PTR Spoiler/Discussion Thread (Part 3)

Argent Dawn
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This could be a thread of its own, but voodoo from the simplest understanding in the troll community is the art of channeling power of Loa spirits - both the major deities like/akin to Wild Gods and lesser, myriad ‘spirits.’ The spirits themselves - as we know from Rezan, Bwonsamdi, Akunda, Zanza and obscure spiritual entities like Ksu’la* - can grant power from wide spectrum in the cosmic schart; light and lustre, death and decay, elemental forces and even Arcane.

It’s a catch-all term for the first magic the trolls mastered, hence why other types of magic often get called voodoo. Voodoo = magic, mojo = power/source of power, juju = trinket or magical artifact.

Much of this is conjecture and headcanon, but hey, some mystery in the setting is fine by me.

*Arcane Serpent Spirit invoked by a daily quest Arcanital mob in the Isle of Thunder.

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Hostile non-Horde goblins make an appearance in the Ringing Deeps, under the name of “Darkfuse Enforcement.”

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Its good to see that even Xal’atath understands the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” capitalism and as such has started a business, good for her. Joking aside, Darkfuse immediately makes me think of Blackfuse, and they seem to be separate from the Venture Co. enemies we meet in Dorn, so maybe a blackfuse family member that survived?

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Portergauge provides a lot of interesting little things worth talking about.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1799545548355285502
The bronze-themed blink of the Chronowarden does look good.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1800387129958392278
The visuals of Oracle seem to have runes that strike me as very Draenei/Velen-themed.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1800647682463031559
https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1802829020159176882
Survival’s focus as a spec is shifting more and more heavily towards gunpowder and explosions, though there’s still a few holes in this with their melee weapons and focus on the theme of coordinating with your pet.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1800412493560635534
Here’s the story behind the Priory of the Sacred Flame. Interestingly, there doesn’t seem to be anything here about how they are ‘lost to the Shadow.’ Rather, they are just zealots who seem to think that they know better than others and are moving towards extremism, without necessarily being manipulated.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1801360126093496805
Void elves get asked to prove their worth in a race-specific questline, or one that changes if you are a void elf. Or a high elf, I suppose.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1801788713032421453
A merciless one manipulates the perception of the player-character and appears as a fish in the style of N’Zoth. Once saved from the clutches of the kobyss - a race of evil anglerfish-people - it helps the player-character turn the advantages of the kobyss against them, before it retreats into the depths and sheds its illusion, avoiding conflict with the player-character.

This panders to a theory that I have been working on, that there’s factionalism within the “Void” category and that the Old Gods aren’t necessarily mindless servants of the Void Lords but may be vying for their own supremacy over Azeroth, which makes them opposed to Xal’atath’s plot. I fully suspect that the Old Gods trapped her in the dagger long ago when she tried to usher in the end of Azeroth before, because ‘the time was not right’ and they wished to perpetuate the Black Empire rather than be consumed by the likes of Dimensius.

But that’s just a theory, one that I feel is supported by this merciless one acting against the interests of Xal’atath - or at least her kobyss minions.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1802131238276432067
New ships for the Horde and a lot of diversity in the Horde ranks. The Horde is getting representation, albeit it’s alongside the Alliance in equal measure. This post-levelling content seems to contain a lot more equal representation for factions than the levelling content.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1802451785426313656
Though the stuff that Volrath says is a bit weird, considering that he’s attending a joint military exercise built on cooperation between the Horde and the Alliance.

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768

Also, there’s this.

I think it’s pretty good, but I expect that the angry, bitter, Cersei-esque internal monologuing of Moira will not be for everyone.

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it’s exactly what I want, however.

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These short stories have generally been really strong; quibbles with the Alleria one aside. I think Moira’s is the strongest so far.

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imo it kinda bridges how moira is now post-Mists of Pandaria/King and the Council and how she was portrayed from classic to cataclysm. it shouldnt be forgotten moira was all for securing the throne of the dwarves for her son in cataclysm. and honestly i like that theres more of a balance in her. most every dwarf character introduced has been someone interesting but moira was always a little stand-out.

If we get another warbringers-esque cinematic series i hope she gets one coz it will be strong.

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Got around to fully reading the Moira story this morning and I am now part of the #DagranClan

As Emperor he shouldn’t be showing up constantly (like all faction leaders should not) but also I hope we get more side stories about him, especially by the same author.

