The Queue: Warcraft 4 should be hundreds of years after the events of WoW

One of the things the Elder Scrolls series does pretty well is carving out huge swaths of time between games. For example, The Elder Scrolls Online is set more than a thousand years before the events of Skyrim, with two eras having ended and started between them. Of course, the Elder Scrolls timeline is not what I would call uncomplicated, but it’s got nothing on World of Warcraft when it comes to complicated timelines.

But I really think that we should get a Warcraft 4, and I think it should be a game set hundreds of years after the game we have now, when the Horde and Alliance as we understand them are long gone and everything is different. Orcs and Humans staunch allies! Night Elves an expansionist power, the Forsaken and Scourge combined into a new faction called The Unliving ruled by Bolvar and Calia, all sorts of new stuff.

Let’s talk, Queue Believers.

I checked the Technical Support forums and found a thread here with someone who seems to be having a similar problem. (If this person is you, I apologize for posting your own thread.) Another thread about WoW crashing after startup has a blue response here, but I don’t know if that will solve your issue or not.

I also found another thread about random disconnects, so at least I can say it’s not just you — others are reporting similar issues.

I don’t think you have to go back and do it all, even if you’re Horde — you can go do the Nazjatar quests before you do the War Campaign, for example, because I did Nazjatar first. But I am not playing Horde much this expansion, and so I’m hoping some Horde mains will speak up here and correct me if I’m giving you incorrect information. As far as I’m aware, you can rock on into 8.2 content as soon as you log in and don’t have to worry about backtracking.

There are several possible options. One is Nazjatar itself — Azshara’s Eternal Palace ends with the fight atop N’Zoth’s prison, and those giant glowing chains certainly seem to indicate another Titan facility much like Ulduar or the facitlity that C’Thun corrupted into Ahn’Qiraj. There’s also Mechagon, which absolutely seems to me like it qualifies as a Titan facility, and remember that list of Titan facilities that the Maiden of Vitality ran off when she was impaled inside the Heart Chamber when we first got there?

• WARNING: Multiple containment breaches registered
• Recommended expurgation of following facilities: Uldaman. Uldum. Uldorus. Ulduar. Uldir. Uldaz. Uld… Uld… Uld… Uld…

That means there are at least two facilities and maybe more on Azeroth that we haven’t found yet — Uldorus and Uldaz for sure, and a possible third Uld we don’t know the name of. Even if we assume that the Eternal Palace and Mechagon are Titan facilities, that still leaves a third Uld we don’t know anything about, and maybe more. Furthermore, what if neither the Eternal Palace nor Mechagon are either Uldaz or Uldorus, and there’s even more Titan facilities out there running wild without any keepers in control of them?

None of them are going to happen but parts of them are possible.

I don’t think Wrathion is going to do anything with the Heart. I think he’s watching the Heart and us running around with it, but I don’t think it’s going to be a repeat of what he did with Lei Shen.

I don’t think N’Zoth is going to win this expansion, because I don’t think he’s going to be the big bad of 8.3. I think he will recreate the Black Empire. I don’t think Xal’atath is going to help us.

The second we killed Murozond, we created the Infinite Dragonflight. It’s not going to help us do squat. I don’t think we’re going to see massive time travel shenanigans as a major part of an expansion again for quite some time after the player base seemed so thoroughly confused by Warlords, and that wasn’t even actually time travel. I’d sooner expect the Lightbound step through a portal and attempt to bring Azeroth to the service of the Light Mother than I would expect a big ‘let’s retcon everything‘ expansion.

So I’d definitely watch Wrathion, because he’s going to do something, but I won’t bet on seeing N’Zoth until after patch 8.3 and the conclusion of Battle for Azeroth, and I don’t think the Infinites will be a major player in this or the next expansion. Maybe after that.

Also, I liked your Rage as Emergency Health question, but I think instead WoW should just steal Battlecry of Ares from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and have a cooldown that simultaneously makes you unkillable while it’s up and buffs your damage.

Okay, I just wrote like 1200 words answering this question and the Queue breaks because that’s just way too long, so I’m going to try and summarize this. In short:

The Alliance doesn’t need ‘darkening’ to be morally grey. They’re already there. From the Internment Camps to the whole deal with the House of Nobles and the Defias being founded to the way Deathwing and Onyxia manipulated them to their current actions in Battle for Azeroth, we’re seeing the Alliance grow increasingly desperate and taking actions like Dazar’alor that are uncomfortably close to Horde tactics.

The Horde have done some really morally questionable things, and not just this expansion — from Teldrassil to Theramore to Gilneas City to the burning of Silvermoon Forest that killed the Windrunner family, to the destruction of Stormwind when they invaded from Draenor, a world that was dying because of the whole Warlocks and Demon Blood aspect of their origin, the Horde has problems. This expansion will hopefully, at long last, allow the New Horde part of the Horde to overcome the Old Horde part, but it will be at a cost.

And with groups like the Night Elves unlikely to ever forgive Teldrassil, this story is never going to be one of everyone coming together in friendship. You don’t get a happy ending, you just get an ending. But I wouldn’t try and make the story go darker or brighter for either faction — that moral grey you want? It’s there.

Okay, that’s the Queue. Remember to be kind and ask Anne some actual questions, please and thank you.