So how powerful are the various new night elven based arcane groups vs current magic?

[Beloren]

So night elven arcane users are have really become a serious thing in Legion, it kinda started in cata, but with a bunch of different groups, I've never been sure exactly how powerful they are compared to our usual magical groups.


What do you think?

Blizzard state their magic wonder civilization was the most advanced and glorious Azeroth has ever seen since, including modern standards. And the glimpses we get of pre-sundering magic usuage, research etc, is pheonmenal, Suramar for example was built by them over 12 k years go.

Ofc much has changed, we thought them wiped out, and the survivors quit arcane, (with a small group picking it up 3k years later to form the high elves), but now we have recently discovered a bunch of night elf based groups that survived and I wonder what their relative strength is.

Group 1: The Good guys: This group carries the torch atm as far as night elven umagic users go
Kal'dorei - not practised magic for 10k years, not sure how good they were then, assume quite good judging by the likes of Mal/Illidan, but the most talented of them elevated to highborne. Started using magic again from Cata - reported to be terrifyingly quick at picking it up.
Highborne (Shen'drelar) - contd practicing, retaining all the ancient knowledge and developments, continuing developing, but progress grinded to halt after a while by corruption of their leader. Much of their knowledge has been researched heavily by modern mages since heir ruined city was discovered.
Nightborne: continued practising, huge city and resource, magic had to solve answers to many problems and difficulties no one else has had to face, so a high degree of it. The only group to have access to and use a well of power amongst the night elven groups . it kept the city secure and hidden but as also caused a corruption that makes them unable to use anything else but it for susetenance, failure to use its food results in corrupted state known as nightfallen - usually reversible until a point called Withered nightfallen.
Highborne Court of Farondis: Night elves that are in ghost forms - highborne group too, but locked and trapped to a specific location. They are conscious and self aware, like normal people, just trapped within that limit and that form. It appears they can use magic, and have access to their ruined environemnt, but have affected no repairs.
Moonguard: Also continued un-interrupted as great masters of their art, prolific spell users that protected their stronghold, they seem to be formidable at offensive magic usage which implies their skills and knowledge to have only grown they get invaded by the nightborne following Gul'dan's orders, they seriously kick ass, but are overwhelmed, the few survivors join up the nightborne resistance
Pros and cons:
Pros: they have all that ancient knowledge, they continued developing it, original generation still around,
Cons: Been in isolation, smaller resource pool to draw from, limited by their confines, not had much combat to deal with at all - but bear in mind they had their ultimate test in the war of the ancients a terrifying war tha tonly the current legion invasion is supposed to be stronger. The legion has also gained more power in 10k years.

Group 2 - The evil bunch
Naga - they also continued with all their knowlege, however they had no resources, no access to intact libraries or power source - but they had lots of ruins in the sea to restore and rebuild. They seem very powerful currently
Satyr - also continued from before, but seem more feral and more interested in delighting in corrupting rather than any serious progress of any sort. They don't build cities or habitation - just hunt for more night elves and forests to corrupt.

How do you compare them to the following:
High Elves - like the kal'dorei survivors they were part of, lost all the ancient knowledge with the sundering. Went 3k years without any magic at all. Finally got exiled and started a society from afresh - had to learn a lot of things a new, not immortal, each new generation has to relearn what the previous has before adding to it. Have had major conflicts to develop and shared knowledge with other races - wider pool to draw on.
Blood Elves - same as High Elves but + the learnt Naaru and Legion knowledge whiles under Kael'thas -something that neither the high elves nor the night elven groups have.
Council of Tiirisfal/Guardians - an Elite magical group to guard agaiinst the demons, the high elven led equivalent of the Moonguard - they create the guardian by infusing a combination of the power of a bunch (i think 6) of the most powerful mages' power and knowledge into the guardian. Rumoured to be the most powerful being - but is that from a human/high elven perspective, amongst the mortal races? or does that include others also like the night elven magic users, dragons, aspects, demi-gods and legion lords like Kil'jaeden/Archimonde.
Kirin'tor - only 3k years old, so relatively new, a rival to silvermoon, but it's a centre of magic learning for everyone, high elves, gnomes and humans used it (now extending to blood elves and forsaken) - they retrieve a lot of magical tomes tehy study, most of their magic seems stuff they learn from the past - presumably the ancient kal'dorei empire - in which case what knowledge they have in part, the night elven magic users have in full.
Whiles their magical knowledge is not as extensive as the night elven groups, they'd have made new discoveries too, and they have a lot of humanoid races to pull on. they would have picked up a lot of knowledge from Dire Maul, but would not have access to the knowledge of the nightborne or the moonguard.
Orcish Warlocks - powerful, raw talent, very new to the whole thing - their advantage is raw power and their previous mastery with the elemnts allows them to be very good at handling demons too, - even though mages are far more knowledgeable at this, the fel is powerful and the orcs are very quick learners. Gul'dan is able to hold is own quite well against Khadgar
Draenei mages - not sure if this is a thing, cos it's not an emphasis in their society, but given their history they must be extremely knowledgeable - but it seems quite rare amongst them or at least not at the forefront/ not a thing.

