Personally I would’ve liked to see something more down to earth (Azeroth). I like personal intrigues, I would’ve liked to see Anduin grow as a man and king on his own, without interference from some deities. I would’ve liked to see Sylvanas grow into a fierce Horde leader but remain controversial and subtle. I would’ve liked to see Malfurion and Tyrande become more than memes.
The only reason why Sylvanas and Teldrassil are such heated topics is because they hit us in the feels. It’s home, our home for 15 years. We care about our people and our lands. Politics is fun, war is fun, when kept within sane limits.
WoW has such a rich lore that the possibilities are endless. They didn’t have to write absurdities. Even the faction war in BFA could have been something epic.
Religion in WoW, much like in real life, used to have the unknown and unreachable touch to it. It meant something. Now we’re killing gods left and right, with the help of other gods.
You know, the main thing that put me off in Legion was the fact that legendary items became just orange items that anyone could get their hands on. They didn’t FEEL legendary anymore. Nothing feels special anymore. And what’s worse, no matter how much we are praised as the one and mighty champion, the story constantly shows us just how useless we are in the grand scheme.
I have a hard time getting invested in any of this knowing that tomorrow it might all be gone or twisted into something abominable.
Shadowlands is build on absurdities, it was willed into existence after some heavy retconning during pre-legion (Chronicles). “Battle for Azeroth” should have become a Battle for Azeroth, not a “Battle for these small islands in the middle of the ocean”. Imagine if they actually used the full potential of N’Zoth, made the last patch with him as a pre-builder to a “Shadows of the Old Gods” expansion? This cunning Old God who’s responsible for a lot of madness, just ticked off with a small patch.
The entire Azeroth plunged into chaos and madness, with all zones reworked like in Cataclysm. No, instead they had to go with the “afterlife”, just because they wanted a trip down memory lane.
Yes, I am a bit salty over where WoW is going these days, mostly because I used to love the Warcraft lore for not being straight forward and having depth to it. Arthas is probably the best story line in a game, period. Glad we defeated him back in a period where Blizzard made good stories.
I know right. When I saw the BFA cinematic I was like yeaaah, this is going to be the best thing ever. Then I played it. It’s best to not get emotionally invested and just enjoy the eye candy, because ultimately that’s all there is these days.
100% Agree, I will admit this I only started playing wow around WOTLK but recently I tried vanilla and tbc. While I adore both classic and retail for different reasons, back then legenderies felt like legenderies. I remember getting the cata daggers back then. It was so rewarding-And during the Legion like you said it was just rng, comes Shadowlands, they are given off as craftables from grinding some contents from a SOLO-able content. Yes I know some parts of it drops from raid bosses, but still compared to what we had in the past, it feels far less “epic”.
And regarding killing gods left and right-I agree, aye. To me the max we could do should be killing something like that VIA THE HELP of something great, and over a great cost. We shouldn’t be able to go left and right and kill gods-I mean, while powered by the Jailer for me even Anduin being able to just one shot (I know she isn’t dead) an eternal one is a bit too much.
You know when I heard we are going to the Shadowlands, I imagined something completely different. I thought it would be this magical, eerie land, where time and space would have no meaning. Where we could have certain religious symbols inserted in a natural manner, I wanted some kind of personal journey where we grow as a person and bring back to Azeroth valuable lessons and change our own planet for the best.
Imagine how epic it would’ve been if they had given our heroes a path of redemption, a real one, not what you see in Revendreth and the other realms. I wanted an expansion where they focus on healing and rebuilding a world broken by war and 3d party interventions.
Instead we have a bunch of angry superpowers and we’re caught in the middle, siding with one or another just for a little power up, without even knowing who’s the enemy and who’s the friend. That’s lame.
Honestly I would have prefered to have shadowrealm as a mid way realm between afterlives. Because prior to Shadowlands expansion shadowlands itself (the plane) had been described as a dreaded realm of rot and nightmares.
It would have been cool if it was a realm of doors or roads to other planes, hence the name ShadowLANDS.
Say if you died and your spirit is ready to pass on, and you are a worshipper of the light, then you go through the Shadowlands to the light’s plane etc. It would also make sense as to how you can ressurect people to undead and how some spirits remain on the physical plane if they are not ready to pass on and can go mad if they remain there for so long. It would have been like, spirit not being able to find it’s path within shadowlands, and given it wouldn’t be a place for spirits to remain there for long, it would make sense for them to turn insane.
In my perspective it could also be a good stepping stone in explaining the cosmology
Personally speaking though I don’t mind empowered by “X deity” thing, dragons are technically powered by “deities” anyways, light is hinted to have a mind of it’s own and it empowers the paladins, and wild gods and druid forms etc.
Having Shadowlands as a purgatory or a waiting room make a lot more sense than what we have now. We still get to see the land of the dead but we get to keep a certain level of mystery regarding the afterlife. I like it.
And as fellow caring mortals, we help them find their way home.
Sure, it’s definitely not a new idea. I just hope the whole Night Warrior/Chain Lady will have some meaning and it won’t be just for flashy cinematics.
You know, me too.
Tyrande is a very boring character, to me at least. This whole Night Warrior deal made her a lot more interesting. She also looks badass now
I know that her arc has to end somewhere, but I enjoyed her transformation. I like a bit of edginess (ok, a lot )
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