Here's the good news: if your co-tank dies and cannot be battle-rezed in phase 3, it's ok! You can solo tank it.
This LFR wing is short and sweet - there's no trash, so you just readycheck and go.
Gul'dan has three phases. He's using the Nightwell in an attempt to use Illidan's body as a vessel for Sargeras, but thankfully the Nightwell (presumably thanks to Elisande's ghost/echo helping you out) will grant players abilities that help with the fight.
Tanks get a couple-second total immunity that takes something like a minute to recharge. You'll want to save this for key abilities.
I believe DPS gets a damage buff that will remain as long as you don't take fire damage.
On phase one, Gul'dan is unattackable, but he'll summon three mini-bosses.
One is a felguard that has a nasty attack that will kill you if you're not using your extra action button (though on LFR you might be able to just use a 50% damage reduction cooldown.)
One is an Inquisitor that doesn't need to be tanked.
One is a Jailor that will throw down soul prisons that all raid members need to run from.
With all the minibosses dead, you move on to phase 2.
During this phase, there will be eye adds that don't need to be tanked. The tanks should stack right on top of each other to prevent his Fel Scythe from powering up. Occasionally the current tank will be knocked back and hit with a snare. You need to run far enough away from your impact point to break the snare, but doing so also does a ton of damage to you - so you use your extra action button.
The other tank should taunt when this happens and then you should stack up again.
On phase 3, you want to pull Gul'dan to one end of the platform. He'll do some nasty damage to you (I think he still does Fel Scythe, but at least on LFR I was able to solo-tank him.) The eyes will keep coming, but as a tank you don't need to worry too much about that.
The key thing is that Gul'dan will occasionally cast a massive AoE that radiates out from him. You want to run as fast as you can to the other side of the platform to avoid getting hit by it (it's centered on him, which is why you always want him close to the edge in this phase.
And for a tank in LFR, that seems to be about it. It's a fun fight that will actually see your health bar dropping.
Now, here's a big tip: LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE: when you turn in the quest to Khadgar (assuming you did the 7.1 Suramar quests) he'll ask you to help teleport the eyes of Aman'thul to Dalaran. DO THIS BEFORE YOU LEAVE.
(EDIT: A note on Fel Scythe:
Because the first week I didn't have a co-tank for much of the fight, I didn't have a great sense of this ability.
Gul'dan gradually builds up energy. If there's a player within 2 yards of the tank, he'll expend all of it and do Fel Scythe, hitting both of them. This also stacks up a buff that increases the damage of Fel Scythe. This stacks up to 10 and hits very hard at that level (probably fatal damage if you're not on LFR.) If he hits full energy, I believe he instantly hits 10 stacks.
So what you do is that while you're not tanking the boss, you step in and let him Fel Scythe once, then step away from the other tank and let his buff fall off (it only lasts a few seconds.) As soon as it falls of, you step in again to make him Fel Scythe. This way he's always casting it at minimum energy and never getting more than one stack of the buff (and if it falls off without getting refreshed, the buff is moot.) So tanks are going to be doing a little hokey-pokey dance with each other over the course of the fight.)
Also, despite only being the first raid tier's boss, Gul'dan gets a cinematic. Spoilers to follow:
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Monday, March 6, 2017
The Void, the Naaru, and the Old Gods
The Void is really the wellspring of all problems in the Warcraft universe, but it's also necessary for there to be existence in the first place. Even with six primal forces at work, it seems there was originally just Light, and when that receded from certain parts of the cosmos, it left Void (and the clashing of Light and Void then created the other aspects of the universe, like the Twisting Nether and the Great Dark Beyond.)
Star Augur Etraeus takes us on a tour of the cosmos in his fight - first to the mundane but cold Great Dark Beyond, then the chaotic Twisting Nether, and finally into the horrific Void. Etraeus describes the "true horror of our reality" as "avatars of non-existence, knowing only hunger."
That seems to confirm the notion that the Void is truly a kind of paradox - a place defined by its not being a place, with beings in it defined by not existing.
There's a kind of irony here, which is that the Void has seen two major representatives in-game. There are the disgusting, fleshy, goopy Old Gods and their related corruption, and the sterile and cold Voidwalkers.
Voidwalkers are often classified as demons, especially as they are used by Warlocks. But Voidwalkers (and related Void beings) are fundamentally different from Imps, Felguards, and the like. While their origins seem to range from humanoids to beasts to elementals that were corrupted with Fel magic, the thing that seems to tie demons together is that their souls are bound to the Twisting Nether.
Almost all demons found themselves conscripted into the Burning Legion, which is a handy way of keeping track of them, and to be sure, Voidwalkers are employed by the Legion. Even though its purpose is theoretically to defeat the Void (by destroying any universe that the Void could corrupt,) the Legion is perfectly willing to employ Shadow Magic. We can't really call this out as hypocrisy though given that the heroes of Azeroth count Demon Hunters, Warlocks, Death Knights, and Shadow Priests among themselves. Indeed, the Legion's use of Shadow magic could easily be explained the same way we explain using it - it's powerful can can be turned to one's own purposes.
But that still means the Voidwalkers aren't exactly demons.
Or perhaps they are.
