8.2 Nazjatar PTR!

[Kereberus]

An elf city... with elfs? and Elf Architecture?

What the FUCK. This is insanity, WoW is dead.

[derpkitteh]

Only if we are limited to in-game customisation options. But this way we can argue that there is no fat Stormwindians, Lordaeronians have weird jaw movements when talking(as we have seen them in W3, which had really bad facial animations, and in WoW we see them as undead) and all male Thalassian elves look like Pewdiepie. Also, Anduin changes his facial features from time to time.
However, if you consider other Blizzard's depictions, such as TCG arts, loading screens, comics, etc., you can see that they might look very similar. For example, in Warbringers short the colours are the most visible differences between Sylvanas and Delaryn, not the facial features.
Blizzard never officially stated about specific elf facial features.
It is logical that high elves are similar to their close ancestors, as usually facial features are inherited from parents. Also, Dath'remar in the comic only changed color, not shape. We can safely assume that highborne looked like purple blood elves.

Highborne were night elves, but they did have physical characteristics that did set them apart, such as having bluer skin and more delicate features.

no, you guys need to read the chronicle that covers the founding of quel'thalas.

the exiled highborn were tall, purple, had white and maybe blonde(some nightborne have blonde hair, so logical possible) hair. after living in the eastern kingdoms, they changed. they grew shorter, their skin turned pale, and their hair started to be shades of blonde and red.

- - - Updated - - -

@derpkitteh

The blood elves and nightborne do know about Elune, but it's not any major part of their culture the way it is the night elves is what I'm getting at.

I agree that Tyrande shouldn't be teaming up with the Horde, but then neither should anyone present there except Jaina. Still doesn't mean she shouldn't be involved with facing off her main nemesis.

eh, i don't mind the team up. azshara's beyond us, all of us(one reason i'm glad jaina's here, i want to see her think she's the stronger mage and then get smacked like a bitch by azshara). it's a shame she's actually going down in a single patch, just like kil'jaeden.

but yes, tyrande should be there. one could argue that her vengeance would extend to azshara for being the original bane of their people.

[matrix123mko]

no, you guys need to read the chronicle that covers the founding of quel'thalas.

the exiled highborn were tall, purple, had white and maybe blonde(some nightborne have blonde hair, so logical possible) hair. after living in the eastern kingdoms, they changed. they grew shorter, their skin turned pale, and their hair started to be shades of blonde and red.

All mentioned differences: size and colour are features be acknowledged by looking at humongous, grey statue. Also, they didn't say anything about changing facial structure.

eh, i don't mind the team up. azshara's beyond us, all of us(one reason i'm glad jaina's here, i want to see her think she's the stronger mage and then get smacked like a bitch by azshara). it's a shame she's actually going down in a single patch, just like kil'jaeden.

[Okacz]

To be honest, I kind of like it. Azsuna was my favourite Legion leveling zone, and adding more water-ish feeling to it (with huge walls of ocean surrounding the zone, looks awesome). The only thing that seems sort of annoying is the palette they chose. Is one of the graphic designers in Blizzard allergic to all the colors except of dark blue and gray? He already had his Crucible of Storms, hoped we won't see him again in a while.

On topic of the zone being Azsuna copy, well, Blizzard basically said that new postleveling zones will pretty much ALWAYS be made with reused assets. Timeless Isle was the start, Tanaan/Broken Shore were the same. Argus had a ton of new art, but what can you do, Legion was the better expansion.

[derpkitteh]

All mentioned differences: size and colour are features be acknowledged by looking at humongous, grey statue. Also, they didn't say anything about changing facial structure.

my dude, the models in game give us general appearance ideas of how each race looks. it's obviously a high/blood elf in the statue.

https://i.imgur.com/c2l4mtQ.jpg

it's literally just a newer version of this statue. the ears are bent on the new one because it's using the new model from WoD, which has the ears bend back like that in combat.

[Shampro]

Watching playthroughs of it, the Narrative so far is a freaking *BORE*, man. Not only that, the asthetic isn't much to be raved about either. Christ all mighty this expansion.

[Rhlor]

i expected to not have naz'jatar btw, but at least not just elves

on the side of the alliance you have human

[Zandalariprelate]

on the side of the alliance you have human

The scourge of the alliance

[styil]

Lor'themar needs to look 10 years younger. He looks too similar to Alliance humans with that rugged look.

[Chickat]

Palace is great.
Both Nazjatar and Mechagon look too dull visually though.

Quite a bit of work in both zones even of a lot is reused art. Must mean 8.3 is going yo be new art, or 9.0 is taking a lot of art time. World revamp? They also are cutting corners on armor this expansion. I think the zones still look quite good even if it's a lot of reused art. I'm convinced the art team is secretly working on something big though. There's no way the armor looks as bad with only 4 sets per raid plus the copy paste zones without their attention being somewhere else. I think the artists maybe are working harder on 9.0 than usual to get us out of BFA faster.

- - - Updated - - -

Watching playthroughs of it, the Narrative so far is a freaking *BORE*, man. Not only that, the asthetic isn't much to be raved about either. Christ all mighty this expansion.

