We know that many, if not most, if not all demons in the Burning Legion were once mortal races. In fact, the drinking of the Blood of Mannoroth by the Orcs was, in all likelihood, the first step toward converting the Orcs into a race of demons. The uncorrupted Eredar live on as the Draenei, so we can safely assume that Archimonde, Kil'jaeden, and the other Man'ari were originally blue space goats like Velen or Yrel.
However, those infamous tweets about the nature of demons and the Twisting Nether suggested (though they didn't explicitly say) that demons are all the same demon, regardless of which reality you find them in.
Ok, technically, the tweets only said that the Twisting Nether is universal. It's possible that if were to enter the Nether itself, we'd find a multitude of Archimonde souls from each reality in which he turned evil. They would be able to compare notes, but would still exist as individuals.
If that's the case, then the problem is more or less solved.
But the implication of these tweets seems to suggest something more profoundly strange, and that is that there is only one Archimonde, whose demonic soul rests in the Twisting Nether. The times we've fought him - on Mount Hyjal and in Tanaan Jungle - we've really been fighting a kind of puppet-avatar. A physical body that Archimonde controls, but is not one and the same with.
The problem that arises is that there were clearly once several Archimondes - across the potentially infinite universes, an infinitude (though possible a fraction of infinity, as there could be realities in which Archimonde declined Sargeras' offer) of uncorrupted Archimondes became a single demonic Archimonde.
This actually makes the process of becoming a demon quite horrifying - not that "becoming a demon" suggests anything but that. All the myriad differences between the lives of these various Archimondes would suddenly become a cacophonous discord of memory. A plethora of tiny differences would add up to a confusing blur.
But then again, doesn't that kind of sound like what you'd expect the inside of a demon's mind to be? Maybe they want to destroy everything just to shut the millions of voices up.
This does raise some interesting questions about fate, though. We've taken for granted that there could be some timelines in which Archimonde declines Sargeras, and perhaps Velen accepts his offer.
But given the pan-universal nature of the Legion, that would mean we'd probably encounter this demonic Velen at some point - it would be strange if we hadn't.
So there's also the possibility that the corruption of Archimonde and Kil'jaeden is strongly fated to happen - happening in all universes.
The alternative is perhaps more horrific.
Consider that there could be some universes in which Velen convinced his fellow members of the triumvirate not to accept Sargeras' offer. Perhaps in some of these, the Eredar fended off a subsequent Legion invasion, or perhaps fell to it. Hell, Sargeras might turn around and invade Argus with the very Eredar army he got from the universes in which he did succeed.
But maybe it's not always up to you whether you become a demon. Perhaps there were realities in which Archimonde and Kil'jaeden turned Sargeras down, but as they were transformed into demons, uniting their infinite versions between the myriad universes, even those who had tried to resist were sucked into the Nether to be bound with their less virtuous doppelgängers.
What's horrifying about this is that it's not enough for you to resist the Legion's call. Every version of you would have to be.
So what about Gul'dan?
The end of the Archimonde cinematic makes it clear that Gul'dan's still in the picture. The question is whether Archimonde will use him to create something similar to the Lich King, simply employ him elsewhere, or possibly turn Gul'dan into a demon himself.
And if he does that, what does that mean for our universe's Gul'dan? Our Gul'dan died during the Second War after he tried to take the Eye of Sargeras. But if Gul'dan becomes a demon, would he essentially resurrect his universe-A doppelgänger's memories? A demonic Gul'dan would become not just a copy of the one that created the Horde - he would be that very Gul'dan who menaced the world, only now even more powerful.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Other, Earlier Leak Rumor - Rumor! Rumor! Not Confirmed!
Ok, the other rumor about expansion six, which we'll know in... eight days, goes by the title "The Dark Prophet."
This would, similarly, deal with The Prophet Zul, who came to King Rastakhan of the Zandalari and drummed up the whole "re-unite the Trolls" story we've been getting since 4.1.
The expansion would also feature Azshara prominently, though it's unclear from the rumors whether she or Zul would be the real headliner (here's a tin-foil theory for you: Zul is Azshara in disguise.) I'd prefer Azshara, just because she's a bigger name and frankly we could use more prominent female characters in WoW. Not to say that it doesn't have them - Sylvanas is a great character, and I like Jaina a lot too (frankly, I think the reaction to her purging of Dalaran has been interpreted as far more "evil" than "badass" and "done putting up with this bullshit" primarily because she's a woman, but that's a whole can of worms that I don't want to get into here.)
The rumor goes that Vol'jin will be at the center of the Horde plot, which makes a lot of sense. He'd be dealing with questions of his loyalty, with the Zandalari perhaps trying again to interest him in joining their nationalistic movement. Obviously he won't, because Vol'jin is awesome, but it'll be a nice bit of conflict and a cool story you couldn't have done if the Horde were still being run by an Orc.
Meanwhile, the rumor goes on to say that Malfurion would be central to the Alliance plot - though frankly, again, I think they need to bring Tyrande back to the forefront. In my headcanon, Malfurion's obviously powerful and useful, but he's not a real military leader, and is more the kind of earthy, Night Elfy version of your most powerful wizard - in other words, too caught up in his mystical stuff to deal with mundane practicalities like actually running their society. Tyrande, however, is practically the Queen of the Night Elves, and so I'd like to see her kicking ass.
Still, the overall idea that we could have a WoW expansion where neither Orcs nor Humans were at the center of things makes me super excited. We got half of that in Warlords of Draenor, and whatever flaws the expansion might have had, I don't think I've heard anyone complain about getting more Draenei lore.
Obviously this is not far off from the Council of Glades rumor. The main reason I put points in this one's favor is that the name "The Dark Prophet" sounds way, way cooler than "Council of Glades."
