Do you prefer fighting Big Threats or Small Time Outlaws?

[Deleted]

I doubt there will be a pirate expansion. Pirates are a very regional and minor threat, hardly worthy the attention of heroes that have bested old gods and dark titans. There may be a small sideplot with a small pirate antagonist, but that hardly suffices for a full blown expansion.

Yes, it's impossible to happen.
But i don't know why, i also hate to fight monsters. I only like humanoid characters.
Idk if it's because is more realistic or something. I just love the aura of a good human villain.

[XDurionX]

Yes, it's impossible to happen.
But i don't know why, i also hate to fight monsters. I only like humanoid characters.
Idk if it's because is more realistic or something. I just love the aura of a good human villain.

I'd take a good,authentic and believeable human villain with an understandable motivation over Generic_Tentacle_Monster#343 any day.

[Wondercrab]

A healthy mixture of both, but ideally with more of a focus on the small time stuff so that the BIG things actually feel special and imposing.

It's a common mistake to conflate scope and scale with emotional investment, and a lot of games and movies run into this problem when they just throw big bad after big bad at the heroes. It's sort of the cheap easy way out, because rather than crafting a low-key story that hooks the audience in and gets them emotionally invested, you instead assume that they *have* to be emotionally invested, because how could they not care about space satan attempting to destroy the whole world???

Leaning too heavily on scope and spectacle just ends up creating fatigue in your audience, and it wears very thin over time. It's one of the reasons why I think Mists of Pandaria was timed absolutely perfectly as an expansion, because the game really was starting to get tiresome with how crazily it was dialling things up to 11 at the end of Cataclysm. We needed a breather to take things down a notch, make us care about some smaller, more down to earth conflicts, and warm us up for something big to happen again afterwards.

In a similar vein, I desperately hope that the expansion after Legion is appropriately toned down. Throwing players up against another cataclysmic world-ending force right after defeating the biggest bad in the universe is almost certain to feel cheap and tiresome. The pacing needs time to settle again.

[McNeil]

I prefer small time outlaws when they are used as smaller threads in leveling zones, where you help out the locals who feel threatened or have suffered major losses by them. Kinda like the Scarlet Crusade in Tirisfal Glades, Defias Brotherhood in Elwynn/Westfall, undead/forest trolls in Quel'Thalas, blood elves in Azuremyst Isles etc. I don't see them getting a raid that fast, but rather deal them in a dungeon (so like my previous examples we got Scarlet Monastery, Deadmines, Strath/Scholo... the forst trolls got a small raid though).

I prefer big threats where they are powerful enough that it takes an expansion to defeat them, with the combining might of the Alliance/Horde and other factions. So unlike the small time outlaws it takes a whole lot more effort to defeat them and it should resolve into an epic conclusion of the story. The Scourge has been my favorite big threat in that regard, the Burning Legion feels huge but at the same time I don't think they are properly portrayed as being threatening, now we also have the forces of the Old God's and the Void to look forward to. The naga could also make an interesting big threat.

So basically I want a proper combination of both. I do think that the latest expansion (with Legion in particular) takes the story way to far into just the big treats while we leave the rest of the world abandoned, and it also makes our characters feel like gods which I certainly don't like.

[Granyala]

I dunno why. It would be a blast to play in a pirate filled expansion. Take to thme seas. Try to bring the Pirate Lords to justice. I'd play the hell out of it. The current state of the game being "every boss is a world ender" is stale as fuck.

I agree that it is stale.
I too feel kind of numb and no matter what horror Blizzard throws at me, nothing gets that creepy feeling back that I had when I played Warcraft III.

It's just that, considering how powerful and experienced our characters are now, no pirate lord would be able to pose a believable danger to them. I mean we would need pirate lords with the power of multiple titans at this point. >.<

[clevin]

I wouldn't want an entire expansion designed around some pirate lord though.
That would simply feel ridiculously pathetic, considering that we are now used to operate on a scale of cosmic fate.

If they'd introduce "small threats" now, I doubt any player would be able to take such a threat seriously.

And that's the problem with them having gone in this direction - there's no way to really scale things down. Listening to Illidan's voiceover (the one where he delivers his messages) it sounds like we're being put in effectively his position next expansion... only we can stop this, etc.

At some point this just gets unbelievably ridiculous - we're mortal after all and one good sword thrust and we're gone.

[Magnagarde]

Small threats or fighting between factions is what I prefer. I prefered "big threats" in the past, such as the Lich King and Deathwing, but each and every expansion ends up having one big threat and that has become stale.

[Aeula]

Small time. Usually I'd say a bit of both but Blizzard can't write big threats for shite.

