History WorldOfWarcraft / TropesSToZ

* TwinsAreSpecial: There are several bosses in the game that hinge around a this trope. They tend to have identical or complementary abilities and share a single health pool. Oftentimes the encounter is staged such that you have to kill both of them within a short time window (say, fifteen seconds) or the dead one will resurrect and you'll have to start over. Another common mechanic is that when one twin dies, the other inherits their twin's magical abilities.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: The Great Dark Beyond, the term for space in the Warcraft universe, has not been relevant much, with the two main planets, Azeroth and Draenor, being connected by a magical portal.
** The first volume of the ''Literature/WorldOfWarcraftChronicle'', however, actually utilizes the scale of the universe as a subtle but important plot point. The Burning Legion has long been a massive demonic army known for wiping out any planet that comes to their attention. The Chronicle reveals that the Legion want to do this to every planet, but have Azeroth as a priority, and the only reason they didn't wipe it out long ago is because it's really hard to find a single planet in the vastness of space. They've only pinpointed Azeroth's location relatively recently on a cosmic scale, and they're still nowhere near it physically after ten thousand years. Further, the chronicle implies retroactively that the reason the demons have historically relied on magical portals to invade planets when they have since been revealed to have spaceships and other sci-fi technology, is because it would take millennia to travel those distances on spaceships. Magical portals are a huge boon when you have a target and a way to open a path since they bypass pesky physical travel times. Also, this explains why the Burning Legion is a Legion at all when their leader is a titanic cosmic being that can literally cleave planets in half: it would still take him ages to get around to destroying every planet in the universe by himself because it's just ''that big.''

* {{Satire}}: The goblins commercializing the Feast of Winter's Veil event is a clear satire on how Christmas is being commercialized.

* YinYangBomb: Mages used to have Frostfire Bolt, which combined two normally mutually exclusive schools of magic for one spell.

** In ''Legion'' again, the Army of the Light is established as being the most formidable enemies of the Burning Legion -- they've been fighting against the Legion for ''thousands of years'', while Azeroth's heroes have been battling world-ending threats it for mere decades. The Army of the Light onboard the ship ''Xenedar'' and the heroic forces of Azeroth onboard the ''Vindicaar'' team up for the FinalBattle on Argus against the Legion, but just when they arrive to meet up on the Legion's headquarters world, the ''Xenedar'' gets abruptly shot down by a SuperweaponSurprise the Legion just deployed, and it's up to the forces of the ''Vindicaar'' to save the survivors and destroy the superweapon.

** In one Tillers daily, you're hired to work as a debt collector and visit four [=NPCs=] to collect their debts. If they say they are unwilling or unable to pay, you can either choose to threaten them with violence, or make their payment for them, and the quest reward greatly exceeds what you would have to pay for all of them.

* StatusEffectPoweredAbility: This is a common mechanic in. An example -- depending on the balance patch -- is the Paladin's Avenging Wrath which not only provides a hefty percentage buff to all of your damage, but also allows you free use of Hammer of Wrath without having to reduce your target's health below a certain percentage. However, this benefit is ''only'' if the Paladin is specialized in the Retribution (damage dealer) role.

* SmugSnake: Many, many, MANY of the bosses will gleefully mock or taunt you before or during their battles, only to cry for mercy or regret their actions when you down them. Few outside [[TheCorruption bosses forcefully turned against their will]] actually FaceDeathWithDignity.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Due to the constantly updating nature of the game, there will probably never be an absolute end-all final dungeon. However, each expansion pack had its own version of this trope. Vanilla had Naxxramas; ''The Burning Crusade'' had Sunwell Plateau; ''Wrath of the Lich King'' had Icecrown Citadel; ''Cataclysm'' had Dragon Soul; ''Mists of Pandaria'' had Siege of Orgrimmar; ''Warlords of Draenor'' had Hellfire Citadel; ''Legion'' had Antorus, the Burning Throne; ''Battle for Azeroth'' had Ny'alotha, the Waking City; and ''Shadowlands'' had the Sepulcher of the First Ones

*** ''Warlords of Draenor'' subverted this by having Ashran only give portals to the six original major cities. Shattrath, Dalaran, and the Pandaria HQ's were not included, and even the newer "starter" cities, Silvermoon City and the Exodar, [[TheUnfavorite weren't included]]). Since players had the new garrison hearthstone, and high-level garrisons actually have a portal ''to'' Ashran, this led many characters to leave their primary hearthstone attuned to their old Pandaria city, which still has all it's portals working[[note]]This is probably at least partly due to Ashran not being intended to be the "Central City" for the expansion, and was pressed into this position rather late in development[[/note]].

