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World of Warcraft |OT6| This wolf still has teeth

traveler

Not Wario
WoW lore has always been a guilty pleasure. While it was never great, I did appreciate the breadth of the universe. Mists was even pretty decent, by Blizzard standards. Managed to take what looked like a throwaway arc and make it ok.

WoD, on the other hand, is utter trash despite being way more Warcraft at its core than Mists premise. The problem for the lore now is that they intend to sustain WoW indefinitely and any good story must end.

warning: total fanfiction i-could-have-done-it-better wankery incoming.

Wrathion should have had his arc focused on old gods, not the Legion. His dad was corrupted by the old gods, they're an already present threat on Azeroth- not across the galaxy on another planet, both their existence and their removal threaten the planet, and the Mists storyline was further fuel to the fire given what Garrosh unearthed. It just makes more sense all around.

He should have urged us to seek out and uproot the Old Gods instead of worrying about a Legion threat, which could have dovetailed into a nice expansion centered around the seas and hunting N'zoth, the last Old God, for this expansion instead of the waste that was Wrath. Azshara could have been the figurehead villain for the expansions as she's certainly a credible threat even after fighting LK, Illidan, Deathwing, etc and would make sense as the "mouthpiece" for the Old Gods in an expansion focused on ending them. Emerald nightmare raid, Nazjatar raid, N'zoth raid. Ships could be the new "hook" for the expac. Lvl cap raised to 95.

Planet begins to fall apart after N'zoth's death, as foretold, when, boom, Titans show up to hold it together at the last second. They've finally arrived after receiving the conflicting beacons signals coming from Algalon and observing our struggles. They're impressed and strike a deal with us- deal with the Legion and we'll save the planet. While certainly capable of fighting the Legion, they're wary of its corrupting influence given their brother's fate and have seen in us a resilience to corruption in general as well as multiple triumphs over the legion.

The titans teleport us onto a galatic beachhead of sorts on Argus. Pretty straightforward premise for an expansion at this point- retake the planet and defeat the Legion. We can even team up with the Naaru and the long lost Turalyon and Alleria. Final boss is KJ, for real this time. Naaru style ships outside the planet function as guild housing and are the new "mechanic" for the expansion. Lvl 95 - 100.

We return to Azeroth, but there's now some discontent amongst the Titans. Some wish to remake Azeroth whole, wiping all traces of the old god corruption, including the curse of the flesh, away. Others respect our achievements and wish to honor the bargain. They play up some sort of darker influence behind the scenes of the conflict and the argument turns into one last war. The final expac- Clash of the Titans. We fight all over Azeroth, aided by some Titans in one battle, aided by the Lich King Bolvar Fordragon in Northrend who wishes to wipe out both a Titan trying access a weapon in Ulduar and his own "people" in one last contribution to his former friends, and, in the end, it's revealed that Sargeras, whose spirit still lingered in Azeroth, possessed whichever Titan started the conflict, and the remaining Titans and us team up to deal with him for good as the final boss of the expansion.

No level progression system; path of the titans returns as the new progression for the expacs. Titans need to replace the fallen members of their pantheon at the end, so Blizz honors the most significant community members from over the years by immortalizing their characters as new members of the pantheon. New pantheon finally heals/recreates Azeroth. All storylines finished, reset button pressed, bring on Warcraft IV and brand new storyliens.

That's 3 expacs. It wraps up everything major. Take it all Blizz; it's not great, but it's free and it's not like WoD was particularly great anyway.

/fanfiction

In all seriousness, they can't honor the lore while dragging out the game. They need to wrap these threads up instead of devaluing old storylines and watering down everything with filler through time travel and resurrecting old characters. (How long till Illidan returns at this point?)
 

Semper88

Member
WoW lore has always been a guilty pleasure. While it was never great, I did appreciate the breadth of the universe. Mists was even pretty decent, by Blizzard standards. Managed to take what looked like a throwaway arc and make it ok.

WoD, on the other hand, is utter trash despite being way more Warcraft at its core than Mists premise. The problem for the lore now is that they intend to sustain WoW indefinitely and any good story must end.

warning: total fanfiction i-could-have-done-it-better wankery incoming.

