(Fan Made) Patch 8.3, Battle for Stormwind

[Deleted]

I was thinking about how BFA could end and there's this one idea that resonated in my mind for a while now.

Inspired by the loading screen of BfA, the Sylvanas meleeing Anduin 1v1, also the fact that Sylvanas WANTS to invade Stormwind, she feels like it's the only step for her.

The raid would be marginally different for both Alliance and Horde, I loved how Siege of Orgrimmar was kinda different for each factions, but I feel like it can be dragged a little more, to tell a story from two points of view at once. Stormwind is a beautiful location and it would be treat using some of those city places as raid boss arenas.

The general premise of the raid's faction duality is Horde is invading through harbor while Alliance is defending. The Horde raid instance starts on a forsaken galeon ship that just beached on the docks and fights it's way through the city all the way up to throne room. The Alliance raid instance starts in throne room and gradually pushes the attackers back to bay until a final confrontation on the forsaken flagship.

What? players will face different bosses ? how's that balanced. How about just same mechanics on different models.

Horde
The horde starts on board of Sylvanas's personal ship. Sylvanas sends Baine and Lor'themar, while herself stays on the ship to command the battle. The first boss encounter would be the dock's defender. The first mighty warrior that defends the stormwind. ( I am thinking the mounted general Hammond Clay or Halfus Wyrmbane, or someone of that calliber). After defeating this foe and scalling it's way up the harbor stairs into the city, Lor'Themar sees the city already partly on fire, destroyed full of rubble and hard to navigate. He decides that the only way to the throne room is through the underground canal system. Here comes the second encounter, a giant Crocolisk living in the sewers who's blocking the way. When the canals join up to the stormwind stockades, you fight the third encounter, the Stockades Riot. I imagine this fight alongside of Spoils of Pandaria, where you slowly open up jails and fight the fugitives and prison guards. After emerging from the stockades on the opposite part of the city, right before the stormwind keep court, you are encountered by Jaina Proudmoore, who conjures a giant water elemental from the fountain that's infront of the keep. When defeated, she would faint from the magical power she just expelled and the horde forces would capture her (this is to get her out of the battle without having to kill her of) This would be an excelent boss + boss arena. When you finally breach the keep, you are stopped by Genn Greymane who you need to defeat to lay foot in the throne room. In the throne room awaits the last boss, which is Alleria Windrunner. The stormwind throne room would make for an awesome boss arena.

Alliance
The alliance starts in the throne room with Anduin, first boss encounter would be an Assasin, that sneaked it's way through the brawl in the streets to take out the king directly. After you take him down, you march down the keep to the streets. Here you find the city in total turmoil. Barricaded, on fire, under fire, destroyed. Kinda like the map navigates in old Stratholme, you go through the various streets until Anduin decides that the only way through this rubble would be through the underground canal system. This would stretch out the map of the raid beyond just what you normally see in Stormwind. In the canals, there would be a second boss, a giant Crocolisk blocking the way. After the canals join into stormwind stockades, there's third encounter, the Stockades Riot. I imagined this one as Spoils of Pandaria encounter. You slowly open up cages and fight the fugitives (those would be Horde PoW and various prominent mobs we encountered and defeated on Kul'Tiras and Zandalar). After emerging from the stockades on the other side of the town, the only way to the docks is through the Lion's Rest and that's where you encounter the Lor'Themar's blood elven army. The next boss is giant Anima/Blood golem. After this combat the Alliance defenders capture Baine Bloodhoof, who gets wounded in this battle (it's to get him out of the picture without killing him of). In the harbor, the elite forsaken forces won't let you anyway near the ships until you deal with their commander Nathanos Blightcaller. The last boss would be Sylvanas Windrunner herself, on top of her flagship galeon. The ship needs to mirror the Stormwind throne room, as so the boss arenas were the same. But this could be done with a HUGE ship that has a circular platform on one side.



Now, ever since I'v visited Nexus on Heroic and fought a faction specific boss I fell in love with this idea. Of one raid, but two reasons to fight for each faction.

The first boss would be An Orc Assasin for Alliance and Human Warrior Defender for Horde, second and third bosses would be shared, a giant Crocolisk and Prison Riot, the fourth boss would be Giant blood golem for Alliance and Jaina's surpreme elemental for Horde. Fifth would be Genn Greymane for Horde and Nathanos Blightcaller for Alliance. I think these characters in particular are very simillar in their roles. They would make for an excelet mirror fight. Nathanos could send waves of plaguehounds, while Greymane would send waves of worgens.
The last boss I feel would be best represented by the Windrunner sisters. Both extremely deadly with their dark powers, and both very similar.
Yes, Alliance would get a much better ending in this one. Horde gets to kill a really minor character, while Alliance kills the one of the most popular characters in wow.

BUT, Anduin cannot die. It's cannon, he lives to be old. Also, the Windrunner sisters make for one hell of a mirror fight.


