There is a theory that Blizzard is deliberately screwing with Horde players to make some switch over the Alliance for balance. Now that is kinda tin-foil-hat and is based on an unproven assumption. OTOH, that it gets some credence shows how bad things have gotten.
Second of all, who knows what Blizzard wants. Ion cites, as one of the problems, that too many Horde players signed up “just for the bonus”, which was not intended. OTOH, why they would try and fix that by luring more players in with more bonuses (instead of just dropping a bonus which was never needed to get players to PvP in the first place) makes no sense.
But the DKs are part of the Horde. And the Warlocks are still barely contained crazies. And, I mean, Demon Hunters are walking antiheroes. And the Horde still calls all its dook ‘Bloodstorm’ or something else aggressively positioned. And the trolls used to be hex-slinging cannibals, before they got neutered. And the Horde was always a dictatorship. And it’s always been society based on Might Makes Right, with the only systematic means of contest is violence. And they still name their dook after war criminals.
And, like, the Horde has always been about force, violence and domination. It’s not just the Forsaken, Driote. Eitrigg himself drowns, burns and has devoured alive by wolves several Blackrocks (I wonder if Saurfang considers sneaking in disguise to paralyze people an honourable blow?), before he, EITRIGG, has them all burned to death in felfire. And are we just forgetting the Horde’s shady dispossession of Quillboar/Centaur land? The icecrown assaults on the Alliance troops in Wrath? Krenna?
This is bigger than just the Forsaken, and ousting Sylvanas isn’t fixing it.
Correction: Eitrigg did not burn them all in felfire. A lot were immolated by a dragon. It’s better?
Let me ask you? How relevant have the DKs been since WotLK? Yeah, they had an order hall, but so did everyone else. How relevant have Warlocks EVER been, outside of BC and Legion? How relevant do you expect Demon Hunters to be now that the Legion has been defeated? I would guess about as relevant as Monks since Pandaria. Not looking good for their contributions in the story, and the overall narrative has never really been built around their needs (outside of those relevant expansions).
As for Horde savagery, its true that there is a savage component to the Horde; but unless they’re dosed with Fel (or Old God magic), there rarely is a malevolent component outside of the Forsaken. Eitrigg goes for the brutal kills, but he was also Blood Brothers with Tirion. Saurfang has used some dicey tactics, but the guy is also most famous for talking survivors of the Fel Blood down from suicide after the 3rd War. There are issues with the Horde, but what the Horde is right now is all that savagery without those necessary honorable elements.
Also, the Darkspear are known as a remarkably mellow troll tribe (which hurt them greatly when the Gurubashi split). The Tauren are SUPER mellow. The Bilgewater are only interested in profit. The BEs have never been savage, but hold their own type of honor. The Nightborne, Highmountain, Zandalari, and Mag’har are generally warped mirrors of their core races. None of these races would stay involved with the Horde you are describing if they had a choice. In fact many would likely help the Alliance destroy it (or simply stay neutral if they could).
Savagery AND Honor (as much as Sylvanas believes otherwise, only her Forsaken can survive with one … the rest of the Horde won’t survive without both).
It’s probably very easy to get the wrong impression on my feelings about the story from my persona on the forums, but rest assured that I am very much not reveling in this story right now.
There would have definitely been a way to have the darker side of the Horde be represented while not ruining the characterization of the other races. If we had that, I’d definitely be reveling in it. But we don’t have that.
This story isn’t about the dark side of the Horde getting to have their moment in the sun, it’s about the race, character, and faction I’ve loved since Vanilla have everything I’ve ever liked about them, that made me like them in the first place, be utterly destroyed by the writers because they don’t cry about “muh hoooonoooor” enough for their tastes.
The Honor Horde, regardless of what ever happens to Sylvanas at any point, will always exist and always get to be submissive to the Alliance for the players who somehow enjoy that sort of thing. Why should what I like about the Horde and the Forsaken be utterly destroyed by bad writing and made to love the Alliance and Honor so much? What makes the opinions of people who don’t like it so much more important that the opinions of those who do? Is it really so hard for the fans of the Forsaken to not have the race they’ve loved since Vanilla completely and utterly wiped away just because some Orc players want to be Alliance lite?
I find it very hard to believe that having the Forsaken and Sylvanas continue on for their fans is some complete impossibility that goes against the very laws of the universe like posters such as yourself try to make it out to be.
I understand where you’re coming from, but the sidelining of characters and classes doesn’t strike me as a suitable solution for solving their presence in the Horde’s ‘redeemed’ self - especially when the player character can be one of them. You can’t sweep DKs, Warlocks and DH’s under the rug while also calling their exemplars ‘Champion’.
And I think you can understand why ‘Eitrigg goes for the brutal kills, but he was also Blood Brothers with Tirion’ is not to my satisfaction as an answer. Somehow I don’t see Tirion being happy of his Blood Brother’s actions against the blackrock. Hell, Sylvanas was a respected battle companion of Varian Wrynn, if only for one battle. The fact that these characters had spots of light doesn’t scrub out the stains or suggest that they’re not going to keep doing this stuff in the future.
If Saurfang getting ‘His Horde’ back means putting tons of Horde history, themes and characters into the bag with Medan, then maybe that’s not a workable solution. The Horde needs to reconcile it’s disparate halves, not amputate itself to fit some idealized past.
Cause “muh faction war” plot. Let´s be honest, in regards to gameplay and purely gameplay, most people rather deal with wPvP on their own terms. So probably, devs are trying to prove PvP “successful” even with a tool that would make most people simply turn off Warmode and just turn it on ocassionally.
I am too on the opinion the mode shouldn´t provide any bonus whatsoever, cause imho, the moment devs attached bonuses to the mode was the moment they spoiled the statistical results regarding wPvP participation.
To be honest, I am all for the amputation part. Just replace the amputated parts with better parts. Forsaken get replaced by Ogres. And we throw the elves out for the bird people. A lot of that horde history you refer to is setting us back and is one of the reasons why we are in this position. It would be best to bag a lot of it and start fresh. That is, if there are factions left after all of this.
Also, give us hozen and Yaungol and tuanka allied races.
And were set.
P.S. Give us a sub-faction of the dark irons so we can have an actual brewfest.
for that to happen…a 3rd faction have to appear to take in those amputation parts…
I’m all for a 3rd faction if done correctly in lore and gameplay…but how will the PC react if they had to be forced dump into another faction…
Well, if they like sylvanas as their leader, they will probably not have any problem whatsoever. Just allow the non undead to become sufficiently deadified so they can use undead race models for the ones they use to dirty up my horde. You can even throw in undead alliance races. Dark rangers and san’layn for belf and nelfs. And they can even have leper gnomes.
They have undead belves. just make undead versions of orcs, trolls, and tauren. Boom, you have a death faction that I and others can get off on re-deadifying.
P.S. Shove them all into northrend and then we can all be happy.
Can our characters be radical centralists too? I don’t want to be limited to a faction that stomps on babies for fun or drinks Windex in their off-time.
![:thinking:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/thinking.png?v=6" ":thinking:")