Major issues in ardenweald

Lore Story
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i’m about halfway through ardenweald and this is really making me angry.
spoilers obviously.

so they have gone from “what are these creature?” straight to “how did the drust store this anima?” without so much as a how do you do?
sure, I could see the resemblance to drust myself , i was convinced these were drust but how do these fae suddenly know???
of course this is just the tip of the iceberg.
i’m already feeling incredibly bored due to this being pretty much the same story as bastion, but this time i have an obviously vital message from the primus. they should all know who the primus is and that my message is pretty darn important and yet none of them seem to care. so why should I be caring?
maldraxxus seemed to show some promise but this has gone straight downhill again.
so what is with this story?
have i just missed some major plot point somewhere?

please tell me this gets better? i’m losing the will to go on.

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Warden Casad (Survivors of Heartwood Grove):
Foul magic… a familiar foe…

Marasmius (Hyphae Patrol: Eventide Grove):
The drust are bolstering their forces in Eventide Grove. Most of Ardenweald doesn’t remember them, but I do.

Collector's ed. book:
Ardenweald and the Emerald Dream are opposite blooms connected to the same tree.
If the Dream is the personification of life in the waxing stage, the Ardenweald is life when it is waning.

iirc it supposed to be a single location and some older art depicts them as one, but eventually there was enough stuff to separate one location into 2. Still, you can find plenty of images that reminds Tears of Elune relic in Bastion.

Examples of early Bastion art:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/J9n3Zn

Winter Queen… well, to avoid spoiling things, let’s just say, she is not in a good state during the drought herself.

About the others

Marasmius:
She’s [queen] a real hard worker too…
Not like some of these louts these days. Always wanting to use the rings. Nobody ever asks the rings how they feel! Why, I ought to tell the Queen to get her subjects in order!

Example of usual fae:

Clarion Song :
You! You there! I, Clarion Song, need your assistance. Yes, yes, give yourself a moment to bask in my glory.
Clarion Song gives you a moment.
Done? Good.

Well, you don’t have to. Just look around and pick later a covenant that appeals more to you. My druid is in Maldraxxus, because “cycle of life”, all that stuff, and forms of kul tirans fit the theme rather well overall. So, try thing out, experiment. Abilities, transmog, characters. Maybe you’ll like Marileth. Maybe - you want to see more of Kael’thas, or whatever else.

Which story part? Primus’ message? Ardenweald? Shadowlands overall?

Do not force yourself. Just play at your own pace, look around, try things. I can’t foresee what you like, what - not so much.

I myself spent like 4 evenings, when I just got to Oribos, in that place, finding the dialogues not yet added to wowpedia, looking at the characters, finding clues here and there. Yes, I am terribly behind the most with my character progression, but I enjoyed this journey way more than most other expansions. Depends on what clicks with you.

gl hf

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yes I did like marileth.

I’m just weary of being on this darn goose chase again. I feel like the story isn’t actually going anywhere. and these little things really bother me. I watched that guy’s dialogue as we tried to get the anima from the tirna noch and one moment he was calling them ‘masked fae’ and the very next moment he was calling them Drust, with nothing in between. not even a line of dialogue that went something like “oh my god, these are drust!!” , do you know what I mean? it feels like a massive omission to me. he was with me the whole time, and it just happened and I feel thrown.

I don’t think it’s a matter of taking my time, because if I play any slower I will just not even be logging in. I’m in that mode again where I’m struggling to get through even one quest because I have nearly zero motivation. perhaps even less motivation than I had in bastion.

can the covenant stories be any better than this? if I can’t find it in myself to care? I just don’t know how it can get better. this feels nothing like the game that’s come before. it feels empty and soulless.

EDIT: I want to note here though… I want to care. and I cared all the way up til shadowlands. I went back to play a bit of my druid in val’shara and the quests were engaging and I felt motivated. I’m not experiencing WoW burnout.

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Well… that’s because the story isn’t supposed to go anywhere at that point. The leveling campaign is made to introduce the four covenants and the problems they are dealing with to you. Everything is set up around you choosing one of them, and if you do, you see the story actually progress for them. But during leveling the story is incomplete by design.

We can argue if that design is a good idea in the first place, but it is what it is, and you should form your expectations based on that.

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The reason why Drust are suddenly known to Ardenweald mostly stems from their history as it was said already. Emerald Dream was created using already ancient patterns leading all the way to Ardenweald, it was not titanic creation entirely. Merely based on an existing dimension, which is Ardenweald.

As far as the message goes, imagine a war, you are delivering an important message from one region to another, but each region has it’s own series of issues. For example to deliver said message you need to go through the frontline to get to the HQ. That’s that pattern SL regions are following.

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I suppose the first patch is mostly a set-up. Now, the question is, if the development will go well enough to address the plotlines, or a bunch of them will be dropped halfway through.

There is a possibility of “meh” communication between different people doing different quests. Sometimes that feels off and the mood between the quests can swing wildly, but usually it’s not that extreme.

Overall, by the time player visit Glitterfall Basin for the first time, given the side quests that could be done at that point, I would expect the word start spreading from Warden Casad. But maybe that was not handled clear enough.

Could getting to Revendreth be a substitude for your current motivation? Or getting to the covenant campaign with some (although not too much) info about night warrior, Tyrande, and arguably one of the best quest chains in the game (Boon of Shapes and that comes after it - intro to the night fae covenant).

[edit: me considering Ardenweald Theater one of the best quests does not mean everyone will like it. Just take a note that it’s a stand out, and maybe be cautiously optimistic]

Honestly, what I found the most interesting way to play is to find a community to play with. Like, I am sometimes randomly hop into Accolonn’s discord, and while it’s mostly speculation based, people discuss different stories, share who know what, try to build something together out of the available story elements. It brought a lot more life into playing the game. Arguably that community interaction made for me WoW more fun than ever.

gl hf

7

thanks, that actually does make me feel a bit better. it’s a tough one if i consider they wanted to keep it limited at this point yet provide enough ‘gameplay’ with such a limited story progression? it’s like old bilbo says… like butter spread over too much bread. but at least that gives me a little faith that this is actually going somewhere.

so this is actually more like saving private ryan? i can accept that.
these realms are in turmoil and they don’t give a poop about me. i may be a mortal but among the other things, im not the biggest issue they have to deal with. i suppose i don’t really get a sense of that… but maybe this is the game’s way of showing what it can be like for the little guy trying to get the attention of a virtual god.

this does really help. at least it gives me something to think about. a sense that this is going somewhere.

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It’s more like we have been told where and when the queen appears again, til then we have time to do some quests. Then she appears again, but doesn’t regards us at all, cause invading Drust forces are leeching what was left of the anima there. Which I believe is deemed more important, than what primus has to say at that very moment. Because even if she did listen to said message at that time, she still would have tended to her own pressing matters afterwards. So to her you are like a message box, she knows it’s flashing meaning there’s a new message, but she will read it when she has time.

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