World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

[ViND_]

Learn your lore.

The irony...

[Hazzerd]

I read that before you posted it and I can say... BULLSHIT.


Guys, none of this will ever happen. Just look at the classes, they all contradict the lore of their own race! How will Tauren use the Light? How will night elfs be mages when they ****ING HATE THEM, because it's their mages that caused the Sundering (seperating the continents and destroying most of the night elf land). Those that wanted to be mages became high elves and then the high elves became blood elves.

So, no.


Blood Elf Warrior cannot happen. As much as you think it can.


Lol Troll Druid? Lol Dwarf SHAMAN? Why don't they just make Tauren Rogues, or better yet, Gnome Druids and Shamans?


WTF?!


It's not true, whoever believes MMO Champ with their "RELIABLE SOURCES" should smash his head in the keyboard right NOW!

I want to hurt you. I want to punch you so hard you cry.

I hate people like you...

And now, explaining everything, Wow.com:

"TAUREN PALADINS AND PRIESTS

Mike Sacco: This is actually one that people seem to be freaking out about.

Daniel Whitcomb: Whereas for me, it's probably one of the ones I'm most excited about. Mythology and Religion have always been some of my favorite subjects, so the idea of Warcraft fleshing out the religions of the world is possibly my favorite possibility from the lore so far.

MS: Right. In the quest that was added in patch 3.2, Tahu Sagewind seems to be doubting that Night Elf-style moon worship is the right way to go for all spiritual Tauren; that there should be some balance between the sun and the moon, just as they worship their personifications, An'she and Mu'sha. Sun and Moon, male and female, light and darkness. He seems to think that pure Druidism is getting it wrong by not taking this balance into account.

DW: And given that whole sun worship hook, I'm really hopeful that the new Priests and Paladins are sun worshippers, using the power of the sun to cast their damage and healing spells in the same way Druids use arcane magic when casting moon-related spells. On top of that, Aponi Brightmane's conversation with Tahu does seem to suggest that she might have found something to admire in the Argent Crusaders and feels inspired to take up their abilities, so I can see that too. I'm really hoping it's sun worship though.

MS: Either way, we could be looking at the first Tauren Priest in conflicted druid Tahu, and the first Tauren Paladin in injured warrior Aponi.

DW: Aponi?

MS: Aponi.

DW: Wait ... Ghostcrawler promised us Aponi ... and he delivered!"

"
TROLL DRUIDS

MS: Here's another one over which the player base seems to be split in half. I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but it's not as if there's no precedent for trolls turning into animals.

DW: Seriously. In both Zul'aman and Zul'gurub as well as Zul'drak, we've seen Trolls channel animal Loa to gain power. It's certain possible that certain Troll Priests could call on their Loa for similar empowerment, and thereby gain Druid-like powers.

MS: Right. They have the pick of the pack in terms of animals to worship.

DW: What's really intriguing to me is which set of Loa player-character Troll Druids might call upon. As Darkspears originally hail from Stranglethorn, they might call upon the jungle Loa of Zul'grub, assuming they're now freed from the influence of Hakkar. On the other hand, Zul'aman offers more immediate analogues to current Druid forms, including Bear, Cat, and Bird Loas.

MS: For me, the Stranglethorn bunch seems much more likely, actually. If you've ever quested in Zabra'jin, you do some scouting on Lost One Druids in Feralfen Village for the Troll Shaman Seer Janidi, and she says, "No self-respecting Darkspear troll engages in bird worship. Their spirits are weak, capricious, and best left to the Amani."

DW: Right, which brings up the question: Does that mean, perhaps, different animals for Troll Druid forms? The possibilities certainly have me excited!

MS: After all, it's not called Storm Crow Form, it's called Flight Form. Maybe we'll see Bat Form for flying Troll Druids. Maybe their cat form could be a badass tiger with 80s hair.
DW: Yeah, and Serpent or Spider Tank form? I'm on board. But then again, I'm not sure if Blizzard wants to take the plunge and make that much of a change to class flavor, even if the basic mechanics and numbers behind the spells and forms are the same. They could just go the other way and allow some Trolls to get buddy buddy with the Tauren and learn Druidism from them -- or they could introduce a whole new set of Loas or mix and match Loas. Like I said, I love fictional religion and mythology, and I've been in love with troll Loas since I first read about Eraka no Kimbul and Ueetay no Mueh'zala in Zul'Farrak. So, I'm hoping it's all about Loas and not just a bunch of Trolls converting to Earthmother worship a la Tauren."

"DWARF MAGES AND SHAMAN:

MS: Let's move on to one that's a little less controversial.

