I’ve just gotta say something after reading this thread. At this point anyone who still only plays Horde is bringing their issue on themselves. If you refuse to play a lot of the game’s existing content you don’t really get to complain the game doesn’t have enough content.
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I see more reactions like “at least it’s finally over now please leave us alone” with Bel’ameth than really being happy with it.
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I am adamant that as far as I’m concerned, I’ve been seeing mostly positive reactions from Nelf fans to 10.2.0/10.2.5 and Bel’ameth/Amirdrassil (even from Hardcore Nelfitos, which is quite the feat), at least after their concerns over what Amirdrassil would imply for the Kaldorei’s other settlements were given a very explicit (and very… stilted) answer.
Which is perfectly compatible with them also being relieved that their BFA storyline is finally over, btw.
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They ignore this was about the alliance since Legion while the Horde got nothing. IDK why any Horde still pays their sub at this point.
many races have it worse then nelves.
cracks knuckles Time for a good ol’ wall of text, because I just came back to the game for this scenario, and boy do I have opinions.
First off: I absolutely love that Blizz is picking up old story threads like this. This evolving world is what made me love the game and what keeps bringing me back. I love seeing plots and lore about how the various PC homelands are doing.
But.
This plot has had 14 years to stew and build up expectations. A 10-minute questline wasn’t going to cut it.
I like elements like the rat tunnel, showing the Gilneans returning by the same secret passage they used to escape. But when shooing rats is 1/3 of the whole reclamation experience, it’s not as fun.
And I loved the cinematic with Tess. It was adorable. And the following cinematic with Genn at Liam’s grave was likewise beautiful and I love seeing those establishing moments for major characters.
And yet, the questline left me more frustrated than happy. I had such hopes for the reclamation, and having the “Reclamation of Gilneas” be the banner for the whole patch set my expectations high.
I was hoping for a multi-part campaign: a preparation phase as Ahn’Qiraj/Warfront-style resource turn-ins as NPCs gossiped, establishing a foothold in Gilneas and scouting to establish who the enemies were and the lore around them, and the final dramatic push that would call back to the whole battle for Gilneas from the starter zone.
I wasn’t too happy when the enemy was datamined as the Scarlets - they can conceptually fit as enemies of the worgen, but they don’t have a past with them, and they’re not the enemy that drove the Gilneans out in the first place and thus wouldn’t provide the thematic bookends for the loss and reclamation. But there were plenty of possibilities to establish the Scarlets as fitting villains for this story, and I was looking forward to some nice juicy lore about who they were and why they were in Gilneas. Were they the remains of the Scarlets driven south by the Forsaken after the Lordaeron questline? Would they start out trying to ally with the worgen against the Forsaken, along the lines of those propaganda pamphlets found in Tirisfal earlier, only to ‘betray’ the worgen in a move that everybody saw coming but could still be fun and dramatic? Might they have that alleged ‘Menethil heir’ mentioned in those pamphlets, where Calia’s involvement can be around trying to find if this really is her long-lost child? Were these Scarlets actual Gilneans themselves, the heirs of Ashbury and Godfrey and the like who were rabidly (pun intended) anti-worgen? Are these Scarlets strangely empowered by some sort of magic light crystal as a lead-up to the underground Arathi in the upcoming expac?
…Only, it wasn’t any of that. The Scarlets were there because they were there. Their few lines of dialogue were painfully generic ‘purifymonstersblahblahblah’.
I felt similarly about the Forsaken involvement - I had expected for it either to be a mirror of Lordaeron (“Go spy on what they’re doing”, a disguise, and exactly the same quests) or to have their own mirror where the Forsaken were pursuing the Scarlets for their own reasons - where the partisan Forsaken can be there to put down the Scarlet threat once and for all, and the cooperative ones might be there to help Calia look for what the Scarlets claim is her child, etc. I was hoping for some fun Stay a While and Listens going over Gilnean/Forsaken history - How Gilneas abandoned them to the Scourge, their view of Sylvanas’ invasion, etc.
But it was just Calia and Voss, just “Forsaken are good now, take my word for it because for some reason I guess I can’t spend a minute or two to explain.” And the Forsaken somehow go along with that, too.
(And a really minor point, but I was hoping for a teeny bit more of a personal element from the reaction to Calia - even just something like one additional sentence in Mia’s line: “This is Calia. You remember the times when Terenas would bring her over, when she and Liam would play along with Tess’ tea parties?” Play into these characters’ past histories with each other! These are fun character elements!)
I suppose what really stings - because this wasn’t a bad brief questline, if that is all that was expected - is that I had hoped that this Reclamation of Gilneas was a sign that Blizzard was focusing its efforts on stories affecting the old world.
But this lack of effort in the actual reclamation shows that they aren’t - they’re happy with a 10-minute experience, with completely interchangeable enemies and allies, with only the barest of references to past lore or characters’ history.
And that kills my enthusiasm for the rest of the game.
The only thing that interests me about the War Within is the underground Arathi - and even then, it’s only for what that might tell us about the ancient Arathi and perhaps create a culture that can be applied to the current aboveground Arathi. But if Gilneas is the bar they’ve set, then I’m not sure that I’ll get much from the Arathi plot. And beyond that, in Midnight - I am now fearing what kind of quality it will have when it revamps Quel’thalas.
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Midnight will ruin the blood elves because we will be forced to become neutral and accept Alleria as new queen. Once again alliance privilige hits.
I just played it yesterday and my hot take is: “It was okay.”
