BFA filler, not necessarily bad

[Bathory]

There are no "filler" xpacs. Filler from what exactly?

[Kuze]

A "filler" expansion where we take on Queen Azshara, the key figure to pretty much every single "predicted" expansion we've had for the past decade.

The villain whom deserves her own expansion not shoehorned into a random one, about random fighting, with random "races"

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What exactly classes an expansion as filler? Coz it doesn't have a big bad world destroying boss? Coz it lacks story? Coz it lacks features? I honestly don't know. Personally the few features they've announced for BfA like islands, warfronts and the continuation of M+ is enough features for me to give me things to play and as long as the story is good, I'll be happy. Frankly any expansion with good lore is good for me, whether it's a world destroying boss or an intricate story involving lots of smaller less threatening characters and personal conflicts.

Regardless, I've yet to see an expansion that was just "filler". Even WOD, while questionable in execution, wasn't just filler imo.

WoD served literally one purpose, to bring back Guldan, there was absolutely no other reason for anything else that happened there.

[Aeula]

Then it absolutely isn't filler, as all the systems that exist in Legion appear to be coming with us plus a few more added.

It can ONLY be considered filler in terms of lore, but that remains to be seen.

Gameplay-wise remains to be seen, they're not adding or changing much.

Lore-wise it's huge. Way bigger than Legion considering it's already done damage to the real physical world in a way players can actually feel (Somewhat). Far bigger than killing King Chin and the worst Warchief ever which had no real ramifications as far as the lore or players were concerned.

The theme makes sense and has been built towards for a while. Unlike say... WoD which, let's face it, lorewise was more or less 'filler'. The only thing the expansion brought forward was Gul'dan. Everything else might as well have not happened.

[ryanmahaffe]

Sure there is. You and others are reacting to the word 'filler' but this is definitely a bridge from Legion to a Void expansion in the same way the WoD was a bridge between Mists and Legion. That doesn't mean (I hope) that BfA will be as light on content as WoD, but it fills the same dramatic use.

Why hope when BFA launch content already has more than the entirety of WoD?

[beanman12345]

The villain whom deserves her own expansion not shoehorned into a random one, about random fighting, with random "races"

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WoD served literally one purpose, to bring back Guldan, there was absolutely no other reason for anything else that happened there.

Yeah ok I see what you mean. You are right, basically we got rid of the threat 20 minutes in, and the entire rest of WoD was pretty pointless. I think that mainly has to do with them giving up on it to work on Legion instead. I can see why peeps consider WoD filler now though. I think it's too early to claim BfA as filler though.

[infinitemeridian]

>Two Major features that could potentially change end-game more drastically than Mythic+. Warfronts might top raids in the future
>Two new continents, more zones than Legion
>6 new races (yes, they new animations, backstory, etc) - these aren't just reskins
>Ashzara
>New legendary/artifact system

I don't understand how anybody can think this. Maybe from a lore perspective, but not from a gameplay one, especially with Warfronts being a much bigger deal than I think people are giving them credit for. All this on TOP of all that we got in Legion (Mythic+, WQ).

[Deleted]

As long as the content is good (raids and dungeons) I will be happy, it doesn't look like a "filler" expansion and anything that brings us back down from god-tier status will be great in my book.

[clevin]

Why hope when BFA launch content already has more than the entirety of WoD?

1) I've not read all that much so...

2) It's not just about launch content, but about patches. WoD gave us mostly nothing after 6.0 (yes, I know.... Tanaan...). Legion did a good job on patches mostly. That, more than launch content, is wha makes an expansion good.

[sillag]

every filler sense in my body is going off with bfa. mostly due to all the artwork reduction. they are trying to keep this expansion as cheap as they possibly can and it doesnt bode well

[ryanmahaffe]

every filler sense in my body is going off with bfa. mostly due to all the artwork reduction. they are trying to keep this expansion as cheap as they possibly can and it doesnt bode well

2 different continents with completely different art directions goes against the entirety of what you just said.

[Logwyn]

But it does get back to the core Warcraft Story: Alliance Vs Horde.

Its all fine and dandy but it needs to make sense.

The KEK RAWR!!!!! WAR!!!!!! Just cause WAR!!!!!! For what reason?? Doesn't.

I'd bet that the average Tauren, Troll, Elf, Goblin, Gnome, etc would just be happy getting up going to work, come home twidle the wife go to bed. Than always constant WAR ARRGHHH!! WAR!!!!!!

It needs to make sense. HURRAY!!! We killed the Legion TOGETHER!!!!!!! **Looks around** NOW YOU MUST DIE!!!!!! Doesn't.

[infinitemeridian]

every filler sense in my body is going off with bfa. mostly due to all the artwork reduction. they are trying to keep this expansion as cheap as they possibly can and it doesnt bode well

two new continents, means two different themes at least just from that
gear based on environment, not classes, means they can't be lazy with certain raids ala emerald nightmare/highmaul and split the appearences
6 new races more to come
ongoing work with animations and visual effects
gear looks amazing so far, tons of detail and little effects, even a huge step up from Legion, which was a huge step up from WoD

yeah nah

[Emerald Archer]

Oh sweet summer child.

