Cataclysm Story Arch, Where do we go from here?

[Linkedblade]

I'm interested in how the lore has been shaped to introduce new encounters (raids or dungeons), and perhaps even predict, which encounters we will see. As far as I can see we have taken out MANY of Deathwing's Lieutenants: Cho'gall, leader of Twilight's Hammer/Cult; Sinestra, prime black dragon consort, if not the only one; Nefarian, Deathwing's heir; Al'Akir, one of two of Deathwing's Elemental buddies. Only remaining Lieutenant not dealt with, as told by the questing experience, is Ragnaros.

Background: Hyjal- We assault both the Twilight Cult and Ragnaros, and succeed in reclaiming the entire mount. Both oppositions have been defeated, for the time being. We revive and gather all (most) of the ancients lost during the War of the Ancients.
Observation: New encounter with Raganaros. Possible future Caverns of Time encounter.

Background: Vashj'ir- We deafeat key lieutenants on the assault by the naga. We defend Neptulon, the water lord.
Observation: Possible Old God conflict, involving at least Water Elementals on our side, even Earthen ring.

Background: Uldum- Air elementals gone wild, Ramkahen converted to Deathwing's Minions.
Observation: There already is a raid for Al'Akir the air lord, perhaps a future encounter with Deathwing's converts.

Background: Deepholme- Earth elementals fighting against the Twilight cult, complete victory.
Observation: I don't think we'll see Therazane again, even though she may pop up in an encounter with Deathing.

Background: Twilight Highlands- Deafeat more Twilight Cult, Defeat some Black Dragons,
Observation: Blackwing Descent and Bastion of Twilight.

We also have the ongoing conflict between factions. Horde and Alliance gain and loose ground all over the map. Cities can become more developed and complete (Orgrimmar and Stormwind). Perhaps larger scale battles to give some inclination to actual conflict between factions. What will happen to the leaders? Hellscream? Wrynn? Magni?

Please post your thoughts and ideas.

[Imadraenei]

Hyjal: This is loose end number 1 so far. Ragnaros is already set to appear in the Firelands next patch, along with a set of dailies revolving around healing the rest of Hyjal.

Vashj'ir: Loose end number 2. There is a third one of those large, shellfish-like creatures, but it's MIA miraculously. Curiously, there's also the abandoned reef at the far west with merely some dead coral. In addition, Neptulon is missing again and we know there's to be a second Abyssal Maw 5-man next patch.

Uldum: Pretty much all tied up. We've deactivated the titan reorigination device (HoO), we've eliminated the top evil Tol'vir recruited by Al'Akir's recruiting agent, and Al'Akir himself is out. I believe since he's been defeated in his home realm of Skywall, he's gone for good.

Deepholm: Nothing left here. World Pillar secure, Twilight's Hammer is routed, and Therazane tolerates us as long as we keep to ourselves and gtfo.

Twilight Highlands: Also pretty much done. Grim Batol is cleared out, and with Cho'Gall and Sinestra dead, the Bastion is ours. There are no more black dragons capable of bearing children at this time, and the Old God minion has been gutted.



At this point, the next direction for raids after 3.1 seems to be the Caverns of Time instance (War of the Ancients? The pivotal moment where Neltharion becomes Deathwing, perhaps a journey to determine which Old God(s) are in play or to determine if there is some possible weakness). Depending on how the 3.1 5-man in Abyssal Maw goes, there could be a water-based raid afterwards. They've said they plan on added a 5-man in every patch, too.

3.1 will probably lay more clues about 3.2, if they don't spill the beans directly.

[Sekhmet]

There is some hum-hum about a war of the Ancients CoT raid (apparently it needs moar time travel to fix it again) and would be nice with a continuation on the infinite dragonflight line.

The extra instance portal in the throne of the tides entrance speaks for additional content there, but i vagly remember some dev saying that they were not sure if they were going to introduce queen Azhara in this expac.

Im gonna guess the tower in Hyjal to be the entrance of the firelands raid also mentioned by devs. We have only met raggy on this plane, not his home elemental plane.

Uldum has a lot of content as it is, so I deem it unlikely that they add a lot of new content there.

If they follow the pattern with three major content patches, my money is on War of the Ancients, a final Deathwing encounter and a firelands raid. I hope they will add the Azhara raid too. Iif they continue on with the shorter instances, maybe well see a firelands/plane of water double release.

[Precursor]

Im already bored...O_o ill come back latter when there is a fair ammount of new content again but it woulc be nice to see blizzard set up their game and add more story each patch rather than rely on patches to finsih off story lines. heck if we know another xpac is comming why not build up to it. add another zone!

[Kelzam]

Eventually I'm guessing we'll fight N'Zoth in Ny'alotha, wherever that is.

[Black_One]

Where do we go from here ?

Downhill

WoW is slowly, but certainly, dying.

