What is in your opinion more worse ? WoD story or SL story ?

[Gaidax]

Shadowlands though is a mess that began as an afterthought two expansions ago (Legion) that wasn't even a solid-ish concept until well after halfway through Battle for Azeroth

I really really disagree with this one. Blizzard knew very well what they went for - they literally made Sylv Warchief 1st hour of Legion and teased Dreadlords serving Death legit first raid with Ilgynoth. They released chronicles with cosmology chart and told us we're going to explore it. You legit had Sylvanas going buddy buddy with Helya patch 7.0 and so on and so forth.

So yes, it's not some "shit we don't know what to do, quickly make up some shit" - this all was planned exactly like this. They could have made a few tweaks as they went, but yes they knew full well that in a few years from there we go to Shadowlands with Sylv going rogue and big bad Death-deity messing around.

[Niwes]

I literally just voted now and voted for SL…

ah ok. sorry, so i missinterpreted that. sorry for that confusion!

[SinR]

WoD Was good until they complete 180'd on the set up and made the Legion the big bad.

Grommash was set up to be this big bad motherfucker... "LOLNOPE GUYS BURNING LEGION!"

SHADOWLANDS... on the other hand... I don't think anything can possibly save this dumpster fire that is a Storyline.

[Jamais]

Death is broken because souls aren't going where they're supposed to go. Also, the anima shortage is destroying the Shadowlands. The Jailer is trying to literally remake reality. That's why Shadowlands is worse than WoD. Because the story of SL is literally fucking over the multiverse.

Well yes that was kind of a point of the whole story. Machine of death is broken.

What i gathered from your posts is that you have a problem in general how they made the afterlife concept in WoW, that is why i asked.

Mythology is my passion since i was a kid. Greek, norse, egyptian, ainu, gaelic...you name it. And trust me, thw devs did their research on it. Whole SL system is a mish mash of different mythologies and their concept. Revendreth stands out becuse they took the concept of typical vampires and tied it into a specific purpose ( red anima extraced with torture=blood, sin eating etc). Maw and especially Bastion are greek to the core (from npc names to the concept of purging your memories as a burden, that was smth that old greeks believed would and shoild happen after they died).

And while yes, the events in SL are having an effect in the sense the souls are being effed up upon entering, it doesnt actually have a direct influence on Azeroth or other worlds as a system. Many many npcs in SL point out that mortal affairs are strictly not to be tempered with. They are alien to each other. Kyrian daily quest Limbo is a good example of this.

[Gaidax]

yep, same thought made me struggle deciding. besides other things in the plot itself. still not sure what does more damage: time travelling parallel universe (at last its a parallel universe and you can mentally wish it away easily) or afterlife.

That one's really easy. The whole parallel time space universe that somehow has singular Legion was a complete and total crapshoot to the point even Blizz themselves meme'd about wanting to forget about it.

Shadowlands was always a thing all the way since Vanilla. We always had the afterlife, especially with the whole strong concept of Undeath - it was always there since day 1 of WoW. It's not some weird ass hackjob WOD's multiverse or whatever the f it was, that Blizz themselves have trouble explaining.

[AeneasBK]

Wasn't the WoD story almost entirely irrelevant?

[Doomchicken]

I've seen more bad storytelling in the last 8 months of this expansion than I've seen in any game I've ever played over any period of time. This is wretchedly bad.

[dewd]

i couldnt care less about story. im playing the game to raid and not to read through quests texts

[TheRevenantHero]

Well yes that was kind of a point of the whole story. Machine of death is broken.

What i gathered from your posts is that you have a problem in general how they made the afterlife concept in WoW, that is why i asked.

Mythology is my passion since i was a kid. Greek, norse, egyptian, ainu, gaelic...you name it. And trust me, thw devs did their research on it. Whole SL system is a mish mash of different mythologies and their concept. Revendreth stands out becuse they took the concept of typical vampires and tied it into a specific purpose ( red anima extraced with torture=blood, sin eating etc). Maw and especially Bastion are greek to the core (from npc names to the concept of purging your memories as a burden, that was smth that old greeks believed would and shoild happen after they died).

And while yes, the events in SL are having an effect in the sense the souls are being effed up upon entering, it doesnt actually have a direct influence on Azeroth or other worlds as a system. Many many npcs in SL point out that mortal affairs are strictly not to be tempered with. They are alien to each other. Kyrian daily quest Limbo is a good example of this.

They didn't research anything. They have changed how the shadowlands work so many times that it's nowhere near a compelling story anymore. They are just overdosing on Rule of Cool.

As for the Shadowlands not affecting Azeroth, that's simply not true. Because with the giant portal in the sky above Icecrown and the "machine of death being broken", it's absolutely going to have an effect on the living. Furthermore, the Jailer is actively trying to reshape all of reality. That means the living AND the dead.

[Gaidax]

Wasn't the WoD story almost entirely irrelevant?

It was sort of like TBC... "This is the guy go get 'im... actually wait whatever, he's not important - go get these guys instead! We got laser ship holy arcane space goats isn't it cool?"...

WoD had same issue, they practically took a patch and tossed it into a trash bin with somehow Gul'dan taking over Iron Horde after being on the run in a span of a bloody cutscene.

