World Of Warcraft

Well to be fair, Cataclysm had already confirmed that he was never dead, he just moved to the Undercity and became a Hunter trainer.

Oddly enough, his dogs are still at his old shack as elite mobs.

The quest was removed because Wrathion's legendary questline was also removed. Doesn't make the legendary questline less canon.

And the difference between Nathanos and Twinbraid is that Nathanos' death was officially, in-game retconned. Twinbraid has never appeared since then.

Edited by Resileafs on Mar 17th 2019 at 4:52:15 AM

Nathanos is far from the only one, we already saw Gorfax Angerfang return after being a target in an Alliance quest line.

Bael Modan is running in BFA, so it makes sense for its general to still be alive.

After almost ‘’’seven’’’ years of suffering under Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy from "post Metzen" writers guilting the player just for playing the other side, the Horde player base deserves a moment where they can cheer in their fight against the Alliance. It’d be a chance to give Baine his desperately needed Character Rerailment.

Edited by Monsund on Mar 17th 2019 at 2:59:53 AM

Bael Modan did not stop existing because Twinbraid went to Pandaria. What it means is that there's a new leader of that base.

If you want someone to fight and not feel guilty to, that's fine, but don't ask to resurrect someone actually dead.

I suppose Captain Gerogg HammerToe could be the current leader. Some of the minor npcs like Heggin Stonewhisker and Malgin could also be mobs.

Some Explorer's League and Stormpike NP Cs to kill would be great too.

Anyhow the Horde needs something after 7 years of misuse.

Edited by Monsund on Mar 17th 2019 at 4:09:27 AM

QA on the 21st. Perhaps predictably, most of the questions are about future plans for Allied Races with all of the launch-announced races (Alongside Kul'Tirans and Mag'har who were announced later) out of the question.

Right now popular want (ignoring the High Elves) seems split between Vulpera, Sethrak, Lightforged Undead, and San'Layn, with some Ogre, Mok'nothal, and Jinyu on the side.

Edited by NaraNumas on Mar 18th 2019 at 12:31:39 PM

They have announced Allied Races at QA's in the past, so I can't exactly fault people for getting their hopes up. Especially since I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up including some announcements for 8.2 (which will probably be on the PTR soon-ish).

Now I don't think we will get an Allied Race announcement because I don't think there will be any Allied Races added in 8.2 itself. I think Blizzard always intended for Allied Races to use the .5 patches for Allied Races.

Given that Allied Races are largely cosmetic, I find it odd that people are so obsessed over them. Oh, well.

Cosmetics have always been a big point of discussion in any game. Some games base essentially their entire business model on cosmetic rewards.

How your character looks is something that's going to be on the screen basically 100% of the time you are playing^note unless you are the one weirdo who plays World of Warcraft entirely in first person. It's also how you present yourself to other players. So it's kind of important.

Yeah Barbie meta is real. Final Fantasy XIV has basically been building most of its crafting end game with costumes as well as selling outfits on their store.

Star Trek Online has built almost their entire free to play model on 'Space Barbie', people pay big money for flying the ships they like. By big money im talking about in the hundreds of dollars to fly a non-low level version of the Movie Constitution Class Refit.

Edited by Memers on Mar 19th 2019 at 8:57:16 AM

as people on ff14 say. Glamour is the Real Endgame.

and thats true for a lot of us

On the subject of 8.2 in general, I'm starting to think that 8.2 will be the largest and most impactful mid-tier patch World of Warcraft has ever had.

Just on a content level, we are looking at a new raid and a new megadungeon, both with assosiated zones and both with unique art assets. That puts it close to Argus just on that level.

On a class design standpoint we will see the implementation of Azerite 2.0 which, if it's anything like they've been describing, might easily be the biggest mid-expansion change to class design the game has ever seen. Now admittedly this is brought on by the initial Azerite system being (by their own admission) fundamentally flawed, thus making such major changes nessesary. But a big impact that had to happen is still a big impact.

And on a story standpoint we have Queen Azshara, one of Warcraft's most well known villains, and given where we are leaving the faction conflict story at the end of 8.1.5, it can't not have major developments in 8.2.I

I'm certainly excited for 8.2. I really want to see where the story is headed.

I just looked up some stuff regarding 8.1.5's Derek storyline, and while I don't buy into the "Derek's actually already brainwashed" theory because its just too predictable at this point, I'm actually a little worried about the Horde player in terms of story, specifically those who always go against Sylvanas when given the chance thus far.

At this point in the story, the Horde player has:

• Defied a direct order from their superior by refusing to kill Sira.
• Murdered an entire squadron of Dark Rangers and Deathguards to defend a traitor.
• Directly assisted in stealing a valuable resource and giving it to the Alliance.

At this point, Sylvanas and Nathanos have to start suspecting that we're up to something, especially since, when siding with Saurfang in 8.1, its heavily implied that Sylvanas knows full well you're lying to her but doesn't actually act on it.

With the Derek storyline, my theory is that Sylvanas always knew the assassination plot was a longshot at best and it being derailed isn't a serious concern.

Her main objective was instead to provoke Baine into committing an explicitly treasonous act, which she could then use as a pretext to remove him from power at a time of her choosing.

Regardless though, regardless of precisely transpires to I do expect a lot of rapid development on the faction war storyline in 8.2.

I just hope the faction storyline continues, I wouldn't be happy if Azshara forced an Enemy Mine and things just got forgotten about except for side-story stuff.

They've been good about giving these storylines good resolutions lately, so I'm at least fairly confident things will keep on track as it goes. I feel like 8.2 has a lot of pressure riding on it to make up for a lot of bad faith and negative public opinions.