Wrathion should have had his arc focused on old gods, not the Legion. His dad was corrupted by the old gods, they're an already present threat on Azeroth- not across the galaxy on another planet, both their existence and their removal threaten the planet, and the Mists storyline was further fuel to the fire given what Garrosh unearthed. It just makes more sense all around.

He should have urged us to seek out and uproot the Old Gods instead of worrying about a Legion threat, which could have dovetailed into a nice expansion centered around the seas and hunting N'zoth, the last Old God, for this expansion instead of the waste that was Wrath. Azshara could have been the figurehead villain for the expansions as she's certainly a credible threat even after fighting LK, Illidan, Deathwing, etc and would make sense as the "mouthpiece" for the Old Gods in an expansion focused on ending them. Emerald nightmare raid, Nazjatar raid, N'zoth raid. Ships could be the new "hook" for the expac. Lvl cap raised to 95.

Planet begins to fall apart after N'zoth's death, as foretold, when, boom, Titans show up to hold it together at the last second. They've finally arrived after receiving the conflicting beacons signals coming from Algalon and observing our struggles. They're impressed and strike a deal with us- deal with the Legion and we'll save the planet. While certainly capable of fighting the Legion, they're wary of its corrupting influence given their brother's fate and have seen in us a resilience to corruption in general as well as multiple triumphs over the legion.

The titans teleport us onto a galatic beachhead of sorts on Argus. Pretty straightforward premise for an expansion at this point- retake the planet and defeat the Legion. We can even team up with the Naaru and the long lost Turalyon and Alleria. Final boss is KJ, for real this time. Naaru style ships outside the planet function as guild housing and are the new "mechanic" for the expansion. Lvl 95 - 100.

We return to Azeroth, but there's now some discontent amongst the Titans. Some wish to remake Azeroth whole, wiping all traces of the old god corruption, including the curse of the flesh, away. Others respect our achievements and wish to honor the bargain. They play up some sort of darker influence behind the scenes of the conflict and the argument turns into one last war. The final expac- Clash of the Titans. We fight all over Azeroth, aided by some Titans in one battle, aided by the Lich King Bolvar Fordragon in Northrend who wishes to wipe out both a Titan trying access a weapon in Ulduar and his own "people" in one last contribution to his former friends, and, in the end, it's revealed that Sargeras, whose spirit still lingered in Azeroth, possessed whichever Titan started the conflict, and the remaining Titans and us team up to deal with him for good as the final boss of the expansion.

No level progression system; path of the titans returns as the new progression for the expacs. Titans need to replace the fallen members of their pantheon at the end, so Blizz honors the most significant community members from over the years by immortalizing their characters as new members of the pantheon. New pantheon finally heals/recreates Azeroth. All storylines finished, reset button pressed, bring on Warcraft IV and brand new storyliens.

That's 3 expacs. It wraps up everything major. Take it all Blizz; it's not great, but it's free and it's not like WoD was particularly great anyway.

/fanfiction

In all seriousness, they can't honor the lore while dragging out the game. They need to wrap these threads up instead of devaluing old storylines and watering down everything with filler through time travel and resurrecting old characters. (How long till Illidan returns at this point?)

Maybe.. you should apply for a job at Blizzard and help out the story writing?
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
Freaking NEPTULON was kidnapped 5 years ago and no one cares.

I don't think anything will ever come of that. They just missed the boat on that one when there wasn't a 4.1 raid with the Abyssal Maw, I don't think they'll ever revist that, at least in a way that isn't "I must go, my planet needs me" (Neptulon died on his way back)


People are really insistent that Old Gods > Sargeras for some reason. The only reason the old gods are imprisoned instead of destroyed is because killing them is just a mess, as shown in Pandaria. The Titans don't have a physical problem killing them, just a moral one, because Azeroth seems special for some reason, I think it has to do with the well of eternity. I never really got the sense that some beings contained on and only ever shown on one planet would ever be a threat to crazy multi-dimensional world shaping time traveling omnipotent Titans. Unless the old gods were expanded where they are like, uber-demons and Azeroth is where the Titans just put them to contain them and they're from a bunch of different worlds or something, I just don't see them being scarier than Sargeras and the legion.

