WarCraft III: High Death [War and Time Trilogy]

[Resyak]

I am probably stupid but with the hidden message. Once I've obtained it. I've followed instructions but I seem to not understand what I am meant to be doing?

The hidden message tells you in what order to activate the switches to open the door.

 

[VanAndro]

Resyak your second favorite campaign. Like "Legend of Mikokoro", I played it in one breath without a drop of boredom. One of the many things I like about these two campaigns is that there is no overcrowding with the items, which often confuses me. Thanks a lot.

PS: I've been stuck with BS and FK for a long time - they are far beyond my skills

 

[Resyak]

Resyak your second favorite campaign. Like "Legend of Mikokoro", I played it in one breath without a drop of boredom. One of the many things I like about these two campaigns is that there is no overcrowding with the items, which often confuses me. Thanks a lot.

PS: I've been stuck with BS and FK for a long time - they are far beyond my skills

Thank you very much for your comments and for rating, I'm glad you liked the campaigns. Regarding FK and BS, they were the first and are not well balanced.

Regards.

 

[Kairy]

Hey great Campaign so far but i did run into some trouble in chapter two(which is pretty hard for me) i tried to be a bit cheesy and i atked the last boss with flying units well they all died so then i wanted to fight him with the 2 heroes but the boss was gone so now i'm standing there with no boss and i cant finish the mission is this a bug? any ideas on how to make him spawn? cause i really took my time with this mission and only to do it all again oof

 

[Ravager16829]

Hey great Campaign so far but i did run into some trouble in chapter two(which is pretty hard for me) i tried to be a bit cheesy and i atked the last boss with flying units well they all died so then i wanted to fight him with the 2 heroes but the boss was gone so now i'm standing there with no boss and i cant finish the mission is this a bug? any ideas on how to make him spawn? cause i really took my time with this mission and only to do it all again oof

Are you used the save-load thing? There is a high chance the whole gameplay will be altered (such as incomplete quest and hero inventory change) if you attempt to load the previous saves in 1.31.1.

 

[Resyak]

Hey great Campaign so far but i did run into some trouble in chapter two(which is pretty hard for me) i tried to be a bit cheesy and i atked the last boss with flying units well they all died so then i wanted to fight him with the 2 heroes but the boss was gone so now i'm standing there with no boss and i cant finish the mission is this a bug? any ideas on how to make him spawn? cause i really took my time with this mission and only to do it all again oof

There is no scheduled nothing action on that map that will remove that unit, so it shouldn't be possible for it to despawn without you killing it. If this has happened, it is a bug in the game itself, as saves sometimes get corrupted and cause errors. And this, unfortunately, has no solution other than starting over. Sorry.

PS: But first of all, use "iseedeadpeople" and check the map because what can happen is that when you attack it the boss moves and is in another place.

 

[Kairy]

There is no scheduled nothing action on that map that will remove that unit, so it shouldn't be possible for it to despawn without you killing it. If this has happened, it is a bug in the game itself, as saves sometimes get corrupted and cause errors. And this, unfortunately, has no solution other than starting over. Sorry.

PS: But first of all, use "iseedeadpeople" and check the map because what can happen is that when you attack it the boss moves and is in another place.

hey thanks for the fast answer and yea i found him in the middle of nowhere standing there thanks

 

[Resyak]

hey thanks for the fast answer and yea i found him in the middle of nowhere standing there thanks

I'm glad you found it useful, I hope you enjoy the rest of the campaign. Do not hesitate to comment if you have any other problem

Regards.

 

[edgar quispe]

the campaign is bad but why (in the heroes, I don't understand why their damage and strength decrease) every chapter you finish something that shouldn't be like that.

 

[Resyak]

the campaign is bad but why (in the heroes, I don't understand why their damage and strength decrease) every chapter you finish something that shouldn't be like that.

I love people who criticize and qualify without any argument, limiting themselves to a meaningless and ridiculous comment. People like you, who have never contributed anything to this community and who have never created anything in the world editor. I'll give you an idea, rate with a 1 and don't comment, so at least you don't dirty the comments section. Give everything I upload a 1, but don't bother me again by commenting on my content.

 

[deepstrasz]

the campaign is bad but why (in the heroes, I don't understand why their damage and strength decrease) every chapter you finish something that shouldn't be like that.