I think we could definitely see some carry-over of demons, and perhaps even see Gul'dan-B return to kick off the expansion. It's kind of shocking that Gul'dan wasn't a raid boss in Warlords of Draenor (I really expected him to be the final boss) but they could be saving him to kind of take us, as they did with Garrosh, into the new territory.
And while Warlords is really the first expansion since BC that didn't deal in some way with the Old Gods, I think we've been long enough away from those eldritch horrors that I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of them. Twilight's Hammer might have lost it leader, but you can be certain that it hasn't been wiped out.
I'm also very curious about where Azshara's loyalties lie. Deathwing was taken over entirely by the Old Gods, but I wonder if Azshara has somehow managed to maintain her own will. I know it's unlikely my "Fel Magic makes you immune to Old Gods" theory will prove to be canon, but it'd be cool if it did!
EDIT: Oh yes, and this one seems to suggest that we'd be getting a class called "Shadowstalker," with specializations called "Dark Ranger" and "Shadow Hunter." While not totally outside the realm of possibility, this seems less likely to me than Demon Hunters. The reason being that "Shadowstalker" isn't really a name that has much existing meaning in WoW. Granted, it's not unprecedented to see an established "class" re-conceived as a spec of a larger class (Brewmasters.) That said, if we have a Troll/Naga South Seas expansion, a class that allows for Shadow Hunters might fit better than Demon Hunters.
Again, none of this is confirmed, and there's still a possibility that the next expansion won't have any new classes, even though I'd prefer that it did. I certainly have a positive response bias toward Demon Hunters as a new class, so while I think it's more likely, I realize that my expectations are a bit skewed.
This would, similarly, deal with The Prophet Zul, who came to King Rastakhan of the Zandalari and drummed up the whole "re-unite the Trolls" story we've been getting since 4.1.
The expansion would also feature Azshara prominently, though it's unclear from the rumors whether she or Zul would be the real headliner (here's a tin-foil theory for you: Zul is Azshara in disguise.) I'd prefer Azshara, just because she's a bigger name and frankly we could use more prominent female characters in WoW. Not to say that it doesn't have them - Sylvanas is a great character, and I like Jaina a lot too (frankly, I think the reaction to her purging of Dalaran has been interpreted as far more "evil" than "badass" and "done putting up with this bullshit" primarily because she's a woman, but that's a whole can of worms that I don't want to get into here.)
The rumor goes that Vol'jin will be at the center of the Horde plot, which makes a lot of sense. He'd be dealing with questions of his loyalty, with the Zandalari perhaps trying again to interest him in joining their nationalistic movement. Obviously he won't, because Vol'jin is awesome, but it'll be a nice bit of conflict and a cool story you couldn't have done if the Horde were still being run by an Orc.
Meanwhile, the rumor goes on to say that Malfurion would be central to the Alliance plot - though frankly, again, I think they need to bring Tyrande back to the forefront. In my headcanon, Malfurion's obviously powerful and useful, but he's not a real military leader, and is more the kind of earthy, Night Elfy version of your most powerful wizard - in other words, too caught up in his mystical stuff to deal with mundane practicalities like actually running their society. Tyrande, however, is practically the Queen of the Night Elves, and so I'd like to see her kicking ass.
Still, the overall idea that we could have a WoW expansion where neither Orcs nor Humans were at the center of things makes me super excited. We got half of that in Warlords of Draenor, and whatever flaws the expansion might have had, I don't think I've heard anyone complain about getting more Draenei lore.
Obviously this is not far off from the Council of Glades rumor. The main reason I put points in this one's favor is that the name "The Dark Prophet" sounds way, way cooler than "Council of Glades."
I think we could definitely see some carry-over of demons, and perhaps even see Gul'dan-B return to kick off the expansion. It's kind of shocking that Gul'dan wasn't a raid boss in Warlords of Draenor (I really expected him to be the final boss) but they could be saving him to kind of take us, as they did with Garrosh, into the new territory.
And while Warlords is really the first expansion since BC that didn't deal in some way with the Old Gods, I think we've been long enough away from those eldritch horrors that I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of them. Twilight's Hammer might have lost it leader, but you can be certain that it hasn't been wiped out.
I'm also very curious about where Azshara's loyalties lie. Deathwing was taken over entirely by the Old Gods, but I wonder if Azshara has somehow managed to maintain her own will. I know it's unlikely my "Fel Magic makes you immune to Old Gods" theory will prove to be canon, but it'd be cool if it did!
EDIT: Oh yes, and this one seems to suggest that we'd be getting a class called "Shadowstalker," with specializations called "Dark Ranger" and "Shadow Hunter." While not totally outside the realm of possibility, this seems less likely to me than Demon Hunters. The reason being that "Shadowstalker" isn't really a name that has much existing meaning in WoW. Granted, it's not unprecedented to see an established "class" re-conceived as a spec of a larger class (Brewmasters.) That said, if we have a Troll/Naga South Seas expansion, a class that allows for Shadow Hunters might fit better than Demon Hunters.
Again, none of this is confirmed, and there's still a possibility that the next expansion won't have any new classes, even though I'd prefer that it did. I certainly have a positive response bias toward Demon Hunters as a new class, so while I think it's more likely, I realize that my expectations are a bit skewed.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
New Race, New Class, Both, or Neither?
For the first few expansions, there was something of a pattern. We got new races in BC (though we shouldn't forget how big of an impact Blood Elf Paladins and Draenei Shaman had on the game,) a new Hero class in Wrath of the Lich King, new races in Cataclysm (plus new race/class combos,) and then things started to deviate a little. Rather than simply adding a new class, Mists brought us the Monk and a single new race - the Pandaren.
Of course, having blown their new class and new race, Warlords of Draenor focused instead on revamping the old vanilla/BC models. Arguably, re-doing six existing races is an effort equal or greater to that of creating one or two new ones from scratch.
