World Of Warcraft

I think it's interesting that Tess is a part of it because it's given her some agency in Gilneas without just making her either a wallflower princess or a warrior. It also contrasts with her father's blunt directness.

It would be funny if Rogue Hall gets switched several times during the expansion because they were discovered.

And the expansion ends with us squatting in the ashes of Ravenholdt?

Tess can have agency without being an implied traitor. Unless that's exactly what they're going for (which I doubt).

I just find the Uncrowned really forced. Like they're trying too hard to sell them as these ultimate manipulators and assassins.

That and in the middle they rebuild Ravenhold... and get burned again. Expansion ends with them returning there saying "Third time's a charm'".

edited 14th May '16 9:54:40 AM by googlebot

Poor Jorach Ravenholdt. He's not allowed to have a house.

In fairness, the Uncrowned are really poorly defined as being something half between war brokers, shadow puppeteers and straight-up information gatherers. Mathias Shaw is pretty unquestioningly loyal to Stormwind (and puts his loyalties to the kingdom over his loyalties to the Uncrowned in the Assassination questline), so they Shadows clearly aren't as all-powerful or neutrally placed as they'd like everybody to believe. It might just be that she's there in order to keep tabs on the Uncrowned for the Alliance, the same way Mathias Shaw probably is.

Honestly, for my money the worst class hall is Skyhold. It looks amazing, but the fact that the Warrior Class Hall is like 90% Vrykul is just disappointing when there are a great selection of warriors (and perhaps even Skyforged versions of famous dead warriors) already in the game that would be prime fodder for Class Halls :(

edited 14th May '16 10:29:48 AM by math792d

I'm hoping at least she's there to keep tabs or because she was invited. My impression was that Mathias Shaw is not involved with the Uncrowned at all though? I know he was there in the class hall in the early builds but he was later removed.

I can agree that the Warrior class order has problems too, in regards to everything being vrykul. They really should have other famous warriors being selected as champions of the Valarjar under the player.

The Warrior class order also has the challenge of finding a single unified identity when the Warrior identity is heavily tied to their races and faction. Which is presumably why they went for the mixed vrykul-titan theme, to balance the different racial themes. Can't say it has worked perfectly really. But I wouldn't call it bad either.

edited 14th May '16 11:16:16 AM by StormKnight

The problem with warriors is that the Death Knights already stole two of the greatest all time warriors.

Well, thing is, the paladins arguably have just as much diversity in their faction 'allegiances' and traditions as the warriors. Each of the major 'branches' of paladin-hood (An'she worship, Blood Knights, traditional Paladins, Draenei and Night Elves ) represent a fundamentally different approach to warfare and spirituality. You're always gonna end up with a situation where someone gets the shaft, and the middle path they've chosen, imo, just cheapens the warrior identity more than it strengthens it.

And there was an easy fix to the Warrior class that, in my opinion, would have made the whole thing a lot more sensible and wouldn't involve them going off to Valhalla to become Einherjar.

Just rebuild the Might of Kalimdor. We have an example of a pan-racial army across factions fighting for a unified cause. It existed. And after a battle like the Broken Shore it makes sense that you'd have a lot of wandering soldiers trying to gather themselves together into a great big Ragtag Bunch of Misfits with the hero of the Broken Shore at the helm.

You could still have most of the artifacts as they exist and heck, you could even have Odyn as a kind of 'patron' of this army since he can't use the Stormforged in direct conflict because of Helya's sorcery. You just wouldn't have a situation where the class hall itself makes no mention of others. Like, even in the other class halls, when you're appointed supreme archmage of the entire freakin' universe, there's a reason other players are fucking around the class hall - they could just as easily be your colleagues or comrades. But Odyn explicitly says the Warrior is the only non-vrykul soul he's ascended. Who are all the other people in clown suits twatting people with swords, then?

edited 14th May '16 11:30:36 AM by math792d

I agree a better option would be a united force of warriors and soldiers. Give them some cool fortress on the frontlines. But I imagine that would be in conflict with some of the Alliance vs Horde stories Blizzard has in mind for Legion.

