WoW: Battle for Azeroth (8.3)

I play exclusively Horde and none of this sits all that well with me story wise- I know it's some kind of massive misdirect and you surely just can't plunge straight into Garrosh v2 but yeh.. they are making it hard.

If this isn’t a precursor to a change in the Faction structure then this whole pre-BfA storyline is just bad writing.

I hate to be the party pooper here, but Sylvanas has been like capital E evil for a whiiiiiiiiiiiile now. Like Cataclysm at least.

Seriously, this is a character who killed herself, found herself in the hellish void of the afterlife that awaits the undead, rightly freaked the hell out when the Valkyr saved her and took her away from there... and her response was to create more undead who will be consigned to that hellscape of an afterlife.

But like, ok, she's scared of death, so what... except her actions in fleeing from death consign more folks to what she fears so that she might be spared. She continues to try to enslave everything she can to keep gaining more of that power to consign more to undeath... all so that she has her army that will do everything they can to keep her alive through her kind of terrifying cult of personality among the Forsaken.

If you go back and play the Forsaken starting zones now, knowing that those who die as undead go to that place she fears... it makes it suuuuuuuuper f'ed up. You talk to a few folks who aren't sure if they want to keep going or not and help someone who doesn't. You literally, at that point, consign that person's spirit which was at rest in whatever the normal afterlife is for Azeroth to that void of terror that scares Sylvanas so much.

And her choice? "Oh, I took you out of your rest because I wanted to? Oh did you not want that? Ok, we'll kill you again." Seriously, it's desecration of a corpse with no input until after the deed. It's seriously a messed up violation that Sylvanas KNOWS having experienced... and... is perfectly OK doing it to countless others.

Don't get me wrong, I find the Horde to be super fascinating as a counterpoint to the Alliance. Peace is clearly possible between them. The class halls showed how we as similar soldiers of our respective factions can put aside those differences for a greater goal throughout Legion and Sylvanas just said "fuuuuuuuuuuu that!" Seriously, that first line of the announcement trailer had me *headdesk-ing* and nothing I've seen yet suggests she'll ever get any less idiotic. We, as a planet, just fought off the greatest threat known to Azeroth (technically, we still don't quite know about the Void Lords yet, I don't think)... and we did it together and "nope, stronger as the Horde only, time to burn a city and try to also later destroy Stormwind for even more undead!"

Has everyone forgotten the Blight? We saw just how bad it was at the Wrathgate... and she's kept that. Continues to develop it. It was developed by her and pushed as a weapon by her for years prior to that and after the absolute horror it unleashed... she hasn't stopped.

Like, I totally get why Horde folks are not cool with Sylvanas having done this, and I agree, it throws the whole "morally grey" thing right out the hecking window... but this has always been Sylvanas. That said, as an Alliance player who likes when the Horde is at their best because, let's be real, some new nihilistic threat is absolutely coming and we gotta fight together to end that sh*t yet again... the thing that pisses me off the most? Saurfang. Saurfang, what the absolute heck, bro? You literally just had me not kill innocents... then just stand there while your warchief kills hundreds of innocents. Oh well, right? Nothing that could have been done, not you didn't just take down a major lore character with your unexpected axe strike. *facepalm*

I don't mind Sylv being Machiavellian evil, but the combination of her whole

Spoiler:

"strut off without checking if malf is actually dead" and burning the tree on impulse

is just dumb B-grade Disney villain evil.

It's so frustrating how close they keep coming to setting up an interesting conflict between honour and pragmatism and then just faceplanting the landing.

Reaper81 wrote:

If this isn’t a precursor to a change in the Faction structure then this whole pre-BfA storyline is just bad writing.

This is what I'm really hoping for. The divided faction ware thing is old and tired and everytime it comes up it feels lame and forced. I also hope this is a big redirect for unification, but if it isn't well, that's why this feels like bad contrived writing... because it is, because that's the only way to keep the faction war going at this point. The contrived miscommunication during the burning shore at the beginning of legion felt the same way

To cheer you guys up, my death knight finally reached 110 last night (knight?)