Is there anything else you'd want to point out that needs fixing or adjusting other than that? I feel you might have given it 3 stars only for that, mostly, at least.

 

[VanAndro]

the campaign is bad but why (in the heroes, I don't understand why their damage and strength decrease) every chapter you finish something that shouldn't be like that.

- Information on why the campaign is as it is can be found at the top of the campaign description (to the left of the DAWNLOAD button)

- The creator of the game decides what it should be. HE KNOWS THE BEST OF US - EVERYONE ELSE

- The stats of the characters decreases every time he dies to make the game more interesting because being IMMORTAL is not fun

I hope this calms your excitement and makes you look at the game in a way you don't seem to be used to so far and end up not evaluating it emotionally.

You have to realize the following: all these people who create games do it in the FIRST PLACE for their own pleasure. We can only be grateful to them for sharing them with us. Criticism is a good thing when it is supported by justification, otherwise it is a cause for laughter.

 

[Resyak]

The first monthly update of the campaign (v1.3) has been made in which chapter one of the second part of this campaign has been added. From now on, every month we'll bring a new update with a new chapter until we complete the three custom campaigns that this project will include. Thank you all and I hope you like the new content.

 

[VanAndro]

The first monthly update of the campaign (v1.3) has been made in which chapter one of the second part of this campaign has been added. From now on, every month we'll bring a new update with a new chapter until we complete the three custom campaigns that this project will include. Thank you all and I hope you like the new content.

This is a great solution for me. There will be something new to play every month and when all the content is ready I will play the campaign from start to end again. Thanks Resyak. Thanks also to the whole team behind this project.

I want to ask for link to the page where the individual parts are described (if any).

 

[LISBOAH]

My review for the new chapter
-Loading screen: "the most have fled" --> "most have fled"
-I like how Maiev boasts about the night elves defeating demons, when they required the aid of the Dragons, time-travelling warriors and Ancients
-Unlimited Cruelty Quest: "return of the Eastern Kingdoms" --> "return to the Eastern Kingdoms"
-Finally! We have access to undead units that aren't skeletons!
-"He wouldn't forgive myself" --> "I wouldn't forgive myself"
-Through careful choosing, I managed to make all Zarah'Shar's abilties reach max level once she reached level 30
-There was one Optional Quest that I didn't managed to find out. The one I managed to find and complete was related to the Orb. What was the other?
-Man, Zarah'Shar is getting more and more depraved. Her torturing Maiev for hours served no purpose other than sadism.

 

[Resyak]

This is a great solution for me. There will be something new to play every month and when all the content is ready I will play the campaign from start to end again. Thanks Resyak. Thanks also to the whole team behind this project.

I want to ask for link to the page where the individual parts are described (if any).

At the moment there are no individual descriptions (chapter by chapter), beyond the description of each chapter on the loading screen. Still, I hope you can enjoy this story as we update it. Thanks.

My review for the new chapter
-Loading screen: "the most have fled" --> "most have fled"
-I like how Maiev boasts about the night elves defeating demons, when they required the aid of the Dragons, time-travelling warriors and Ancients
-Unlimited Cruelty Quest: "return of the Eastern Kingdoms" --> "return to the Eastern Kingdoms"
-Finally! We have access to undead units that aren't skeletons!
-"He wouldn't forgive myself" --> "I wouldn't forgive myself"
-Through careful choosing, I managed to make all Zarah'Shar's abilties reach max level once she reached level 30
-There was one Optional Quest that I didn't managed to find out. The one I managed to find and complete was related to the Orb. What was the other?
-Man, Zarah'Shar is getting more and more depraved. Her torturing Maiev for hours served no purpose other than sadism.

Thank you very much for the review and corrections. Two things about what you say, on the one hand, I didn't imagine that anyone would reach level 30 on this map, that really surprised me you had to spend a lot of time to get to that level.

On the other hand, regarding the sadism of Zarah'Shar, we know that many will not like it, but the general tone of the campaign will become quite "darker" from here on. Both the dialogues, the topics that will be treated and the cinematics (as far as possible in WarCraft III) will be much more "hard" or unpleasant for some people. We want the story to be something more than a war of good guys against bad guys, although I don't know if we'll achieve that.

In any case, we decided to approach the project this way and we hope to achieve something more or less decent at the story level.

