We're going to another plane of existence in Shadowlands, and one that seems far larger and more diverse than was originally hinted. The Shadowlands are a realm of death, yes, but not all that death takes dark forms. Ardenweald and Bastion are both realms of death, but have a far different aesthetic, with Bastion a heaven-like land of light and angelic beings and Ardenweald being a land of Fae creatures (in fact, this is the first time in WoW we're going to have entities that are explicitly Fae creatures, with perhaps the exception of Faerie Dragons.)
Given the opening cinematic and features trailer, we can be pretty confident in four major figures in the expansion's story. Sylvanas sets the whole thing off by destroying the Helm of Domination. Bolvar, having failed to prevent her from doing that and losing his power as Lich King, will likely play a major role in organizing the living to help solve the chaos that has ensued.
Two new lore figures are being introduced as well. The Arbiter is a kind of judge of the dead, and will be the central figure in the city of Oribos, which will be our urban hub for the expansion. The Arbiter seems like she's in contention for most powerful entity in the Warcraft cosmos we've encountered yet, and it'll be exciting to see what relationship she has with the other godlike entities we've seen before. (Part of me just wants her to be the Lady of Pain from D&D, but that'd obviously be some huge copyright infringement.)
And then the Jailor will presumably be the main villain of the expansion. I think either he or Sylvanas could be the final boss. I'm of two minds when it comes to Sylvanas. On one hand I think she needs to have a big loss - she's been winning too much and edging toward the "villain sue" territory. But on the other hand, I also kind of feel like just making her a raid boss might be weirdly unsatisfying.
This is a problem as WoW has gone on. It used to be that being an expansion's final boss was a huge thing - the build up to our fight with the Lich King made that fight feel profound, and it felt like a fitting end to his character. But perhaps we're so used to it at this point that it doesn't feel as special. Is that weird?
I think the thing they need to do with Sylvanas is resolve what became of her more sympathetic traits - sure, she's always been ruthless, but for a while it really seemed to be in solidarity with her people and a desire to protect them and get them justice. Is Sylvanas irredeemable? I know it would take a whole lot to rehabilitate her character, and no matter how hard-earned that is, some players wouldn't ever accept it. So maybe we do just need to kill her off and be done with her.
Beyond that, though, who might play a part?
Well, there are plenty of death-aligned characters we could encounter. Bwonsamdi is going to play a major role in a dungeon in Ardenweald. Helya, we're told, isn't as dead as she seemed before, and resolving the mystery of her origins and who got Odyn's eye feels important. I also can't imagine they'd introduce Bolvar's daughter just before he is dethroned as Lich King without doing something with her as a character. We've also just barely glimpsed Calia Menethil in her newly light-bound undead form, and while it doesn't look like she's just going to take over from Sylvanas as the leader of the Forsaken, it does feel like she's got a part to play.
There will, naturally, be important figures from the new Covenants. We've heard about a few familiar NPCs that we'll encounter there, but I also imagine there will be a number of new figures.
I also feel like we have got to, got to see Arthas in the Maw. (Also, Gul'dan, right? There's no way he didn't wind up there too.)
Apparently the intro to the expansion is going to have us storming Icecrown in an attempt to deal with the rampant Scourge, and from there we'll be sucked into the Maw. Who will go with us and become trapped there? We'll presumably have some of the heroes of our factions coming with us, but we're going to be the special ones who can escape the Maw. I imagine there will be a classic heroes gallery from either side and that a big part of the expansion's plot will be rescuing those people from the Maw.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Will We Leave Our Factions Behind in the Shadowlands?
One of the more controversial moves - or rather, more of a lack of a move - at Blizzcon was the that there is no real change coming to the faction system in WoW. Citing its importance as a core mechanic to the game, they shot down any hopes of cross-faction grouping or any loosening of restrictions for friendly interaction between the two factions.
I am sympathetic to those who see this as a sacred thing to WoW. After all, there's basically nothing in the original cinematic other than the two sides fighting, and that division is something that has existed since the beginning.
That being said, it is also a little frustrating. Time and time again, we get to this point where it feels like the two sides have finally come to an understanding, finally realizing that their animosity toward one another serves no purpose. We saw it after the Third War, after Mists of Pandaria, and now toward the end of BFA.
This is actually an area where the mechanics seem to be driving the story more than the other way around. We keep falling into conflict because the game's mechanics demand it, even when the story really seems to be suggesting that most of Azeroth wishes that the two sides would just figure their problems out and at the very least just leave the other side alone. (It's also frustrating that the Horde always seems to be the instigators - it's annoying as an Alliance player to be constantly told that we need to stop fighting when the Alliance is almost always playing defense.)
While I really wish there were an option moving forward for our characters to decide if we're still invested in this whole faction conflict - indeed, this would play into the theme of player agency they seem to be focusing on in the new expansion - I think that lore-wise, Shadowlands will probably be side-stepping the issue by having us go to another plane of existence entirely.
In pretty much every previous expansion, our journey to new lands has been part of a larger military campaign. It actually makes sense given Warcraft's strategy game roots. The two factions are large military powers, and while we're the elite adventurers who do the heavy lifting, we come with large armies to support our efforts.
Legion was something of an exception, as the major military offensive - the attack on the Broken Shore - was actually a total catastrophe. The Kirin Tor were not really part of that fight, but on top of that, the Broken Isles were not really an entirely unknown territory - Val'sharah, for example, was literally Malfurion and Illidan's homeland.
BFA also had us coming to familiar territories, and rather than a major military invasion, we were securing new allies who were well-established in the new territories. Kul Tiras in particular felt like a totally settled country that just happened to be having some very major problems that we needed to deal with.
But with the Shadowlands, it would feel very strange for us to march in there with an army and a bunch of airships ready to fight the Jailor with military might.