Still, I think it's enough of a deviation that we shouldn't simply predict things based on patterns. There's a chance that expansion six, like expansion five, will not have either new "new toon incentive."
That said, I think that races and classes are the most effective way of drumming up excitement for a new expansion - classes in particular. Races are far easier to implement, as they just require some new art work (though racial abilities can require some tricky balancing.) Story-wise it clearly behooves the designers to work them into the game in a fairly crowded fantasy universe, but Blizzard clearly doesn't mind letting certain playable races kind of join the team and then fade into the background (*cough* Worgen.) The bright side of this attitude is that it means races can be more or less indefinitely added to the game, as they require very little follow-up.
Classes, on the other hand, are a real commitment. Just because we beat Arthas and left Northrend doesn't mean that they don't have to worry about Death Knights anymore.
Still, classes are by far a more exciting thing to add to the game. It's great for us altoholics, and it changes up the metagame in interesting ways. It is, of course, difficult to come up with new mechanical concepts, and sometimes you might worry that a class niche is already partially filled by an existing one. Before Monks, I always kind of thought of Discipline Priests as the Monk variety (albeit a more Western-style Christian variety, rather than the Shao Lin Chinese style martial-artist.) The Demon Hunter - a class that has always been pretty central to discussions of new classes - is kind of a cross between Warlocks and Rogues, leading some to speculate that it would be easier to simply say that Demon Hunters are actually under the umbrella of one of those classes or the other.
If we do get a new class, I think it's likely we'll get a Hero Class, like the Death Knight, unlike the regular start-at-one Monk. Indeed, we might even see the removal of level restrictions to start said class, given that we're now in the era of level boosts. I'd think a new hero class would start at level 100, or perhaps at level 97 or something to allow them to level up a bit in a special starting experience that would then pop them out at the same level as the others heading to the new content.
Death Knights started at level 55 in order to let them skip the Old World, but they were still expected to go through Burning Crusade content. I think partially this is just because there was a different philosophy back then - BC was seen as recent enough that people would likely not be sick of it yet (and given how slow leveling was in the BC era, most players would have only gotten a couple of characters up to Outland anyway.)
But these days, partially just due to the natural accumulation of alts at the level cap due to the age of the game, they're unlikely to make a new hero class character go through Draenor again.
There are certainly existing, established races that Blizzard could make playable. Ogres are probably the oldest and most obvious ones. Blizzard has said in the past they'd like to do playable Naga (I'd like to see how they solve pants, shoes, and mounts.) Ethereals, Arrakoa, Furbolgs - the list goes on.
Of course, there's also the possibility that they'll just not have either. Personally I think that would be a bad decision. I think part of the reason that Warlords has felt especially light on content is that there hasn't been any reason to do anything that isn't in Draenor. There's no incentive now that there wasn't during Mists to go back to the old world and level a low-level toon again. In contrast, I remember that when Wrath came out, I was pretty evenly splitting my time between leveling my Paladin up through Northrend and my Death Knight through Outland. In Cataclysm, I was taking the Paladin again through the new zones while my Worgen Warrior was fighting his way through the shattered old world. In Mists... you get the idea.
Warlords of Draenor, on the other hand, was just a series of "take another character into Tanaan, make sure that he gets far enough that he start accruing garrison resources."
I know that a lot of players just want to get to the endgame as quickly as possible, but I think one of the game's strengths is just how much content there is to work through before getting there. There's something refreshing and kind of low-stakes about taking a level forty character into Eastern Plaguelands - not worrying about getting that new trinket or shield. Warlords didn't give us any reason to do that again (and arguably encouraged us not to with the character boost.)
I don't have any problem with people who do want to skip ahead, but having a new perspective to see the world is fun, and I hope we get one in expansion six.
Of course, having blown their new class and new race, Warlords of Draenor focused instead on revamping the old vanilla/BC models. Arguably, re-doing six existing races is an effort equal or greater to that of creating one or two new ones from scratch.
Still, I think it's enough of a deviation that we shouldn't simply predict things based on patterns. There's a chance that expansion six, like expansion five, will not have either new "new toon incentive."
That said, I think that races and classes are the most effective way of drumming up excitement for a new expansion - classes in particular. Races are far easier to implement, as they just require some new art work (though racial abilities can require some tricky balancing.) Story-wise it clearly behooves the designers to work them into the game in a fairly crowded fantasy universe, but Blizzard clearly doesn't mind letting certain playable races kind of join the team and then fade into the background (*cough* Worgen.) The bright side of this attitude is that it means races can be more or less indefinitely added to the game, as they require very little follow-up.
Classes, on the other hand, are a real commitment. Just because we beat Arthas and left Northrend doesn't mean that they don't have to worry about Death Knights anymore.
Still, classes are by far a more exciting thing to add to the game. It's great for us altoholics, and it changes up the metagame in interesting ways. It is, of course, difficult to come up with new mechanical concepts, and sometimes you might worry that a class niche is already partially filled by an existing one. Before Monks, I always kind of thought of Discipline Priests as the Monk variety (albeit a more Western-style Christian variety, rather than the Shao Lin Chinese style martial-artist.) The Demon Hunter - a class that has always been pretty central to discussions of new classes - is kind of a cross between Warlocks and Rogues, leading some to speculate that it would be easier to simply say that Demon Hunters are actually under the umbrella of one of those classes or the other.
If we do get a new class, I think it's likely we'll get a Hero Class, like the Death Knight, unlike the regular start-at-one Monk. Indeed, we might even see the removal of level restrictions to start said class, given that we're now in the era of level boosts. I'd think a new hero class would start at level 100, or perhaps at level 97 or something to allow them to level up a bit in a special starting experience that would then pop them out at the same level as the others heading to the new content.
