Velen personally tutored Anduin for many, many years. As far as you know, Velen taught him that spell.
You’re putting way more emphasis on that than is warranted, but since you insist on trying to frame me on it, let’s keep going:
Velen was on equal terms with Kil’jaeden and Archimonde when the gift of Sargeras was offered to them. He was just as powerful as priest as they were in their own respective disciplines. You might want to ding Velen for having muddy visions around Legion, but that’d be a very convenient way to completely ignore the millennia of competence he’s displayed in his closeness to the Light.
Anduin did a flashy uber-spell in a moment of desperation. Velen’s been a priest for thousands of years. Do the math.
The game isn’t telling you Anduin is better than Velen. You’re just not looking past the fact that Anduin is currently more relevant to the story right now and Velen isn’t, and ignoring anything that doesn’t mesh with your hate- for human chracters that happen to be important to the story.
Edit: I dunno why you deleted your post asking for an opinion on why Velen is always ‘outshined’ by Anduin, but I’ll go ahead and chalk it up to a realization that you didn’t actually have a good reason to keep doubting it.
So why not make Velen use the uber spell? I just rewatched the cinematic. I’ll give Liuv credit in that it’s not a mass rez. Its greater than anything we’ve seen Velen do or read about him doing. What are his achievements exactly as a priest besides being given visions and then using them to flee over and over again?
Instead we get Anduin with 0 experience in combat zones getting a triple kill and then he performs a very powerful healing spell. Why not Velen? Why isn’t it Velen performing a massive heal? Why isn’t it one of the Dwarven leaders getting a triple kill? Or Jarod Shadowsong? Hell why not Genn? At least he’s not 100% human anymore.
It’s been Anduin’s story since MoP. Hello? Velen did next to nothing in Legion but tell his engineer to make the Vindicaar. Or am I supposed to be impressed that he cast chain demon that one time?
Velen figured out what the Light’s Heart was, lost his son, got closure with Kil’Jaeden, and unveiled the vessel that allowed us to go to Argus.
You’re being extremely disingenuous.
WoD had next to nothing to do with Anduin.
He had barely anything to do in Legion except for a quest chain that dealt with him stepping into his father’s shoes. I dunno man, that’s kind of an important thing to make a little bit of room for. Otherwise it was all about how the Horde and Alliance got slammed by the LEgion and Order Halls had to pick up the slack-- and Anduin was notably absent from the Priest Hall.
BfA is an Anduin story because it’s a Horde/ALliance story. And since he’s the leader of it, he’s going to be at the center the same way the leader of the Horde is-- for better or for worse.
Okay. So show me where Velen has proven himself more powerful than Anduin? When did he get a quad kill? When did he successfully heal/raise an entire army? Besides having a vision and going “One day Anduin will be the God priest I must train him” what has he done to be shown he has a higher mastery over wielding the Light?
I have no idea what you consider to be a demonstration of power or competence but if you’re going to boil it down to a single moment of expressed power I think you’re missing the point.
Has Velen ever been the central character in a cinematic where he pulled off a powerful spell? No. A lot of his power is inferred.
He was very likely on the same level with his holy magics as Archimonde and Kil’jaeden were with theirs when they were leaders of the Eredar people on Argus. Kil’jaeden even declared that Velen was the most poweful of the three, the most intune with the Arcane and science. He’s capable of prophetic vision and can communicate over vast distances with his people. It’s also implied by his AU version that he can imbue his essence into someone else, greatly heightening their power. His ability to commune with the Light and the Naaru is also significant and worthy of note. Bear in mind that unlike most Draenei, his “Gift of the Naaru” sigil is always alight, suggesting that he’s always tapped into what is probably a significant amount of holy energy.
You’re really framed in on raw power, and maybe that was partly my own mistake. Whoever said that being a good priest was ever about power? Whoever said that being a great priest required it?
A priest communes with their faith, and translates that to their people. They are the ‘voice’ of their Gods and reach the commonfolk, where Paladins are the ‘fist’ and march on battlefields for their cause. King Anduin is present on the battlefields but he’s still a priest, and he’s probably there as a military commander moreso than as a guiding voice of the faith.
Velen is a better priest than Anduin. It’s not about a flashy spell, it’s about your leadership, your duty to your people, and the radiance of your faith. All things that Anduin is still figuring out while Velen’s been at it for 25,000 years.
Priest is Anduin, who is clearly stronger, wiser and has more magic spiderman bones than Velen. Varian was a superior warrior than Garrosh, who was a superior warrior to memefang. The leader of the Rogue Hall was some Human guy.
In a game with like 20 playable races, most of the GREATEST OF ALL TIME of every class are Human.
It didn’t make me change factions, as I’ve always mained Alliance, but it’s effectively snuffed out any interest I had in even bothering dipping my toes in on Horde just to see the story.
Horde is dead for me, being completely honest; there’s nothing I can think of that’ll redeem it at this point either, and that truly, and sincerely, upsets me. Been playing since launch and this expansion’s writing is what has finally pushed me over the edge.
Being the leader of the Rogue Hall doesn’t mean he was the best at it. Especially considering the actual leader is supposed to be the PC because lol reasons and power fantasy.
Thrall’s the most powerful Shaman, wasn’t the leader of the Shaman Hall.
Gul’dan was the most powerful Warlock, not the leader of the Warlock Hall.
Odyn was leader of the Warrior hall, but is not regarded as the most powerful Warrior.
Humans make up the best representative of like four classes.
I mentioned it to someone else earlier that ‘most powerful’ is a pretty clumsy shorthand.
Gul’dan’s dead, but that doesn’t mean Kanrethad is anything more than a cheap imitation when you take into account how influential that character is to the overall mythos. And that applies to Thrall as well.
Maybe it’d be better to say ‘most memorable’ instead of ‘most powerful’, but it still remains that humans are the only clear contenders for a very small handful of classes. It’s only Mage, Paladin, and Death Knight where they stand out. Priests if you want to pick Anduin over Velen for no convincing reason.
I don’t lie you midget, I misremembered (One does have to check quite carefully which soldiers are deader than dead and which ones are 5 secs to perma death… So to say I just see a bunch of people lying on the ground while our treasure makes his best shonen anime hero interpretation and saves them all effortlessly.
![:bone:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/bone.png?v=6" ":bone:")
for human chracters that happen to be important to the story.