Yes, however, depending on how you want to interpret the quests and events of the Darkshore Warfront, the Night Elves have already taken Darkshore back without the use of a bottle neck.
Having done the Darkshore Warfront for a third time now and only facing Sira in every event, I think it’s safe to assume the Malfurion/Nathanos versions of the warfront we heard datamined voice actor work for never got implemented.
So, I figured I would pose some observations on how ultimately the Darkshore Warfront played out, since I was rather invested in discussions about it while it was being tested on the PTR.
Oddly enough, as far as a timeline of events, I think the Horde’s version of the warfront played out before the Alliance’s version, despite that the Alliance gameplay wise had their version of the warfront available before Horde players got their turn.
We know the Horde faces Night Warrior empowered Night Elves in their introductory questing while being lead by Nathanos, and we know Belmont is captured in the Alliance introductory questing, and freed in the Horde’s version of the warfront.
However, neither Nathanos or Belmont show up in the Alliance’s version of the warfront. And in the Alliance introductory questing we had just secured Bashal’Aran, only for the Horde to be holding it during our warfront and we have to take it back again.
Taking all this into consideration, I believe the timeline for the Darkshore warfront most logically would be:
The Alliance introductory quests from “On Whispered Winds” to up to Stage 8: The Night Warrior in “In Darkest Night”
Malfurion’s assault on the Horde caravan during the flashback in “Terror of Darkshore” before Malfurion meets up with Tyrande and the Alliance player during Stage 9: Nowhere to Run of “In Darkest Night”
Then the Horde introductory quests from “Trouble in Darkshore” up to “Where Hope Dies”, which would run concurrently with the Alliance questing from Stage 9: Nowhere to Run in “In Darkest Night” to Stage 11: The Queen’s Pawn.
Then the remaining Alliance questing in “In Darkest Night” to “We Are Coming” matches up with the Horde questing from “The Dead of Night” to “Warfront Preparations”, with the ending of “Terror of Darkshore” taking its place in the timeline here as well.
The Horde warfront, where the Horde saves Belmont from his capture in Stage 9: Nowhere to Run in “In Darkest Night” and takes Bashal’Aran from the Alliance forces that were there from Stage 7: Zenith in “In Darkest Night”
The Alliance warfront, taking Darkshore back from the Horde again.
Two additional conclusions I would make is that Nathanos himself might have been run off of Darkshore after the Horde’s warfront, probably by Tyrande and Malfurion, due to his involvement in the Battle of Dazar’alor. And additionally, where people speculated the the Night Elves and Gilneans departing for Darkshore would have weakened the Alliance’s efforts at Dazar’alor, this did not seem to be the case, as both Night Elves and Gilnean forces contributed to the feint in Nazmir that allowed the frontal assault on Dazar’alor to be successful.
And of course, our two statements on the current state of the war, which would include Darkshore:
Halford Wyrmbane says: My king, the attack on Zuldazar was a resounding success.Nathanos Blightcaller says: My queen…reports are coming in from all outposts. The Alliance is tightening its grip. Victory is within their grasp.
What I cannot speculate on is how another hypothetical fight in Ashenvale would go, since, well, it hasn’t happened, and for all we know Blizzard might not mention Ashenvale again this expansion outside of the Mission Tables.
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