Another undead expansion incoming?

[Deleted]

Blizzard have said in the past that updates to models are best justified when they release content where those models will be present, so they get a lot of use. That's why we got updated demon models when they released Hellfire Citadel and were preparing the Legion expansion. The reality is that those models were already developed as part of the patch and the next expansion.

So with them giving us a new abomination model, could that mean they had that abomination model already developed as part of the work they put into the development of the next expansion?

It would make a lot of sense, seeing as Legion had us return to a lot of familiar and popular themes: Legion, Demon Hunters, Vrykul, Titans, Old Gods etc. Wrath of the Lich King is together with The Burning Crusade among the most cherished expansions, if not the most cherished expansion of them all. Bolvar was involved in the beginning of Legion and throughout the Death Knight campaign. It would make a lot of sense for us to return to the Undead theme in the next expansion, if only for the fact that players would love to return to Northrend.

[DaHomieG]

more like a cataclysm type expansion; remake every old zone lmao

[Sentynel]

Yep, I'd take a WOTLK 2.0 any day.

[Kikazz]

more like a cataclysm type expansion; Repair every old zone lmao

Fixed it for you.


repair all old zones, and enable World Quests and Scaling ability to be able to do Any Zone at any level, and still have a relevant challenge and enjoyment.

[Shelly]

Pretty doubtful. Undead had their time to shine and now that Arthas isn't around anymore there's nothing to truly anchor an undead expansion.

The abom models we're seeing too aren't really fancy hi-rez things. Rather they are color swaps that look like they all match the various colors of the Unholy DK weapon Apocalypse. Same with the new ghoul, it's mostly there to just make Timmy look fancy.

[Deleted]

Actual world quests that would include every zone in Azeroth would be so hawt.

[Deleted]

Pretty doubtful. Undead had their time to shine

Same could be said about demons. Or dragons. Or naga. Or trolls. You think we're never gonna see undead again?

- - - Updated - - -

and now that Arthas isn't around anymore there's nothing to truly anchor an undead expansion.

Uhm, this dude called the Lich King?

[Coxeter]

If I was able to do WQs in Duskwood or Silithus I'd be so happy.

[Coffeexbean]

I also want a vanilla/cata 2.0 imagine... with no flying and all capital cities populated not just Org.

[Shelly]

Same could be said about demons. Or dragons. Or naga. Or trolls. You think we're never gonna see undead again?

Demons we haven't fought Sargeras or KJ in full form yet.

Dragons we haven't heard from since Cataclysm.

Naga we haven't fought Azshara yet.

Trolls we haven't faced down Zul yet either.

As such all of those remain viable. Also we haven't done trolls since MoP - which is understandable given no trolls in Draenor.

And I didn't say we won't see the undead again - heck, we see them right now in BRH. The Nathrezeim are master necromancers and all that jazz, so yes, we can and will see undead.

Rather we won't see undead anchoring an expansion. If they appear they'll be part of a raid or a zone or a dungeon - much the same as they are now in Legion. We're not going to see something with wholesale undead everywhere the way LK was with the nerubian dungeons, the frostmourne halls, undead in every single zone as the major threat, Naxx, ICC and ToC all either entirely undead or with undead as heavy hitters in them.

They had their time to anchor an expansion. Now it's time for something else. Maybe old gods - as a true anchor this time - maybe something completely different.

[Deleted]

Dragons we haven't heard from since Cataclysm.

Wow.

That line alone.

First of all, it isn't true, there were dragons in Pandaria and Legion and second of all, Wrath is older than Cataclysm. Seriously, use your brain.

[Cosmic Janitor]

They updated two ugly ass models with minimal effort. Claiming they'd release a whole expansion based on these is a bit far reaching imho.

[Shelly]

Uhm, this dude called the Lich King?

Bolvar for all of how they've made him more ruthless for Legion isn't Arthas.

He's the jailer of the damned, he is law without mercy, he is implacable, ruthless and duty bound to restrain the Scourge to Northrend.

Arthas was still driven by the desires of Ner'zhul to have the strongest army to revenge and protect himself from and upon the Legion. Those are not Bolvar's motivations and there's not been a long build up of Bolvar that's expansion wide that would then be used as a catalyst for a fall the way there was with Garrosh.

[Schattenlied]

Fixed it for you.


repair all old zones, and enable World Quests and Scaling ability to be able to do Any Zone at any level, and still have a relevant challenge and enjoyment.

I didn't see cata as repairing old zones, I hate them now... I used to like leveling alts, now I hate it, and not because I got bored of leveling, I still like leveling through pre-cata Azeroth on private servers.

The combination of cata era questing and making leveling pathetically easy just killed it for me... It's not fun being able to level completely naked and feel like I'm not in any danger... If I were a new player I would have quit out of sheer boredom before I ever got anywhere near end game, with leveling being this easy.

[Dahlia Dawnseeker]

I wouldn't mind revisiting the story line of the Scourge again. As a paladin and after the Light's Hope Fiasco, I am all for taking out Bolvar at this point.

- - - Updated - - -

I didn't see cata as repairing old zones, I hate them now... I used to like leveling alts, now I hate it, and not because I got bored of leveling, I still like leveling through pre-cata Azeroth on private servers.

