Like I understand Jaina is an arch mage but that doesn’t really explain her power level…? It honestly just seems out of no where… after years of being a teleport bot she can now summon entirely magical flying boats and freeze an entire dock…?
Not only that’s she’s going to be a raid boss equivalent to King Rahstakhan which just looks like a Paladin I guess… maybe a warrior?? That needed a loa to kill some cripple troll.
Also if we’re too believe that long exposure to the well of eternity made Azshara specifically so powerful then why exactly wouldn’t the Nightborne be in the same boat… sure the night well is similar to the sun well but from what we’ve seen I feel like even kael thas would dumpster Thalyssra.
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Rastakhan doesn’t really have a class. He’s kind of a smattering of Priest, Warrior, and Shaman. But I digress, onto the main point:
I think it’s more that Thylessera has been on the brink of starvation and living in caves for the last however many years it’s been since she was kicked from Suramar. Sure she’s not malnourished anymore but I can’t imagine such an environment being conducive to maintaining one’s magical prowess.
Jania on the other hand was always a promising Archmage. I don’t think there’s been a single lore event that established her as eminently powerful, she just sort of grew in the background. As a rule, significant lore characters who’ve been around for a while tend to eclipse everyone around them. Same thing happened to Thrall. Actually Thrall’s a great example since Jania’s Basically kept pace with him ever since Warcraft 3. Since Thrall started becoming a major powerhouse around the time of Cata, I’d say Jania would be at that timeframe as well. Starting around Mists is when she started throwing more weight around so I think that makes sense. If Thrall hadn’t entered his funk in Legion he’d probably be throwing around similar power now.
Edit: responses to your edits…
Rastakhan isn’t necessarily powerful, just old. Sure he has all the strength and wisdom that comes with that. But he’s not really special in the sense that he can just wave his hand and stop a coup. His strength always predominantly lied in Rezan’s (and now Bwonsamdi’s) support for him. When he was ousted that was a time when Zul was directly attacking that support.
And the Nightwell is nowhere near as powerful as the Well of Enternity. It’s a bit of an offshoot of the WoE.
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Her staff is from anthonidas, an already powerful mage and empowered by the thunder king spell, which was almost a god, she was also exposed to a mana bomb and the focusing iris.
I dunno why azshara is powerful, it is just said that she was the most powerful queen that NE ever had.
Nightborne grew heavily dependent on a single form of energy, like high elves. And Humans mages were always more powerful than elven mage but had less control.
Jaina is probably one of the few good characters left in WoW.
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Thrall is clearly explained though. Since he has the literal help of the dragon aspects holding him up during the whole cataclysm scenarios.
Even the last power we saw by Thrall alone was the way he killed Garrosh and it didn’t actually seem outlandish as the things Jaina has been pulling off in BFA
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Three Words - Alliance Plot Armor
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I don’t think I’d call much of what Jania has done so far outlandish. Her most impressive feat by far was when she magically commanded the boat at the Undercity. While certainly impressive, I didn’t see it as outlandish. In the end she didn’t do anything other than levitate a boat and fire off a few cannons. Just look at the difference in the scale of her and Thrall’s opponents: Thrall needed that power to take down Deathwing. Jania took down a wall.
I think people ascribe more to that scene than is appropriate because they didn’t like the way she was suddenly and conviently introduced.
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I prefer to think of it more as “Rule of Cool.” The Horde gets plenty of moments as well where they pull out an unexpected and devestating victory for the sake of tension in the plot or because it would be the cooler story beat to witness. Which I’m perfectly fine with. I’m here to watch a fantasy war drama, not a documentary.
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Because hoooman. Other than that, because they don’t know how to make things with in reason. Any protagonist really should have some weaknesses in the field of battle or at least someone of equal skill to make it enthralling to watch. Otherwise it gets boring saying oh … here we go again.
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Thalyssra relaxed under a bubble for 10,000 years. Jaina’s spent more of her life fighting in wars and conflicts than not. She did use to melee bosses in Hyjal Summit, but no one is perfect.
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Jaina has always been considered one of the most powerful and talented mages. I’m not sure why people seem to think this is a new development. It’s not. And it’s a big part of the reason Kael was interested in her.
You do realize that there are people in the world that just happen to be better at things than some others, regardless of age and time, right? They’re called savants.
In WoW, there are also very powerful individuals. Like Azshara and Jaina, etc.