Here's the thing: in Warlords of Draenor, we saw Nerzhul-B using Shadow magic derived from K'ara, the injured and corrupted Naaru that hovered above Shadowmoon Valley (I wonder if this was how the valley and its clan got its name.) In addition to using necromancy (which is theoretically its own separate branch of magic but also seems to be accessible via Fel or Shadow magic,) Ner'zhul has Void beings that work for him.
The odd thing is that these void beings are classified as Aberrations, rather than demons.
But that makes sense - generally in WoW, Aberration (a creature type introduced in Mists of Pandaria's 5.2) refer either to oozes or to things associated with the Old Gods (including the Old Gods themselves.)
But if we are to assume that most if not all demons were originally some other kind of being, and that those types can extend from humanoids (e.g. Felguards) to beasts (e.g. Dreadstalkers) to elementals (e.g. Infernals) then perhaps it isn't impossible to imagine that an Aberration could also be converted. If all it takes to be classified as a demon is that their soul is bound to the Twisting Nether, perhaps that's what the demon-type Voidwalkers are.
There does seem to be an opposite number to the standard Voidwalker, which is the Lightspawn. Priests actually get to recruit a champion named Sol who is an entity of pure light.
But we've also seen a connection between more powerful void beings and Naaru. Namely, that when Naaru go dark, they seem to become Void Gods. We saw this happen with M'uru's transformation into Entropius, as well as with K'ure-B in Oshugun-B.
Now is this what the Void Lords are? It seems unlikely, given that the Void Lords created the Old Gods, who seem way more powerful than a single Naaru or anti-Naaru.
But there's also an interesting question here, which is why the Old Gods seem so very different from the Void beings we've encountered. The Old Gods are heavily associated with madness - both eliciting it and embodying it. The Void beings are horrific, and certainly we've seen things like the Pale arise in their presence, but the void beings themselves seem far less chaotic in nature.
And then we have to take a look at the fleshiness. The Void is, as we said earlier, a realm of nothingness. But the Old Gods and their associated eldritch monsters are decidedly fleshy. They're disgusting in a way that only organic material could ever be. And not only that, but they programmed in the Curse of Flesh to the formerly metal-and-stone-based Titan creations (though there seem to be more hints coming that the Curse of Flesh is not entirely original to the Old Gods.)
The Void Lords created the Old Gods to infect World-Souls because they couldn't do so directly. But given that the Void Lords are, as Etraeus said, "avatars of non-existence" and inhabit a realm of nothingness, how could they create the Old Gods in the first place?
Now, sure, you could simply say that the lack of explanation there just lends more to the creepy, Lovecraftian vibe of them. But perhaps there's a different explanation: Perhaps the Old Gods are something that existed, in some form, before being used by the Void.
What they were prior to becoming what they are is something I could only guess at - they could be biomass corrupted by the Void not entirely unlike the way that demons are corrupted by the Fel, or they could be things that were once Naaru-like beings. Or perhaps they were just some really odd alien life out there in the Great Dark Beyond.
It just seems odd that the Void - a primordial force that is about purity just as much as the Light - would manifest as beings that are the embodiment of impurity and, well, messiness.
Star Augur Etraeus takes us on a tour of the cosmos in his fight - first to the mundane but cold Great Dark Beyond, then the chaotic Twisting Nether, and finally into the horrific Void. Etraeus describes the "true horror of our reality" as "avatars of non-existence, knowing only hunger."
That seems to confirm the notion that the Void is truly a kind of paradox - a place defined by its not being a place, with beings in it defined by not existing.
There's a kind of irony here, which is that the Void has seen two major representatives in-game. There are the disgusting, fleshy, goopy Old Gods and their related corruption, and the sterile and cold Voidwalkers.
Voidwalkers are often classified as demons, especially as they are used by Warlocks. But Voidwalkers (and related Void beings) are fundamentally different from Imps, Felguards, and the like. While their origins seem to range from humanoids to beasts to elementals that were corrupted with Fel magic, the thing that seems to tie demons together is that their souls are bound to the Twisting Nether.
Almost all demons found themselves conscripted into the Burning Legion, which is a handy way of keeping track of them, and to be sure, Voidwalkers are employed by the Legion. Even though its purpose is theoretically to defeat the Void (by destroying any universe that the Void could corrupt,) the Legion is perfectly willing to employ Shadow Magic. We can't really call this out as hypocrisy though given that the heroes of Azeroth count Demon Hunters, Warlocks, Death Knights, and Shadow Priests among themselves. Indeed, the Legion's use of Shadow magic could easily be explained the same way we explain using it - it's powerful can can be turned to one's own purposes.
But that still means the Voidwalkers aren't exactly demons.
Or perhaps they are.
Here's the thing: in Warlords of Draenor, we saw Nerzhul-B using Shadow magic derived from K'ara, the injured and corrupted Naaru that hovered above Shadowmoon Valley (I wonder if this was how the valley and its clan got its name.) In addition to using necromancy (which is theoretically its own separate branch of magic but also seems to be accessible via Fel or Shadow magic,) Ner'zhul has Void beings that work for him.
The odd thing is that these void beings are classified as Aberrations, rather than demons.
