Two General Misconceptions (I Think) About Alan Wake II

 Alan Wake II has a twisted narrative. It's hard, sometimes, to figure out what is precisely real or not. This is especially difficult when it comes to Alan's half of the game, which takes place in a dreamy, imagined version of New York that is basically like "Noir York City" from the "Address Unknown" show seen in Max Payne - it's the nightmare hellscape that a lot of conservatives imagine NYC to be like if they haven't actually been there. For instance, a number of people we know to have died and become Taken in Bright Falls are found in Alan's "research" expeditions that make up the main bulk of his half of the game.

But reading reactions to the game and analyses, I want to address two ideas that I see people saying that I think are mis-reading the narrative. Naturally, I'm just one player and my own reading is certainly fallible, but I feel pretty strongly that some players are missing a few details and getting the wrong impression about two elements of the plot.

This is, of course, spoiler territory.

Spoilers Ahead.

The Names of the Hero Specs

 While Ion Hazzikostas was sure to remind everyone that this is a work in progress, we were shown a list of all the hero specs for the various classes.

As we've heard, each normal spec will have access to two of the hero specs, and each hero spec should be available to two different specs. So, for example, the Slayer for Warriors will be available to Arms and Fury, while the Mountain Thane will be available to Fury and Protection, and the Colossus is available to Protection and Arms.

Let's go down the list:

Death Knights:

Rider of the Apocalypse, San'layn, and Deathbringer

Demon Hunters:

Aldrachi Reaver, Fel-Scarred

Druid:

Keeper of the Grove, Elune's Chosen, Wildstalker, Druid of the Claw

Evoker:

Chronowarden, Ruby Adept, Scalecommander

Hunter:

Sentinel, Pack Leader, Dark Ranger

Mage:

Sunfury, Frostfire, Spellslinger

Monk:

Master of Harmony, Shado-Pan, Conduit of the Celestials

Paladin:

Lightsmith, Herald of the Sun, Templar

Priest:

Voidweaver, Oracle, Archon

Rogue:

Deathstalker, Trickster, Fatebound

Shaman:

Stormbringer, Farseer, Totemic

Warlock:

Soul Harvester, Hellcaller, Diabolist

Warrior:

Colossus, Slayer, Mountain Thane.

    Phew. That was the easy part. Now, the fun part: Let's see if we can predict what specs each of these are available to (Demon Hunters are a freebie). We have a few gimmes, like the entire Warrior set, and the preview for Druids, which called out not only which options Balance gets but also who they share those options with, gives us a leg up.

Death Knights:

    So, to start with, San'layn being essentially Scourge Elf Vampires, this has got to be a Blood option. I'd guess that Rider of the Apocalypse must go to Unholy, given that they literally have an ability called Apocalypse. Deathbringer seems like it would focus on DPS, so I'm going to guess we have Blood getting San'layn and Rider of the Apocalypse, Unholy getting Deathbringer and Rider of the Apocalypse, and Frost getting Deathbringer and San'layn.

Demon Hunter:

    Well, there are two options for two specs, so I think both will be able to choose between Aldrachi Reaver and Fel-Scarred.

Druid:

    We know that Balance will get Keeper of the Grove and Elune's Chosen, but on top of that we know that they'll share Keeper of the Grove with Restoration and Elune's Chosen with Guardian. That means Guardian has to choose between Wildstalker and Druid of the Claw, and I feel like it's got to be the latter. Feral doesn't share any with Balance, so it's got to have Wildstalker and Druid of the Claw, which leaves Wildstalker to Restoration. So, to be clear: Guardian gets Druid of the Claw and Elune's Chosen, Feral gets Wildstalker and Druid of the Claw, Balance gets Elune's Chosen and Keeper of the Grove, and Restoration gets Keeper of the Grove and Wildstalker. (I think.)

Evoker:

    Ok, so we have Chronowarden, Ruby Adept, and Scalecommander. Chronowarden is the easiest here, as only two specs make extensive use of Bronze/Time magic, so I think that's going to Augmentation and Preservation. That then means that Devastation gets Scalecommander and Ruby Adept. What that leaves ambiguous is whether Preservation or Augmentation gets Scalecommander, and which one gets Ruby Adept. I'll point out that Augmentation does literally have an ability that puts scales on a target...? And while Preservation is a little more Green/Bronze themed, Red Dragons are also very healing/life oriented. So I'll put it down this way: Augmentation gets Chronowarden and Scalecommander, Devastation gets Scalecommander and Ruby Adept, and Preservation gets Ruby Adept and Chronowarden.

