WotLK Beta Blog – The Event That Sold Me on WotLK
DISCLAIMER: If you plan on doing all the quests and enjoy being surprised by exciting events (like the Alliance Onyxia event or the Nagrand Thrall Event), DO NOT read the entry! This is going to be filled with spoilers of what I consider to be the most epic event in the history of WoW. This is the event Blizzard has referred to as the end of "Act 1".
I have made an image album for all the events if this questline that you can see here.
One major complaint people make about WoW is how static the world is. This event will be shocking for them.
Heroes rise. Battles are fought. People die. This questline has mystery, intrigue and betrayal.
Blizzard wants the encounter with Arthas to be the final culmination of WotLK. They want the fight to mean something. When Burning Crusade was coming out, all the hype surrounded Illidan, but he was mostly absent aside from a few questlines and finally the encounter in the Black Temple. Even then, many people felt that the whole encounter was shallow because we didn't get a chance to interact with Illidan much. It was made even more insignificant since his fight wasn't the final fight of the game. Instead, the Sunwell Plateau comes out with Kil'Jaeden. We've been told that the final raid of WotLK will be the Icecrown Citadel with Arthas. He is the focus of this expansion. The fight will have major impact on us because we will have seen him around the world, he will have spoken to us directly, beating us down every step of the way.
For the Horde, the event series is just a natural progression of the Forsaken's story from vanilla WoW. Ever since Sylvanas and the Forsaken broke free of the Lich King's grasp, they've been working on building a plague to wipe out the Scourge in vengeance (and if it wipes out all other life on Azeroth, oh well, vengeance is worth it). In Howling Fjord, we see the Royal Apothecary Society once more working on the plague and having both some minor successes and major failures (as usual, mainly failures).
Eventually this questline takes you to the Venomspite settlement in the Dragonblight. It is here that the Forsaken make a breakthrough. They finally stumble upon a blight string that seems to obliterate the Scourge (in the aptly named quest "The Forsaken Blight: How Not to Kill Yourself"). You take the Scourge blight to an apothecary in the main Horde settlement in Dragonblight, Agmar's Hammer. Overlord Agmar eventually sends you to the front lines to provide aid to Saurfang the Younger, who has now taken up the armor of his father and leads the Horde at the Wrathgate.
The Wrathgate is HUGE. It reminds me of the Black Gate of Mordor in Lord of the Rings. It is the barrier between Icecrown Glacier and the Dragonblight. The word is that it is infused with the blood of Yogg-Saron and the gate itself breathes.
For the Alliance, the questline is a progression of one of the Naxxramas quests in the Eastern Plaguelands. In the original incarnation of Naxxramas, once Kel'Thuzad was defeated someone got his phylactery to turn in for kill credit. The phylactery was turned in to Father Inigo Montoy in Light's Hope Chapel. The Argent Dawn never received the phylactery.
In the Alliance questline, the player finds out that Inigo Montoy was actually a lich in his own right, but more importantly, just another pawn of the Lich King. He brought Kel'Thuzad's phylactery back to Northrend to allow him to regenerate. You are sent to destroy Montoy in his lich form. After this, you are sent to the Wrathgate in support of Bolvar Fordragon and the Alliance forces in the area. Yes, Fordragon is leading the Alliance forces here. King Varian Wrynn has returned to Stormwind to rule his kingdom and has ousted Katrina Prestor. All of this transpires in the WoW comic book.
From here, both the Horde and the Alliance questlines are the same temporarily. Both sides go request the aid of Alexstrasza, the red dragonflight aspect. After gaining her favor, she tells you to return to the Wrathgate with the words that you will have the support of the red dragonflight.
At this point, words cannot even describe the amazing things Blizzard has done for this questline. So you should just watch this video and find out yourself.
Alexstrasza shows up to control the situation, but the damage is done. Here, the questlines split again.
The Horde take Saurfang the Younger's armor back to his father, who is in Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra assisting Garrosh Hellscream. You get to Overlord Saurfang and he warns you of an emergency. The city of Orgrimmar has been placed under martial law and a state of emergency has been announced. He orders you to report to Thrall immediately.
It was at this point in the questline that I started shaking with anticipation.
