The Dragon Isles currently seem to be down on all PTR servers, or at least on the two I tried.
The Emerald Dream works fine, as it’s a separate map, but whenever I try to get to the Dragon Isles by any means, I get “Transfer Aborted: Instance not found”.
I made the mistake of visiting General Discussion.
I think I’m starting to understand why there are all these stereotypes about nelfposters.
General Denizens are the same level of stereotype as any national stereotype/cliche, and should not be held against anyone.
It’s Spiders George all over again.
I’m torn between who to dislike more, nelfposters or people who love this decision and act as if world trees are by default meant to be neutral place where Horde is universally welcome.
I still think I’ll go with the second because making a claim that Hamuul Runetotem an CHAMPION! being allowed in Bel’ameth means it’s not a new night elf capital but rather a neutral hub for all Azerothians is definitely an interesting take.
And, in the end, these people basically enable the rabid nelfposters by telling them that no, culmination of the whole “renewal” theme in night elf storyline isn’t a new home, but rather a place that belongs to the orcs and Forsaken just as much as it belongs to the night elves (and I’ve seen these people post, in my head they’re the same people that saw the Fyrakk ending cinemtics and thought they were the best thing ever).
Really don’t know why people expected Bel’ameth to be Alliance-Only when its a World Tree guarded by a bunch of neutral organisations, created and brought into Azeroth by the unity of Horde and Alliance in defending it and placed in the middle of the neutral Dragon Isles protected by a neutral Dragonflight. You can absolutely debate or criticise if that’s good but like. . .everyone saw that story coming from the moment we saw a giant tree in the Ohn’aran plains beta.
I don’t love this decision, but I understand why Blizzard did it from a gameplay perspective. Truth is, whether Bel’ameth was neutral or Alliance-aligned gameplay-wise, someone would have complained (see also: Suramar), and I think this strikes a good balance by establishing that the Horde as a whole isn’t welcome, but select druids under Hamuul are allowed, as well as the Horde adventurers who helped protect Amirdrassil — with Sentinels watching their every step.
Lorewise it’s still Alliance-aligned. Gameplay-wise, Blizzard is making the faction divide as irrelevant as they can going forward. And we’re getting Quel’Thalas open to both factions in Midnight to compensate.
Even if I hated this decision, I wouldn’t write posts complaining how a game company ruined my life and made me depressed with their decision for a game of pretend elves.
https://www.wowhead.com/news/dark-ranger-general-sylvanas-transmog-set-attached-to-items-in-patch-10-2-5-ptr-336645#comments
Alliance Sylvanas Windrunner when?
https://www.wowhead.com/news/reclaiming-gilneas-worgen-npcs-return-home-on-10-2-5-ptr-336658
Gilnean stuff
I find this very troublesome as those Horde adventurer’s helped with the genocide off the night elves in Kalimdor, but it’s very Blizzard to basicly go “well, they helped you now, so any previous harmful acts are forgiven :)”
On a side note, I helped clean/clear Lordaeron… when can we enter that city as Alliance?
I hate it!
I’ll believe it when I see it ingame!
Ultimately, if you go to Bel’ameth as Horde and speak to Hamuul, he does tell you they’re welcome but very importantly they’re allowed to visit as long as they behave themselves. So presumably, if you’re going to go to Bel’Ameth as an Orc and start pounding your chest yelling blood and thunder you will be escorted to the plains to do so elsewhere.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/611295444978630676/1182833111764058204/20231208_234958.jpg?ex=6586222d&is=6573ad2d&hm=e8fc29b97305f2741eea80ae427dedf3dd627adce4f37a2de30e5dcc473e50cf&
Whether any given one of them participated in that genocide is up to the player, and the event has long been deleted from the game, so new characters can’t participate in it.
It’s not a perfect solution, especially if the character chose to be a Sylvanas loyalist in BfA. But Blizzard can’t account for all possibilities. To me, the debuff is fine. It’s nice flavor text that makes it clear the writers saw the problem with the gameplay concession and smoothed it over. That’s all I asked.
I get where you’re coming from, but personally I’m like Blizzard made their bed, they have to lay in it too and acknowledge that the night elves would essentially be the only faction that would keep closed borders and ward of any Horde (except maybe a few Cenarion ones) towards their home.
