WoW Patch 5.4 Cinematic - Hellscream Punches Pandas

[Evonisia]

I really hate the character Garrosh punches, I'm glad he got a good punching.

Seriously though the trailer was cool, I just hate Garrosh and I won't be able to do the raid until months after it comes out.

 

[Neuromancer]

More like the "once emo but then psycho" card. I remember him back in Nagrand during BC he was a whiny child. Not sure how he turned out so crazy.

He was ashamed because his father damned his race. When Thrall showed him that his father ultimately ended up saving it aswell, rather than shame he was filled with pride. Too much pride, in fact.

I'm actually pretty sure that Garrosh is explicitly only now corrupted, after he started using the Heart of Y'Shaarj. Everything else he's done up until now was completely of his own volition.

So he's not so much 'once good but then corrupted', but more 'once a dickbag, now a dickbag with world-ending powers'.

I personally liked his development in early Cata, that of an honourable but warlike leader. He had his flaws, like his obsession with destroying the Alliance, but that only made him more interesting, unlike Thrall who has become a boring uncorruptible messiah.

I still believe that his being dethroned is a good choice, however I never found it necessary that he dies. I believe it would be better if he and Thrall clashed again, Thrall emerging the victor and having a talk in the lines of "Yeah, you know what? Your daddy did end up saving us, but that doesn't mean he didn't do a shitload of bad stuff before." Then Garrosh starts becoming a more humble character.

But no, everyone hates him and we needed a well known character as a final boss of the expansion, so Garrosh has to become a loot piñata.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Boy that was a cool trailer, almost makes me wanna play WoW again. Almost.

 

[Charli]

I saw this earlier and it's amazing.

If only I didn't have to find and maintain a group of 10-25 equally skilled and committed players to actually experience it. The second Blizzard announces a solo raid difficulty akin to the Brawlers Guild in terms of difficulty is the second I resubscribe.

And yes, I am aware that WoW is an MMO, I enjoy everything that comes with being in an MMO world most of the time, it's just when it comes to raiding that it becomes more trouble than it's worth.

Flex raiding might be right up your alley (assuming you hate LFR, but then again I don't know anyone who DOES like it)
It's essentially a bit easier than normal mode, a little more challenging than LFR, and requires a pug of anywhere between 10 - 25 people (you can join a total group of randoms in trade chat with minimal fear, whether you have 11 people or 18). Personal responsibility will be somewhere along the lines of what Icecrown 10 normal required. The barebones. Entirely puggable.

I'm really hoping flex raiding reinvigorates the pug/alt raiding scene and it sounds like it might. If this raid is good (and it looks ENORMOUS) then I get the feeling raiding might become a seriously more active scene.

I used to enjoy using my alt characters to raid 'easy mode' with people on my server. It'll be a nice extra to have around again.

 

[VanBasten]

Do I recall correctly that there can be no depictions of a panda coming to harm within China? This was part of the reason for the late arrival of the Pandaren race in WoW I thought. Or am I mis-remembering something?

You are correctly remembering something that was said but wasn't true.

 

[The Lugz]

I saw this earlier and it's amazing.

If only I didn't have to find and maintain a group of 10-25 equally skilled and committed players to actually experience it. The second Blizzard announces a solo raid difficulty akin to the Brawlers Guild in terms of difficulty is the second I resubscribe.

And yes, I am aware that WoW is an MMO, I enjoy everything that comes with being in an MMO world most of the time, it's just when it comes to raiding that it becomes more trouble than it's worth.

agreed.
and yes, solo raids ( something like the single-player instances in aion ) would be a good way for blizzard to improve it's playerbase again.. perhaps you kill the boss 10 times to get a full piece of whatever tier they're on by collecting scraps ( a bit like classic nax ) and getting a 1/10 rare drop from him to complete it or maby defeating him isn't the real challenge.. you have to do it achievement style and hobble yourself to get the best loot

that way most of the playerbase could defeat him, only deserving people would get teh uber leet epics the rest just get shiny baubles.

but hey, it's all a pointless topic, blizzard seems happy to steadily decline and polish it's one turd to a mirror-like shine.

 

[scw55]

I saw this earlier and it's amazing.

If only I didn't have to find and maintain a group of 10-25 equally skilled and committed players to actually experience it. The second Blizzard announces a solo raid difficulty akin to the Brawlers Guild in terms of difficulty is the second I resubscribe.

And yes, I am aware that WoW is an MMO, I enjoy everything that comes with being in an MMO world most of the time, it's just when it comes to raiding that it becomes more trouble than it's worth.

There's Looking for Raid. You queue solo (or with a group) and you're shoved into a raid with 20+ strangers. The raids are split into "wings", typically 3 bosses per wing (ToeS is a 4 boss raid, but has minimal trash, so it's exempt from 3boss thing).

It might not be what you really want, but, it does mean you can experience raid content soloish.