And yeah I'm pissed about Sylvanas (and the cinematic) It almost seems like they are doing the round robin of destroying the race starting cities. (Thunderbluff and Ironforge are next!)

Mark your calendars:

* BfA comes out Aug 13 at 3 p.m. Blizzard HQ time (which means 6 p.m. on the East Coast and midnight in Paris).

* Uldir (aka the first raid) opens Sept 4 (normal and heroic versions). Mythic and the first LFR wing open Sept. 11. Second LFR wing opens Sept 25, followed by third LFR wing on Oct. 9.

* Next PvP season launches Sept. 4.

Lastly, Blizzard finally revealed how to unlock the Dark Iron dorfs (Alliance) and Mag’har orcs (Horde): Hit 120, become exalted with either 7th Legion (Ally) or The Honorbound (dirty Horde) and complete the Ready for War achievement, which, if Wowhead is to be believed, is something like a questline of 100+ quests.

More details on the upcoming content releases.

P.S. I'll admit that I've paid almost no attention to BfA, but in reading through the 7th Legion entry on Wowhead, it seems that BfA game play is structured pretty much the same as it was in Legion:

* do zone quests and world quests to get rep
* buy recipes and gear from rep vendors
* something something garrisons something
* do certain achieves (which almost certainly involve rep) to unlock flying at some point

Is that more or less right?

Can I still do week 1 of the event or is that locked out now? I’m still trying to get my lock to 110 but it’s slower going than expected.

Also, where can I learn more about Sylvanas and the hellish afterlife? Is that a cutscene or in the expanded fiction?

The quests are phased. So you have to do week 1 to phase into week 2.

I would also like to know about Sylvanas and the forsaken afterlife.

Re: the 100+ quests: You had better be exalted by the end. The last thing anyone wants is to do 100+ quests and still be honored rep.
I also am worried that we will be so burned out to roll our Dark Iron or Maghar lowbs by the end of the 100+ quests.

fangblackbone wrote:

The quests are phased. So you have to do week 1 to phase into week 2.

I would also like to know about Sylvanas and the forsaken afterlife.

Re: the 100+ quests: You had better be exalted by the end. The last thing anyone wants is to do 100+ quests and still be honored rep.
I also am worried that we will be so burned out to roll our Dark Iron or Maghar lowbs by the end of the 100+ quests.

I suspect desperately hope those quests are the quests that make up the main storyline of BfA, something similar to the way they told the story of suramar.

Unlocking the Race
1) You must have the Battle for Azeroth expansion purchased.
2) Reach 120
3) Next, Ready for War (Achievement) requires players to complete the Horde War Campaign, which should take several hours to complete.
4) Exalted with The Honorbound is a Horde only reputation. It can be attained mostly while completing the campaign step, while the rest of the reputation can be obtained from The Honorbound World Quests and Emissary on the continent of Kul Tiras.
5) You must then complete a special recruitment scenario which we've datamined which demonstrates why the Mag'har Orcs join the Horde.

So nothing too long and gained mostly along the way with your first 120.

For Sylvanas story link to the wowpedia below. Might give some more info you are after.

Sylvanas Story

So I was waaaay behind in my WoW progress. Let me put it this way. My main just finished Mists of Pandaria. I barely touched Warlords, Legion, or even Cataclysm for that matter. I'm so far behind (and to be fair a seriously casual WoW player) most of the stuff in this thread is another language to me now.

And it's ok. I boosted my main despite some recommendations not to. I know if I didn't do it, I'd fall back on the I'm so far behind excuse and just skip this expansion as well. I'm so glad I did, because

Spoiler:

playing through those quests and watching Darnassus burn was horrific and heartbreaking. I loved it since my main is a NE Rogue.

So yeah, I'm back in now. My alts can play through Legion or whatever else is out there. This is going to be fun!

Rogues are in a really good spot now I feel. I 110 boosted my NE rogue when 7.3.5 launched and I was extremely disappointed back then. But patch 8.0 rogues are terrific. Outlaw is better on paper than in execution but it is pretty fun. Subtlety was my favorite in 7.3.5 but it only got refined in 8.0 so don't expect big changes. Assassination is a mega blast. I love it so much! So many utility and damage procs...