Just look at the recent addition of the void lords. Basically the purple burning legion.

[In Ogres We Trust]

Blizzard went overboard with the deity nonsense, and to be frank, our characters should just be normal adventurers (albeit known to the populace). We shouldn't be Gods amongst men and women, nor should we be involved in interstellar battles/wars with the Light/Burning Legion/Titans/Void, etc (all of that claptrap should have been background filler for novels).

[Pua]

I think it's too late. When we, as heroes, start beating up Demi-gods... It's hard to believe we'd struggle with Steven, Chief Candle Polisher of David the Kobold Vizier.

[Trickname]

Mostly small time threats such as pirates and bandits. BUT with an overshadowing larger threat.

I'm actually just not a fan of us gaining god powers and having world-ending threats every expansion.

Only way it could happen now though would be for us to go through a story where our power is drained.

[Granyala]

And that's the problem with them having gone in this direction - there's no way to really scale things down. Listening to Illidan's voiceover (the one where he delivers his messages) it sounds like we're being put in effectively his position next expansion... only we can stop this, etc.

At some point this just gets unbelievably ridiculous - we're mortal after all and one good sword thrust and we're gone.

Yep, completely agree. I always perceived the Legion as an effectively unbeatable enemy that will always be there in the background etc. Now we are apparently going to beat it (so unrealistic!) and then they'll probably start pitching us against the void itself.

Doubt that damage can be undone.

[clevin]

The thing is, the threats don't have to fall into either small, trivial threats or huge, world ending threats. Remember classic - we had a blood god (Hakkar), evil dragon (Ony, Nef), a firelord (Ragnaros), etc. They were, well, regional threats. Sure, they might have grown but when we encounter them they're not really threatening the existence of Azeroth.

More to the point, it's credible that powerful adventurers could tip the scales and really fight against them and win.

[Lochton]

Voted, 'other'.

I would like to fight a mix of both without the grandeur belief that we, the players, are the mighty commanders in control but instead being a part of the 'heroes' as we used to be. Growing rather tired of standing on the pedestal. I'll take on all threats if there is a reason for it but then again, we haven't seen many smalltime outlaws, even the Defias Brotherhood weren't one.

[Quesenek]

Personally it doesn't matter too much, I would prefer that the dungeon bosses and raid bosses be small time threats just because I would like major characters with lots of lore that until X point in time have stayed big and bad, or unkillable to stay that way forever.
On the other hand Blizzard has done a pretty good job in making the big bad bosses he have killed make sense.
For example in legion we have these ultra powerful artifact weapons which help us be way more powerful then normal.

[Camthur]

We're really past the point of fighting small time thugs. we are pretty much one step down from the most powerful beings on the planet at this point. Small time thugs should probably run when they see us at this point.

There can be guys who are less powerful than the big bads of an expansion, but even they should scare the crap outta normal small time baddies.

[Noomz]

Do you enjoy fighting Big Threats like Old Gods or you prefer fighting Pirates, Thiefs, Mad Scientists, Vampires, Werewolves etc

I don't know why but i prefer fighting small time outlaws. My favorite instance is the old Deadmines for example and i have no idea why.

I kinda prefer when it's more down to earth and personal. It makes the world feel bigger and it makes the large threats feel...well, larger.

[Soulwind]

Generally, I prefer the big threats because few fantasy universes actually send the heroes against gods.

BUT, the last two expansions have gotten me tired of the current power-creep and I wish for at least one expansion with lower stakes.

There are many minor threats in Azeroth that we haven't really dealt with and would look out of place in an expansion about ancient evils of space armies, I'd like it if there was an expansion just about those.

[Razion]

Classic Deadmines was the perfect dungeon. Bosses can still feel big and important if their ego and ambition is large enough. They don't necessarily need to be swimming in evil goo to be threatening. Sometimes a big ship that threatens to blow up the harbor is enough.

[Sigxy]

I kinda prefer when it's more down to earth and personal. It makes the world feel bigger and it makes the large threats feel...well, larger.

This is totally why I think having a theme of several, -lesser evil- bad guys is more interesting than what we have now. We're bringing down Sargeras and pretty much make the demons a joke from this point on. But sometimes it can be good to focus more on just one, but really make it more personal! I think Arthas was the best villain we fought - he started off like us, and became the Lich king. He's powerful, controlling one of the most terrifying armies on Azeroth... but -NOT- the most terrifying army of the whole universe.Though granted, Warcraft 3 was heavily focused on him so we did learn a lot more about him than most others.

Still, you can feel more of a connection to these kind of people. But when we don't deal with someone like him, sure - let's have several leaders of different factions wanting to do harm, with us being called to deal with them!