We have yet to truly understand the nature of the Jailor and his forces. Even supernatural foes in Warcraft have tended toward a sort of militaristic structure. The Burning Legion, as the name implies, is a real army of demons. And even the Old Gods have an ancient Black Empire that kind of lends them a structure that you can seem to defeat militarily.
Given that we are meant to be the special people who can escape the Maw, I'm guessing that even if we do attack using a military strategy - perhaps assuming that the threat is really just the Scourge - it's going to be a disaster on par with the Broken Shore.
Subsequently, our exploration of the Shadowlands will require us to adjust to a very different kind of world.
I am curious to see what holds the story together. I strongly suspect that Bolvar will be our major NPC guide to all of this. Indeed, he might effectively take the role that Khadgar did in Warlords and Legion.
But it would be very strange to see big Orcish spiky buildings or Human ones built of white stone popping up in Maldraxxus or Ardenweald. I don't think we're going to see the factions really establish themselves in the Shadowlands. But that, interestingly, makes this more of a personal struggle for our characters as champions of Azeroth, and perhaps just champions of the living in general.
It's too bad that our characters can literally find themselves in the afterlife and still not be able to get over factional resentments. And while I basically never play in War Mode, it will be very strange to see Alliance and Horde killing each other in what is basically heaven (Bastion.)
Still, I feel pretty strongly, and I'm also pretty confident, that we shouldn't be seeing a bunch of faction-conflict story going on in Shadowlands. The exception might be those who remained loyal to Sylvanas, but I'm given to understand that, canonically, those who did made the wrong choice - Sylvanas is going to do what she's going to do, and while she thinks it's the right thing to do, and your character might have thought so as well, it's not going to save you from what she has set into motion.
I hope that, moving forward, we'll have more real player choices - preferably not limited to only one of the two factions. I'm also hoping there will be more complex and nuanced choices involved. It's pretty obvious from the get-go that Saurfang is the good guy and Sylvanas is the bad guy in that story. I know Warcraft doesn't tend to go for very complicated moral questions, but I'd like to see some choices emerge in grey areas.
I am sympathetic to those who see this as a sacred thing to WoW. After all, there's basically nothing in the original cinematic other than the two sides fighting, and that division is something that has existed since the beginning.
That being said, it is also a little frustrating. Time and time again, we get to this point where it feels like the two sides have finally come to an understanding, finally realizing that their animosity toward one another serves no purpose. We saw it after the Third War, after Mists of Pandaria, and now toward the end of BFA.
This is actually an area where the mechanics seem to be driving the story more than the other way around. We keep falling into conflict because the game's mechanics demand it, even when the story really seems to be suggesting that most of Azeroth wishes that the two sides would just figure their problems out and at the very least just leave the other side alone. (It's also frustrating that the Horde always seems to be the instigators - it's annoying as an Alliance player to be constantly told that we need to stop fighting when the Alliance is almost always playing defense.)
While I really wish there were an option moving forward for our characters to decide if we're still invested in this whole faction conflict - indeed, this would play into the theme of player agency they seem to be focusing on in the new expansion - I think that lore-wise, Shadowlands will probably be side-stepping the issue by having us go to another plane of existence entirely.
In pretty much every previous expansion, our journey to new lands has been part of a larger military campaign. It actually makes sense given Warcraft's strategy game roots. The two factions are large military powers, and while we're the elite adventurers who do the heavy lifting, we come with large armies to support our efforts.
Legion was something of an exception, as the major military offensive - the attack on the Broken Shore - was actually a total catastrophe. The Kirin Tor were not really part of that fight, but on top of that, the Broken Isles were not really an entirely unknown territory - Val'sharah, for example, was literally Malfurion and Illidan's homeland.
BFA also had us coming to familiar territories, and rather than a major military invasion, we were securing new allies who were well-established in the new territories. Kul Tiras in particular felt like a totally settled country that just happened to be having some very major problems that we needed to deal with.
But with the Shadowlands, it would feel very strange for us to march in there with an army and a bunch of airships ready to fight the Jailor with military might.
We have yet to truly understand the nature of the Jailor and his forces. Even supernatural foes in Warcraft have tended toward a sort of militaristic structure. The Burning Legion, as the name implies, is a real army of demons. And even the Old Gods have an ancient Black Empire that kind of lends them a structure that you can seem to defeat militarily.
Given that we are meant to be the special people who can escape the Maw, I'm guessing that even if we do attack using a military strategy - perhaps assuming that the threat is really just the Scourge - it's going to be a disaster on par with the Broken Shore.
Subsequently, our exploration of the Shadowlands will require us to adjust to a very different kind of world.
I am curious to see what holds the story together. I strongly suspect that Bolvar will be our major NPC guide to all of this. Indeed, he might effectively take the role that Khadgar did in Warlords and Legion.
But it would be very strange to see big Orcish spiky buildings or Human ones built of white stone popping up in Maldraxxus or Ardenweald. I don't think we're going to see the factions really establish themselves in the Shadowlands. But that, interestingly, makes this more of a personal struggle for our characters as champions of Azeroth, and perhaps just champions of the living in general.
It's too bad that our characters can literally find themselves in the afterlife and still not be able to get over factional resentments. And while I basically never play in War Mode, it will be very strange to see Alliance and Horde killing each other in what is basically heaven (Bastion.)
Still, I feel pretty strongly, and I'm also pretty confident, that we shouldn't be seeing a bunch of faction-conflict story going on in Shadowlands. The exception might be those who remained loyal to Sylvanas, but I'm given to understand that, canonically, those who did made the wrong choice - Sylvanas is going to do what she's going to do, and while she thinks it's the right thing to do, and your character might have thought so as well, it's not going to save you from what she has set into motion.