Spoiler: SPOILER

The quest that you did not find is activated by destroying the tent after talking to Sobere, it is a hidden questline that will be developed in future chapters. Similar to what happened with Jimmy the Zombie in the first part.

Regards.

PS: At the level of gameplay, regarding the new system of leveling up and improving skills, such as the customization of the undead, we're open to opinions, ideas and recommendations, thanks.

 

[LISBOAH]

Thank you very much for the review and corrections. Two things about what you say, on the one hand, I didn't imagine that anyone would reach level 30 on this map, that really surprised me you had to spend a lot of time to get to that level.

I decided to play till level 30:
-To check just how far I could level up Zarah'Shar.
-To check if the triggers regarding the leveling up worked
-Since we were dealing with only one enemy base, I decided to take advantage of it. I explored the map, as well as fortifying my base, while using Mindeaters to check on the Wardens' movements.
-To be better prepared for future missions.

On the other hand, regarding the sadism of Zarah'Shar, we know that many will not like it, but the general tone of the campaign will become quite "darker" from here on. Both the dialogues, the topics that will be treated and the cinematics (as far as possible in WarCraft III) will be much more "hard" or unpleasant for some people. We want the story to be something more than a war of good guys against bad guys, although I don't know if we'll achieve that.

I would actually like to see this darker tone.

Regarding the "war of good guys against bad guys", this can be done by:
a) Making the individuals opposing the High Death unlikeable. They might oppose the undead, but this doesn't change the fact that they are obnoxious, corrupt, greedy, racist, etc.
b) Making the High Death appear in a brighter light. Show us that Zarah'Shar might have a point that Azeroth could be better under her control
c) Having an even greater evil appear. Ner'zhul's loyalists, the Burning Legion, the Old Gods, etc.

Spoiler: SPOILER

The quest that you did not find is activated by destroying the tent after talking to Sobere, it is a hidden questline that will be developed in future chapters. Similar to what happened with Jimmy the Zombie in the first part.

Thanks.

PS: At the level of gameplay, regarding the new system of leveling up and improving skills, such as the customization of the undead, we're open to opinions, ideas and recommendations, thanks.

From what I have seen the High Death is composed of: the Undead Scourge, the Cult of the Damned, the Ratmen, the Harpies and now Imps that were probably summoned by Zarah'Shar.
Since the war against the Night Elves is now over, we might have access to risen Night Elves and some twisted Night Elven skills and upgrades. The Scourge was some sort of assimilation faction that took control and corrupted what they could from the living.

 

[abbsomes]

When will the chapter 2 be released? or is chapter one the end?

 

[LISBOAH]

When will the chapter 2 be released? or is chapter one the end?

The creator will release a new chapter every month.

 

[Resyak]

When will the chapter 2 be released? or is chapter one the end?

Throughout the month of October the next chapter will be released, anyway, I always update the first comment of this post with the information of the next updates.

Regards.

PS: You can also see the chapters that are developing HERE

 

[shadowhog]

Just checking but like items and stats should carry over from the chapter two part one to chapter two part whenever it releases right? So i wont have to replay everything again

 

[Resyak]

Just checking but like items and stats should carry over from the chapter two part one to chapter two part whenever it releases right? So i wont have to replay everything again

Everything is cached, so you don't have to replay anything.

 

[LISBOAH]

My review
Chapter Two
Grammar
Intro cinematic: "can't spoil everything"
Intro cinematic: "it'll already be too late."
First cinematic with the Pandaren: "...forces of Lordaeron are closer." --> "forces of Lordaeron get closer."
"...before Lordaeron forces arrive." --> "...before Lordaeron's forces arrive."
Ending cinematic: "Where is him?" --> "Where is he?"

Bug:
-In the victory table, the Reaper's icon is bugged

Gameplay:
-Zarah'Shar overestimates mortals' cooperation skills. In the Second War, they were facing the Horde, and the Elves were content in staying behind their forests until the Horde invaded, and Alterac betrayed the Alliance.
-With Zarah'Shar on max level, this mission was a cakewalk. Pity that it didn't have interesting events or mechanics
-That pandaren's beer blew up a bridge?!
-Is the Reaper being controlled or will he be a willing servant?
-How to make Zarah'Shar more likeable? Add Garithos to the plot. Simple as that XD
-This will be so easy. Now that she's infiltratred, all Zarah has to do is create more seeds of discontent and let the whole continent kill each other without the High Death having to reveal itself
-So the orcs are still on Lordaeron and their leader is Grom? How did that happen?