But that makes sense - generally in WoW, Aberration (a creature type introduced in Mists of Pandaria's 5.2) refer either to oozes or to things associated with the Old Gods (including the Old Gods themselves.)
But if we are to assume that most if not all demons were originally some other kind of being, and that those types can extend from humanoids (e.g. Felguards) to beasts (e.g. Dreadstalkers) to elementals (e.g. Infernals) then perhaps it isn't impossible to imagine that an Aberration could also be converted. If all it takes to be classified as a demon is that their soul is bound to the Twisting Nether, perhaps that's what the demon-type Voidwalkers are.
There does seem to be an opposite number to the standard Voidwalker, which is the Lightspawn. Priests actually get to recruit a champion named Sol who is an entity of pure light.
But we've also seen a connection between more powerful void beings and Naaru. Namely, that when Naaru go dark, they seem to become Void Gods. We saw this happen with M'uru's transformation into Entropius, as well as with K'ure-B in Oshugun-B.
Now is this what the Void Lords are? It seems unlikely, given that the Void Lords created the Old Gods, who seem way more powerful than a single Naaru or anti-Naaru.
But there's also an interesting question here, which is why the Old Gods seem so very different from the Void beings we've encountered. The Old Gods are heavily associated with madness - both eliciting it and embodying it. The Void beings are horrific, and certainly we've seen things like the Pale arise in their presence, but the void beings themselves seem far less chaotic in nature.
And then we have to take a look at the fleshiness. The Void is, as we said earlier, a realm of nothingness. But the Old Gods and their associated eldritch monsters are decidedly fleshy. They're disgusting in a way that only organic material could ever be. And not only that, but they programmed in the Curse of Flesh to the formerly metal-and-stone-based Titan creations (though there seem to be more hints coming that the Curse of Flesh is not entirely original to the Old Gods.)
The Void Lords created the Old Gods to infect World-Souls because they couldn't do so directly. But given that the Void Lords are, as Etraeus said, "avatars of non-existence" and inhabit a realm of nothingness, how could they create the Old Gods in the first place?
Now, sure, you could simply say that the lack of explanation there just lends more to the creepy, Lovecraftian vibe of them. But perhaps there's a different explanation: Perhaps the Old Gods are something that existed, in some form, before being used by the Void.
What they were prior to becoming what they are is something I could only guess at - they could be biomass corrupted by the Void not entirely unlike the way that demons are corrupted by the Fel, or they could be things that were once Naaru-like beings. Or perhaps they were just some really odd alien life out there in the Great Dark Beyond.
It just seems odd that the Void - a primordial force that is about purity just as much as the Light - would manifest as beings that are the embodiment of impurity and, well, messiness.
Friday, March 3, 2017
Taking the Broken Shore in 7.2
Legion began with a catastrophic defeat. It was actually a really good move on Blizzard's part to sell the stakes of the expansion. There was really no benefit to our actions in that first invasion - except perhaps to demonstrate to us how ill-prepared we were.
Given the losses there - Varian, Vol'jin, and Tirion Fordring - the expansion has been building up to this new assault. No longer the two factions working only kind of together, instead we have the Armies of the Legionfall - a faction composed of all twelve class orders, who are working with far better integration, each class playing to its own strengths.
When 7.2 hits, you'll get a quest to go to Krasus' Landing in Dalaran and begin a scenario that has you assault the Shore again. You wind up taking the southwest corner of the island, and after a fight with Mephistroph (who retreats to the Cathedral of Eternal Night - the new 5-player dungeon) you claim your beachhead.
You get a number of quests sending you out into the zone - one basically has you get all the flight points while another has you travel to the lost temple area where Ret Paladins and Vengeance Demon Hunters got their artifacts (I think that's all...) This quest unlocks new levels of artifact knowledge, giving you a freebie that, assuming you're at 25 now, will boost you from 24,900% increased AP to 100,000%. And you'll be able to research more that will eventually let you hit either knowledge level 40 or 50 (can't remember what the latest build had.)
Of course, with some people at 54 traits now, you can probably imagine that they need to give you more traits to work with.
After doing a couple more quests in the Broken Shore, you'll get new quests for each specialization for which you have unlocked the first "prestige" trait in the corresponding artifact. These overlap, but no single class will have the same quest chain to do twice (there's only one tank chain, I believe, but because Priests have two healing classes, I believe there are two chains for healing.)
These quests very much feel like set-ups for later chains (perhaps these are the new artifact model quests?) as all of them seem to end with an anticlimax, but completing the chain will unlock the new artifact traits for that particular weapon (you'll need to do the quests for every artifact you intend to keep upgrading.) In addition to four new traits (one of which is a golden trait) you'll also unlock a fourth rank in all of the previously-three-rank traits. Yeah, they really want to give us reasons to keep grinding AP.
The Broken Shore zone is not small, and has plenty of world quests to keep you busy. The world quests here reward a new resource in addition to traditional world quest stuff, which is used to build the various structures on the base - this seems to be server-based, so the more people who contribute, the faster those buildings get built. The buildings have various effects that can help you out as you adventure there.