Thanks for providing your feedback on rogues at 110, fang. I played outlaw throughout Legion and really enjoyed it, but I think that may have been driven largely by artifact and zone skills helping me along the way. After 8.0, I've been finding outlaw to be fun, but at times uninteresting. I'll give assassination a shot over the next couple weeks before BfA!

I'm not sure about this one, gang. Between Jaina and Sylvanas' videos, I'm really pissed. I consider Jaina's no-show at Broken Shores one of the main reasons Varian Wrynn is dead, and that self-indulgent B.S. just set my teeth on edge. And Sylvanas needs to broaden her vision off the Undead and develop a gorram clue or she's going to lose everything. I'm going to see how this pans out once it's dropped, I think. Unless they're working on a Cataclysm 2 level of re-inventing the world I'm not sure I'm up for yet another drag through the same old fricking misunderstandings-lead-to-more-Horde-vs-Alliance B.S.

Don't give up!
The stuff they've shown is disappointing but it is far from everything in BfA.
The Zandalari questing and the Kul Tiran questing are a lot of fun. Or lets just say that is was fun enough that I stopped playing the beta so that I could play it at launch.
Plus you have Warfronts and Expeditions to look forward to...

momgamer wrote:

I consider Jaina's no-show at Broken Shores one of the main reasons Varian Wrynn is dead, and that self-indulgent B.S. just set my teeth on edge.

So she did everyone a favor? He always seemed insufferable.
Except we now have to look at whatshisface young king.
Jaina for Alliance queen! Balance.

It's worth noting that even though there's an actual war on, it looks like the players aren't going to be on the front lines. The two sides are segregated on different continents during the leveling phase at least. Not sure how things are going to shape up at max level, but we do know we'll be dealing with some kind of Titan/Old God business in the first raid.

Except we now have to look at Distraught Brad Pitt young king.

FIXED!

People actually play this game for the story?

I enjoy the Warcraft story.. It is a part of why I play..

That said here is more story!

Medmey wrote:

I enjoy the Warcraft story.. It is a part of why I play..

That said here is more story!

I get that this will PROBABLY be in game and played before the start of the Battle for Lordaeron... but damn that would have been a good side of Saurfang to see... I dunno... sometime right after Sylvanas just tried to genocide an entire race out of rage and spite.

Like it doesn't even match up to the game in the slightest. :\ Saurfang just walks off with her in game.

We'll have to see. I've always had respect for Saurfang, but he didn't stand up to Garrosh Hellscream until it was way, way past too late. Maybe he's learned a little?

ranalin wrote:

People actually play this game for the story?

I couldn't tell you a thing about the story. Cutscenes are cool and fun, but I'm just like "Wait, I've seen her before!". Overall I just like to play the game

ranalin wrote:

People actually play this game for the story?

I do

I just feel the game jumped the shark story wise after Burning Crusades. I LOVE the cinematics(I've yet to see one from Blizzard i didn't like), but the story took a backseat for me a long time ago and definitely not why i play when i do.

momgamer wrote:

We'll have to see. I've always had respect for Saurfang, but he didn't stand up to Garrosh Hellscream until it was way, way past too late. Maybe he's learned a little?

I don’t know if he’s learned so much as he’s grown.

Yeah. Blizzard is great at creating cool (and cool looking) characters and atmosphere. Art direction and atmosphere are key components to a good story but far from the only key things.

And they are handicapped with pacing (probably the most important key to a good story) because of the medium (video games), the audience (jump back and forth between 10's, 1000's, and the individual) and they choose to shoot themselves in the foot further with time gating.

There is also a split when it comes to good characters due to the visual nature of the medium. How a character moves, how they talk and what they sound like is art direction. What they actually do and where they come from is narrative. As has been pointed out, Blizzard is much better at the former than the latter.

thrawn82 wrote:
ranalin wrote:

People actually play this game for the story?

I do

Same, but I'm also weird in terms of being a sucker for a lore-rich world.