Expansion Face-Off - Azshara v Emerald Dream

[Deleted]

That's pretty gorgeous. I'm interested in your decision to focus on the Underwater zones - most people I see look at the mixed reception to Vash'jir and try to steer clear of that. Are you planning on crafting a new underwater system?

And no Zandalar?

Idd Zandalar should 100% be a zone in a south sea exp. pack.
It is sinking it is not gone yet.

It is very important to Troll lore and the way Vol'Jin will move on as Warchief in the future.

[Baneador]

i cant decide, i love both, i love everything.

[Nillah]

Frankly, if the Emerald Dream looks anything like it has in the game so far (i.e. exactly the same except for a heavy green tint), no thanks. :P

As a fan of all things NE I would probably pick Azshara & the naga.

Basically what I was going to say. The Emerald Dream would need a really cool remake for me to be interested.

[Golden Yak]

The Azshara expansion is the clear winner here, but I'm tempted now to do a map for an Emerald Dream expansion in the same vein as the one I did for the Great Seas expansion - just as a bit of a tease, 'if it had you'd be seeing these places'.

[Deleted]

Both would suck concept vise.

[Earthbound]

emerald dream wouldnt have enough content to be an entire expansion

a raid tier, sure, not an entire xpac tho

especially now that ysera is powerless

[zubaja]

The Azshara expansion is the clear winner here, but I'm tempted now to do a map for an Emerald Dream expansion in the same vein as the one I did for the Great Seas expansion - just as a bit of a tease, 'if it had you'd be seeing these places'.

That would be very interesting

[Ravenmoore]

Would love to have an expansion about Azshara, Kul Tiras, Lost isles, etc. I really think that is coming in either the next expansion or the one after. I don't think a whole Emerald dream expansion would work, but I hope they at least make a zone and a raid of it in one expansion like the devs have thought about.

Also I would love an excuse to go back to Gilneas. Maybe the Azshara expansion could start with the Alliance leading a giant assault to aid the worgen in retaking Gilneas from the forsaken and the armies of Azshara coming out of the ocean and intervening Just as the Alliance are about to push out the Forsaken Army. Maybe make it the first questing zone for the Alliance. I also think it would be cool if the Undercity and Darnassus where the capital cities of that expansion. Would love to see them get some love.

[Golden Yak]

A snippet of what might have been:

[zubaja]

A snippet of what might have been:

Me likes! Are you ever going to do Emerald Dream after Azshara?

[Deleted]

Nah. What's gonna happens is, Queen Azshara raises up sunken portions of the ocean's floor and creates a new continent surrounding the Maelstrom. That's always been my favorite concept for what would happen in a Great Seas expansion. I know there's lots of islands out there, I've even used a few, but I never liked the idea of hopping around a bunch of scattered zones, like what happened with Cataclysm.

I personally loved Vashj'ir, particularly the zone layout and quest/storyflow. But I still wouldn't want every zone or even an entire zone to be underwater again. So with this concept there'd be underwater parts to the zones instead - some areas you dive down into big bodies of water to explore the sub-regions of the continent. If people wanted to avoid them, they'd be largely free to do so. Some zones would have more than others (Darkcoil is mostly flooded).

I'm not personally a fan of that concept because it makes very little plot sense. Why would Azshara eliminate her homefield advantage by making the conflict a terrestrial one rather than aquatic? The concern about Island feeling disconnected is valid, but personally I like the idea of Ships being the next evolution of Garrisons, allowing you to sail your own ship through a huge open ocean zone connecting all the island zones.

[Deleted]

I personally would like to see Naga as playable race, BUT i would rather be neutral( not Alliance or Horde), because Queen Azshara is more then a queen for naga she is God and I would never want to fight her, who would want to fight their people and their leader and join stinking orcs or humans!!

[Baneador]

Awesome map. Oh well, i think we will not see more about Emerald Dream for a time, too bad we didnt see names or little descripcions of the bosses of the dungeons and raids

[Hardwing]

I'm not personally a fan of that concept because it makes very little plot sense. Why would Azshara eliminate her homefield advantage by making the conflict a terrestrial one rather than aquatic? The concern about Island feeling disconnected is valid, but personally I like the idea of Ships being the next evolution of Garrisons, allowing you to sail your own ship through a huge open ocean zone connecting all the island zones.

Azshara is arrogance incarnated. She wanted Sargeras as her husband of all beings. Now probably ruling the ocean thanks to controlling Neptulon she might do it just to make a point for her claim of ruling over all of Azeroth. It might of course be part of a larger plan, maybe laid out by the Old gods she is indebted to, but with the expansion not even announced, it is all speculation.

As for the islands. There is still Zandalar, Kezan, Kul Tiras, Plunder Island, The Broken Islands, The Tomb of Sargeras, plus any islands Blizzard wants to create out of the blue. I imagine these being distributed around the central island/small continent Azshara rose out of the sea, so there would still be a lot of place for fleets and maybe our very own ship to sail.

Of course all these things together, mabye including Naga and another race as playable factions and or introducing the tinker class would make a really huge expansion if it is done the right way!

[Deleted]

Here's another expansion idea.

An expansion set on the moons of Azeroth, which are Titan facilities where their most guarded (and terrifying) secrets are stored. One of the moons is highly technological and the other is full of dense forests. Each moon has about 3 zones.

[Headayke]

Here's another expansion idea.

An expansion set on the moons of Azeroth, which are Titan facilities where their most guarded (and terrifying) secrets are stored. One of the moons is highly technological and the other is full of dense forests. Each moon has about 3 zones.

Oh yeah, I loved borderlands 1.5 too. Lets totally do pretty much the same thing on Azeroth. No, we have enough stories that havent been finished, we don't need to go to the moon. Taurens brains would probably explode just trying to explain this in-game.

Love the south seas idea and will have no problem with water zones as long as combat is fixed, swim speed is fixed and I'm not spending all my time under the sea. Player boats could work but as long as it doesn't become a cesspool of giant player boats clipping through each other to talk to a small NPC quest giver. I just try to imagine frostfire launch only with large boats, in the water crammed around a small NPC and that sounds worse than WoD.

[PrairieChicken]

I would like Emerald Dream more (like other side of Azeroth or something) but it was already done thanks to Blizzard doing it in single novel.

[Kelthos]

Really cool maps! Is it bad I want an Azshara expansion mostly because I think it will be the best chance for me to get playable Jinyu? >.>;

[Skytotem]

Azshara and Seas.



Emerald dream would get real old, real fast, better as a zone or raid than an expansion.

[thoruga]

What I wonder is should those two be mutually exclusive?
Both Azshara and the corruption in Emerald Dream are Old God related, so an expansion featuring both is quite possible.