DW: Yeah, Dwarf Mages are one of the handful that, to me at least, are a complete no-brainer. Not only were they briefly playable in Beta, if I remember right, but there's been at least one famous Dwarven Mage in ancient lore.
MS: Right, I mean, if you go into Blackrock Depths, you can see a whole bunch of Dark Iron Mages. And lest we forget, Emperor Thaurissan himself was a Mage, and an incredibly powerful one!

DW: Yeah, we essentially have Dwarven Mages to blame for the Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, AND Ragnaros himself. Of course, those are Dark Irons, but it's not too much of stretch to figure there might have been some Bronzebeard mages as well. If all else fails, consider it a side effect of studying all those runes the Explorer's League found in Northrend. Some Iron Dwarves exhibit mage-like powers, so it's a return to roots as well.

MS: Dwarves is dwarves; it only makes sense that the ability to use arcane magic isn't exclusive to one race of Dwarf. Speaking of Dwarves, there's another combination that people actually seem to be accepting pretty well...
DW: Oh yeah, Dwarven Shaman are another no brainer. To be honest, I was fully expecting we'd get Dwarven Shaman back when Blizzard first announced the concept of Alliance Shaman. The Wildhammer Clan are friendly to the Alliance and are a very shamanistic society.

MS: Even without the presence of the Wildhammer Clan, look at all that the Dwarves have learned about themselves in Northrend! I mean, a race carved from the very earth itself ought to have some sort of special connection with it!

DW: Yeah, I very specifically recall allying with some Earthen who used Shaman spells. Those same Earthen could very well teach some of their fleshly cousins the secrets of the elements -- and much like they've rediscovered part of their heritage through the Stoneskin racial, the Dwarves could very well rediscover a very basic connection with the earth itself.

MS: I anticipate that we'll see a Wildhammer Clan representative offering his shamanistic services to Magni Bronzebeard in a quest before 4.0, but the Earthen connection is pretty good too, so it'll be interesting to see which path they take."

"
HUMAN AND FORSAKEN HUNTERS:
MS: Adding new hunter races isn't necessarily surprising to me lore-wise so much as it's unexpected given the number of races that already have the hunter class available to them.

DW: At the same time, the lore is there, and I'm strongly of the opinion that you can never have too many Hunter twinks. They're just so much fun!

MS: I think a lot of players would really like to have a Forsaken hunter.
DW: For them, you only have to remember who their leader is: Sylvannas Windrunner, former Ranger General of Quel'thalas. Considering the head Forsaken is and was one of the best and highest ranking hunters on Azeroth, you'd have to think she'd have the ability to train some more rangers of her own if she so desired.

MS: It'd also give her a more tangible connection with her ranger-heavy allies, the blood elves.

DW: We also saw the Dark Ranger corps show up in Northrend, so the next expansion would be the perfect opportunity to swell their ranks. And in case you're concerned about the fact that Rangers are traditionally elven instead of human, recall that Nathanos Blightcaller, formerly Nathanos Marris, was a human.

MS: Which brings us to the next topic, human hunters. People have historically cited Nathanos Marris' death as the "reason" for no human hunters. Your take?

DW: I don't know that I quite buy that reasoning. There's plenty of reasons for Humans to be Hunters. We know that Humans enjoy a bit of good old fashion hunting. Humans have figured prominently in all of Hemet Nesingwary's Safaris, often taking leadership roles. While not every Stormwind Human is going to be amazing at woodcraft, there's plenty of Humans who don't mind getting their hands dirty out on the frontiers and forests.
MS: Look at the sheer number of trappers and hunting outposts in Northend -- all led by humans!

DW: Exactly! Humans in Northrend appear to make their living primarily on hunting, trapping, and fishing, and their Vykrul Ancestors definitely have Hunters in their ranks, complete with wolf pets. So the bloodline is there for Human Hunters as well.

MS: Not only that, but the rest of the Alliance has a pretty big hunter element -- dwarves, night elves, and going away from playable races for a minute, there's the High Elves. It's not as if the High Elf Ranger population is getting any larger, and adding humans into the fold by having a Ranger-General teach them elven bowcraft might be a great way to bolster their forces -- as well as ensure that the craft isn't lost for good should something terrible happen."

"
NIGHT ELF AND ORC MAGES:
MS: People are freaking the hell out over night elf mages.

DW: Oh yeah, this has been a big can of worms. But again, the lore exists and has existed for them. Night Elves pretty much perfected the use of Arcane Magic back when they were known as the Highborne, before the Sundering.

