History WorldOfWarcraft / TropesAToB

* OptionalBoss: Several, unlocked under varying conditions
** Several dungeons have bosses unique to Heroic Mode.
** 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.
** After defeating Lockmaw on Heroic in Lost City of the Tol'vir, Augh steals his loot and attacks. You must kill him before you are able to get the loot Lockmaw drops, although he is considered a separate encounter and you do not have to defeat Lockmaw again if you wipe on Augh.
** Sinestra by completing the rest of the Bastion of Twilight on Heroic.
** The Throne of Thunder raid has Ra-den, unlocked the same way Sinestra was.
** The Highmaul raid has Cho'gall, who is fought as the last phase of Imperator Mar'gok's encounter on Mythic.

* 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]]''.

*** In ''Legion'', it became possible to change specializations when out of combat, and talents when in a rest zone or through the use of an consumable Tome. The Tome itself became TheArtifact in ''Dragonflight'', which allows you to change talents anytime out of combat with no restrictions.

** Older raids like Molten Core can typically be easily brute-forced by any top-level character, making farming them quite easy for what they have in them. Newer ones, with rare mount drops and the like, often have an ''inversion'' of the trope, with the raid bosses having different stages to the fight that you have to carefully address to get through. The fights aren't really any longer or more difficult for on-level characters, but for high-end characters soloing the content, it can really add up the time it takes to get through the fight. You're rarely in any real danger, and when pure damage is the order of the day you'll still curbstomp them, but any other time you may find yourself sighing of the tedium of it all. The Siege of Orgrimmar raid is particularly notorious for this, with at least three of the encounters (Immerseus, Galakras, and Spoils of Pandaria) requiring very specific, time-consuming actions on the part of the player to get through.

* BreatherLevel: ''Dragonflight'' as a whole is much ''much'' more light-hearted than the expansions since ''Legion'' which were much darker and grimmer in tone. In addition, the dungeon and raid mechanics were usually kept fairly simple outside of higher tiers of difficulty.

** ''Dragonflight'' has the Incarnates, starting with Razsageth, with the other three taking her place after Vault of the Incarnates. In the end [[spoiler:Vyranoth has a HeelFaceTurn, while Iridikon moves out of the story to fight another day, leaving Fyrakk as the sole mail antagonist]].

** ''Battle for Azeroth'' seems to follow in the footsteps of ''Mists'', featuring a broad BigBadEnsemble including the long-teased Queen Azshara, ruler of the naga, ''two'' Old Gods (N'Zoth, Azshara's master, and G'huun), yet ''another'' corrupted Horde leader (Sylvanas), and a few smaller threats such as the undead vrykul king Gorak Tul.

** [[WarcraftTheAllianceExodar Draenei]] are alien [[FaunsAndSatyrs goat people]] with hooves for feet, curved horns on their heads, and red-to-blue skin. If you corrupt them with demonic magic, you get the Eredar, a near-perfect depiction of this trope. Very notable is Kil'jaeden, who is gigantic and has red skin and corkscrew horns.

* AssholeVictim: Iadreth, a former Nightborne noble banished from Suramar. In a quest that involves escorting her to meet a smuggler, she laments that she doesn't deserve her fate because "all [she] did was punish those servants" [[spoiler:The meeting turns out to be a trap and Iadreth is sacrificed to the Burning Legion.]]