I hope that, moving forward, we'll have more real player choices - preferably not limited to only one of the two factions. I'm also hoping there will be more complex and nuanced choices involved. It's pretty obvious from the get-go that Saurfang is the good guy and Sylvanas is the bad guy in that story. I know Warcraft doesn't tend to go for very complicated moral questions, but I'd like to see some choices emerge in grey areas.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
WoW Anniversary Activities
WoW's 15th anniversary event begins today, and will continue through January 7th.
In addition to the usual XP/Rep boost item, you'll also automatically get a Li'l Nefarian pet if you log in.
The other major features are a raid boss-rush and an alternate Alterac Valley brawl.
I've completed the boss-rush, but the AV brawl seems like it will require a pretty major time investment - such that I'm not even sure if I'll finish it.
Let's talk about the bosses:
The Caverns of Time are where the big celebration is going down - there's a whole party atmosphere there, including Leeroy Jenkins himself serving up spicy chicken.
Speaking to Chromie, you can queue up for an LFR group to tackle three bosses each from WoW's first three expansions. Completing all three boss-rushes will grant you the Obsidian Destroyer mount, which is basically like Deathwing in mount form.
Unless my raid leader was mistaken, you have to do all three in order without wiping for it to count, so we would go back if we encountered problems (Ragnaros bugged for us the first time, which was annoying.)
None of the fights are the entire boss encounter - they've picked phases that don't require quite as much close coordination, thankfully.
Here are the bosses you fight, and the phases you do:
Burning Crusade: You start with Lady Vashj, in what is probably the simplest of these fights. Kill off the adds and then just focus her down. She'll spawn poison on the ground, so you'll need to move frequently. Next, you fight Kael'thas, right about when you get the legendary weapons - you'll automatically have the weapon abilities. After killing off the phoenix adds he summons, you'll get the zero-gravity phase and then just burn him down. Finally, you'll go onto Archimonde from Mt. Hyjal, and here it's just about making sure you have a healer near the tank, as he'll be tossing people around and using fear, so you'll need to run back to him. Make sure to use the extra action button to slow your fall if he knocks you into the air - try to time it so that you use it shortly before you hit the ground, as it only works for a second or so.
Wrath of the Lich King:
The first fight is Heigan the Unclean. You can do the Safety Dance, running through the parts of the floor not spewing slime, or you can just muscle through his damage aura and just try to burn him as quick as you can. Next, there's Anub'arak. The phase you fight him will be when he starts to burrow. Ranged need to kill ice crystals to lay ice on the ground. When he burrows, everyone needs to put some ice between themselves and his spikes. I think it takes five failed spike attacks (trying to go up through the ice) for him to emerge again. Finally, you face the Lich King, starting toward the tail end of phase 2. (This is probably the single boss fight I made the most attempts on, so I know it pretty well even about a decade later.) Stay out of the defile, ranged group up with melee to kill Val'kyr, and when he does Remorseless Winter, get to the edge of the platform and ranged kill the ice balls. When that phase ends, get back before the floor collapses.
Cataclysm:
You start with Cho'gall. Kill adds, face away if you're going to vomit shadow magic onto your raid, and try to tank him at either the throne or the door (I think that might help with the shadow aura?) Next, there's Nefarian. This is shockingly simple - it's just the transition phase. Swim through the lava to the nearest pillar and kill the add on it - they seem to divide the raid evenly so just go to the closest one. The adds have a knockback that needs to be interrupted, but that's about it. When they die and the lava recedes, you can just jump down and you'll be done. Next, there's Ragnaros. Basically, kill adds, stay out of the fire.
Each time you finish all three boss fights, there will be a chest that opens up with some Timewarped Badges as well as, occasionally, some loot for transmog (it's actually a decent item level too - I got some 420 shoulders, which would be great except they don't have Azerite traits.)
The Alterac Valley thing seems to work based on how many Timewarped badges you earn in the battleground. Unfortunately, you need to get 200 and the quests you can do in it (which are the old-school AV quests) only give 10 or even 2 a pop. I wonder if this is intentional or not - it seems like you'll have to really farm this if you want to succeed. The reward is an updated model of the Frostwolf or Stormpike wolf/ram mounts.
In addition to the usual XP/Rep boost item, you'll also automatically get a Li'l Nefarian pet if you log in.
The other major features are a raid boss-rush and an alternate Alterac Valley brawl.
I've completed the boss-rush, but the AV brawl seems like it will require a pretty major time investment - such that I'm not even sure if I'll finish it.
Let's talk about the bosses:
The Caverns of Time are where the big celebration is going down - there's a whole party atmosphere there, including Leeroy Jenkins himself serving up spicy chicken.
Speaking to Chromie, you can queue up for an LFR group to tackle three bosses each from WoW's first three expansions. Completing all three boss-rushes will grant you the Obsidian Destroyer mount, which is basically like Deathwing in mount form.
Unless my raid leader was mistaken, you have to do all three in order without wiping for it to count, so we would go back if we encountered problems (Ragnaros bugged for us the first time, which was annoying.)
None of the fights are the entire boss encounter - they've picked phases that don't require quite as much close coordination, thankfully.
Here are the bosses you fight, and the phases you do:
Burning Crusade: You start with Lady Vashj, in what is probably the simplest of these fights. Kill off the adds and then just focus her down. She'll spawn poison on the ground, so you'll need to move frequently. Next, you fight Kael'thas, right about when you get the legendary weapons - you'll automatically have the weapon abilities. After killing off the phoenix adds he summons, you'll get the zero-gravity phase and then just burn him down. Finally, you'll go onto Archimonde from Mt. Hyjal, and here it's just about making sure you have a healer near the tank, as he'll be tossing people around and using fear, so you'll need to run back to him. Make sure to use the extra action button to slow your fall if he knocks you into the air - try to time it so that you use it shortly before you hit the ground, as it only works for a second or so.