It would be akin to if 9.2 would release and we'd get a cutscene literally the first 30 mins where Zovaal gets oneshot by a Void Lord and it suddenly would become a void expansion prequel patch like HFC was for Legion.

At the very bloody least, SL has actual coherent story going on.

[deenman]

the story presentation in wod was fenomenal,i think it may even be the best expansion in that regard

however,the time travel thing,multiple velens but ONE legion was just stupid,the ending was pure cringe and made no sense etc etc

[Samuraijake]

SL isnt done yet.

[Th3Scourge]

SL and it's not even close. This story is pure dogshit. They get what they deserve putting that bad headed fuck Danuser in charge of the story.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Plot is mysterious so it’s difficult to say now. I liked the story in WoD and Shadolands story can turn out to be really interesting if it’s done well, it can turn out lame too.

[Darknessvamp]

I really really disagree with this one. Blizzard knew very well what they went for - they literally made Sylv Warchief 1st hour of Legion and teased Dreadlords serving Death legit first raid with Ilgynoth. They released chronicles with cosmology chart and told us we're going to explore it. You legit had Sylvanas going buddy buddy with Helya patch 7.0 and so on and so forth.

So yes, it's not some "shit we don't know what to do, quickly make up some shit" - this all was planned exactly like this. They could have made a few tweaks as they went, but yes they knew full well that in a few years from there we go to Shadowlands with Sylv going rogue and big bad Death-deity messing around.

In no way did they choose to make Sylvanas Warchief with the intention of "This'll lead into the Shadowlands expansion where she serves the Jailer in two expansions time." They decided she'd make the most sense as the character that could motivate the Horde and Alliance into fighting with each other in an expansion where we were meant to be joined against a world ending threat and then dropped that plot point almost immediately after the Stormheim questing ended. The same questing experience which completely contradicts the Shadowlands story two expansions later where she was trying to make more Valkyr and more undead as result and how Helya didn't have (and still doesn't despite just turning up in the Maw randomly) a connection to a figure called the Jailer. The same plot thread that gets referenced in Sylvanas' own thoughts in the lead up book to Battle for Azeroth and didn't get contradicted until 8.2.5 where she was suddenly working for a greater power and using new magic.

You'll have to point out how Ilgynoth teased the Dreadlords being a creation of Denathrius and please don't tell me you're using the random whispers which people retroactively make fit. Chronicles wasn't released with the intent of it's contents being explored in game, it was meant to be a series of books giving things already seen in game a definitive explanation which the cosmic chart did by laying out the powers exactly as they are in the universe, till it was retconned to just be an in-universe titan fan book.

There was no way Shadowlands had any conclusive concept or storyline planned prior to Nazjatar with the amount of "um... this is what actually happened" retcons that occurred to justify it happening e.g. Shadowlands: "Oh yeah Mueh'zala was totally involved in ensuring Sylvanas became Warchief by getting Vol'jin to die and making him choose her as planned, the fact that completely contradicts the event where this happened and then stringing along the player base with an inconclusive side quest in BfA which in no way hints at this was us just hiding the fact.".

[Volardelis]

WoD at least has a story that you can easily follow and doesn't have tons of "wait and see" moments like Shadowlands does.

WoD has its problems, such as a cut raid tier and the original story for Gorgrond but overall I do prefer WoD > Shadowlands, even with the "Draenor is Free" nonsense at the end.

WoD also had Troy Baker Gul'dan. Troy Baker is always a win in my books.

[dope_danny]

Shadowlands no question. Aside from the "burning legion exists outside of time" horseshit most of wods story problems were a case of it being hastily rewritten mid development so there are straight up errors and gaps in its story.

But Shadowlands pulled back the curtain on death itself. Unless you pull a "its still the end of BfA and we are in N'zoths infinite tsukiyomi hallucination" type damage control twist this is going to effect the scale of every threat from now on forever. You thought WoW's apocalypse fatigue was bad now? it can only get worse.

[Mightytasty]

Everybody makes fun of WoD for time travel, yet the cinematic was the hypest shit ever. I thought it was a good idea to get back to the “roots” of Warcraft and explore old lore characters. Shadowlands takes it in the complete opposite direction.

Cinematic: Heavy advantage WoD

Lords of War / Afterlives: Tie

Leveling story: Advantage WoD

Max level campaign story: Advantage SL, I don’t think WoD even had one.

Patch 6.2 vs 9.1 story: Tie, both are terribad. Worst story patches of all time. It’s hard to choose one or the other.

[bloodmoth13]

Wod hands down. You cant even argue since the time travel bs crated so many plot holes and they did absolutely nothing with the warlords.
The plot of 'what if the orcs didnt drink the kool aid' was wasted by making them villians no matter what the timeline cementing orcs as a race as violent villains.
The only good part was legion following from it.
Sl might suck, and the big bad is boring etc but its just a shitty logical extension, not some ham fisted nonsense bs

[Skirdus]

With WoD, they at least had enough sense to abandon ship halfway through.

The writers for SL are so self-righteous and tone-deaf that they'll continue down this path even though just about everyone still playing the game thinks it's god-awful