Ian Bates

Ian Bates

@theredshirtguy.bsky.social

The Red Shirt Guy from Blizzcon 2010 through 2019; check out my writing at Blizzplanet and https://iancasteenbates.wixsite.com/ian-bates--tales-of

1,577 Followers 106 Following 254 Posts Joined Jul 2023
2 days ago

The pants-less haranir have been hotfixed! They're now wearing loincloths.

14 2 0 0
5 days ago
Post image

I know it was already pretty obvious that Harandar was originally intended for TWW and not Midnight, but some of the world quest dialogue makes it *really* obvious lol

104 10 3 0
6 days ago

but I wouldn't be surprised if they just dropped Beledar for good and never brought up that plot thread again, with the retcon of being a Worldsoul fragment instead of the Naaru Crystal it was originally planned as being seen as a good enough way to write it out.

10 1 1 0
6 days ago

I'm really curious to see what will become of the other stuff that was clearly cut and had its original story changed like the Worldcore and whatever Beledar was originally supposed to be. The Worldcore will obviously show up again, and I'd say the Black Blood has a 50/50 shot of showing up in TLT,

10 1 1 0
6 days ago

a cut TWW zone that, by virtue of being pushed back, actually got to be rewritten to fit their new vision unlike the rest of TWW (besides K'aresh), but that rewriting shows (especially because all the set up for the very different original Harandar was left in TWW) and leaves the zone a mess.

9 0 1 0
6 days ago

were basically locked in already, so we have this expansion and a half of stuff they had no choice but to keep, that doesn't fully fit with everything that comes after that got to actually be developed with the saga in mind. Harandar is a good example of this (cont)

9 0 1 0
6 days ago

It's a side effect of the way the Wordsoul Saga was developed. The War Within had already been in development for about a year before Metzen came back and pitched the saga, and it's becoming clear that if they could, they would have just thrown out TWW and started fresh, but launch content and 11.1.

8 0 1 0
6 days ago

it never directly says whether Akintunde's weapon was connected to the Void. (end)

12 0 0 0
6 days ago

That lines up pretty well with the little we see of Xal'atath's world in her flashback. Some force vaporized all life, seemingly instantaneously. And just like with Xal never technically saying the Void is what destroyed her world (cont)

10 0 1 0
6 days ago

One Empire asked a weaponsmith named Akintunde to create a weapon that would "end all wars," so he made one that destroyed the world, killing everyone and transforming Predacea into the Voidstorm. With everyone dead, there were no more wars, just as requested. (cont)

8 0 1 0
6 days ago

For those who haven't done the quest, basic gist is: Voidstorm is the ruins of a world called Predacea. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, Predacea was engulfed in a world war between rival factions. (cont)

9 0 1 0
6 days ago
Post image

I'm surprised details as important as "what actually IS the Voidstorm" are hidden behind a random side quest-chain most people will miss. Especially if you subscribe to the "Voidstorm was Xal'atath's homeworld" theory, which this doesn't confirm or deny, but has some big implications for if correct.

40 1 2 0
6 days ago

They don't seem to care about Shaladrassil getting corrupted by the Nightmare, or that its roots are now Lightbloom corrupted. I think as long as the roots aren't physically harmed like Teldrassil's were on fire, they don't care.

3 0 0 0
6 days ago

being able to feel the tension and chaos in silvermoon as the storyline goes on has been one of my favorite bits of writing in midnight. it's so, so good! exactly what you'd expect when you mash so many different groups of heroes together amidst a world-ending event like this.

5 1 0 0
6 days ago

Thanks. I wonder if that's the same thing effecting the NPCs, that they're just not equipped pants on them instead of doing whatever the NPC version of transmog hidden pants is (or that there isn't a version of that and that's how the issue happened)?

0 0 0 0
6 days ago
haranir body 1 model with loincloth and the text "hidden pants" haranir body 1 model without any loincloth and the text "unequipped pants"

it's the same thing demon hunters have atm, transmog hidden pants and it'll be there. unequip and they won't have it

6 2 1 0
6 days ago

There was probably a much better story here in that Umbric doesn't come. But we discover the terrace is crawling with twilight cultists that Rommath completely missed because hes so laser focused on Umbric. Which leads much more naturally to him softening up on him later.

28 1 1 0
6 days ago

He didn't have to come. Like at all. But he insisted on being there which activated all the defenses put in place and then because hes chemically reactive the moment he touches that wand it spawns a thousand horrors to eat everyone in sight.

Its all his fault! But its fine, he did what he had to

24 1 2 0
6 days ago

Literally no reason for Magisters Terrace to go down the way it did and the way the story constantly excuses him when things constantly go wrong and get people killed is driving me bananas

26 1 3 0
6 days ago

It's an especially weird choice to make Teldrassil such a big deal for the haranir because that should make them being neutral a huge problem, yet they just ignore it like a massive elephant in the room, which they wouldn't even need to do if they didn't keep bringing it up in the first place.

50 5 6 0
6 days ago
Post image

Update: Just checked and at least the body 1 player haranir still lack the loincloths.

2 0 1 0
6 days ago

You're welcome. Thanks for the response as well. =)

4 0 0 0
6 days ago

Yeah, it makes sense come the boss fight where he's a light/void phoenix, but why did they name that that before? I guess it was a Doctor Octopus moment.

10 0 2 0
6 days ago
Post image Post image Post image

Also on Quel'Danas you can visit the area where you fight Belo'ren, complete with guards explaining what's going with him.

28 1 2 0
6 days ago
Post image Post image Post image Post image

There are so many empty but fully designed and big areas around the Sunwell. I wonder if maybe it was planned to have a player hub of some sort at one point? For example, I found a whole two floor school.

19 0 1 0
6 days ago

Thanks. Today's the best I've felt since getting sick so hopefully I'm almost past it.

4 0 1 0
6 days ago
Post image Post image

I love how Silvermoon gradually gets more chaotic as you progress through the MSQ. Having just finished Harandar yesterday and starting Arator's journey today (I am both a slow leveler and also fighting a bad cold), I found the portral room is now full of blood elves evacuating the city.

34 0 2 0
6 days ago
Post image

ingame my Haranir does have the loincloth, but didn't in character creation. The vines sit right where the gaps in the cloth are.

(I kind of prefer the underwear in this case, even with the gaps - it matches the non-3D version of the top way better)

9 2 0 0
6 days ago
Post image Post image

Just double checked. The NPCs have not been fixed. There's still a ton of ones who don't wear pants but still wear underwear and ones who are just full naked from the waist down.

4 1 1 0
6 days ago

I'll have to check if that fixed the pants-less NPCs, but thanks for letting me know it's fixed on the player ones.

1 0 1 0