So, patch 5.3 is on the horizon, and knowing Blizzards record for this expansion, 5.4 will be hitting ptr maybe 2 or 3 months later. Not such a long time. With that, I guess it's time to start guessing what we see. Some spoilers may feature below.
Large raid: The raid will be taking place in Orgrimarr and we can guess below as well from the door we see in 5.3. Now if we were to assume a reasonable portion was in the above ground Orgrimarr, then there is a high possibility of it being around 14-16 boss raid. At leas in development time. After all, only a few changes would need to be made to the surface.
Boss Variety: Overall, Blizzard have been very good with boss variety this expansion, even places like MSV had only one real Mogu boss. In fact, it's hard to think of fights that are exact copies of each other.
Lets not forget here that we can tell what some bosses could be right now based on the teasers we have been given.
Kor'kron. The elite fighters of Garrosh's private army, highly likely we will see one of these guys as a boss.
Dire Orcs. They have been showing up recently and so I would imagine maybe one of these guys. If they don't feature as a boss then maybe a few as heavy hitting trash mobs.
Dark Shaman. These are seen all over in the new patch and so I could imagine they will feature heavily in the raid, it would make no sense for one not to be a boss.
Proto drake rider. We see in patch 5.3 that Garrosh has been breeding and taming proto drakes. Secrets of Ragefire has eggs which hatch into whelps during the scenario. Given as he needs some air defense to defend from things like the sky fire, and who said the Alliance only has one. In fact they've had at least 3 in the game so far, I think so Garrosh would want to be ready for that.
Now this is where things get tricky, beyond this it's hard to deterime a particular boss type he might field against us. We know that at the very least he will feature in some form, as the final boss, but I can imagine we will get maybe 5-6 more bosses in addition to what I've listed.
Another guess for this is the Sha of Pride which we now know to be massively hinted at featuring. Now this is an interesting boss, while it would be could quite easily be a boss in the instance, where would it feature. We know Garrosh has a lot of pride, so it could quite easily posses him and feature in the final fight, making Garrosh a kind of two bosses in one feature, or it could feature as a boss on its own when Garrosh chooses to unleash the Heart of Yorsashj.
One thing I can also imagine is a Heroic only boss featuring. Sure Garrosh could have a heroic only phase, but they didn't do that on LK or DW so I think it's unlikely, I can imagine they want everyone to experience the whole fight of Garrosh, sans a few mechanics. So if they were to do a heroic only boss what could it be? Well it would have to be something that could be related to the lore but not directly to do with the raid itself, maybe something hinting of things to come...
Now this will be a bit of a wild guess work, a lot of tin foil hat so to speak, so don't worry if it seems a bit silly. But what if the Sha of pride isn't in control of Garrosh, yes we know it should appear, but what if it only appears when Garrosh uses the heart. If thats the case there are several key things we can assume from what we see. The first is Garrosh is a giant scumbag, this doesn't really draw from anywhere other than his character development. We already knew he was becoming a bit war hungry in Cataclysm, and he hadn't been near a sha yet so it's possible that his evilness is of his own accord.
However, here we can draw from some lore we have gained in this expansion, or more specifically the Legendary chain involving Wrathion. He has given us items and upgrades throughout the expansion, building us for something that is to come and he keeps talking about the burning legion. We know they are coming... So what if the Heroic only boss, assuming there is one as we have been so far, is a Demon.
Before you say pish, we know we will see the Burning Legion soon, and it makes no sense that we would get the Legendary weapon Blizzard said we would get as part of the chain unless Wrathion wants us to use it for something. Now obviously everyone wants a legendary weapon, but what if they were needed for this boss, maybe some special on use effect or hidden passive ability that unlocks the boss only if you have one, or makes him vulnerable.
And don't forget, there is precedent of the Horde working for the Burning legion, its the whole premise on which WoW exists, if not for the Burning Legion the horde would never have been formed.