I find Garrosh's last line of traitors being impaled quite grim. Then I realised, compare to real-life, historically, that's really tame. An insane Transylvanian King impaled his own people on staked fences to make invaders afraid. It worked.

 

[Nimcha]

Solo explorers? Have they finally eliminated every possible way to interact with other players?

 

[Colt47]

If only I didn't have to find and maintain a group of 10-25 equally skilled and committed players to actually experience it. The second Blizzard announces a solo raid difficulty akin to the Brawlers Guild in terms of difficulty is the second I resubscribe.

And yes, I am aware that WoW is an MMO, I enjoy everything that comes with being in an MMO world most of the time, it's just when it comes to raiding that it becomes more trouble than it's worth.

And you totally can experience all the raids in MoP without a dedicated raid group by using the raid finder. It puts you in an automated queue, dumps you into a group with 24 other players who are similarly going stag, places said group into a version of the raid tuned to a much lower difficulty to compensate for the mixed bag, and bam you've just experienced the content with the only effort required being a modicum of patience.

Yes, gone are the days where you had to keep a raiding resume on hand to apply to the few guilds actually capable of tackling content, where raiding became akin to that of a job, where you'd spend a minimum of 4 hours 3-4 days of the week pounding against a boss your group just couldn't kill. Yes, now everyone can experience the content blizzard has created at whatever difficulty is most fun for them.

Do you want to be doing 25 man heroic hard modes?
-There's a raid for that.

Do you want the challenge of a normal raid with an intimate group of ten people?
-There's a raid for that.

Do you want to join a motley crew of 24 other random players who only barely put up with each other's presence for the sake of a chance at weekly personal gain?
-There's a raid for that.

Do you want a raid where all the intolerable assbags that make up the WoW raiding community don't bother you, and are replaced by a horde of mindless npc who throw themselves at a boss like so much cannon fodder?
-Sorry, there's no raid for that. You'll have to continue putting up with the twitching psychopaths who have a superiority complex.

In all seriousness though, Blizzard introduced the raid finder at the end of Cataclysm. As it stand it is the fastest, and easiest way to experience all the raid content with relatively little effort on the part of a player. Some say it's a bad thing, but considering that traditional raiding guilds didn't evaporate once it appeared I think their fears were unfounded. Blizzard has added a literal spectrum of difficulty for players to choose from when they move into raiding, and the people obsessed with having things that lengthen their epeen still get those things when they choose to do the harder content.

It's choice, choice is good for the longevity of the game. That's coming from someone who played WoW from vanilla and raided 25mans (plus their heroic and hard modes once those came into play) upwards of 20hrs a week from BC through to the very end of Wrath. Yeah it stings to see someone roflstomped an older raid riding around on a mount you spent months raiding to earn, but they're having fun and that doesn't take away the fun I had earning it originally.

So if your concern is having too pour far more amount of time and effort into the game than you realistically can, then now is probably one of the best times in WoW's history to do that content at exactly the speed you want to.

That's the thing with raids: They are and always have been one of the biggest messes of World of Warcraft. The problem is that everyone has a different pacing and preference for how they tackle content and it seems that raiding turns into either smashing up against a boss for hours on end until it dies, or have the difficulty toned down so much that people just mow over the bosses like a giant angry mob. Compounding the issue is the fact Blizzard in particular can never balance PvE and PvP statistics correctly, resulting in situations where classes tilt either one direction or the other as far as being under powered / Over powered in PvP and under powered / Over powered in PvE. And finally, this balancing issue is only a problem due to how they make damage per second a requirement for boss fights in order to control normal mode progression.

I've played the game since it launched as well and been through every flavor of raid up through this expansion. A good portion of how they are handling content and the end game efforts have to change. They basically threw up LFR just so they could tune normal modes higher and transform them into some kind of semi-hard mode. It's like looking on a difficulty scale and seeing Easy, Hard, "Thy Flesh Shall be Consumed". I've heard they've now included a flex system that may fill in the original normal mode, but now it just seems like they are padding the entire difficulty scaling out too much.

 

[anthony87]

Well shit, 30 posts in and no "WoW is dying hurr durr" posts. Colour me surprised.

OT: Yeah the trailer is pretty damn cool and I'm looking forward to finally finishing off that legendary questline, although I was kinda hoping I'd have more time to finish the Throne of Thunder raid before Siege came along.

 

[synobal]

So whats the deal with throwing the tumor in the water?

 

[King Kazma]

Must be strong! Must . . . not . . . .resubscribe.

Seriously, these seem like all steps in the right direction. I can honestly say this is the most promising patch I've seen in a while. So much so that it has convinced me to come back to check out this new patch.

Yes, I shall not be swayed by a fancy expansion. I will refrain. Still it has a lot to live up to. Icecrown Citadel was the crown jewel of expansions.

I'm looking forward to whenever Wildstar is released. Want something new to play, WoW's not like it used to be like for me.