And the legion storyline works because it's such an ebb and flow of constant demons with their own machinations. The Old Gods as a focus is just boring since its People going crazy-> bug race-> "kill" an old god, but oh wait they aren't dead and we can't even kill them because reasons. They're obviously very similar, but Old Gods just don't do it for me. I like the line in Well of Eternity where every single demon in the legion can come to azeroth and we still have hope, but if Sargeras steps through the portal we're doomed.

There's a good framework for a story there, it's just the more focused characters that are just really outlandish and totally wacky, but that's the point I guess. I call it an excuse.
 

Shahadan

Member
I don't think anything will ever come of that. They just missed the boat on that one when there wasn't a 4.1 raid with the Abyssal Maw, I don't think they'll ever revist that, at least in a way that isn't "I must go, my planet needs me" (Neptulon died on his way back)

Depends, an Azshara expansion would be the perfect time for that. After all we all know he'll be corrupted and killable.
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
Depends, an Azshara expansion would be the perfect time for that. After all we all know he'll be corrupted and killable.

Which would be not what they were originally going for obviously since he's not fighting against Ragnaros with us or against Deathwing, and the lame cop-out on ending that storyline. Like I said, Neptulon died on his way back.

Also, Azshara expansion has more chance of happening than Emerald Dream, but at this point I don't know how that story can be a compelling expansion, especially an entire expansions focus worth. It would definitely be a regression of the story. She may be a lieutenant of whatever old god or helping Gul'Dan in the future, but I don't think there will ever be an expansion that focuses solely on the Naga and what happened to them.
 

Semper88

Member
Oh does anyone know what ilvl is of max upgrade lvl 100 loom gear is?

I see people speak about a ilvl boost as it was to low but i can't find what it is right now. Because its alot of gold to drop if I do need to boost them up to 100 so I need to know if its worth it.
 

Robin64

Member
Oh does anyone know what ilvl is of max upgrade lvl 100 loom gear is?

605, going by the slider on Wowhead. And they seem to have their data up to date, so it's probably right.

Edit: Yep, MMO-C confirmed.

Hq9rEwA.png
 

Shahadan

Member
Which would be not what they were originally going for obviously since he's not fighting against Ragnaros with us or against Deathwing, and the lame cop-out on ending that storyline. Like I said, Neptulon died on his way back.

Originally he was kindapped by Azshara via Ozumat and the naga lady, and obviously she would have used his powers and we would have killed him in some fashion. The stuff with ozumat corrupting waters and elementals was a clear hint for abyssal maw. So linking the fight to an azshara xpac is the simplest thing in the world/
 
Can't you just make characters on the servers that are linked?

Mal'Ganis is high pop and thus not linked.

Anyway, I say I want more characters per server cause I raid on a weekend team, but currently have the time to possibly do a weekday one as well. But I don't have a spare character slot for a second DK which is what I'd want to play in this situation based on recruiting needs in my guild. All my slots on the server are taken by 90+ characters aside from a 45 paladin who's my bank alt with 30 slot bags invested into him :/
 

lazygecko

Member
I think the whole MMO format just isn't suited to the kind of story and narrative Blizzard wants to tell. Also doesn't help that as time went on the narrative shifted more and more towards being like a typical single player power fantasy, struggling to maintain a thinly veined illusion where you are the unique snowflake hero, rather than making you feel part of something bigger.
 

Andiie

Unconfirmed Member
That BG I just did was insane. Not even sure what happened, wish I had recorded.
Everyone was laughing at the end and surprised so it must have been close.

It was EotS and pretty sure the timer said Horde win in 30 seconds or something. The whole BG they had control of the flag so it was unlikely we would win that way.
I started tearing it up as I made my way on foot from between the bases to DR to try steal the cap as a last ditch effort to win, killed around 4-5 horde and charged the sole defender in DR as ressers popped to my left. In DR near the flag, I sort of tunnel visioned myself trying to stay alive, I was under 1000 hps i think with 2 or 3 around me and around the same Alliance. There was a lot of activity around me.
Saw a low health horde FC pass right infront of me, right near the DR flag. Got the execute, I thought another horde picked the flag up but all I was focused on was killing who was there and surviving. Somehow we cleared them out, I look up to get my bearings and wtf, we get the victory? lol. It felt like that all took around 30-40 seconds.

