If you could retcon WoW

[LordVargK]

I would retcon BElves joining the Horde. It was the beginning of "red alliance".

[cparle87]

Well let's see... i'll just list a few candidates...

- Sylvanas serving an evil super lich king out of aparant free will (seriously)
- Time travel in the way it was explained, personally i would say that it'd be more like how Ny'alotha was done; an abberrant version of reality that tries to replace the real one, no need for multiple timelines
- The old gods "having a boss", though honestly the whole cosmic forces thing seems a little confused since such forces are almost by definition nonsentient, they only are / do their thing
- At least three main factions, with far more focus on the races/subfactions and no monolithic faction-slaves; i'm all for it as a gameplay mechanic, but storywise it frequently sucks balls,and honestly a broader mercenary mode to acknowledge that races are not necessarily beholden to any single faction. Also a tri-faction balance of power is far easier to write believably.
- The Alliance not exacting "guarantees" on the Horde after Garrosh's antics (would have made a continuation of war more easily believable too, rather than making the alliance lawful stupid)
- In cataclysm my biggest pet peeve was that total arbitrariness with which destruction occured, hell that destruction should have been way more comprehensive! If a volcano erupts in Ashrnvale Felwood should not be unaffected, to name but one thing. It was so random and not in a good way.
- Most of cataclysm really

2. We've had multiple timelines and Chromie shenanigans since vanilla, though. Remember Darrowshire?
5. Not sure what you mean about the destruction. The volcano in Ashenvale didn't affect Felwood to my knowledge, when it probably should have due to landslides, earthquakes, and maybe even smoke clouds and pyroclastic flows wrecking the southern part of it.

[qwerty123456]

Although there is a bunch of stuff I hate I think I would keep most of it. The faction conflict has to go though. The Horde didn't start wow as villains and neither the Horde or Alliance should end up being them every other expansion when they are working together.

So my idea would be to remove the faction conflict in WoD. Legion would have the creation of a true villain faction where Voljin doesn't die and a forsaken informs him of the shady shit Sylvanas is up to including stealing Garroshes corpse and reviving him. She flees with a ton of people convincing them that the Horde and Alliance are the real threats to Azeroth and vows to destroy them. With us too busy dealing with the Burning Legion, Sylvanas gets some time to build up an army.

Everyone gets one free faction change if they want to join her faction. The faction is considered a hero faction and characters start at a higher level with personal stories based on their race explaining why they chose to join her. Races in her faction are Defias humans, Undead elves, dark iron dwarves, leper gnomes, feral worgen, Orcs, undead, Grimtotem, a couple troll tribes, goblins, and undead nerubians. Living Nerubians join both the Horde and Alliance and are how we find out out about her taking over underground tunnels all over Azeroth.

The evil faction still helps out with the Burning Legion but it's all about gaining power, supplies and shit.

We don't go to Argus cause we actually need to build up an army and it becomes its own expansion later on after we free a few planets and people's.

Next expansion is a filler where we go to the other side of Azeroth trying to stop Sylvanas(or helping her). Then we get BFA but with Horde and Ally against the 3rd faction. They lose and flee to another planet to recruit more people while Horde and ally do the same. All three factions are saving people from the Burning Legion while any species that doesn't want to join Sylvanas gets turned undead.

[Obvious10]

My biggest issue with WoW is still the burning of Teldrassil, the NE's home tree.

It should never ever been done by a Warchief.
To me as a vanilla player of a Troll family, Blizz. did make an enormous, catastrophic, stupidious mistake with this.

So..
When Sylvanas decided she had to attack Teldrassil to kill Malfurion, because of the azerite threat.
https://www.wowhead.com/the-lore-of-battle-for-azeroth

She should have been stopped by someone, or something, I don't care.

Lets see if we can find a plausable, reasonable story to cover this.

Option 1: short road to normal storylines
1) Magni The Speaker hears the voice of Azeroth, when Sylvanas tries to kill the wisp wall, and he helps to protect the wall, but needs more help and speaks to ALL classes and races we play, and asks us to help.
1.1) Or perhaps, first and only to all the druids and shamans of Azeroth, because of their connection with nature and spirit they have a special responsibility to Azeroth? They should lead us? Then the Druid order Cenarion Circle and the Shamans of The Earthen Ring will unite and safe Teldrassil against the attack? Druids healing and Shamans squezing fire with water elementals? Nah, all and everyone would be better.
1.1.a) Sylvanas could angry disapear and all classes from both factions will unite and speak of shame (Alliance) and dishonor (Horde), we will seek and haunt her untill we meet Sylvanas again in Battle for Lordaeron....? Easiest link to normal storylines.
1.1.b) Or, she will not fail....she calls for her yet unknown 'master', who will not show himself but will merge/unite and activate the last dark energies beneath Teldrassil, which is the origin of the corruption of the tree. So, perhaps we could see a rise of (a part of) Xavius, or an Old God?? I don't care, just want a big bad guy and connect stories. If this big guy should destroy Teldrassil it would be fine to me, but not a Horde Warchief, Never!