Hunter:

    Dark Ranger I think has to go to Marksmanship. Pack Leader, then, I think needs to go to Beast Mastery. In fact, I'll even say that Pack Leader should not go to Marksmanship, as it's the only spec that doesn't require you to have a pet out. I'd say that Dark Ranger is probably the least "nature magic" focused archetype here, so I'm going to say that it will go to Survival. Thus, I think we have the following: Beast Mastery gets Pack Leader and Sentinel, Marksmanship gets Sentinel and Dark Ranger, and Survival gets Dark Ranger and Pack Leader.

Mage:

    Ok, we have one gimme here: Frostfire is definitely going to Frost and Fire Mages. Sunfury, given the connection to Blood Elves, who tend toward Fire, is going to be an option for Fire Mages. That, I believe, gives us the rest of what we need to fit everything else together. Spellslinger will go to Arcane and Frost, which leaves Arcane and Sunfury each in need of a final pairing, so there we go: Arcane gets Spellslinger and Sunfury, Fire gets Sunfury and Frostfire, and Frost gets Frostfire and Spellslinger.

Monk:

    This, I'll confess, is one of the trickier ones. Shado-Pan to me seems the most distinctly martial of the three options, so I'll give it to Windwalkers and Brewmasters. That leaves Master of Harmony and Conduit of the Celestials to Mistweavers, which seems right. So, between Brewmasters and Windwalkers, who gets Conduit of the Celestials and who gets Master of Harmony? Thematically, I'm inclined to think that Brewmasters will get the Master of Harmony option, given that they're sort of all about serenity in the face of getting punched in the face, while Windwalkers rely a great deal on summoning the spirit of Xuen. So, though my confidence level here is lower than other classes, I'm going to say: Brewmaster gets Master of Harmony and Shado-Pan, Mistweavers get Conduit of the Celestials and Master of Harmony, and Windwalkers get Mastery of Harmony and Shado-Pan.

Paladin:

    Similarly, I think that the "Templar" archetype feels more martial in vibe, so I'll give that to Protection and Retribution (the latter especially given abilities like Templar's Verdict). That means Holy will get Lightsmith and Herald of the Sun. I suspect that Lightsmith feels more Protection-y (the idea of smithing reinforcing the idea of armor and hammers on shields) while Herald of the Sun reflecting the burning wrath of the light. So, again, not super confident here, but I've got: Holy gets Lightsmith and Herald of the Sun, Protection gets Templar and Lightsmith, and Retribution gets Herald of the Sun and Templar.

Priest:

    The freebie here is that Voidweaver is clearly going to go to the specs that use shadow magic. So that will go to Shadow and Discipline. Between Oracle and Archon, I think the latter is for the specs that uses holy magic. So I've got: Discipline gets Archon and Voidweaver, Holy gets Oracle and Archon, and Shadow gets Voidweaver and Oracle.

Rogue:

    Ok, I think Deathstalker and Trickster both feel appropriate for Subtlety. Trickster also feels appropriate for Outlaw, especially with its dice-rolling mechanic. Fatebound feels right for Assassination, but also kind of the sort of haunted "narrative" elements of Outlaw, so here's what I've got: Assassination gets Deathstalker and Fatebound, Outlaw gets Fatebound and Trickster, and Subtlety gets Trickster and Deathstalker.

Shaman:

    Again, we're kind of going on gut vibes, but here's how I see it: Stormbringer feels closer to the two DPS specs, as both involve a lot of lightning. Totemic I think plays on the idea of enhancing your allies with totemic magic, so I think that's going to Enhancement. So I think we've got: Elemental getting Stormbringer and Farseer, Enhancement getting Totemic and Stormbringer, and Restoration getting Farseer and Totemic.

Warlock:

    Ok, the clues here are stronger! Diabolist has got to go to Demonology. Hellcaller feels like it could focus on the fire damage from Destruction or the literal demon summoning of Demonology. Soul Harvester is very Affliction-appropriate. So I'll go with: Affliction gets Soul Harvester and Diabolist, Destruction gets Hellcaller and Soul Harvester, and Demonology gets Diabolist and Hellcaller.