Wrath of the Lich King:
The first fight is Heigan the Unclean. You can do the Safety Dance, running through the parts of the floor not spewing slime, or you can just muscle through his damage aura and just try to burn him as quick as you can. Next, there's Anub'arak. The phase you fight him will be when he starts to burrow. Ranged need to kill ice crystals to lay ice on the ground. When he burrows, everyone needs to put some ice between themselves and his spikes. I think it takes five failed spike attacks (trying to go up through the ice) for him to emerge again. Finally, you face the Lich King, starting toward the tail end of phase 2. (This is probably the single boss fight I made the most attempts on, so I know it pretty well even about a decade later.) Stay out of the defile, ranged group up with melee to kill Val'kyr, and when he does Remorseless Winter, get to the edge of the platform and ranged kill the ice balls. When that phase ends, get back before the floor collapses.
Cataclysm:
You start with Cho'gall. Kill adds, face away if you're going to vomit shadow magic onto your raid, and try to tank him at either the throne or the door (I think that might help with the shadow aura?) Next, there's Nefarian. This is shockingly simple - it's just the transition phase. Swim through the lava to the nearest pillar and kill the add on it - they seem to divide the raid evenly so just go to the closest one. The adds have a knockback that needs to be interrupted, but that's about it. When they die and the lava recedes, you can just jump down and you'll be done. Next, there's Ragnaros. Basically, kill adds, stay out of the fire.
Each time you finish all three boss fights, there will be a chest that opens up with some Timewarped Badges as well as, occasionally, some loot for transmog (it's actually a decent item level too - I got some 420 shoulders, which would be great except they don't have Azerite traits.)
The Alterac Valley thing seems to work based on how many Timewarped badges you earn in the battleground. Unfortunately, you need to get 200 and the quests you can do in it (which are the old-school AV quests) only give 10 or even 2 a pop. I wonder if this is intentional or not - it seems like you'll have to really farm this if you want to succeed. The reward is an updated model of the Frostwolf or Stormpike wolf/ram mounts.
Monday, November 4, 2019
New Unearthed Arcana: Class Feature Variants
After getting a new subclass for each class in the last few UAs, the latest one instead gives us variants and enhancements of existing features.
This really seems like the precursor to some kind of Players Handbook 2 (or 3, if you count Xanathar's. Maybe 4? I mean, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide actually came with a lot of new subclasses, though several were repeated in Xanathar's.)
One of the clear trends was spellcasting versatility. Basically every class that has cantrips seems like it will be able to swap them out when they level up, similar to spells for classes that learn a set number like Warlocks or Bards.
There are several new Fighting Styles, with a few specific to certain classes (Paladins can take one that gives them Cleric cantrips.) Also, some of the ideas introduced in the revised Ranger from a few years ago have come back, like special animal companions that are easier to revive.
I'm convinced that there is a major supplement that will be announced before too long.
This really seems like the precursor to some kind of Players Handbook 2 (or 3, if you count Xanathar's. Maybe 4? I mean, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide actually came with a lot of new subclasses, though several were repeated in Xanathar's.)
One of the clear trends was spellcasting versatility. Basically every class that has cantrips seems like it will be able to swap them out when they level up, similar to spells for classes that learn a set number like Warlocks or Bards.
There are several new Fighting Styles, with a few specific to certain classes (Paladins can take one that gives them Cleric cantrips.) Also, some of the ideas introduced in the revised Ranger from a few years ago have come back, like special animal companions that are easier to revive.
I'm convinced that there is a major supplement that will be announced before too long.
If Death Knights Are the Death Class, Can They Be Made More Effective Necromancers?
In some interview (I can't remember which,) Blizzard developers said they did not want to make the Necromancer into a new class because Death Knights already occupy that conceptual space.
I'd argue that Necromancers could be the Warlocks to the Death Knights' Demon Hunters, but agree to disagree.
I can't imagine a better time to add Necromancers as a class, and given that we're not getting them, I wonder how we could potentially give Death Knights a better chance to fill that role.
Now, before we start that, I'd also add that you could argue that Warlocks would be the better choice to act as Necromancers. One way would be by adding new "class skins." You could very easily change Demonology to be a spec that summons various undead monsters to assault your enemies, and Affliction could be all about infecting your target with plagues. Destruction might be about throwing bolts of death magic.
But seeing as there's no announcement of "class skins," we can expect the current classes to stick to their general aesthetics and themes.
Death Knights obviously call upon Necromantic magic - it's the base of their class. While Frost (especially in the last two expansions) has basically nothing to do with undeath other than the fact that the Death Knight is, in fact, dead, both Blood and Unholy call upon plainly necromantic powers.
Blood uses a sort of vampirism to tank, constantly healing itself. But Unholy, I think, really embodies what a lot of us would assume a Necromancer would look like - fighting alongside a ghoul, summoning an army of the dead.
The only real difference I can see is the fact that they're a plate-wearing melee class. If you replaced their melee strikes with ranged spells, you'd basically have a Necromancer that just so happens to wear some very heavy armor.
Which got me thinking: could we just do that?
If you look at Survival Hunters as of Legion (I haven't played mine since then,) basically all their abilities are ranged, except for one or two. They have a cooldown called Aspect of the Eagle (or did at least) in which their melee strike become ranged - it's not going to give you maximum damage, but it allows for a bit more uptime on the target when you have to run.
In earlier expansions, there were glyphs and talents that could radically change the way a spec plays. Demonology Warlocks had one that allowed them to sort-of tank in Mists of Pandaria, and in Warlords, Protection Warriors got a talent called Gladiator Stance that allowed them to DPS with a sword-and-board.