Edited by NaraNumas on Mar 20th 2019 at 2:31:43 PM

My instinct is that they wouldn't of put such short timescales (ie the Alliance is supposedly weeks away from victory but Sylvanas has an ace up her sleeve that has yet to be fully revealed) in 8.1 and 8.1.5 if we were headed for a pause in the conflict brought about by external factors.

If there is a pause in the conflict, I think it will mostly be a result of the Horde having an internal leadership struggle while the Alliance figures their best move is to allow the struggle to unfold with little to no interference.

In gameplay news I finally got my Highmountain Shaman to Legion content. Technically he was my first Allied Race character on the Horde side, but I ended up outpacing him on my Nightborne Mage who became my Horde main for BfA. I must say, it is more than a little weird to be doing Highmountain quests where everyone thinks you are an outsider and are explaining basic aspects of Highmountain society to you.

The whole internal Horde conflict is so demoralizing, which stinks as the the non faction conflict bits are actually enjoyable.

Wo W really needs writers who know how to write a conflict and for the Horde.

I have to call it like I see it.

This is a story that's going to happen and run through to a conclusion. Trying to derail the faction conflict story halfway through without giving it a proper conclusion is going to cause even bigger problems. Especially for the overall Warcraft story, which the Horde story^note and the Alliance story for that matterhas to be in service of, not the other way around.

Roll back the clock to before BfA and this would not the road I would of gone down. To very briefly summarize, I think the faction conflict functions best in the absence of a world ending threat, and any growth the Horde may of needed to go through could of been done without making them the unquestionable aggressor in an escalated faction conflict storyline^note the question of who is the real instigator in the current conflict is a bit more complicated because it depends on what you consider the start of the current conflict, but it's unquestionable that Sylvanas raised the stakes to a war of annihilation by burning Teldrassil.

But I've decided that despite any misgivings I'm along for the ride, and dwelling too much on the negatives isn't something I do with any form of entertainment.

See, I find that Sylvanas burning Teldrassil creates a pivotal, dramatic moment that serves multiple story purposes:

• It unequivocally establishes her, specifically, as evil (despite the protests of certain fans). There is no question that she's a villain now.
• It sets the tone for the expansion's core conflict. This war is more serious than anything that has come since the Second War. It's for keeps.
• It gives many different types of players an emotional stake. Alliance players in general are filled with righteousness. Night Elf players in particular are outraged at the affront to them specifically. Horde players are forced to confront the horror and decide what they truly believe about their faction's morality.
• It sets the stage for the game's first ever branching narrative, as Horde players can choose to side with Sylvanas or Saurfang.
• By showing some Horde leaders cooperating with the Alliance to oppose Sylvanas, it gives us a glimpse of how the factions could eventually be reconciled.
• By setting this conflict against the backdrop of Azeroth's wounding, it allows us to have a multi-layered story, with the surface one being about Horde vs. Alliance and the deeper one being about the return of the Old Gods and the struggle to save the planet.
• It allows for a mid-expansion shift from the war to the existential crisis.
• It hints at the fulfillment of Sylvanas' story, as she confronts her driving motivation and potentially becomes the final weapon against N'Zoth. (That's my guess anyway.)

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 21st 2019 at 11:20:04 AM

Today's dev QA just wrapped up. Not as many announcements as the last couple times, but there were a few new points.

- Hide chest transmog option coming in 8.2, with some indication that much broader loosening of transmog rules are on the horizon.

- A Caverns of Time portal will be added to the Stormwind/Orgrimmar portal rooms in 8.2.

- The idea of a level squish is something Blizzard is seriously considering in part due to how rewards have become much too spread out during the leveling process (to the point where many levels have no meaningful rewards at all), but are hesitant to pull the trigger because it means that everyone is going to log onto level 60 characters thst were level 120 the day before.

Edited by Falrinn on Mar 21st 2019 at 3:22:09 PM

Things there were also discussed:

No new Allied Races, they dropped that immediately. Focus will instead presumably be on the Worgen and Goblin model updates. But they said they'd also be very open about the next two when they decide what the next two will be.

They also want to look at expanding customization a lot more for existing races. Separating eye color from faces was the given example.

There's a lot of consideration towards a level squish that they want community feedback for, as they agree with a lot of people's sentiments that 120 levels is a lot of stairs to climb, especially when a massive chunk of those level are dead with no power or ability gain.

Edited by NaraNumas on Mar 21st 2019 at 2:17:52 PM

Well that does it for the mechagnome/vulpera allied races theory.

So we won't have to look for skimpy chest armor options to get that "naked" look? Good to know, good to know.

This is going to be a lot more intrusive to the player experience than an item level or stat squish. I think it's good for the game as a whole, of course, but it'll be a hard sell.

Does that also mean that they are going to further condense obsolete content so that it's all at roughly the same level(s)? Or are we going to have something like Classic = 1-30, Outland/Northrend = 31-35, Cata/Pandaria = 36-40, etc.?

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 21st 2019 at 3:33:30 PM

The bigger question about a level squish is how much time it will take to level afterwards.

Same duration as the current leveling? Then you'll have people being annoyed at how much XP it takes to grow one level. Faster? How much faster? How long should it realistically take?

And what is the power difference between the new levels? How strong is a lvl 25 compared to a lvl 26? If lvl 30 is the new maximum for Classic, then the squish means a lot for old game content and how they compare with each other.

Finally, dungeons. Currently, dungeons start becoming available at lvl 15 and Classic dungeons are designed to have three or more dungeons available at a time, unlocking a new one every other level. How do you balance dungeons now?

The overhaul to the game would be so massive and time costly it would definitely get in the way of making the expansion it would happen in. Might almost be more worth making a new Wo W entirely.