Monday, November 04, 2013

Warlords of Draenor Expansion Speculation

The major rumor running around pre-Blizzcon is that the next WoW expansion will be titled "Warlords of Draenor". The rumor is that we will go back to Draenor (last seen in The Burning Crusade) and end up time-traveling through the past to see Grom Hellscream.

Going back to Draenor seems like a legitimate topic for an expansion. Focus outward on the Burning Legion, bring back Alleria and Turalyon.

The time travel part of things seems a little more sketchy. I'd be more inclined to believe that there are a couple Caverns of Time dungeons focusing on Grom Hellscream or Ner'zhul and the rise of the Horde.

The biggest problem with a time travel expac is how would you explain all these different races showing up? A Pandaren in Outlands? The Caverns of Time handles it by putting us in disguise as the opposite faction as appropriate. But while that's fine (and even fun) for a single instance, having your character be a different model for an entire expac does not sound appealing.

Still, we'll see what happens at Blizzcon. Personally, I'm still holding out for Corgis Unleashed!

9 comments:

  1. New Race: Corgiran (I WILL MAKE ALL MY CHARACTERS THIS)

    Because of the legendary cloak quest I am pretty sure the next expansion will involve the Legion. I mean, of the "big bad" hit list all we have left is Sargeras, Azshara, and 2 old gods so I assume that's what's next.

    They also did say they were going to give the Draenei some love so heading back to Draenor would be fitting.

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  2. Yeah, as mentioned in my own blog post on the subject (http://talarian.blogspot.com/2013/11/blizzcon-2013-swags-but-no-yolo.html) I don't buy the whole time travel aspect of things. It's too messy, too difficult to pull off. I fully expect just another recently discovered floating continent and perhaps a smattering of CoT instances as you suggest.

    And have you seen the Corgis Unleashed boxart someone put together? It's so good! (http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/3499-Blizzard-Trademarks-Warlords-of-Draenor-WoW-Expansion?page=8#comments)

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  3. I had heard mumblings that it wasn't travel back in time - but to an alternate timeline where Grom lived and is in league with Kil'Jaeden.

    This is much less problematic than going and fixing the 'true' past. And will be interesting to see what Grom would be like if he and Thrall hadn't freed the Horde from Mannoroth's blood.

    The thought of seeing a different version of Draenor excites me. As does the thought that Blizz are utilising one of their most interesting IP properties in the Bronze Dragonflight.

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  4. That sounds remarkably like "The Emerald Nightmare" expac that never materialized.

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  5. Whatever happened to the Emerald Dream?

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  6. the emerald dream got fixed between wrath and cata pretty much.

    i think it happened in one of the novels.

    that's why Ysera was around in cataclysm

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  7. I have to say James' suggestion of an alternative timeline could be good. Imagine exploring just one continent of an unexploded Draenor?

    Reboots seem increasingly popular for films, why not for a game franchise?

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  8. The nice thing about the alternate timeline is it's perfectly compatible with the lore - I've always seen Azeroth as sitting in part of a multiverse.

    I do hope that's how they do it

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  9. If we time travel, or planeswalk, entire armies, how does that make us any different from the infinite dragonflight?

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