The Alliance take Bolvar Fordragon's armor back to King Varian Wrynn in Stormwind. He is thrown into a blind rage from the loss of his most trusted friend. He declares that it is an act of war from the Horde against the Alliance and the Forsaken have plagued the ruins of Lordaeron for far to long. He decides to muster the military in the region and march on the Undercity. Jaina Proudmoore arrives to ask what is going on and rushes off to go warn Thrall.
The Horde are teleported to the gates of Orgrimmar and the situation is grim. Armed guards are everywhere. As far as the eye can see, tents have been set up. Forsaken refugees are pouring into town from the zeppelin tower. In the center of town, all the trainers and shopkeepers have gathered, demanding answers to what is going on, but receiving none. You make your way to Thrall's chamber and Lady Sylvanas is standing beside him. Before he can debrief you, a giant portal opens up and Jaina emerges. She warns that King Wrynn has mustered the military and is planning aggressive action.
Thrall informs Jaina that it was not an attack from the Horde. The Horde was betrayed as well. The entire scheme was a plot by Varimathras and Grand Apothecary Putress. They reverse engineered the blight for the event at the Wrathgate. They have also taken control of the Undercity and almost killed Sylvanas in the process.
Yes, that is right, the Undercity is no longer accessible because it is FILLED WITH DEMONS.
From here, the Horde are sent to the front gates of the Undercity to meet with Vol'jin for the epic climax. The Alliance are sent to meet with the King's companions Broll Bearmantle and Valeera Sanguinar at the sewer entrance to the Undercity.
With seige cannons bombarding the walls, each side begins their charge into the city, not knowing the other faction is there.
The Horde, lead by Thrall and Sylvanas, begin their battle in the upper courtyard and head into the central city and eventually the Royal Sanctum. This is so amazingly epic. Due to buffs from Thrall and Sylvanas, every hit you make packs a punch and your health is boosted to about 50k. The battle is large. It is wave after wave of apothecaries, abominations and all sorts fo blight beasts. With each step of progress you make, Varimathras is there taunting you and sending giant bosses at the forces. The Alliance, lead by Varian and Jaina, head through the sewers, chasing after Putress. Battling through the bowels of the city, the fact the same type of attacks, only lead by Putress instead of Varimathras.
Finally, the Horde makes it to the Royal Sanctum and engage in a huge battle with Varimathras in which Varimathras falls. The Alliance catch up with Putress and slay him. But just before the Alliance can reclaim the city as their own, they hear the battle cry of Thrall and the Horde forces in the sanctum. Varian, determined to obtain victory, decides to now take the battle to Thrall.
Back in the throne room, the Horde forces are shocked at the arrival of the King and his forces. Varian, remarks upon how the "savages" have been allowed to remain in the lands too long and how it is now their fault that Bolvar is dead. In an effort to destroy them once an for all, he charges into battle with Thrall. Before the forces clash, Jaina acts. Mourning what has happened and what this means for the future, she flash freezes the Alliance forces and mass teleports them all back to Stormwind.
The Undercity once more has been taken by the Horde, but the day is not won. No longer is it a cold war between the Horde and the Alliance. No longer is it just proxy conflicts. By the hand of Varian Wrynn, the 4th War has officially started.
In the words of Thrall: "It ends like it began.... All that we have fought for in this world is lost. The hopes and dreams carried by my father and mother.... by Doomhammer... gone..."
Sorry, but I forgot to take screenshots of the gear you get as a reward, but you can see that at these two WoWWiki links: Horde. Alliance.
I apologize for writing this huge post, and to be honest, I hope very few people read this. This is such an amazing event though that I felt I just had to talk about it. This event resonated heavily with me because I guess that I had become very comfortable with the way things were. No matter how many times Lady Prestor was revealed to be Onyxia, the next day she was right back standing at Fordragon's side. No matter how many times the ogre leader of Brackenwall was scared off, he was always back the next day. I'm not used to the death of people having an actual impact on the world around me.
All of this is done through world phasing. None of it is from separate instances or anything. At one point, I had left the Undercity before the final quest to do some other things in beta and I forgot about the demons and accidently teleported back there through a Dalaran portal to respec and was instantly curbstomped by demons. Once you start the final part of the questline, both the Undercity and Orgrimmar are unavailable for services until you finish it.
I hate to sounds like a slobbering fanboy apologist, but this sort of event is just the kind of thing that sells me on the expansion and makes me forget any other complaint I could possibly have.