World Of Warcraft

...Right, which is even more evidence in favor of the idea that becoming Forsaken changes you on a very basic level.

It will turn out to be an all natural undead herding instinct^TM .

Proof:

1. Zombies attack and move in groups.

2. Recently risen undead don't attack fellow undead, even if those undead are responsible for their death.

3. Recently risen integrate into the zombie horde naturally, almost like on an instinct.

Edited by googlebot on Oct 6th 2018 at 8:54:21 PM

So, since it's a slow news day, what are you guys hoping for out of Blizzcon for WoW?

I'm hoping that since 8.1 will be either soon to release or just released they'll drop info about 8.2 and two more allied races, hopefully alongside the Azshara raid officially being announced. Maybe say they're working on the next set of old race heritage armor.

The biggest dream things I would probably want from a blizzcon announcement? Official confirmation that Worgen and Goblin model updates are being worked on, alongside Vulpera and Sethrak and/or Naga and something else as the next two A Rs.

8.2 announcement is certainly a possibility, though I don't expect it to be extremly in depth like the Tomb of Sargeras panel was.

I do think an announcement for the next Allied Races is a strong possibility. Though currently my bet is on Vulpera for the Horde and Cyborg Gnomes or Mechagnomes for the Alliance.

8.1.5 is probably going to be the patch they are going to go into a lot of detail on. This could include things like playable Kul Tirian/Zandalari (they said it's not in 8.1, but I don't think it's going to be much longer), WoD Timewalking, and potentially the "flexible expansion order" system being expanded to allow players to chose between WoD and Legion in the 90-110 level range.

Edited by Falrinn on Oct 7th 2018 at 7:46:59 AM

I hope not gnomes, but being realistic (or pessimist if you're not a fan of gnomes or think there's stronger choices) we'll probably get them and any race that more directly "cool" will get passed up on, while Horde ends up getting Naga/Ogres/Vulpera.

In other other news, it looks like today's hotfix made it so that emissaries can now scale their azerite gear drops up to 370◊ as a bit of a bandaid towards good traits requiring grinding M+ and hoping you get lucky. Still a ton of RNG, but more sources are welcome.

My Druid still has two 340 Azerite pieces (or is it one now, after last week's raid... I forget) and it's by far the most annoying part of the gearing process.

Only issue is, it seems to scale dependant on the Ilvl you actually have currently, only 370+ seem to be getting 370 Azerite gear, making it a parallel upgrade to get a different set of traits, and unlikely to be a linear upgrade for anyone gearing casually.

Anything below seems to only be getting 355 if they're already above 340, so the change is pretty moot/likely useless for anyone between the 350-370 Ilvl thresholds.

Edited by NaraNumas on Oct 8th 2018 at 2:35:17 PM

It makes sense. Emissary gear shouldn't be a flat upgrade from your current item level, or at least not past a certain point. Is it just Azerite gear that's affected, and everything else will still cap at 340? Or have I just not seen any Emissary quests offering non-Azerite gear since I started raiding?

I actually don't know if emissaries even GIVE non-Azerite gear, besides weapons. I actually can't remember seeing anything else from any other emissary. As for weapons, nobody's sure yet, all we can do is wait for the next one to roll around and see if high ilvl folk get better weapons

Edit: Also, there'll be another Q&A on the 11th, I'm not sure what more questions there are to be asked on current content that have't been addressed, unless it's a bit more damage control on the bad sides of this expansion and how 8.1 will aim to fix them.

Edited by NaraNumas on Oct 8th 2018 at 2:43:48 PM

I got a ring from the Vol'dunai

if emissary gear isnt a flat upgrade then it feels kinda pointless to do 4 world quests for gear that almost guaranteed wont be an upgrade.

World quests are all but pointless now, anyway, once you have reached Exalted with all factions. It's more of a maintenance task than anything else: keeping your AP up so new tiers of Azerite gear aren't downgrades, earning enough War Resources to buy bonus rolls, and getting a steady if meager gold income.

Tbh I got exalted with honorbound and quit. I didnt see any point to getting past revered with the rest, and I dont raid so ap 18 to open all first tier traits is all I actually cared about

Its not like I dont already vastly overgear the exalted gear, too

Edited by Midgetsnowman on Oct 8th 2018 at 1:10:20 AM

The gear filled in a few gaps temporarily, but I always grind Exalted with all factions on my main as a matter of course.

