Blood Elves were based on a STRONG request from a poll of Asian players where many remarked on the Horde side that they and their girlfriends wanted a non-creepy femme race to play (Source)
I've already mentioned Sylvanas twice prior to this post in this specific subtopic, so yes. The thing is, if Blizzard kept her full power set in mind, Sylvanas walks over pretty much anyone sans maybe Malfurion when it comes to members of the playable faction.
She was already shattering armor and bones on an army scale with her voice back shortly after her resurrection, back when she was only a Banshee. A feat that scared even Arthas, especially in terms of long term, and that's when she was firmly his pawn and he didn't even fathom it would have ever changed. After she got freed and regained her body which apparently made her even stronger vide her phasing, her voice interrupted even Dar'khan. When he was using Anveena, i.e. the Sunwell, as his own private magic battery. Dar'khan was basically a Mage god at that point. Golden would need to pull powerups for Jaina out of her ass at least 20 more times for her to rival that. And in Before the Storm Anduin was thinking to himself how she could outright kill him with her voice.
Then there's the aforementioned phasing. Not explained in detail, but Blizzard did compare that to Kitty Pride from X-men. Who can phase at will. If Sylvanas is like that then she can phase in and out to avoid attacks and to create openings without issue no matter how long the fight lasts. Her body is so durable she needed to impale herself on Saronite, because the fall from the peak of Icecrown alone wouldn't kill her. She can rip a wolf's head off with her bare hands, which requires more strength than that's needed to kill a human with one punch.
On top of all of that she still has the marksmanship skills she gained during her life. Her aim is precise enough to kill a flying bird from a significant distance by shooting it directly in the eye (admittedly her own boasting IIRC) or strike Calia right in the heart also from significant difference while flying around on a bat. Except now she also uses boatloads of poisons, tips her arrows in Blight (strongest strains of which melt even rock) and empowers them with enough magic that she can destroy siege weaponry with one exploding arrow.
Each power of Sylvanas is already high tier on its own. Combine them all and she's extremely well rounded and practically impossible to counter. Which is why whenever Blizzard writes someone fighting her where the end result that's going to be forced no matter what is that her opponent survives, their plot contrivance of choice to get there is making Sylvanas gargle on the idiot ball and forget almost everything of what she's capable of.
I'd agree in regards to other characters, but at this point Anduin isn't just (or even primarily) a character. He's first and foremost a plot device. You said it yourself at the start of this discussion, Anduin the character doesn't even pop up that often. Yet Anduin the plot device warps, twists and contorts the story around itself regardless.
Except I didn't even mention Golden there and I explicitly talked about the writers as a collective.
What you're saying implies a deliberate choice to ignore it though. Not just that, it also implies Blizzard's writers being able to admit to themselves that they have written themselves into a corner. And given how they think BfA's ending is going to be a masterpiece... Well, suffice to say, it's not particularly likely. You're too hasty to dismiss "we are so inept that we have forgotten all about that stuff so we make up new stuff as we go" as the explanation here.
The Qunari in Dragon Age are the closest thing I found in a fantasy setting, having an utterly alien and (to us) illogical mindset when you dig into their lore and the reasoning for their actions. There are still holes of course, and some errors in consistency, yet they still feel more alien than the vast majority of actual aliens in Mass Effect, Bioware's sci-fi franchise/
But yeah in Warcraft the races are definitely humans with a different build, skin color and an exaggerated trait, hell half of the races are heavily based on real-life human stereotypes, like New Yorkers/Jews for Goblins, Victorian British for the Worgen or Jamaicans/Haitians for Trolls.
Hence the part about plot contrivance. Genn's case is particularly grating, because she actually poisoned him. With poison strong enough that it made him lose consciousness and would have killed him if not treated. And Genn survived only because he was bailed by other Alliance characters. That Sylvanas (and the Horde PC waiting outside) apparently ignored because reasons. Of course there's the part about her not simply breaking every bone in his body and watching him crawl around at her feet as a disjointed fleshy mess when the fate of her entire race was on the line in the first place, but him getting bailed out just like that takes the candle.
Especially in a situation where she actually failed to preserve the future of her race due to Genn (and gargling on the idiot ball). Sylvanas completely lost her shit and lashed out in anger for less. And when someone monumentally pisses her off, she is unrelenting in her vengeance. But nah, let's just sit idly by as Genn is saved because that makes sense.
Eyir just teleported out. Which left only her and Genn who was either already unconscious or getting there. And she did nothing. And then (after the Horde PC left the post at the entrance to the temple to catch some butterflies or whatever) watched Genn's friends walk in and haul his unconscious ass out.
I mean, I get that she'd stare in the empty space where Eyir was moments before for a while, because she was watching her future slipping through her fingers. But as she was watching that empty space, given her established character she should be getting more and more pissed, starting to obsess about the ungodly calamities she'd bring upon Genn and then turn around, approach Genn with laser focus on him and go nuclear on his ass.
And at this point it's not even about power levels and Blizzard being inconsistent about it. Genn was practically defenseless at that moment. Sylvanas could have gotten completely depowered and she'd still be able to kill him even with a teaspoon.
Instead she channeled her inner Baine. That she never had prior or after that.
Ugh, no.
SI:7 is very much emblematic of the problem. Every other race is giving up their intelligence gathering to rely completely on humans for it. I don't give a flying shit if the human organization has non-humans in it.
Just think how different things would have gone in BfA if the night elves still had their own spies gathering information instead of relying solely on SI:7 to do it. The Horde would have had to fool multiple intelligence agencies to pull off what they did.
Putting non-humans into human organizations just makes things worse, not better. It makes it look like humans are just flat out superior to those other races. This is the same problem with the Kirin Tor and mages.
Well, technically Skold-Ashil and the ending of Odyn's storyline (which is followed by a quest leading to the dungeon) can be done in any order. So in this case Blizzard has a chronological vagueness to hide behind, as it's not 100% certain that the dungeon takes place after the conclusion to Genn vs Sylvanas storyline.
Comparing bosses then and now is apples to oranges. Far more "fuck you" boss mechanics now, far more abilities (my dps can heal up and has defensives? what?), totally different design philosophies and goals. Effectively, two different games that happen to share a name and IP.
Of course, one succeeded wildly, and the other started declining from inception, but...
More on topic, I love how "Let's stop pointlessly massacring Alliance while the world is dying and acting without any principles" is "Let's lick Anduin's boots."
Last edited by Feanoro; 2019-05-03 at 12:15 AM.
Why no, people don't just like Sylvie for T&A: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...ery-Cinematic/