Legion was the last time to my memory that all the classes sans Evoker and Warlocks got any significant lore expansion and feature-focus what with all the Order Halls and us being promoted to our class’s overall leader. With Legion in mind, you think that class lore is important for Blizzard to go back in the future to expand? Doesn’t have to be to Legion’s extent, could be minor or moderate. If they do, what would you like to see? Lore for the class -overall-, like what Legion did? Lore for specific racial classes such as the Sisterhood of Elune or the Church of the Holy Light? Or even lore for specific -specializations-? Or anything else i’m missing.
Edit: Just recalled the Knights of the Ebon Blade being in Shadowlands.
Agreed. My personal take is that they should focus on smaller stuff, specifically racial-themed stuff. Doesn’t have to be major and in my opinion shouldn’t be major, i’m fine with just a few quests or a small questline here and there. (eg for Forsaken Hunters; Dark Ranger themed, Sin’dorei Hunters Farstriders, Seers for Tauren Priest, etc)
Yes, smaller quests focusing on specific groups within the classes instead of the weird “one size fits all” class lore approach would be very appreciated.
Some Legion class halls were good but some were so frustrating in their insistence to blur cultural flavors. It was specially frustrating when they didn’t even feel compelled to take this as a chance to really develop neglected cultures of their world.
An entire zone dedicated to the tauren in Legion and hunting having such a major significance in tauren culture as a whole and they decided to make the Hunter class hall elf centric? C’mon man.
The only real class halls that worked imo were the warlock, mage and Death knight ones cause those classes kinda always have been one size fits all, where as all the rest have racial variants/customs
Even within the one size fits all classes there is cultural context that got stripped, like the highborne teachings the Kaldorei have are likely not the same as what Dalaran humans are giving out. For most classes I felt like the only cultural context given was a default human one. Except Druid, which was night elf as it always is for Reasons.
The priest order hall sucked the worst, cause it just ignored religion and tried to group everyone into light or dark, so no loa priests, no forgotten shadow priests, just insane old god cultists
Class lore and identity is an integral part of my enjoyment of the game, it’s absence in Dragonflight has left me feeling un-invested despite opportunities to expand on it in multiple areas of the Dragon Isles. The Kirin Tor involvement in the Azure Span was really fun but I think they could’ve expanded further in other areas to include groups like the Earthen Ring, The Unseen Path and Cenarion Circle to name a few. Even just including representatives of those organizations would have felt more organic rather than the awkward and forced feeling of peace that the Dragonscale Expedition has.
Although I feel like Legion could’ve been executed better for some classes, I overall really loved the approach of having a neutral organization and hub for each class rather than the division by faction that we were used to. It gave the opportunity to really lean into class lore and explore more facets of it. I’ll be the first to say that I feel like the ball was dropped for some, Priest especially felt lackluster for a lot of reasons but the Conclave as a concept was still pretty neat. I especially love(d) the Shaman one.
I think the problem nowadays is that the story feels uninspired and although I know it’s always been secondary to gameplay, it’s even more so feeling like that now. Even the opportunity to offer interesting story beats on things like Draenei Warlocks or Orc Priests were lazily written into the story with boring flavor NPCs that leave more questions than answers. It’s a sad state for those of us who love class lore.
TLDR; Yes, class lore is important. (To me, anyway.)
I wasn’t a fan of the Kirin Tor making a return in Dragonflight. Didn’t care for the Cenarion Circle either, but it’s not like the greens have a personality outside of them anyway.
If class lore was focused more on a racial or factional level, sure, but grouping everyone under one umbrella like in Legion just made me feel like I was on loan as a character, instead of something I should feel included in.
I’m not a fan of how the Legion Order Halls homogenized the lore. Druid, Priest, and Paladin were the most egregious, imo, since they so heavily focused on one race’s interpretation of those classes and pushed all others aside.
The Druid hall made zero mention of An’she or the Loa. Pushing aside Trolls and Tauren in favor of Night Elves.
The Priest and Paladin halls were squarely Human and Draenei centric. Once again, Trolls and Tauren get pushed aside.
To me, a race’s lore takes precedence over class lore because, imo, the race’s culture determines what the class lore is. Zandalari druids don’t hold the same beliefs and customs as a druid of the Cenarion Circle. Trying to fit everyone under a single umbrella usually means one race is going to get pushed aside in favor of another.
I think the class halls would have been more successful had they taken the time to give representation to each race’s unique class flavor. Even something as small as the unique racially defining Priest abilities we used to have back in Classic were more than what we currently have.
It’s just a personal thing. I’ve tried making a Monk of different races. Only make it to about Lv. 30 before I delete them and just reroll Pandaren. The way they made the Monk class so intrinsically link with Pandaren just makes it really hard for me to play a Monk and not be a Pandaren.
I suppose the upside, though, is I really like the Pandaren. So…
Not even Humans. The Warrior class hall was objectively the worse cause it had nothing to do with ANY of the playable races it was all about Odyn and his people. It was a total missed opportunity.
Seriously they could have done so much with Warriors cause they are different for each race culturally. But instead Blizzard said screw that and made the Warrior Class Hall about Vrykul and Odyn? Why??
Class Lore was… best in Vanilla. The game made you feel tied to your class as you leveled, gained access to new abilities, and grounded it all in the world you play in.
The Shaman questline for getting all your totems is exactly this, and for 2004 it’s freakin’ amazing. Your first totem as a Tauren shaman is “Go talk to this earthy boi”, sure, but there’s always snippets of wisdom in what it means to have access to those elements.
This is completely thrown away in Legion. You don’t learn anything. You pick up a legendary weapon and swing it around like a dope until things fall down. You interact with elemental lords and uhhhh I guess that’s… about it. It doesn’t feel as grounded.
Blizzard could remedy this by making class specific quests pop up again to remind the player of the more humble side of their class, possibly even specific to their race, because the early class quests were tied to their race. Even if loosely, there was ties to what it meant to be your character class as your chosen race.
If Blizzard did this AT ALL for the allied races, oh my god I think Vulpera would actually have some solid LORE finally.
…On second thought, I don’t think I trust the current writers to make it not-cringe…
Not really, Technically Sylvannas and Tyrande both have Hunter aspects, but they only serves as minor embellishments in Tyrande’s case. “Ooh she has a bow! Oh! she left h er kitty behind!”
Warlocks have major figures in the lore but all of them are either comedic or villainous, it might be refreshing to see an alternative take.
Evokers are essentially getting their moment now in Dragonflight, in particular the Augmentors. And after this expansion they can share the bench that Death Knights and Demon Hunters now cool their jets on.
