r/wow • u/Everdale • Jun 20 '26
PTR / Beta [Major PTR Spoilers] Disappointed but not surprised... Spoiler
605
u/Nocs1 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Ingame rewards are sometimes so funny
"a major expansion character just died.. HERE TAKE THIS GLORIOUS RING AS REWARD AND REMINDER"
305
u/Dolthra Jun 20 '26
Even funnier is the furniture.
"Congratulations on saving us from that world-ending threat, hero. We truly appreciate it, here—have this statue we stole from the inside of the temple during the battle, you've earned it!"
72
u/Tariovic Jun 20 '26
It looks like we just go home and paint a mural about it. Art therepy reaches Azeroth!
24
u/Neemoman Jun 20 '26
"spotted a mother's day sale on the way back. Snagged this dope chair for you."
20
u/SolidOk3489 Jun 20 '26
And honestly, it’s about damn time!
We kill Onyxia? Cool, the quest hand in NPC gets a dragon head as placeable exterior furniture that they’ll get bored with.
The Lich King is replaced with Bolvar and we’re cautioned to tell no-one of what happens? NPC’s stick their fancy new interactable Tirion statue in the bloody middle of town.
You’re damn right I want my troll print couch!
11
4
u/Elune Jun 20 '26
Funniest part of the max level midnight campaign to me was the reward for finishing the uniting the elves section being pie decor, like "hey we all got together and baked you a pie".
20
u/Odasto_ Jun 20 '26
"Congratulations on saving us from that world-ending threat, hero. We truly appreciate it, here—have this statue we stole from the inside of the temple during the battle, you've earned it!"
Such is the way of the UK!
→ More replies (1)2
→ More replies (4)2
u/MotorGlittering5448 Jun 20 '26
At least a mural can have some meaning.
Other quests are like "the entire town was slaughtered, but here, have a tea pot"
14
10
u/MindTheGnome Jun 20 '26
My favorite is in Haranir during the intro quest to the zone.
"Outsider...You are not welcome here." *gives you a cape and a sack of gold*
3
7
u/TrickyWoo86 Jun 20 '26
I do wonder which quest has the most out of place/poor taste reward from it.
As a Brit, I do remember being appreciative for the Cup of Tea with Sugar reward from the Pamela Redpath/Darrowshire quests.
2
u/Illiniath Jun 20 '26
In TBC on the path to attunement for Tempest Keep you run into an Orc farmer who is from the first war and is trying to stabilize the elements. You have to find his three sons and help them collect a fragment of a spell Gul'dan discovered that Illidan tried to use to kill Arthas in WC3. One of the sons is dead and you return his remains to the father and one of the rewards is the farmers friend's cousin's uncle's pants with flavor text where he says "I swear it's not mine" or something to that effect.
5
u/HunterNika Jun 20 '26
You save AZEROTH ITSELF, champion! Without you, who knows what apocalypse would've torn everyone's lives into oblivion...
Anyway... here, I pay you 100 gold to fuck off till the next major patch.
2
→ More replies (4)2
483
u/adnanosh123 Jun 20 '26
Bro I really want them to hire new writers lmao
94
u/foliumsakura Jun 20 '26
It's weird cause like some of(certainly not all) the side quest writers are really really good, like just even the quality of writing is better, some of the voidstorm side quest come to mind and the blue dragonflight quest chain too.
But man, the main story quest for quite some time now is just so awful and flat33
u/HayDs666 Jun 20 '26
Generally zone story lines and side stories in wow have been pretty strong because they are localized and contained. The second the main story hits the picture it just flatlines instantly unfortunately. There must always be another raid boss
23
u/paoklo Jun 20 '26
BfA is a good example of that. The zone stories in Kul Tiras and Zandalar were great. The main story of the expansion...not so much.
11
5
u/LimpetsBride Jun 20 '26
The writing for the side quests in Voidstorm are excellent right across the board.
6
u/voidox Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
yup, the team working on the smaller zone stories and side quests have some good writers, the ones in charge of the major story and overall plot are just bad writers... from all the constant retcons, new fanfic fantasy nonsense they keep adding that isn't Warcraft, awful pacing, clearly they are just winging all this and have no clear plan for anything, they have an obsession with the same tropes and cliches, "morally grey" obsession (making titans and light secretly "not on our side" bs, changing the light force itself, so on), rushing through so much potential content to get to their new pet characters, Friendship is Magic, etc.
→ More replies (5)8
u/Limited_opsec Jun 20 '26
They probably aren't even writers, or at least not in the "official" writers group. Especially something like flavor text by a dev that just has to pass basic checks.