Interlude
-Zarah being able to enter Dalaran and kill her grandfather without any suspicion just shows how incompetent and arrogant the Kirin Tor is
-With Jaina now out of the picture, Zarah will have an easier job
-Now knowing Zarah's past, I now understand her wish to create a new society and kill everyone that opposes her. Them standing in her way is defending the same world that ruined her life, that never punished her grandfather for being a horrible person and that killed her sister
-Loved that Zarah said the same thing Arthas did after he killed his father
-I can only hope Zarah teleported them away so that she can have more time torturing Titus without any interference. If she tortured Maiev the way she did, then Titus deserved 1000% worse
-So the Baroness was killed and raised before Zarah "died"? Because Titus didn't even consider her still being alive.

 

[Resyak]

My review
Chapter Two
Grammar
Intro cinematic: "can't spoil everything"
Intro cinematic: "it'll already be too late."
First cinematic with the Pandaren: "...forces of Lordaeron are closer." --> "forces of Lordaeron get closer."
"...before Lordaeron forces arrive." --> "...before Lordaeron's forces arrive."
Ending cinematic: "Where is him?" --> "Where is he?"

Bug:
-In the victory table, the Reaper's icon is bugged

Gameplay:
-Zarah'Shar overestimates mortals' cooperation skills. In the Second War, they were facing the Horde, and the Elves were content in staying behind their forests until the Horde invaded, and Alterac betrayed the Alliance.
-With Zarah'Shar on max level, this mission was a cakewalk. Pity that it didn't have interesting events or mechanics
-That pandaren's beer blew up a bridge?!
-Is the Reaper being controlled or will he be a willing servant?
-How to make Zarah'Shar more likeable? Add Garithos to the plot. Simple as that XD
-This will be so easy. Now that she's infiltratred, all Zarah has to do is create more seeds of discontent and let the whole continent kill each other without the High Death having to reveal itself
-So the orcs are still on Lordaeron and their leader is Grom? How did that happen?

Interlude
-Zarah being able to enter Dalaran and kill her grandfather without any suspicion just shows how incompetent and arrogant the Kirin Tor is
-With Jaina now out of the picture, Zarah will have an easier job
-Now knowing Zarah's past, I now understand her wish to create a new society and kill everyone that opposes her. Them standing in her way is defending the same world that ruined her life, that never punished her grandfather for being a horrible person and that killed her sister
-Loved that Zarah said the same thing Arthas did after he killed his father
-I can only hope Zarah teleported them away so that she can have more time torturing Titus without any interference. If she tortured Maiev the way she did, then Titus deserved 1000% worse
-So the Baroness was killed and raised before Zarah "died"? Because Titus didn't even consider her still being alive.

Thank you very much for the review. At the normal level, this is a simple chapter, it was designed that way on purpose. Chapters 3 and 4 are going to be hard and we didn't want to overwhelm the player, also the cutscenes here are very long and we didn't want to put ten minutes of cutscene (between the final cutscene of chapter two and the interlude) after the typical mission of 50 minutes that makes your life bitter. That's why we made it a little "lighter", we hope it was not boring.

Regarding the details of the story, it was very important that this interlude was well understood and that worried us, but it seems that it has served its purpose. During the next two chapters and the second interlude, explain everything that has happened in the Eastern Kingdoms will be finished, we hope that in the end everything will fit as well as possible and be attractive and interesting for the players.

Once again, thank you for your reviews, they are very helpful.

Regards.

PS: Arthas's line was an afterthought that we felt was quite fitting for the moment.

 

[Thunder1]

i cant see the campaign in the menü

 

[Ravager16829]

i cant see the campaign in the menü

What version of Warcraft 3 are you using?
If your game version is below 1.31, then this is the main reason the campaign doesn't work.
If your game is Reforged, you can only play custom campaigns using Campaign Splitter, but it might risk of bugs.

 

[Thunder1]

i am using 1.31 . before the update it works. i mean before level two of your campain released

 

[Thunder1]

ok it works thanks

 

[Resyak]

We have advanced the publication of version 1.5 a few days because the first week of November, the date on which we planned to update, I will not be able to upload anything. We hope you like the new chapter and interlude included in this version.

Regards.

