This patch is amazing. I’m not even done with it yet and I can already see they put a lot of effort into developing the culture and story around the Goblins. The cartels, how they see the world, this amazing mafia style story that both fun and really dark. This is great, and if you’re a Goblin player, or even someone who loves the Goblin narrative, I’m happy for you, and I hope you love it even more than I do.
But as a dwarf, I have to say I’m kind of pissed that the Earthern weren’t even close to this good. It actually feels like the complete opposite. The Goblins are real, this story in nuanced, and the interplay between the cartels is everyone the “bring back the faction war” people think the Alliance vs. Horde is. It’s compelling and multi-dimensional.
The Earthen weren’t even good robots. The story was mailed in, it felt like we’d done a “we were robots but now we’re free” story before, and nothing new was added that made it compelling. The best part of the story was the Earthen losing his memories and fading away. Which is the best story since that Dragon with a Dwarf visage back in DF sat on the edge of the flightpath and told the story of a lost love from before the Dragon Isles vanished.
I don’t want to make demands. I think people are trying, and this patch is amazing. We’re all adults here, we’ll be fine. No one’s dying, and the game is getting better. But I hope we revisit the dwarves again in a future story. Because there’s three factions within them, they’re a race that has been around, and played a major role in the story. They have interesting factional issues. Unfortunately, we didn’t really get to see any in TWW. As I think about it, I think the Arathi and the Harronir were bigger elements to 11.0 than the Earthen were.
This is a dream come true for me! I love the goblin aesthetic, race, Undermine, all of it. By far the most fun I’ve had in WoW. I’ve been dreaming about Undermine and the hot rod since Cata!
Honestly, the premise that we will revisit Dwarf lore again is quite high. Consider that we are having Magni and Moira return to Ironforge, Magni making his first appearance as flesh back to his people and Moira carrying his hammer and assigned to rule on his behalf in the council.
It may take a little bit, but I do think they let a loose end here on purpose to make something out of it, so I hope they go in-depth those matters in the future too!
Also, yes, Undermine knocks all 3 zones of TWW out of the park, but I am a bit biased because I love Goblin lore and I was exhausted of Alliance-oriented storyline as we have been getting for more than half of Dragonflight and then the massive Horde irrelevance in the main story and 3 starter zones of TWW.
So I was 100% Goblin the whole time I played in the EU. Very close race to my heart.
By far and beyond the story for this patch is significantly better than the one I saw for the Dwarves. Earthern to an extent are proto-dwarves and maybe do that part too well because the titan-forged machinery awkwardness flows through.
Goblins on the other hand are incredibly relatable. They’re essentially more human in nature than playable humans and I love it.
They absolutely smashed the story so far and I’m excited to see the last chapter (done the zone 2 times, one more character to take up to chapter 4 and the timegated questline for sojourner to do).
Honestly, I enjoyed the zones. I think Hallowfall was the weakest to me because I was more interested about Beladar and the matters around the Arathi than Anduin PTSD and perfect pious… I forgot the name of the NPC that hangs with you.
Both Dwarf area was neat. Forgetful, but I like the Earthen and the difference of behavior from those on the surface and those underground. Spider place best part was rescuing Dalaran survivors. The rest is interesting, but not really superb to me.
It’s kinda wild how night and day the comparison is between Earthen and Goblin.
Earthen are machines built with a specific purpose, and have the personalities to match. Now, they are trying, and trying really darn hard, but almost all of them just feel purely robotic and empty.
I loved the Earthen unlock quest chain purely because it showed emotion, something that seemed to be extremely lacking in a lot of other Earthen exchanges. I thought it was really interesting how Merrix was doing things that one would consider underhanded purely for the good of his people. Even if it meant getting his hands dirty.
And that’s how far my interest in the Earthen went, which I hate because I love Dwarves. Bronzebeards, Wildhammers, Dark Irons, all have real interesting lore and characters. Wouldn’t trust Bronzebeards to win any potion throwing contests but they’re alright folk.
Goblins? They’re brimming with personality, as is the entirety of Undermine. The cartel interactions, the constant struggle of the strong oppressing the weak, both in monetary threats and in force, the struggle to try to make things easier for those just trying to make a living, even if it’s just a little.
All the Titan and Void stuff, sure, that’s great and all, but I’m going to busy myself helping out this poor mom and her kid deal with a biker gang real quick, if that’s alright with you.
I was disappointed when the Freysworn (Druids in the early beta) got changed to seem more Shaman-like, and the healer in the Rookery story dungeon got changed to a Shaman. I was REALLY holding out hope for Earthen Druids.
Oddly enough Earthen are awarded a Freysworn tint for their heritage armor.
Wouldn’t mind another Druid race on Horde that isn’t a flavor of Tauren or Troll.