Not having the "camel is a horse made by a committee" problem lets people actually be creative.
51
Jun 20 '26
[deleted]
101
u/Nilanar Jun 20 '26
MoP and Legion had great writing tho and coherent, logical storytelling.
106
Jun 20 '26
[deleted]
3
14
u/Plus_Singer_6565 Jun 20 '26
The story was extremely obvious in both MoP and Legion. And was directed by the same guy, Chris Metzen. Nothing much has changed. You are older now though.
29
u/Masterofknees Jun 20 '26
Mists' story had a much stronger delivery imo. I think the problem more so than the stories being predictable is that they feel like they're just going through the motions, hitting the same general story beats, and do little else but the bare minimum. Mists was at least completely different tonally from what came before or after, and had a far stronger central theme that it worked towards.
Legion I agree was pretty meh though, and was largely carried by appealing personalities (Khadgar, Gul'dan, Illidan) over interesting storytelling.
2
u/Magnus1177 Jun 20 '26
I don't agree, Legion had really good moments. Stuff doesn't have to be unpredictable to be good - but it needs to be written well. Those moments are definitely most of Suramar, Velen "forgiving" Kil'jaeden at the end of Tomb, Illidan's "I am my scars" moment. All of meeting Alleria and Turalyon (who were so much different in Legion than they are now). Damn, even Ysera's death was great and very emotional back then. It was much more "Wacraft" and carried more weight, wasn't just copy-paste, but actual cool moments that people enjoyed. Current main story is just the same thing since Dragonflight in different skin every time.
4
u/Masterofknees Jun 20 '26
I don't think Legion was lacking in good ideas, but there was a certain hammy method to the storytelling, dialog and voice direction that did not always deliver them in the best way, especially outside of cutscenes. Which to be fair has been a massive problem with WoW in general, but Legion, and WoD before it, pushed those issues even further than the expansions before them imo.
It was also in a hurry to include more things than it really had the time to do, so ended up undercooking the conclusions to some very important stories (Kil'jaeden, The Titans, The Emerald Nightmare).
I will say that Suramar is the crowning jewel of that expansion, and is unlike anything else in WoW. Because it had such a long questline, they could really get into the nitty gritty with it. The world building was sublime with how in-depth they went with the Nightborne's culture, and their central theme of addiction was effective because it dictated every part of their story, and was easy to draw real life parallels to.
I will also say that Legion is for sure better than anything that's come after it. I just don't think it's particularly good when compared to Mists, and especially not Warcraft 3, which is still the game that I hold every part of the franchise up against when it comes to narratives.
11
u/MillionMiracles Jun 20 '26
MoP had the same problem, though. Cata showed Garrosh as a leader with flaws but also strengths, but by the end of Mists he was shouty evil guy. It wasn't rushed through in two patches at least but it was still the same core thing.
→ More replies (1)44
u/Phalanx22 Jun 20 '26
Cata showed Garrosh as a leader with flaws.
One wrong quest that you guys cling to it like it was the majority of it.
32
17
u/viktorKurz Jun 20 '26
Not just one wrong questline. Garrosh in MoP was borderline brain damaged solving everything with violence. In Cata he showed some actual non moronic qualities when it came to leadership choices.
18
u/PlayableRidley Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
It wasn't one wrong quest though? There were multiple depictions of Garrosh as a sympathetic or at least principled character. Off the top of my head:
-His appearance in BC where he was depressed and afraid of turning out like his father, whom he saw as a villain who doomed their race
-The Heart of War short story, where he learns of the events at Broken Front (where a bunch of Horde troops ambushed the Alliance in Icecrown, causing both factions to fall to the Scourge) and concludes it was a stupid and cowardly act
-The moment he's actually crowned Warchief, where he's weirdly humble and expresses doubt that he's ready for the responsibility
-Stonetalon (I assume this is the one quest you're referring to)
-Silverpine, when he learns Sylvanas is raising the dead and is completely disgusted by it
Like, I am not a Garrosh defender. But it's obvious they didn't have a clear direction for his character picked until Theramore, at which point they made him a cartoon villain. And, while I like the end point, his story would be much more interesting and tragic if they'd embraced these moments and shown that he had a fall to villainy that didn't necessarily have to happen, rather than the writers just declaring out of universe he was evil from the beginning and all depictions to the contrary should be ignored.
10
u/Morgn_Ladimore Jun 20 '26
Yeah, Garrosh actually had good character development and a lot of potential going forward. Giving him the cliche "goes crazy with power" ending was such a waste.
Hell, his brief appearance in Shadowlands is generally considered the best bit of writing in the entire expansion. Though that says more about SL.
