That’s a case of Blizzard telling us one thing whilst showing us another.
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Not talking about his speech, I’m talking about Malfurion putting Saurfang on his back foot with a fist weapon so hard he can’t keep up. If he had been shifting into beast mode or calling down lightning or anything Druids actually do in this setting I would not question any of it.
^ would actually support in-game class fantasy, because Druids have historically trounced warriors in PvP.
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That’s what people said about the Dragons after Catalysm, and now they’re getting their own whole expansion to propogate.
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Saurfang was not contenting against Malfurion’s physical prowess alone. Saurfang had to keep his eyes and actions not only on Malfurion’s body, but literally everything:
- Saurfang’s lips pulled back into a snarl. The power of nature was not found in the swing of a fist or the slice of a blade. It was found when a forest was rent to dust by fire and yet returned in only a few years. It was found when a mighty city was claimed by overgrowth after being abandoned for a decade.
It was found in a thousand generations of predator and prey, which lived and hunted by the instincts of their ancestors.
In the hands of a druid, that power could be condensed from centuries into a minute. In Malfurion’s hands . . .
This inn, and everything in it, would be returned to the earth in seconds. Saurfang leapt forward, axe swinging, as vines and roots tore apart the inn. Malfurion stepped clear of his blow effortlessly, and the metal claws strapped to his hands darted toward Saurfang’s head. The orc batted them away with his axe shaft. Barely.
Saurfang roared, his axe whistled, and Malfurion’s second strike snaked through a gap in his armor around the shoulder.
Blood dripped to the floor. Roots, countless roots, a whole forest of roots grabbed at Saurfang’s ankles. He danced away, chopping the plants whenever they tried to snare him.
When pieces of the inn started to fall around the orc’s head, he accepted his death. Against a creature like Stormrage, there was no dishonor in failure. Saurfang simply had to meet his end without surrender.
It is not fair to say that Saurfang was being handled by Malfurion’s boxing by itself.
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Dunno what people said, but there is no discernible reason why all dragons would have died out. And now they are getting an entire expansion explaining why they will not be dying out even if that was an issue.
If there is going to be an expansion that will explain why the Night Elves will flourish and not be at the mercy of further Horde culling I welcome that Night Elf expansion.
It is the part between your underlines I’m objecting to. Before the vines got to Saurfang, especially the part where Malfurion is effortlessly avoiding his axe blows while Saurfang cannot avoid the fist swipes.
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I /threaded the reason why Nelves have been screwed like 30 posts up lol
They’re the only nation who’s the odd man out in a homogenous faction. No wonder Blizz has been literally trying to burn them off.
Literally would’ve been a better idea to put the undead on Alliance and Nelves on Horde. I think that might’ve been an idea at some point seeing how the Tauren are friendlier with them than most of their own faction.
They’re part of a team fundamentally disinterested in their themes and stories because they’re the only ones who clash.
Of course more work is put into Horde storylines. They’re actually an interesting coalition of disparate cultures.
Meanwhile the Alliance is the Adventures of WASP Knight and his ethnic but not too ethnic friends. And some purple people we found in a hedge that seem rather cross about something.
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Are they though?
Most Horde cities are homogenized into one style. Whether we got to one in Kalimdor or EK its pretty much the same.
Meanwhile Alliance has the dwarf cities, tunnels and bunkers leading to a mountain city. There are giant trees for elves and then your stereotypical medieval human cities but each one has a unique layout and history.
The Forsaken have more identity and background but they share that with the Humans.
Thats just the cities… the actual racial culture. The orc clans? Almost all gone besides a couple and no real meaningful differences between them.
Ths Tauren? They look cool but really same as the Orcs with their focus on hunting and honor warriors. Oh an nature.
Trolls? Same thing but its got a voodoo theme to it.
Its like a costume. Alliance races have the same issues.
Horde races are more interesting looking sure but Blizzard doesn’t capitalize it. Alliance at least had the cool cities.
