Tag: legion

Hunting hidden artifact appearances for BfA transmog, and I did the nostalgia trip for the hidden appearance of Ashbringer. A few things came to my mind while completing this quest. (Warning: long rant below!)

  1. Ashbringer’s origin belies the nu-lore that Shadow > Light, because it starts out as a piece of a fallen naaru, a thing of pure shadow and void energy, and then is purified by the Light, showing that the Light has power over the Void. So by doing this quest and re-corrupting Ashbringer, we’ve effectively turned one of the greatest weapons of the Light BACK into a weapon of darkness and evil.
  2. Grand Inquisitor Isillien is dismissed as “crazy”, “fanatical” and “racist”, but, seriously, he is one of the few original members of the Scarlet Crusade who actually has some agency (in that he is not a dreadlord, like Dathrohan or Westwind, or a pawn of them like Abbendis). Furthermore, as he was part of the purification of Ashbringer in the Old Hillsbrad Caverns of Time dungeon, he saw it being purified with his own eyes…and then some upstart nonbeliever mage of the Kirin Tor comes around and wants to corrupt it again?! Of course he won’t stand for this, no sane person would! I actually empathized with Isillien, whom I thought was beyond redemption for his killing of Taelin Fordring.
  3. This is all part and parcel of Blizzard’s running theme with Legion: make HUGE mistakes that could lead to the deaths and corruption of thousands, including yourself (if not the destruction of the world itself), but they’re dismissed because “it’s all for the cause of defeating the Legion.” You know, like that shit illidan stormrage!
  4. Whatever bullshit explanation Blizzard is going to phone in for why we lose our artifacts in Battle for Azeroth won’t be enough. It just won’t. Some are kind of easily dismissed (like the ones the Dark Riders go after, or all the Monk ones), but some are deep lore artifacts, like Doomhammer, Frostmourne(s), the scepter of Sargeras, and, of course, the Ashbringer. Especially now that Ashbringer is evil, and, despite what Blizzard wants to force down our throats, YOU. CANNOT. DESTROY. EVIL. WITH. EVIL. YOU. CANNOT. FIGHT. FIRE. WITH. FIRE.
  5. Also low fucking blow, Tyrosus, bringing Darion’s father into this! He wouldn’t have wanted Ashbringer to be corrupted again. In fact, it was because of Darion that Ashbringer became corrupted at the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King. 

I feel so wrong wielding it, like I’ve committed a betrayal of all of Azeroth and all of the Light. What have I done? What has Blizzard done! Retribution is also my strongest paladin spec so I don’t know: change it? Maybe, but I’m doing a lot of PvP on her, and the golden appearance isn’t half-bad, so maybe I can make a “lore” reason that she gets to purify it again, which is why it will glow golden rather than green with fel (or purple with void).

In case you were wondering (all zero of you) if I have any male characters, here are my male characters taking selfies.

  1. Wdnz, my main of 9 years, posing in front of the most awesome vrykul ever: Riala the Hearthwatcher.
  2. Zenjamba at the top of Wyrmrest Temple, with Thrall, Kalecgos, Alexstrasza, and the late Ysera, in the Dragon Soul raid, hoping that the Blazing Drake will drop this time (it never does).
  3. Garmosh in a pug-group in The Underbog, trying to figure out this Gnomish S.E.L.F.I.E. device.
  4. Nostri standing in the most holy place in all of Azeroth: Light’s Hope Chapel

A hilarious story from my Night Elf hunter leveling. So after the Battle for Azeroth pre-order, the Highmountain Tauren have a portal in Thunder Totem which leads directly to the Horde Embassy building in Orgrimmar. Portals are nothing new, as they’ve been part of the game for a while: but you’d think, as one cannot use cross-faction portals, that no Alliance player could click on this portal and go to Orgrimmar, right? Right?

Wrong!

Out of curiosity, I clicked the portal and found myself one-shotted as soon as I materialized in Orgrimmar. After dying and starting from the graveyard south of Razor Hill, then having to walk my wisp spirit back at least two or three times (because the Old World zones won’t let you fly while a ghost, even though all the zones from Wrath onward do), I made my way to the back of the Embassy and used my hearthstone to return to friendlier territories (thank goodness for 7.3.5, otherwise this whole area would be filled with goblins and I’d have to either take the long way out through the west gate or take resurrection sickness).