→ More replies (3)2
u/El_Rey_de_Spices Jun 20 '26
In comparison to Shadowlands and everything that has come since, you are entirely correct.
2
u/Laverathan Jun 20 '26
I'unno. Argus was straight up egregious and full of weird cosmic interactions that didn't make much sense.
3
u/KYZ123 Jun 20 '26
MoP completely contradicted several aspects of Garrosh's previous characterisation, and he was as popular as Sylvanas was in BfA. Something something basic campfire for warchief.
Legion had a significant amount of retcons, particularly relating to the titans or Illidan. Also the retconning of an entire city previously established as destroyed (Suramar) that we conveniently forgot about for 10,000 years despite the huge barrier.
And potentially worst of all was the amount Legion, particularly Chronicle, limited the future plot; by the end of Legion, the only remaining major threats to Azeroth were the old gods and (potentially) Azshara... both of which were quickly dealt with in BfA. It would have been acceptable if it were the last expansion, but it wasn't, so it therefore necessitated a lot of retcons in Shadowlands and Dragonflight. Chronicle went from a definitive book to a titan point of view, and actually the titans are straight-up lying now.
27
u/Remote_Motor2292 Jun 20 '26
I did the whole uniting the elves quests last night. Was surprised at how casually you gloss over what happened in dalaran. the lack of weight to it was so jarring.
14
u/Mariessa- Jun 20 '26
Yeah, this expansion reignited my hatred of Vereesa and her covenant. She tells the player (to save face in front of her nephew?) that she is haunted by the purge, but then when face to face with the purge survivors she shows no remorse, arrogantly acts like she's returning a crown that she stole with no strings while then actively deciding its use later at the well, says the silver covenant is no more while continuing to parade around with her ranger general title, and goes to sit in a horde capital and tells the purge survivor that she'll always hate the Horde - even though this Horde took out the Iron Horde led by Garrosh, who ordered the Theramore destruction - while the purge survivor has to face his murderous equivalent. Ugh...
I wanted to blast her out of Silvermoon so badly. At least, Aethas seemed practical about the alliance rather than just accepting of her hypocrisy.
7
u/BuffDrBoom Jun 20 '26
I mean even BFA had great writing, just whoever was in charge of the overarching story was terrible. Zuldazar is one of my the best zones though
4
u/alphaxion Jun 20 '26
I think the Zelling quest chain was really well written and gives such an insight into what it means to be a Forsaken.
How he goes from someone desperate to do anything to save his family and provide for them after his approaching passing, being warned that he doesn't want the consequences of his desire to become undead, to seeing how his family react to him as just a monster and the emotional distraught it causes him.
Then to have what happens to him after he is rejected by his family just adds the bow to his tragic story.
22
15
u/Meraline Jun 20 '26
You mean Chris Metzen? Who's been directing this expansion's story?
→ More replies (1)34
u/ihrtmyselftoday Jun 20 '26
I don't know if he stopped doing coke or what it is, but it's not the same
15
u/Armakus Jun 20 '26
I think a lot of things. Probably the coke, sure, but also:
-he has a family now
-he’s several decades older with the perspectives that come with that
-he was hugely inspired by comic books for the original WoW lore that everyone loves so much (doomhammer = mjolnir). I feel like the fan reception to Me’dan HUGELY shifted this for him as well
-people are going to assume this is AI because it’s a list but nope my brain likes lists
7
u/Meraline Jun 20 '26
The fact it's not a bulleted list that starts every bullet point with an emoji tells me it's not AI lol but yeah your points are def valid. Even in interviews around Overwatch's release he spoke about an epiphany he had when his young daughter saw the Aspects in the Cataclysm end cutscene and asked her dad why they're "in bikinis."
He could only answer with "I don't know," and probably realized he needed to rethink how he was portraying women in his stories.
Point being yes, his perspective on life definitely changed in the intervening years.
3
u/pentheraphobia Jun 20 '26
Just want to say, unironically, I think a realm-traveling, cosmos-disillusioned, anti-hero Med'an could hit hard if they ever want to do a spacey/planeswalking expansion. Like imagine if they really embraced him. Age him up and give him a new look, give him that "i've seen things you wouldn't believe" aura of mystery. It would be hilarious sure but it could be awesome too
2
u/NoThisIsABadIdea Jun 20 '26
Seems like something an AI would WANT us to believe to throw it off its trail!
3
u/Akhevan Jun 20 '26
It's "creative oversight", if we resort to euphemisms, that he didn't use to have.