Is it not a lot better than 7.2 though?

[Boricha]

It looks strikingly similar to Azsuna, with a more grey and dreary atmosphere. I was hoping for more of a city, something they would have rebuilt from the ruins of the city we see in Azshara's Warbringer cinematic. I suppose it better resembles its Chronicles Vol 1 artwork, but the sense of old grandeur isn't felt. That may just be because I feel like I've already been there a thousand times over due to the reused assets and familiar layout.

[ravenmoon]

If they are grey, there is no difference. Especially when you consider the fact that people from statues are ancestors of Thalassians, not Darnassians.

I'm not sure what people are on about there tbh, they all seem night elven to me, ..i.e. what the Darnassians look like, this is what all elves were at that time. The descendants of the sunstriders became thalassians, but technically ony the nightborne, satyr and naga are individuals that were born kaldorei but are no longer.

However saying that, we don't know whot he statues are of. Technicall yspeaking the thalassican ancestors are Sunstrider highborne, and it is unlikely that those are statues of Sunstriders, they'd likely be statues of powerful priestesses like that Haydene lady, Queen Azshara in her night elven from. In Tel'anor we had statues of some of the noble kaldorei defenders of the city

Eternal Palace is a palace, not a capital. The entire race of naga, which seems extremely populous, should have an actual city not just a very large building and a few barracks around it.

- - - Updated - - -



Like all ancient elves, they should look like the Night Elves. The Nightborne look different because of the Nightwell. It was the Quel'dorei who changed shape, not the Kaldorei and that is shown in lore again and again.

Agreed on both counts.

We wouldn't want those NElf fans/players thinking they're not second class citizens, would we?

Lol.. yeah, it's like all of a sudden, they want all the night elven lore and history to not be night elven. At this rate, the darnassians are feeling like the sub-race that emerged after the sundering, rather than the main night elf race that is still around.

Did you see how little the daranssians are involved with any of their major night elven lore - whether the Legion, Suramar, Cathedral of Eternal NIght/ToS, now Zin'Azshari -- it's like ignoring them for so long, they forgot that Legion and Azshara are the 2 big things of the night elves. They even were fixing demon hunters and highborne to be more to be with thalassians than night elves.. I mean originally, their highborne past was the secret past of the high elves. Their identity was high elves, highborne was only in relation to when their ancestors were night elves.. now I can swear most players think high elf and highborne are interchangeable and demon hunters have more to do with blood elves than night elves. Just as most thought Suramar had more to do with blood elves than night elves despite endless topics pointing out this is the city the Darnassians mainly come from, and is the stage the heroes of the War of the Ancients start from.

But then people's views of high elves and night elves is so dominated by faction, they are far more acutely aware of their differences, rather than their similarities. The truth is they have a lot of simialrities. Until TBC, they shared the same model, and same rural architecture. In WC3, and WoW classic, high elves and night elves just had different skin colours and ear angles, with the high/blood elf in classic just slightly shorter. The high elf rural lodges and night elf forest lodges were identical too (Quel'lithien lodge, thalassian lodges in Loch Modan, Hinterlands, EPL). Only city architecture was different


EVen in the blood elf starting area, there is much that reminds you about the night elves. One is night based moon and stars with it's own advanced city look (which you see in suramar) and its forestry (which you see in Ashenvale/val'sharah), the other day based, sun focused, with its golds and reds (blue if high elf). With a common root there will be overlap, night elf highborne are most similar to high elves as they should be culturally, but we must never forget they are night elves, not high elves. high elves is how a group of highborne evolved tob ecome more human like. highborne night elf is what the original is. The other branches of the night elves are the druid treehugger, the Amazonian female warrior society and the Edgelord demon hunters. All 4 form the 4 key aspects of the night elves.


For the Thalassians it ofc is the Magister, the Farstriders and the Priests (high elf)/Blood knights (blood elves). Their focus and distribution is different. They are not like night elf society in the pre-sundering era, though they have similarities and influences - the night elves are more magically fixated, while the high elves were more prudent and more rounded. Night elves had the priest hood play a huge intrinsic role in what appears a very rigid structuring. The high elves seemed a bit more utopian republic, less imperialistic. whiles the farstriders is it is own network and orgnaisation, amongst the nighte lves archers are found a core part of the priesthood, and army where they wield magic like that, as opposed to being some separate independent orgnaisation.

- - - Updated - - -

Now Look at the Alliance camp, night elves are scarce/ the minority






I wish they would just take the night elves out of the alliance.. and leave a small faction of players there.

[Biotec]

on the side of the alliance you have human

The most insulting slap in the face to the Alliance really.

Tyrande gets a cool powerup, immediately fails to use it, then gets regulated to her little patch of blight covered forests for however many years. Meanwhile Genn and Jaina for some reason are leading their armies against an enemy they know next to nothing about besides naga=bad.

There could have been so much potential between Horde, Alliance and Azshara. I know that's a lot of elves, but fuck do we really need humans to take the spotlight here too?

[matrix123mko]

Lol.. yeah, it's like all of a sudden, they want all the night elven lore and history to not be night elven. At this rate, the darnassians are feeling like the sub-race that emerged after the sundering, rather than the main night elf race that is still around.