The ending cinematic for Horde would be Lor'Themar pinning Alleria with arrow and then stabbing her through the stomach as he rumbles something about traitors and stuff. While Alleria sends regards to Sylvanas and tells him that she will be waiting for her in hell.

The ending cinematic for Alliance would be simply Anduin stabbing Sylvanas through the stomach and then having some heroic babble. I don't care about this.

So what do you think? Before you decide to type "wow, what a shit idea, glad you're not a blizzard writer", I would much rather apreciate if you'd just offer an alternative instead.

[bmjclark]

This is kind of off topic, but is the Anduin living to be old thing really guaranteed? Everyone kind of just treats it as a given but we've had visions of the future shown before of things that haven't ended up happening. Holy Illidan to name one. I get that the comic doesn't treat it as a vision per say, and that Anduin has plot armor so thick that if Sargeras had of stabbed him instead of the planet it probably would have bounced right off, but still.

[Wyrt]

Don't make me do a raid where I want to lose.

[Mehrunes]

This is kind of off topic, but is the Anduin living to be old thing really guaranteed? Everyone kind of just treats it as a given but we've had visions of the future shown before of things that haven't ended up happening. Holy Illidan to name one. I get that the comic doesn't treat it as a vision per say, and that Anduin has plot armor so thick that if Sargeras had of stabbed him instead of the planet it probably would have bounced right off, but still.

It wasn't a vision. It was merely a time skip. Of course that doesn't mean Blizzard can't retcon it since they love retconning things, but we were provided a glimpse into the future of the story and it showed a living Anduin.

Don't make me do a raid where I want to lose.

Well, making people wipe on purpose would be one way of extending the longevity of the game.

[Deleted]

Don't make me do a raid where I want to lose.

I don't wanna BFA to turn into "surprise, it was OLD GODS ALL ALONG" plot. That would lessen the actions of Sylvanas and Anduin. Blizzard is clearly painting her as the villain, but I don't think Horde should hold any grudges towards her, so it doesn't make sense to turn her into Garosh 2.0. But still Alliance wants her blood.

[Necroxis]

It is an interesting idea, and I like the concept of the Fountain becoming a Water Elemental and fighting inside the Throne Room in Stormwind. You're right, it would be a pretty badass boss encounter area. Also having the crocolisk in the canal as a boss is pretty great.

I'm not sure Blizzard would kill off Sylvanas, Genn, Alleria and Nathanos in a single raid though. That's decades of character development gone in a single instance. While I'm actually fine with it, I dont think Blizzard has the balls to do something like that. Killing Sylvanas at all seems very unlikely in and of itself, especially at the hands of the Alliance.

If they did do this, it would be pretty fitting if the Horde assassin was Garona. She's involved in BfA on the Horde's side and thematically its perfect. Her sneaking into the Throne Room to kill another Wrynn.

Unfortunately it probably will be revealed to be N'zoth + Azerite driving people crazy. Having Azerite be a corruptible force is also a storyline reason why we won't be carrying our necklace into 9.0. Some bullshit about 'You have to destroy the necklace because its driving you slowly insane!'

[grexly75]

I think you will find that will end up being Old Gods, since parts of questing in Kul'Tiras indicate that.. Also Azshara is penciled into the xpac at some point, due to happenings again in Kul'Tiras.. And that we have yet to face the N'Zoth the supposed final Old God on Azeroth..

Also to for the Horde to hold no grudges against Sylvanas? Did you see what she did to her own troops in the Battle for Lorderon scenario, and the look of disdain on Baines face..

Either way we will have to see what Blizzard do with her, I myself don't see redemption happening, to the point that she makes what Garrosh did look tame by comparison..

[Deleted]

I think you will find that will end up being Old Gods, since parts of questing in Kul'Tiras indicate that.. Also Azshara is penciled into the xpac at some point, due to happenings again in Kul'Tiras.. And that we have yet to face the N'Zoth the supposed final Old God on Azeroth..

Also to for the Horde to hold no grudges against Sylvanas? Did you see what she did to her own troops in the Battle for Lorderon scenario, and the look of disdain on Baines face..

Either way we will have to see what Blizzard do with her, I myself don't see redemption happening, to the point that she makes what Garrosh did look tame by comparison..

How lame would it be if the horde would need to assault it's own city for THE THIRD TIME, because on of their leaders gone insane.

[Wyrt]

I don't wanna BFA to turn into "surprise, it was OLD GODS ALL ALONG" plot. That would lessen the actions of Sylvanas and Anduin. Blizzard is clearly painting her as the villain, but I don't think Horde should hold any grudges towards her, so it doesn't make sense to turn her into Garosh 2.0. But still Alliance wants her blood.

If Sylvanas kills Anduin then all is forgiven.

[grexly75]

How lame would it be if the horde would need to assault it's own city for THE THIRD TIME, because on of their leaders gone insane.

