Warcraft is in dire need of memorable new heroes/vilains

[Sky High]

WoW has given us new heros/villlians as the game has gone on. sure the selling point to ALL of them excpet MoP was that we get to meet/ face an old baddy from WCII/III. really you have to blame it on blizzard's convoluted way of pushing the story forward. like they introduced a new Warchief who turned into a bad guy and went back in time JUST so we could have Gul'dan running around again.

[Daetur]

Please...don't...unless you're talking about Jaina...just don't. I mean, you're baiting me right? You want me to go apeshit and have my own thread closed because of it right?

He's absolutely right. Garrosh was built up as a character for a long time, and was an original character to World of Warcraft. He had the villainous arc that you're looking for, where we were really made to feel the impact of what he'd done, and his destruction of the Vale was successful in making that story and raid personal for a lot of people.

Mists also saw the introduction of a new morally-ambiguous antihero to the playerbase at large, Wrathion, who was developed both in personality and motive as the expansion progressed.

General Nazgrim and Admiral Taylor were minor heroes introduced to each faction throughout the questing experience, and the Klaxxi and their Paragons were allies developed throughout Dread Wastes and their associated reputation dailies, to the culmination of their stories in SoO.

As you bring up, Jaina experienced a lot of character development and has been placed in a position to become more active as a hero or villain.

The Sha and Y'shaarj were brand new villains who spanned the expansion, and the mogu and the Thunder King were built up both during questing and over the course of two raid tiers. None of those were brought back from the RTS.

You're absolutely right, though, that they need to keep doing what they were doing in Mists, and create and develop new villains and allies.

[Sky High]

yea we got...one new chracter in WoD.

[Darkhallows]

Honestly it's fine to see old heroes that aren't that important now get screen time. Like Genn Greymane.

What's not OK is for Thrall to keep acting like he's the main character of fucking Warcraft, and get shoehorned into being the hero of everything. I'm still pissed that Yrel (who's character may be fairly dull, but at least they tried?) and the Alliance got NOTHING in the Nagrand cinematic. Fuck.

I'd like to see more of what we had in MoP; more Lor'themars, more Taran Zhus, more Dezcos. Characters I actually give a shit about, and I learn to care about through playing the game without the need of appeal to nostalgia.

I'd like to see most of the major heroes from WC3 die in Legion, and have Anduin, Liadrin, Dezco, Lor'themar, etc. become the new "major lore heroes."

We'll see if I get my wish.

[Blazefrost]

Well, Yrel could have been written better, but she is a new "hero" of sorts. Same with the surviving Exarchs, they each can get their own screentime later on, and they do have personality in how they interact when you go through the questing in Shadowmoon. Anduin, Wrathion, Dezco, Taran Zhu, well, I want some more overall. I wanna know what happened with Aysa and Ji, for instance, after the attack on the Temple of the White Tiger with Garrosh's escape (Can it be a spoiler if it wasn't even included in game over a year after it happened?).

It'd also be nice to see more tension in the Night Elves. I can see some more tension at the mere rediscovery of Suramar, etc., between the Magi recently accepted in and the majority of the populace. I want Thrall to die. And die hard. Let his kids and Aggra get some damn screen time, like Vareesa did after Rhonin died to Manabomb (PS, loved how Rhonin got played into the story, since he was introduced WITH Wrath).

Also, I wanna see Magni return. Would be awesome to see his daughter back and a son he thought long lost, only to realize the Dark Irons are an equal 3rd of the Dwarves now (ignoring twilight Cult).

As for new villains? Well, I want some tension on the Alliance's end. Horde get Garrosh, Wrathgate, and Grimtotem to be big threats. Alliance kind of had Defias (really wished they got more than "WERE BUILDING SUPERSHIP IN CAVERN COME KICK OUR BUTTS, DAUGHTER AVENGE US CRAP SHE FAILED") and Dark Iron drama (which was really Twilight Hammer). Gonna be nice to see Illidan for more than 1 xpac and NOT be an insane villain hopefully(cause his lore got mucked up in BC), but I don't wanna keep chewing through supreme mega lore villain time after time each xpac. The major lore villain in MoP was Garrosh and the Mogu, MoP had all unique characters as villains, relatively. Warlords went back to the Lord of the Clans book.

Also... How about a major gnome player again? Like, Mekkatorque is the only one that comes to my mind as memorable (aside from Millhouse Manastorm and Wilfred Fizzlebang). Setting up some new heroes and villains DURING these expansions to expand on them later (a la Garrosh but better written) would be nice. Can't expect the players to instantly love someone who is brand new to the story instantly being main character material or main villain material. No threat from them and little sympathy for the new heroes. Yrel grew on us right at the end of Warlords, for a good number of us, but for others she's still a flat character with decent concepts. I wanna know what her "dark secret" they told us she had is.

[Havoktx]

Mists also saw the introduction of a new morally-ambiguous antihero to the playerbase at large, Wrathion, who was developed both in personality and motive as the expansion progressed.

Also...players helped rescue his egg, and see it hatched in Cataclysm.

I'd like to see more of what we had in MoP; more Lor'themars, more Taran Zhus, more Dezcos.

I totally feel the same way. I loved watching Dezcos progress, and Lor'themar was really stepping up to take charge!

[Lannden]

Aren't Varian and Anduin WoW originals? I don't think either will ever become villains though. There are the old gods, but they were hinted at it WC3.

I understand the feeling though, I have been asking for some new villains for years, MoP was a good start but then we get an expansion that only existed so we could bring long dead villains back.