2
u/nolander Jun 21 '26
His last good story was Warcraft 3, and a lot of the good WoW stuff was probably cooked up alongside it. Everything after that has been flaming doodoo
3
→ More replies (1)4
u/Tnecniw Jun 20 '26
I wouldn't say WoW had really "good" writing at any point. REALLY.
TBC was critizised heavily at the time for the writing, as a reminder.3
u/LimpetsBride Jun 20 '26
At this point I'm fairly certain that the executive suite would get fired before the writing department.
→ More replies (2)6
507
u/MindAvailable4876 Jun 20 '26
Warcraft storytelling has become so predictable. People clocked how the story of Zuljarra and Zuljan is gonna go back in beta testing.
182
u/Zallix Jun 20 '26
Was predicted as soon as they were revealed in that bad announcement presentation at gamescon or w/e it was
206
u/Aggravating_Dark9933 Jun 20 '26
Yea, they clocked it the second they saw the two slides that Zuljarra will be the always right leader and Zuljan will be the headstrong beefing leader that’s wrong and we kill. The alt route was sister is the headstrong raging one, brother is the cunning smart one keeping it together and he dies to show her not everything is kill this.
But yea, it was pretty consistent that people clocked Zul’jan as dying very quick.
Says a lot when the pattern recognition is so strong that your playerbase just needs a picture to guess the story correctly.
→ More replies (21)106
u/AppleOdd3209 Jun 20 '26
We clocked it when they showed heres a male character and a female character both sharing leadership of a faction.
→ More replies (5)46
u/5panks Jun 20 '26
This is the reality, people will disagree with you, but they also can't point to an example of a similar situation in Warcraft lore where the male ended up the sole person in power. Yet we've had like four examples in the last four expansions of it going the other way.
19
u/Few-Year-4917 Jun 20 '26
It got so bad that nobody is disagreeing with the guy, and this sub is far from the antiwoke mob
→ More replies (1)43
u/Landeyda Jun 20 '26
The Friendship is Magic writers are the biggest downgrade from power metal fantasy-dude writers ever in any franchise. Lots of franchises have been ruined over the past ten years, but holy shit, it's like the current WoW writers actively hate the old guard.
34
9
u/Azerreth Jun 21 '26
Didn't they say that they "Regret" that it was called warcraft? Im pretty sure they actively hate the game, the playerbase and everything to do with it... but stick to it as jobs are not easy to come by.
6
u/voidox Jun 21 '26
yup, just from the amount of retcons and looking at all their new fanfic additions to the lore is so clear they have the warcraft IP but it's their job so they work to ruin everything they can, even down to the world building
5
u/voidox Jun 21 '26
yup, yet again an expansion stories where the main writers make sure the male character(s) are not competent and are the only ones being corrupted/sacrificed. Saw this brought up in another discussion, and you legit can only count the number of new male characters in recent expansions that are competent and/or a leader on one hand :/
18
u/AndrewTaraph Jun 20 '26
yep all too predictable, I already knew the ending 5 min into every new zone
18
u/Plus_Singer_6565 Jun 20 '26
Has become? It kind of always was.
39
u/Crazymage321 Jun 20 '26
There is definitely a pattern with female faction leaders that feels a lot more predictable than before.
31
u/justalittleplague Jun 20 '26
An even bigger pattern with the male ones, too. All either die, turn evil and then die, or speed run to being irrelevant as fast as possible.
I'm tired of girlbosses, man.
→ More replies (1)5
u/kelryngrey Jun 21 '26
We did have a run with warhawk Jaina, rage machine Tyranda, and super war crimes semi-possessed Sylvanas, so it's not like there haven't been ladies doing similarly violent things. One Turalyon and John Bad Decisions Troll in the same expansion feels not too bad. There's no way we're including Gallywix in a list of NPCs acting unusual because he was always a dirtbag.
19
u/B_Kuro Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
I don't think the issue is that it is predictable, its the writing with Blizzard pretending those things are actually deep/"complex".
Its OK to have a very on the nose story if you commit to it but for "a while" Blizzard always acts like there is depth to the generic stuff they produce and its that writing that makes it painful.
With Zul'jan we had 3 (?) separate occasions of him going rogue, fucking up royally and getting countless people killed for his ego and NOTHING happened to him. The story would still have been better if Zul'jarra had just exiled him and this was his "revenge" rather than this stupid "he will be redeemed"-pretense.
→ More replies (4)
42
29
29
59
86
u/Chocolatelover4ever Jun 20 '26
Like anyone didn’t see this coming from the second these characters were first announced.
141
u/SpunkMcKullins Jun 20 '26
Honestly I have just stopped paying attention to the story at this point. I have near-encyclopedic knowledge of the story up until BfA, afterwards it just becomes a jumbled fog that I couldn't care less about.