I could imagine a really interesting transformational talent for Unholy Death Knights. You would have to make it so you could use Festering Strike, Scourge Strike, and Apocalypse from range, and maybe buff these slightly in order to compensate for the lack of auto-attack. But once you've got that, you're basically done. Death Coil is already a ranged runic power spender, and your ghoul and army of the dead can all swarm into melee while you stand at the back, commanding your undead minions and throwing bolts of death energy at the target.
You could even add a new Runeforging rune that would support this playstyle (Runeforging feels like a really cool class feature they haven't really done much with since Death Knights were first introduced. I guess I shouldn't complain about not having to get a weapon enchant.)
If they ever do make Necromancers a class, you could just get rid of this talent (though again, if they're not doing it in Shadowlands, I really doubt they ever will,) but in the meantime, if you want to play a Necromancer caster, this could be your option.
It'd give us our first plate ranged dps option, and it would also just add another ranged option to the game, which they literally have never done after vanilla.
Meanwhile, if you like Unholy the way it is, you can just opt out of that talent and keep slashing away in melee.
I'd argue that Necromancers could be the Warlocks to the Death Knights' Demon Hunters, but agree to disagree.
I can't imagine a better time to add Necromancers as a class, and given that we're not getting them, I wonder how we could potentially give Death Knights a better chance to fill that role.
Now, before we start that, I'd also add that you could argue that Warlocks would be the better choice to act as Necromancers. One way would be by adding new "class skins." You could very easily change Demonology to be a spec that summons various undead monsters to assault your enemies, and Affliction could be all about infecting your target with plagues. Destruction might be about throwing bolts of death magic.
But seeing as there's no announcement of "class skins," we can expect the current classes to stick to their general aesthetics and themes.
Death Knights obviously call upon Necromantic magic - it's the base of their class. While Frost (especially in the last two expansions) has basically nothing to do with undeath other than the fact that the Death Knight is, in fact, dead, both Blood and Unholy call upon plainly necromantic powers.
Blood uses a sort of vampirism to tank, constantly healing itself. But Unholy, I think, really embodies what a lot of us would assume a Necromancer would look like - fighting alongside a ghoul, summoning an army of the dead.
The only real difference I can see is the fact that they're a plate-wearing melee class. If you replaced their melee strikes with ranged spells, you'd basically have a Necromancer that just so happens to wear some very heavy armor.
Which got me thinking: could we just do that?
If you look at Survival Hunters as of Legion (I haven't played mine since then,) basically all their abilities are ranged, except for one or two. They have a cooldown called Aspect of the Eagle (or did at least) in which their melee strike become ranged - it's not going to give you maximum damage, but it allows for a bit more uptime on the target when you have to run.
In earlier expansions, there were glyphs and talents that could radically change the way a spec plays. Demonology Warlocks had one that allowed them to sort-of tank in Mists of Pandaria, and in Warlords, Protection Warriors got a talent called Gladiator Stance that allowed them to DPS with a sword-and-board.
I could imagine a really interesting transformational talent for Unholy Death Knights. You would have to make it so you could use Festering Strike, Scourge Strike, and Apocalypse from range, and maybe buff these slightly in order to compensate for the lack of auto-attack. But once you've got that, you're basically done. Death Coil is already a ranged runic power spender, and your ghoul and army of the dead can all swarm into melee while you stand at the back, commanding your undead minions and throwing bolts of death energy at the target.
You could even add a new Runeforging rune that would support this playstyle (Runeforging feels like a really cool class feature they haven't really done much with since Death Knights were first introduced. I guess I shouldn't complain about not having to get a weapon enchant.)
If they ever do make Necromancers a class, you could just get rid of this talent (though again, if they're not doing it in Shadowlands, I really doubt they ever will,) but in the meantime, if you want to play a Necromancer caster, this could be your option.
It'd give us our first plate ranged dps option, and it would also just add another ranged option to the game, which they literally have never done after vanilla.
Meanwhile, if you like Unholy the way it is, you can just opt out of that talent and keep slashing away in melee.
The Maw, Arthas, Sylvanas, and the Val'kyr
The Maw is a sort of black hole of the Shadowlands.
There are parts of the Shadowlands that appear very permeable. Ardenweald, for instance, is a place connected deeply to life. It's even described as being of a piece with the Emerald Dream - while the Dream is about growth and life, Ardenweald is about rest and preparing for rebirth. While the parts of Ardenweald showed off in the features trailer have a very Shadowmoon Valley (Draenor version,) Feywild feel, there's also areas of brown and dried decay, which suggests that the Drust could very easily have been interacting with this realm. Still, even with that, beings in Ardenweald don't even seem to be there permanently - it's more of a waiting room for reincarnation and rebirth, which is why Cenarius was able to come back in Cataclysm.
But the Maw appears to be a scary hell even for those in the "dark" Shadowlands zones like Maldraxxus and Revendreth. It's said nothing has ever escaped from it.
But that seems unlikely.
First off, there are rumors of the Jailor within the Maw, and it's not clear how such rumors would have gotten out if there wasn't some way for things to emerge from it.
One thing that's heavily implied but not confirmed is that the dark void that Sylvanas saw when she killed herself following Arthas' defeat might be the Maw. When Arthas says, in his dying moments, "I see only darkness before me," it's likely that he was seeing his soul being sent into this horrific place suitable only for the most irredeemable and wicked souls.
So, a couple things:
First off, I get that Arthas was prime material for the Maw. You could make the argument that before he lost his soul to Frostmourne, he was bad but not 100% evil, but if you consider his actions as Lich King, it's clear that he's one of the most evil people in the Warcraft cosmos - though again, you could make the argument that his actions once his soul was taken weren't strictly speaking his own.
Sylvanas was in an ambiguous moral place in that moment. She was certainly not free of sin. But if you compare things with, for example, Kael'thas, it seems maybe extra harsh for her, in that moment, to be sent to the Maw. Kael'thas had betrayed his own people and helped bring the Burning Legion to Azeroth, selling out his entire world for power. But he's gotten away with just going to Revendreth for some purgatorial rehabilitation.