You do know that there are plenty of other places for a raid besides Origmmar and Stormwind.. You have to think outside of the box with this one, because all you are doing is just redoing Siege of Ogrimmar but with an Alliance theme..

Also not to forget that with SoO you had only one major lore character involved that being Garrosh.. With your idea you are wanting to take out nearly all of the major Alliance lore characters in one go for no good reason..

[Deleted]

Would the Horde even have the numbers anymore to besiege the powerhouse that is Stormwind?

They lost a a large part of their armies in the Siege of Orgrimmar, lost a large chunk fighting for Ashenvale/Teldrassil and I'd say they lost the bulk of what they have now at the battle for the Undercity.
And this is a faction that already had some races with very low population numbers, like the Trolls and Blood Elves.

[Deleted]

You do know that there are plenty of other places for a raid besides Origmmar and Stormwind.. You have to think outside of the box with this one, because all you are doing is just redoing Siege of Ogrimmar but with an Alliance theme.. .

Yeah, I get that it might be a rather uninspired theme, but Siege of Stormwind is gonna happen sooner than later. It was heavily foreshadowed, as it was the last sentence in the novel preview. As I see it, it's something inevitable. I'd rather it be a full scale Raid instance instead of... series of quests or some lowly scenario.

Would the Horde even have the numbers anymore to besiege the powerhouse that is Stormwind?

They lost a a large part of their armies in the Siege of Orgrimmar, lost a large chunk fighting for Ashenvale/Teldrassil and I'd say they lost the bulk of what they have now at the battle for the Undercity.
And this is a faction that already had some races with very low population numbers, like the Trolls and Blood Elves.

Humans are losing men all over the place since first war and still are the majority for alliance, so I'd just call it a magic wand of writing.
I feel that since Sylvanas said it's gonna happen, then she knows she can win.

[Dreadlack]

So Alleria dies after Stormwind is sieged... And where is Turalyon? AFK in the Vindicaar once again?
Velen, Malfurion, Tyrande? The alliance capital is under siege by the horde but half our leaders are chilling smoking joints.

Or did they die in patches prior? Damn BfA is turning out to be a devastating exp. for alliance players.

Edit: What about Khadgar and the Kirin Tor? They decided their kinsmen wasn't worth the trouble I assume.

[Amaterasu65]

Although the expansion would provide the perfect chance to establish raids of this thematic, I doubt it would ever be of such magnitude. Also, Stormwind has already been infiltrated once in BfA. Also, I doubt this kind of attacks are possible anymore due to Kalimdor and EK being Horde and Alliance-only (mostly). How would the Horde reach SW and managing to deal such blows in the main Alliance city?

Nathanos is not a racial leader, Genn is. Alleria is a racial leader, and so is Sylvanas but also a Warchief. Kinda unfair trades.

I like the structure of your ideas a lot, the design of bosses and the succession of bosses but it's a little meh because of all those known leaders involved. It would be way better and easier to establish this in an area that is not a main city with main reason the appearance of a huge Azerite node of some sort.

[Deleted]

So Alleria dies after Stormwind is sieged... And where is Turalyon? AFK in the Vindicaar once again?
Velen, Malfurion, Tyrande? The alliance capital is under siege by the horde but half our leaders are chilling smoking joints.

Or did they die in patches prior? Damn BfA is turning out to be a devastating exp. for alliance players.

Edit: What about Khadgar and the Kirin Tor? They decided their kinsmen wasn't worth the trouble I assume.

Since they didn't wanna bother with explaining where was Vindicaar during War of Thorns, I can't be bothered with it either.

I wanted to focus on the 8 characters blizz shows us in Battle for Lordaeron, since they feel they are the most important here. The way they are looking at each other menacingly from the boards of their ships. Definitely a foreshadowing for future to come.


I now realise that EVERYBODY was there during Siege of Orgrimmar, but honestly, it felt like character fiesta. A rainbow pot of characters, all doing their one little bit to fit the picture. Tyrande was there to literally only open the gate.

- - - Updated - - -

Nathanos is not a racial leader, Genn is. Alleria is a racial leader, and so is Sylvanas but also a Warchief. Kinda unfair trades.

Think of it as Chess, you have to give up a knight to capture a queen, sometimes you give up a bishop to capture two pawns. At the end, even if you win, you're left with only few pieces remaining.

Genn doesn't feel like a racial leader, not until blizz decides to give him a land to rule over. He feels more like Anduin's right hand.

[Deleted]

NEW ZANDALAR RAID
Alliance start at the docks and climb the pyramid, eventually fighting King Rastakhan.
The Horde will defend the city, starting outside on the far north of the pyramid. They fight towards Rastakhan, which will be the middle of the raid for them. They then fight Alliance forces down towards harbor, ending with Alliance commanders and Jaina on the high seas.

Haha, I am so happy, I knew this was a thing that wouls happen!