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Well Arcanist Thalysssra spent most of her time inside of a bubble, Jaina was thrust into combat almost right away. Jaina was also exposed to the iris and has some fairly powerful artifacts to draw upon.
Azshara’s power comes from more then the well. She traded her people for the power of an old god. (Even before then she was very selective about who got to use the well, no way she’d let anyone use it enough to be threat to her position)
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Wasn’t she the one who stopped time for people trying to kill her on her intro quest? Seems pretty strong. Maybe she forgot she can do that. Super power that is ignored? She should have gone Alliance.
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I think it’s important to separate the character from the Mage in this instance. As a classic example, take a look at Superman. In his own world, Superman eclipses the vast majority of heroes and villains surrounding him in terms of power. Far more than Jania does for sure. Yet Superman is a reasonably beloved and interesting comic book character. So clearly it’s possible to keep the story interesting while still having an absurdly powerful main character.
The thing I like to remember with characters like this is that raw power is a stat, not a character trait. And characters are most interesting when we attack their character traits and force them to either change or break. Give them a problem that their not inconsiderable power can’t solve or even be applied to. I think the Jania storyline on the Alliance side actually shows this perfectly. When you play through that it’s obvious that not a single soul in Kul Tiras, her own family not withstanding, that gives a single iota of a damn how powerful a Mage she is. And despite her raw power she ends up trapped in her own nightmares in Thros because you can’t magic away a decade of guilt. Jania’s story felt like a powerful moment for her character despite the fact that any raw combat threat she encounters could probably be waved away with barely a thought.
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Okay it still makes little sense.
Jaina is a raid boss that’s going to be almost killed by 10 player characters.
Yet she was too strong for a single player character and 4 faction leaders.
When lady liadrin goes to recruit the Nightborne, Sylvanas points out how their arcane prowess will bolster horde strength… and people pointing out Jaina exposure to the iris but Thalyssra had 10,000 year exposure to the night well.
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You straight up lost me with this part of your post. There is nothing good about how much ridiculous, moronic power the Devs have written in for Jaina seemingly from absolutely nowhere. Aegwynn had displays of power as strong as Jaina, and she did equal combat against the Avatar of Sargeras himself. Are you trying to say that Jaina should be able to do the same, not being the Guardian, so thereby technically meaning she’s weaker than Khadgar in power and discipline?
She’s an edgy, blonde Mage who beds Kalecgos and gets power from where the heck ever every expansion and does absolutely insane things with it that no Mage ever, save for depictions in Lore, has ever been able to do, done or will do in the future. She’s an absolutely cringy character, and I loathe her most of all (even against how sappily written they’ve made Tyrande out to be compared to her Warcraft counterpart.)
Hell, even Khadgar, as powerful as he is, has channeling times for enormous spells. What does Jaina do? Raise her hand, immense ice wall. Flick of the wrist, there goes the entire battlefield full of plague. Snap of the finger, oh, she just insta-teleported herself and her Mages around Stormwind to combat the fires. She doesn’t even look visibly depleted whatsoever when she is magically levitating an entire massive warship from sea, over land, and to Lordaeron’s doorstop, and then subsequently bombards it with focused magic.
But she’s a good character, LOL. Khadgar charged up for minutes before he aoe froze a small battlefield. Afterwards, he was at least out of breath. Jaina does that crap 1,000x more over and doesn’t even have a single sweat drop–IN AN INSTANT.
But she’s a good character. XD
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Jaina is a trained mage who understands the limits of magic and has restrained herself from going out of control and feeding on addiction. She also has a part of the Titan Keeper’s power or so in her staff.
First Arcanist Thalyssra has primarily depended on the Nightwell to enhance her magical capabilities to the extent where her lifeforce was attached to the Nightwell’s liquids. This may have rendered her less powerful after the reaction her body went through being addicted to Arcane magic.
The Nightborne’s frail structure has suffered for countless years being fed arcane drugs and this would contribute to her becoming weaker after the Nightwell was destroyed.
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Because she’s a plot device.
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There’s a difference between a coordinated raid assault in a friendly millitary city and a small strike team running into one of the most powerful Mages in the world in the middle of the Alliance capital. Even if they did want to take the time to raid-fight Jania they could expect every single able-bodied fighter in all of Stormwind to slam into them by the time they were done. Including the rest of the Alliance heroes. They really couldn’t afford fighting her.
Don’t look at the numbers too much. In every RPG the story gets a little wonky when you try to fit it exactly into the game mechanics. It’s a rough approximation, nothing more and WoW is no exception.
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