Warlords of Draenor

[Padarin]

Hello. This morning, my cousin sent me a text that is supposed to be translated from Russian WoW forums and supposedly consists of some insider info about the initial plan and storyline for Warlords of Draenor expansion. I have no idea how much of this info is already known by the public because i never really cared about how WoD was supposed to be, except for watching a few videos about scrapped content. I decided to put it together and share with you. Please, do not take this as something like 100% true leak that my daddy working at Blizzard told me. I have no idea if it is true, but i would like to know what do you think about it and if you think that following this scenario, WoD would be a much better expansion. About new account, im following MMOC for a couple of years now but never really intended to join any conversations, i was just looking for some ingame info and stuff for which i did not need an account.


Patch 6.0

Instead of connecting the Dark Portal with Draenor, intial plan was to enter alternate past with the help of the Bronze Dragonflight, using the Time Spire (Chronal Spire most likely). The Spire was placed between the Tanaan Jungle and Talador, roughly where Zangarra was in WoD. Our entry to Draenor would be a scenario, similar to what we got, but instead of arriving through the Dark Portal and destroying it, we would move through the jungle from the Chronal Spire and actually prevent the Iron Horde from constructing it. The Iron Horde will be informed of our plan and send a huge wave of reinforcements, but we would be able to destroy the site of the Dark Portal and manage to escape by capturing their ships. Horde goes to Frostfire Ridge where they capture the Ogre stronghold of Bladespire Citadel which would later serve as the Horde capital. Alliance goes to the Shadowmoon Valley and helps the Draenei defend Karabor from the Iron Horde.

Zangarra, where the tower of Khadgar stands is on the small island in the middle of Zangar sea. This was an actual zone with some underwater content, there were rares on the shores and there was a world boss.

Ashran was not planned at all until the later stages of development. There are unfinished battlegrounds and arenas.

2 more dungeons were planned:

Slavisar - Shattered Hand stronghold in the Spires of Arak and Oshu'gun

Patch 6.1 - Might of Goria

Patch would be released after Highmaul raid but before Blackrock Foundry. The Ogres from the southern continent will invade Draenor following the fall of Imperator in Highmaul. Those ogres, unlike Highmaul ones would be enemies of the Iron Horde and their intention is to retake the lands that they lost because of the Iron Horde.

In garrison campaign, Gul'dan will offer the Iron Horde fel magic but Grommash will refuse and banish Gul'dan. Gul'dan will in turn, try to negotiate with us because he will percieve us as a potential tool to destroy the leadership of Iron Horde which would cause their power structure to disintegrate. It will be revealed that his plan is to destroy the Iron Horde with our help and when we leave Draenor, he would unite the Horde under his leadership and summon the Burning Legion. Both factions will refuse and Gul'dan will disappear.

New zone - Dol Dawgar - relatively huge ogre island between the two continents, serving as a stepping stone for the Ogre invasion of Draenor.

This patch would contain a prototype of world quests later used in Legion. Zones across Draenor would be periodically under the Ogre invasion and we will have to defeat them for some reward (Apexis most likely haha).

Dungeon of unknown name on the new island where we will destroy the Ogre fleet and their naval bases to prevent the further invasion of Draenor.

Blackrock Foundry launches during this patch with Orgrim Doomhammer as penultimate boss

Garrison Shipyard was planned for this patch as a tool to combat Ogre fleets and raid their continent

Patch 6.2 - Path of Iron

Having secured most of Draenor, Alliance and Horde, with their allies, will turn attention to the Tanaan Jungle. Garrison campaign begins with the Battle for the Path of Glory, after which we will break into the Tanaan Jungle. The zone was planned as a lush jungle, instead of demon corrupted as we saw in 6.2. Actually, the assets used in Assault on the Dark Portal scenario were to be used in the entire zone.