Death Knights started at level 55 in order to let them skip the Old World, but they were still expected to go through Burning Crusade content. I think partially this is just because there was a different philosophy back then - BC was seen as recent enough that people would likely not be sick of it yet (and given how slow leveling was in the BC era, most players would have only gotten a couple of characters up to Outland anyway.)
But these days, partially just due to the natural accumulation of alts at the level cap due to the age of the game, they're unlikely to make a new hero class character go through Draenor again.
There are certainly existing, established races that Blizzard could make playable. Ogres are probably the oldest and most obvious ones. Blizzard has said in the past they'd like to do playable Naga (I'd like to see how they solve pants, shoes, and mounts.) Ethereals, Arrakoa, Furbolgs - the list goes on.
Of course, there's also the possibility that they'll just not have either. Personally I think that would be a bad decision. I think part of the reason that Warlords has felt especially light on content is that there hasn't been any reason to do anything that isn't in Draenor. There's no incentive now that there wasn't during Mists to go back to the old world and level a low-level toon again. In contrast, I remember that when Wrath came out, I was pretty evenly splitting my time between leveling my Paladin up through Northrend and my Death Knight through Outland. In Cataclysm, I was taking the Paladin again through the new zones while my Worgen Warrior was fighting his way through the shattered old world. In Mists... you get the idea.
Warlords of Draenor, on the other hand, was just a series of "take another character into Tanaan, make sure that he gets far enough that he start accruing garrison resources."
I know that a lot of players just want to get to the endgame as quickly as possible, but I think one of the game's strengths is just how much content there is to work through before getting there. There's something refreshing and kind of low-stakes about taking a level forty character into Eastern Plaguelands - not worrying about getting that new trinket or shield. Warlords didn't give us any reason to do that again (and arguably encouraged us not to with the character boost.)
I don't have any problem with people who do want to skip ahead, but having a new perspective to see the world is fun, and I hope we get one in expansion six.
Blizzard Confirms New World of Warcraft Expansion to be Announced August 6th at Gamescon
Well! In an refreshingly up-front manner, Blizzard has... if you read the title of the article... new expansion...
Blizzard will be announcing the next expansion to World of Warcraft at Gamescon on August 6th.
This ends months of speculation about whether Blizzard would ever dare announce an expansion not at Blizzcon with resounding: Hell yes they'd dare.
Given the shorter nature of Warlords of Draenor - an expansion that had only one major content patch (no, 6.1 don't count) - Blizzard would seemingly need to bump up the expansion-release schedule. In the past, expansions have always gone about two years, with each year having an expansion release in the fall, or an expansion announcement in the fall (or thereabouts.) However, in order to get the process going and allow them to do the kind of testing that you really only want to do after there have been announcements earlier, you'll need an earlier announcement.
I highly suspect that this will be a similar reveal to the Mists of Pandaria expansion - we'll get a short trailer that will detail the major features like where it's taking place, what the new level cap will be, and if we'll be getting new races or classes, as well as the usual "new dungeons, new zones, new raids, new battleground" froo-fra. We'll hear a bit more during a panel, but I'd expect that we'll be waiting for Blizzcon to get details like the names of the various dungeons, zones and raids, and clarifications on things like any major class mechanic changes or the mechanics of any new classes that come about.
Still, knowing where we're going next will be very nice. And hopefully we'll see the expansion release proportionately sooner.
Blizzard will be announcing the next expansion to World of Warcraft at Gamescon on August 6th.
This ends months of speculation about whether Blizzard would ever dare announce an expansion not at Blizzcon with resounding: Hell yes they'd dare.
Given the shorter nature of Warlords of Draenor - an expansion that had only one major content patch (no, 6.1 don't count) - Blizzard would seemingly need to bump up the expansion-release schedule. In the past, expansions have always gone about two years, with each year having an expansion release in the fall, or an expansion announcement in the fall (or thereabouts.) However, in order to get the process going and allow them to do the kind of testing that you really only want to do after there have been announcements earlier, you'll need an earlier announcement.
I highly suspect that this will be a similar reveal to the Mists of Pandaria expansion - we'll get a short trailer that will detail the major features like where it's taking place, what the new level cap will be, and if we'll be getting new races or classes, as well as the usual "new dungeons, new zones, new raids, new battleground" froo-fra. We'll hear a bit more during a panel, but I'd expect that we'll be waiting for Blizzcon to get details like the names of the various dungeons, zones and raids, and clarifications on things like any major class mechanic changes or the mechanics of any new classes that come about.
Still, knowing where we're going next will be very nice. And hopefully we'll see the expansion release proportionately sooner.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
"Council of Glades" Rumor - Rumor, Mind You. Putting That Right in the Title.
Ok, with Gamescon coming up an a lot of speculating that we might hear about expansion six there, we have another supposed "Trademark Leak." The "Leak" "is" that there is a Blizzard trademark application in New Zealand for "Council of Glades."
Trademark leaks are usually the most reliable way to discover the truth of a new expansion - Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor are all trademarked titles that were discovered before their respective expansion announcements.
On the other hand, "The Dark Below" was similarly discovered, and we all know how that turned out.
Additionally, a little while ago, there was a rumor of a leaked "Council of Tirisfal" themed expansion. In case you don't know what that is, allow me to elucidate.
The Council of Tirisfal was created thousands of years ago by mages in Lordaeron (primarily human ones, though I think High Elves got in on the action as well.) They chose someone to serve as the Guardian, imbuing said Guardian with their power and creating effectively the most powerful Mage on Azeroth. Why don't we have such a useful person anymore?
