Blizzard should do something with the Sunwell now that it’s back, We used to have the most powerful mages on Azeroth. They never use Blood Elves and Magic anymore, it’s “The Light” For 9 thousand years the elves were using Arcane Magic.
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I personally don’t expect much from Lor’themar anymore. I would however, like to see Rommath lighting some stuff on fire.
I’m sure we’ll see Baine with more than just being on his knees, eventually. He will be outright prostrate with his butt in the air for the Alliance at some point.
As someone who previously did not care for Gallywix, I believe BFA gave him some cool factor. It’s a shame that it was only to cast him off, though, like the warchiefs going bad.
As much as I enjoyed watching Rokhan hex people in combat during the extraction, they probably could have given him more love in BFA for sure.
They really should have had a fully rendered cinematic of Ji punching a dinosaur. I’m pretty sure that would have redeemed BFA of like at least 25% of it’s sins.
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Reforging the Bloodhoof Rune spear and empowering it with… the… err… power of friendship ! ( no wait! )
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If you want to do Bloodhoof Rune Spear, then it needs to be at the end of a cycle of growth and development for Baine in SLs. It needs to involve Cairne and perhaps even Huln. And it needs to be a SLs weapon, perhaps relying on the single ruin that Baine received from his father. “Healing”.
Giving Baine a weapon that allows for some level of Auto-Regen/Auto-Healing would really work well with the absolutely absurd brute strength he is canonically supposed to have. The real issue is whether he can get the symbolic necessary growth to be both peace oriented, but also know when and how to use force when it is needed … to make it worth it. Like Cairne did.
EDIT: As for Thrall, they just need that new statue and what that design means a reality. Not the “Warchief” part, but the Doomhammer, Frostwolf, Shaman, and Warrior hybrid parts with heavy emphasis on getting back to his WC3 roots. Jin just needs to go Loa.
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On the other hand, she also fangirls Jaina’s flying ship, so …
Basically, yeah. I think the Horde’s warrior core would do better if Blizzard would let them be superhuman in the way that Warrior PCs are. The Warrior class hall had a bit of this with cool jump-into-the-sky transportation and huge feats of strength, why can’t Horde warriors do the same?
If Jaina encases Geya’rah in a block of ice, have Jaina be taken aback when the Mag’har just rageflexes right out of it and brute forces through her magical snares to dropkick her.
If Malfurion turns into a giant bear and summons a wall of vines to pin down Baine, have the tauren rip them right up by the roots and club the archdruid with massive boulders torn up by his own vines.
etc.
Blizzard is happy to invent new abilities and uses for magic for magic/mystic NPCs, why can’t warriors pull some anime crap in response? The threat of being up against a Horde warrior-leader should be being screamed at so hard your brain explodes and having the earth beneath you shatter when they Mortal Strike you into the next dimension. Magical armor, legendary weapons, and the quasi-supernatural power of PURE RAGE can close the gap if blizzard wants to go that way.
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There isn’t much they can do and this has been a problem with the WoW Storyline for a fair bit of time now. The Alliance have had significantly more powerful factions leaders while also having territorial advantages along with resource and troop advantages and yet the faction’s have played out equally in the storyline with Horde actually being more dominant upto BFA.
BFA had a change in this as Sylvannas received a power up and Anduin claimed Alliance forces are down to conscription, before this time however
Malfurion > Horde (thats right, leaders and armies combined) while the Horde lived in a desert with no food and people dieing within the walls of Orgrimmar.
yet somehow always had enough to field a winning fight vs the alliance.
Now with Sylvannas/Nathanos/Saurfang/Gallywix (my god we lost alot) gone and Tyrande’s power up its an even more lopsided event.
3 Likes
The horde(with exception of Talanji) currently has a low fantasy power levels which imo is fine as we don’t know need every leader to be like Goku or a superhero to brag about it, now we only need to depower and take away importance from the Alliance cast, especially the human potential superpower
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Leftover baggage from D&D’s influence on western generic fantasy, where the caster classes are all more powerful than Merlin, Gandalf, and Solomon fused into one being, but god help you if your dude with a sword asks to do something an 8th-century peasant with a polearm couldn’t ‘plausibly’* do, let alone pull some Beowulf-tier shenanigans.
edit: also a strong source of the general attitude of ‘magic is a very specific kind of learned knowledge and inherent gift that involves drawing on some sort of energy, and fightyfolk are fundamentally defined by never ever doing any of it and must be only as powerful as a real buff guy IRL carrying a big machete.’
*defined arbitrarily and unkindly
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The horde doesn’t need to be magical powerhouses they just need the actual story portraying them as strong champions.
The largest detriment to the Warrior power fantasy was in WOD where thrall cheats his way out of the fight basically making garrosh look like a chump with his shaman power. what they need to show is that classes have a way to counter magic. Like a warrior raging out of a frost block or smashing a fireball aside like it was nothing.
I do think that Lothemar would make a good spell breaker. They were my favorite unit back in frozen throne. Having him pick up the skills and be skilled in countering casters would be good.
The Horde could also use a blademaster whose skills with a sword are unmatched and he can literally cleave magic in half.
Rokahn and the Shadow hunters need to be fleshed out.
Make Rexxar have some more powerful beasts at his disposal that his bonds with them enhance his own strength.
Have Chen join the Horde officially and become the next monk Grandmaster.
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No, he definitely needs to become Warchief, too.
