Patch 7.2, Tomb of Sargeras, should’ve been altered to be the next patch (at least the raid). One of the biggest things that I never understood about Legion is why didn’t more people fall to the sway of the fel, after all the lure of the magic is powerful and intoxicating.
7.2 could’ve been “Return to the Broken Shore” with it’s own perks of that patch along with a raid of 8-10 bosses that consisted of…one of your champions from your order hall that fell to the Legion and turned traitor. I always thought that we may have felt invincible with the order halls, like some sort of shared unity without compromise and I thought that if they added layer of treachery, it would’ve been a way to show that unity/resolve. “Even when one of us falters, the rest will continue the fight to lead to a brighter future”.
For example, what if the Mathias Shaw we killed on the last bit of the Rogue Campaign was ACTUALLY the real one and we kept Detheroc still in disguise? What if Hodir was fully corrupted by the fel and not rescued in time by his brother, possibly even killing Thorim to prove his loyalty to the Legion? What if Shinfel Blightsworn from the Warlock Campaign was subjucated by the Demonic Inquisition after prolonged capture? How about Magatha and her pet serpent providing a bargain for power, considering she’s a Grimtotem?
Imagine a whole raid where you fight bosses that you considered friends/allies in order to strike at the deceiver in the Tomb of Sargeras.
What I’d do is move Argus to it’s own eventual expansion, and have the Tomb sealing be the capstone raid.
I’d write the betrayal bit as the Legion panicking about the impending sealing of the tomb and pulling out every card/stop they have. I don’t think every class hall needs a traitor, maybe build some of the bosses as persistent nemeses for some class hall stories.
I didn’t mind fighting a literal titan at the end of Legion but it was definitely off to fight two of Warcraft’s version of gods at the end of the expansion, literal power creep. I can totally see us fighting Argus in the expansion after and not right after ToS, always found that odd choice of direction to that right after Kil’jaeden’s defeat.
We did have our own nemesis throughout the expansion which were either the dreadlords, an eredar, or something else. Some of them were good, others decent and a few that were just meh so if they were going to be a boss in that raid it would have to be the ones that were more involved like Balnazzar.
The Legion is supposed to be one of the strongest armies in the cosmos against one planet, an undeniable victory shouldn’t be in the cards, for us. A pyrrhic victory would be the best outcome or like ForumTroll said, “Sealing the gateaway in the Tomb as the capstone raid”.
The big sword in Slithus meant nothing except a convenient way to bring the next xpac in. The Legion affected small parts of the world that weren’t immediately stomped out like Karazhan, Duskwood, etc. so having a patch about the traitors would actually have been refreshing.
Hell…utilizing Balnazzar, it could’ve sown the seeds of the Jailer then and actually make Shadowlands make some sense. Yes the dynamic between Shaw and Flynn is cute but I would take a badass patch that greatly helps the xpac and future xpacs over any romance.
The idea does not have to be relegated to a point in time. I am not sure why you chose 7.2 specifically, but the concept could be cool at any point. Even today. The Primalists are already from our societies. The Factions are working together - or at least avoiding open war.
I do think the concept of a raid that is like 5 Horde Characters and 5 Alliance Characters who ditched the Factions and joined forces against us for some purpose would be fun. Just need to find a good purpose.
The Legion and the Fel does not seem convincing enough to turn a dramatic amount of our current allies, mostly because we know so much about the Legion. The lure of the Legion and the Fel worked best when it was not so well understood. The folks we work with know it well.
It worked on the Draenei long ago because they were not fully aware of what the Legion was. Same with Nerzhul and how he thought he was communing with his dead wife - but it was Kiljaeden. Or Azshara welcoming the Legion because of her vanity, and how her people turned on her once they realized what it meant.
The reason why I chose 7.2 is cause the whole Legionfall campaign from what I remember was bland, literally you waited one of the weeks to turn in nethershards…and that’s it. A whole campaign about the tratiors would’ve spiced it up and made that patch interesting.
The purpose is right there, doubt in Azeroth’s forces actually winning the fight, torture to be forced to act upon their own forces, a bargain for power, etc.
Legion came out in 2016 and yes, we did have an understanding of the dangers of the Fel but the lure of this energy is tempting like caffeine or nicotine. You overestimate the resolve of people, I admire that naive nature, but it doesn’t have grounds in reality. Some people will turn because of their own emotions, it’s just nature. Archimonde willingly turned to Sargeras and some of the orcs did so as well, even when they knew the effects of the fel.
The primalists have a cause which is to destroy the titan’s design and return to a more chaotic nature, but in reality the incarnates are just pissed Tyr did experiments on them which is hypocritical considering they are doing the same thing to the eggs of the different dragon flights.
That is a strange way to frame your position - in reality - since the reality is we did not get the defections you wanted. The reality of events in the canon are actually on my side. You are trading in what you would have liked to have seen. In an alternate reality.
Even your example of Shaw, in reality, was not a case of him joining the Legion. He was replaced by a Dreadlord. It would be an alternate reality for what you wanted.
The reality is - since you bring that up -we did not have those sorts of defections. You would like to discuss an alternate reality. I am pointing out the reality of the situation was we did not have tons of people from our side defecting to the Legion, and that the Legion was not as alluring as you make it out to be, especially among the people already on our side.
Again, I like the concept of facing people who were on our side in a raid. I would like a good reason, though. I just do not think the Legion is compelling or convincing enough to get an appreciable number of people on our side currently, to switch over.
While I would not have minded if that is how Legion ended. The one we got is vastly more superior and memable. The idea that we would be the one chasing the Legion is so audacious that is actually kinda brilliant and seeing Khadgar/Velen dumbfounded as Argus appeared was definitely worth it.
Yeah. Kicking the Legion in the teeth and sealing their only easy manner of invasion away is a massive win, IIRC this invasion of Azeroth was planned and in the works since the WOTA.
actually ending the threat should have been a huge undertaking with us needing to give nearly everything we had to the effort, rather than Illidan and Velen just kind of shepherding the murderhoboes to an easy win.
We have had tastes of “fighting allies turned traitor” before. Two examples are the Auchindon Dungeon in WoD and the Seige of Orgrimmar raid for the Horde (particularly the Nazgrim boss-fight). That said, I agree it could’ve made a good expansion even better.
Just saw this now but I do agree in some of the directions that the writers made canon but their is plenty of reasons to question it and make some form of thought of what it could’ve been. The Story forum is used to think about the ideas about the future on what has been given but it’s also good to reflect on the past and see what did/didn’t work or could’ve been included.
Though, sorry to make me sound patronizing on the last post I made but it’s somewhat true…if you don’t offer questions of “What if we had this” or “This could’ve made that patch better” then we are going to have another form of Shadowlands.
