The problem with Azshara in 8.2

[Deleted]

I have similar fears and I've had them for a long time, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Azshara isn't just an extremely important and immensively powerful lore character, she's also the most built up enemy IN THE GAME. All other big-bads that have been around since Vanilla are dead or defeated.. except her. Void lords and other adversaries came into the picture much later, but Azshara has had a presence for so goddamn long now. She deserves a proper crescendo.

That said, I do think they will do her justice, but perhaps not much more than that. Azshara is easily expansion-leading material, there's just no discussion about that. Not everyone might like the idea but she undoubtedly has the power and interest as a character to carry an expansion and it really sucks that she didn't get to have that role. Still though, I'm hopeful. The wow team has said that they've poured a massive amount of time, effort and resources into Nazjatar and they clearly have ambitions for the zone to test some new things.. BUT I agree 100% with the mechagon statement. I'm super excited for a new megadungeon and for gnomes to actually come into the picture for once, but it does drain resources that could be used on Azshara's content instead. Some people think mechagon might have been meant for 8.1 but was pushed back.. and that seems reasonable, but still.

I mean, if there's anything that I'm actually frustrated about it's the fact that there's not even a dungeon connected to Azshara's content. It's not a necessity, but we've had dungeons connected to raids throughout legion and it sucks that Azshara won't get one. This is THE first time we even get to see real naga architecture and the raid itself only has 8 bosses, which isn't terrible but.. you know, it's also not that many. So the smaller raid and the lack of a dungeon is annoying as hell.

But well, I'm still hopeful. I think they're gonna do a great job and judged on what we've seen so far Nazjatar looks fantastic and we know that the wow team is great at telling stories and making cinematics.. so hopefully Azshara will be presented in a fantastic way. She deserves to be the face of an expansion and she deserves a wider amount of content, but that doesn't mean 8.2 won't be fantastic.

[Tyron]

You can be sure It will be the end of WoW. Again.

[Soon-TM]

The problem with bringing in Azshara now is that there's no real lead up to it. A single cutscene? Come on now! If Azshara was going to be any kind a real threat she should have been engaged with the rest of the story the whole time like Arthas was throughout WotLK. Instead she's just going to pop out of a box and be like "HA HA! RAWR!!!!!!"

Weaksauce through and through. What, is she going to have mustaches to twirl so she and Sylvanas can be bros?

Blizzard needs to scrap this entire expansion and start over with a foundation of real depth and quality instead of....whatever BfA is doing.

Basically this. I've always thought that a character such as Aszhara is important enough as to deserve her own expansion. Right now,.there is very little buildup for her (at least in-game) and the whole idea of Naz'jatar looks fitter for a final patch rather than a filler (in a chronological sense) one. Let's hope Blizz doesn't waste Aszhara like they have done with other villains - Deathwing comes to mind.

[Logwyn]

Basically this. I've always thought that a character such as Aszhara is important enough as to deserve her own expansion. Right now,.there is very little buildup for her (at least in-game) and the whole idea of Naz'jatar looks fitter for a final patch rather than a filler (in a chronological sense) one. Let's hope Blizz doesn't waste Aszhara like they have done with other villains - Deathwing comes to mind.

I'm almost hoping that its a build to Aszhara expansion. We're fighting this silly war and She pops up towards the end of this one leading into the next expansion.

But meh.

[Gaidax]

I'm not terribly sure why Azshara is being so much glorified, I see people desiring to build whole bloody expansions around her.

Ultimately she's not unlike quite a few other entities we defeated mid-expansion. C'thun, Yogg-Saron, Ragnaros and numerous other threats we have defeated are comparable or more powerful than her.

They could drag the whole thing of course by making 8.2 a minor setback, but IMO she had enough presence throughout the years to start wrapping her up for good.

[Yunaqt]

[SNIP]

Personally i'm not worried, because the raids are generally always on point and well received.
Cataclysm was also received heavy negativity but produced Firelands which was an incredible raid. deathwing was a let down but the instance itself was pretty average.

Likewise with WoD, Warlords was a resounding 'bleh' across the board for the expansion but the 1 statement that came out of it was "However the raids were really good". BRF was arguably one of the best raids to date which sat in one of the biggest letdowns of an expansion, and while the expansion felt average I personally only have good memories raiding during it.

With BFA I've enjoyed Uldir a lot myself and am really looking forward to BoDA which currently looks fantastic. So no, i'm not too worried about when we hit Nazjtar.

[Weeps]

I'm almost hoping that its a build to Aszhara expansion. We're fighting this silly war and She pops up towards the end of this one leading into the next expansion.

But meh.

It would be fun, but unlikely. They are developing Nazjatar zone just for her raid. Very similar to the Krokuun, Antoran Wastes, and Mac'aree (argus zone).

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Personally i'm not worried, because the raids are generally always on point and well received.
Cataclysm was also received heavy negativity but produced Firelands which was an incredible raid. deathwing was a let down but the instance itself was pretty average.

Likewise with WoD, Warlords was a resounding 'bleh' across the board for the expansion but the 1 statement that came out of it was "However the raids were really good". BRF was arguably one of the best raids to date which sat in one of the biggest letdowns of an expansion, and while the expansion felt average I personally only have good memories raiding during it.