MS: Right. And Illidan himself was a Mage before he went demon-crazy. Obviously, Night Elf society has wholly rejected arcane magic for quite some time -- like, since the Sundering -- but Blizzard has actually opened the door for Night Elf Mages just recently, haven't they?
DW: The groundwork has definitely been laid. In Patch 3.2.2, we see a Highborne Archmage seeking an audience with Tyrande, but that's hardly the beginning of it. We've had the confirmed presence of Highbourne in Dire Maul for years now, for example. Certainly there's probably multiple good reasons for the surviving Highborne to seek refuge with the Night Elves, considering they're the same race in all but name and some minor cultural hangups.
MS: The whole reason for the Night Elves decrying the use of arcane magic was legitimate, but if anything, they should see nowadays that with the advent of Mage Hunters and Malygos' insane crusade against magic users, there are far worse threats in the world than arcane magic. One of those is pushing too hard against arcane magic.
DW: Exactly, and beyond that, the Night Elves have to have mellowed out on their approach to arcane magic over the years, considering they're now part of an Alliance that makes extensive use of Mages. That, at the least, would leave enough of a door open for them to tolerate a resurgence of magecraft among their own ranks.

MS: And honestly, we see this kind of thing with Warlocks all the time, in almost all playable races! They're tucked away in dark corners of the cities, and maybe not publicly accepted, but faction leadership seems to understand that having any given type of magic as a friend instead of an enemy is a good idea.

DW: And it looks like Dwarves and Night Elves might not be the only ones accepting the arcane back into their repertoire. Orcs are supposed to follow suit.
MS: Orc mages are ... I'm not sure. Hrm.

DW: I admit that Orc Mages probably stumped me the most of all the new race choices. I think the angle we should go with here is Gul'dan. Generally, Warlocks are Mages before they take the plunge into the whole demonic level of magic, so chances are Gul'dan and the other members of the Shadow Council were Mages at some point.

MS: But then again, they were also Shaman before that.

DW: True, so it might be best to take another tack here. Consider this: Orcs as a race are pretty much a living object lesson of what happens when you get too deep into magic, especially the demonic side. The misuse of magic lead to their homeworld being torn apart, with even the few livable fragments left being slowly torn apart year after year. It's made them galactic refugees.

MS: And Orcs already aren't exactly known for their restraint.

DW: Right. And even moving beyond the actions of the Orcs themselves, they've lately seen more examples of misuse of magic leading to bad ends and near-catastrophe. Consider Varimathras in the Battle of Undercity, the extensive damage Malygos has done to multiple parts of Northrend in trying to reclaim all magic, and even the untimely death of Grand Warlock Wilfred Fizzlebang in the Crusader's Coliseum.

MS: And, lest we forget, half the major Orc villains are Warlocks! One of them was the original Lich King, without whow we wouldn't even have Arthas around!DW: Haha, exactly. Given all of that, it may be some Orc Warlocks have just plain said, "Hey, whoa. Let's take a step back here. I don't really feel like getting my soul consumed by demons. Maybe we should tone down the magic use a bit." And Voila: Orc Mages.

MS: It seems like the most plausible scenario, and it's actually particularly likely given that Thrall is trying to teach everyone in the Horde -- starting with Garrosh -- the value of restraint."


"BLOOD ELF WARRIORS:
DW: Blood Elf Warriors are the other easy call. I mean, I still have picture of a PC Gamer cover featuring a Blood Elf Warrior in full tier 1 Warrior gear sitting around here somewhere. They most definitely exist in lore too. In Warcraft III, we saw both Blood Elf Footmen and the elite warriors of the Blood Elves, the Spellbreakers.

MS: I think Blizzard justified it by saying that all of the former Blood Elf Warriors simply became Blood Knights, but everyone knows that's not the real reason. Blood Elves had access to "too many" classes, and Hunter was chosen over Warrior because the idea of an elf ranger is more iconic than an elf meat shield. Also, it was a pretty clever move to ensure that the Horde's "new" class for BC, the paladin, was given a ton of spotlight as the new race's only tank class.

DW: Yeah, but now that Blizzard (thankfully and correctly, in my opinion) has eased up on the classes-per-race restriction, we have our Blood Elf Warriors back. To me, Blood Elf Spellbreakers are more Iconic for Blood Elves anyway (I mean, come on, even in WoW, they're on every corner of Silvermoon city as guards), while Rangers are more a High Elf thing, so I'm definitely happy to see the long overdue implementation of Blood Elf Warriors.

MS: Right, this is definitely something that's been a long time coming, was a gameplay choice over lore, and will finally allow you to create the bishie emo loner swordsman you've always desired. Fist bump!"

