I heard a rumor that they did something to make Baine look less useless in the SL opening (the one where Jaina’s soloing everything in sight), but no details. Anyone got more on that?
First, her biggest crime was running away from Jaina. Fangirling her ship was just the cherry on top.
Second, you’re right that there’s nothing wrong with showing interest in someone else’s magic, but when you combine it with running away when that person threatens you, it paints a pretty clear picture of you not being on their level magically.
It’s at the end of Maldraxxus questing I believe. You return to the Maw and get a quick cutscene of Baine yelling at a Forsworn before being shackled and dragged through a portal. You then pass by a bunch of Forsworn corpses and collect his mace, which has flavor text telling you how much of a baller he was about 10 seconds before you got there.
Riveting stuff. Otherwise, he still gets shanked in the Opening sequence and Thrall has to help you cure him before his soul is destroyed. He doesn’t really do much beside point the way to the next objective after that.
They’re not that ill-defined. They’re powers from the Loa. Basically any of the Loa’s domains that she needs to call upon, she can. The winds of Pa’ku. The storm of Akunda. The ferocity of Gonk. (Great Loa, stupid name.) So on and so forth. Most of it’s characterized with golden glowing power because it is ultimately holy/sacred, though it’s also often shown as more druidic green energies.
Thalyssra seems knowledgeable rather than powerful. I don’t think she is a push over but her knowledge seems to carry her more than her power and it still ends up feeling she is somewhat outclassed on the hero stage when the Alliance is taken into account. I would actually say Occuleth is probably the larger threat. The crap he did with spatial distortion and his teleporting battle in the Suramar campaign was pretty cool. I mean the guy can literally manipulate space as a weapon.
Thaly is powerful, but she’s more academic than practical. As a result, as you said, her strength lies in 10k years of study, but not necessarily power in the field. That might change over time, but even without Jaina’s insane power boosts she has a lot more in-the-field experience.
Occuleth is dangerous because he’s absurdly specialized. He’s taken a specific school of magical study to an absolute extreme. Rommath would also be powerful, if he could only get some damned screen time! The guy is conceptually the Jaina of Fire Magic, but he’s always sitting on his hands.
I mean, Sylvanas was the most powerful Horde leader barring maybe Thalyssra, but Blizzard had to crap all over her character and randomly make her a villain.
We’re not allowed to have strong characters. Kael’thas? Randomly made a villain. Thrall? Loses his connection with the Elements because he feels bad. Sylvanas? Randomly made a villain. Talanji and Thalyssra? Oh, don’t worry, they’ll be pushed to the side soon so we can have more time for “Me StRoNg CuZ sMaSh!” people like Baine.
Sigh … the guy really needs some toughening up in SLs, and an extended “field trip” with his dad and/or Huln. Like, I cannot think of anything more insulting to self worth to be kidnapped … again … but this time just pooped out by your captor for being “worthless”. While Anduin is thankfully stuck in the damned tower, Baine needs to gain some internal balance and independence from him. Peace oriented is fine, but not knowing how and when to use force is not.
Have that growth culminate with him forging a new SLs/Torghast brand Bloodhoof Rune Spear.
Anyone else miss when Thrall could summon a tornado big enough to chuck around an army of ogres even though he claimed that he was weakened by what was essentially a language barrier with the elements of Draenor?
And then they turned him into a hippie with an axe
Jeesus Thrall has been nerfed through the floor, and only very recently has even been able to wield the Elements again. Or are we forgetting that cringe “Goldylocks” Weapon Quest so soon? “This Axe is JUST right” … gross.
As for the OPs main point. Power levels don’t matter in WoW. Conceptually, on paper, the Alliance and its roster aren’t even operating within the same genre of power-fantasy as the Horde these days. They’re essentially the Justice League. But, because Blizz goes overboard with them AND also requires the weaker Horde (they don’t want to bother giving motives or development) to be the aggressors … that “conceptual on-paper” power is pretty worthless. The Blue demigods will always get hit with the stupid and nerf sticks to make the story work.
The Horde has “Thrall” (Maybe), Vol’jin (Maybe), Talanji and Thaly. Thats about it atm. And Talanji and Thaly are not equals by any means to their Priest and Mage counterparts on the Alliance. Because both Talanji and Thalyssra’s powers come with a whole lot more requirements than those Blue contemporaries.
The Horde just needs some power houses to make a war between the two faction more feasible. The Alliance having all the major power houses basically means that they could roll over the Horde instantly, which is stupid.
There are certain people I do not want to be power houses though. Lor’themar, Halduron and Rommath to be exact.
I want Lor’themar and Halduron to just be insanely great military leaders and strategists, not so much hit hard, cast good magic power.
Rommath, can be more powerful than the average magi, obviously. But where I prefer to have him, is being a knowy-boy. He may not be Khadgar or Jaina powerful in terms of casting spells and hurting with spells, but he has a far deeper and more vast knowledge of magic in general, which could still allow him an edge - which would also explain Rommath knowing the possibly catastrophic outcomes of the Void Elves and Sunwell meeting.
