This intrigued me too. Sounds like the faction war may actually go beyond BFA, which is interesting. The wording seems specific. It’s not “The faction war will continue for the duration of BFA” , it’s the foreseeable future.
I don’t even mind the war and I hope that’s not true. It needs to end decisively, like they originally said it would. This war story is okay, but it needs to finish soon. Most people seem over it.
I read “the faction conflict will continue for the foreseeable future” as more of a party line than a hard-and-fast rule. More of an underscored “we aren’t going to change it for this expac” along the lines of their other “Azerite is good, actually” and “people love Island Expeditions” lines.
A point of reference from that article…
The team is looking at ways for characters to improve meaningfully and permanently at the endgame , and Nazjatar and Mechagon will be two new arenas for the team to try rewards that aren’t tied to core gameplay loops for each class.
…I’m wary.
This either sounds like it could be really cool (finding ways to improve without raiding, fighting, etc.) or it sounds like they’re about to start introducing pay-to-win mechanics.
They haven’t mentioned any of it being through the game store, or with real money. Or am I misunderstanding the definition of pay to win?
This is the internet. It’s assume the worst, complain about it endlessly, then when proven wrong complain about that too.
Well Horde players being cast as villains does seem to cause a lot more angst among the players than Alliance players losing a battle or whatever. Horde players, for the most part, really want to imagine themselves as Thrall-era noble outcasts struggling for survival rather than brutal imperialists bent on Alliance genocide, and ever since Cata they’ve spent more time in the latter camp than the former.
It sucks that the Alliance loses a lot but at least I don’t feel like I’m being forced into a role that I hate. As an Alliance player it’d be more upsetting to be forced to massacre civilians in Thunder Bluff than it is to lose Theramore or Darnassus, because it’d be defining my character as something I don’t want them to be.
No, and it’s probably just me being too conspiratorial, I admit. But ever since the Great Kotick Layoffs (and the ensuing articles illuminating how much influence Activision has on Blizzard), I’ve been dreading this.
But you’re right. It’s not mentioned at, so it would be unfair to speculate on.
Hazzikostas is aware of the parallels to Garrosh’s story, and he says that the Horde is too.
“There are a couple of references here and there,” he says. “There are more coming. Members of the Horde leadership will remember going down dark paths before.”
wake me up inside
I know this has been mentioned, but saying at all, ever, that the faction war will end would be a huge spoiler because it implies (even if we all know based on history) that something huge will happen in the last patch that changes the story. Even if it would be good PR they have a hugely strict embargo on story spoilers, and especially if the theories about Sylvanas going away are true, they know that if they confirmed that they’d probably get a lot of happy players. But for some reason (I assume it’s them heavily banking on “twist” culture) that are incredibly tight lipped about any story developments even if being looser would mean a happier fanbase.
Also, I don’t think the war has ever ended, but that’s another point and also may be incorrect. I do think though that the war won’t be the focus even if it’s continuing. But again I think it just means that “yeah no we’re not scrapping the expansion theme halfway” even if that’s what a lot of people want.
tl;dr I wouldn’t freak out about the story continuing because otherwise they’d probably just let us sit in nazjatar for two years while they scrap the expansion
THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES.
THE MORALE WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE BEATINGS IMPROVE!
God dang it, Blizzard…
My two favorite wow villains are finally going to interact with us. I’m hopeful.
I wont lie, Im lowkey 1000x more intetested in mechagon than I am in Nazjatar.
After Zangarmarsh, every coastal zone in cata, vashjir, Azsuna and now BFA…im kinda naga’ed out if that makes sense.
It doesn’t. Naga are the coolest.
Jk, to each their own. But I’m stoked. This is the culmination of decades of story. I remember lil 8 year old me hearing the Naga in Warcraft 3 saying “For Nazjatar!” and wondering who or what that is. And now we know and we’re going there. Epic.
Hot take, but I think we’ve already seen the culmination of the Naga story.
They’re just weirdos in pursuit of a nebulous definition of power, like everyone else. They show up, ally themselves to some villain (Illidan, Old Gods, the Legion, Old Gods again), try to find a McGuffin, annoy the heroes a little and then go away.
Their goals, methods and character have remained exactly the same as they’ve been since they showed up. The only change Nazjatar represents is that they’re annoying us on their own turf this time instead of one ours.
They’re classic WoW characters (lol me ebil: yes this describes most of the villains in classic that aren’t Arthas or the Defias) that still exist in a world that seems to have grown past those kind of villains. They didn’t get a “sympathetic-ish” card like Sargeras either.
I won’t deny they’ve been filler mooks before, but this is where their story has always been heading. The naga were created by the old gods to be their servants, and now we’re seeing that in a really big way.
I really like Taliesin’s theory that N’zoth wants us to kill Azshara, because she’s been a pretty poor mook (probably on purpose) and the Player and Xalatath do in a day what Azshara was supposedly spending millennia trying to do. I think the 8.2 raid (is Palace of Azshara the official title or just a working title?) is gonna throw a really fun curveball cinematic on the level of Rejection of the Gift or the Tomb of Sargeras cinematic. So stoked.
me too
if only because it reminds me of the Clockwork City from ESO.
So, they’re mooks, but now we’re going to see them really be mooks?
To be honest, there’s plenty of places they could go. Trying to get back their original forms, trying to restore their homes, etc. But they don’t really go anywhere.
Like, the Horde are the main bad guys now, so anything the Naga do just doesn’t feel all that pressing in the face of genocide and enslaving the dead.