Given the losses there - Varian, Vol'jin, and Tirion Fordring - the expansion has been building up to this new assault. No longer the two factions working only kind of together, instead we have the Armies of the Legionfall - a faction composed of all twelve class orders, who are working with far better integration, each class playing to its own strengths.
When 7.2 hits, you'll get a quest to go to Krasus' Landing in Dalaran and begin a scenario that has you assault the Shore again. You wind up taking the southwest corner of the island, and after a fight with Mephistroph (who retreats to the Cathedral of Eternal Night - the new 5-player dungeon) you claim your beachhead.
You get a number of quests sending you out into the zone - one basically has you get all the flight points while another has you travel to the lost temple area where Ret Paladins and Vengeance Demon Hunters got their artifacts (I think that's all...) This quest unlocks new levels of artifact knowledge, giving you a freebie that, assuming you're at 25 now, will boost you from 24,900% increased AP to 100,000%. And you'll be able to research more that will eventually let you hit either knowledge level 40 or 50 (can't remember what the latest build had.)
Of course, with some people at 54 traits now, you can probably imagine that they need to give you more traits to work with.
After doing a couple more quests in the Broken Shore, you'll get new quests for each specialization for which you have unlocked the first "prestige" trait in the corresponding artifact. These overlap, but no single class will have the same quest chain to do twice (there's only one tank chain, I believe, but because Priests have two healing classes, I believe there are two chains for healing.)
These quests very much feel like set-ups for later chains (perhaps these are the new artifact model quests?) as all of them seem to end with an anticlimax, but completing the chain will unlock the new artifact traits for that particular weapon (you'll need to do the quests for every artifact you intend to keep upgrading.) In addition to four new traits (one of which is a golden trait) you'll also unlock a fourth rank in all of the previously-three-rank traits. Yeah, they really want to give us reasons to keep grinding AP.
The Broken Shore zone is not small, and has plenty of world quests to keep you busy. The world quests here reward a new resource in addition to traditional world quest stuff, which is used to build the various structures on the base - this seems to be server-based, so the more people who contribute, the faster those buildings get built. The buildings have various effects that can help you out as you adventure there.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
A Look at 7.2's Invasions
Playing on the PTR, I got to experience most of an invasion of Azsuna.
The pre-Legion launch event, which saw invasions of Azshara, Northern Barrens, Tanaris, Hillsbrad, Dun Morogh, and Westfall, was a very popular event that got players of all stripes together fighting demons.
In 7.2, similar invasions will occur in the zones of the Broken Isles, though these will work a little differently.
The launch events had four clear phases - fighting a mini-invasion usually in a major town, then a boss in that town, then demons across the whole zone, ending with a tougher boss in town.
It looks like 7.2's will function a bit more like world quests.
When an invasion hits your zone, the current world quests will be put on hold, but new ones will pop up that deal with the invading demons. It appears that these count toward emissary quests, so there's no real downside to an invasion hitting in the middle of your world questing.
Once you clear four of these invasion quests, you'll get a quest to meet with a representative of the zone (in my case, Prince Farondis.) In Azsuna, I was sent to the Temple of a Thousand Lights (near Shackle's Den) to fight my way through the demonic hordes until I defeated some of the demons leading the invasion. I then got a bombing-run quest to destroy a fel conduit. Finally, I was given a quest to do a scenario dealing with the general who led the assault, but it was here that PTR issues were PTR issues, and things got cut short.
The invasion world quests seem to have comparable rewards with normal world quests, though they might be higher quality (I got a pair of 855 - well, 860 warforged - shoulders) but it might simply be that world quest rewards are getting buffed in 7.2 (which would make sense.)
I'm actually a little disappointed that it's not the total free-for-all that it was in the launch event, but given that A: people won't be able to unlock flying for a bit and B: there will be other stuff to do, I guess they can't really model things on the idea that hundreds of players will be swarming the zones to fight the bad guys (though if they wanted to do something similar to the Legion invasions for next expansion's launch, I would not complain.)
I don't know if there's any kind of scaling with gear going on, but the demons invading are rather tough. My Death Knight had Flaskataur-provided Normal tier 19 gear and two legendaries and while I wouldn't say he was ever really in danger of going down, he was definitely not carving up these demons as quickly as he might do with regular Azsuna mobs.
The pre-Legion launch event, which saw invasions of Azshara, Northern Barrens, Tanaris, Hillsbrad, Dun Morogh, and Westfall, was a very popular event that got players of all stripes together fighting demons.
In 7.2, similar invasions will occur in the zones of the Broken Isles, though these will work a little differently.
The launch events had four clear phases - fighting a mini-invasion usually in a major town, then a boss in that town, then demons across the whole zone, ending with a tougher boss in town.
It looks like 7.2's will function a bit more like world quests.
When an invasion hits your zone, the current world quests will be put on hold, but new ones will pop up that deal with the invading demons. It appears that these count toward emissary quests, so there's no real downside to an invasion hitting in the middle of your world questing.
Once you clear four of these invasion quests, you'll get a quest to meet with a representative of the zone (in my case, Prince Farondis.) In Azsuna, I was sent to the Temple of a Thousand Lights (near Shackle's Den) to fight my way through the demonic hordes until I defeated some of the demons leading the invasion. I then got a bombing-run quest to destroy a fel conduit. Finally, I was given a quest to do a scenario dealing with the general who led the assault, but it was here that PTR issues were PTR issues, and things got cut short.