Ugh, I hate the removal of content… :grumble:
Some might say that the fact they instantly pivotted BfA’s entire direction after 8.0, then shifted further away from it to the afterlife and then even further away to the Dragon Isles and Metzen will probably be acting like everything after Legion never happened (based, it was all a dream etc) in The War Within might tell you that Blizzard themselves have realised how awful a story and move it was and have done everything possible to get it out the way.
It was awful, yet they went through with it and now refuse to acknowledge any natural consequences.
If you’re against peace with genociders you’re basicly… the worst! Buuut, those genociders were innocent to and Sylvanas tricked them… but if you’re against redemption for Sylvanas you’re also the worst.
And the worst part is… I still frikkin’ enjoy playing wow and reading it’s story 
All of this could’ve been fixed by just updating Mt. Hyjal…
I mean they made a third phase for Tirisfal/Lordaeron, nothing’s stopping them doing the darn same for Mt. Hyjal!
Not to get political on main but this happens about 500 times a century in real life. Most notably 1938-1945, the Earth Nation was not completely destroyed just because its leaders and political party decided to lose any and all of their humanity. Because, and this is quite important, an eye-for-an-eye is actually a terrible, awful decision.
This is how we know WoW is a work of fiction; because (most) people actually learn, and openly say that war and hatred are terrible ideas.
Reality, meanwhile… ._.
The whole point of their Dragonflight arc, including the heritage questline, is that they’re embracing change and moving forward — even Tyrande and Maiev. They’re not casting away their cultural legacy to become purple humans, but they’re re-examining their traditions, keeping what’s worth keeping and discarding what no longer makes sense in a changing world.
Becoming more accepting of mages — not just Highborne, but a new generation of their own woodland kin taking the arcane path. Allowing men to wear markings. Building a tower for the outcasts of their society (demon hunters, warlocks, and undead) and trying to understand why they made the choices they did instead of rejecting them outright. Tyrande re-bonding with Thrall and Jaina over their shared memories of defending Mount Hyjal.
I understand that many night elf players are unhappy with this development and would rather see their culture forever frozen the way it was in WC3. I, for one, welcome it. Like I said, Dragonflight has in many ways been my dream expansion, and this is the night elf story I wanted to see told since the moment I created this character: them figiring out, as a nation and a culture, what it means to be kaldorei in an ever-evolving world, without losing their core identity.
Now if only they could revamp our emotes… 
Yeah, but the Earth nation’s deeds wasn’t all blamed on the one man, like how the Horde’s genocide was all blamed on Sylvanas and every other leader, high-ranking officer, co-conspirator was deemed innocent.
Because logically, Saurfang should’ve been hanged by the Alliance the moment they caught him, for bieng the mastermind behind the War of Thorns.
Reality meanwhile is in one of the safest, most peaceful times since written history.
Only reason it seems less peaceful is because bad news sells, and you can read up on a war on the otherside of the planet with two clicks of your phone.
I wouldn’t want the night elves and their culture to be forever frozen and I am all for them learning to change and adapt to the world they find themselves in.
I just don’t understand, or see, why that has to pair with them bieng alright with the faction that genocided them?
Yes they can accept certain individuals from that faction, Thrall, Hamuul, Baine (maybe), but them going… “Well, we have to adapt to a changing world, lets forgive the Horde for genociding us!” just makes no sense in my eyes.
Also, how come the Desolate Council gets to keep members that are anti-living/distrusting towards the Alliance, but all of the major night elf characters had to do a 180 and be all “Horde’s cool now, they helped us twice after invading our lands and slaughtering our people thrice”
Other side of the planet for you, perhaps. I escaped that war. I was born in the Fire Nation and spent all my life until this summer living there, but I don’t want to be judged by the actions of a corrupt, reactionary, jingoist, homophobic dictatorship I didn’t elect.
When you think of Horde civilians, don’t just picture fist-bumping militarists cheering at Sylvanas committing genocide. Picture people like me, caught between a rock and a hard place.
That said, overall I agree. On average we life in the safest and most comfortable time in human history.
But let’s not bring real-life politics into this. This is the PTR thread.