Well, the second-to-last Guardian was Aegwynn. In her time as Guardian, she traveled to Northrend and did battle with an Avatar of Sargeras. Despite Aegwynn winning, Sargeras was able to pour his essence into Aegwynn. When Aegwynn seduced Nielas Aran in order to create an heir that she would give her Guardian powers to (circumventing the Council,) she conceived Medivh, and Sargeras transferred over to him while he was still a microscopic embryo.
Medivh was thus the Last Guardian, and his possession by the Dark Titan led to the invasion by the Horde.
Now, in the comics, Medivh had a son with Garona Halforcen. This character, Med'an, is almost universally reviled by anyone who has read the comics, who appears to embody all the worst Wesley-Crusher-style wunderkind/Mary Sue tropes. I don't know for sure, having never read Warcraft tie-in materials outside of short stories on their website.
Anyway, the expansion rumor mentions a return of Illidan, with Gul'dan and Azshara also working against us. The rumor puts forth playable Demon Hunters, the establishment of Gnomeregan and Gilneas as functional Alliance cities, Thassarian attempting to rescue Koltira from Sylvanas, as well as Magatha Grimtotem summoning a massive ocean behemoth and Timewalker Zones, which would allow you to scale down and quest through old zones again.
So, can you spot the problem with this rumor?
My problem is that it looks way too good to be true. Demon Hunters, Gilneas, a follow-up to Thassarian and Koltira, a return of Illidan - these are all like a checklist of things that players have been clamoring for for years.
Mind you, this is more or less exactly what I want out of the next expansion (throw in "launching with twelve 5-player dungeons and three new ones each patch" and I'll overdose) but let's just say color me skeptical.
While real expansion leaks do happen, for every true one, we get at least three total BS "leaks." This one looks way more like the BS variety.
But that said, if it does turn out to be true, it could be a fantastic expansion.
Trademark leaks are usually the most reliable way to discover the truth of a new expansion - Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor are all trademarked titles that were discovered before their respective expansion announcements.
On the other hand, "The Dark Below" was similarly discovered, and we all know how that turned out.
Additionally, a little while ago, there was a rumor of a leaked "Council of Tirisfal" themed expansion. In case you don't know what that is, allow me to elucidate.
The Council of Tirisfal was created thousands of years ago by mages in Lordaeron (primarily human ones, though I think High Elves got in on the action as well.) They chose someone to serve as the Guardian, imbuing said Guardian with their power and creating effectively the most powerful Mage on Azeroth. Why don't we have such a useful person anymore?
Well, the second-to-last Guardian was Aegwynn. In her time as Guardian, she traveled to Northrend and did battle with an Avatar of Sargeras. Despite Aegwynn winning, Sargeras was able to pour his essence into Aegwynn. When Aegwynn seduced Nielas Aran in order to create an heir that she would give her Guardian powers to (circumventing the Council,) she conceived Medivh, and Sargeras transferred over to him while he was still a microscopic embryo.
Medivh was thus the Last Guardian, and his possession by the Dark Titan led to the invasion by the Horde.
Now, in the comics, Medivh had a son with Garona Halforcen. This character, Med'an, is almost universally reviled by anyone who has read the comics, who appears to embody all the worst Wesley-Crusher-style wunderkind/Mary Sue tropes. I don't know for sure, having never read Warcraft tie-in materials outside of short stories on their website.
Anyway, the expansion rumor mentions a return of Illidan, with Gul'dan and Azshara also working against us. The rumor puts forth playable Demon Hunters, the establishment of Gnomeregan and Gilneas as functional Alliance cities, Thassarian attempting to rescue Koltira from Sylvanas, as well as Magatha Grimtotem summoning a massive ocean behemoth and Timewalker Zones, which would allow you to scale down and quest through old zones again.
So, can you spot the problem with this rumor?
My problem is that it looks way too good to be true. Demon Hunters, Gilneas, a follow-up to Thassarian and Koltira, a return of Illidan - these are all like a checklist of things that players have been clamoring for for years.
Mind you, this is more or less exactly what I want out of the next expansion (throw in "launching with twelve 5-player dungeons and three new ones each patch" and I'll overdose) but let's just say color me skeptical.
While real expansion leaks do happen, for every true one, we get at least three total BS "leaks." This one looks way more like the BS variety.
But that said, if it does turn out to be true, it could be a fantastic expansion.
Bastion of Shadows Tank Impressions
Unfortunately, I wound up doing this wing out of order, but I still got through the whole thing, so I've got a little quasi-guide/rundown as usual. There are three bosses here and, joy of joys, not a single Orc! Seriously, I did not see any Orcs whatsoever in this wing. Bastion of Shadows consists of Shadow-Lord Iskar, Socrethar the Eternal, and Tyrant Velhari. If you ignore the first one, this is effectively the Sargerai/Eredar wing (not counting of course the Black Gate, which is purely Archimonde and thus the real Eredar wing.)
Trash before Iskar:
The trash before Iskar is pretty quick - you'll get I think three packs of Arrakoa, giving you a preview of the adds that spawn during the fight. I believe the constructs will create a shield - though whether it affects just them or everyone, I couldn't be certain. Anyway, quick series of fights and you're ready for the boss.
Shadow-Lord Iskar:
First things first: regardless of your role, you should have your raid frames up so you can see fellow raid members and whether they have debuffs up.
The central mechanic here is the Eye of Anzu - an item that a raid member will be able to pick up at the start of the fight. The person holding the eye will get an extra-action button to toss the eye to another raid member.
The main key to this fight is to toss the Eye to people who have various debuffs. The main one that I was aware of was Phantasmal Winds, which will gradually push a player toward the edge of the room, eventually dumping them to their deaths. You can run against this wind, but the best way to deal with it is to toss the Eye to anyone who has it, which will dispel the debuff. I believe there are other debuffs that can be cleared with it, but that's the one that comes up the most.