With BFA I've enjoyed Uldir a lot myself and am really looking forward to BoDA which currently looks fantastic. So no, i'm not too worried about when we hit Nazjtar.

I think Uldir was more boring than Emerald Nightmare. Nobody wants to kill G'huun because it drops nothing meaningful for many classes. It should've been a boss with +5 higher ilvl and weapons for every class like Archimonde.

[Yunaqt]

I'm almost hoping that its a build to Aszhara expansion. We're fighting this silly war and She pops up towards the end of this one leading into the next expansion.

But meh.

Judging from the Q&A where they mentioned Magni and your neck are going to have a much key role than now, I suspect this patch will be the last for the war before something much bigger takes the spotlight and overshadows the squabbling between factions. Which'll be the Azshara stuff of course.

[SirCowdog]

Basically this. I've always thought that a character such as Aszhara is important enough as to deserve her own expansion. Right now,.there is very little buildup for her (at least in-game) and the whole idea of Naz'jatar looks fitter for a final patch rather than a filler (in a chronological sense) one. Let's hope Blizz doesn't waste Aszhara like they have done with other villains - Deathwing comes to mind.

Deathwing was at least present at the beginning of the expansion, and lots of the lore and quest content made his presence felt.

As I said before, Azshara has had a single cutscene. How are we supposed to be invested in such a foe when there's nothing to give it context?

[Yunaqt]

I think Uldir was more boring than Emerald Nightmare. Nobody wants to kill G'huun because it drops nothing meaningful for many classes. It should've been a boss with +5 higher ilvl and weapons for every class like Archimonde.

Different preferences I guess, the fact that EN was over before it barely started left me incredibly bored farming borderline heroic bosses. I enjoyed Uldir though, it actually had a decent difficulty compared to some of the usual first expansion raids. As for the +5 loot I disagree, first tier raids never have this, it didn't occur in any of the last couple of expansions so didn't expect to see it here.

I guess that's a big difference, I gear to raid rather than raid for gear. I do the fights just because I enjoy raiding, I occasionally end up running on heroic even when loot locked just for the fun of it and play around with other specs. I know G'huun is a bit of a b----h to farm due to the amount of co-ordination/pre planning for the encounter but I like the encounter, it's astronomically better than what Xavius was.

[MrExcelion]

The problem with bringing in Azshara now is that there's no real lead up to it

Yeah I'm not really sure how a 2 boss raid is going to be a good lead-in really. They might have made CoS specifically to be a sort of lead-in

[Yunaqt]

Yeah I'm not really sure how a 2 boss raid is going to be a good lead-in really. They might have made CoS specifically to be a sort of lead-in

I guess it'll be that, plus a huge focus with the patch with the 6-8 weeks or so before the raid goes live in 8.3.

[Archmage Alodi]

I wish they would just scrap everything they got bfa and keep the raids for next expansion.

[Deleted]

Azshara is arguably one of the most anticipated villains of all time, and her release is currently scheduled in for patch 8.2. Many players including myself have eagerly been awaiting to finally go face to face with this villain.

I am concerned however that Azshara's release in 8.2 will be catastrophic for the game, and her legacy will be absolutely tainted thanks to BFA and the stigma associated with the expansion. The expansion has had a frosty reception at best, and it feels like a shame that such a powerful villain is wasted on such an underwhelming expansion.

On top of that, they have decided to devote a material amount of resources to a nonsense side story (Mechagon) which will only detract from Azshara's development and content. This combined with the questionable design decisions around AP farming, WQ grind, Azerite, etc. does not bode well for Nazjatar's prospects, and I am concerned that Nazjatar will be another soulless zone with mindless grinds like we have seen for the last few patches.

I cannot see this ending well for 8.2 and most importantly Azshara's story and content. Does anyone else feel like that Blizzard should perhaps push Azshara back, add a filler raid, cut this expansion off and start fresh with Azshara in 9.0? There are already too many bad eggs in the WoW basket, and releasing Azshara now is only going to add fuel to the fire.

Mechagon resources are the resources they usually used to develop a purely endgame zone, like Vale of Eternal Blossom, or Suramar.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Azshara as a box villain was always a pipe dream. Ignoring the inevitable gender comments, it seemed inevitable she was going to have to share the spotlight with N'Zoth, given how long their stories have been intertwined (since Cata, where she was meant to be a secondary villain to Deathwing who had N'Zoth as his greater scope villain).

I'm just surprised it seems Sylvanas is stealing her expansion instead of N'Zoth.

[Lochton]

BFA was DoA.

This attitude is what taints most further developments that might be added to WoW during Battle For Azeroth.

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Azshara as a box villain was always a pipe dream. Ignoring the inevitable gender comments, it seemed inevitable she was going to have to share the spotlight with N'Zoth, given how long their stories have been intertwined (since Cata, where she was meant to be a secondary villain to Deathwing who had N'Zoth as his greater scope villain).

I'm just surprised it seems Sylvanas is stealing her expansion instead of N'Zoth.

In the end, Azshara has always been a lieutenant, nothing more - not an end boss, sadly.

[Sanguinerd]

Azshara rising up should be like another Cataclysm where having a huge navy could actually be useful for something else than this STUPID "faction war" we're forced into. Right now I'm more like "Oh right theres some naga around, forgot"