[Wyrt]

Night elven mages have been significantly brought down from what they originally were. Even the Moon Guard are fairly weak and don't stand up well against enemies. Based on the Nightborne they used to be extremely powerful.

Blood Elves - same as High Elves but + the learnt Naaru and Legion knowledge whiles under Kael'thas -something that neither the high elves nor the night elven groups have.

Blood elves should be one of the most powerful arcane using groups on Azeroth. They should rival, or surpass, the Kirin Tor. Unfortunately Blizzard doesn't see it that way and routinely makes it clear that elven mages are inferior to the humans because human bias.

Draenei mages - not sure if this is a thing, cos it's not an emphasis in their society, but given their history they must be extremely knowledgeable - but it seems quite rare amongst them or at least not at the forefront/ not a thing.

Sadly draenei mages are just severely underdeveloped. They're called "Masters of the Arcane" by Blizzard, but Blizzard has never shown this outside of their technology. Since Blizzard focuses all things mage on the humans/Kirin Tor, it's unlikely we'll ever see the draenei being the masters of the arcane that Blizzard has stated them as being.

[Cooper]

As with all living things, each according to his gifts.

[Mace]

the night elven arcane group would sit at the top of the pile - they described them as ridiculously good, but it was okay in WC3, when the current group had long since stopped using arcane magic, and all the star users had perished or turned into naga who had slumbered for a while.

But, now we have no less than 4 groups - of solid arcane users that endured, - the highborne of Eldre'thalas were rather disappointing in Cata - made you wonder if they were ever any good , but the nightborne and the moonguard look incredible. So advanced are the nightborne their food and clothing are conjured using the arcane, weaponary on the fly, and they need to be raided to get the bad group in line, but for all that the Moonguard seem to be able to more than handle them, when they go their to retrieve something for Gul'dan, the moonguard despite some rather awesome offensive spell work are grossly outnumbered, only a handful survive the attack and join up with the nightborne resistance. These groups have had all the knowledge from the age of wonders, and continued developing. The Shendrelar ground to halt not too long agao, but they had a good run before Immol'thar kinda rubbished them, the survivors who are trying to claim back the city, we really haven't seen them in action properly yet.

If you've ever read Rober Jordan's wheel of time (amazing series) it offers a really good way to look at this situation in his series the present is actually a post apocalyptic world that has had 3k years to rebuild - civilizaitons have emerged, economies, nations etc, but they pale in comparison to what was in the Age of Legends.

Even amongst the magic users, magic usage is not as prolific or diverse as use to be, a lot of knowledge , know-how was lost in the destruction that engulfed the previous age, and as time went by, and some of the original Aes Sedai who lived up to a thousand years died out, a lot of know how was lost to the magic users.

However in modern times, some very talented indiviuals have risen, on average the power and competency is no where near as high or as numerous as it was back in the age of legends, but there are some outstanding individuals who are able to really make in-roads, and they actually manage to learn some long forgotten techniques and weaves (spells) of things that were only rumoured in Legend.

Fascinating books, but the high elves are kinda like the modern day Aes Sedai, they have learnt some new things, they have a lot of knoweldge, but nothing like the age of Legends, but they're fast at picking up and along with the humans/forsaken have some serious talent that can learn quickly. The night elven magic users like the the highborne and nightborne are like the people of the Age of Legends, thought long lost, but in this case, (like the Forsaken, but not evil), have actually returned, but unlike the Forsaken in that book, they haven't been in slumber, but have been advancing.

But they'll have limits, they won't be as good as blue dragons in general as a measure, but they'd be quite good.