We must have uncapped the DR flag and then the horde fc couldn't cap because he was well inside the DR area. Final scores said 1500 to 1417, 4 bases. Must have taken 2 of them in those last moments.
 

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
And the legion storyline works because it's such an ebb and flow of constant demons with their own machinations. The Old Gods as a focus is just boring since its People going crazy-> bug race-> "kill" an old god, but oh wait they aren't dead and we can't even kill them because reasons. They're obviously very similar, but Old Gods just don't do it for me. I like the line in Well of Eternity where every single demon in the legion can come to azeroth and we still have hope, but if Sargeras steps through the portal we're doomed.
I would say the Legion on their own aren't particularly interesting. Their storyline is almost always better when pushed through a third party that acts knowingly or unknowingly on the Legion's behalf. On their own the simplicity of their goal makes it challenging for a story to be told that isn't "this thing was or was not destroyed". I also don't really see how fighting the Old Gods is less satisfying. We've pretty much found out that killing demons rarely if ever truly spells the end for them. Archimonde could technically show up again and it'd fit into the lore. As an aside the Old Gods have a history with non-insectiod races like the Faceless ones.

Pushing for some kind of conclusion to Warcraft makes it feel less like a world. Honestly there are dozens if not hundreds of hanging storylines that were never acted upon because Blizzard is essentially running away from Azeroth post-Cataclysm. When trying to hide on a remote and untouched island wasn't enough they literally pushed things to a different timeline/dimension/etc. Basically every racial faction was left in the lurch. What's up with Gnomeregan, the future of the Foresaken, Magni Bronzebeard and the Iron Dwarves, and the conflict in Gilneas? Blizzard's desire to keep content intact creates logistical complications with how the story can be told. These pieces cannot advance when players need to be pushed to new zones.

I used to think a sequel to World of Warcraft was preposterous, but after spending time with FFXIV I am kind of convinced that WoW's engine holds it back. There are genuine technical hurdles to WoW's storytelling. The model rework was frankly a disaster, with slightly fresh skin sewed on to the rotting corpse that is the old player model. Customization options are virtually non-existent with the new models tied to the old ones, and this stiff groundwork makes in-game cutscenes an impossibility. Having better tools for expressive NPCs or even PCs inside or outside of cutscenes would go a long way towards Blizzard being able to create characters that have any kind of personality. But WoW's past (on a technical and logistic level) is the greatest impediment to its future.

Without being able to clear the board Blizzard struggles to create content in the most lore relevant locations. And what does old world content truly contribute to the game anymore? It's hard to imagine new or old players being excited at the prospect of running Blackfathom Depths. Do monsters and gear models/textures that potentially date back to 2003 or earlier even have a place in the game? The continued inclusion of old content only contributes these outdated pieces to a world that struggles to move on. Meanwhile the story continues to wither and rot into absurdity as it winds off on its trail, and player models become increasingly grotesque caricatures as the lacking armor/outfitting system tries to thwart its limitations by latching on as many bits as it can to player belts and shoulders. A Catacylsm-esque reset is an inevitable necessity for many pieces of the game, but with how much needs to be changed it would almost be better to start over completely. Unfortunately this seems like an insurmountable task when Blizzard has such a difficult time creating game content.
 

StMeph

Member
I think the whole MMO format just isn't suited to the kind of story and narrative Blizzard wants to tell. Also doesn't help that as time went on the narrative shifted more and more towards being like a typical single player power fantasy, struggling to maintain a thinly veined illusion where you are the unique snowflake hero, rather than making you feel part of something bigger.

I disagree in that others have handled it well enough, but WoW has gone on for so long, and the player has, ostensibly, defeated so many major powers in raids that it would be weirder not to reflect your growing station/power in game in some manner.