New raid - Iron Citadel - huge fortress built after the defeat of Iron Horde forces outside of the Tanaan Jungle. Contains last 3 warlords (Kargath, Kilrogg and Grommash)

Mythic dungeons

Legendary questline for 2H axe - Gorehowl

Following the defeat of the Iron Horde, rest of Orcish clans would unite into a new Horde led by the Frostwolves and Durotan acting as Warchief. Azeroth expedition is planning to leave Draenor but they are betrayed by the Bronze Dragonflight who are pawns of Infinite Dragonflight, they destroyed the Chronal Spire and stole the "engine" that fueled it. Champions of Azeroth are trapped on alternate Draenor without any way out.

Patch 6.3 - Heart of Darkness

Not much info really, this patch was scrapped during the early development of 6.1 when they decided to change the course of entire expansion. Yrel informs Khadgar of a destroyed city of Farahlon, which was built around the Draenei portal capable of time/dimensional travel. Portal is destroyed and lacks any power to fuel it.

New zone - Farahlon - Very strange and uniquely looking zone. Plains with the ruins of Draenei city invaded by the Primal Overgrowth, partially fading into the Twisting Nether. Infinite Dragonflight influence.

New raid - Shattrath - Held by the forces of darkness, we will invade the city to take an ancient artifact capable of fueling the portal in Farahlon and taking Azerothians home. Void corrupted Naaru/Void Lord forces.

Legendary ring

At the end of garrison campaign, we would probably repair the portal and return home, only to find that Azeroth is being invaded by the Burning Legion. The Legion expansion was planned regardless of what was happening on Draenor and this storyline was planned to result in the Legion of invasion of Azeroth, just like the one they came up with when they scrapped original one.

[Izalla]

A lot of it fits with what we know was supposed to exist, but got scrapped. If anything it's a nice "what if that stuff had actually been untilized" scenario.

[RobertMugabe]

That one's definitely bullshit. It's basically the same as any fake leak on these forums: Most of the stuff that's actually legit gets explained in detail (and yet none of it is news, because we all know that already) and the "new" stuff is super vague or some dull BS.

So yeah, your leak fits perfectly into this. I'd say 6/10 still for the wall of text though.

[zlygork]

I love that the last patch would theoretically have been about getting us unstuck from Draenor. *avoids eye contact with Khadgar and his reinforcement portals*

[Troggdor]

I would've been 1000% down for this over what we got. BS or not, I'm in.

[Gaidax]

So we get "reverse" leaks now too? That's cute.

[McNeil]

This makes me wonder what the hell was going on during WoD's development. We had to go trough 14 months of SoO and somehow this expansion still came out rushed. If only they sticked to their original concept, it could've been one of the best expansions. I don't fully believe that all of this supposed insider info is real, but most of it is what we already knew and it would've made a solid expansion.

[RobertMugabe]

This makes me wonder what the hell was going on during WoD's development. We had to go trough 14 months of SoO and somehow this expansion still came out rushed. If only they sticked to their original concept, it could've been one of the best expansions. I don't fully believe that all of this supposed insider info is real, but most of it is what we already knew and it would've made a solid expansion.

It's probably a combination of poor planning and missmanagement. Also I bet the garrison was way more complicated to implement than they thought.

[Graden]

I would've been 1000% down for this over what we got. BS or not, I'm in.

Yeah I feel the same.

[Sethus]

This makes me wonder what the hell was going on during WoD's development. We had to go trough 14 months of SoO and somehow this expansion still came out rushed.

This is very much related to the quality and type of Blizzard employees working on the project. They went from having hardcore gamers working on revolutionary games in mid 90's to SJW cesspool in the last 10 years. The older employees were fired or forced to quit because they weren't diverse and liberal enough so they hired a bunch of woke kids on minimal wages with extremely low competencies but very high moral standards.

[Palapop]

This makes me wonder what the hell was going on during WoD's development. We had to go trough 14 months of SoO and somehow this expansion still came out rushed. If only they sticked to their original concept, it could've been one of the best expansions. I don't fully believe that all of this supposed insider info is real, but most of it is what we already knew and it would've made a solid expansion.

Activision.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

We already know wod was suppose to be garrosh uniting a mongrel horde on Azeroth before they changed it so this is pretty clear bull.

