Visiting: Trueshot Lodge

Lore Story Forum
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So I’ve mentioned before how I came back in Legion having not played since Wrath. Meaning I basically had no idea what was going on for that expansion as I was still learning the ropes. The Priest Hall was the only one I completed but I did get to see both the Warrior and Hunter halls.

And I recall not being too impressed by Trueshot Lodge on my first go-around. Probably because it’s the most difficult to get to. I do love the vibe of this lodge hidden in the hills, and a portal really wouldn’t have fit with it. But they really could’ve just put an eagle at the landing that functioned as one or something.

Otherwise I do like the general vibe of the place. You’ve a pretty colorful cast of characters and I’m particularly fond of the Belf Hunter Moorgoth who calls himself a Death Ranger, throws black roses everywhere and desperately wants to be noticed by the Dark Rangers. Only complaint there is I think Elvenescence would’ve been a better name.

Hunters are arguably the vaguest class in WoW. You can play it as everything from a high tech Goblin bounty hunter to a semi feral Kaldorei wild woman raised by night sabers. So going with this Geralt of Rivia, Robin Hood, Homeless Batman kinda vibe where you’re the wanderingiest of wandering heroes was a good move and casts a big enough umbrella that I don’t feel many characters would feel out of place.

The lore behind the Unseen Path is a bit janky and while the Elven ranger trope is popular for a reason I think basing it on them alone wasn’t the best move. As you’ve the Kaldorei, and then three Thalassians who’s only discernable difference is their eye color and fashion sense. And I get elves are legendary marksmen but ya know I’d be most worried about catching an arrow from a Tauren or Vyrkul;

Seeing as pinpoint accuracy isn’t really necessary if you’re firing a telephone pole at the enemy. But I digress.

On to the artifacts their quests are fine. The Survival weapon was the stand out for me as the HM Tauren are scarce enough in proceeding expansions that I was starting to take a shine to the characters. Wondered if they’d popped up elsewhere and I just didn’t recognize them. Welp. Didn’t have to wonder long. Damn you ghost cat! Damn you to hell! I will avenge you, character who’s name I’ve already forgotten!

The other two are fine. If I was playing this day of release the Alleria Windrunner name drop may’ve hit different but as I’m from the future it didn’t do much for me. The Titanstrike one was also fine.

But I can’t shake the feeling MM and BM got their wires crossed there. Idk just feels like the world’s best gun is some MGS plot point that would be better suited to marksmen, and the prodigal ranger general’s weapon should be the Beast Master’s tool. Afterall the Windrunner sisters tamed the most dangerous game; man.

Anywho on to the quests. And yeah I so dig the game acknowledging your murder hobo status. Turning up to help complete randos with problems only to vanish into the night is every PC so really leaning into that sounds so fun. And it is. But in the context of a Legion invasion it feels a little forest for the trees. Helping some Gilneans with the hostile undead neighbors they seem destined to attract and the HM with their shopping list is cool and all. But there’s a demon spaceship directly overhead. Feels a bit like rescuing a cat from a tree during the Blitzkrieg. That’s nice and all but we got bigger problems.

I did enjoy camping with Rexxar. I think maybe this quest was supposed to be played without a flying mount or something. I kept waiting for the challenge to happen but no I just cooked steaks with Rexar for a bit. Which is fine I guess but it came off like the guy was just desperate for company.

But let’s get to the real meat on the menu. The main quest. We’re going up against Hakkar! That’s a great curveball! He’s a big bad disconnected from the Legion but the whole point here is focusing on smaller stuff nobody is paying attention to. What dasterdly deeds is the Soulflayer getting up to while everyone else is distracted?

Well. Great question. Because we’re actually going after Hakkar the Houndmaster. A random mo’arg demon who allegedly is infamous. This is like going to fight Sauron and it turns out it’s just a guy with the same name who you’re nailing for a dog fighting ring. And don’t get me wrong. Still bad and we should still stop him. But uh. Kinda got me hyped up for something crazier with the name there.

And the kicker here for me is Imonar the Soulhunter probably would’ve worked better. You know, that inexplicable boss fight with Boba Fett that happens in Antorus.

But anyways we’re told that this guy is serious buisness because he operates the rescue shelter in Hell. And we go do busywork to prepare our reinforcements of interchangeable elves to, shoot him harder. He’s summoned into the Violet Hold and because I hit level 50 before I could get through this questline he dropped like a sack of potatoes. So maybe there’s a cool bossfight there if you haven’t been forced to SL at gunpoint yet.

It just annoyed me as the strategic value of this fight seemed to be to solve a problem for Mages. Because Felhunters you see. And I’ve seen people frustutated that the Priests had to invite the Paladins to their finale. But getting some rube to b̶o̶t̶t̶o̶m̶ tank for you is time honored healer tradition. Why are hunters running interference for the dorkier ranged DPS when the self important sods couldn’t even bother to create a portal to Trueshot Lodge for them?