 

[LISBOAH]

Chapter Three of Act Two
-Grammar:
--"give the alarm" --> "sound the alarm"
-Gameplay
--The Knights have no soundset
--Zarah'Shar's dialogue regarding the golems only appear if I engage the golem that is patrolling the area around the generators, even if I had already seen the golem that patrols to the south
--The hardest part of this mission, to me, was to kill the captains before they sound the alarm.
-Lore:
--Lorewise, having this many priests serving under the Kirin Tor is weird. The Church of the Holy Light has a strained relationship with the Kirin Tor, unless the current crisis changed this
--So we already have a Pit Lord, two Pandaren and a Fire Elemental involved with us. I have absolutely no idea how all of this will play a role later on XD
-So long Kirin Tor. You helped in creating two of the individuals that had already ruined Kalimdor and will soon destroy the Eastern Kingdoms. That will be your true legacy
--Somewhere in Maldraxxus, Kel'Thuzad is laughing so hard and has already forgiven Zarah'Shar for killing him.

Interlude
-With both the Kirin Tor and Garithos' army gone, Lordaeron is pretty much defenseless. I can't wait to see the High Elves and Gilneas have their turn
-So Grommash not only has succumbed to the same bloodlust that has driven the Horde during the First and Second Wars, but he even has Warlocks work under him, rather than Shamans
-I pity Calia. She doesn't deserve to be remembered as the last ruler of Lordaeron before it collapsed, when it was mostly Titus' and Antonidas' fault that things went down this way. Anasterian Sunstrider and Genn Greymane, on the other hand...

​

 

[Resyak]

Chapter Three of Act Two
-Grammar:
--"give the alarm" --> "sound the alarm"
-Gameplay
--The Knights have no soundset
--Zarah'Shar's dialogue regarding the golems only appear if I engage the golem that is patrolling the area around the generators, even if I had already seen the golem that patrols to the south
--The hardest part of this mission, to me, was to kill the captains before they sound the alarm.
-Lore:
--Lorewise, having this many priests serving under the Kirin Tor is weird. The Church of the Holy Light has a strained relationship with the Kirin Tor, unless the current crisis changed this
--So we already have a Pit Lord, two Pandaren and a Fire Elemental involved with us. I have absolutely no idea how all of this will play a role later on XD
-So long Kirin Tor. You helped in creating two of the individuals that had already ruined Kalimdor and will soon destroy the Eastern Kingdoms. That will be your true legacy
--Somewhere in Maldraxxus, Kel'Thuzad is laughing so hard and has already forgiven Zarah'Shar for killing him.

Interlude
-With both the Kirin Tor and Garithos' army gone, Lordaeron is pretty much defenseless. I can't wait to see the High Elves and Gilneas have their turn
-So Grommash not only has succumbed to the same bloodlust that has driven the Horde during the First and Second Wars, but he even has Warlocks work under him, rather than Shamans
-I pity Calia. She doesn't deserve to be remembered as the last ruler of Lordaeron before it collapsed, when it was mostly Titus' and Antonidas' fault that things went down this way. Anasterian Sunstrider and Genn Greymane, on the other hand...

​

Thanks for the review, as always, much appreciated. I'll check the dialogue of the golems, it should be activated when approaching anyone of them for the first time. And yes, the most difficult are the alarms. It's been very difficult to maintain a balance between how strong Zarah'Shar has to be for lore and gameplay. But from here new playable heroes will enter and some surprises that we hope will be to the liking of the majority.

Regarding the lore and what will happen later, I know that everything looks very bad for Lordaeron but don't kill him yet.

Regards and thanks.

 

[shadowhog]

Chapter 3 was good,

Are the sorcerers supposed to be able to see Zarah'Shar while she is invis?
The captains where a tad hard to kill but I just mind controlled them and had no issues since it seems like only the captains go for the alarm switch.

I am gonna assume we get another hero eventually because the orb disables the frost slow passive she has?

 

[LISBOAH]

Are the sorcerers supposed to be able to see Zarah'Shar while she is invis?

Yes. Zarah'Shar says in the opening cinematic that they could see her.

 

[Resyak]

Chapter 3 was good,

Are the sorcerers supposed to be able to see Zarah'Shar while she is invis?
The captains where a tad hard to kill but I just mind controlled them and had no issues since it seems like only the captains go for the alarm switch.