I think the Old Gods are popular because their raids have been great, with especially memorable final boss encounters. They're also a little more immediately relevant because they're probably the most powerful entities left on Azeroth. The Titans are largely absent and distant, Sargeras is MIA, and the Burning Legion as commanded by Kil'jaeden/Archimonde have each been beaten already, so it becomes less interesting to use them as antagonists.

Edit:
Blizzard's desire to keep content intact creates logistical complications with how the story can be told. These pieces cannot advance when players need to be pushed to new zones.

Which is completely baffling when a place like the Caverns of Time exists purely for things like this.
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
It's hard to imagine a WoW2 from a business standpoint, as either a sequel or a reboot of the game. Even though they're losing subs at such a rate that any other MMO would be dead 3 times over, they still make the same amount of money with the cash shop now.

But having the game and story sort of "reset" would be fantastic for me personally. I really crave the old style "hard" wow where you have to work for things and every reward feels earned, btu with every sort of convenience and QoL improvements they've learned over the years, not to mention all the story they can build in now like SWTOR, Wildstar, or FFXIV has.
 
5 runs this week, up to 32 attempts, ~27% chance for Mim's Head, not seen yet. Once I knock it or Invincible out I'm going back to farm Ashes. Who knows how long that'll take though.
 
So i've been meddling around after getting the 7 days free game time and it's honestly depressing. Server seems dead because no one ever talks and since the guild(s) i'm in are long dead it feels lonely playing. I don't have WoD, so the world is even more bleak.

I'm really curious what their new expansion be be/what kinda features it has. Because unless the next expac is one of the best, the only way i see myself returning to this game is if they make a progression/vanilla server.
 

Tenebrous

Member
Servers/chat has been dying steadily since 3.3, and given how anti-social WoD is, I'm not surprised no-ones left from your olden days. I've gone from 30+ realID friends active at any peak time to less than a dozen playing total, and most of those, like myself, only play now because it's "free".

But yeah, expac 6 needs to hit it out the park... I'll play it anyway, because hell, why wouldn't I? But only because it's free to play for me now.
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
There's no reason to not be on one of the big servers anymore. It's a little ridiculous that that's the case, but the cross realm thing means that everyone gets queue times now, but only during launch.
 

Falcker

Member
...
/fanfiction


I got my own piece of fan fiction and it lets the story of Warcraft continue while having WoW and the storyline WC3 started end.

Legion invades as predicted by Wrathion, Azeroths defenses try to repel the invasion... and fail. Heroes on both sides perish (as do our player characters) as KJ uses the rekindled Sunwell to resurrect/summon Sargeras (as Varimathras had attempted to do in Wrath/Battle for UC).The world is consumed by Legion forces before Sargeras departs to continue his galactic destruction campaign. Small remnants of old factions are divided as they fight for survival in this new Azeroth.

Warcraft 4 opens with decades passing, Azerothians that have survived live in a world consumed with chaos while they attempt to battle back for control of their world. Uneasy factions formed based on necessity, example being something like Night elves and Dreanei with Orcs and Trolls, certain races thought to be extinct (Worgen/Blood Elves/Tauren). Some old heroes still live while others perished (ex. Thrall/Tyrande/Varian dead, Malfurion/Jaina/Vol'jin live) giving new dynamics to their characters as they have suffered losses and endured on this new world. New heroes brought forth much like WC3 (new Arthas/Thrall/Illidan characters) to fill the new roles. Game culminates with the new heroes winning some grand victory that puts them back in control. New issues arise as they attempt to repair their world and take the steps necessary to stop the legion from returning.

WoW 2.
 

Semper88

Member
I tried to do some quests at lvl 70 after dungeon crawling to 70 as a healer. Man.. Dungeons are so much faster haha.

To bad tho, would like to see some of the older area's but I'm guessing it doesnt matter at all anymore since its there is nothing there.

Tried doing some quests as a boomkin but they feel so boring, feral seems oke even with int gear on but still doenst beat dungeon exp seeing how fast they are run.
 

LAUGHTREY

Modesty becomes a woman
I tried to do some quests at lvl 70 after dungeon crawling to 70 as a healer. Man.. Dungeons are so much faster haha.