All in all there were some really cool ideas here but it didn’t reach it’s full potential. The finale should’ve been a 7 Samurai esque quest where you gather 6 other disparate hunter badasses and defend a town from a not currently relevant big bad.

Having to sure up the wizard’s flank so they could be more important made me want to show them a real cool spell I’ve been working on;

I do love the vibe though and will probably use Trueshot as a RP spot in the future where will make jokes at your expense for not being cool enough to have T-Rexs and machine guns.

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Ben…

There is an eagle right at the landing!!

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Isn’t that only usable after you upgrade your class hall and pick the eagle option?

By then I’d just put my hearth in the adjacent Nessingway’s Camp.

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Nope. It’s how you are supposed to get to the lodge. Since the Legion beta, before you even get an artifact.

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Granted I made the mistake of starting this months ago but I’m recalling the eagle just flying there in real time.

This happens later with the Vyrkul companion as well. Where I briefly forgot Stormhein was a neighboring region. Because I thought we were going to the Storm Peaks.

Either way it’s the only Class Hall I found annoying to get to. And still think they should’ve just given everyone a class hall teleport ability in lieu of the Dalaran Hearthstone. Seeing as they all already have portals to Dalaran in them anyway.

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In beta it did that, but since live the eagle flies a little off the platform, then loading screen and landing.

The eagle network is real time tho. But to get to the lodge is quick and easy!!

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Well call me Frodo because in my experience the eagles weren’t pulling up to help with the commute when I tried it.

Granted I was the same kid who insisted on inverting the rectangle so it’d fit through the circle hole because that seemed to make just as much sense to me. So, grain of salt.

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Oh. You gotta talk to the moose tauren to get the eagle, I think, to get the eagle ride. That might be it!!

I still spend way too much time at my lodge.

And it is, in fact, mine. I own it, it belongs to me and I just let you all use it.

You are welcome.

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I mentioned this before but I do think I appreciated it more now that Forsaken Hunters have a better sense of identity.

In addition to the immaculate mail armor set from BFA’s PvP season 2/Darkshore and the ability to tame undead animals you got two bat mounts in the form of a rare drop from a Forest Troll boss in Arathi and an expensive Warfront funbucks one. I of course own both. And wouldn’t you know it fair Highmountain has a cave with bats that match both models. That you can fly in so you can really get up close and make sure.

So I’m just bum rushing from the sky, with my bat mount joining me in the fight as my bat pet Brahm, as I twirl my also cold as hell Forsaken halbred like;

Presumably Darude’s Sandstorm plays in the distance as all I’m doing is spinning and chucking explosives.

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I think Trueshot Lodge itself is pretty neat, it’s a proper ranger lodge with all the amenities it should have. I personally don’t like much how it’s a hidden organization that goes around doing good deeds before disappearing like a super hero, but it is useful for hiding from the Legion which is an advantage. IIRC Hakkar the Houndmaster existed in lore before the Soulflayer, he was introduced in the War Of The Ancients trilogy and Metzen liked the name so much that he reused it. The story to defeat him is a good one and I like that it’s to help the mages in something they can’t do, it shows that everyone in Azeroth has to work together to defeat the threat. The artifact quests themselves are good, Survival is the standout for being so connected to the Highmountain, and I put MM next as it’s the first connection to Alleria in the game and was especially exciting to experience as a Blood Elf, with BM coming last since that high tech gun doesn’t feel beastmastery but there is a good connection to Havi that people like.

In the Legion beta every class had a teleport to class hall spell. It had unique animations for each class. Hunters was getting picked up by the eagle and warriors had a heroic leap directly to theirs. I think this was removed due to Blizzard’s adversity to teleportation. Unfortunate IMO.

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See though, what’s more interesting, Quetzalcoatl or Demon#3221?

And again Boba Fett would’ve been the more interesting antagonist.

Because that boss fight makes zero sense in the context of the Legion. They’re trying to destroy the galaxy how the hell does payment even work?

Now imagine a world where they actually planned stories out as far as they claim to and that was like a House of the Chosen badass who’d gone rogue who the Legion managed to hire.

And the Unseen Path has to sort out this otherwordly ambush predator because theyre the only ones who stand a chance. Then he’s a bossfight. And no further explanation is given until SL.

That would’ve been rad as hell.

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You don’t find it exciting because you don’t have a connection to the source he comes from. You’d probably think him cooler if he had a better model, since in the books he’s described as basically Ghost Rider with horns. The Houndmaster has history while Sudden Bounty Hunter doesn’t. Not that Imonar isn’t cool but as you mention his story doesn’t make as much sense. Your idea for him is interesting but if that happened players would first complain about a lack of explanation for him then complain later that the given explanation was a retcon.

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Here’s the thing;

WARCRAFT IS A GAME

It’s not an adaptation of a book or movie or poem or ancient pictograph.