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I think that it’s pretty strong as well, definitely well written. My main concern is that this writing won’t carry over to the actual game. I worry that in-game Dagran will mostly be a quirky and helpless soft boy who will geek out over stuff in a silly and comical way, like a younger version of Rannan Korren.

He will need the opportunity to shine in the actual game, a point where he isn’t just a quirky nerd but as brilliant, ambitious and cunning as he is in this story. Hopefully a key point where he’s directly responsible for resolving conflict between different factions of earthen, or unlocking some arcane secret of great important to the plot in a way that hopefully isn’t contrived.

If he’s just a soft, dorky bit of baggage that we have to haul about in the Ringing Deeps or other zones with no real influence over the narrative, that’ll be sad.

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alphinaud ptsd.

he knew the meeting could have been sent in an email and he sent the email.

i would like to hope blizzard learned the lesson of over hyping a character before an expansion (while not overhyped, Margrave Krexus does come to mind. Wrathions story with the black dragons.) only for them to have little to no contribution or resolutions. I would hope it but a part of me knows to stay cautiously optimistic.

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Unfortunately for everyone, Dagran does not actually seem to do much of anything in any of the zones, though he does tag along for 1-2 quests thus far it seems but after that he’s dropped off in Dornogal and its called a day for the Emperor as he returns to being an NPC with generic dialogue the player can click on 50 times. Every chance this will change but for the time being he doesn’t do much in any of the levelling campaign and as far as I have seen has next to no presence in the max-level campaign (Except for the final chapter 5 which is locked off in Beta but doesn’t seem to include Dagran either as its more Alleria-Anduin centred).

Other than that the Moira story was the best piece of storywriting I’ve seen for WoW in around 8-9 years and the depth that it gives Moira without partaking in historical revisionism and retconning is fantastic; its honest about how history has and will ultimately see her, as a manipulative, conniving character who broke under the duress she suffered in her life. The little tidbit of Dwarves carrying ornate daggers around with them ala Scottish Kilts was also really fun to see mentioned, a little bit of familiarity in the Dwarven culture. I would hope Blizzard hires the author immediately but I have a bad feeling they won’t.

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Genuinely incredible that this silly lil Scotswoman with about three post-it notes of lore has managed to be more engaging in this short story than the main cast of characters in well over ten years.

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Once again, the exceedingly high praise the short story deserves has been already said here. Just adding my little favourites throughout:

Love that even though a lot of the minor leaders of the clans are bumbling, boisterous classic dwarves, Muradin’s status as a legendary hero of the Alliance and dwarves isn’t undemined here. He may not be privy to the going-on’s of Moira’s statecrafting, but he’s still unwavering and wise to life and the world- he’s a warrior, first and foremost.

The tenderness of the prose when describing Moira’s relationship to both her son and late-husband took me off-guard by how moving it was. The verbosity and scope of expression in general felt way above Blizzard’s usual paygrade, I can only hope they recognize they’ve got Golden’s replacement and then some here with M. Valente.

I really appreciate that Dagran is not an outright Anduin-esque golden boy, for now. They can easily fumble this rock solid foundation later, yet just as easily give his character intrigue by facing him with enough adversity to challenge his worldview - really show the cruelty of the world that’s prone to crush flowers like him.

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A scholar-emperor would be a neat twist, though like you said he can quickly become flanderised. Really hoping he doesn’t become Anduin: glasses and books edition. :crossed_fingers:

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To he honest, the thing that stuck out to me the most was the description of the Quenchvessel Hall and subterranean plains around Shadowforge. 100%, if and when we get a proper, total Kalimdor / Eastern Kingdoms revamp, I’d love to see them add in new zones like that for us to explore. I could definitely see “Shadowforge Plains” being somewhat similar to Zaralek.

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Forsaken, Void Elves, Warlocks and Demon Hunters get a special minor questline lmao, nice!

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More of this, yes please and thank you.

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Yup yup, more class, race, etc specific stuff? Heck yes.

If they eventually remember glyphs exist or, better yet, give us Racial animations/recolours in the barber? I might cry.

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I did not spend years channeling the murderous powers of death and decay to be excluded from the list of ruinous dark magic users what the hell.

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