I think a lot of the problem is that by the time we got to WoW there was almost no mystery left in the universe. We knew who the big baddies were and we knew who their entire chain of command were. This worked up until Cata where the only Villians we left were Azshara, the remaining old gods, and the last of the legion.

The warcraft universe desperately needs an injection of new lore that has nothing to do with the legion, old gods, or titans. The problem is finding a place to put it.

It also does not help that WoW's enemy factions are like RTS factions, these are the undead and these are the demons, etc.

[Lothaeryn]

While people are correct in stating MoP did bring new characters into the story, these were not memorable characters who have any level of permanence in the overall arching story that is Warcraft.

Very few of the Pandaria characters have been mentioned outside of Pandaria as it stands now, Lorewalker Cho probably being the only one that will be referenced from now on since he is a Loremaster in itself, other references will exist in the Monk's personal questing scenarios, but little outside of it.

The better question is, who from Pandaria will make a major impact on the Warcraft universe itself? And no, Garrosh and Wrathion are not included in this, it must be a character that came solely from MoP and nowhere else, and must make an appearance and impact outside of the expansion he was included in. The only person who could be close to that is Lorewalker Cho, since he has a fascination with Titan mythology, which can be tied in elsewhere.

If you cannot answer that question honestly without smudging facts around to suit your opinion, then you cannot honestly say that MoP had proper new memorable characters that were worth mentioning.

[Yooginava182]

With legion you do know that the reason we are getting the artifacts is because most of the current characters are A: gonna die or B: give up and flee the battlefield.. If legion doesn't flop.. it can open doors for a whole new story with new characters like Yrel..

[Gwiez]

Garrosh was handled horribly though, he turned from violent but honorable to insane and despicable without any reason except 'mah orcs are da best'.

pitiful.

He had an inferiority complex, and progressed through different stages of mishandling it. That's not no reason. A reason shouldn't have to show up explicitly in dialogue. I think a blanket bias against MoP is preventing those people from saying, "I liked this about MoP," when they're talking about what they like to see. We'll see more Pandaria characters when we go back to the planet that Pandaria is on.

[Havoktx]

Lorewalker Cho was one of my favorite parts of MoP.

I think they did a great job with the the Klaxxi and the whole "awakener" thing. I was really bummed to have to kill them all at the end of MoP. It felt like a waste to me. There is no way we are done with the Old Gods. This could of been stretched out more. I would have liked to see some of the the Klaxxi following Garrosh via the heart , but they should have had the elders we rescued stick with us longer.

It could be argued that the Pandarens are licking wounds while our elite group of heroes work in Draenor. I will be upset if we don't see some Aysa and Ji action in Legion.

This is a long story being told. I think they are letting some characters/plots lines from Mists set for a bit.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Sylvanas seems to be filling that Arthas role.

[The Madgod]

They rewrote his character several times though when they were not sure what to make of him



big problem IMO, you should be able to put serious story stuff ingame

Not REALLY. He was pretty consistent in his core, of who he was and how he processed the world.

Problem was that such kinda had him go to different extremes (mostly between TBC and Wrath, really) and you can't really get into a character's head in a game where you are ultimately not that character and the story doesn't significantly revolve around that character or their more intimate actions and conversations.

For the way WoW handles its story and narrative, it's very difficult to be able to get a lot of core story into the game. Particularly, for example like Garrosh's trial, where you'd just get a quick one to two minute cutscene, which doesn't do that lore point justice. You can't get too deep into narrative because then it overwhelms gameplay. You can deal with that via adding dialogue as gameplay like most RPG's or ToR, but yeah.

[Jessicka]

Blizz have done the usual pendulum swing of 'Oh people weren't sure about the all new of Pandaria, so let's go full nostalgia instead'.

[Gaidax]

You don't get characters with a magnitude of Arthas and Illidan made in one expansion, it is a long process. The problem is that MMORPG scope is much smaller than that of RTS, so you can't really do such character development as what happened in WAR3 in a short time.

We did however get quite a few major notables growing up such as Wrathion, Anduin, Kalecgos and Yrel. On top of that we have a whole bunch of other support characters in the game with random amount of influence and fanbase, such as for example Sky Admiral Rogers and Taran Zhu. Heck, even such characters as Tirion Fordring and Bolvar Fordragon are literally WoW creation.

As for villians, we had a homegrown Garrosh, Malygos, Nefarion and Ragnaros all well known WoW villians, with Garrosh having a huge storyline which rivals many old characters ones.

All in all there is plenty of new characters being introduced, but it does not mean that the big bads/goods from the old times suddenly vanish into nothingness. Such enemies like Archimonde are too powerful to be easily dispatched and the lore on why he reappears is solid, same with the Lich King, pretty much. I do think there should be another new persistent and well recognized threat introduced, Garrosh was one, but he is dealt with. I guess next one would be one of the Infinites or Old God, but it won't just pop up out of thin air.

Honestly, you just need to remove your bias glasses and look around, we are literally swarming with notables who have nothing to do with old Warcraft.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Great, and meanwhile all the shallow morons that hated on MoP "cos pandas" turned Blizzard away from creating new lore and characters forever which lead us to WoD and Legion.

You reap what you sow.

[Lochton]

Please...don't...unless you're talking about Jaina...just don't. I mean, you're baiting me right? You want me to go apeshit and have my own thread closed because of it right?

Nope, Pebrocks is actually right.

[Elementalkin]

It doesn't need new characters, it needs better writers. What sense is there in bringing in anything new if they're just going to make the same mistakes?

[Putin-Chan]

The problem is that blizzard makes all new villians one patch wonders.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Nope, Pebrocks is actually right.

I know, shocking right?