Paladin themes are a bit more connected than warriors in my opinion. I do agree that the paladin orders are different from each other though and should not be rolled into one. Which is unfortunately what they did by rolling all the different paladins into the Silver Hand, which should by all rights be the Alliance human and dwarven paladin order, not neutral. I still maintain they should have used the Argent Crusade as an alliance of the different paladin orders. Call it the Argent Coalition or something like that.

Also in relation to the tauren sunwalkers, Blizzard has been pushing them towards being Light-worshippers, completely forgetting the whole thing about An'she, and overall just removing the tauren paladin flavour . And in relation to the spoiler: Judging by the one night elf paladin we're getting as a follower, night elf paladins will likely go the same way, as she talks about the Light despite being a Priestess of the Moon. And those Priestesses were already paladins-with-bows. It makes me sad.

Ravenholt couldn't be a class hall cause it has a few non-Rogue stuff attached to the place. It's the same reason why Druids did not get the moonglade as it's class hall.

Having tried out a bunch of classes so far I would say most class halls and weapons are shoehorned in, just appear out of nowhere and are made to seem like they are the be all end all.

It would have been nice to get a little build up with the weapons before you get them instead of the first quest you get after getting to the hall.

Anyway for those in the beta, does it seem like you move a lot slower in it compared to live or is just me?

The problem is that they simply didn't have dozens upon dozens of artifact-grade weapons to give every spec. They've dug pretty far though to find appropriate ones from the lore when possible.

So, I am trying to submit bug reports and stuff instead of treating the beta like a demo. Fel Rush for the demon hunter seems to function as a ranged attack while you're snared—you don't move but still cause damage.

Also...wondering if there's a way to abuse Vengeful Retreat, some way to macro a 180 turn and VR to a button so you can dash twice and then backflip forward.

I meant in Legion itself. You literally just get told to go grab the weapon the instant you get to the class hall, do a short quest, then use it in some battle and get treated as a hero.

Having some build up of the weapon and its lore before actually embarking on the quest would have helped a ton in making it feel like a big deal. The resto Druid artifact goes like this Mylune, the NPC that you rescue squirrels for, left the weapon in the emerald dream go get it before it gets corrupted.

I do gotta say the resto Druid battle has definitely been my fav so far, joining a 5 man as a healer in a battle to save hyjal vs the legion with Runetotem as the Tank was pretty decent although a pain in the ass without and kind of mouceover mod to heal.

The actual quest to get the weapon was shit with unusual mechanics that were not explained and kept losing to.

edited 14th May '16 12:58:32 PM by Memers

I just got a Warglaive of Azzinoth on my beta DH. I will never see this thing on live! I weep for how awesome this is.

My favorite so far is the Mage Class Hall because you're actually properly introduced to your Order before you go pick up your weapon.

Plus, at least one weapon makes sense given that you're talking to the ghost of the guy who used to own it.

Two out of three Death Knight weapons gets some fine lore behind them.

So I got the seven days free game time and I'm finally doing Warlords. It's great. But the story is... not bad. I just feel like I skipped some parts. I got the quest to go to the Dark Portal, and... that's it. Wasn't there supposed to be something before that showing the Iron Horde coming through? Maybe it's because I wasn't in a capital city.

It was the expansion launch event of them rampaging through the Blasted Lands and being beaten back. I thiink level 90 boost characters also go through that?

Nope, boosted characters show up at the portal, talk to an NPC and run through to Tanaan Jungle.

When I used my free boost 90, boosted characters did go through Blasted lands as you get your spells one at a time through a questline there. You could opt out and just get all the spells and thrown straight into Tanaan.

That's changed?

My hunter got her skills one or two at a time after stepping through the portal.

You know, I read that a recipe cookbook based on World of Warcraft will be out sometime in October. This will be so cool!

http://geekandsundry.com/feed-your-horde-with-the-official-world-of-warcraft-cookbook/

What's the Uncrowned?

The Uncrowned is the Rogue class order. From what I remember, it claims to be a Man Behind the Man organisation ruling things behind the scene, manipulating nations and killing kings. They're led by Lord Jorach Ravenholdt and a council of Shadows(I think?) of which the player is one. Their headquarters in Legion is in the Dalaran sewers.