Warrior:

    This one we already know! Arms gets Colossus and Slayer, Fury gets Slayer and Mountain Thane, and Protection gets Mountain Thane and Colossus!

And there we have it: my predictions. I don't think this is something they're intending to keep secret - just something they haven't quite gone into yet. We'll see how I do. I'm sure I got some of these wrong, but I feel pretty confident about a lot of them.

So, How's the Whole Worldsoul Saga Going to Work?

 Blizzard is doing something unprecedented in World of Warcraft: Yesterday, they announced not only the next expansion, but also the two that would follow, with brief summaries of what those expansions are going to be about.

It is something big and epic and... let's not beat around the bush here, it's taking a page from Marvel Studios, even defining this extended period as a "Saga." (Given that Marvel has been struggling a bit in getting its Multiverse Saga to be as popular as its retroactively-defined Infinity Saga, there's a little nervousness in the back of my mind about it, but on the other hand, in practice this is pretty distinct).

While we got the most details about the upcoming expansion, The War Within, naturally, we also know what is coming along down the pipe.

Now, in a certain way, this isn't really all that new from Blizzard's end of things. They've long said that they've got World of Warcraft planned out a couple expansions in advance (meaning I wouldn't be surprised if they've already got some early concept work for whatever comes after The Last Titan, an expansion that will be coming out when I'm in my 40s, probably - which is insane for someone who started playing this game when he was 20).

What we've gotten for War Within seems to meet the criteria for a modern WoW expansion, with four zones at launch (as an old-schooler, I do somewhat miss the days of having places like Northrend, with its ten zones (eight of which were truly for leveling and questing - Crystalsong Forest was, admittedly, mostly there to look pretty and Lake Wintergrasp was just an outdoor battleground). There's no new playable class, but we just got the Evoker, so that's to be expected, and the Earthen Dwarves will be fulfilling the "new character incentive" that I think every expansion really should have (the only ones that didn't have them were Warlords and Shadowlands).

What is somewhat odd is that while War Within has a traditional expansion hook - giving us a new land to explore (and, excitingly, one that will truly be different, as the "continent" will be vertically stacked subterranean zones,) what we've heard of Midnight and the Last Titan is that both take place in previously-explored areas.

Now, Midnight is the big question here: the expansion is said to be set in Quel'thalas. Currently, what exists in-game as Quel'thalas is just the three zones that were added way back in Burning Crusade - Eversong Woods, the Ghostlands, and the Isle of Quel'danas. I have to imagine, though, that Midnight will take place in a larger region, as these zones are pretty compact, having been built to fit into the existing Eastern Kingdoms.

There's also "The Cataclysm Problem," in which beloved old zones were sort of forever lost (at least until WoW Classic came out) when the revamp happened. Mind you, I still think the leveling experience in the old world is monumentally improved thanks to the revamp back in 2010 (and yes, we've had over twice as much time with the Cataclysm version of the world as we had with the original,) but there's something to be said for preserving the old versions of places and things.

I suspect that what we'll be seeing is just a separate version of Quel'thalas created for Midnight. Not only will this allow them to expand it out and make it a much bigger area - worthy of a whole expansion - but it will keep the old version preserved and visitable.

Indeed, I could even imagine them grafting the new version onto the existing Eastern Kingdoms, allowing the old, BC-era version to remain tied to the Outland map as it currently is, and now instead of the big portal in the northern end of the Eastern Plaguelands, you'll have some Bronze Dragon NPC who can send you there.

Now, there is also a strong chance that Silvermoon will have to serve as a neutral hub for both Alliance and Horde players, but it will presumably be a rebuilt and refurbished version of the city.

Looking to the Last Titan, we're going to be going back to Northrend. The action will clearly revolve around Ulduar.

Now, if you had said that the original Quel'thalas zones were simply getting revamped and replaced, I'd oppose it, but I wouldn't be all that heartbroken - these are some of the oldest unchanged zones in WoW, and they show their age. But Wrath of the Lich King remains one of the most beloved expansions in WoW's history (while I think Legion eventually dethroned it as my favorite one, I think Wrath's legacy of accessible content definitely beats Legion's legacy of borrowed power mechanics). I cannot imagine that they'd do anything to break the existing version of Northrend, so I'm expecting we'll just be sent to an alternate version of it, much as the Wrath-era Dalaran and the Legion-era Dalaran both exist.