1.2) when Magni calls everyone to help, to the Horde players he'll refer to your cooperation with the Alliance in your class halls in Legion, you did study and fight side by side, etc....


Option 2: Sylvanas and her Sha, with DT's, Ogres, Murlocs and even perhaps Nagas
2) Another story could be...a Pandarean will come between Sylvanas and Teldrassil, so much hate, he/she could extract the Sha from Sylvanas, or a group of P. will do???? Why? Because of balance. You still did not learn our lessons..... No rinse and repeat but partly deepening, building furter.
2.1) Her Sha escapes? and destroys all Darkshore and Teldrassil?? And moves towards Orgrimmar??? We could escape cause we all were safely teleported by mages? Sylvanas could turn into her Banshee form and still controls her Sha???
2.1.a) We escape by the Mages with us, or Khadgar alone, of perhaps a group of good Naga Mages? Perhaps even Murloc mages??? Or a even an Ogres mage? New stories, new possibilities!!!! ..... Ogre mage this story could lead us to a last group of Dark Trolls hidden inside the earth.....??? Cause the DT's did adopt a group of good Ogres way long ago. When the DT's were almost beaten by the NE's in long forgotten time, they escaped into the many tunnels inside the earth, were they lived in excile. When the Ogres arrived through the portal, many of them were slaughtered by the more intelligence races, some of them did find shelter in caves and tunnels, were the DT's did observe them, and finally decided to adopt them, because they recognized their own story and situation in the beginning with the NE's. The DT's did do some observations of the people on the surface but did not found them interesting, the DT's developed different, their tunnels and towns send light, and they travel using a large network of portals, they are also befriended with a group of murlocs........

2.1.a) Sylvanas hate, her Sha affects many in Orgrimmar...especialy... Gallywix the greedy Goblin Boss. I just don't like him, and it would be a fantastic fight with a lot of Goblin technology, ofcourse he will escape several times by his machines, and we will fight many gold money greed elementals/Sha's, etc. He could be her slave, or special adjudant, or so.

Option 3: Chromie knows it all
3) Chromie freezes all and everything and tells us, it should not happen, the tree should not be burned, because of future, etc ...? Any story can be made from this point.

Option 4:
.....?

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I really like the quadrangled conflict between Sentinels/Alliance/Horde/Scourge. I don't think it's too late for WoW to go this way.

Thumbs up

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after war3, not form the horde and alliance and go with the frail peace between the many factions.

they could have the occasional smaller/regional conflict, but overall have to keep working together against the external threats that were there anyways.

the biggest effect in wow would either be 3 playable factions or 1 big faction with 5+ subfactions.

this should solve two problems: faction war feeling out of place/forced in current wow, and the faction imbalance.

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2 factions is dumb. basically guaranteed every server became dominated by 1 faction. 3 factions is the way to go to prevent that.

Ok with intra-faction conflict instead of 3, of 4 factions way

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Updated
Dark Trolls, they could inhabit Berserker Trolls in their cities, as Guardians perhaps.....but the BT's could also be from a hostile clan, perhaps riding Worms as their mounts???
And yes, the DT's use bats as their mounts ...ofc.

Updated
If BT's would join the Horde, then I would choose to let Dryade of Furbolg join NE's, and the Alliance. Because they also lost friend, family and land, and want to help with the healing.

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Last time, now for sure

[rayvio]

make Illidan more consistent with his Warcraft 3 and Legion character during his appearances in Frozen Throne and Burning Crusade
have the "always be a Lich King" thing explained with "without a Lich King the Burning Legion will be able to retake control of the Scourge" instead of the ridiculous explanation we got during WotLK
have the Argent Tournament battles not be to the death since it made no sense for the Alliance and Horde to make their own armies weaker while giving more corpses for their enemy to raise for his army
have all the pre-cata zones and dungeons still available in game as well as the new versions
address the discrepancies in Karazhan with the book and Warcraft 1 lore which portrayed Medivh as a recluse who allowed very few visitors to his tower (as opposed to throwing banquets, operas and having a whole wing of prostitutes)
have some morally questionable Alliance members and have the more questionable Horde characters be less obviously evil and more well intentioned extremist

maybe even go with the original plan of the Illidari being a third faction with Blood Elves, Naga and Broken which Frozen Throne had set up perfectly

[Usernameforforums]

Voljin dying at the beginning of legion. Such an undeserving death for a underdeveloped character. Dude was in seat for an expansion that didn’t involve him at all besides “aha im the warchief. Aha we this garrison our home. Aha i be in orgrimmar, you do good out there.”