[Deleted]

They can easily just write whatever lore they want to bring a new raid. "OH GOD AN EARTHQUAKE REVEALS NEW ULDUAR IN ULDUM" or they can remake an old raid too.

[Osmeric]

WoW is like a bad fanfic that takes years to read.

[Clockworks]

well we have old gods,ragnaros,and deathwing himself. also i think we should face Azhara herself this X pack, since i guess we will be going to a new world next time, perhaps a outland V2?.

my guess is.:

4.1 Raggy + some other minor raid if Firelands ain't got that many bosses. also 1 - 2 5man dungeons.

4.2 Old God time, perhaps we can face Azhara at the same time? Also more 5 man dungeons.

4.3 Deathwing time! i guess he won't turn sane again, so he most likely will be killed. Same as both above here to, more 5 man dungeons!

/Cheers.

lets kill some Demons in on a far of planet in 5.0.1^^

[PandaFart]

next expac will be the emerald dream/nightmare

[Lugo Moll]

Yeah, It's a little wierd that we've cleared out what seems to be most of Deathwings minions in the first raid tier. Only naga/faceless and Deathwing left after 4.1, as far as I can tell...

[Kitchlol]

Valiona and Theralion say something about being "Mother's Favourite"
could be something there...

[Prez-]

Valiona and Theralion say something about being "Mother's Favourite"
could be something there...

Sinestra is their mother.

[Deleted]

Where do we go from here ?

Downhill

WoW is slowly, but certainly, dying.

lol, gtfo...

[Kitchlol]

Sinestra is their mother.

I was wondering, thanks for clearing that up.

[Deleted]

If im honest the lore this expansion has been very dull...Deathwing & Old Gods *yawn* - No doubt we will watch Deathwing die (after killing hundreds of trash) before an Old God reveals to be using Deathwing as a pawn to free himself ala yet another bloody Old God fight

[Black_One]

lol, gtfo...

truth hurts ha fanboy ?

[Araella]

Hyjal: This is loose end number 1 so far. Ragnaros is already set to appear in the Firelands next patch, along with a set of dailies revolving around healing the rest of Hyjal.

Vashj'ir: Loose end number 2. There is a third one of those large, shellfish-like creatures, but it's MIA miraculously. Curiously, there's also the abandoned reef at the far west with merely some dead coral. In addition, Neptulon is missing again and we know there's to be a second Abyssal Maw 5-man next patch.

Uldum: Pretty much all tied up. We've deactivated the titan reorigination device (HoO), we've eliminated the top evil Tol'vir recruited by Al'Akir's recruiting agent, and Al'Akir himself is out. I believe since he's been defeated in his home realm of Skywall, he's gone for good.

Deepholm: Nothing left here. World Pillar secure, Twilight's Hammer is routed, and Therazane tolerates us as long as we keep to ourselves and gtfo.

Twilight Highlands: Also pretty much done. Grim Batol is cleared out, and with Cho'Gall and Sinestra dead, the Bastion is ours. There are no more black dragons capable of bearing children at this time, and the Old God minion has been gutted.



At this point, the next direction for raids after 3.1 seems to be the Caverns of Time instance (War of the Ancients? The pivotal moment where Neltharion becomes Deathwing, perhaps a journey to determine which Old God(s) are in play or to determine if there is some possible weakness). Depending on how the 3.1 5-man in Abyssal Maw goes, there could be a water-based raid afterwards. They've said they plan on added a 5-man in every patch, too.

3.1 will probably lay more clues about 3.2, if they don't spill the beans directly.

I think it's worth mentioning that there are also a ton of new quests in Old Azeroth that point in different directions (old god influence in many zones, burning legion/sargeras (stonetalon- eavesdrop on the highborne NPCs), infinite dragonflight (some mobs spawn in Tanaris near CoT, Badlands quest chain! imo).

Definitely don't avoid checking out these story arcs if you are interested in hints about where things might be going. The completely new zones aren't the only areas tying up and going forward with stories, and dropping hints everywhere (imo Blizzard did a great job with some of the old zone reworks). Also if I had to put money on a CoT instance I'd be betting on something like BT/Felwood at this point (War of the Ancients would also fit perfectly).

I'll also post a disclaimer that I don't mean that I think all of this will happen in this expansion (obviously having Sargeras - at least in a killable form- in this expansion would be retarded) - just 'future stuff' in general.

[Jademist]

Background: Hyjal- We assault both the Twilight Cult and Ragnaros, and succeed in reclaiming the entire mount. Both oppositions have been defeated, for the time being. We revive and gather all (most) of the ancients lost during the War of the Ancients.
Observation: New encounter with Raganaros. Possible future Caverns of Time encounter.

They already stated that there will be a Caverns of Time raid which is the War of the Ancients.
So, yeah.

And I remember something about the Old God N'zoth.

[Zethras]

truth hurts ha fanboy ?

Everything dies, not even Gods endure forever, but WoW won't die for many years to come, so theres no need to worry