The next question is timing:

Chris Metzen said that they were planning on trying to get the expansions out faster - a goal that has eluded Blizzard for twenty years now. Personally, after the failed attempt to do so with Warlords of Draenor, which ultimately led us to spending the same two years with just very little to do in-game, I was sort of hoping that they'd given up on that goal.

What I wonder, and sort of worry, is that these expansions might be shortened in the interest of getting them out faster. In the last few expansions, we've lost the "intro raid" that used to be a staple - raids like Mogu'shan Vaults or Emerald Nightmare. While expansions have historically typically had three raid tiers, there was usually a shorter raid that you got before the first tier officially came out.

Now, granted, we've gotten three full tiers in the past few expansions, and in Warlords we did get the intro raid but only two full tier raids. It might be a sort of petty distinction, but with only three raids, Warlords was seen as something of an anemic anomaly, whereas that's been the norm recently. Of course, Shadowlands and Dragonflight have had a ton more "outdoor" content, so maybe judging an expansion purely by its raids is outdated.

I just hope that Midnight and The Last Titan don't feel just like big patches instead of expansions. But we'll see. And it's pretty far down the road.

The Dichotomy of Rock in Alan Wake II

 Alan Wake II takes its position as second game in the series (with an expected third game at the very least) very seriously. This is a game that's obsessed with the number two - two player characters (not counting a brief prologue in which we play as a third character,) two worlds, two Koskela brothers, two cults... the list goes on.

This also applies, interestingly enough, to two big music-based sequences. Now, one of these sequences is one of the most delightfully surprising segments of a video game I've ever played, so I dare not spoil those who have not yet experienced it firsthand. So let's get into spoiler territory:

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Hero Talents and Warbands in The War Within

 Following in Dragonflight's model, the team behind World of Warcraft is working on focusing on "evergreen" features that will continue to be part of the game moving forward. This is why, rather than another "borrowed power" mechanic as we saw in Legion, BFA, and Shadowlands, we instead got the overhauled talent system with Dragonflight - something I think has met with near-universal approval.

So, in War Within (WW? Or is that going to be confused with Windwalkers?) the new systems being added are going to, ideally, be stuff we continue to play with moving forward in Midnight, The Last Titan, and beyond (it's insane to me that I know the names of the next two expansions after the next).

So, what are they?

Hero Talents:

Starting at level 71, we'll get a third talent tree. This third tree is going to represent some of the legendary archetypes that fit into the various class archetypes. We were given a few examples: Dark Rangers for Hunters, Farseers for Shaman, Keepers of the Grove and Chosen of Elune for Druids, and Mountain Thanes, Champions, and Slayers for Warriors.

In the latter case, we were given a clearer look at how these will go:

For most classes, which have three specs, there will be three "Hero Talent Trees," corresponding to these roles. Each spec will have two choices - so if you're a Protection Warrior, you can choose between Mountain Thane or Champion. If you're an Arms Warrior, you'll choose between Champion or Slayer, and if you're a Fury Warrior, you'll be able to choose between Mountain Thane or Slayer.

These talents will have mechanical effects, but also aesthetic ones. But they'll also have cosmetic effects.

Swapping between them is meant to be just as easy as swapping specs and talents is now - basically any time you're not in combat or something like a Mythic + dungeon you'll be ok to swap them.

Likewise, while they're "trees," the idea is that from 71 to 80, you're going to unlock every talent in these trees, similar to the original set of Artifact features.

Essentially, to me, this seems like it will be almost like a second spec-like choice, giving you another set of subclass abilities. We have yet to see how big of an impact these abilities will have. My hope is that they'll be balanced to really let you choose the aesthetic that you like, but naturally that will be a challenge.

I'm very curious to see what archetypes we see introduced. Warriors have a lot of options to pull from given all the Warrior-like characters we've seen in the past, from Blademaster Grom Hellscream to Mountain King Muradin to Tauren Chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof. But, for example, what different flavors/vibes of Death Knight might we get?

Still, if it lets me play my Paladin as a somewhat more arcane-themed battlemage, I'd be really freaking excited. And even if it's just a choice between something like "guardian" or "templar," I can easily have my very Neutral Good paladin go for the less edgy, more omnibenevolent archetype.

Warbands:

This is a sort of umbrella term that they're using to apply to a general attitude going forward toward alts: All reputations and renown will now be account-wide in War Within (at least for new factions). Additionally, there will be direct ways to share bank space - which honestly could be a huge game-changer, as it'll be a lot easier to not have to remember which alt I sent all of my "whatever" ore to.