I've been around for every expansion, there's always the initial announcement, and then a follow up, with more juicy info. Sometimes better than original, sometimes worse.

[Steampunkette]

Its all fine and dandy but it needs to make sense.

The KEK RAWR!!!!! WAR!!!!!! Just cause WAR!!!!!! For what reason?? Doesn't.

I'd bet that the average Tauren, Troll, Elf, Goblin, Gnome, etc would just be happy getting up going to work, come home twidle the wife go to bed. Than always constant WAR ARRGHHH!! WAR!!!!!!

It needs to make sense. HURRAY!!! We killed the Legion TOGETHER!!!!!!! **Looks around** NOW YOU MUST DIE!!!!!! Doesn't.

WW2. A coalition of American, British, French, Canadian, Australian, and Russian troops fought against Germany, Italy, and Japan while both Korea and China were also fighting against Japan. Egyptian military conscription, battles across Northern Africa, Hawaii... it was, truly, a -world- at War. And when we finally defeated the Nazis, the clearly evil assholes that had much of the world united against the obvious threat they posed?

We went directly into the Cold War against the Soviets. Alongside various proxy wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Congo to Paraguay.

Honestly, turning around from defeating a great evil and trying to kill each other over more mundane matters is pretty accurate. Though I agree there needs to be a decent Casus Belli... like the various crimes of the Horde in the past, the attempted enslavement of Eyir, and the betrayal on the Broken Shore. Those things would make sense as cause for war. From the Horde's perspective, Genn's attempted assassination of Sylvanas and explosive sneak attack on the Forsaken Fleet would, similarly, qualify.

[Synthium]

Smug OP. I for one, am glad we are no longer forcing archvillains and existential threats and are finally going back to the core story of how it was before TBC - faction conflict with raid dungeons with dangerous monsters inside that are not some kind of extremely important villains that have to die like this is some kind of a fantasy book that has a story that absolutely HAS to progress forward.

[RangerDaz]

WoD served literally one purpose, to bring back Guldan, there was absolutely no other reason for anything else that happened there.

Wrong. They wanted the players to meet old characters that existed before world of warcraft and even warcraft 3 were released. That also gave them the opportunity to recreate outland before the shattering.

[deviantcultist]

Depends on how you define "filler". Just because we might not do a significant breakthrough like we did in Legion, that doesn't mean we are having filler content/story.

As for bringing our character down from "god-tier", I dunno. I know many people have this unexplainable complex that want to be as pretentiously humble as possible. However, just because we are dealing with earthly threats, that does not mean that we are downgraded to mundane adventurers.

After all, we are getting Azerite amulets for a reason and that reason is very much alike the reason we got our artifacts in the first place.

[Okacz]

BfA makes sense the way it's presented.

Legion wasn't all about faction friendship or whatever, more like factions growing even more distant and cold towards each other. All the cool shit was done by the united Orders, led by the players, who decided to cooperate together despite the faction tensions. The Alliance and the Horde played very small role in it, pulling themselves together after the Broken Shore. Remember, both of their leaders died, so did most of their armies, it would be quite unlikely that united factions would be able to continue to wage war against the Legion. The whole Broken Shore plot, after all, was to disable factions involvement.

BfA is the moment when Alliance and the Horde finally get back up, but tensions from the Broken Shore are still up. The Alliance hates the Horde for breaking the promise and leaving them to die, the Horde just hates them in return. Since no dangers are presented (yet), and a good economical reason for battle has emerged (Azerite), it's a perfect setup for war.

And the thing is, it's the first patch. Just like in Mists, the expansion might evolve into something way different, and most likely will. It's Battle for Azeroth after all, the title seems to have double meaning - the battle between the factions for control over Azeroth, and the battle to defend Azeroth. The latter will most likely be the theme of the last patches, when the all-out war and wounded Azeroth finally bring out the real enemy - most likely the Old Gods, trying to corrupt the last latent Titan. Thus, the expansion will start with pointless faction conflict and will proceed to show how factions finally came to (yet another) truce to defend their home, like in Warcraft III.

Frankly, this seems so much better than Legion. The whole idea of a generic superarmy trying to destroy all for the whole expansion got old pretty fast, with next patches visuals looking the same as the previous - more fel lava and charred rocks. Mists was great in delivering a well connected story while going through 3 vastly different themes - Pandaren, Ancient Mogu/Zandalari and True Horde - pretty seamlessly.

[Exilian]

Smug OP. I for one, am glad we are no longer forcing archvillains and existential threats and are finally going back to the core story of how it was before TBC - faction conflict with raid dungeons with dangerous monsters inside that are not some kind of extremely important villains that have to die like this is some kind of a fantasy book that has a story that absolutely HAS to progress forward.

But the thing is we ARE getting an archvillain, Azshara, but she'll be the first archvillain that gets killed in a patch in a random xpac not about her

[Adoxe]

Azshara and N'zoth aren't filler.