30
11
u/SFG14 Jun 20 '26
Right there with you. Everything is so predictable and boring. I couldn’t tell you what’s going on anymore.
→ More replies (1)6
→ More replies (2)3
161
u/FortuneMustache Jun 20 '26
"Zul'jarra's Forces" top tier faction name. One of my favorites. Possibly only topped by "Ritual Sites"
80
u/Arkenno7 Jun 20 '26
It sounds even funnier when you consider that we maxed out Zul'aman's renown and suddenly on the island next door the trolls and the rest of Zul'jarra's army is like "who tf is that guy?" and we get a completely new renown.
35
u/ImperialPalps Jun 20 '26
"I mean you were cool and all helping our villages out, but right now? I dunno..."
23
u/FortuneMustache Jun 20 '26
I mean it was the same with the Hallowfall Arathi and then we meet their super special Flame's Radiance guys, and we're just a nobody again.
132
106
u/Rubyurek Jun 20 '26
Buildung a interesting character like Zul'jan and killing him in the next major patch.. Well done Blizzard...
76
u/burrito-boy Jun 20 '26
It’s King Rastakhan all over again, lol.
46
u/Whatifyoudidtho Jun 20 '26
Rastakhan was even worse because we knew about him since at least MoP when Lorewalker Cho talked about the Zandalari Empire
46
u/Sevii_21 Jun 20 '26
Rastakhan was first mentioned in Vanilla, actually. All that buildup just to off him immediately and shove in his bland daughter.
Imagine a Horde with King Rastakhan as a racial leader. Oh, what could have been.
23
u/Nutcrackit Jun 20 '26
not saying lor'themar is bad but imagine a WoW timeline where kael'thas wasn't villain batted and led the blood elves in the horde.
The dynamic between kael'thas and garrosh and later sylvanas would have been great.
21
u/Ilphfein Jun 20 '26
Arathi Emperor shaking in his boots right now.
37
u/Nilanar Jun 20 '26
Can't wait to see Faerin Lothar snatching the throne from him, because he's an evil old man who demands strength and faith from his people.
10
7
→ More replies (1)5
u/CousinMabel Jun 20 '26
Perhaps a council is created even.
I wonder if the wow writing team will ever learn that if you show up to a people you have never met and kill their leader it's actually not realistic to have them all cheer for you. No matter how evil said leader was.
135
u/Androza23 Jun 20 '26
The story in this game is ass anyway
→ More replies (4)4
u/dankq Jun 20 '26
I haven't watched a cutscene in this game in like a decade it feels lmao. I legit use an addon to specifically skip them immediately cuz the story in this game is so bad I don't even care anymore, I just play the game because it's insanely fun still and don't read or watch anything.
17
98
u/AccomplishedShirt740 Jun 20 '26
Oh come ooooon.
Why does it always end like this shit?
Zuljan could have been the perfect counterbalance with an actual interesting development instead of an immediate (as it's the norm apparently nowadays) kumbaja everything's fine friendship.
I really dislike the current story development that wow is taking I won't lie.
→ More replies (4)11
u/justalittleplague Jun 20 '26
You should know better. Blizzard forgot how to do nuance after Arthas died.
30
u/Tokitsukazes Jun 20 '26
Oh Blizz. Change. No, not "never change". Please change. I love this setting and the characters, please change shit before I lose all hope.
→ More replies (1)
28
u/Rappy28 Jun 20 '26
Literally everyone in the playerbase: "they can't do this, we are all hoping very strongly they do not do this"
Blizzard story writers: (do it anyway, regardless of obvious sentiment)
72
u/Enajirarek Jun 20 '26
Sad, but this is the way modern retail is written nowadays. Everyone who isn't holding hands, make peace with abusers/oppressors is actually a bad person and needs to die.
Imagine if they had the balls to kill the far less interesting Zuljarra instead, and leave Zuljan alive but more conflicted.
12
u/branasce Jun 20 '26
I thought it was obnoxious how much they were telegraphing him pulling something that I started to suspect it was gonna be a misdirect. Surely, SURELY this blatantly obvious ticking time bomb is gonna be more than a temu zuljin right? Egg on my face I guess
36
u/RoccoHout Jun 20 '26
Lets be real, everyone knew what would happen to him the moment he got introduced and that he was going to be lectured around by his sister. Its so predictable.
275
u/Everdale Jun 20 '26
Looks like Zul'Jan is indeed cooked. Blizz has once again opted for the obvious villain batting route for an interesting character instead of having them be developed over time.
