World of Warcraft - Lore & Storyline discussion [SPOILERS] - Page 705

Kaejin · 10/10/11, 5:40 PM

Her new voice is definitely very jarring and doesn't fit at all. I don't recall there ever being a Night Elf with that accent.

Sounds like the VA was told Tyrande was a Draenei or something.

Starfire · 10/10/11, 6:50 PM

What on earth is that... it sounds very Slavic and very much out of place. Fitting for Velen maybe, but not Tyrande. That is very disappointing and very unfitting.

Blayze · 10/10/11, 7:17 PM

New reveal: Tyrande was a Draenei all along?

Nathanyel · 10/11/11, 4:31 AM

Originally Posted by Blayze

New reveal: Tyrande was a Draenei all along?

Most possibly. Back during the days of the WotA, she still had a pretty strong accent, but she had time to smooth it out in the following 10000 years.

Tinwhisker · 10/11/11, 6:36 PM

That voice seems terribly wrong for Tyrande. I can't help but feel that Blizzard is pulling voice actors from within the company (or something) but I've always thought voice work required more talent than that found in TV/movies/etc. All a voice actor has to work with is his voice and nothing else.

Want an example of how a voice can break a role when you strip it from the actor? Go watch Sean Connery in Highlander or The Hunt for Red October and close your eyes. Would you ever guess he was playing a Spaniard or a Russian? I listened to that clip and closing my eyes all I could picture was "slavic troll shaman - ish."

Duilliath · 10/12/11, 5:47 PM

Nethaera stated it was in fact the same voice actor as was used in WCIII. She also stated we had to keep in mind the circumstances.

If this were the 'broken' Tyrande from when things have all gone horribly wrong, that might be a reasonable explanation for why she sounds so... awkward. But seeing how this is the Well of Eternity bit, it's still jarring.

Fnar · 10/17/11, 9:51 AM

Latest Leader story is up, it's Varian Wrynn, and it's rather good. I wish Blizzard could find a way to give the leaders this kind of depth without having to resort to external media.

Also the name-dropping of class abilities I find rather jarring, would be better if they just described the effect and let the reader say "aah PW:S" but that's just me being picky.

Anduin is fast becoming my favourite character in wow. Period. Give the lad his own novel by Christie Golden asap I say.

DreadtheDamned · 10/20/11, 7:49 PM

I agree, I also felt the actual use of the ability names somewhat detracted from the story. It’s hard to not like Anduin, he’s diplomatic, well liked and can still bring the pain when needed - oh and resurrect major lore characters to boot. I think he might just get a book of his own somewhere down the line, he seems like he would be a pleasure to write.

But I must say, I have enjoyed all of the leader stories so far, with my favourite being the Council of Three Hammers. Still waiting on Lor'themar Theron and Velen’s stories. That said, I’m also still waiting on the Death Knight tier 13 preview, so I won’t be holding my breath.

Also, has anyone else noticed how small the Well of Eternity is in the new 5 man? In the War of the Ancients trilogy, it's described as a sea-like massive lake. The tiny thing in the new 5 man hardly does it justice. I know it would be harder to implement, but there is no reason they couldn't have had it at the edge of the dungeon so we could see it stretch over the horizon and grasp it's vastness. And we could fight by the shore and still engage Mannoroth there.

DreadtheDamned · 10/21/11, 2:48 PM

It's confirmed. 'Mists of Pandaria' is the new expansion. New playable race is panadarens with the new class being the 'Monk'. They can choose to go either Horde or Alliance after the inital questing experience. From the mouth of Metzen himself.

Pandaria will have five new level-up zones on the one continent, influenced by Asian themes. There will also be a bank and Auction House on Pandaria. This time around, there will be no flying until you are max level (90). Four of the zones will be at least 1.5 times larger than Twilight Highlands. Pandaria itself has been magically hidden since the Catacylsm. After a naval battle, Horde and Alliance wash up on a newly discovered continent and find that is a lush, resource rich land and thus the war begins.

Oh, and the entire starting zone is on the back of a massive turtle. Yup, a turtle. Winning!