You'll also need to get exalted with the Zandalari Empire/Proudmoore Admiralty in order to unlock the new Allied Races once they become available.

Personally I'm probably only going to worry about getting exalted across the borad on one character on each faction. That might change depending on how lucrative the paragon rewards turn out to be.

You can definitely get non-Azerite gear from emissary quests. Current Voldunai and Zandalari Empire a few days ago are/were rings, and I remember seeing (and ignoring) boots at some point.

There's also Pathfinder as far as getting Revered is concern. Plus with what I've been hearing about account wide rep, that might open up some options for catch up gear for alts.

I think that the account-wide rep thing is just for the "90 reps at exalted" achievements, not for any other benefits.

Well, I logged in today, did my 7th Legion Emissary, and upgraded my shoulders to 355. Good enough for me.

From what people are saying on the PTR, it carries over to honored for alts (especially important with incursions offering a non-quest way to level, since you need friendly to unlock world questing), up to exalted for Champions because of the Ilvl jumps on the necklace that are associated with hitting up to revered, so your power isn't hard-limited by grinding for a rep.

Edited by NaraNumas on Oct 8th 2018 at 5:49:25 AM

Oh, right. Yeah, I remember that alts will all get your same Champions rep for Heart upgrades.

So does that mean that, outside of Champions, you basically start the factions at Honored?

The Night Warrior questline is available on the Alliance side now.

As I expected, it's a lot longer (and a lot better) than the Horde version.

Tyrande comes off as legitimately terrifying, even before she becomes the Night Warrior, and it only increases afterwards (I can't wait to see the cinematic of her actual ascension). And both Maive and Shandris get their moments to shine as well while you are tracking down Tyrande. Malfurion also shows up near the end, but it's still very much Tyrande's story.

While I would say they did a good job at showing Sira Moonwarden's faith in both Elune and Tyrande faltering, it's still hard to buy the idea that she and Summermoon would have any interest in joining team Sylvanas. Especially since Tyrande's initial reaction is to say "you must fight the shadows in your hearts sisters", which is not really a rejection. And the living rejecting them is kind of a big deal for the Forsaken.

This is I think one of the key issues I have with the Darkshore Warfront. When you walk through it from an Alliance PoV, it makes sense and they have a powerful investment in the outcome.

Walking through it from the Horde PoV, and you are fighting for land that the Horde has only recently occupied and lacks any historical ties to, while working at least sometimes for commanders who were recently on the opposing side and are only on your side now via the use of some dubious magic. Which, bottom line, means their loyalty is hilariously suspect. The fact that it's a Forsaken-themed Warfront very much in Sylvanas's sphere of influence in the same patch that actively questions whether Sylvanas is good for the Horde does not help matters to say the least.

Bottom line? As a Tyrande and Night Elf story what I've seen so far is excellent (with a few minor issues). I just don't think it really translates well into a Warfront.

I actually realized something based on the 8.1 stuff.

if they wanted to keep the kind of compare/contrast thing going on with Allied Races, we now have an excuse to have Forsaken Night Elves as an AR, which would give balance reasons to add Lightforged Forsaken Humans later on.

I also just realized with this Junker Gnome thing, what if it's gonna be a new option for existing gnomes? With the Night Warrior thing happening, it's proven that Blizz has learned how to script unlocking racial customization options behind questing and advancing the storyline so there's lore justifications for new options. This opens up a huge world of possibility for expanded customization options like justifying Junker Gnomes, finally allowing Wildhammer Tattoos, and giving Blue Eyes to Blood Elves, without eating up space and resources for entirely new allied races and the resources that they come with.

Edited by NaraNumas on Oct 8th 2018 at 11:33:00 AM

With the Gnomes I think it depends on the story they have planned out. If it's more a case of searching for the lost Kul Tiran Gnomes, then they'll probably be an Allied Race. If it's more a matter of just researching cybernetics in order to unfreeze Mekkatorque with the lost Kul Tiran gnomes either not being found or simply not being the focus, then it could be a customization option.

Honestly though, I wouldn't go too crazy with quest-locked customization options as a replacement for Allied Races. It works fine when a character adopting it could conceivably be the same person, but otherwise I would lean towards an actual Allied Race. Wildhammer Dwarves for example have their own culture and heritage to explore.

True, though the Roughnecks have also shown you don't necessarily need to be a Hill Dwarf to be a "Wildhammer", the one that leads them has basically started his own clan, just with Kul'Tirans instead of fellow Dwarves.