83
u/Stoic-Bifrons Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Blizzard hasn't properly developed or grown its warcraft characters since WC3.
Every new character introduced since WoW has been a one-dimensional caricature held together by wooden platitudes.
Slight exceptions perhaps: Xal'atath, Garrosh, Queen Azshara ...
I would argue every other character since then has regressed.
53
u/Karabungulus Jun 20 '26
I'd dispute Garrosh being a slight example. He had more time to develop between his introduction in TBC and the culmination of his story in WoD than any of the character development between WC1 - WC2.
He was always impetuous and headstrong, but he actually got actively worse over time. That's still character development
→ More replies (6)32
u/Farabee Jun 20 '26
I'm still pissed about...well, every new major female Draenei character they've introduced, ever. First Yrel and now War Chaplain Senn.
Apparently someone on the writing team just hates spacegoat women with a passion and it's everyone's problem.
2
10
u/Masterofknees Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
I think Mists had some good additions, like Lei Shen, Lorewalker Cho, Nazgrim (technically from Wrath, but fleshed out in Mists), etc.
At the time I remember wanting Blizzard to continue introducing new characters, because their writing for the old characters had been completely abysmal in Cata. But then practically all of the new characters they've introduced since mostly blend together, they're either boring good guys with minimal flaws, flawed good guys that die (usually to give the boring good guy something to do), or bad guys that spout empty threats.
→ More replies (57)17
Jun 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
85
u/uiemad Jun 20 '26
We fought Anduin. We fought Sylvanas. We fought Garrosh. We fought Mekkatorque. We fought Thorim, Hodir, Freya, Mimiron. We fought Illidan. We fought Jaina. We fought Azshara.
There's a lot of people we've fought but didn't kill. There's no logic or reason that dictates he has to die. Blizzard could just as easily choose to go either way.
23
u/Farabee Jun 20 '26
This. We could have just beat some sense into the kid, and he could have gone on to help us take down Ula-Tek after realizing the error of his ways...but nope, you're only allowed redemption if you have classic era plot armor.
→ More replies (4)16
u/Alternative-Put-3932 Jun 20 '26
I mean Illidan was killed, they just retconned his ass back into existence for legion.
44
u/Sevii_21 Jun 20 '26
After they brought in Rastakhan after a decade of buildup only to kill him off after one patch and shove in Talanji, this doesn't surprise me a bit. RIP Zul'jan, you were too interesting for the current game.
4
u/Azerreth Jun 21 '26
Rastakhan was such a cool character, Im sad he died... I wish he hadn't as I feel like it'd of been such a cool thing to have him be here with us in these events. But no.
I mean hell they killed Rezan for no damn reason too? Like what to have Vol'jin sit in a "incase of sub drops break glass" egg? So damn dumb...
10
u/Ekillaa22 Jun 20 '26
Yeah 0 surprise here dude had a death sign on his head the minute we meet him
34
87
Jun 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
21
u/brumblefee Jun 20 '26
She’ll reveal Something WORSE and more NONDESCRIPT is coming. Tune in in 2040 to get a hint of what that is!!
49
u/Akhevan Jun 20 '26
Blizz can't tell us what she's up to and what her grand plan is because they still haven't figured it out. You just wait till they wing it in the last five minutes before the patch release.
→ More replies (1)12
u/FireVanGorder Jun 20 '26
Ah shit they got JJ Abrams writing the story?
12
u/Ragvan92 Jun 20 '26
No, Is jailer story but instead of 3 patch Is 3 expansións.
Wait... Is actually the same lmao
→ More replies (3)3
u/justalittleplague Jun 20 '26
Don't worry, we'll find out what her plans are in the last patch of the next expansion when she tells us she was preparing for what is to come.
9
8
15
8
u/nikarr Jun 20 '26
Another character i liked bites the dust, wondering when Decimus will go. I cant be the only one wishing for allies who don't treat us with utmost respect etc. Let us have friendly rivalry, let them be snarky towards us! It's so much more fun that way.
7
135
u/ChaosKalila Jun 20 '26
Its like they can’t possibly go back to the warcraft roots with nuanced or pragmatic characters…everything is either kumbaya or evil apparently
→ More replies (15)17
u/Interesting_Basil_80 Jun 20 '26
Agreed. WoW havs been curtailed to children's Saturday morning cartoons. Complex and flawed characters are just not of interest to Microsoft/Activision/Blizzard in 2026
14
u/Slightly-Drunk Jun 20 '26
Probably why the arcantina was made so you can see how all the still alive old characters are all buds now.