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Due to the constantly updating nature of the game, there will probably never be an absolute end-all final dungeon. However, each expansion pack had its own version of this trope. Vanilla had Naxxramas; ''The Burning Crusade'' had Sunwell Plateau; ''Wrath of the Lich King'' had Icecrown Citadel; ''Cataclysm'' had Dragon Soul; ''Mists of Pandaria'' had Siege of Orgrimmar; ''Warlords of Draenor'' had Hellfire Citadel; ''Legion'' had Antorus, the Burning Throne; ''Battle for Azeroth'' had Ny'alotha, the Waking City; ''Shadowlands'' had the Sepulcher of the First Ones and ''Dragonflight'' had Amirdrassil, the Dream's Hope.

* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Due to the constantly updating nature of the game, there will probably never be an absolute end-all final dungeon. However, each expansion pack had its own version of this trope. Vanilla had Naxxramas; ''The Burning Crusade'' had Sunwell Plateau; ''Wrath of the Lich King'' had Icecrown Citadel; ''Cataclysm'' had Dragon Soul; ''Mists of Pandaria'' had Siege of Orgrimmar; ''Warlords of Draenor'' had Hellfire Citadel; ''Legion'' had Antorus, the Burning Throne; ''Battle for Azeroth'' had Ny'alotha, the Waking City; and ''Shadowlands'' had the Sepulcher of the First Ones.

* UselessAccessory: In an underwater area like Vashj'ir, a diving helmet and breathing apparatus would be a must, unless you're a shaman with a [[SuperNotDrowningSkills breathing buff]], or receive a buff like the one you get in your first quest in the area. The "Great" Sambino adds a layer of stupid on top in that he deliberately [[TooDumbToLive didn't learn water breathing]] because he likes his custom made helmet instead, which bites him in the ass when his helmet gets a leak and you need to retrieve a replacement part and a fresh air supply for him.

* SurvivedTheBeginning: The invasion through the Dark Portal at the start of ''Warlords of Draenor'' left only a handful of survivors who managed to escape the Iron Horde. All of them make it to the end of the expansion except for [[spoiler:Maraad who got a heroic sacrifice, and Cordana Felsong, who got {{brainwashed}} by Gul'dan and joined the Legion.]]

* ShoutOut: There are more shout outs in the game than any sane person can count. [[http://www.wowpedia.org/In-jokes_and_references Here]] is an attempt to categorize them.

* SteelEarDrums: Mishka, a Draenei SI:7 agent in Pandaria is a rare aversion of this. [[http://www.wowpedia.org/Quest:Against_the_Odds In the beta]], her plane was shot down by the Horde and the explosion damaged her hearing, though it comes back later. In the live version, the quest line was changed and no mention of the explosion is made, but some of her spoken lines imply that she does suffer some hearing loss.

* StockholmSyndrome: The ''Warcraft'' universe seems to have an equivalent, the Durnholde Syndrome, as stated in [[http://wow.gamepedia.com/Quest:Eastpoint_Tower these]] [[http://wow.gamepedia.com/Quest:Sweet,_Horrible_Freedom quests]].

* {{Stripperific}}: [[http://www.wowpedia.org/File:Alexstrasza_the_Life-Binder.jpg Alexstrasza]] is the leader of the Red Dragonflight, who are responsible for maintaining all life on Azeroth. Her outfit makes sense in a certain way, if you know what I mean.

* TortureAlwaysWorks: [[http://www.wowpedia.org/Quest%3AThe_Art_of_Persuasion This]] quest.

** There is a questline in the Draenei starting area that implies that one of the members of the Triumvirate of the Hand was turned into an abomination by the antagonist of the area, with the implication that we would eventually encounter and possibly save him; at conclusion of the questline, he is nowhere to be found, nor is the matter mentioned again. It wasn't until ''Legion'', again, that the storyline received some kind of closure: [[https://wow.gamepedia.com/Saruan%27s_Resolve a legendary item]] mentions the antagonist was lying and said Triumvirate member "remained steadfast until his departure from the Light".

* WillOTheWisp: Night Elves turn into wisps when they die, allowing them to move much faster than the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts]] of other races and therefore resurrect quicker. Blizzard announced that [[http://www.wowwiki.com/Wisp_(April_Fools) Wisps]] would be a playable race for an AprilFoolsDay joke in 2006.

** The three playable BeastMan races, [[OurMinotaursAreDifferent Tauren]], [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Worgen]] and [[PandaingToTheAudience Pandaren]] also use this trope, with animalistic males (hunched back and savage facial features in the first two, large {{Acrofatic}} build in the third), whereas the females have more human-like build, erect posture, visible breasts and slightly more anthropomorphic facial features.

* [[WhatsUpKingDude What's Up, King/Warchief Dude?]]: You can walk right into the faction leaders' chambers as a level 1 nobody, with no heroic accomplishments under your belt, and talk to the chief of any race that's on your side and no one bats an eye. Security probably isn't much of a concern for them, though, as [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking all of them are far, FAR stronger than any of their guards.]]

** One of [[http://www.wow.com/2010/06/30/cataclysm-beta-worgen-silly-and-flirt-sounds/ the /silly emotes for the female Worgen]] goes [[Literature/{{Twilight}} At least we don't ]]''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} sparkle.]]''"