The invasion world quests seem to have comparable rewards with normal world quests, though they might be higher quality (I got a pair of 855 - well, 860 warforged - shoulders) but it might simply be that world quest rewards are getting buffed in 7.2 (which would make sense.)
I'm actually a little disappointed that it's not the total free-for-all that it was in the launch event, but given that A: people won't be able to unlock flying for a bit and B: there will be other stuff to do, I guess they can't really model things on the idea that hundreds of players will be swarming the zones to fight the bad guys (though if they wanted to do something similar to the Legion invasions for next expansion's launch, I would not complain.)
I don't know if there's any kind of scaling with gear going on, but the demons invading are rather tough. My Death Knight had Flaskataur-provided Normal tier 19 gear and two legendaries and while I wouldn't say he was ever really in danger of going down, he was definitely not carving up these demons as quickly as he might do with regular Azsuna mobs.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
The Crimes of the Ebon Blade
So in the last post, I talked about the many objectively bad things the Illidari have done. A fair amount of that post was how they differed from the Knights of the Ebon Blade - the organization for the other hero (I say villain) class.
The Death Knights are a little different. In their bad days, there was no "ends justify the means" kind of rationalization of what they were doing, because their ends were literally the end of all life on the planet, converting everyone into undead under the domination of the Lich King. And their switch from villains to heroes was a very conscious choice at a key moment.
The motivations for this change are actually, I think, a bit open to interpretation. I've always been under the impression that the power of Light's Hope Chapel (the many righteous dead buried there, whose tombs you can now visit if you're a Paladin) broke the connection the Lich King had with the Death Knights' wills - a bit like how Illidan cracking the Frozen Throne allowed the Forsaken to break away.
But there's another element to it, which is that the Lich King used the Death Knights as fodder - he didn't expect them to survive the battle. The key was to draw out Tirion Fordring and hopefully kill him before he could lead the effort against the Scourge in Northrend.
After this point, the Ebon Blade made the Scourge target number one.
Death Knights, by their nature, have disturbing methods. But if we are to judge by Thassarian's example (who granted, is kind of the moral paragon of the Ebon Blade,) the Death Knights are now basically the same people they used to be, only now with a consuming addiction to causing pain.
Thankfully for the Death Knights, Azeroth is a world that is constantly beset by demons and elementals and aberrations who can be fought without remorse. And so for the past few expansions, Death Knights have more or less blended in with the rest of the Alliance and Horde forces.
In Legion, though, thanks to the fact that there are actually class-specific stories again, the Ebon Blade has been up to some really shady stuff.
The 7.0 class hall campaign for Death Knights has you assemble a new Four Horsemen to serve as champions for the Ebon Blade.
First off: the reason you're doing this is because the Lich King told you to. While it's Bolvar, and not Arthas, who you're dealing with, it has become very clear that the Lich King itself is the real dominant personality regardless of who is wearing the crown. Bolvar isn't trying to sweep over the entire planet with undeath, but he's definitely not turning Icecrown into a friendly ski resort town either. There's a definite question of whether the Lich King is truly trying to keep the undead under control or if the Scourge will arise as a threat once more in the future. And if that happens, it has become surprisingly unclear what side the Ebon Blade will be on.
While raising anyone as a death knight without their prior consent (so, basically all death knights except I guess Baron Rivendare?) is of course horrifyingly immoral, the campaign ends with the most brazen and villainous thing any of the classes do during their campaigns.
Seeking the fourth horseman, the Lich King sends you to retrieve the body of Tirion Fordring. Not only would turning this great paragon of the Light who very specifically fought against the Scourge into a Death Knight be a cruel fate to impose on one of Azeroth's greatest heroes, doing so also requires you to attack another order's class hall.
It's also a pretty terrible plan, given how the last attack on Light's Hope Chapel went for the Ebon Blade, but that's neither here nor there.
Death Knights fight their way into the Sanctum of Light, slaying paladins who are guarding the order hall. Ultimately, as they attempt to get to Fordring's resting place, Lady Liadrin shows up and lays the smackdown on them, leaving Darion Mograine dead. However, for a Death Knight that's more of an inconvenience, and he is raised in Tirion's place to lead the horsemen, taking on the role that his father had way back in the original Naxxramas raid.
As of yet, the Ebon Blade has not had to pay any real price for attacking their allies.
But they're not even done.
Spoilers for something in 7.2, just to warn you:
Death Knights will be sent to Icecrown to raise an ancient dragon corpse, but in order to discover its true location, they have to go to the Ruby Sanctum and access their archives.
Now, a normal person would, you know, ask. And given their intentions, they'd lie about what they were going to do with this corpse. But rather than that, you actually go into the Sanctum and kill a bunch of red dragons (and remember, dragons are sterile after the Hour of Twilight, so you're basically killing members of an endangered species.)
