. After fighting his ghost, Lorewalker Cho says that it's not the last we've seen of Feng, as he'll simply re-appear later. This never happens, all the way through to the end of the expansion Feng never reappears in any capacity. Instead, the next boss you fight, Gara'jal the Spiritbinder, returns as a ghost in Throne of Thunder to make your life difficult by possessing and empowering the Zandalari council.

** And then of course, Red Shirt Guy himself. [[IncrediblyLamePun Eh? ''Eh?'']]

* ThePowerOfRock: As an April Fools gag, Blizzard stated that there was a bard hero class for the ExpansionPack that utilized GuitarHero-style controls and abilities such as "Epic Jam", "Shoegazer" and "Nonconformity". Don't forget their epic axe, "The Facemelter", with the chance on hit to "blow your target's mind".

* PressXToDie: A few instances. It's possible to dismount in midair, potentially falling to your death. Attacking Chimaeron without talking to Finkle Einhorn, thereby getting a buff that enables you to avoid being one-shotted at above 10,000 HP will lead to the battle becoming UnWinnable.

** The climax of the first zone in ''Mists Of Pandaria'' has one that kicks off the plot of most other zones; [[spoiler: After spending a majority of the zone arming and training one of the native races after they join your faction, they go to war in the middle of a clearing where the Pandaren were readying a statue where Yu'Lon, the jade dragon and one of Pandaria's revered spirits could re-incarnate herself. As the battle begins and artillery fires, the statue gets damaged and falls. With this, the hatred the alliance and horde share for each other finally manifests as a Sha that's ''easily'' a hundred feet tall. While you do manage to destroy the sha by destroying its energy fonts, the clearing is eternally scarred by Sha energy, the Jade dragon has to wait several more years before she can reincarnate (losing power and allowing her followers to be possessed by sha in the process) and the seven great Sha all over the continent awaken and begins causing horrible chaos everywhere else.]]

** And Brawlpub takes it to a new level: a clockwork gnome makes a version with a ''robotic shark''.

*** Speaking of elevators, it would probably be faster to list those elevators in the game which actually ''do'' exhibit OSHA compliance. Said list is pretty much limited to the elevators in Undercity.

** Silithus was an ObviousBeta ''zone''. The zone was left unfinished at launch with minimal quests leading into the zone and by patch 1.8, it was actually finished. (Heck, before 1.8, you couldn't even go through ''half the zone''! Though, part of that was because the zone was twice as big on the map....)

** Humans: By the light!

** Tauren: By the Earthmother
** Draenei: By the Naaru/The Light
** Trolls: By the spirits

* MagicallyIneptFighter: Hunters, rogues and fighters cannot use {{Mana}} and don't have the runes to make up for it like death knights. This doesn't make them any worse at a fight than their magic using allies though.

* MyMasterRightOrWrong: [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Lord Godfrey]] is willing to set aside his disdain for the Worgen because his liege, [[ZombieAdvocate King Graymane]] is trying to [[ReluctantMonster restore their humanity]]; once he finds out Graymane himself [[TheReveal is a Worgen]], his FantasticRacism [[VanHelsingHateCrimes overrides his loyalty]]. To be fair to Godfrey, except for the Gilneans in ''Cataclysm'', the Worgen are blood-thirsty killing machines.
** Considering your various abilities and how many people you kill through the game, you're still probably included.

** Deathwing '''The Destroyer''' aka Deathwing the Aspect of Death aka Deathwing The World Breaker
*** Also known as the Black Scourge, The Dark One, Blood's Shadow, [[TitleDrop The Cataclysm]], Death Incarnate and The Unmaker of Worlds. Deathwing spares no expense in this department.
** Illidan '''The Betrayer'''
** Archimonde '''The Defiler'''

** Alexstraza the Lifebinder

** Gadgetzan, on the coast of Tanaris, is being blockaded by Southsea pirates. One quest has the player fly over the blockade in a rocket-propelled hot air balloon and drop bombs on the pirate ships.

