World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth – War of Thorns

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

With the discovery of Azerite, the terribly potent new resource in World of Warcraft, comes the scramble and war effort to seize as much of it as possible. With pockets of Azerite appearing in Darkshore, the morally grey Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner wants to claim it.

Sylvanas launches a campaign that will take Horde players from the royal chamber of the Undercity, through the Barrens and Ashzara and eventually on the doorstep of the Night Elves. The Alliance is also doing something in Stormwind but who really cares about that.

Anduin probably cried again so they had a sleepover or something.

World of Warcraft War of Thorns

The event everyone is talking about is called The War of Thorns and is really shaking up the status quo in Azeroth. With both sides scrabbling to seize or protect as much Azerite as they can, we can be certain that the battle-scarred landscape will never be the same.

As the Banshee Queen Sylvanas unleashes the Horde forces upon the trapped forces of the Kaldorei (Night Elves), so too does King Anduin Wrynn mobilise his forces. As the Alliance marches upon Silithus to put an end to Horde operations in the area, far too late do they realise Sylvanas’ true plans.

Sylvanas works to fortify her siege camps to begin the assault on the Night Elf capital city of Teldrassil.

In the War of Thorns players from both sides are invited to participate in a limited time event that reveals the actions of both factions prior to the launch of Battle for Azeroth. With a new chapter released each week as well as new world quests, there has never been more to do during a WoW pre-patch than right now.

With the upcoming launch of legion we saw increasingly severe demonic incursions, but that has nothing on the implications of the coming war. The story for the upcoming Battle for Azeroth is beginning to make more sense as events unfold.

The cinematic showed the Alliance laying siege to Lordaeron and displacing the Forsaken (undead) from their home, however, as I play through the War of Thorns events, I’m realising more and more that the siege of Lordaeron was likely a retaliation attack.

Perhaps a retaliation for the razing of Teldrassil?

Only time will tell as a new chapter lands after each weekly reset, however the replay value of War of Thorns events is quite clearly aimed at the more casual players, who jump on a couple times a week and knock around doing a few quests.

The rewards for these quests are designed to help gear up new players returning to World of Warcraft or people who didn’t raid or push mythic dungeons as hard as others. Rewarding item level 210 gear of all kinds, including weapons so we can begin replacing our artefact weapons as they power down.

All in all, a great step to help even the playing field mechanically for the more casual player and also reward the Lore nerds (myself included) with some fantastic story.

The World of Warcraft writing team continues to improve and the all-out war narrative has never felt more believable than now since Warcraft 3.

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Jamie Sherlock
Jamie Sherlock
Gamer, writer & sports enthusiast. I'm interested in all things RPG and stats. I believe fantasy sports teams is just DnD for the guys who made fun of kids who like DnD, but that doesn't stop me from participating in either hobbies. Unashamed Blizzard & Wizards of the Coast fanboy, if you got a problem with that you best roll initiative punk!

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