The tank-swap is similar to Iron Reaver - you'll be targeted with a Chakram that will land after a few seconds. The other tank taunts and you get out of the way.
Periodically, Iskar will fly away and summon adds. Group them up where you were tanking the boss and have the raid stack up, as he'll channel a massive death laser that splits damage between those it hits. He'll also shoot fire at random players, leaving a trail as the fire chases them. Just run away from this if you get targeted (which you shouldn't if you're a tank.) Stay out of the fire. Kill the adds (who seem to be the same as the trash.)
Trash before Socrethar:
The Sargerai have enlisted some Vigilant robots to serve them. The flesh-and-blood Sargerai in these packs are not terribly hard, but some will do Shockwaves that stun you for a few seconds, so you'll want to face them away from the raid and try to step out before they go off.
The Vigilants will periodically shoot lasers in a big arc around them and also use "Crowd Control Protocols" which will disorient everyone nearby and then go off after one of the ranged. Taunt them back once you recover.
Socretar the Eternal:
This fight is sort of reminiscent of Professor Putricide, in that, at least during one phase, one tank will spend the time piloting a big construct.
There are two phases - one you want to get through quickly, the other you want to last long.
In phase one, Socrethar will be piloting his own Vigilant (remember that we killed him in Shattrath.) The Vigilant has a couple tricky abilities. The main one you'll want to deal with is Reverberating Blow. He'll smash the ground, sending out a cone of pain. You'll take some damage and get up to three stacks of a debuff, which will increase the damage that you take from subsequent Reverberating Blows. The key here is to have others - NOT the other tank - stand in the strike with you, as if there are others to take the strike, they'll get some of the stacks instead. The debuff lasts long enough that you'll have to take the strike multiple times before the other tank takes over, but if you can keep the debuff at low stacks like two or three, you'll survive, but if it gets up to five or six, you'll get one-shot.
There are other things to watch out for, like a charge that leaves a path of fel fire, but Reverberating Blow is the big one.
When the construct is depleted of health, the Soul of Socrethar will be ejected from it, allowing you to actually fight the boss.
One tank picks him up while the other takes over the Construct. I did the latter, so I'll talk about that, primarily.
You only get two of his abilities - no fire-charge - but you can help a lot with the adds and putting hurt on the boss. Use Reverberating Blows to keep the boss debuffed and smack him for big damage. You can also hit the ghosts with it from afar. But you also want to avoid standing near said ghosts when they die, as they will damage the construct. While you won't be able to do it yourself, the raid should interrupt the boss when he casts Exert Control, as that will further damage the construct. There are other adds that pop up, but I believe the ghosts and Exert Control are the biggest dangers to you during this phase.
If you're good and lucky, you might be able to down the boss from here, but at least on my first go, the construct eventually lost its health. This simply reverts the boss to phase one, requiring you to take down the construct again and eject Socrethar from it.
Trash before Velhari:
The ramps you took down into Socrethar's room are now filled up with demons and Sargerai forces. There are four portals at each corner of the ramps. You'll need to take out the adds nearby and have someone shut down the portals to keep the adds from continuing to stream in.
As you make your way to Velhari's room, you'll need to deal with some named Eredar Vindicators who are accompanied by several unnamed adds. Each has a special ability, but the main one you'll want to worry about as a tank is Seal of Decay, which reduces healing and necessitates a tank swap. The final named add will resurrect the other two when you pull her.
Tyrant Velhari:
This fight I was admittedly a little shakier on. Seal of Decay is your main tank-swap debuff to worry about here. It's your standard "swap when your stacks fall off," though I think there's a little grace period, so you can actually taunt after your co-tank gets I believe two stacks.
Velhari will go through three auras as the fight goes on at each third of her health. She'll also summon three adds that you'll probably want to tank if you're off the boss.
During the first aura, you'll take damage for moving, so you only want to move when she casts her big fire tornado and puts a knock-up attack under your feet.
The second phase, she'll prevent all healing, so you'll want to burn her quickly. (Not sure how this applies to Death Knight tanks. I'd hope they'd get an exception, because otherwise they'd be crippled on this fight.)
On phase three, she'll start dropping shadowy "consecrations" on the ground. You'll want to gradually kite her around the (rather small) room as she does this and hopefully kill her before you run out of space.
Conclusion:
There are some interesting new mechanics in this wing, and it's a nice change in aesthetic as well. Despite being arguably the most conventional fight, I found Velhari to be the hardest, and the most likely to wipe raids. That said, we got through without any wipes (though I died twice due to two different tanks failing to do a taunt-swap.)
I believe it's two more weeks before we get the penultimate wing, which will have Xhul'horac, Fel Lord Zakun, and Mannoroth, and then another two before we get Archimonde himself.
And hey, it's possible that we'll know what expansion six is by then!
Trash before Iskar:
The trash before Iskar is pretty quick - you'll get I think three packs of Arrakoa, giving you a preview of the adds that spawn during the fight. I believe the constructs will create a shield - though whether it affects just them or everyone, I couldn't be certain. Anyway, quick series of fights and you're ready for the boss.
Shadow-Lord Iskar:
First things first: regardless of your role, you should have your raid frames up so you can see fellow raid members and whether they have debuffs up.
The central mechanic here is the Eye of Anzu - an item that a raid member will be able to pick up at the start of the fight. The person holding the eye will get an extra-action button to toss the eye to another raid member.
The main key to this fight is to toss the Eye to people who have various debuffs. The main one that I was aware of was Phantasmal Winds, which will gradually push a player toward the edge of the room, eventually dumping them to their deaths. You can run against this wind, but the best way to deal with it is to toss the Eye to anyone who has it, which will dispel the debuff. I believe there are other debuffs that can be cleared with it, but that's the one that comes up the most.