After slaying Silver Hand paladins and red dragons, you really have to wonder when the Ebon Blade is going to pay a price for all of this. In fact, unlike pretty much all of the other class campaigns (I think it's them and Shamans,) you don't actually do anything to fight the Legion. If anything, the damage you've done has hindered the war effort.
Death Knights aren't going to be nice, sure, but one would think they couldn't go around doing stuff like this without some consequences.
The Death Knights are a little different. In their bad days, there was no "ends justify the means" kind of rationalization of what they were doing, because their ends were literally the end of all life on the planet, converting everyone into undead under the domination of the Lich King. And their switch from villains to heroes was a very conscious choice at a key moment.
The motivations for this change are actually, I think, a bit open to interpretation. I've always been under the impression that the power of Light's Hope Chapel (the many righteous dead buried there, whose tombs you can now visit if you're a Paladin) broke the connection the Lich King had with the Death Knights' wills - a bit like how Illidan cracking the Frozen Throne allowed the Forsaken to break away.
But there's another element to it, which is that the Lich King used the Death Knights as fodder - he didn't expect them to survive the battle. The key was to draw out Tirion Fordring and hopefully kill him before he could lead the effort against the Scourge in Northrend.
After this point, the Ebon Blade made the Scourge target number one.
Death Knights, by their nature, have disturbing methods. But if we are to judge by Thassarian's example (who granted, is kind of the moral paragon of the Ebon Blade,) the Death Knights are now basically the same people they used to be, only now with a consuming addiction to causing pain.
Thankfully for the Death Knights, Azeroth is a world that is constantly beset by demons and elementals and aberrations who can be fought without remorse. And so for the past few expansions, Death Knights have more or less blended in with the rest of the Alliance and Horde forces.
In Legion, though, thanks to the fact that there are actually class-specific stories again, the Ebon Blade has been up to some really shady stuff.
The 7.0 class hall campaign for Death Knights has you assemble a new Four Horsemen to serve as champions for the Ebon Blade.
First off: the reason you're doing this is because the Lich King told you to. While it's Bolvar, and not Arthas, who you're dealing with, it has become very clear that the Lich King itself is the real dominant personality regardless of who is wearing the crown. Bolvar isn't trying to sweep over the entire planet with undeath, but he's definitely not turning Icecrown into a friendly ski resort town either. There's a definite question of whether the Lich King is truly trying to keep the undead under control or if the Scourge will arise as a threat once more in the future. And if that happens, it has become surprisingly unclear what side the Ebon Blade will be on.
While raising anyone as a death knight without their prior consent (so, basically all death knights except I guess Baron Rivendare?) is of course horrifyingly immoral, the campaign ends with the most brazen and villainous thing any of the classes do during their campaigns.
Seeking the fourth horseman, the Lich King sends you to retrieve the body of Tirion Fordring. Not only would turning this great paragon of the Light who very specifically fought against the Scourge into a Death Knight be a cruel fate to impose on one of Azeroth's greatest heroes, doing so also requires you to attack another order's class hall.
It's also a pretty terrible plan, given how the last attack on Light's Hope Chapel went for the Ebon Blade, but that's neither here nor there.
Death Knights fight their way into the Sanctum of Light, slaying paladins who are guarding the order hall. Ultimately, as they attempt to get to Fordring's resting place, Lady Liadrin shows up and lays the smackdown on them, leaving Darion Mograine dead. However, for a Death Knight that's more of an inconvenience, and he is raised in Tirion's place to lead the horsemen, taking on the role that his father had way back in the original Naxxramas raid.
As of yet, the Ebon Blade has not had to pay any real price for attacking their allies.
But they're not even done.
Spoilers for something in 7.2, just to warn you:
Death Knights will be sent to Icecrown to raise an ancient dragon corpse, but in order to discover its true location, they have to go to the Ruby Sanctum and access their archives.
Now, a normal person would, you know, ask. And given their intentions, they'd lie about what they were going to do with this corpse. But rather than that, you actually go into the Sanctum and kill a bunch of red dragons (and remember, dragons are sterile after the Hour of Twilight, so you're basically killing members of an endangered species.)
After slaying Silver Hand paladins and red dragons, you really have to wonder when the Ebon Blade is going to pay a price for all of this. In fact, unlike pretty much all of the other class campaigns (I think it's them and Shamans,) you don't actually do anything to fight the Legion. If anything, the damage you've done has hindered the war effort.
Death Knights aren't going to be nice, sure, but one would think they couldn't go around doing stuff like this without some consequences.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
The Crimes of the Illidari
Hey, remember when the Illidari were the bad guys?
While the focus of the expansion eventually shifted to the Burning Legion and its third and ultimately most underwhelming invasion of Azeroth (unless you count the Battle of Undercity as its fourth,) the Burning Crusade was primarily concerned with Illidan's forces and their domination of Outland.
Legion as an expansion has done a lot to rehabilitate Illidan as more of an anti-hero than true villain, but he is a character who has really straddled that line.
I've remarked before that the irony of WoW's "Hero Classes" is that they would be more accurately called "Villain Classes." There are standard classes that deal with unsavory methods (Warlocks in particular, though Rogues probably count too,) but both hero classes are members, or former members, of organizations we have actively fought in the past.
