Is there a thread like this every few months, I wonder?
My husband bought me World of Warcraft the Christmas it came out and I played and played it. I was not very good at it and am easily frustrated. Also, I never felt good enough to group play. In every guild I played in all the others leveled much faster than I did and I was soon the poor relation. Plus, I like playing by myself. Also, since I play for fun and not to prove a point, once a character got too hard to level I abandoned it and started a new one. In short, I was an inept solo player that never leveled up to even 60.
One day I noticed that neither me nor my son played WoW that often anymore. It had been more than two months since either of us had played so I ended my subscription. This was more than a year ago, after Lich King but long before Cataclysm. I have recently found myself unemployed and bored and so I re-opened my Blizzard account.
Well, this solo Draenei Hunter was totally surprised! You’re born with a pet? You don’t have to worry about arrows? There’s a built in map/quest finder? I can level up to 25 in, like, a day or two (not that I mind!)? I don’t have to travel to the place to get the flight plan? There have been many, many changes and it has made the experience of this lousy solo player a lot more fun.
And then I tried to fly to Aurberdine and. . . my heart broke. That is quite a world Blizzard has created and I never realized exactly how much I bought into it until I saw the Ruins of Aurberdine. Now, after all these years, I’d like to hear the whole World of Warcraft mythology. Anybody want to tell me?
To answer your main question (“What happened to Auberdine?”) – Deathwing destroyed it along with a bunch of other stuff. It was a victim of the Cataclysm.
Thanks for that but that’s no where near as fun as seeing Doper’s spin on things. O.K., I see that Wow mythology might be too much for one post. How 'bout what happened to the uneasy peace between horde and alliance?
That peace still holds but with the usual skirmishes - As Skammer says the big event recently was Deathwing who decided to wipe a fair bit of Azeroth off the map. As a consequence certain antagonists on both sides took advantage, quest in Southern Barrens or Azshara for example, but for now it’s Horde and Alliance against Deathwing at the moment.
In the next expansion it seems we don’t have a big ultimate boss to kill and this will see the return of the traditional alliance v horde war. Or so it seems at the moment.
Part of the problem there is the border skirmishes between Gilneas and Undercity–depending on whose intro levels you play, both sides blame the other for starting it. Either way, the end shot is the New Plague being used on Gilneas City.
Consequently the Alliance moved into Southern Barrens and the Horde sacked Hillsbrad/Southshore.
Highly untrue, IMNSHO!
The war is going pretty hot in Ashenvale Forest, Stonetalon Peak, the Blasted Lands, and basically all of Eastern Kingdoms north of Wetlands (old Lordaeron)–Nethergarde, Maestra’s Post, and Astranaar are all under constant Horde attack, while Thal’darah Grove is utterly obliterated by the Horde during the Alliance questline there. Andorhal and Stromgarde fall to the Horde in the Forsaken questlines. Shatterspear Vale falls to the Alliance in their quests, and Night Elf forces are besieging Ogrimmar from the north. Tol Barad is also a constant fight, and is much more of a “endorsed by the factions” conflict than Wintergrasp ever seemed to be.
From my perspective the Horde under Garrosh has basically gone nuts, with a lot of provocation being supplied by his willingness to back up Sylvanas’ atrocities even as he orders her to stop committing them–between New Plague and her co-opting of the Val’kyr, at some point she’s GOT to pull a Fandral and go full-on antagonist or I’m going to start really hating the Horde.
The war in Twilight Highlands between the Wildhammer and Dragonmaw is also hot, and both sides have rejoined their respective global factions.
Thrall is calling for peace, but it’s a full-on hot war compared to the minor skirmishes in Wrath, with the Earthen Ring and Avengers/Guardians of Hyjal being the primary forces holding together adventurers who are more concerned with the world than their faction. That said, not even the various fortifications of the Earthen Ring in Hyjal and the Firelands are conflict-free. Especially not on PvP servers.
Yes, when Thrall gave up the Warchief position to complete his shaman training and try to save the world, he named Garrosh as his successor. Garrosh has his occasional good moments, but he’s young, untried, insecure and just a bit arrogant. A lot of the more egregious missteps came because he’s basically over his head…he’s no Thrall. He’s been duped by the out-and-out bad guys (Magratha of the Grimtotem (the proximate cause of Cairne’s death), Sylvanas) repeatedly but doesn’t seem to learn the right lessons from it.
Oh, and it doesn’t help that the nominal leader on the Alliance side, King Varian Wrynn, is just as bad. His capture and gladatorial slavery made him hate the Horde as much as Garrosh hates the Alliance. These two together in the same place (as at the Argent Tournament) is a disaster waiting to happen.
The biggest difference I see is that Garrosh is prone to aggressiveness whereas Varian is like “your” little brother–if you tap him, he’s going to hit you with a bat.
I am Forsaken - this isn’t a war, it is a collection of minor skirmishes which may lead to a war. War starts when the plague is unleashed and more are blessed by the Valkyr to rise again and serve the Dark Lady.
Look, the Lich King ran Sylvanas off like a little girl (in Halls of Reflection). Then we (by which I mean, Tyrion and my droogs) slaughtered the Lich King. What makes you think Sylvanas has a shot?
I find this exchange from the beginning of the new Silverpine Forest Horde quests telling:
My first main is Forsaken, and he has great sympathy and admiration for Her Dark Majesty, but is very worried by the path she is walking (and taking the entire nation with her).
And yet! And yet the Scourge is bottled, and threatens no one.
I’m not even an Alliance partisan–were it possible, I’d throw in my lot with Velen alone, or with Thrall and the rest of the Earthen Ring. Hell, I’m still wearing my Ashen Verdict title.
That alone ought to tell you why the Dark Lady will lose if she pushes her luck. We have undead too, AND everyone else.