Sylvanas' actions after her second death have, I think, made her another prime candidate for the Maw (Gul'dan has got to be there, right?) But had she really qualified the first time?
The official story for a while has been that she was rescued by some formerly Scourge-aligned Val'kyr, and that she has been using them to raise more Forsaken. As we're seeing in Shadowlands, that's not the whole story.
Now yes, this is a retcon, but I think one that is not necessarily undoing preexisting story. I think they've just decided there was more to it than previously thought.
It appears that she has been dealing with the Jailor since Cataclysm, which explains her turn toward the far more emphatically villainous. Did he send those Val'kyr to her?
We still haven't gotten a really clear look at the way the Lich King related to that veil between the Shadowlands and our reality.
I believe that the legendaries we'll be building with runes found in the Tower of the Damned are going to be crafted at the forge where Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination were created. Hopefully ours will be more resistant to shattering.
Initially, the story behind the Lich King was this: Kil'jaeden captured Ner'zhul as he tried to flee the crumbling world of Draenor as his portals were tearing the world apart and turning them into Outland. He then bound Ner'zhul's spirit into a suit of armor (and I guess also Frostmourne,) sealed them in an icy crystal and sent them to Azeroth to begin a plague of undeath that would take form as the Undead Scourge, all with the intent on devastating the world in order to clear the way for the Legion to invade.
At the time, we didn't really know about death itself as a separate cosmic power, and so it seemed the Scourge was really just an outgrowth of demonic fel magic. I've been saying for years (since Chronicle came out) that I hoped we'd get some lore giving the Scourge its own backing primal force, and now that's confirmed. (That being said, I did kind of like the idea that places like Naxxramas and the other ziggurat/pyramid structures they used were just appropriated Nerubian architecture, meaning that Naxxramas would have actually been an incredibly ancient Black Empire building. Instead, it appears that structures like the ones we've seen are actually drawn from Maldraxxus.)
That sets up an interesting pre-Scourge prologue story in which either Kil'jaeden or some of his minions must have gone to the Shadowlands and used the forge there to create the items that would empower the Lich King.
It appears that Demons and other non-mortals don't really go to the Shadowlands, so I'm very curious to see what it was like for someone like Kil'jaeden to come there (also, does it mean anything that he used to be a mortal? When he died at the end of Tomb of Sargeras, was he sent to the Arbiter or did his essence return to the Twisting Nether? Or, if we were strictly in the Nether when he died, does he just not exist in any way anymore?)
One big theme I'm sensing from Blizzcon is that Shadowlands is still in a relatively early stage of development - there are a lot of TBDs and systems they're still figuring out. I'm curious about to what extent that applies to the story.
The Warcraft cosmos is getting a massive expansion of its lore with Shadowlands, and I'm eager to see how it fits in with all the stuff we already know.
There are parts of the Shadowlands that appear very permeable. Ardenweald, for instance, is a place connected deeply to life. It's even described as being of a piece with the Emerald Dream - while the Dream is about growth and life, Ardenweald is about rest and preparing for rebirth. While the parts of Ardenweald showed off in the features trailer have a very Shadowmoon Valley (Draenor version,) Feywild feel, there's also areas of brown and dried decay, which suggests that the Drust could very easily have been interacting with this realm. Still, even with that, beings in Ardenweald don't even seem to be there permanently - it's more of a waiting room for reincarnation and rebirth, which is why Cenarius was able to come back in Cataclysm.
But the Maw appears to be a scary hell even for those in the "dark" Shadowlands zones like Maldraxxus and Revendreth. It's said nothing has ever escaped from it.
But that seems unlikely.
First off, there are rumors of the Jailor within the Maw, and it's not clear how such rumors would have gotten out if there wasn't some way for things to emerge from it.
One thing that's heavily implied but not confirmed is that the dark void that Sylvanas saw when she killed herself following Arthas' defeat might be the Maw. When Arthas says, in his dying moments, "I see only darkness before me," it's likely that he was seeing his soul being sent into this horrific place suitable only for the most irredeemable and wicked souls.
So, a couple things:
First off, I get that Arthas was prime material for the Maw. You could make the argument that before he lost his soul to Frostmourne, he was bad but not 100% evil, but if you consider his actions as Lich King, it's clear that he's one of the most evil people in the Warcraft cosmos - though again, you could make the argument that his actions once his soul was taken weren't strictly speaking his own.
Sylvanas was in an ambiguous moral place in that moment. She was certainly not free of sin. But if you compare things with, for example, Kael'thas, it seems maybe extra harsh for her, in that moment, to be sent to the Maw. Kael'thas had betrayed his own people and helped bring the Burning Legion to Azeroth, selling out his entire world for power. But he's gotten away with just going to Revendreth for some purgatorial rehabilitation.
Sylvanas' actions after her second death have, I think, made her another prime candidate for the Maw (Gul'dan has got to be there, right?) But had she really qualified the first time?
The official story for a while has been that she was rescued by some formerly Scourge-aligned Val'kyr, and that she has been using them to raise more Forsaken. As we're seeing in Shadowlands, that's not the whole story.
Now yes, this is a retcon, but I think one that is not necessarily undoing preexisting story. I think they've just decided there was more to it than previously thought.
It appears that she has been dealing with the Jailor since Cataclysm, which explains her turn toward the far more emphatically villainous. Did he send those Val'kyr to her?
We still haven't gotten a really clear look at the way the Lich King related to that veil between the Shadowlands and our reality.
I believe that the legendaries we'll be building with runes found in the Tower of the Damned are going to be crafted at the forge where Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination were created. Hopefully ours will be more resistant to shattering.
