(WoW) Tales of Class
So, with 7.1 about to release, I've finished up the current Suramar content on my main. I put in time with alts, finishing out my death knight's class story and getting to the final few steps of my priest's. And... the class/order stories have made a range of impacts...
The paladin story is still my favorite so far. After watching Tirion go down during the assault on the Broken Shore, the fight against the Legion feels personal. The presence of Arator makes Light's Heart a little more impactful (bearing a message from Turalyon to his son). The alliance with priests, and inducting one of their number as a paladin makes lots of lore sense. And while I wish there was more information about Lothraxion, his appearance as a general of the Army of Light is cool. Balnazzar, an established dread lord is presented as early as the Ashbringer acquisition quest and thus makes a very good opponent to take down in the final confrontation in Netherlight Temple (and that's presumably truly fatal since it's in the Nether).
I may be biased, but the whole thing felt pretty great to me.
The priest campaign has been okay, but not as enthralling. Gathering priests is good, but it doesn't feel like the same sort of rallying cry against evil. You gather a couple champions while making a potion so Velen can have a vision to sort out the ramblings of a shadow priest. They're busy helping people on the front lines, but decide to come help you. That's fine, it's just not as powerful. Netherlight Temple is neat, but it doesn't have the lore behind it that Light's Hope Chapel does. And it appears that the end is likely to intersect with the paladin story, though Tichondrius (another dread lord) was seen as the big threat in Velen's vision.
It's fine, but there's less emotional investment in it all.
The death knight campaign, though... wow. It... The story is okay. I almost want to say it's constructed better, technically, than the priest campaign, but it's sorely lacking in justification.
DKs were sort of anti-heroes can when they were introduced - people who have been through hell and broke the Lich King's yoke to fight against him. Now... it's almost like because demon hunters have taken the anti-hero role, DKs have gone straight over to villain.
The new Lich King is... not as bad as the old. But his goals are undefined at this stage. So when his voice pops up and directs the player DK to start making a new Four Horsemen as elite undead servants to him, I see zero reason to do so. There's nothing stating that Lich King Bolvar has reestablished control of the DKs. He makes some argument that it's "necessary" to defend the world against the Legion, but that seems troublingly weak.
Even your DK champions/advisors question this, pointing out the Horde is going to be upset when you go off to raise Nazgrim (an orc warlord killed at the Siege of Orgrimmar), but you do that without fighting anyone. Then you're sent to raise Thoras Trollbane, human king of Stromgarde. Considering Stromgarde seems to be run by Thoras' son (who killed him), I could see that making very little splash on the Alliance's radar. Then you're sent to raise Whitemane ("death totally should have cleared up her insanity!"), which means going through the Scarlet Crusade - no big loss there, okay.
Then LK Bolvar directs you to go raise Tirion Fordring from his crypt in Light's Hope Chapel. This means raising ghouls from the nearby crypts, murdering through several Silver Hand paladins, and beating Lady Liadrin herself in a fight. Seriously, this is a war crime and act of war wrapped up in one, against the premiere paladin order of the world - people who are standing on the front line against the Legion. By all rights, that really should make the Ebon Blade active enemies of the Silver Hand and well as quite possibly the Alliance and maybe the Horde, undoing everything DKs have done to prove themselves as allies.
Thankfully, it doesn't work. The Light prevents the undeadification of probably the number one paladin in active-WoW (as opposed to pre-WoW Warcraft) lore, and DKs have to settle for re-raising Darion Mograine as the fourth Horseman. But that doesn't change what the Ebon Blade did in assaulting Light's Hope. As Darion warned before the raid, there's really no going back from that. I don't know what they were thinking at Blizzard with that one.
The paladin story is still my favorite so far. After watching Tirion go down during the assault on the Broken Shore, the fight against the Legion feels personal. The presence of Arator makes Light's Heart a little more impactful (bearing a message from Turalyon to his son). The alliance with priests, and inducting one of their number as a paladin makes lots of lore sense. And while I wish there was more information about Lothraxion, his appearance as a general of the Army of Light is cool. Balnazzar, an established dread lord is presented as early as the Ashbringer acquisition quest and thus makes a very good opponent to take down in the final confrontation in Netherlight Temple (and that's presumably truly fatal since it's in the Nether).
I may be biased, but the whole thing felt pretty great to me.
The priest campaign has been okay, but not as enthralling. Gathering priests is good, but it doesn't feel like the same sort of rallying cry against evil. You gather a couple champions while making a potion so Velen can have a vision to sort out the ramblings of a shadow priest. They're busy helping people on the front lines, but decide to come help you. That's fine, it's just not as powerful. Netherlight Temple is neat, but it doesn't have the lore behind it that Light's Hope Chapel does. And it appears that the end is likely to intersect with the paladin story, though Tichondrius (another dread lord) was seen as the big threat in Velen's vision.
It's fine, but there's less emotional investment in it all.
The death knight campaign, though... wow. It... The story is okay. I almost want to say it's constructed better, technically, than the priest campaign, but it's sorely lacking in justification.
DKs were sort of anti-heroes can when they were introduced - people who have been through hell and broke the Lich King's yoke to fight against him. Now... it's almost like because demon hunters have taken the anti-hero role, DKs have gone straight over to villain.
The new Lich King is... not as bad as the old. But his goals are undefined at this stage. So when his voice pops up and directs the player DK to start making a new Four Horsemen as elite undead servants to him, I see zero reason to do so. There's nothing stating that Lich King Bolvar has reestablished control of the DKs. He makes some argument that it's "necessary" to defend the world against the Legion, but that seems troublingly weak.
Even your DK champions/advisors question this, pointing out the Horde is going to be upset when you go off to raise Nazgrim (an orc warlord killed at the Siege of Orgrimmar), but you do that without fighting anyone. Then you're sent to raise Thoras Trollbane, human king of Stromgarde. Considering Stromgarde seems to be run by Thoras' son (who killed him), I could see that making very little splash on the Alliance's radar. Then you're sent to raise Whitemane ("death totally should have cleared up her insanity!"), which means going through the Scarlet Crusade - no big loss there, okay.
Then LK Bolvar directs you to go raise Tirion Fordring from his crypt in Light's Hope Chapel. This means raising ghouls from the nearby crypts, murdering through several Silver Hand paladins, and beating Lady Liadrin herself in a fight. Seriously, this is a war crime and act of war wrapped up in one, against the premiere paladin order of the world - people who are standing on the front line against the Legion. By all rights, that really should make the Ebon Blade active enemies of the Silver Hand and well as quite possibly the Alliance and maybe the Horde, undoing everything DKs have done to prove themselves as allies.
Thankfully, it doesn't work. The Light prevents the undeadification of probably the number one paladin in active-WoW (as opposed to pre-WoW Warcraft) lore, and DKs have to settle for re-raising Darion Mograine as the fourth Horseman. But that doesn't change what the Ebon Blade did in assaulting Light's Hope. As Darion warned before the raid, there's really no going back from that. I don't know what they were thinking at Blizzard with that one.
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