The dude was the first nonorc warchief and they wrote him out... such wasted potential.

[Clbull]

I'd completely change Garrosh Hellscream's story for one and give him a persistent personality throughout his first appearance in TBC. I'd make him quite subdued, originally dejected and an orc who neither likes nor hates the Alliance. And this is how WoW would go from BC onwards:

• Burning Crusade - Garrosh doesn't challenge Thrall to mak'gora because it wouldn't be in his character to do so. That's the only difference.
• Wrath - Garrosh is learning the ropes from Thrall and is tasked to lead the Warsong Expedition into Northrend with Saurfang's assistance. This time Varian is the warmongering ass who goes full aggro on Hellscream. Things otherwise go as in the original story and Garrosh is hailed as a war hero. Thrall stands down as Warchief to help against the Cataclysm.
• Cataclysm - Things largely remain the same, except Garrosh is influenced by his fellow people to invade Ashenvale. The other Horde leaders don't like him because they felt an outsider got the title. Cairne challenges him to mak'gora over his title and he still gets killed by a poisoned blade as before. Overlord Krom'gar and Garrosh's encounter with Sylvanas still happen.
• Mists - The major change I'd make is with Theramore. Garrosh doesn't nuke it to the ground until after he's corrupted by the Heart of Y'shaarj. This would mean that the Destruction of Theramore happens in 5.4 and is what prompts the Alliance invasion of Orgrimmar. This is the point where the other Horde leaders rebel against Garrosh. Vol'jin is named Warchief after this.
• Warlords - Kairozdormu is a lot more manipulative because he's an Infinite Dragonflight agent. He influences Garrosh to stop his father from drinking the Blood of Mannoroth and quelling the Burning Legion. The Iron Horde story goes as normal, except the Alliance and Horde also quell a massive Primal invasion coming from Farahlon before Gul'dan makes his attack. Kairoz also isn't killed by Garrosh but is instead a raid-boss where he goes full Infinite Dragonflight on everyone.
• Legion - The elements hate Thrall because of how he broke the mak'gora code and killed Garrosh dishonourably. This time it's explicitly stated in the story why he's given up shamanism. Vol'jin still dies in the Broken Isles and still names Sylvanas as Warchief thanks to the Jailer intercepting his mind.
• Battle for Azeroth - The only thing I'd change is have more subtle cues throughout the story and previous expansions that Sylvanas is up to something sinister. Except I wouldn't have brought Thrall back from retirement, wouldn't have killed off Saurfang and would have had him as the Orc leader in the Horde Council.

[melzas]

Remove void elves.

Alleria after returning to azeroth unites scattered high elves and they join the alliance as an allied race instead of cringe elves.

[Tarba]

Starting with vanilla and revamping factions.

1- Forsaken/Bloodelves/Nagas/Draeney (war3 draeneys, not russian space goat octopus)
focusing against the scourge/legion

2- Orcs/Night elves/Trolls/Tauren/Theramore
focusing against C'thun

3- Gilneas/Stormwind/Dwarves/KulTiras
focusing against Ragnaros

Classes stuck to specific logical races and faction. dk/dh to 1
druids-shaman to 2
paladins to 3

Groups and guilds open to different factions, but still open pvp between factions. Real guild of adventurers.

And completely erase anything related to space shit.

[Ezyah]

Shadowlands without a single hesitation. That Whole lore make no fucking sense , full of plothole and make the concept of death completely stupid ...

[BaumanKing]

I would retcon BfA entirely, some lorebreaking aspects of SL and all nonsensical things writers did to Zul'jin, MU Ner'zhul, MU Kargath, Voss, Sylvanas, Garona, Garrosh, Kael, Turalyon and Alleria.

[Ardenaso]

I'd remove most after MoP but some pre-MoP should be un-retconned as well

No Eredar-Draenei connection, DRAENei would get back DRAENor and no such thing as "uncorrupted" or "Broken" Draenei. Akama is a "Lost One" again and the "Lost One" is the Draenei norm

The Blood Elves along with Kael'thas are all of them just as how it was implied in the Warcraft 3 Manual. I don't see why they should be still hanging around in Quel'thalas (but they still go Horde and this time Garithos is the reason why they despise the Alliance)

Tol Barad and Kul Tiras aren't move somewhere else.

No such thing as Val'sharah, Highmountain, Stormheim; their existence is literally a retcon to MoP since the entire point of MoP is to find some uncharted islands to gain territory and you can't tell me Varian and Garrosh ignored them just because.

Suramar is still at ruins just like in Warcraft 3 and therefore no such thing as Nightborne

No such thing as Night Warrior, seriously.

The entire Shadowlands.

[vian]

I'd remove all the void non-sense.