"GNOME PRIESTS:
DW: On the subject of Gnome Priests, I'm going to point out that Gnome healers of a type do exist in game. There's been Gnome Medics spotted in Gnomeregan, and more recently in the Howling Fjord as part of the Alliance's Northern Fleet. If you really want to be thorough, you could point out that Gnomeregan offers a Gnomeregan Bonesaw as one of its Argent Tournament rewards, and a bonesaw is traditionally a healer's tool.

MS: Yeah, absolutely. Gnomes clearly have the ability to heal, though we've not necessarily seen it magically done before. One the other hand, it's not as if other gnome magic users are few and far between.

DW: I definitely agree, which is why my final word on why Gnomes should be Priests would probably come from Northrend itself.

MS: Yeah, Northrend has certainly been eye-opening for the gnomes, or at least for those gnomes that choose to believe what they've seen in Borean Tundra and Ulduar.

DW: Right, the Gnomes have had a very interesting time of it there. They've had their whole origin and original purpose laid out before them at Fizzcrank's Airstrip in the struggle with Gearmaster Mechazod. Given that they now know where they come from, they need to come to grips with that. Are they horrified that they're descended from near-mindless Automatons and Machines, or are they proud that they were once the perfect machines of invention and innovation? Those are the type of questions a new Gnomish religion would work on answering.

MS: True; Blizzard has said before that religion might be beyond gnomes, but they've been interacting with other religious races for a long time now. Maybe they could take a step away from the drawing board and into more abstract concepts.

DW: Yeah, exactly. I'm going to raise the flag in support of Comparative Religion and Mythology in Azeroth again. I'd like to see the Gnomes not worship the Light, but rather start a Church of Innovation and Discovery, with Priests of the same preaching the virtues of said ideas.

MS: The Holy Light is comparable to Mimiron's Spark of Imagination, really, when you get down to it.

DW: Yeah, the idea of Gnome Priests being able to heal and harm via pure belief in the power of thought is actually scarily cool to me.

MS: And hardly as outright scary as some other stuff gnomes have done!
DW: Haha, right. But hey, if it comes down to it, I can deal with Gnomes depressed by their origins seeking solace in the Light too. But it would be cooler to have that whole Church of the Imagination concept, and would open up a lot more interesting lore and storytelling possibilities."

"
CLOSING THOUGHTS:

DW: I'm really very excited for what all these new race and class combinations could mean not only for immediate gameplay options but for the long term story of the Warcraft Universe. With Arthas probably dying in Patch 3.3, we're entering a whole new chapter of the story, and it's a perfect time to shake things up. With new religions, new paths, and new philosophies permeating the races and stories of Azeroth, I'm very excited to see where the lore team can take the story next.

MS: Definitely. I think that while these additions are more overtly for gameplay reasons, to facilitate more choice in faction switches and to encourage rerolling in a game where we've had the same class options for years, they also show that Blizzard isn't afraid to advance the game lore and mix things up a little. Hopefully these are just one small step toward making that happen on a large scale."

That's it. ANYONE doubting this clearly hasn't played warcraft 3. The lore is constantly MOVING, and anyone foolish enough not to understand doesn't deserve to know WoW's great lore. I'm also getting sick of "OMG GARROSH KILLING CAIRNE?!! I'M SO QUITTING TO ALLIANCE IF THAT HAPPENS BBQWTF!!!" Why would you leave a story most awesome happening? Cairnes son taking over? Goblins joining the horde? Complete makeover of orgrimmar? You people can't leave the Horde in it's greatest time of NEED!

That is all, thank you!

[InTeNsO87]

need leak channel

[ViND_]

I want to hurt you. I want to punch you so hard you cry.

I hate people like you...

Wanna say it again?

Ok.

[boomkinner]

i will cut myself if this is happening

[Hazzerd]

Wanna say it again?

Ok.

Uhm...

I hate you?

....Okay.

[Emilie Autumn]

Two weeks ago

VANILLA WOW 4 LIFE! (:

and today???

i will cut myself if this is happening

WTF people make your minds up if you want a god damn vanilla wow STOP UR BITCHING and make your god damn minds up

[boomkinner]

I never said i wanted this

[Mitron]

meh this is like flame war or something... why ?? because peoples dont want vanilla wow world to be destroyed or they dont like these speculations at all...

stop be like shitheads.

[ViND_]

Why don't we all just SHUT THE **** UP?

You're pissing me off...

[boomkinner]

i will nuke blizzard if they do this

[pkaa4eva_jr]

* Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion.
* The Barrens will be split into two separate zones of two different level bands.
I can't wait for those two to happen haha.

[Dazanosa]

You guys do know this isnt real...right?

[boomkinner]

I hope it isnt

[Hazzerd]

You guys do know this isnt real...right?

Going to be fun laughing at all of the doubters tomorrow.

Also, see this: http://www.************.com/index.php?topic=570.0