Initially, the story behind the Lich King was this: Kil'jaeden captured Ner'zhul as he tried to flee the crumbling world of Draenor as his portals were tearing the world apart and turning them into Outland. He then bound Ner'zhul's spirit into a suit of armor (and I guess also Frostmourne,) sealed them in an icy crystal and sent them to Azeroth to begin a plague of undeath that would take form as the Undead Scourge, all with the intent on devastating the world in order to clear the way for the Legion to invade.
At the time, we didn't really know about death itself as a separate cosmic power, and so it seemed the Scourge was really just an outgrowth of demonic fel magic. I've been saying for years (since Chronicle came out) that I hoped we'd get some lore giving the Scourge its own backing primal force, and now that's confirmed. (That being said, I did kind of like the idea that places like Naxxramas and the other ziggurat/pyramid structures they used were just appropriated Nerubian architecture, meaning that Naxxramas would have actually been an incredibly ancient Black Empire building. Instead, it appears that structures like the ones we've seen are actually drawn from Maldraxxus.)
That sets up an interesting pre-Scourge prologue story in which either Kil'jaeden or some of his minions must have gone to the Shadowlands and used the forge there to create the items that would empower the Lich King.
It appears that Demons and other non-mortals don't really go to the Shadowlands, so I'm very curious to see what it was like for someone like Kil'jaeden to come there (also, does it mean anything that he used to be a mortal? When he died at the end of Tomb of Sargeras, was he sent to the Arbiter or did his essence return to the Twisting Nether? Or, if we were strictly in the Nether when he died, does he just not exist in any way anymore?)
One big theme I'm sensing from Blizzcon is that Shadowlands is still in a relatively early stage of development - there are a lot of TBDs and systems they're still figuring out. I'm curious about to what extent that applies to the story.
The Warcraft cosmos is getting a massive expansion of its lore with Shadowlands, and I'm eager to see how it fits in with all the stuff we already know.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Imagining Oribos... as Sigil?
There were two major areas in Shadowlands that the Blizzcon announcement didn't show us at all.
While we saw the four leveling zones - Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, and Revendreth (I just realized something - my Worgen Warrior, Ardten... he's probably got to pick the Ardenweald covenant, right? I mean, it's literally his name - I wanted just "Arden" but that was taken) there were two areas they spoke about that we did not get to see.
The Maw sounds like it's going to basically be the Antoran Wastes of the Shadowlands - a super-dangerous place with no real safe spots and not really a ton of structured storytelling as much as just danger around every corner (I do hope that we get Suarmar-like endgame stories in the other zones though.)
But the other intriguing one is Oribos.
Oribos is apparently a city at the center of the Shadowlands, and it's here that every mortal soul is taken to be judged instantaneously by the central figure known as The Arbiter, who then assigns them to the proper realm of the Shadowlands. While the Arbiter sits in the center of the city, the rest of the city apparently is a gathering place for "soulbrokers" and other planar travelers.
And that really got me thinking about Planescape.
So, in the cosmos of D&D, one of the major campaign settings is all about adventures on the Outer Planes. If you think of the idea of Heaven and Hell, imagine instead that there are 17 planes, each representing different alignments (like Lawful Good or Chaotic Neutral) as well as planes at the sort of half-way points between close alignments (like Acheron, which is between the Lawful Neutral plane of Mechanus and the Lawful Evil plane called the Nine Hells, and is thus the sort of "Lawful Lawful Evil" plane.) The 17th of these planes is at the dead center, the True Neutral plane called the Outlands.
While in most adventures the important aspect of these planes is that they're were "outsiders" like fiends (chaotic demons, lawful devils, and other variations on that theme) and celestials (like angels) come from, the other function that they serve is that they are the various places mortal souls go after death. If you were a lawful good person, you're probably going to wind up in one of the three Lawful Good planes, depending on how lawful and how good you are. It's also generally where the gods live - and a devoted follower of a god will often find their way to that god's realm within those planes.
In the center of the Outlands is an infinitely tall spire at the top of which is a big ring, the inside surface of which is the city called Sigil.
Sigil is a very strange place, with several factions that represent various strict philosophies. Ruling over Sigil is a being that might be the most powerful entity in the entire D&D multiverse - the Lady of Pain. The Lady is emphatically not a god (and those who attempt to worship her find their flesh very suddenly flayed from their bones) and any god that attempts to enter her city will find themselves and everyone who worships them suddenly suffer a bad case of nonexistence.
D&D has several official campaign settings. Most of them take place in your standard physical reality with cities and mortal people and such. The Planescape setting starts you off right away in the Outer Planes, and even details how the locals think of those from the Prime Material Plane (they call them "Primes") as basically backwoods ignorant hicks. Sigil is not the entirety of that Planescape setting - indeed, despite sort of being in the Outlands, it can't actually be reached physically even from the True Neutral plane - the only way in or out of Sigil is through portal doorways - but it's definitely an iconic part of the setting.
Initially, the Shadowlands seemed to be Warcraft's equivalent of the Shadowfell - a dark reflection of the Prime Material Plane just beyond normal reality filled with undead and monsters. But it seems as if the Shadowlands are really more closely related to D&D's outer planes.
And that makes me really wonder: is Oribos, the city at the center of the Shadowlands, going to be the equivalent of Sigil, the city at the center of the Outer Planes?
And does that make the Arbiter the equivalent of the Lady of Pain?
Naturally, Blizzard needs to keep things different in order to avoid getting sued by Wizards of the Coast. But every fantasy RPG has taken at least some inspiration from D&D. And the Planescape stuff is so cool that I feel like it's a pretty good thing to steal from.
My hope is that Oribos is going to be a very weird-feeling city. We've had plenty of hub-cities before, but even the floating city of Dalaran is still ultimately just a normal town enchanted to float by mortal mages.