To bad tho, would like to see some of the older area's but I'm guessing it doesnt matter at all anymore since its there is nothing there.

Tried doing some quests as a boomkin but they feel so boring, feral seems oke even with int gear on but still doenst beat dungeon exp seeing how fast they are run.

It gets repetitive though, there are gaps here and there where you only get 2-3 dungeons for a few levels.
 

Semper88

Member
It gets repetitive though, there are gaps here and there where you only get 2-3 dungeons for a few levels.

I've been reading that from 80+ dungeons net less exp then quests in Cata, is this true?

It can be, but so far i enjoyed it. Its not what it used to be as its all rushing through. I'm pretty fast and always following the tank but yesterday was the first time i met this retarded tank that started screaming and cussing at me because i wasn't fast enough due the fact i had to loot stuff for my quests..

Some times i got trouble keeping tanks up, if I don't spam heal them they die because of massive pulls, gives me 0% chance to heal the of the party if they take damage cuz missing that one GCD might be fatal.

Still druid is good fun, can't wait to heal the raids :)

Any recommendation on "fun" DPS? got that 90 boost waiting.
 
So tonight I invested about 70k into gear for my hunter to possibly prepare for an additional raid team. Still not that high item level (like 675 - not enough for HFC yet). And I'm kind of regretting it already.

But we'll see.

I just always keep in mind WoW token values now and months of playtime I could have when spending big on other things in game. Since otherwise I wouldn't likely want to be paying for the sub.

I still have stupid amounts of gold compared to most players, and it seems silly to worry much about it, but I don't want to drop below 1mil. That's what feels like my base "cushion" is now.
 
So tonight I invested about 70k into gear for my hunter to possibly prepare for an additional raid team. Still not that high item level (like 675 - not enough for HFC yet). And I'm kind of regretting it already.

But we'll see.

I just always keep in mind WoW token values now and months of playtime I could have when spending big on other things in game. Since otherwise I wouldn't likely want to be paying for the sub.

I still have stupid amounts of gold compared to most players, and it seems silly to worry much about it, but I don't want to drop below 1mil. That's what feels like my base "cushion" is now.

Don't fret. I just spent 150k on the corrupted hippogriff, dropped me down to 300k. Its just gold, and you still have a massive amount to do pretty much anything. There are other TCG mounts I could buy, but I don't really like them and they wont push me over 250 this xpac, so now I have a lot of gold and nothing to spend it on.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Old Gods are dumb I hate them they are lame

...
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Blizzcon 2 years ago, yeah.

RIP Shattrath raid.
 
Also, fuck the 4 rares that drop mounts/rep tokens.

I have 8 or 9 kills and didn't haven't seen a token or rattling cage. RNG can suck my nut hairs.
 

Babalu.

Member
I've killed the 4 rares (Deathtalon, Doomroller, Terrorfist, Vengeance) 5 days in a row now on only 1 character.

I've gotten 1 medal every single day. Usually on the last or 2nd to last kill of the 4. Never seen a cage though. Infact I didn't even know it dropped a pet.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Old gods were fine until Cata, Cata stunk it up by bringing back C'thun (and Nef and Ony ... it was an appeal to nostalgia that completely backfired imho).

Cata didn't really have much C'thun, though. The primary old god there was N'zoth.
 

Anoregon

The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Was N'zoth even mentioned ingame, or was that purely Blizz telling us?

It's mentioned in the dungeon journal stuff for some of the dragon soul bosses I think, and some quest text here and there. Not a huge emphasis for sure, though.
 

StMeph

Member
Pretty sure N'zoth was also explicitly mentioned regarding Ysera and the Emerald Dream. And being responsible for Neltharion's descent into Deathwing.

Yogg-Saron's puzzle box describes N'zoth, but never explicitly mentions its name.
 

Tenebrous

Member
PSU died, so no WoW for me... Until Saturday... Unless I wanna play on integrated graphics... Which I don't.

Seems to be. Nobody's sure right now if it will just be for con-goers or not though.

Would annoy me no end if it was. Blizzcon visitors getting an exclusive peak I can understand, but Comic-con? Naff off, please!
 
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