And you want to make blood elven history and lore to be exclusive to night elves. At this rate, all other elves will feel like a subrace that emerged just before forming of Empire of Arathor.

Did you see how little the daranssians are involved with any of their major night elven lore - whether the Legion, Suramar, Cathedral of Eternal NIght/ToS, now Zin'Azshari -- it's like ignoring them for so long, they forgot that Legion and Azshara are the 2 big things of the night elves. They even were fixing demon hunters and highborne to be more to be with thalassians than night elves.. I mean originally, their highborne past was the secret past of the high elves.

No. It wasn't secret. Blood elves had monuments for Dath'remar since BC.

Their identity was high elves, highborne was only in relation to when their ancestors were night elves.. now I can swear most players think high elf and highborne are interchangeable and demon hunters have more to do with blood elves than night elves. Just as most thought Suramar had more to do with blood elves than night elves despite endless topics pointing out this is the city the Darnassians mainly come from, and is the stage the heroes of the War of the Ancients start from.

It is interchangeable in Thalassian: quel'dorei=highborne and quel'dorei=high elf. Conclusion? Highborne=high elf. Demon hunters have more to do with blood elves because Darnassians despise fel users and we all know how they treated Illidan. Demon hunters are part of their society since Legion. Blood elves, at the other hand embraced fel and paid respect to Illidan until great misunderstading that was BC story. And yes, Suramar has more to do with blood elves as nightborne are highborne who didn't do with said heroes and after defeating Legion in temple of Elune sealed themselves in Suramar. They have more in common with blood elves due to their cultural(architecture, arcane magic, lack of state religion) and historical similarities(mana addiction, leader forced to side with Legion). Moreover, Darnassians greatly changed since War of the Ancients.

EVen in the blood elf starting area, there is much that reminds you about the night elves. One is night based moon and stars with it's own advanced city look (which you see in suramar) and its forestry (which you see in Ashenvale/val'sharah), the other day based, sun focused, with its golds and reds (blue if high elf). With a common root there will be overlap, night elf highborne are most similar to high elves as they should be culturally, but we must never forget they are night elves, not high elves. high elves is how a group of highborne evolved tob ecome more human like. highborne night elf is what the original is.

The only big difference is skin color. In other things blood elves are more similar to highborne than Darnassians do.

The other branches of the night elves are the druid treehugger, the Amazonian female warrior society and the Edgelord demon hunters. All 4 form the 4 key aspects of the night elves.

Amazonians and treehuggers dominate. Highborne and demon hunters are mistrusted minority.

For the Thalassians it ofc is the Magister, the Farstriders and the Priests (high elf)/Blood knights (blood elves). Their focus and distribution is different. They are not like night elf society in the pre-sundering era, though they have similarities and influences - the night elves are more magically fixated, while the high elves were more prudent and more rounded.

Magisters and Farstriders(although less numerous than magisters) dominate. Priests are of lesser importance. As for magical fixation, nightborne, who are the most similar to original highborne, have hunters too. However, I agree that farstriders aren't as magical as rest of the Thalassians. As for priests, they seem to romance with the arcane somehow as they sometimes are called mage-priests and they were trained in arcane sanctums.

Night elves had the priest hood play a huge intrinsic role in what appears a very rigid structuring. The high elves seemed a bit more utopian republic, less imperialistic. whiles the farstriders is it is own network and orgnaisation, amongst the nighte lves archers are found a core part of the priesthood, and army where they wield magic like that, as opposed to being some separate independent orgnaisation.

Prior to War of the Ancients, priestesses didn't rule the Kaldorei Empire. Highborne mages did.

Now Look at the Alliance camp, night elves are scarce/ the minority

As I said multiple times, personal relationships can wait when there is a war in Kalimdor. If Tyrande moved her forces to Nazjatar, it would be submission to the rule of cool and people would cry about bad writing and plot holes. That said, Tyrande is so weird character that she might decide to do so.

[eurojust]

Why would any Night Elf even be there? Every Night Elf should fight for their survival in Darkshore.

[Rhlor]

The most insulting slap in the face to the Alliance really.

Tyrande gets a cool powerup, immediately fails to use it, then gets regulated to her little patch of blight covered forests for however many years. Meanwhile Genn and Jaina for some reason are leading their armies against an enemy they know next to nothing about besides naga=bad.

There could have been so much potential between Horde, Alliance and Azshara. I know that's a lot of elves, but fuck do we really need humans to take the spotlight here too?

From my point of view Nazjatar, Zinazshari and Azshara is a matter that elves have to solve !!

- - - Updated - - -

Nazjatar Alliance Questline 8.2 - Queen Azshara - Ankoan

[Ujimasa Hojo]

So they skirted around the underwater mechanics in Cataclysm?

[Magnagarde]

As expected, it looks like Azshuna's brother that's going through rehab and I heavily disliked that zone.

[Rhlor]

Nazjatar Alliance Finale Part 8.2 - Azshara's Eternal Palace Quest - Assault on Tidestone

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

BFA’s story was obviously created in a google doc overnight on New Years Eve.