*** One of those potions will turn you into a flying bug. Many a player has discovered the hard way that "Only works in Dalaran" is quite literal. Hint: The end of that tunnel is ''not'' considered Dalaran.

* NotSoHarmless: Millhouse Manastorm seems to be goofy, cowardly, and full of himself, but when you face him in the Brawler's Guild, he's one of the hardest opponents, with you having to take off 47 million health in 2 minutes, when most enemies do not even have a quarter of that amount. In order to accomplish that, you must take advantage of beams that give a damage buff, but not only do you still need to damage him very quickly, but the beam can also empower Millhouse until he kills you in one shot.

*** Also known as the Black Scourge, The Dark One, Blood's Shadow, [[TitleDrop The Cataclysm]], Death Incarnate and The Unmaker of Worlds.

* MadeOfPhlebotinum: ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' seems more MadeOfPhlebotinum than most fantasy worlds, what with all its [[{{Magitek}} magically-powered civilizations]] and [[CoolStarship crystal planeships]] and such.

* MagicPants: Druids can transform into various beasts without removing their clothes. Standard issue for Worgens in ''Cataclysm''.

* MagikarpPower: From Vanilla through to ''Wrath of the Lich King'', a number of classes and/or specializations suffered from having a limited skill set at low levels, not receiving their core abilities or important passive skills till higher levels. This has thankfully been averted come ''Cataclysm'', where each character now gets to choose their main specialization at level 10, receiving one signature spell/ability from that talent tree and a number of innate passive bonuses relating to that spec.

** Some classes have other resources: Death Knights (runes), Rogues (combo points), Warlocks(soul shards), Druids(combo points in cat form, solar and lunar energy for balance druids), Paladins (holy power), Shadow Priests (shadow orbs), monks (Chi). There are also various proc effects that work as resources, such as Maelstrom Weapon stacks for enhancement shaman.

** In the Gate of the Setting Sun, the Pandaren defenders of the wall keep trying to send recruits to light the signal fire and summon reinforcements, but they keep getting cut down by the mantid army. One officer says that the red shirts make them stand out too much.

** Death Knights face this initially, until they talk with King Varian or Warchief Thrall (now Warchief Garrosh, and upon Warlords of Draenor, Warchief Vol'jin) who declares them allies.
* RegeneratingMana: All caster classes consistently regenerate their mana. The rate of regeneration is lower in battle than out and can be increased with the Spirit stat. Getting mana regeneration as high as possible is critical for healers above all else. The General Vezax fight essentially removes this ability unless you stand in the residue left behind by destroying Saronite Vapors (and there's an achievement for not doing this and killing the new enemy that spawns afterward).
* ReligionIsMagic: Shamans, Priests, Paladins and Druids. All of them get their powers from their respective spiritual authorities: elemental and ancestral spirits for Shamans, the Holy Light for Paladins, the Holy Light or deities such as Elune or the ''loa'' or the shadow for Priests, and nature itself for Druids.

** Probably the most notable and important retcon is the orcs' transition (between [=WC2=] and [=WC3=]) from AlwaysChaoticEvil to an enslaved and manipulated culture of formerly (mostly) peaceful {{Noble Savage}}s.

*** While on the subject of the draenei, the 'original' draenei which appeared in The Frozen Throne were revealed to be 'Lost Ones'; devolved forms of the original draenei who had become decripit and lost their minds. On top of that, the draenei led by Akama, who aided Illidan in TFT, were retconed into 'Broken' draenei, a half-state between normal draenei and the fully devolved Lost Ones. To add further to this confusion, in TFT, Akama and his followers had the appearance of the Lost Ones, and weren't even called Broken (or their proper tribe name; The Ashtongue Deathsworn) until ''The Burning Crusade''.

* RevealingCoverup: In [[BeneathTheEarth Deepholm]], the Horde finds the missing piece of the World Pillar and tries to return it to the Earthen Ring, only to be shot down by the Alliance. While it seems pretty clear the Alliance did it, the Earthen Ring thinks its too obvious, and investigates the nearby gunship; they find it commandeered by the [[OmnicidalManiac Twilight's Hammer]].