I know that having Oribos a giant loop would probably be close enough to actually get a plagiarism lawsuit, but I'm very excited to see what kind of bizarre citizens we encounter there. I'm sure we'll see plenty of Kyrians, Necrolords, Night Fae, and Venthyr there. And just in terms of character models that might be what we get. But I would be super-jazzed to also see other sort of extra-planar beings there as well. Could we encounter demons there who are not all about the Burning Crusade but are instead just there to do business in the soul trade? Or perhaps Val'kyr, who after all are known to journey back and forth from the Shadowlands freely (probably popping in to talk with their forebears from Bastion.)
The Planescape setting was considered part of a movement in the 90s called the "new weird" that included grunge and alternative rock and other kind of inventive post-modern subversion of established genres. I would love for Oribos to feel like a really weird and alien place - like the Troll market from Hellboy 2.
I can't wait to see what this place is like, and also to find out what the Arbiter is like. Given their simple "the something" names, I imagine she has some relationship with the Jailor, but the nature of that relationship is a big question mark, given that we really have little more than their names at this point.
While we saw the four leveling zones - Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, and Revendreth (I just realized something - my Worgen Warrior, Ardten... he's probably got to pick the Ardenweald covenant, right? I mean, it's literally his name - I wanted just "Arden" but that was taken) there were two areas they spoke about that we did not get to see.
The Maw sounds like it's going to basically be the Antoran Wastes of the Shadowlands - a super-dangerous place with no real safe spots and not really a ton of structured storytelling as much as just danger around every corner (I do hope that we get Suarmar-like endgame stories in the other zones though.)
But the other intriguing one is Oribos.
Oribos is apparently a city at the center of the Shadowlands, and it's here that every mortal soul is taken to be judged instantaneously by the central figure known as The Arbiter, who then assigns them to the proper realm of the Shadowlands. While the Arbiter sits in the center of the city, the rest of the city apparently is a gathering place for "soulbrokers" and other planar travelers.
And that really got me thinking about Planescape.
So, in the cosmos of D&D, one of the major campaign settings is all about adventures on the Outer Planes. If you think of the idea of Heaven and Hell, imagine instead that there are 17 planes, each representing different alignments (like Lawful Good or Chaotic Neutral) as well as planes at the sort of half-way points between close alignments (like Acheron, which is between the Lawful Neutral plane of Mechanus and the Lawful Evil plane called the Nine Hells, and is thus the sort of "Lawful Lawful Evil" plane.) The 17th of these planes is at the dead center, the True Neutral plane called the Outlands.
While in most adventures the important aspect of these planes is that they're were "outsiders" like fiends (chaotic demons, lawful devils, and other variations on that theme) and celestials (like angels) come from, the other function that they serve is that they are the various places mortal souls go after death. If you were a lawful good person, you're probably going to wind up in one of the three Lawful Good planes, depending on how lawful and how good you are. It's also generally where the gods live - and a devoted follower of a god will often find their way to that god's realm within those planes.
In the center of the Outlands is an infinitely tall spire at the top of which is a big ring, the inside surface of which is the city called Sigil.
Sigil is a very strange place, with several factions that represent various strict philosophies. Ruling over Sigil is a being that might be the most powerful entity in the entire D&D multiverse - the Lady of Pain. The Lady is emphatically not a god (and those who attempt to worship her find their flesh very suddenly flayed from their bones) and any god that attempts to enter her city will find themselves and everyone who worships them suddenly suffer a bad case of nonexistence.
D&D has several official campaign settings. Most of them take place in your standard physical reality with cities and mortal people and such. The Planescape setting starts you off right away in the Outer Planes, and even details how the locals think of those from the Prime Material Plane (they call them "Primes") as basically backwoods ignorant hicks. Sigil is not the entirety of that Planescape setting - indeed, despite sort of being in the Outlands, it can't actually be reached physically even from the True Neutral plane - the only way in or out of Sigil is through portal doorways - but it's definitely an iconic part of the setting.
Initially, the Shadowlands seemed to be Warcraft's equivalent of the Shadowfell - a dark reflection of the Prime Material Plane just beyond normal reality filled with undead and monsters. But it seems as if the Shadowlands are really more closely related to D&D's outer planes.
And that makes me really wonder: is Oribos, the city at the center of the Shadowlands, going to be the equivalent of Sigil, the city at the center of the Outer Planes?
And does that make the Arbiter the equivalent of the Lady of Pain?
Naturally, Blizzard needs to keep things different in order to avoid getting sued by Wizards of the Coast. But every fantasy RPG has taken at least some inspiration from D&D. And the Planescape stuff is so cool that I feel like it's a pretty good thing to steal from.
My hope is that Oribos is going to be a very weird-feeling city. We've had plenty of hub-cities before, but even the floating city of Dalaran is still ultimately just a normal town enchanted to float by mortal mages.
I know that having Oribos a giant loop would probably be close enough to actually get a plagiarism lawsuit, but I'm very excited to see what kind of bizarre citizens we encounter there. I'm sure we'll see plenty of Kyrians, Necrolords, Night Fae, and Venthyr there. And just in terms of character models that might be what we get. But I would be super-jazzed to also see other sort of extra-planar beings there as well. Could we encounter demons there who are not all about the Burning Crusade but are instead just there to do business in the soul trade? Or perhaps Val'kyr, who after all are known to journey back and forth from the Shadowlands freely (probably popping in to talk with their forebears from Bastion.)
The Planescape setting was considered part of a movement in the 90s called the "new weird" that included grunge and alternative rock and other kind of inventive post-modern subversion of established genres. I would love for Oribos to feel like a really weird and alien place - like the Troll market from Hellboy 2.
I can't wait to see what this place is like, and also to find out what the Arbiter is like. Given their simple "the something" names, I imagine she has some relationship with the Jailor, but the nature of that relationship is a big question mark, given that we really have little more than their names at this point.
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