Edit: Additional information

Tinwhisker · 10/21/11, 3:31 PM

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Preview Trailer - YouTube

... and our pets have now become Pokemon.

The main thrust of this expansion is going to be the Alliance v Horde conflict as there is no "main" villain.

DreadtheDamned · 10/21/11, 4:31 PM

Originally Posted by Tinwhisker

... and our pets have now become Pokemon.

It would seem that we will end up being able to customise them as well. Naming, abilities, etc. But yes, it looks like they have copy and pasted Pokemon into the expansion. From finding them in the wild, to having them to fight each other and a Pet Journal *cough Pokedex* and yes, being able to trade them too.

They are working on account wide pets too. At least my alts will have a great pet collection then.

Edit: Just saw a screenshot mockup and the preview, and yes, this IS WoW Pokemon. Down to all the last details.

Kaejin · 10/21/11, 9:54 PM

Gym Leaders too. Pretty blatant parody (and I can't wait to actually play with it).

Mists basically appears to be a "vacation" expansion. Less doom-and-gloom, more pretty, more humor, no central antagonist except ourselves as we tear through Pandaria and ruin everything with our violent faction struggle.

I guess I hope we get some major faction story progression since there's not much else that could really hold central stage.

Cybsled · 10/22/11, 12:09 AM

I wouldn't be so sure of that yet. Metzen held off on talking about some of the lore aspects during the opening ceremony (specifically regarding details on the Alliance vs. Horde war) and the actual lore panel is tomorrow, so I'm sure we will get much more background.

One thing I'm curious about is whether or not the Mantis race has any relation to the Sithilid (and in turn, any connection to the Old Gods).

Monocle · 10/22/11, 2:03 AM

Originally Posted by Cybsled

One thing I'm curious about is whether or not the Mantis race has any relation to the Sithilid (and in turn, any connection to the Old Gods).

I think there may be one. Going from the limited zone info for the Townlong Steppes:

"Separated from the rest of Pandaria by the Great Wall, the rampaging mantid people of the Townlong Wastes devour everything in their path in order to build their own crystalline empire of ruthless warriors and scheming feudal lords. The pandaren are left reeling when the mantid's thousand-year cycle of aggression kicks off a hundred years too early and their greatest warriors burst through the great wall. The beleaguered pandaren must now face the worst swarm in recorded history while trying to isolate the cause of the mantid's erratic behavior."

That sounds similar to the original Silithid concept, and some similarities to Silithus itself.

My guess is these guys broke away from the Silithids a long time ago, probably around the same time as the Nerubian split. The concept art shown reminded me a bit of some of the original Nerubian Vizar concepts, and we know Blizzard likes to use concepts if they never got to properly implemented them.

These likely have no Old God influence anymore. Living isolated on Pandaria for so long would have been enough, and they do have individuality, it was flat out stated they do not belong to a hive mind.

Now for a real world basis, these guys sound a lot like the various warlords that would pop up any time there was weakness in the Chinese Empire and then would proceed to divide it up for their own personal dominions. It happened countless times in the past, all the way up to the end of the last dynasty.

Fnar · 10/22/11, 4:16 AM

Originally Posted by Kaejin

Gym Leaders too. Pretty blatant parody (and I can't wait to actually play with it).

Mists basically appears to be a "vacation" expansion. Less doom-and-gloom, more pretty, more humor, no central antagonist except ourselves as we tear through Pandaria and ruin everything with our violent faction struggle.

I guess I hope we get some major faction story progression since there's not much else that could really hold central stage.

The pokemon thing looks like a cool sub-game to keep people occupied when there is 'not enough stuff to do' and some welcome new gameplay for non-raiders.

I'm hoping we get to see some alliance v horde raids, I guess the implementation would be like Andorhal quests in WPL so one side is destined to win the battle and the other faction beat the raid by surviving the final retreat or something, could be very cool if done well.

No big bad means I guess we will be waiting another expansion before we deal with Azshara... I always figured Cataclysm and MoP would be part I and part II of the N'Zoth arc, but looks like we get some time to concentrate on our own petty conflicts.