Since it's existed for more than five years and has a dev team that loves to get in on the fun, it's no surprise that World of Warcraft has as many memes as it does.
All right chums, let's do this!
Only Hogger would stand a chance against him. Or they could team up and look for Mankrik's wife. *
Hogger's infamy is also likely due to the fact that for many Alliance races (human, gnome, and dwarf) he's the very first Elite they ever see. First timers tend to not understand precisely what the Elite tag means, go at him, and get slaughtered. In this sense, he has something of a Horde counterpart in Flat Tusk. Not to mention the fact that Hogger has exactly 666
health points... as does Flat Tusk, oddly enough.]]
Saurfang? Pfft. Lord Darius Crowley cleaves with his fists.*
Saurfang's fame originated from when he could be mind controlled by Alliance players raiding Orgrimmar. He was a very effective Horde-killing tool, with Cleave as his signature move. Hogger is a low level elite quest mob in Elwynn Forest who used to have a bugged aggro radius that often resulted in him charging new players out of nowhere, who would die before they knew they were being attacked (which, combined with the fact that he's the first Elite human players will likely fight
, caused him to be deadly to new players). He's somewhat of an ascended meme: one of the statistics tracked by the game is "deaths by Hogger" and in Cataclysm he's the final boss of the Stormwind Stockades instance.*
Lord Darius Crowley, as mentioned, cleaves with his fists and is generally badass in the Worgen starting zone. And in the Barrens, there is a quest given by an orc named Mankrik to look for his wife. She was incredibly hard to find, which would often result in new players using the zone's general chat to ask for help.
The Mankrik meme has reached ascended status: in a quest in Thousand Needles, the player has become haunted by a troll's ghost; in one of his randomly appearing monologues, he reminisces about the Barrens, then asks, "Hey, did they ever find out what happened with Mankrik's wife?"
Saurfang can do the same, he just uses the less powerful axe so we can still have a world to play in.
"Skinning a bear should aggro every bears in a 40 yard radius. It makes sense, you are skinning their best friend." *
This one is from a post on the forums that followed an announcement that mining nodes near a mob would increase the likelihood that they would attack you. It's referenced by Blizzard in an April Fools' joke. A more recent example surfaced when the new druid cat and bear models were revealed. As with any change to the game, there were people who were outraged.
One poster cleverly responded: "Didn't you know, Blizzard? Reskinning a bear aggros every bears."]]
Said by Van Cleef (R.I.P.) upon knocking his HP down far enough. Unfortunately, not repeated by his daughter.
Blades of light!
Said by Champion Herod, final boss of the Scarlet Monastery Armory, when he uses his Instant Death Radius. For older players, its synonimous with "get away from the boss NOW".
I'LL RIP THE SECRETS FROM YOUR FLESH!
Said by the first boss of the Scarlet Monastary Graveyard, in a rather campy voice.
Yelled by Illidan when you start his fight, and also in the Burning Crusade trailer that featured him.
"GIVE WARLOCKS GREEN FIRE" *
Fel magic is often represented by the color green. It's a common belief among warlocks that having their fire spells be green instead of orange would be incredibly awesome. They do get a green fire spell in Cataclysm.
Happens often in trade chat by linking ability, item, quest, talent, effect or achievement tooltips. Examples range from silly to outright gross (anal [Blood Spatter]). Variants include chains such as [Ferocious Butt][Pounding][For the Children!], baby [ability], Harry Potter and the [item], and various puns and song lyrics.
Movie titles are better with Murlocs *
Another trade chat spam tactic, where movie titles are modified to have Murloc in them.
Jingle bells, (humans/Forsaken) smell, a (night elf/tauren) laid an egg; (gnomes/trolls) are n00bs and (dwarves/orcs) are boobs and (draenei/blood elves) can't get laid!
A mock Christmas carol highlighting cross-faction feelings.
Rogues are famous for having an easily misspelled class name, and many jokes have been made about it.