It is born by the vidya, lives by the vidya, and will die by the vidya. This wasn’t created by some folklore professor trying to make fairy tales for the modern world. It was a Warhammer Fantasy game that couldn’t get the license so they scratched off the serial numbers and were lucky enough to find a couple of people with creative vision. Some of whom werent even sex offenders.

If I have to go dig up books or comics or short stories, then as a narrative the product has failed.

At the very least, VERY LEAST, there shouldve been lore books avalible in Trueshot Lodge and it’s on you if you read them. In game.

Because the games are the source material.

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You don’t have to read War Of The Ancients to know who the Houndmaster is and what his goals are. But if you do then you care about him more. It’s like watching anything in the MCU, characters will crossover but a lot of the time you don’t need to see other movies or shows to understand who the people are in the current movie or show. But watching Daredevil will give me a better appreciation of Kingpin before watching Hawkeye. A character shouldn’t be discarded just because it wasn’t introduced in the game first.

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The MCU is an accidentally great example. Because when Brie Larson turned up floating outside a spaceship my reaction was;

“… Is that Goku? Whats happening?”

And then they didnt like introduce the character. She turns up at the start and the end. And apparently I was supposed to know about this Captain Marvel character. I routinely deactivate my socials and dont watch network television.

And I actually pay extra attention to WoW lore but I don’t care about all of it. Their comics were laughably bad even by 15 year old’s me standards. Because anime boy Varian who has two wolves inside him. Also the Sunwell is a busty farmers daugher dating a dragon in lame renfaire cosplay.

Put. Lore. In. Game.

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Honestly? That would have felt so much more out of no where in the moment. Sure, now it’d make sense that this monstrous assassin from the lands of the dead got hired by the Legion to do a thing, but back during Legion itself?

What lands of the dead? What’re you talking about? Suddenly there’s a plane full of dead people who can be monster assassins? And in this deadlands plane you can learn to become a better murderer?? How does that even work??? There’s no context to any of this at all.

Oh. It’ll all make sense… Two expansions from now?

Just, uhg. Bad enough that around this time we’re still coming to grips with the idea void lords are now a thing, and the old gods have even bigger bosses. And Legion had a whole void-related B-Plot going on that we’re still waiting to be properly developed. Throwing “but also, what’s up with the afterlife now, there’s a faction of murder assassins going on over there” sounds… Just too much.

Hakkar works because Hakkar the Houndsmaster exists. If you never heard of him, there’s information out there for you to look into him. Building up all the necessary footwork to throw a brand new, never seen before threat to make them feel relevant at all and only giving it to a single class to fight and will only make sense four years later when you see the proper context is… A bit of a lot of extra work to get to the same result.

And, y’know, “Houndsmaster” absolutely sounds more fitting for the pet-taming class to fight than “necro assassin murder machine built for ultimate murder and trained in death world”.

If you’re someone who knows nothing at all about the lore, both are equally as irrelevant to you. But at least with OG Hakkar, lore nerds have something to grasp there.

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But why reuse the name that just regular wow lore readers or players or indeed anyone who’s checked the adventure guide is going to be confused by?

“Ah I can see the confusion. This is actually Arthas Menthol. He sells cigarettes to children”

“Ah. Well. Still bad but. Gotta admit I’m way less excited now”

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You’re talking about Endgame which is an exception to my example. That’s a culmination of all the movies which lead to it so it makes sense it’d have parts that someone only watching that movie wouldn’t understand. That’s like only ever playing Warlords Of Draenor and getting mad about not knowing who Garrosh is. In regards to WoW comics, there are just as bad storylines in the games. We get things that result in quotes like “Draenor is free!”, “I am my scars!”, and “I will never serve”.

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Or it’s like playing Legion where a bunch of the artifact and storyline quests got really deep into the weeds of lore.

But in cool, fun ways. Like man I loved how much we revisited Karazhan and Deadwind Pass and scrapped with the Dark Riders. Who are obviously Nazul ripoffs but its that early days of WoW stuff. Going deep into the lore.

Here though idk here’s a guy who everybody who didnt read this one sold separately product will confuse for one of the most iconic old WoW bosses who’s raid was responsible for the plague incident even people who’ve never touched this game are aware about.

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Because we already had Hakkar the Houndmaster. He existed and pre-dates the Soulflayer.

Besides, anyone checking the Adventure Guide is going to come up empty, because the Adventure Guide doesn’t have a search function. The best you could do it go through every expansion, Vanilla to present, and get lucky finding the Spirit of Hakkar in Sunken Temple (the only place you’re going to find a Hakkar of any sort, since the ZG redesign in Cata).

If someone’s really going to that much effort to find out who this guy is in the Hunter Class Hall, then you’re dealing with a very special person with a very unusual mindset that precludes using Google over manually searching old raids and dungeons to find information a quest campaign.

Nobody should design a game or literally anything around what misconceptions that person might come upon on their own.

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