[De Lupe]

I would rewrite mainly involving Garrosh's story. His fall was handled terribly, especially given we KNOW Blizzard understands falls of characters. And they didn't do a good enough job building the character, imo, either.

As much shit as I give Garrosh, I could get behind this. I can see the potential that was there and wasted. I would have been more okay with the whole decent into madness by Y'Saarj if they'd first built him up to be more than just another "Warmongering Orc" leader.

[Amnaught]

I'd change everything from the patch in Pandaria where we started allying with Alliance against our own leader for the first time.

You pick a side, Horde or Alliance. Varian is corrupted by a different Sha, like Anger or Fear. There is a siege on Orgrimmar, but sort of like how Dazar Alor works, thered be different bosses for each faction, because we'd be DEFENDING Orgimmar. Skip Warlords of Draenor entirely and Legion plays out mostly the same... But I'd have totally different allied races. Nightborne are fine, but Highmountain Tauren join the Alliance, and Man'ari Eredar join the Horde instead of Lightforged Draenei even existing. Void elves would not exist, but the Silver Covenant High Elves would be playable, with Alleria and Vareesa as leaders. Battle For Azeroth plays out the same in regards to Zandalar and Kul Tiras plots, but Zandalar should absolutely be flyable off the coast of Kalimdor, and Kul Tiras connected to the Eastern Kingdoms. Nazjatar is a fucking underwater zone like it should have been, and all of the effort spent on Mechagon was given to Nyalotha instead.

The biggest change: N'zoth tricks the Alliance and Horde into the war, instead of Big Bad Evil Horde Leader being evil again. A darkness is stirring beneath Teldrassil. If the tree isn't destroyed soon, N'Zoth will break free, destroying Teldrassil anyway and then destroying the world. So the Alliance is all "Oh shit, give us time, we can find a better way!" And the Horde is all "This IS the only way!" So we torch the tree, and have no regrets because we saved the world. The rest plays out mostly the same, but then at Nazjatar (underwater, dammit!!) Azshara reveals that N'zoth lied and the Horde just fell for it. So we can still be all about redeeming our honor again, but alongside our Warchief instead of being fucking traitors for the eightieth time.

[huth]

No such thing as Val'sharah, Highmountain, Stormheim; their existence is literally a retcon to MoP since the entire point of MoP is to find some uncharted islands to gain territory and you can't tell me Varian and Garrosh ignored them just because.

No, the point of MoP wasn't finding an uncharted island. The premise of MoP was that an uncharted island had been found and both factions were now racing to control it.

I fail to see how that relates to the Broken Isles, as well. They were known, before Legion it was just that nobody saw any reason to go to a small messed up island with little in the way of useable resources. Unlike a large place like Pandaria with fertile farmlands and other useful things.

[Lord Pebbleton]

That said one thing I wished we had gotten was instead of WoD having a caverns of time themed expansion where going back to Draenor could have been a zone and the other zones would be spread throughout WoW history.

I agree. I thought about this concept when I was deep into WoW, before WoD even hit. I would have loved to see a pre-scourge Lordaeron or to get involved with the first war.

[jellmoo]

This is just my personal preference, so probably not everyone's cup of tea:

I'd diverge with WoTLK. By the end of the expansion, Arthas is not defeated, rather it's something of a stalemate as the Horde and the Alliance are forced to come together to prevent the Scourge from taking over. Because of this, the bulk of their armies are stuck in Northrend. This has the added effect of more or less ending the Faction system as it exists.

Moving forward, the game is grounded more in the individual kingdoms/races with a more grounded game. Rep with each kingdom/race becomes more important, and instead of faction war we get more games of political intrigue. Throughout, the player character never becomes anything remotely like the "hero of Azeroth".

Future expansions aren't about inventing new zones time and again. We reuse more of the game world that exists, using phasing to create something of a living world and story. Existing zones get reused more often, with less dev time dedicated to creating zones people blitz through when leveling and never care about again. Threats are simpler, less of the world ending variety every time.

Arthas and the Scourge play the role of the constant looming threat, but need not be omnipresent. Instead, the races and the kingdoms themselves are often [;ay the role of antagonist, which can change often, and also allow player choice as to which side they will back. Bring back player agency allowing them to find their own paths to whats fun, rather than making the game so on rails from a narrative standpoint.

[Amarys]

Oh boy... roll the lore back to Vanilla and keep it as classic mostly medieval or Game of Thrones and D&D level fantasy. So no spaceships and furry races. Also keep the big baddies like the Old Gods and Titans and the Legion distant. You never fight them directly as you'd just get gonked.. you fight their minions.

Also never resurrect any dead characters, maybe only as undead if it fits the situation but don't kill major lore characters off as easily either so if one dies, it gives a much bigger impact.

[sam86]

wipe out Aggra from face of earth and make Thrall x Jaina reality, i never understood why they did that, it was really interesting plot they killed for no reason