Oh, I know some may say Garrosh wouldn't do it, pointing to TBC where he never wanted to end up like his father. But think about it this way, Thrall told him his father was a hero, a great asset to the Horde. Since then we've sen Garrosh become more and more aggressive just like his father. I don't think it's a huge stretch for him to infer Thrall meant all his fathers acts were heroic, and in desperation to fight the Alliance he turned to the burning legion for help. This could even relate to the fact that Metzon was apparently caught saying that he had some plans that could Include Garrosh for the next expansion, giving credit to the theory we don't kill him. Maybe he escapes, this would be far more likely if he has allies, possibly demonic ones, to help him escape.
The burning legion's timely arrival, if only a scout would also sort out some story issues in the raid. Namely dealing with the Alliance.
The Alliance are going to be marching into the Horde's capital city, alongside the Horde certainly, but with all their might there why would they just leave it. The Horde are their sworn enemies and I doubt they would go, hey lets give you back your city so you can rebuild and resume killing us. The burning legion appearing could provide lubrication for a peace treaty, one which could be cemented by Anduin and Wrathion and would give probably cause for the Alliance to withdraw peacefully, after all in the expansion so far they have always been the more focused on dealing with the task at hand. It was they at the corpse gate who wanted to deal with the scourge when the Horde back stabbed them in an act of petty aggression ignoring the bigger picture.
Besides, the Alliance, already in a strong position would only need to focus on defending themselves if the Burning Legion arrives and would be in a better position to weather the storm. The Horde wouldn't be able to attack them anyway, unless they wish to be wiped out when the Demons start spawning around them.
So yes, I think it's possible and maybe even likely we could see a Demon boss in here somewhere, or at least hints of Demons.
Story: Okay, so I've already mentioned some story related to the dungeon, based around a possible heroic mode boss, but here we will be focusing on something we DO know. As I've already said, the Alliance feel a bit weird going into here. Sure we want rid of Garrosh, but to just leave afterwards would feel weird if we ignore what I said above.
There is some good news here, Metzon promised the Alliance a fist bumping moment.... Wait he was serious? I guess so, but he was also serious when he said Varion would get trials of the high king that span the entire expansion. And look what we got, one Scenario where he teaches Tyrande something rather than learning something. Some trials...
Despite this, what would we want to see for this moment. Well, something which means the Alliance can claim a victory for once, a proper one. So what could this be?
Well, it won't be claiming Orgrimarr, so we need to look elsewhere for possible hints. A good source would be from Velen, the Army of the Light. Especially if Wrathion was somehow involved in the raid. What if the Army of the Light was formed during the raid, or at it's end, focused around the Alliance. After all, they will be in the strongest position after the battle. Their forces weren't depleted during the rebellion, unlike the Horde who will be left picking up the pieces and scrounging in the mud for a while - at least they should be if Metzon could stay off his Horde are gods writing for a short while.
Admittedly this isn't all that likely, especially since the army of the Light is Horde and Alliance. I don't think the Alliance want any more of their hero's being neutral. I mean, all of their main heroes have gone neutral recently. We had Wrath of the Neutral Alliance heroes verses the lich king and Cataclysm of Malfurion ignoring his wife being killed for the sake of focusing on deathwing. I doubt Alliance want more of that treatment.
So what else could be likely? Well assuming Thrall lives through the raid, it could be possible that he tries to atone for all the harm he's caused by making Garrosh warchief in the first place - ignoring his friends and advisers might I add. So what could this do? Well for one thing, I could imagine the worlds greatest shaman might be powerful enough to cause the Elements to forgive the Dwarfs and allow Magni to return to the world. That would be a major start, finally getting the one dwarf who can fully unite the clans back.
They could also make Anduin a bit less of a wimp, he needs to be ready to fight properly if he's going to lead an army against the Burning Legion, and he could learn in the Raid that sometimes some one has to die and have him play a major role in the defeat (not necessarily killing) of Garrosh. Heck they could even have him turn around to the Horde and say that the Next time they act up he will actually fight after seeing that his Dad was somewhat right about the Horde all this time.
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So that's my take so far on what I would love to see in the siege of Orgrimar. Sorry there isn't more, exam period puts a bit of priority on time. So what do you guys think? and what do you want to see?