Could’ve been better, could’ve been worse. I could have liked it if the battle was much bigger and didn’t have a bunch of elite mobs. But I understand this is just a small epilogue mission for a bigger campaign. It was short, too. And the Crusaders were wearing the lamest version of the tabard lol.
But the cinematic with Tess and Genn hit me hard. I also didn’t like how under-populated the city was but when you talk to Darius Crowley, that fact becomes an absolutely haunting story element that clear wasn’t an oversight. “So many empty houses” – chilling.
I would’ve liked more, but what we got was alright. I kind of hope this isn’t the last time Blizz will update Gilneas, but if it is, it’s still better than leaving it unoccupied ruins forever. It’s nice to be back home.
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This part. The cinematic was great. And talking to Crowley afterwards when he says “So many empty houses” I was like oh…
Like I assumed the Gilneans had lost a huge chunk of their population between the events of Cata to now, but Darius Crowley saying it, which is Blizzard confirming it hardcore, really kind of hit me hard. I was just like damn the Gilneans are really a dying kingdom that has lost so much. But hopefully now they can rebuild and repopulate.
And like you said, I hope this isn’t the last time we see Gilneas. Though my suspicion is that both Gilneas and Lordaeron are going to get revamps to be the hubs for each faction in Midnight, those will be where we end up sailing from to get to Quel’thalas.
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Rewatching the cinematic, it is lovely. Perhaps I was a little too harsh initially in that regard. Hopefully we’ll get more worgen lore going forward, now that Genn isn’t strictly tied to gilneas.
More stories with Darius and the other worgen would awesome 
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See… it’s good… see… I wasn’t just being a not-worgen. 
Those quests have problems… that’s true, but I don’t think it’s the beats the writers were throwing down that were the problem. My guess is there used to be a lot more to it, but the backlash caused a knee jerk reaction, and this is what we got as a result, not enough time for a full rebuild, but enough time to duct-tape something together.
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I know a few things definetly got cut, like the dock that was datamined and stuff. But yeah, we’ll see how things are handled going forward. I just think Tess needs more fleshing out for me to truly love her like I do Genn, that’s all.
I’m easy to make happy like that, give her a cool moment like Genn had in Stormheim and I’ll be invested in her
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Oh yes, she needs more exposure time in game.
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Hmm interesting. So Tess is equal to Turaylon/Gul’dan now:
I have no idea who that tauren and orc is suppose to be.
Also who would spend 30 gold for Wrathion? That is overpriced.
A fellow Black Library enjoyer <3
But uhh yeah you can probably assume how I felt about this since I like my stories to be…you know…good?
Is complicated the right word for it? It seemed pretty simple to me.
I stand in solidarity with you, my Alliance rival. I too long for the days when killing each other was part of the fun, and not a product of traumatizing war crimes we’re forced to commit.
This is so damned relatable.
Something something World of Peacecraft 
Omg I noticed this too! I was completely baffled. They just…don’t care about this setting at all anymore, do they?
As a member of the Horde, I am genuinely sorry you Worgen have to go through this BS. I hate it just as much as you guys.
Lol it’s so funny you bring this up. I’ve been using ChatGPT in my free time to make RPG campaigns. It’s super fun. I’ve done one for Warhammer 40k, Vampire the Masquerade, Cyberpunk 2077, and of course…
Warcraft. I decided to start from the end of Warcraft 3 and make an alternate timeline from there with echoes of vanilla and the first 2 expansions, but staying within the lore as it was known in WC3.
I know it’s a bit unfair, since WoW’s story has been told over 20 years so there’s bound to be ups, downs, and inconsistencies…
…but, seriously, ChatGPT has been coming up with far more immersive, nuanced, balanced, logical, and interesting lore than anything Blizzard has been able to do in years. It’s honestly kind of hilarious. I’ve been playing WoW as normal, but ignoring the story entirely and just roleplaying within the alternate timeline ChatGPT made up for me XD
I honestly can’t believe they actually made this glaring mistake…twice.
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I suspect that the bulk of Gilneas’ population loss came from Cata. Between the curse and the war. It seemed like there were tons of soldiers during the final battle for Gilneas, and maybe most of them are still around. But even if they had managed to retake the city that very day, I imagine there would have been a lot of empty houses still. You also have to account for all the people who simply either gave up or moved on. Like how Mistmantle moved to Duskwood.
In any case, it’s clear Gilneas has lost a lot. But with the city retaken and the rebuilding process beginning, we’re going to see the population rebuild just as the night elves and blood elves have rebuilt themselves.
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A few days late here, but in all fairness its new awaited for content a decade+ in the making so of course everyone is going to be there. Just like how everyone and their mother rolled or rerolled Manari when they came out. Similarly, how Darkshire and Duskwood became really popping when phasing was introduced to SW for a hot second. The same can be said for Darkfallen, high elves, Zandalari and tauren paladins, troll druids, etc. Its also easier for Horde to show up there, just by proximity, than Alliance.
They could have made it Alliance territory from Contested, put the biggest baddest guards in, and there would still be everyone and their mother from both factions running around. Give it a couple weeks and it’ll all die down.
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This is exactly like Bilgewater Bay, the hometown of the Cata equivalent of worgen, the goblins.
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Which has also been a bit of a disaster, along with everything else they did to Azshara.
Hey, does anyone remember that big gun in Bilgewater Bay that was supposed to be used in BFA?
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Not saying I love it, but it is consistent. I’ve actually always thought Bilgewater Bay was a cool-looking city; I just never have any reason to go there.
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