So around the day it launched, my priest ran the Seat of the Pantheon in Antorus. Now I know everyone loves to bash LFR-users as “filthy casuals”, but even on LFR, Argus was no joke. Since my priest is a healer, she couldn’t do what my main did (die and then wait for everyone else to finish the boss): she was useful and actually had to survive. Hell, a few druids even threw combat rezz’s my way.

I felt so epic, like we were going to the last battle of Ragnarok. I played all the epic symphonic metal songs I could recall that were appropriate for a Holy priest defeating the puppet of Sargeras: and then everyone started throwing rainbows at Argus. She even joined in the silliness and started dancing as we waited for everyone to be ready.

PS – not entirely sure about the ending, though. It was almost as bad as the Warlords of Draenor ending: almost.

Okay, so some things have been happening in the World of Warcraft with me lately.

Good news first: my Night Elf hunter is now level 90. I’ve powered through 30 levels without ever having to see Outland or Pandaria. I ended up completing five whole zones (Howling Fjord, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Mount Hyjal, and Deepholm), with some extra quests sprinkled throughout Icecrown, Storm Peaks, Vashj’ir and the Twilight Highlands; never once had to use the dungeon finder for extra experience. Now it’s the long haul through Draenor (Gorgrond and the Spires of Arak are my least favorite zones), before she can become the Huntmaster.

Now for the bad news: I’ve been watching some of the data-mined info for the first four allied races. The Highmountain Tauren and LF Draenei have decent unlock-quests, though the LF one does seem played out for laughs a lot. The Nightbourne one made me particularly angry: at Thalyssra for not accepting the fact that the use of magic Sundered the world, which gives Tyrande plenty of excuse for her distrust of magic, at Liadrin for dismissing the Night Elves as “hiding in their forests”, since that’s what the High Elves did in both Warcraft 2 and 3, at Lorthemar for being a total dick, and at the writers in Blizzard for making me quote Snyderverse Lex Luthor unironically (“you know what the oldest lie in America is? that power can be innocent”). Speaking of which, Alleria’s crack elves anger me even more: i mean, that whole not-so-subtle “eat shit” at the Light was uncalled for, as well as their whole edgy edge-lord douchebaggery. What makes them think that they can succeed where so many before them (some of them Elves) have failed? The arrogance of the High/Blood Elves is astounding, and exceeded only by Blizzard forcing the noodly appendages of the void-lords down our throats as they did illidan’s purple dick!

Legion 7.3.5

So I beat Antorus twice. Both were LFR and the first was a total face roll since I had no idea how to fight Argus. The second time I was actually useful.

Now that that’s over, I was forced to hear Illidan whine about sacrifices yet again, and dishonor Tyrande’s choices, and defend his betrayal of the world as “commitment to Azeroth.” Yeah right, pouring that magical water into the new well on Hyjal was a commitment to yourself, you purple prick, not to Azeroth! Oh and how condescending of you to finally show us respect just because “your sacrifice mirrors my own.” Oh stuff sargeras’ burning dick in your mouth!

Might I also add that, in light of the nu-void lore, what Illidan did might just be his worst betrayal ever. Once again endangering the world! What are you talking about “honor”? Malfurion brought honor to the name of Stormrage; you are literally the only one dishonoring the name!

On a better note, the leveling revamp is good: I’ll never go back to Outland again (unless it’s a transmog run)! I gained seven levels from just the Howling Fjord! At this rate, I might just get to level 80 before I finish all the story-lines in Northrend! Then it’s the Cataclysm zones: racist ass Taran zhu and the fat, lazy pandas will never see my Night Elf hunter’s purple booty in Pandaria!

actual dialogue from a brainstorming session at Blizzard HQ during the creation of the Legion expansion:

Blizzard exec: okay, so we’re going to make this expansion like Burning Crusade, only better. does anyone else have any ideas we can have for the story-writing?
Illidan Stormrage: make me the main focus of the story. make me the one everyone has to save, and have a long quest-line that revolves around me, and tells the story from my point of view, painting all of my actions in a positive light. also make me the main hero; make me steal the final raid-boss kills from the players. also make me kill the person who facilitates my resurrection, but paint it as this huge triumph of free will. also make me mock Prophet Velen for no other reason than because he’s a lawful good character and i hate lawful good. also make me imprison Sargeras, so the players never get to kill the big bad like that fool Chris Metzen had planned for them.
Blizzard exec: sounds great, Illidan! anything else?
Illidan: yes. make my brother get captured by Xavius, and have a whole quest where you have to rescue him and he cries and whines like a little baby.