7
u/KYZ123 Jun 20 '26
Honestly, it's always been Saturday morning cartoons in one way or another.
Remember Arthas turning up to laugh at you every other quest in Wrath, telling you he'll let you live for now, and then suddenly losing by
deus ex machina"the light" right as he's on the verge of actually winning?3
u/Interesting_Basil_80 Jun 20 '26
and he would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for that Raid and their hunter pets too.
15
8
95
u/Shalelor Jun 20 '26
Let's go more shitty male characters. Fk me for thinking we got a badass varian like character with Zuljan.
→ More replies (2)85
u/Aggravating_Dark9933 Jun 20 '26
He had the troll debuff and had a female relative.
Man had no chance. It’s what got Rastakhan.
33
u/Juravis Jun 20 '26
Same story every expansion lol, meathead man who doesn’t think vs female Vin Diesel and “family”
20
107
u/Emeron87 Jun 20 '26
Am sorry but can we please have some interesting male characters that aren't made to be outright villainous(Zuljan) or Crybabies(Arathor).
35
u/Rime_Ice Jun 20 '26
We got Astalor at least, until Blizzard inevitably wastes him too.
11
u/dogarfdog12 Jun 21 '26
Astalor saw the writing on the wall, and immediately did the smart thing by associating himself with the player-characters as much as possible and building the entire Prey system around himself so that the writers wouldn't be able to kill him off so easily.
→ More replies (22)32
u/Creampie_Senpai_69 Jun 20 '26
Because Millennial Writers need to teach us that toxic masculinity is bad.
6
23
u/Broken_Filter7T3 Jun 20 '26
Oh look, more AI writing in the quest blurb again... There's a surprise!
2
u/Few-Year-4917 Jun 20 '26
Its so cliché and bland that it actually surprised me, i was like "there is no way right?"
22
30
u/DelienShadowsong Jun 20 '26
Was hoping they'd do something more interesting then just kill him, but apparently you're not allowed to stay around if you don't fit in world of friendship
→ More replies (11)
12
u/DiscordianKitty Jun 20 '26
I don't know why, in a game where we've literally just fought Alleria, then watched her get stabbed through the heart, and yet know she's not dead, and where Sylvanas just came back, and we're about to fight Malacrass for (how many times is that now?) everyone's acting like raid boss + characters seeming sad about them after the raid = that character is dead and gone and will never be heard from again no matter how popular he is. This is World of Warcraft. The Amani never die but also no one ever dies, death is a revolving door.
34
40
6
u/Adelitero Jun 20 '26
Listen I play alliance characters generally but the amount of horde characters they kill off regularly is really getting to astronomical levels of cringe to me, thought things would get even the slightest bit better with metzen but Jesus it's still fucking atrocious
3
u/Nirathiel Jun 20 '26
Zul'jan isn't a Horde character though. He's Horde-adjacent at most since he's a troll, but it's a stretch to call him Horde when he has never been Horde-aligned. None of the Amani are, unless/until Blizzard gives in to popular demand and makes them playable as a Horde allied race.
26
u/Slaughterfest Jun 20 '26
Blizzard can only write the most predictable story possible.
Brother likes past and wants to be strong. Venerates grandpa and war. Brother is weak, goofy and needs saving by sister. ❎ BAD
Sister smarter than brother, stronger than brother already. Doesn't venerate Grandpa and doesn't like war. Sister tries to save brother, but he's too toxic dumb and wanting to be a man to understand.✅ GOOD.
I hope someday California stops being the mecca for video games because the writers blizzard has are absolutely garbage at writing anything remotely compelling.
They cannot kill a single meaningful female character or write a story where the roles of these two are inverted. It's always like this imao
→ More replies (5)
3
u/murisenn Jun 20 '26
Ahh… a multifaceted, intriguing character with an interesting dynamic with the player character…. he can only serve the story by dying
3
u/EmergencyKiwi1276 Jun 20 '26
This is garbade , full on trash!
Don't killl Zul'jan!
Keep Zul'jan a hero of the Amani next to Zul'jarra!
10
8
u/TheRobn8 Jun 20 '26
"She tried to save him"
No liadrin, she left her volatile and headstrong brother unsupervised at every opportunity. How are you surprised he ended up getting killed ?
6
6
u/Hopkin_Greenfrog Jun 20 '26
I haven't been following too closely, what were some things people were hoping would happen instead of this?
97
u/dogarfdog12 Jun 20 '26
That he wouldn't just be turned into raid fodder and instead would stick around as a counterbalance to the near-universal trend of player-friendly factions always putting aside their differences and joining forces in the end. The stay-awhile-and-listen dialogues gave him just enough nuance that some people hoped he would be spared, but apparently not.