Another change here will be that you will now be able to collect transmog appearances regardless of your class' armor type - so if I take my Demon Hunter through some old raid, I'll be able to collect the appearances of all the plate, mail, and cloth armor. Not sure if this also applies to class-specific armor, but a hugely welcome change - I cleared Molten Core so many times to get the Tier 2 Paladin pants that I'm sure I would have completed at least one other class' tier 1 appearance set in the course of it (I did finally get it, incidentally, finishing the set (which admittedly looks like it was made in 2004, but is still a classic).

I really think this will be a huge boon to altoholics. I guess the pitfall would be that, if renown awards or reputation rewards are too good, people might feel pressured to play alts to get that reputation up as quickly as possible, but then again, given Dragonflight's approach, I don't think that'll be necessary unless you really want to push those reputations to full, and shouldn't be a big impact on player power.

These seem to be the two biggest mechanical changes coming in the new expansion, but I think they're continuing with the strategy in Dragonflight of "less is more." We saw how the gigantic number of systems in, for example, Battle for Azeroth, got kind of overwhelming. Dragonflight has shown that focusing on core systems creates opportunities to work on core stuff.

Delves:

We haven't really gotten a super-deep look at these, but there seems to be an effort to let people who prefer world-exploration and less structured group play. Delves will be 1-5 player content that is role-agnostic. Naturally, this makes me think or Torghast, which was honestly a pretty fun bit of content that only suffered, I think, when people felt like they needed to grind it.

Most interesting to me is that it looks like Outdoor content and Delves will generate rewards in the Great Vault. While the Great Vault of course only rewards gear based on the content you do, this will at least give more casual or solo-focused players ways to get that fun Tuesday reward.

The Worldsoul Saga: World of Warcraft's Three-Expansion Epic

 Well, I didn't see that coming!

Marking twenty years of WoW next year, Blizzard has announced that they're doing something big and ambitious: The Worldsoul Saga is going to be an ongoing storyline for the next three expansions.

First is The War Within, which looks to be, at least partially, WoW's "Lost World" expansion, taking us into subterranean realms, including an ancient Nerubian empire, with Xal'atath serving as the big bad of the expansion. We have a little more in terms of details here (though more to come) in that we'll be getting Earthen Dwarves as a new allied race (presumably available to both sides, as they didn't announce another one,) we'll be getting "dynamic flying" (aka Dragonriding but for other kinds of mounts,) and there will be new "hero talents" that allow classes to specialize further, with Dark Rangers and Farseers being presented as options. There's also some new feature called Warbands, which is meant to help share progress between alts, sharing bank spaces, reputations, and other things.

The second expansion is called Midnight, which is set to take place in Quel'thalas, and involves the forces of darkness trying to corrupt the Sunwell, and will see the various Elven peoples uniting to face this threat.

The third expansion and culmination of the Worldsoul Saga is The Last Titan, which will take us back to Northrend and focus on the Titans' return to Azeroth and revolve around Ulduar, and is said to involve the unveiling of a great conspiracy involving the Titans.

This is enormous - we have yet to see precisely how the return to old regions will work (I'm assuming we'll get a separate version of those regions, possibly expanding Quel'thalas to make it big enough to hold a whole expansion) but the two "return" expansions will presumably not be coming until 2026 and 2028 respectively.

For now, what we've gotten cinematics-wise is a scene of Anduin and Thrall, the former still deeply, horribly traumatized by his experiences in the Shadowlands, but both have been getting visions from the World Soul, begging for aid. In the in-game-style features trailer, we see that Alleria, through her connection to the Void, is getting visions of Xal'atath.

The WoW What's Next Panel is coming soon, so we should hopefully have more details to share soon.

Who the Hell is Warlin Door?

 In Alan Wake II, when we first get to play as Alan (which is a little ways into the game - we have to complete the first big chapter with Saga initially) our favorite doomed novelist awakens in the dressing room at a late-night talk show called In-Between with Mr. Door.

Door comes off as a typical enthusiastic late-night host, eagerly introducing Alan as his "favorite author" and raving about Alan's newest work, a novel called "Initiation," which Alan has no memory of writing. He describes the novel as "autofiction," and acts as if Alan's bewilderment is just part of the whole story's narrative.

Spoilers Ahead: