Battle for Azeroth Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Paula Deen]

Never heard of the new novel until now, quickly googled it:

World of Warcraft: The Troll Wars

"Rough Translation: Following the legendary War of the Ancients, a group of night elves magi were exiled by their people. In search of a new habitat, they landed on the coast of Lordaeron. At that time Humans were still a scattered group of weak tribes, while the trolls had an established empire. The arrival of the foreign magi and their alliance with the Humans laid the foundations for one of the most memorable conflicts of Azeroth, known throughout history as The Troll Wars."

http://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blog...rs-paul-s-kemp

Sounds great if this would be part of the next expansion.

Kul'tiras really fits in with the Human Mages bit. (Novel)
Dragons come into play specifically with the Blues and their magic. Also Jaina's man is a blue dragon. (Ion's 'Hint')
Trolls always fit.
Location is where the expansion (or close to) will be set.

It all fits honestly, although it may be the first novel in a long while that has nothing to do with the expansion at hand. Either or I will read it.

[Jokubas]

Kul Tiras, Tel Abim, Zandalar, Abyssal Maw, Plunder Isle.

Why is it hard to think that these couldn't all be one expansion? Especially after knmowing Kul Tiras has moved thanks to the Cataclysm?

Yeah, and it's not like the map can't be adjusted. Cataclysm added the "Maelstrom continent" with the Maelstrom, Kezan, and the Lost Isles, which was a bit forced and seemed more for convenience at the time. If you expand that "continent" to cover the seas between the true continents, you could have all of the oceanic locations on one map, with the only issue being that the Broken Isles might overlap into it a bit (which doesn't have to be a problem).

Also, in regards to new races...they could very easily add them. We have seen countless redemption arcs now involving Night Elves and Fey Folk type (dryads) when it comes to those that did them wrong in the past. In Hyjal, we cured a Satyr. The Highborne were allowed back into Night Elf Society.

You're going to tell me that a faction of Naga, who no longer wish to be ruled by Azshara, can't fit this?

I've been saying this for a long time. Blizzard has shown that if they want to do something, they'll do it. Playable eredar? Retcon the eredar into being once-good and related to the draenei. Playable Death Knights? Open up with a story about them breaking away from the Lich King. Tauren Paladins? Come up with a cultural experiment.

They don't even have to go that far with naga. Naga were officially introduced with a faction that ambiguously broke away from Azshara. Vashj ultimately died apologizing to Illidan, not Azshara. Most of them still ended up hostile to us in Burning Crusade, but the the Coilskar are on our side now.

Naga and Ogres have been equally clamored for throughout the course of WoW's lifespan, offering a much requested choice to sit opposite of the popularity of Naga. Ogres were an integral part of the Warcraft 2 Horde's navy, creating the Juggernauts. The lore is there for them to be sea-faring people, and to be good at it. Several Ogres are already in the actual Horde, as shown both in Vanilla, with more recruited during Cataclysm. It's not far fetched to think that some sea-faring clan is out there, that would maintain loyalty to the idea of the Horde, or at least be open to negotiations of joining, much like how the Goblins get the clans from Tanaris.

Yeah, Metzen once said he wanted goblins, ogres, and naga. Goblins happened, and the other two aren't bad choices. It might sound obvious for me to say that about ogres, but one thing I really like about ogres is that you don't have to do anything to get them to fit into the Horde or the world. Ogres have more than enough presence, and they're already Horde-like enough, that you would never have the draenei problem with them. Naga are pretty similar. Even though they're a bit of a stretch on either faction (no real connection to the Horde and a breakaway from the night elves on bad terms), the naga are already all over the place in-game. You wouldn't feel like the naga exist only as a playable race and not in the world.

And all of this can come with subraces! I see tons of arguments saying some races get the shaft on sub-races and thus they won't be added, but I disagree. The following can be done, in addition to new races, using the reasonings mentioned in this list just fine:

Human - High Elf
Dwarf - Wildhammer, Dark Iron
Gnome - Leper, Mecha
Draenei - Broken

Orc - Mag'har
Troll - Forest Trolll (Revantusk)
Tauren - Taunka, Highmountain
Forsaken - Undead High Elf

To be fair, some races have a lot more choices than others, but it's true that you can find a choice for any of them. What's really funny is how many races are canonically related to each other now, and are technically subraces of each other. Humans are a vrykul subrace, all of the elves are troll subraces (specifically dark troll subraces), orcs are an ogre subrace, etc. Honestly, popular new race ideas like ogres, vrykul, and naga could theoretically be added as "subraces" to orcs, humans, and night elves respectively.

[iamthedevil]

snip

How have you not heard that the guy that made the list said he made it up? He literally just took the existing landmasses and zones in the lore and put them together in an order that made sense. We knew those places existed and we knew their general locations.

[Otimus]

I hope it's a kobold based expansion just to really screw with everyone, and the special edition comes with a candle

[Jokubas]

Here's a huge list of potential subraces (defaults in italics) based on currently existing, visually distinct, humanoid creatures, whether or not they're currently friendly.

Human: Human
Dwarf: Ironforge, Wildhammer, Dark Iron, Earthen, Frostborn, Iron Dwarf
Night Elf: Night Elf, High Elf, Nightborne, Nightfallen, Withered, Felborne, Satyr
Gnome: Gnome, Mechagnome, Leper Gnome, Sand Gnome
Draenei: Draenei, Army of the Light, Man'ari, Broken, Lost One
Worgen: Gilnean, Cursed Night Elf

Pandaren: Pandaren

Orc: Orc, Mag'har, Blackrock, Shattered Hand, Fel Orc, Mok'Nathal
Undead: Lordaeron Human, Undead High Elf
Tauren: Tauren, Highmountain, Taunka, Yaungol
Troll: Jungle, Forest, Ice, Dark, Sand, Zandalari
Blood Elf: Blood Elf, Wretched, Felblood Elf, Darkfallen
Goblin: Goblin, Gilgoblin, Hobgoblin

I tried to keep this list to the most directly related to each race and most of them come off of the parent race (which is also part of the reason why I put the nightborne with night elves rather than blood elves for now). I'm sure I still missed some things. As it is, I left off the ones I mentioned earlier as being related but often asked for as distinct races. I'll do those below.

Vrykul (Origin of humans): Vrykul, Iron Vrykul, Frost Vrykul, Kvaldir
Ogre (Origin of orcs): Ogre, Two-Headed, Ogre Lord, Mok'Nathal
Naga (Originated from night elves): Naga, Naga Lord

Depending on how such a system is handled, you could make logical extrapolations for some races, and not necessarily need them for others. Mag'har orcs, for example, are just a different skin color choice. If some (or all) subraces just have alternate customization, then you could do a ton for each orc clan and even separate the human kingdoms that way (perhaps even creating a non-cursed Gilnean). I didn't mention highborne here despite it being a popular choice because there is no confirmed visual difference between them and the base night elves, but if subraces were handled on that level, they could easily have a different set of choices, like gaudy jewelry or something.

[DelusionalBear]

Here's a huge list of potential subraces (defaults in italics) based on currently existing, visually distinct, humanoid creatures, whether or not they're currently friendly.

People are really going crazy with those sub-races. Lets keep it real though. If we ever getting sub-races, it will be only those that are friendly to Alliance/Horde and only those that are relatively cheap to make and not because Blizzard are lazy, but because there is just too many. So nonsense like fel orc or iron dwarf is never going to happen. Best thing you could hope for is some toy that turns you into one of these. Iron dwarf already exist though.

The biggest possibility out of these I can see only for undeads however. So far every forsaken is a human, which is kinda lame, even if can be explained from lore perspective.

[Jokubas]

I know, my point was mainly to show the absolute maximum possibilities to draw from, since I've seen some posts that seem to forget about some major ones. As it is, I tried to leave out the absolutely monstrous ones, like dire orcs and dire trolls. They're usually aggressive and aren't really player model material. I thought about listing the ogron and other ancestors for the ogres, but decided to drop them for the same reason.

I don't think we're going to get all of those, but I'm not really sure how it would be handled if we got subraces at all. Like I said, some of the popular ones, like mag'har orcs and the dwarf ones, are primarily skin color options. There's not even really a need to have a "subrace" system to add those any more than we needed a subrace system to have dwarf or night elf mage playable.

[DelusionalBear]

Yeah the could have added skins years ago if it was just skins. I think this sub-race system will also include unique starting experience, like mag'har orcs starting in Nagrand for example. Something instanced and only like levels 1-5 to set you on collision course with your respective faction.

[Jokubas]

Now that I think about it, players expressed a desire to have "upright" orcs before and I recall Blizzard saying they would like to do it someday. That might end up being a "subrace" and not end up like the primary expectation for subraces at all.

[In Ogres We Trust]

Is there another book on the horizon? Those have always been relatively tied to upcoming content (at least lately).

[Avelphina]

Just gonna toss this in here, I can't post links yet but you can easily wowhead all this. I was looking at Flotsam's loot table and 5 things on it stood out stood out, hadn't seen it brought up in the previous 84 pages. Blackwater Raider's Handguards, Kezan Pirate's Mitts, Faded Bloodsail Handwraps, Ragged Azsharan Sail Fragment (and this one I'm not 100 percent sure on but) the Salt-Stained Tuskarr Gloves.

Plus there's the matter of the name of the World Quest associated with Flotsam, "A Dark Tide."
All this with those Kul'Tiras quest boots posted a bunch of pages back paint a fairly convincing picture of a seafaring expansion.

[In Ogres We Trust]

Just gonna toss this in here, I can't post links yet but you can easily wowhead all this. I was looking at Flotsam's loot table and 5 things on it stood out stood out, hadn't seen it brought up in the previous 84 pages. Blackwater Raider's Handguards, Kezan Pirate's Mitts, Faded Bloodsail Handwraps, Ragged Azsharan Sail Fragment (and this one I'm not 100 percent sure on but) the Salt-Stained Tuskarr Gloves.

Plus there's the matter of the name of the World Quest associated with Flotsam, "A Dark Tide."
All this with those Kul'Tiras quest boots posted a bunch of pages back paint a fairly convincing picture of a seafaring expansion.

An interesting find.

[My User Name]

Why do people connect the Troll Wars novel with Kul Tiras?

Neither Kul Tiras nor the Seven Kingdoms were a thing back then. There was only the Empire of Arathor.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Why do people connect the Troll Wars novel with Kul Tiras?

Neither Kul Tiras nor the Seven Kingdoms were a thing back then. There was only the Empire of Arathor.

The human connection. Makes sense, that and if Kul'tiras is made into an entire *continent*, I wouldn't be shocked to see some tribe of trolls there >.>

[Syegfryed]

why people still talk about high elf, get over it guys, will never be a thing

[Sicarius87]

thanks blizzard employer, can you share more knowledge about the new expansion?

Sure. Youll come on here complaining about it and rage quit the game saying how it's the worst expansion yet, we dont know what we are doing anymore, why dont we have flying from the start of max level, etc etc.

Blizz wont release a new class/race with back to back expansions. Not to mention having the naga or any other race join the horde and/or alliance doesnt make sense and would looks stupid anyway (IMO). I dont want something that doesnt have legs/feet. What are they going to be? Just a warrior? No other class makes sense. Mounts wouldnt make sense with them. Can you see how stupid a Naga is going to look on a ground/flying mount?

why people still talk about high elf, get over it guys, will never be a thing

Thanks blizzard employer, can you share more knowledge about the new expansion/future expansions?

[Syegfryed]

Sure. Youll come on here complaining about it and rage quit the game saying how it's the worst expansion yet, we dont know what we are doing anymore, why dont we have flying from the start of max level, etc etc.

lol what why did you get mad

Blizz wont release a new class/race with back to back expansions. Not to mention having the naga or any other race join the horde and/or alliance doesnt make sense and would looks stupid anyway (IMO). I dont want something that doesnt have legs/feet. What are they going to be? Just a warrior? No other class makes sense. Mounts wouldnt make sense with them. Can you see how stupid a Naga is going to look on a ground/flying mount?

there are a lot o commentaries about this already if you want answers go back a few pages

Thanks blizzard employer, can you share more knowledge about the new expansion/future expansions?

the funny thing it was blizzard who said that anyway, not me, just re-passing

[Shakou]

Blizz wont release a new class/race with back to back expansions.

WOTLK: Death Knights
Cata: Goblins and Worgen
MOP: Panderans and Monks

The only exception was the blight that is WOD.

[Deleted]

Uh yes they have released races in a row and they can do the same with classes easily it would surely be a HUGE draw for people so it makes sense from a business perspective too.

- - - Updated - - -

Its same with people who REFUSE the idea if expansion reveal before blizzcon yet Legion was announced like 10 months into wod in early August 2015.

[Deleted]

I don't like nagas and old gods stuff so I would like to see more pirates, exploration, skimpy amors, ..... and maybe our own ship customization, combat like Jackdaw from AC4: Black Flag (But this is impossible with current engine) ..... or completely different expansion