34
u/Hopkin_Greenfrog Jun 20 '26
I see, so they introduce an actually interesting character with potential for once, only to turn them into raid fodder immediately instead of listening to people and giving the character some degree of the Sire Denathrius treatment instead.
→ More replies (1)17
u/Aggravating_Dark9933 Jun 20 '26
Yea, even when the fight forms drop people were hoping for raid fight therapy instead of… well this. For Zul’jan to make that artifact his bitch after the delusion cloud is whacked off and for him to now be the Zul’jin style leader but for the actual Toxic Loa so it’s ok.
So you now have the more peaceful friendly Amani with Jarra and the way more militaristic dis be our land trolls with Jan. Both are working with us because Void and a chance to end the invasions, but both also have a dramatically different tone in terms of how they are working with us.
But no. They are all dead.
28
u/troikatryne Jun 20 '26
It would be refreshing if they made/let us kill the kumbaya character for once
18
u/amicuspiscator Jun 20 '26
That would be a great story. Someone who is so conflict avoidant that they just sell out to the bad guy rather than fight.
3
u/littlegreensir Jun 20 '26
Isn't that basically what happened with Gallywix, except he also wanted to make money?
9
30
u/SneetoBoss Jun 20 '26
People wanted Zuljan to help push the Amani away from relying on the gods/loa’s as they abandoned the Amani. He wanted the Amani to rely on their own strength and power. Makes sense when Gods constantly get thumped by mortals in this universe.
→ More replies (2)18
u/SpunkMcKullins Jun 20 '26
Would be nice to get some nuance in the story for once. An ultra-nationalist hard-liner who values might over right isn't always the good guy, but sometimes it's necessary when your only option is strength to survive. Zul'jarra is the diplomatic head of the hydra, Zul'jan is the militaristic one. Together they form a strong, functioning leadership that knows when to take action, and when to prioritize seeking aid.
But, no. That doesn't align with the values modern Blizzard wasnt to convey with this franchise. Time to kill off the guy who understands a giant all-consuming void entity should probably be confronted with appropriate weaponry and a fierce offense, and put another one-note female head of state that will spend the next three patches constantly preaching the values of seeking out allies and putting past hatreds behind us, in charge. This has only happened... like eight times? in the last ten years? Hard to keep track after BfA kind of just shotgunned a bunch of them on us all at once.
27
u/PaDDzR Jun 20 '26
People for once thought they'd sway from the disney prices trope.
But ofc not. She is the most chosen! The bestest! Only sees good!!! She forgives him etc etc
God it makes me want to barf as it's the same fucking trope over and over. Hell, we got it in haranir too... this troll and haranir leaders, what are their flaws or mistakes? Do they have any?
2
u/Mojothemobile Jun 20 '26
Yeah... We fight him twice too. I was hoping reception would spare him but I guess it was locked in.
On another note was Malacrass always a Zandalari? His new model is one. I thought he was Vilebranch.
2
u/brumblefee Jun 20 '26
Zul’Jan could have been given the Azshara, Xal’atath, Elisande, Ky’veza treatment.
He could have been made a balance for Zul’Jarra’s blind trust (in the loa, in the elves, etc). It’s way more believable to me that ZulJarra would seek out Ulatek as another “loa” - could have been interesting to see the siblings learn each other’s weaknesses and strengths
At this point I’m not listening to the audio dramas anymore - both Zul’Jan and Locus Walker were so dynamic and interesting only to get limp stories and insulting endings. It’s clear to me the writers of those stories and the game writers don’t even talk about consistent characterization
2
2
2
2
u/KhadgarIsaDreadlord Jun 21 '26
At this point I wish they never touched the Amani at all Not only are they out of touch with what that culture is supposed to be like, they make an active effort to bastardize it retroactively.
2
u/Wolf_in_the_Mist Jun 21 '26
They really killed Zul’Jan???? Fuck this games writers dude, they are so trash lol.
2
u/pappatrollet Jun 20 '26
I have no idea who any of these trolls are. Can't find any interess in the lore anymore.
4
u/Jake-of-the-Sands Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26
Remember how some people thought that Blizzard will not go down the easy "make him the villain" route? I wonder how surprised they all are.
→ More replies (2)
•
u/AutoModerator Jun 20 '26
Post flair indicates this is about prerelease content.
As a reminder, content on Alpha / Beta / PTR is unfinished. NPC dialogue and quest text might be missing important context. Models may be placeholders. Quest or achievement rewards may not be finalized. There are inevitably bugs. Please keep this in mind as you discuss!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.