First time playing this game, picking a Night Elf and traveling as a level 12 to Ironforge and then Stormwind? Man I still remember it.
Idk, just saying… just because they horde races look somewhat different does’t mean they are automatically interesting.
Blood Elves started interesting… and what does Blizzard do? Kill the mist interesting thing about them.
Their magic addiction.
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Without a doubt.
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Mostly boils down to Monsters That Aren’t Monsters vs. Tolkien Fantasy Suite, I think. Although current team certainly missed the memo on that first one. Nothing wrong with the classics, but dear lord, do something original with them. At least the WC3 Alliance had some stagnant bigotry to mine for drama.
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In fiction you’re only as interesting as you’re written to be. Stormwind could be Game of Thrones if the writers wanted it to be, and, er, were even capable of that level of writing. But it seems like the current factions aren’t really written at all- only their leaders get stories. And I get that a small stable of characters are easier to write than an entire, likely complex nation of people, but JEEBUS did the last two expansions make me sick of those characters…
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Oh the Alliance still has bigotry, but it has always been the subtle kind and generally not as important. Why be bigots to one another when you have an entire organization trying to destroy you? It is simply more practical to focus on common enemies then lose the few allies you have that might be your only chance of living.
I’m really of the mind SW’s blandness is a feature, not a bug. Especially after Kul Tiras.
Seriously I think Kul Tiras suffered from having to be compared to a dinosaur city made out of golden pyramids. Because I can’t offhand think of something more conceptually interesting than that.
But Boralus is just aces. It really feels like a city that wandered in from The Witcher series and I mean that as high praise. I wanna go there, get blackout drunk on gut rot rum and just;
So it can be done. SW isn’t an accident. Some people just wanna be generic knight man and that’s who it’s for.
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I mean correct me if I’m wrong but I think the Trolls still say “For Zul’Jin!” when they /charge. Despite ya know killing him and going to war with the Amani twice.
So I wouldn’t hold my breath. The Forsaken are probably going to keep saying Dark Lady Watch Over You. They’re probably going to keep using a symbol that’s mostly her face.
Hell I genuinely wouldn’t be shocked if by rebuilding Tirisfal they mean just making the BFA version inaccessible and leaving us with the Cata version, complete with a Sylvanas statue smack dab in the middle of Brill.
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True enough. Maybe they’d benefit from a more politically correct battle cry too now their actual leader has ascended to godhood.
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I agree. Roux did a good job with Zekhan’s portrayal in SR. He is thrown into a chain of events that he can hardly grasp at such a young age, so of course he is insecure- but he is brave and does his best.
Exploring Kalimdor, however, doubles down on this inexperience and naivety to a point where it becomes ridiculous.
Like, making him illiterate until Lor’themar teaches him how to read and write even though he was able to write reports just fine in SR. Or that he, as a shaman, has no idea what erosion is.
He also comes across as downright idiotic when he says he understands that the Night Elves were denied their vengeance and that’s why they cannot heal and then in the next moment he goes “why they keep fighting tho?”
Things like that are just annoying. I like Zekhan, he is a good guy and and as someone who mains a Darkspear shaman I’m of course happy about more representation.
But I don’t want another Zen’kiki who’s just there for comic relief.
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Gentle Reminder: Blizzard told Roux about things that needed to happen in the book. So, they taunted us with the idea that we’d be saving Saurfang, just to turn the orcish racial leader into a trinket.
But Night Elf players should definitely be the angriest in the room because they lost vendor npcs.
As a big Zul’jin fan I hope they don’t, but this made me laugh nonetheless 
I’m still waiting for the day I get to see Zen’kiki as a true Archdruid showing everybody the might of nature! I did help him with his training back in the day so it would make me so proud to see my young pupil all grown up having mastered our sacred craft!
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Anything is possible 
Personally, I have more confidence in Zen’tabra, though.