Death Knights, at least until Legion, had a bit more of a black-and-white switch between good and evil. Upon their raising, they served the Lich King directly and slaughtered civilians - there are quests where you actually get sent to kill fleeing humans who are about twenty levels below you (one of the rare times when character level is actually lore-based.) You are a straight up bad-guy, a monster. But at the Battle of Light's Hope Chapel, it's not exactly explicit, but it's pretty clear that your free will is restored, and from that point on, the Ebon Blade fight for the living.
(Yes, things have gotten muddier in Legion, but let's set that aside for now.) The Ebon Blade even attempts to make amends by allying with and bolstering the Argent Crusade, and it's their combined efforts that allow the heroic adventurers to secure victory over Arthas. The Ebon Blade is aware of its sins, and at least at first they were interested in paying their debts.
The Illidari, though, are tougher.
Part of the problem is that the Illidari never questioned that they were the good guys. The Scourge was pretty aware of their own evil. There's actually a really fascinating lore book in Acherus that you only get to read during the starting experience, but it's kind of a political manifesto by Kel'thuzad, who talks about how the Scourge considers itself to be more amoral than evil, but that they use the imagery of "evil" as an intimidation tactic.
But the Illidari have always considered themselves to be the ones who sacrifice everything, including their reputations, for the greater good. Their goal is to keep Azeroth safe from the Legion. It's not about their goals - it's their methods.
But let's talk about those methods.
First off, there's the use of fel magic. Now, most Demon Hunters do really seem to use this power for good - fighting demons. But we've seen multiple cases of Demon Hunters going over to the dark side - Varedis and Calia Felsoul, and that one in Azsuna. It's surprisingly easy for a Demon Hunter to just flip and join the Legion. On top of that, every Demon Hunter (with the exception of Illidan, who's kind of his own thing) actually has a demonic soul bonded to them, and if they ever let go of their vigilant control over that demon, they will be taken over and, you know, just become a demon.
In the long run, that seems kind of inevitable. Granted, if a Demon Hunter can kill a bunch of demons before they lose control, it might be worth it as a sort of net effect, but only if they can really, truly kill the demon, not just kill their physical bodies.
We've also got to go back to BC and look at what they did in Outland. Now here, there is a little leeway we can give them, as the Illidari were a somewhat fractured faction, with Kael'thas' forces allying with the Legion in secret. Likewise, Vashj may have been pursuing her own goals on the orders of Azshara.
But Illidan himself did some pretty nasty things. For one thing, he created a whole new Fel Horde, installing Kargath Bladefist as their Warchief. The Orcs, who had on Azeroth finally escaped the Blood Curse, were on Outland being pushed back into this old habit. And it's clear that a lot of Orcs were being forcibly infused with Magtheridon's blood.
The Orcs in turn enslaved the Netherwing dragonflight - the off-shoot of the Black flight that seems to have escaped the Old God corruption the rest of Neltharion's brood had been afflicted with (and the Orcs sold many of those Nether Drakes back to Sinestra, which led to the Twilight Dragonflight.)
The Draenei had managed to retake the ruins of Shattrath City, but Illidan sent his forces to attack them. Why? Just so he could consolidate power on Outland.
Now, yes, Illidan was working on a plan to invade Mardum and then Argus, and killing him might have had seriously bad longterm consequences (which we're in the process of correcting by fighting to his body in the Nighthold) but the thing is that he never told anyone what he was doing, or even that he was actively trying to fight the Legion.
There was no reason for any of us in Burning Crusade to think Illidan was anything other than a tyrant who needed toppling.
And player Demon Hunters were totally complicit in this.
The Demon Hunters were locked up in the Vault of the Wardens for ten years, but they've never really owned up to any of the bad things they or their boss did. Or even if they've owned up to them, there's never been any sense of remorse. Much like Illidan, the Illidari are basically entirely self-centered and self-righteous.
But they're a really fun class to play!
While the focus of the expansion eventually shifted to the Burning Legion and its third and ultimately most underwhelming invasion of Azeroth (unless you count the Battle of Undercity as its fourth,) the Burning Crusade was primarily concerned with Illidan's forces and their domination of Outland.
Legion as an expansion has done a lot to rehabilitate Illidan as more of an anti-hero than true villain, but he is a character who has really straddled that line.
I've remarked before that the irony of WoW's "Hero Classes" is that they would be more accurately called "Villain Classes." There are standard classes that deal with unsavory methods (Warlocks in particular, though Rogues probably count too,) but both hero classes are members, or former members, of organizations we have actively fought in the past.
Death Knights, at least until Legion, had a bit more of a black-and-white switch between good and evil. Upon their raising, they served the Lich King directly and slaughtered civilians - there are quests where you actually get sent to kill fleeing humans who are about twenty levels below you (one of the rare times when character level is actually lore-based.) You are a straight up bad-guy, a monster. But at the Battle of Light's Hope Chapel, it's not exactly explicit, but it's pretty clear that your free will is restored, and from that point on, the Ebon Blade fight for the living.
(Yes, things have gotten muddier in Legion, but let's set that aside for now.) The Ebon Blade even attempts to make amends by allying with and bolstering the Argent Crusade, and it's their combined efforts that allow the heroic adventurers to secure victory over Arthas. The Ebon Blade is aware of its sins, and at least at first they were interested in paying their debts.