The combination of cata era questing and making leveling pathetically easy just killed it for me... It's not fun being able to level completely naked and feel like I'm not in any danger... If I were a new player I would have quit out of sheer boredom before I ever got anywhere near end game, with leveling being this easy.

In my opinion, Cataclysm's leveling is great except for two facts; the first is what you mentioned about how easy it is, and the LFD tool. Seriously, and again this is in my opinion, dungeons shouldn't be a viable way of leveling over an adventure. People would feel much more involved in the world.

Aside from that, actually scaling zones to you instead of the other way around like Legion would help tremendously; you could go from lv1 to 60 by doing any 3 or 4 zones completely of your choice. That would greatly add to the character involvement into the story.

[Nitros14]

Never did find Kel'Thuzad's phylactery after his second defeat?

[Ashkiman]

Yeah because updating the abomination model that hasn't been touched since 12 years ago means they gonna release an undead expansion.
Totally

[Shelly]

Wow.

That line alone.

First of all, it isn't true, there were dragons in Pandaria and Legion and second of all, Wrath is older than Cataclysm. Seriously, use your brain.

... not sure what you mean by that last sentence.

And yes, there are dragons there, but they aren't leading the expansion or really doing much of anything outside of dying. (RIP Ysera, you my bae!)

Anyway, if you'd like me to break it down for you.

Vanilla - No real central villain, but the black dragonflight and the old gods were the main antagonists at max level. Relied a lot on the horde v alliance animosity to drive it.

BC - Central villain was Illidan, only turns out no, it's actual Kael'Thas whom has given into the fel powers that Illidan showed him how to tap into. Expansion themed around the Burning Legion and Illidari.

LK - Central villain was Arthas. Dragons do get an honorable mention with Malygos starting a ley-line war with the Nexus as he attempts to control all arcane power in Azeroth since he doesn't trust mortals. Final filler raid thrown in to set up cataclysm and deathwing by reintroducing us to the Twilight Dragonflight. Undead themed entirely with undead threats across all zones of the expansion.

Cataclysm - Central villain was Deathwing. Black dragon flight tries to wipe out all life on Azeroth in service to the OGs. In defeating deathwing we unpower the other dragon flights, removing their immortality and even their ability to breed. In the background we have a parallel theme of the horde becoming more martial.

Pandaria - Central villain was Garrosh. They use the horde v alliance conflict as a constant catalyst throughout the expansion. Culminating in a civil war with the horde. OGs are again central to the theme but most of the meta-story is told outside of raids until you get to siege. Zandalari show up, mostly to revive the thunder king then die, their island is sinking but we haven't heard from them since.

Warlords - Central villain was supposed to be Grom, but turns out it was Gul'dan, but in actuality it was Blizzard itself trolling their userbase for almost 2 years. Great raids with the BRF really setting up the Iron Horde as a truly powerful war machine, but HFC just saying "lulz, just kidding, it's warlocks. It's always warlocks." Basically a filler expansion.

Legion - Central villain is the legion. Already confirmed we will be fighting a fully powered KJ and Sargeras. This could take the Legion off the table as a true threat, but it's hard to tell. Might be in their best interest to do so since it opens up expansions for worlds outside of Azeroth and suddenly you'd have a fractured Legion to contend with and remember that the OGs are a universe expanding empire. So there's a lot of potential for K'laxxi like interactions.

So yeah. Dragons, we've just got ONE dragon whom is a threat/plot-device and that's Wrathian, whom now may have a mentor in the form of Ebonhorn. He's literally the only empowered dragon left on Azeroth since he's the one to whom the powers of Neltharian descended to. (Neltharian/Deathwing withheld his powers from the creation of the dragonsoul.)

And yes, Wrathian showed up as a plot device in MoP. But he appears to have been shelved for Khadgar at this point. He was central to the plot of MoP and to ushering in WoD, but never appeared in WoD.

Meanwhile in Legion we've basically had interactions with a blue dragon in Azsuna and a black dragon in Highmountain. Hardly what I'd refer to as what the expansion has been hung upon.

[WhiteEagle888]

Blizzard have said in the past that updates to models are best justified when they release content where those models will be present, so they get a lot of use. That's why we got updated demon models when they released Hellfire Citadel and were preparing the Legion expansion. The reality is that those models were already developed as part of the patch and the next expansion.

So with them giving us a new abomination model, could that mean they had that abomination model already developed as part of the work they put into the development of the next expansion?

It would make a lot of sense, seeing as Legion had us return to a lot of familiar and popular themes: Legion, Demon Hunters, Vrykul, Titans, Old Gods etc. Wrath of the Lich King is together with The Burning Crusade among the most cherished expansions, if not the most cherished expansion of them all. Bolvar was involved in the beginning of Legion and throughout the Death Knight campaign. It would make a lot of sense for us to return to the Undead theme in the next expansion, if only for the fact that players would love to return to Northrend.

I had this feeling too for a long time now. Glad I'm not alone in the world with this

[bromanbro]

They could but even if Sylvanas and Bolvar were the top villains, it would be tough to make it feel original over WOLK.