The tank-swap is similar to Iron Reaver - you'll be targeted with a Chakram that will land after a few seconds. The other tank taunts and you get out of the way.
Periodically, Iskar will fly away and summon adds. Group them up where you were tanking the boss and have the raid stack up, as he'll channel a massive death laser that splits damage between those it hits. He'll also shoot fire at random players, leaving a trail as the fire chases them. Just run away from this if you get targeted (which you shouldn't if you're a tank.) Stay out of the fire. Kill the adds (who seem to be the same as the trash.)
Trash before Socrethar:
The Sargerai have enlisted some Vigilant robots to serve them. The flesh-and-blood Sargerai in these packs are not terribly hard, but some will do Shockwaves that stun you for a few seconds, so you'll want to face them away from the raid and try to step out before they go off.
The Vigilants will periodically shoot lasers in a big arc around them and also use "Crowd Control Protocols" which will disorient everyone nearby and then go off after one of the ranged. Taunt them back once you recover.
Socretar the Eternal:
This fight is sort of reminiscent of Professor Putricide, in that, at least during one phase, one tank will spend the time piloting a big construct.
There are two phases - one you want to get through quickly, the other you want to last long.
In phase one, Socrethar will be piloting his own Vigilant (remember that we killed him in Shattrath.) The Vigilant has a couple tricky abilities. The main one you'll want to deal with is Reverberating Blow. He'll smash the ground, sending out a cone of pain. You'll take some damage and get up to three stacks of a debuff, which will increase the damage that you take from subsequent Reverberating Blows. The key here is to have others - NOT the other tank - stand in the strike with you, as if there are others to take the strike, they'll get some of the stacks instead. The debuff lasts long enough that you'll have to take the strike multiple times before the other tank takes over, but if you can keep the debuff at low stacks like two or three, you'll survive, but if it gets up to five or six, you'll get one-shot.
There are other things to watch out for, like a charge that leaves a path of fel fire, but Reverberating Blow is the big one.
When the construct is depleted of health, the Soul of Socrethar will be ejected from it, allowing you to actually fight the boss.
One tank picks him up while the other takes over the Construct. I did the latter, so I'll talk about that, primarily.
You only get two of his abilities - no fire-charge - but you can help a lot with the adds and putting hurt on the boss. Use Reverberating Blows to keep the boss debuffed and smack him for big damage. You can also hit the ghosts with it from afar. But you also want to avoid standing near said ghosts when they die, as they will damage the construct. While you won't be able to do it yourself, the raid should interrupt the boss when he casts Exert Control, as that will further damage the construct. There are other adds that pop up, but I believe the ghosts and Exert Control are the biggest dangers to you during this phase.
If you're good and lucky, you might be able to down the boss from here, but at least on my first go, the construct eventually lost its health. This simply reverts the boss to phase one, requiring you to take down the construct again and eject Socrethar from it.
Trash before Velhari:
The ramps you took down into Socrethar's room are now filled up with demons and Sargerai forces. There are four portals at each corner of the ramps. You'll need to take out the adds nearby and have someone shut down the portals to keep the adds from continuing to stream in.
As you make your way to Velhari's room, you'll need to deal with some named Eredar Vindicators who are accompanied by several unnamed adds. Each has a special ability, but the main one you'll want to worry about as a tank is Seal of Decay, which reduces healing and necessitates a tank swap. The final named add will resurrect the other two when you pull her.
Tyrant Velhari:
This fight I was admittedly a little shakier on. Seal of Decay is your main tank-swap debuff to worry about here. It's your standard "swap when your stacks fall off," though I think there's a little grace period, so you can actually taunt after your co-tank gets I believe two stacks.
Velhari will go through three auras as the fight goes on at each third of her health. She'll also summon three adds that you'll probably want to tank if you're off the boss.
During the first aura, you'll take damage for moving, so you only want to move when she casts her big fire tornado and puts a knock-up attack under your feet.
The second phase, she'll prevent all healing, so you'll want to burn her quickly. (Not sure how this applies to Death Knight tanks. I'd hope they'd get an exception, because otherwise they'd be crippled on this fight.)
On phase three, she'll start dropping shadowy "consecrations" on the ground. You'll want to gradually kite her around the (rather small) room as she does this and hopefully kill her before you run out of space.
Conclusion:
There are some interesting new mechanics in this wing, and it's a nice change in aesthetic as well. Despite being arguably the most conventional fight, I found Velhari to be the hardest, and the most likely to wipe raids. That said, we got through without any wipes (though I died twice due to two different tanks failing to do a taunt-swap.)
I believe it's two more weeks before we get the penultimate wing, which will have Xhul'horac, Fel Lord Zakun, and Mannoroth, and then another two before we get Archimonde himself.
And hey, it's possible that we'll know what expansion six is by then!
Monday, July 27, 2015
Blizzard Having a Second, Invite-Only Event and Gamescon
Blizzard announced a while ago that they would be coming to Gamescon in early August (so, quite soon) and there has been a lot of speculation based on the fact that Warlords is a "short expansion" that the announcement of expansion six might be coming then, rather than at Blizzcon as usual.
Blizzard announced Reaper of Souls at Blizzcon, so it's not unprecedented for them to do a big announcement outside of their own special convention. And also, given the pacing of the content releases for Warlords of Draenor and the expectation (which has been confirmed by Blizzard if I recall correctly) that Warlords is essentially done (with the exception of the minor flying-activation patch,) many have speculated that Blizzard would be forced to announce the new expansion earlier rather than later in order to bump up the whole Alpha, Beta, and release schedule so that we don't have to wait until Fall of 2016 and wind up going for even longer than we did during Siege of Orgrimmar without new content.