The Illidari, though, are tougher.
Part of the problem is that the Illidari never questioned that they were the good guys. The Scourge was pretty aware of their own evil. There's actually a really fascinating lore book in Acherus that you only get to read during the starting experience, but it's kind of a political manifesto by Kel'thuzad, who talks about how the Scourge considers itself to be more amoral than evil, but that they use the imagery of "evil" as an intimidation tactic.
But the Illidari have always considered themselves to be the ones who sacrifice everything, including their reputations, for the greater good. Their goal is to keep Azeroth safe from the Legion. It's not about their goals - it's their methods.
But let's talk about those methods.
First off, there's the use of fel magic. Now, most Demon Hunters do really seem to use this power for good - fighting demons. But we've seen multiple cases of Demon Hunters going over to the dark side - Varedis and Calia Felsoul, and that one in Azsuna. It's surprisingly easy for a Demon Hunter to just flip and join the Legion. On top of that, every Demon Hunter (with the exception of Illidan, who's kind of his own thing) actually has a demonic soul bonded to them, and if they ever let go of their vigilant control over that demon, they will be taken over and, you know, just become a demon.
In the long run, that seems kind of inevitable. Granted, if a Demon Hunter can kill a bunch of demons before they lose control, it might be worth it as a sort of net effect, but only if they can really, truly kill the demon, not just kill their physical bodies.
We've also got to go back to BC and look at what they did in Outland. Now here, there is a little leeway we can give them, as the Illidari were a somewhat fractured faction, with Kael'thas' forces allying with the Legion in secret. Likewise, Vashj may have been pursuing her own goals on the orders of Azshara.
But Illidan himself did some pretty nasty things. For one thing, he created a whole new Fel Horde, installing Kargath Bladefist as their Warchief. The Orcs, who had on Azeroth finally escaped the Blood Curse, were on Outland being pushed back into this old habit. And it's clear that a lot of Orcs were being forcibly infused with Magtheridon's blood.
The Orcs in turn enslaved the Netherwing dragonflight - the off-shoot of the Black flight that seems to have escaped the Old God corruption the rest of Neltharion's brood had been afflicted with (and the Orcs sold many of those Nether Drakes back to Sinestra, which led to the Twilight Dragonflight.)
The Draenei had managed to retake the ruins of Shattrath City, but Illidan sent his forces to attack them. Why? Just so he could consolidate power on Outland.
Now, yes, Illidan was working on a plan to invade Mardum and then Argus, and killing him might have had seriously bad longterm consequences (which we're in the process of correcting by fighting to his body in the Nighthold) but the thing is that he never told anyone what he was doing, or even that he was actively trying to fight the Legion.
There was no reason for any of us in Burning Crusade to think Illidan was anything other than a tyrant who needed toppling.
And player Demon Hunters were totally complicit in this.
The Demon Hunters were locked up in the Vault of the Wardens for ten years, but they've never really owned up to any of the bad things they or their boss did. Or even if they've owned up to them, there's never been any sense of remorse. Much like Illidan, the Illidari are basically entirely self-centered and self-righteous.
But they're a really fun class to play!
Monday, February 27, 2017
Journey to Un'Goro is the New Hearthstone Expansion
Blizzard announced the new Hearthstone expansion, which will be Journey to Un'Goro. Apparently they'll be breaking the pattern a bit and having two expansions in a row (unless my card count is off and there are way more that come with an adventure than I thought.)
Un'goro Crater will have a couple major themes. One is that Elementals will now be a creature type, which will apply retroactively to other elementals.
There will also be plenty of dinosaur creatures, and many of these will have the "Adapt" keyword. Adapt gives your minion three options for an upgrade that will include gaining things like Taunt or Windfury or getting boosts to its stats. The three adaptations you get to choose from will be random, so these will be highly variable minions.
Finally, there will be a new card type called quests. These will always cost 1 mana and will create an effect (tracked similarly to secrets) that requires you to do things over the course of a game to potentially get a very powerful effect. For instance, there is one priest quests that requires you to summon seven deathrattle minions. If you succeed, you get an 8/8 minion that has a battlecry that sets your health to 40.
It seems like Mean Streets of Gadgetzan just came out, so it's pretty impressive to see this announcement so soon.
Un'goro Crater will have a couple major themes. One is that Elementals will now be a creature type, which will apply retroactively to other elementals.
There will also be plenty of dinosaur creatures, and many of these will have the "Adapt" keyword. Adapt gives your minion three options for an upgrade that will include gaining things like Taunt or Windfury or getting boosts to its stats. The three adaptations you get to choose from will be random, so these will be highly variable minions.
Finally, there will be a new card type called quests. These will always cost 1 mana and will create an effect (tracked similarly to secrets) that requires you to do things over the course of a game to potentially get a very powerful effect. For instance, there is one priest quests that requires you to summon seven deathrattle minions. If you succeed, you get an 8/8 minion that has a battlecry that sets your health to 40.
It seems like Mean Streets of Gadgetzan just came out, so it's pretty impressive to see this announcement so soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)