I know what you're thinking. But Tempest Keep was merely a setback! *
Part of a long speech by Kael'thas Sunstrider at the beginning of his fight in Magister's Terrace. "X was merely a setback!" is often used to joke about the potential return of raid bosses. What most players fail to realize
is that you never killed Kael'thas in Tempest Keep; in fact, if you had the quest from A'dal to kill him, he'll show up as you turn it in to taunt you about still being alive. It's an ascended meme: one of the san'layn in Icecrown Citadel starts the encounter with "Naxxanar was merely a setback!" and the same is true of Hogger in Stormwind Stockades: "Elwynn Forest was merely a setback!""FOREST JUST SETBACK!" and Crusader Lord Valdelmar in Tyr's Hand "The Scarlet Crusade is not over! Undeath is merely a setback!".
DKP, or "Dragon Kill Points" is a "currency" that players use to bid on loot from raids. Points are given for attendance and taken away if players do something stupid like wipe the raid, as the player did by being feared into Onyxia's whelps.
MANY WHELPS! HANDLE IT!
From a rather (in)famous and narmful video featuring a rather loud raid leader. Now also an Ascended Meme. When Onyxia was re-tooled for Wrath, she was given new achievements that are all either from this or the meme below.
Onyxia deep breathes more! *
After a patch, a post on the forums complained that Onyxia would use her Deep Breath ability more often. This is not really seen anymore, but it was used to mock players complaining about random events having their chances of occuring either raised or lowered.
This one reached Ascended Meme status in Lich King; one of your Wolvar companions in Scholazar Basin repeats the line, and several other infamous/famous boss quotes, as you quest with him. Evidently he heard them when adventurers such as you told him about the encounters.
BY FIRE BE PURGED!!
Ragnar-Os! "Two scoops, Executus, two scoops!" "By fiber be purged!"
In Naxxramas, one of the openable doors in the Arachnid Quarter showed this as its tooltip when moused over.
Not one, but two Jormungar Worms! *
Said by an NPC at the Argent Tournament, this went meme when people realized how tricky it was fighting both at the same time was.
Vegeta, what does the scouter say about the Jormungar count?
IT'S OVER ONE!
WHAT? TWO?!
Press 1 for horse *
In the Death Knight starting zone, you have to steal a horse from a nearby farm as part of a quest to get your mount. New players who didn't read the quest text had no idea how to turn in the horse for the quest, and asked in general chat. The button that delivered the horse to the questgiver replaced the first button on your action bar, which is bound to 1 for most people.
GHOSTCRAWLER PROMISED ME A PONY! *
Often used to mock people who complain about features that got stuck in Development Hell or just dropped for the time being.
Barrens chat, since alleviated by Cataclysm, has become infamous due to the fact that the Barrens are huge, and for the most part, empty. Bored people leveling and questing would often post things on general chat. And the Barrens cover about 20 levels worth of quests, so there were a lot of people for a long time.
Also used to mock bringing old bosses back before Kael'thas invented a new meme for that (see above)]]
/waggle *
The tails of female draenei draw attention to the way they sway their exaggerated hips
when they run. Since a lot of players consider them attractive, this quickly became a meme. The forward slash is a reference to the game's emote system.]]
The Ashbringer...
The Ashbringer...
ITS A TRAP
FOOL! YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD! *
the latter two were common responses to someone mentioning the Ashbringer
Gamon will save us! *
Gamon is a very low-level NPC in Orgrimmar who rogues must pickpocket in an early quest. To be pickpocketed, he has to be attackable. As such, many Horde players like to kill him on sight for the sake of a laugh. When Horde Death Knights first ride into Orgrimmar, Gamon chases after them, claiming he will save the city. In Cataclysm, Gamon becomes a level 85 Elite, as if to mock his reputation for weakness.
Since becoming a minor raid boss, it is possible to wipe entire Alliance raids by kiting Gamon into them.
Your heart... will explode... *
Whispered to random players during the Ahn'Qiraj raid by the boss C'thun: this particular threat was apparently deemed silly.