** Makes an unfortunate return in ''Mists of Pandaria'', which features tigers that apparently have no blood, gazelles that have no meat, eels that have no heads and bugs without legs.

** Mists of Pandaria did away with the ranged weapon slot. Hunters will use ranged weapons as their main weapon, and can use it in melee range instead of swapping between weapons; while wands will become a main weapon, and magic users can use them in place of a melee weapon.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Female Naga have four or six arms, the Shivarra are 20-foot tall, six-armed, demon women ([[FanService wearing thongs]]), and various [[FrankensteinsMonster undead constructs]] tend to have a few extra arms thrown in for good measure.

* MagicallyIneptFighter: Hunters, rogues and fighters cannot use {{Mana}} and don't have the runes to make up for it like death knights. This doesn't make them any worse at a fight than their magic using allies though.

** Several dungeons that are otherwise enormous (such as Blackrock Depths) are split into separate parts for the Raid and Dungeon Finder systems, usually limiting themselves to 2-4 bosses. The raids for the Raid Finder system, and Flex, which uses the same divisions, are largely split into wings, with no more than threeor four bosses per part.

* MassMonsterSlaughterSidequest: It's practically a guarantee that any quest hub will have either a variant of this or TwentyBearAsses.

* MindControl: Tons of examples among the various [=NPCs=] and bosses, both in the lore and in the game itself. There is also a spell available to the Priest class that lets them take control of other players/monsters for a short while.
* MiniDungeon: The game used to have several places commonly referred as mini-dungeons or outworld dungeos. These were areas in the main game world (rather than being instances like proper dungeons), that othervise functioned similar to dungeons, with elite enemies designed to be fought as a group. They usually had quests associated with them with rewards similar to ones you'd get from actual dungeons. However, in later expansions most of the enemies in them lost their elite status, making them easier to solo and not any different from normal areas.

* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: The Infinite Dragonflight pretends to be trying to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, once to prevent the first orc invasion and another time to stop then-prince Arthas from slaughtering the citizens of Stratholme, his first step to becoming the Lich King. However, as they also try to kill [[TheMessiah Thrall]] before he can reform the Horde and help save the world, it becomes clear that they are not as altruistic as they say. Their true goal is actually to cause a series of events that would lead to the end of the world, of time and of ''[[OmnicidalManiac everything and everyone]]''. [[spoiler:Though according to their leader, this is ''still'' better than the alternative. But he's insane, so nobody knows for sure.]]

* TheMessiah: Tirion Fordring, Highlord of the Argent Crusade, who started out a hermit exiled for showing mercy to an orc, got (with the player's help) the CallToAdventure and vowed to rebuild the Silver Hand, and has, by the present, become Azeroth's [[KnightInShiningArmor premier honorable paladin]] who actively urges both sides to join together and destroy the evils threatening them all.

* NeutralNoLonger: The Gilneas worgen and Bilgewater goblins in the Cataclysm expansion.

* NavalBlockade:
** In the Howling Fjord, the Northsea Freebooter pirates set up a blockade around the Alliance settlement of Westguard Keep. A daily quest involves breaking it by dropping bombs from a zeppelin.
** Gadgetzan, on the coast of Tanaris, is being blockaded by Southsea pirates. One quest has the player fly over the blockade in a rocket-propelled hot air balloon and drop bombs on the pirate ships.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Forsaken invasion of Gilneas drives the Worgen to rejoin the Alliance.

* NewGamePlus: See {{Alt-itis}}, in [[WorldOfWarcraft/{{Tropes A-H}} A-H]]. The heirloom items available for purchase with endgame emblems are usable at any level and grow along with the character they're on at any given moment, along with generally having Superior-quality stats when your character doesn't even see useful Uncommons on a regular basis until level 20 and beyond.