- - - Updated - - -

This is very much related to the quality and type of Blizzard employees working on the project. They went from having hardcore gamers working on revolutionary games in mid 90's to SJW cesspool in the last 10 years. The older employees were fired or forced to quit because they weren't diverse and liberal enough so they hired a bunch of woke kids on minimal wages with extremely low competencies but very high moral standards.

This is a rather poor conspiracy theory.

- - - Updated - - -

This makes me wonder what the hell was going on during WoD's development. We had to go trough 14 months of SoO and somehow this expansion still came out rushed. If only they sticked to their original concept, it could've been one of the best expansions. I don't fully believe that all of this supposed insider info is real, but most of it is what we already knew and it would've made a solid expansion.

Activision.

The problem with wod was that they about doubled there team size at the end of mop and had to take time to train the new people. So mop would have been done then the team was then expanded and trained during wod which lead to legion being the biggest expan ever.

[Polarthief]

I love that the last patch would theoretically have been about getting us unstuck from Draenor. *avoids eye contact with Khadgar and his reinforcement portals*

Ignore Khadgar, Mages, Druids, Monks, and DKs have the ability to teleport, Shamans can Astral Recall, Warlocks can also summon help (not just lore mages), and everyone has a hearthstone anyways.

Idk, it's hard to do a "you're stuck" kind of expansion when you can just leave whenever you want.

[Padarin]

Ignore Khadgar, Mages, Druids, Monks, and DKs have the ability to teleport, Shamans can Astral Recall, Warlocks can also summon help (not just lore mages), and everyone has a hearthstone anyways.

Idk, it's hard to do a "you're stuck" kind of expansion when you can just leave whenever you want.

Arent their portals working just because of gameplay reasons? As far as i know, warlocks, monks or DKs are not capable of time travel through dimensions. I think it may actually work from lore perspective that we would end up stuck on Draenor without any way out, if that information is correct, which is questionable.

[Trend]

This is very much related to the quality and type of Blizzard employees working on the project. They went from having hardcore gamers working on revolutionary games in mid 90's to SJW cesspool in the last 10 years. The older employees were fired or forced to quit because they weren't diverse and liberal enough so they hired a bunch of woke kids on minimal wages with extremely low competencies but very high moral standards.

Just FYI, WoW wasn't revolutionary. It was a dumbed down accessible MMO. It was ridiculed for not being hardcore by purists. The rest of your theory is similar nonsense.

The people who think anyone in the world would be able keep WoW at glorious heights expansion after expansion have never been involved in any kind of real creative process.

[Amerissis]

Did you know Wrath of the Lich King was supposed to be Wrath of the Lychee King?

[Sethus]

Just FYI, WoW wasn't revolutionary. It was a dumbed down accessible MMO. It was ridiculed for not being hardcore by purists. The rest of your theory is similar nonsense.

The people who think anyone in the world would be able keep WoW at glorious heights expansion after expansion have never been involved in any kind of real creative process.

It was revolutionary and it blew away everything in its way and became a part of pop culture. Not sure why you're trying to throw in the "it wasn't hardcore" argument as it's completely irrelevant. What theory? It's the factual state of tech and gaming industry where product quality is plummeting while political agendas and censorship became the priority.

[matrix123mko]

Pity it was scrapped. This is what happens if player outrage is too big.

[Khaza-R]

Ogre continent and Faralohn were scrapped so early in development that I seriously doubt they developed the concepts as much as in the OP.

The cut Shattrath raid is where everyone believes you would have learned Yrel is Archimonde or KJ's daughter. Shame they never explored that arc

[RobertMugabe]

Ogre continent and Faralohn were scrapped so early in development that I seriously doubt they developed the concepts as much as in the OP.

The cut Shattrath raid is where everyone believes you would have learned Yrel is Archimonde or KJ's daughter. Shame they never explored that arc

It's actually other way around though.

The ogre contient and Farahlon were actually things that they were talking about during Blizzcon (Farahlon as a confirmed piece of content and for the ogre contient they've kinda hinted at a new expansion even), while the Shattrath raid was only an idea very early on and they've never mentioned this. We only know about it, because they've showed us this concept map where they explicitly said that this was a very early concept and that it's not gonna be like that (or something along those lines).

https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/wowpe...rly_layout.jpg