Basic Campfire for Warchief! *
From a lost forum thread where the poster created an initial list of 50 better choices for Warchief then Garrosh Hellscream. One of them was 'Basic Campfire', the fire any character can make to cook food: the posters seized on that one and ran with it. With the publishing of a Garrosh-centric article on World of Warcraft Insider, this mutated into "Abesik Kampfire".
"This pear... so delicious." *
Captain Falric in the Halls of Reflection says "Despair... so delicious." during his fight. Many players misheard this.
If there is still loot on a mob, it can't be skinned. Corehound skins were valuable back in the day, so raid members would yell at whoever got the loot for that particular one to go back and loot it so they could skin.
The Blood Elf leader, although having a large part in the Sunwell Trilogy manga, does next to nothing ingame. He was often referred to players as "that Blood Elf guy" but the meme really took off with this video.
]]
The ice stone has melted!
The ice stone has melted!
The ice stone has melted!
The ice stone has melted!
The ice stone has melted! *
A bug during the Midsummer event caused this message to flood the chat boxes of players on the entire realm server, instead of just those in the 5-man dungeon where it happened. It was an event that pretty much everyone at the level cap did daily.
Also similar to Kael'thas' line, Sindragosa's "SUFFER MORTALS, AS YOUR PATHETIC (insert whatever here) BETRAAAAAAAAAAYS YOU!" *
As with 'flesh from bone' and 'in the mountains,' this went memetic largely because it was a very difficult fight at level, so your average raid would hear this line over and over and over again in the course of a night. Her little voice-break in the middle of BETRAYS was very distinctive.
Tauren and Draenei rogues exist, they're just so good at stealth that even their class selection button is hidden at the character creation screen. *
A joke about Draenei and Tauren PC's being unable to use the rogue class.
When you go to loot a mob you killed and nothing is there? Tauren rogue (or draenei rogue).
If you fell off Aldor Rise, a draenei rogue pushed you. If you fell off Thunder Bluff, a tauren rogue pushed you.
Now you see, the Ogres are the biggest guys on the field. There's nobody on the field bigger than the Ogres, that's why they're the biggest guys on the field. *
Feral druid DPS is considered one of the most complicated "rotations" in the game.
"We named him Dranosh..."
It means "waste of 90 seconds" in Orcish. *
The Horde version of the Deathbringer Saurfang encounter is prefaced by a lot of dialogue between the death knight and his father, who has come to kill him and claim his body. One of the lines is "We named [my son] Dranosh. It means 'heart of Draenor' in Orcish." It's a touching scene, but since there's no way to skip it, players very quickly tire of having to sit through the whole thing.
When's that new feature coming? SoonTM. *
Blizzard is infamous for not giving solid dates on patches and hotfixes. Not even a progress report on how they're doing.
A common trick for old (and new) bosses is to make one player actively detrimental to the others. This is the most famous example, though sadly, this raid has been removed.
Blizzard, when asked about a feature or event that makes little to no sense or that players don't appreciate will usually respond with this, unless it's a bug. Which it sometimes may be both.
Bolvar's dialogue with Tirion at Icecrown Citadel is very exploitable. One of many examples:
Akama: Without it's master's command, the Illidari will become an even greater threat to this world. Control must be maintained... There must always be... [dramatic fel lightning] a Lord of Outland!
Maiev: The weight of such a Burden... it must be mine! For I need job now anywa-
Bolvar Fordragon: The dragons' flame... sealed my fate. The world of the living can no longer comfort me. Place the horns upon my head, Maiev. Forevermore - I will be the Lord of Outland.
Akama: What the heck are you doing here?!
Bolvar: Icecrown is nice and all, but I heard there are concubines here!
Tirion: [shocked] Bolvar... by all that is holy...
Bolvar Fordragon: Tell them only that they are not prepared...
Bolvar Fordragon: and that Bolvar Fordragon is on vacation...