This is by no means a guarantee, but the pieces fit nicely in place to the point that I'd argue the most likely scenario is that we'll get our first announcement of the new expansion very soon.
That said, even if we do, it may not be the massive info influx we typically get. As I recall, Mists of Pandaria (which was announced at Blizzcon) had a trailer and a brief set of statements, but they delayed a few weeks before going into detail (we knew we were going to Pandaria, but not that Garrosh would be the final boss.) I could see us getting a quick confirmation - announcing the biggest features, like new races, classes, or something I'm unlikely to be able to predict - but waiting until Blizzcon for the massive "here's a comprehensive list of zones, dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, etc." announcements.
So let's talk scenarios.
First of all, technically this could actually be the announcement of a Diablo III expansion. The game is probably due for one to come out in like a year. I really hope Tyrael's speculation that the Nephalem could go crazy and evil in the end doesn't pan out, but I know that historically, the Diablo series has always led to a kind of dark ending. Of course, none of the previous heroes were effectively god-like creatures, whereas they all are in Diablo III.
But onto World of Warcraft:
To me, there are two most likely expansion subjects, one that I'd far prefer and one that I think is plausible, but problematic.
The first is a perennial favorite - the South Seas expansion. My reasoning for this one is really more that it's about time we go there than anything else. While Blizzard might want to hold back on having us interact with the Titans or take the fight to the Burning Legion, Azshara is a villain more on the level of Arthas or Deathwing - someone who is powerful enough to be a serious threat, but not so universally godlike that defeating them would leave us with nowhere to go but down. Also, the Zandalari and the Prophet Zul could play a big part - it might be stretching it, but Zul might even function as a main villain (though I think Azshara would work far better. Also, let's have some powerful female characters!)
The other would be a trip to the alternate Azeroth. While I think most people want to go back to Universe A and maybe leave alternate timeline stuff behind forever (or at least leaving it to the occasional quest or Caverns of Time dungeon) I'll admit that seeing Stormwind or maybe the other kingdoms before the invasion of the Horde would be kind of cool. It would also tie a lot into the upcoming Warcraft movie, which would be the kind of brand synergy that a lot of companies would want to push. Gul'dan's survival of Hellfire Citadel (and apparent enslavement by the Burning Legion) suggests that he could remain a threat and spearhead an incursion into that more innocent Azeroth.
Now obviously there could be totally different scenarios that I haven't thought up. I've talked about other expansion ideas, and things like both Warlords and Mists were pretty big curveballs that I didn't see coming.
And of course, there's a chance that August 5th will roll around and we still won't know. But I'm reasonably confident that we will, and that's pretty exciting.
Blizzard announced Reaper of Souls at Blizzcon, so it's not unprecedented for them to do a big announcement outside of their own special convention. And also, given the pacing of the content releases for Warlords of Draenor and the expectation (which has been confirmed by Blizzard if I recall correctly) that Warlords is essentially done (with the exception of the minor flying-activation patch,) many have speculated that Blizzard would be forced to announce the new expansion earlier rather than later in order to bump up the whole Alpha, Beta, and release schedule so that we don't have to wait until Fall of 2016 and wind up going for even longer than we did during Siege of Orgrimmar without new content.
This is by no means a guarantee, but the pieces fit nicely in place to the point that I'd argue the most likely scenario is that we'll get our first announcement of the new expansion very soon.
That said, even if we do, it may not be the massive info influx we typically get. As I recall, Mists of Pandaria (which was announced at Blizzcon) had a trailer and a brief set of statements, but they delayed a few weeks before going into detail (we knew we were going to Pandaria, but not that Garrosh would be the final boss.) I could see us getting a quick confirmation - announcing the biggest features, like new races, classes, or something I'm unlikely to be able to predict - but waiting until Blizzcon for the massive "here's a comprehensive list of zones, dungeons, raids, battlegrounds, etc." announcements.
So let's talk scenarios.
First of all, technically this could actually be the announcement of a Diablo III expansion. The game is probably due for one to come out in like a year. I really hope Tyrael's speculation that the Nephalem could go crazy and evil in the end doesn't pan out, but I know that historically, the Diablo series has always led to a kind of dark ending. Of course, none of the previous heroes were effectively god-like creatures, whereas they all are in Diablo III.
But onto World of Warcraft:
To me, there are two most likely expansion subjects, one that I'd far prefer and one that I think is plausible, but problematic.
The first is a perennial favorite - the South Seas expansion. My reasoning for this one is really more that it's about time we go there than anything else. While Blizzard might want to hold back on having us interact with the Titans or take the fight to the Burning Legion, Azshara is a villain more on the level of Arthas or Deathwing - someone who is powerful enough to be a serious threat, but not so universally godlike that defeating them would leave us with nowhere to go but down. Also, the Zandalari and the Prophet Zul could play a big part - it might be stretching it, but Zul might even function as a main villain (though I think Azshara would work far better. Also, let's have some powerful female characters!)
The other would be a trip to the alternate Azeroth. While I think most people want to go back to Universe A and maybe leave alternate timeline stuff behind forever (or at least leaving it to the occasional quest or Caverns of Time dungeon) I'll admit that seeing Stormwind or maybe the other kingdoms before the invasion of the Horde would be kind of cool. It would also tie a lot into the upcoming Warcraft movie, which would be the kind of brand synergy that a lot of companies would want to push. Gul'dan's survival of Hellfire Citadel (and apparent enslavement by the Burning Legion) suggests that he could remain a threat and spearhead an incursion into that more innocent Azeroth.
Now obviously there could be totally different scenarios that I haven't thought up. I've talked about other expansion ideas, and things like both Warlords and Mists were pretty big curveballs that I didn't see coming.
And of course, there's a chance that August 5th will roll around and we still won't know. But I'm reasonably confident that we will, and that's pretty exciting.
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