So yesterday I talked about the mechanical changes that we might expect in expansion 5. This time, I'm going to talk about the potential story, as well as content changes we might see. I realize "content" is a very vague word, but what I mean is greater specificity than simple mechanical changes. You'll understand when I get to it. I also will be throwing in things that I want to happen, regardless of whether I think they will happen.
1. Demons! Outer Space! The Burning Legion!
Blizzard could, admittedly, pull the rug out from under us and give us that Emerald Dream expansion we've been expecting forever, but given Wrathion's chain in Mists, I think it's a pretty decent bet that we're going to have our next showdown with the Burning Legion once we've finished off all our Szechuan Chicken and Mushu Pork.
Will this be the final confrontation? Probably not. Frankly, as cool as it would be to fight Sargeras, I think they're still going to hold on to that bullet.
If we wind up going to Argus, I could see Kil'jaeden being the final boss of the expansion, only this time we're going to fight him at full power and actually kill him.
Argus is not particularly well-defined, but the very fact that it was once the Draenei (then called Eredar) homeworld means that there would be potential for stuff that isn't just a demon-blasted ruin. Sure, the Legion has a tendency to destroy entire worlds, but perhaps if they want to keep a planet they might not be able to ruin everything, so you could have wild areas that are only partially corrupted.
2. Illidan's Return
Illidan is kind of a fascinating character because in Warcraft 3, he was more of an anti-hero. In Burning Crusade, he was a straight-up villain (some described him as being like a mob boss) and yet, we've seen a bit of character reconstruction since then, such as the awesome quest chain in Felwood where a fellow Demon Hunter shows how, really, Illidan was always working to protect Azeroth. It was only his willingness to tap into forbidden power that got him exiled.
This is a fantasy game, so bringing people back from the dead is not a terribly difficult thing to do. Plus, it would frankly be awesome to have a faction leader who is kind of bitter with us for killing him a few years ago.
3. With Illidan, we get Demon Hunters as a Hero Class
There are two really iconic characters from Warcraft 3 - Arthas and Illidan. Both of them are badass anti-hero/villains, and have incredibly well-realized, cool classes that aren't really represented by anything else in game (Mountain Kings and Tauren Chieftains are already Warriors, for example.)
We got Death Knights in Wrath of the Lich King, and they are probably one of the most popular classes in the game.
Now, with Monks, Blizzard decided to make them a regular class - starting at level 1, without any fancy bells and whistles (unless you count how they hold their weapons.) One could take this to mean that Blizzard had abandoned the idea of a hero class, but I think it made more sense to simply work on a class-by-class basis. Having a young and inexperienced Monk made sense. Having a Death Knight struggling to fight off Kobolds in the mines of Elwynn? Not so much.
A Demon Hunter would have a similar "minimum badass quotient," and thus ought to start at a higher level. I think 55 could be established as the standard Hero Class level, and the Demon Hunter starting experience would take place in either Felwood or the Black Temple, but in either case, the end result would be resurrecting Illidan. They should also get a similar "class home base," and potentially one of the new factions would be affiliated with them, à la Knights of the Ebon Blade.
Also, like Death Knights, we could get unique character looks, such as tattoos and possibly having all Demon Hunters blinded and wearing blindfolds.
The Demon Hunter would be a melee/tank/caster, with the melee specs dual-wielding. Effectively, they would be like Warlocks the way that Paladins are like Priests - a kind of melee representation of the same concepts, with slightly different flavor. Just as a Paladin is more about Law and Justice while Priests are about affecting the mind and spirit, Demon Hunters would be more about the primal, feral rage of demons as opposed to the Warlocks' more academic understanding of them.
4. A Return to Karazhan
Karazhan is one of the most popular raids ever - not only because it was a relatively easy raid to step into, and because it was the first 10-man raid, but also because the tone and mood of the place was excellent.
There's always been an in-universe rumor of a Lower Karazhan, that is like an upside-down version of the tower below it. A Burning Legion expansion would be a great excuse to create that area as a new raid. I'm always more in favor of "sequel" raids over revamps, so that we can still go back to the old ones for nostalgia and picking up transmog gear. The great thing is that there's an obvious entry for the new raid already - the Karazhan Crypts. (Truth be told, I've actually written out a little outline of how such a raid could work, just for fun.)