 

[miketehmage]

So I haven't paid attention to the lore since cataclysm because pandas.... Why are we killing garrosh again? I mean I always thought he was a dick because I play alliance, but the horde don't like him either? Enough to make him a raid boss? Wat

 

[antidonkey]

Damn it! Why must Blizzard constantly temp me back into playing this game? It's been almost two years and the urge to play again has never been stronger. I must prevail and resist.

 

[synobal]

Damn it! Why must Blizzard constantly temp me back into playing this game? It's been almost two years and the urge to play again has never been stronger. I must prevail and resist.

They've always made good cinematics the core game of WoW though hasn't changed.

 

[teebeeohh]

OK, when did Garrosh turn into a complete crazy man. i know it's hard to be the son of the jesus-figure of your people(thrall is too alive to fill that role) but still, the last time i saw him he was kicking ass in Northrend, trying to make a name for himself by being hard on the alliance.
and fuck blizzard for making the Horde have bad guys, it happened with the crazy undead in Northrend and it's happening again, while i assume the alliance is still led by a racist prick.

Seriously if anyone with a firm grasp of the lore of the last two expansions could clue me in here, please.

 

[PH3NOmenon]

So whats the deal with throwing the tumor in the water?

Anyone feel like tackling that question? I'm sorta curious as well.

Also, I'm sort of confused as to why Hellscream tosses a tumor in water in Pandaria and then moves back home to Orgrimmar to be evil. I mean, don't you want to stay close to your source of power?


As an aside, is the voice quality of this trailer slightly lower than their usual standard?

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

So whats the deal with throwing the tumor in the water?

Anyone feel like tackling that question? I'm sorta curious as well.

Also, I'm sort of confused as to why Hellscream tosses a tumor in water in Pandaria and then moves back home to Orgrimmar to be evil. I mean, don't you want to stay close to your source of power?


As an aside, is the voice quality of this trailer slightly lower than their usual standard?

While playing through the campaign you can do some general scenarios when talking to Lorewalker Cho at the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, it is there that you take on the scenario called "Dark Heart of Pandaria" where if on the Horde side you find the Goblins have been digging a mine in the Vale of eternal blossoms.

It is down that mine where the heart of Y'Shaarj (the tumour many talk about on here) is sealed and kept after Y'Shaarj's defeat at the hands of the titans (Y'Shaarj was once an old god).

Spoiler: Where the heart was originally sealed

After reclaiming the heart from the mine below the Horde Bodyguard/chief advisor Malkorok presents toe heart to Garrosh hellscream who then proceeds to use the power of the heart to further his own gains ( at this point Garrosh doesn't need anyone else in the Horde that isn't a worthy Orc).

In the posted trailer you see Hellscream bringing the heart towards the magic pool in the Vale and by dropping it into the pool caused the release of the most powerful of Sha, the Sha of Pride (the late Pandaren Emperor Shaohao in the past had defeated all the Sha and sealed them beneath ground except for the Sha of Pride which he kept onto and used his sacrifice to shroud Pandaria in dense mists to safeguard the continent from the outside world because he thought they were better than the rest of the world, But for ten thousand years, they stagnated, their doubts and fears buried in the land, rising up to fester whenever they allowed them).

And with the Sha of Pride now released (the most powerful of Sha even with the others combined) the vale of Eternal Blossoms has now been tainted and corrupted by the powers of the Sha and the same will happen to Orgrimmar and Stormwind as well as the jade Forest.

Y'Shaarj is also known as the "progenitor" of the seven Sha primes.

It seems as though garrosh will use the power of the Sha of pride for himself and unlike most victims tainted by the power of the Sha Garrosh will not be twisted by the power but will instead wield it with all his hate and anger.

if anyone would like to know more about the past lore of Pandaria Blizzard recently made a backstory telling the tale and sacrifice of Emperor Shaohao.




http://wowpedia.org/Heart_of_Y%27shaarj
http://wowpedia.org/Y%27Shaarj
http://wowpedia.org/Emperor_Shaohao
http://wowpedia.org/Sha_of_Pride
http://wowpedia.org/Malkorok

 

[scotth266]

why was Garrosh made the leader of the horde? every knew this would happen, Vol'jin, Cairne his son, every one! and now they pay. Such bull, Blizz has been wanting to make the alliance the only good side for such a long time

You want to know something funny? On the WoW forums, the upcoming patch is being framed by Alliance players as "We do the dirty work for Vol'jin," and they're not happy about it. Seeing the Horde humbled and fractured by revolution apparently makes Pandaria a "Horde-centric expansion," simply because the Alliance are jealous that the Horde gets all the good drama.

S'not our fault that we're not the white bread of fantasy races. I mean seriously, you've got humans, cursed humans, elves, gnomes & dwarves (aka short humans), space humans that don't seem to have done jack since BC... I mean really, what're Blizzard's writers supposed to do with that setup? The dynamic weird nature of the Horde lends itself to all sorts of juicy drama, but the Alliance just strikes me as a bunch of FOR THE LIGHT fantasy paragons.

(This post is mostly sarcasm. Please don't hurt me.)