Maiev: But...
Bolvar Fordragon: [/flirts at Mother Shahraz] NOW GO. LEAVE THIS PLACE – AND NEVER RETURN.
HOW I MINE FOR FISH
Did he drop any good loot? *
Often seen in trade chat (The new Barrens, as above) when people are tired of seeing '(celebrity) died / RIP'
For the longest time people considered Shadow spec for priests to be an absolute joke in raids, and was relagated to PVP combat due to it's many "frustration" abilities. Has since died down due to many buffs to shadow's damage of late.
I hate you so much, Cookie. *
From a rather humorous conversation in the draenei starting area between Cookie the cook and the captain.
World Of Warcraft.......Catacalysm (kuh-tack-uh-liz-um) will change the gameplay forever.
With the Twilight's Hammer cult being a major antagonist in Cataclysm, the advent of the Twilight Dragonflight and the addition of the Twilight Highlands, people have taken to making (largely mocking) Twilight references whenever one of these comes up.
The game itself does as well... one of the worgen /silly jokes is 'At least we don't sparkle...'
For Twinkles! A more loyal star pony has never been seen.
[Dirge]
The Rainbow Generator item, which shoots rainbows at enemies. It does very weak damage, but it's recently become very popular to show people firing this thing off, one image even showing somebody hitting The Lich King with it.
I tried to make an entry here...
...but I couldn't, because Hungering Cold has a cast time. *
The Death Knight ability Hungering Cold, which freezes all enemies close to the caster in blocks of ice, was deemed too powerful in PvP. Fair enough, but Blizzard's solution of giving it a cast time is one of the most derided Cataclysm balance decisions to date. One of the threads mocking the change was titled "I tried to stop Thrall's assailants..." (referring to a quest where Thrall is attacked while the player character is stunned and helpless), with the post itself reading "...but I couldn't, because Hungering Cold has a cast time." The rest of the thread continued in this fashion before it was regrettably deleted.
Said by Garrosh Hellscream to Sylvanas Windrunner, after she mockingly salutes him. Notable because the exchange is not only uncensored, but voiced.
Any comment regarding the Draenei's status as Blizzard's Unfavorite*
The draenei were a late addition to the Burning Crusade expansion, and their integration into the Alliance was, and still is, lacking. At Blizzcon 2010, Blizzard even admitted that they failed at implementing the race properly.
"Draenei 2.0" *
When Cataclysm came out, the Worgen were called "Draenei 2.0" because some felt that the implementation of the Worgen race was a repeat of the Draenei fiasco
during a recent questline that made you save Thrall. "Go'el" is Thrall's true name, and Aggra will keep reminding you of that during said questline. Used whenever Aggra is mentioned.]]
POWAH! *
During the long intro speech for the Archbishop Benedictus boss fight, the speech is extremely overdone and many players will /y POWAH as he says power.
Darth Benedictus. *
The parallels to Darth Sidious are pretty obvious.
Voldemort references are a decent second in popularity, due to the "there is no X or Y - only power" speech being almost identical to Voldemort's speech in the first Harry Potter movie, although far from the only obvious Shout Out by raid bosses.
"Can I have your stuff?" *
Players who feel the need to rant about the game on the forums before they quit (which 75% of the time they don't) tend to annoy the forum lurkers, they usually show absolute disinterest and ask if the person can give them their gold/gear/whathaveyou, sometimes with the implication that they believe said quitters are unlikely to be serious.
Knowing Blizzard, he'll probably go crazy and become a raid boss. *
A joke on the fact that one of Blizzard's favorite ways to make bosses for raids is to have a good or neutral character go insane by various means (Examples include Kael'thas, Malygos, Fandral Staghelm and Archbishop Benedictus). Many feel this method is overused.
Horde bias!*
Complaints on the official forums about Blizzard favoring the Horde got so out of hand that if someone doesn't like something, another person will humorously call this out. Even if it's a bad thing for the Horde and/or good for Alliance.