Also I'm aware I made a "similar" thread before. However that was solely about the Alliance, this time it's about the raid in general so to allow anyone to take part and focuses more on the game play kind of things as well.
Large raid: The raid will be taking place in Orgrimarr and we can guess below as well from the door we see in 5.3. Now if we were to assume a reasonable portion was in the above ground Orgrimarr, then there is a high possibility of it being around 14-16 boss raid. At leas in development time. After all, only a few changes would need to be made to the surface.
Boss Variety: Overall, Blizzard have been very good with boss variety this expansion, even places like MSV had only one real Mogu boss. In fact, it's hard to think of fights that are exact copies of each other.
Lets not forget here that we can tell what some bosses could be right now based on the teasers we have been given.
Kor'kron. The elite fighters of Garrosh's private army, highly likely we will see one of these guys as a boss.
Dire Orcs. They have been showing up recently and so I would imagine maybe one of these guys. If they don't feature as a boss then maybe a few as heavy hitting trash mobs.
Dark Shaman. These are seen all over in the new patch and so I could imagine they will feature heavily in the raid, it would make no sense for one not to be a boss.
Proto drake rider. We see in patch 5.3 that Garrosh has been breeding and taming proto drakes. Secrets of Ragefire has eggs which hatch into whelps during the scenario. Given as he needs some air defense to defend from things like the sky fire, and who said the Alliance only has one. In fact they've had at least 3 in the game so far, I think so Garrosh would want to be ready for that.
Now this is where things get tricky, beyond this it's hard to deterime a particular boss type he might field against us. We know that at the very least he will feature in some form, as the final boss, but I can imagine we will get maybe 5-6 more bosses in addition to what I've listed.
Another guess for this is the Sha of Pride which we now know to be massively hinted at featuring. Now this is an interesting boss, while it would be could quite easily be a boss in the instance, where would it feature. We know Garrosh has a lot of pride, so it could quite easily posses him and feature in the final fight, making Garrosh a kind of two bosses in one feature, or it could feature as a boss on its own when Garrosh chooses to unleash the Heart of Yorsashj.
One thing I can also imagine is a Heroic only boss featuring. Sure Garrosh could have a heroic only phase, but they didn't do that on LK or DW so I think it's unlikely, I can imagine they want everyone to experience the whole fight of Garrosh, sans a few mechanics. So if they were to do a heroic only boss what could it be? Well it would have to be something that could be related to the lore but not directly to do with the raid itself, maybe something hinting of things to come...
Now this will be a bit of a wild guess work, a lot of tin foil hat so to speak, so don't worry if it seems a bit silly. But what if the Sha of pride isn't in control of Garrosh, yes we know it should appear, but what if it only appears when Garrosh uses the heart. If thats the case there are several key things we can assume from what we see. The first is Garrosh is a giant scumbag, this doesn't really draw from anywhere other than his character development. We already knew he was becoming a bit war hungry in Cataclysm, and he hadn't been near a sha yet so it's possible that his evilness is of his own accord.
However, here we can draw from some lore we have gained in this expansion, or more specifically the Legendary chain involving Wrathion. He has given us items and upgrades throughout the expansion, building us for something that is to come and he keeps talking about the burning legion. We know they are coming... So what if the Heroic only boss, assuming there is one as we have been so far, is a Demon.
Before you say pish, we know we will see the Burning Legion soon, and it makes no sense that we would get the Legendary weapon Blizzard said we would get as part of the chain unless Wrathion wants us to use it for something. Now obviously everyone wants a legendary weapon, but what if they were needed for this boss, maybe some special on use effect or hidden passive ability that unlocks the boss only if you have one, or makes him vulnerable.
And don't forget, there is precedent of the Horde working for the Burning legion, its the whole premise on which WoW exists, if not for the Burning Legion the horde would never have been formed.
Oh, I know some may say Garrosh wouldn't do it, pointing to TBC where he never wanted to end up like his father. But think about it this way, Thrall told him his father was a hero, a great asset to the Horde. Since then we've sen Garrosh become more and more aggressive just like his father. I don't think it's a huge stretch for him to infer Thrall meant all his fathers acts were heroic, and in desperation to fight the Alliance he turned to the burning legion for help. This could even relate to the fact that Metzon was apparently caught saying that he had some plans that could Include Garrosh for the next expansion, giving credit to the theory we don't kill him. Maybe he escapes, this would be far more likely if he has allies, possibly demonic ones, to help him escape.
