I expect a lot of the comments about it being dishonorable are because the push was made out of Dustwallow, seeing as Theramore and the Horde had a non-aggression treaty.

This would mean that Theramore essentially broke the treaty as well as the Alliance forces pretty much burning every settlement to the ground as they progressed, Taurajo being a notable non-military outpost. Certainly an outrage from any defender's point of view, and definitely a good political card to rally up some military support from members of the Horde elsewhere.

I'm curious to see how Jaina stands on this. She can't be happy since the Horde will likely place a good portion of the blame on her head.


Also, it occurs to me that one of the reasons the Horde seem to be dominating everywhere else in the war might be because the Alliance put all of their eggs in one basket. Most of the human forces may have been sent to Theramore because it was intended to be the human base of operation and they intended to end the war swiftly because they could strike both Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff easily. Once you're in the Barrens, it's just a skip and a hop to Durotar and Mulgore, and taking the Barrens first would allow the Night Elves to come in as well for backup.

Who would have expected a giant crack in the earth to appear and stop them? So now the majority of the human forces are stuck in the Southern Barrens and Stonetalon fighting a war against Horde troops that have actually had time to mobilize, cut off from the Night Elves, and with weaker defenses back in the Eastern Kingdoms because of how many were sent to Kalimdor. Sounds like the perfect time for the Forsaken to start an offensive of their own, right? And so they do, taking WPL, Southshore, and I believe someone mentioned earlier in the thread that they were still pretty dominant in Arathi (Stromgarde being either out of the picture of converted into Forsaken forces).


The assault on the Barrens was essentially a military maneuver that would have won the Alliance the war or else severely crippled the Horde, but ended up backfiring because of completely unforeseen circumstances. The Alliance won maybe 1/3 of the Horde's Chuck Norris jokes, but lost the element of surprise and subsequently left themselves unprepared to defend elsewhere. Bummer.

So in the latest build, Marshal Redpath had a quest @ Southshore, it could be that they haven't relocated him to another location, but the quest text kind of indicated that he was supposed to be there, commenting on the situation in Southshore, and in Arathi some of the quests made it out like Southshore was hit very harshly, but there's still a chance for Hillsbrad.



Also the /kneel quest for Alliance in WPL is still bugged, somebody managed to get past it, but said that the next portion of the questline is also bugged, can't win for losing.

In the latest build they added some more dialogue for Thrall and Varian. Also, there is a surprise at 1:02 in the video.

YouTube - Thrall and Varian Sound Clips

That explains the Twilight cultists in the church basement that I'd heard about. Rather unexpected, though (you never know what those background NPCs are up to...).

I wonder if anyone strange Horde-side will turn out to be a... uh... Benedict (perhaps this should have been expected).


Might as well link Nefarian's dialog since I see it there.
YouTube - Nefarian BWD Dialog

I think he's making the leap from dabbling in mad science as a hobby to professional mad science. He's definitely hamming it up a bit.

I believe I saw a screenshot of the village in ruins, also the map does indicate as much. This of course begs the question, if it is true and hasn't changed, where did the ogres go? Can't imagine Blizzard would kill them off.

Listening to that conversation without seeing them, made it painfully obvious it is Metzen in both cases. I knew that already, but I guess seeing Vol'jin sort of distorted his voice a little more. Kind of funny to be honest.
Anyway, it is the middle, when Thrall explains his choice that is expanded. Apparently the previous "Garrosh can be that hero" wasn't enough. And he also talks about irreversable changes... I guess Thrall won't be coming back?
This sort of support the 'good' Garrosh line, and with the previous Sylvanas events, I still hold some faith in it. But to potentially lose Thrall forever, is a harsh blow. I personally was willing to put up with a fairly good Garrosh, knowing, hoping Thrall would one day come back.

The Stonemaul Clan with help from their orc allies led by Orhan Ogreblade (a Mok'nathal who makes Cho'gall run away btw) have claimed territory within Feralas and created Stonemaul Hold. Which leads me to believe that the alliance chased them out of Dustwallow.

@Halibell: could you shed some light on the "makes Cho'gall run away" part, please?

Regarding Nefarian/Deathwing Descent: so, Deathwing's son has become the a Putricide of sorts. He kept his wits (at the cost of some sanity, it seems, but with black dragons you can never expect much to begin with), and carried on with his experiments as a zombie - did not expect that. Actually, though, the Putricide part seems to go to Maloriak. Anyway, I think I'd have preferred if both Nefarian and Onyxia were treated as constructs/guard dogs/animated corpses, but this middle ground Blizzard found isn't bad. Although, like someone said earlier, Nefarian's a big rotten ham, in some of his lines.

On Vol'jin/Thrall: I can't for the life of me understand if Blizzard wasn't counting on Garrosh surviving for this long, but doesn't anyone else feel like this "change of heart" is getting too much change put in it? I'm sure Garrosh was destined for greatness from the beginning: as a warlord and a tyrant. Yes, the Horde almost lost the South Barrens (in fact, I think that's what Thrall's talking about when he mentions "brook no betrayal"), but I'm still skeptical about putting the can of nitroglicerin in charge of a shaky situation. Man, I can't think of a better time to know what happened to Saurfang. Thrall just seems too filled with faith on Garrosh, he could at least have asked Vol'jin to be his eyes and ears. This way, it almost seems like the Troll Chief dialed the wrong vision and talked to Garrosh's RP guy for the duration of the call.

Excerpt and some info on The Shattering: World of Warcraft: The Shattering - Description | BlizzPlanet.com - Everything Blizzard Entertainment!

Nothing really new in that. The most informational part is probably Varian considering military action. So we'll know how he got Jaina to let him use Theramore - then again, I suppose a 'No' on her side would've been labelled treason.

Cho'gall talks alot (6 min) =)
YouTube - Cho'gall Voice

Thanks, Halibell. Will watch as soon as possible.

Why do I sense there's a Rexxar-Orhan ship ready to be boarded? Thrall-Jaina's getting too crowded?

I think this is a good assessment. The Alliance had a Hammer and Anvil going. They were rolling up the Horde and going to crush them against their Stonetalon forces. Cataclysm sets in, your forces are potentially decimated (original definition) or worse, and the terrain divides you even worse. Your Hammer and Anvil turns into their Divide and Conquer. You cannot support your forces effectively and you're split into two smaller groups, either of which is susceptible to an enemy attack in force.

I think the war is pretty even at this stage. The Horde is cleaning up Kalimdor with at least two pockets of resistance, while the Alliance owns most of the Eastern Kingdoms, with a significantly harder "pocket of resistance" from the Forsaken (since the Blood Elves and Draenei are napping through another X-pac). Call is 3/4 of one continent and 1/4 of the other per faction.

I think that's a little unfair to say Blizzard are re-writing the character of Garrosh, I think they are trying to develop and evolve the character. They are just a little heavy handed in their approach.