5. The Draenei will play a key role
Until the Worgen, the Draenei were always seen as the odd man out when it came to lore. While Blood Elves had a key role to play in BC and Wrath, the Draenei got to host people in BC and then haven't really done anything else.
However, if we go to Argus, I would be shocked and appalled if we didn't get a huge amount of Draenei lore. Imagine, for example, if there are still uncorrupted Eredar living on Argus, fighting a guerrilla war against the demonic occupiers? Might they be bitter toward the Draenei, who abandoned them there?
6. The Horde will struggle to pull itself back together
We shouldn't ignore that there is going to be some serious fallout from Hellscream's fall. The Horde is going to need time to readjust, not only to the change in leadership, but potentially to the fundamental change in the style of leadership. Consider how even 150 years later, there's still bitterness in the US about the outcome of the Civil War. Sure, the Horde will have to regroup and move forward together, but don't expect everyone to be happy that it was Vol'jin who won.
7. The Alliance will realize that they've come out on top and need to figure out what to do with that position.
The Alliance only really decisively won the Second War. Since then, it's either been devastated by the Scourge or seen its long-held lands slowly eroded away. Sure, we beat the Lich King. We stopped Deathwing. But the Alliance has been struggling to fight a decline.
Yet after Garrosh is deposed, the Alliance will find that, in fact, it has actually won the day. When a war ends with your side still standing and the other losing its leader, we call that a victory.
So how to move forward? Is the Alliance going to use the proven muscle to pressure the Horde in certain ways? Not only will the Alliance come out of the Siege of Orgrimmar with fewer injuries, but whoever is in charge of the Horde after that will owe the Alliance his or her position.
I think we could see a cockier, more aggressive Alliance in the future, and if there's any believable reason that tensions could, once again, rise between the factions, it would be the Alliance overstepping its rights as victors.
8. The Council of the Black Harvest could be a real thing
So far, the Black Harvest only serves as backstory for the Green Fire quest chain. Yet it stands to reason that a Demon-focused expansion would bring in a faction of Warlocks.
9. More Daily-Quest Based Factions as well as More Raid Factions
Ok, some people hate dailies, and I can understand that. Frankly, for anyone who plays a non-Dps character, they can get pretty frustrating. But there is a huge advantage to dailies, which is that they let you feel like you truly are helping that actual faction. Running Throne of the Tides with a Ramkahen tabard didn't really make me feel like I was helping the Tol'vir.
Anyway, with stuff like the farm work orders and the little bonus rep for doing your random dungeon/scenario, I think we can expect most factions to work like this.
The Shado-Pan Assault works pretty effectively as a source of Valor gear. Blizzard can make sure that the older factions are still relevant to those who are still gearing up, because they won't be able to run ToT until they're ready to start earning 522 gear.
So here's my partial list of new factions:
Velen's Army of the Light
Illidan's Order of the Betrayer
The Council of the Black Harvest
The Argus Resistance
10. Wrathion will play a part, and we'll see a similar Legendary chain to Mists'
Wrathion's been gearing up (and gearing us up) for a fight with the Legion. I can't imagine he's going to sit on the sidelines.
Now, I doubt that he'll be the Legendary guy again, if only because he's already been the central figure in two Legendary chains.
I expect that we'll see a similar, expansion-spanning chain like the one in Mists, rather than those that are specific to certain classes and roles.
11. More class quests
Even though very few have completed it (damn Chaos Bolts!) the Warlock Green Fire chain was a triumph. While not every class has a thing like Green fire they've been clamoring for for years, I think we're likely to see some new class quests coming in the next expansion.
I don't think every class will get one, though. Part of what made the Green Fire quest so cool was its specificity. That was a quest for Warlocks. Period. The consequence here is that they can't devote all the resources to make a unique quest for every class every expansion.
The uniqueness of it is what makes it so cool, so I'd rather see one or two classes get an epic quest like this each expansion than see everyone get a slightly modified version of the same "go into Sunken Temple and do this thing" quest.
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