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No, he really doesn’t. Despite the Warchief title only existing like canonically for what 40 years tops, it has a absolutely horrific track record. Especially for the Orcs, who are the only Horde race with any real history with it. Honestly, player nostalgia is not a sufficient enough reason to force back a position with so much baggage … and so many instances of bad leaderships and choices.
Blackhand; Doomhammer; Ner’zhul; Garrosh; Sylvanas for the MU Horde. Bladefist for the Fel Horde. Rend for the Dark Horde. AU Grom for the Iron Horde. Like holy crap is that a cavalcade of nightmare problems in a very short amount of time.
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I’d like to preface my comments by saying, having powerful characters in one’s faction, does not mean they will be used. If anything, it’s almost more damaging to the faction’s pride and identity when these power houses need to lose, or be stalemated. Case in point, Tyrande. Worse is when these power houses are ignored; as an example, Jaina at the Broken Shore not teleporting the Alliance away, or even just Varian right before he died.
That having been said…
I really wish they’d make Lor’themar into the ultimate Spellbreaker. Spellbreakers are such an iconic part of the Blood Elf identity from WC3, and what’s better, given his relationship with Thalyssra, it’d make them even more of a power couple in the Horde. Imagine Thalyssra raining down an Arcane Storm on her enemies and Lor’themar just wades right into the mix, utterly immune to the devastating magic she’s casting, while slaughtering anyone strong enough to remain standing.
I think Rokhan could use a power-up, and I kind of hope it comes from Vol’jin. Vol’jin seems like he’s on the path to becoming a Loa, and if he can empower Rokhan, it’d be a great boost for the Darkspear Trolls. Even if he’s brought up to Talanji’s level, or slightly below it, I think it’d be a great way to bolster the Horde’s roster of powerful characters. Rokhan has the added benefit of being a WC3 Veteran, and due for some strong development as well.
If the Horde really is stuck with Calia Menethil leading the Forsaken, then at least give her a power-up in the Shadowlands. If that fate is at all possible to avoid, I’d love to see Lillian Voss get some kind of impressive boost in power.
Baine is… unsalvageable I think, so I don’t really want to waste more time on him? He could retire to go be with Mayla and I think most players would be happy. I’d love to see Jevan Grimtotem become a more prominent Tauren though. He’s a Shaman and could easily get a power up to really give the Tauren a powerful character who isn’t afraid to bring the thunder.
Gazlowe would be a pretty fascinating potential leader to adapt towards the Goblin Alchemist from WC3.
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Irrelevant. The Warchief has been a fixture of the Horde and of Warcraft. Making us the Alliance because “Blizzard only writes WC2 Horde” is punishing us for a self fulfilling prophecy. Make Thrall World Shaman. Make Thrall don the Doomplate. Make Thrall pick up the Doomhammer.
Make Thrall Warchief.
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Its not the faction leader power fantasy that is off
None of the Horde position makes any sense, It has never made sense how they were able to compete, The Horde had no resources (lumber/metals) thats why Garrosh was in Ashenvale to take that, The Horde had no food again Garrosh – Ashenvale that was the plot point, Horde have had 1.5 civil wars (this obviously cannot be good for troops and resources). Horde have no territorial strategic advantage, Horde have faced major structural instability with
Sylvannas/Nathanos/Gallywix/Nazgrim/Garrosh Deaths and Exile’s.
Now consider The addition’s to each faction in BFA, horde received Vulpera/Mag’har both exiles and came from a position of weakness from their individual storyline’s. Now consider Dark Iron and Mechagnomes place in their respective storyline’s comming from a position of power (basically have something to offer the alliance other than effort). Zandalari and Kul Tiran are a wash as they are both equally a boon to there factions (though even then Zandalari king dead, fleet destroyed).
That is not even getting to the actual power of their leaders… yet Horde manage to keep up somehow.
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Didn’t you just post in the other thread that you want Grom back for the Horde?
Doesn’t this same metric also rule him out?
I’m with Treng, Blizzard can stop ruining warchiefs whenever they like. The amount of work that needs to go into rehabilitating the office pales in comparison to trying to maintain a council meaningfully in the story.
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However its what makes the Horde, if you don’t have a warchief your not really “the horde” anymore either. Your more an alliance of tribes which is what makes the horde just seem like a red alliance. The Horde did fine when it had a good warchief like Thrall or Ogrim. To a lesser extent Vol’jin.
The real issue is the writers have made it seem bad because they keep villain batting them leader or making them make stupid decisions.
Not to mention just cause you don’t have a warchief doesn’t mean blizzard writers won’t villain bat the Horde again. It just means it may just be one or two members of the council so the rest of the horde can pretend not to be involved. Kind of like they have always pretended.
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AU Grom, sure, but not as Warchief. Hell, not even as leader of the AU Mag’har.
And if he is still alive he’s being super Light tortured by the Lightbound. So when you combine that with 30 years of distance from his crimes, I’m fine with him eventually joining to buff up the AU Mag’har’s roster down the road.
I’m still mad they made Thalyssra cower before Jaina in BfA. This was their one chance to build up a magical rival to Golden’s golden girl but they just couldn’t commit to it.
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The story can’t bend over backwards anymore to accommodate a warchief. Two warchiefs have gone evil, and if the Horde didn’t see the problems it produces at this point, the story is no longer capable of making coherent sense. The logic of the world shatters if there is another warchief.
Furthermore, maybe Horde players don’t like the philosophical idea of one single person determining their fate anymore, now that its burned them so many times? That’s their right do decide. The position of warchief is ethically unsound, and the Horde’s members are smart enough to see that.