The burning legion's timely arrival, if only a scout would also sort out some story issues in the raid. Namely dealing with the Alliance.
The Alliance are going to be marching into the Horde's capital city, alongside the Horde certainly, but with all their might there why would they just leave it. The Horde are their sworn enemies and I doubt they would go, hey lets give you back your city so you can rebuild and resume killing us. The burning legion appearing could provide lubrication for a peace treaty, one which could be cemented by Anduin and Wrathion and would give probably cause for the Alliance to withdraw peacefully, after all in the expansion so far they have always been the more focused on dealing with the task at hand. It was they at the corpse gate who wanted to deal with the scourge when the Horde back stabbed them in an act of petty aggression ignoring the bigger picture.
Besides, the Alliance, already in a strong position would only need to focus on defending themselves if the Burning Legion arrives and would be in a better position to weather the storm. The Horde wouldn't be able to attack them anyway, unless they wish to be wiped out when the Demons start spawning around them.
So yes, I think it's possible and maybe even likely we could see a Demon boss in here somewhere, or at least hints of Demons.
Story: Okay, so I've already mentioned some story related to the dungeon, based around a possible heroic mode boss, but here we will be focusing on something we DO know. As I've already said, the Alliance feel a bit weird going into here. Sure we want rid of Garrosh, but to just leave afterwards would feel weird if we ignore what I said above.
There is some good news here, Metzon promised the Alliance a fist bumping moment.... Wait he was serious? I guess so, but he was also serious when he said Varion would get trials of the high king that span the entire expansion. And look what we got, one Scenario where he teaches Tyrande something rather than learning something. Some trials...
Despite this, what would we want to see for this moment. Well, something which means the Alliance can claim a victory for once, a proper one. So what could this be?
Well, it won't be claiming Orgrimarr, so we need to look elsewhere for possible hints. A good source would be from Velen, the Army of the Light. Especially if Wrathion was somehow involved in the raid. What if the Army of the Light was formed during the raid, or at it's end, focused around the Alliance. After all, they will be in the strongest position after the battle. Their forces weren't depleted during the rebellion, unlike the Horde who will be left picking up the pieces and scrounging in the mud for a while - at least they should be if Metzon could stay off his Horde are gods writing for a short while.
Admittedly this isn't all that likely, especially since the army of the Light is Horde and Alliance. I don't think the Alliance want any more of their hero's being neutral. I mean, all of their main heroes have gone neutral recently. We had Wrath of the Neutral Alliance heroes verses the lich king and Cataclysm of Malfurion ignoring his wife being killed for the sake of focusing on deathwing. I doubt Alliance want more of that treatment.
So what else could be likely? Well assuming Thrall lives through the raid, it could be possible that he tries to atone for all the harm he's caused by making Garrosh warchief in the first place - ignoring his friends and advisers might I add. So what could this do? Well for one thing, I could imagine the worlds greatest shaman might be powerful enough to cause the Elements to forgive the Dwarfs and allow Magni to return to the world. That would be a major start, finally getting the one dwarf who can fully unite the clans back.
They could also make Anduin a bit less of a wimp, he needs to be ready to fight properly if he's going to lead an army against the Burning Legion, and he could learn in the Raid that sometimes some one has to die and have him play a major role in the defeat (not necessarily killing) of Garrosh. Heck they could even have him turn around to the Horde and say that the Next time they act up he will actually fight after seeing that his Dad was somewhat right about the Horde all this time.
---
So that's my take so far on what I would love to see in the siege of Orgrimar. Sorry there isn't more, exam period puts a bit of priority on time. So what do you guys think? and what do you want to see?
Also I'm aware I made a "similar" thread before. However that was solely about the Alliance, this time it's about the raid in general so to allow anyone to take part and focuses more on the game play kind of things as well.