I am gonna assume we get another hero eventually because the orb disables the frost slow passive she has?

In the first version anyone could activate the alarm, but it was absolutely crazy, unplayable. So in the end we leave it like that, and yes, from here we will start playing with other heroes.

 

[VanAndro]

Great new levels!

Chapter One(TeP) made me tense - I didn't expect such aggression from the elvesbut every AI has a weak point in the end. In this level one of my elf dragons got stuck at one of the big trees passing near it (the big tree near Sorbere or Sorbe demon). The side quests are also very interesting and varied in the first place and the music is Top Notch. New level new background music - perfect. A must in my opinion to maintain interest and variety. The choice of music is also important, and you've done it right here.

The new Level System is a good idea - more options give better control.

My original plan to only play 1-2 levels fell apart on Chap.One. In general, there is nothing else bad to say at the moment except you have kept the trend of making me enjoy devouring every inch of every map. You're doing so badly so far that I can't wait for the new levels.

 

[Resyak]

Great new levels!

Chapter One(TeP) made me tense - I didn't expect such aggression from the elvesbut every AI has a weak point in the end. In this level one of my elf dragons got stuck at one of the big trees passing near it (the big tree near Sorbere or Sorbe demon). The side quests are also very interesting and varied in the first place and the music is Top Notch. New level new background music - perfect. A must in my opinion to maintain interest and variety. The choice of music is also important, and you've done it right here.

The new Level System is a good idea - more options give better control.

My original plan to only play 1-2 levels fell apart on Chap.One. In general, there is nothing else bad to say at the moment except you have kept the trend of making me enjoy devouring every inch of every map. You're doing so badly so far that I can't wait for the new levels.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you're liking the new content. Development is being slow and tedious but this type of comment always encourages us to continue.

Regards.

 

[Kallel]

Hello,
How many parts and chapters will the campaign have in total? I would like to estimate when it will be finished, approximately...

 

[VanAndro]

Hello,
How many parts and chapters will the campaign have in total? I would like to estimate when it will be finished, approximately...

Look at the first post on page 1.

 

[Resyak]

Hello,
How many parts and chapters will the campaign have in total? I would like to estimate when it will be finished, approximately...

In total there will be three parts, the second part will have a total of 7 playable chapters (one of them optional). As for the third and last part, I still couldn't tell you. But when all three parts are complete, we estimate that it will be around 20 playable chapters.

Regards.

You can also see the development HERE

 

[LISBOAH]

My review
Chapter Four:
-Grammar:
--Main Quest: "... citadel. The death of the..."
-Gameplay:
--The goldmine in the west having only 8000 gold seems a bit too low
--I hate those Sorcerers so much. Their Slow is so annoying and they are immune to magic!
--Sadly I wasn't able to level up Xernobog until he maxed out all of his abilities. I only reached level 16
---You: Level 16?!! How many units did you have to kill to reach such level?
---Me: How many breads have you eaten in your life?
--Xernobog's icon in the ending screen is bugged

Secret Chapter:
-Grammar:
--Main Quest: "... village. These beasts..."
--Karla: "The king has given..."
--Grommah says "princess", but he means "prince", right?
-Gameplay:
--I was finding this mission so easy, but I knew that Arthas would die one way or another. I was just waiting for the moment.
--Since, during this period, the Alliance didn't exist, the Riflemen should be replaced by Archers.
--I noticed that there were Sorceresses in town. Why is this mission the only they appear?
--Wait, the orcs and trolls set up this trap in order to get Kara, and Arthas was merely a bonus?
--Hold on. Kara is Zarah's sister. Does that mean that Kara is the Baroness?

Interlude
-Grammar
--"How you know?" --> "How did you know?"
--"That wretch will pay!"
-Lore:
--Wow, Antonidas calling Kara, who died alongside Arthas, a whiny brat. Now I am even more annoyed that Zarah didn't kill him
--Pity that Zarah didn't say "Kel'Thuzad sends his regards".
--It's so weird that Zarah, a misanthrope that wants to enslave all of Azeroth, apparently has more empathy than her family. I mean, she was the only that mourned her sister's death? What kind of dysfunctional family she came from?
--I would scold Zarah'Shar for playing around with Antonidas, but then again why would she have expected someone to rescue Antonidas?
--Zarah is overestimating Khadgar. The Alliance only won the Second War because Gul'dan's betrayal ruined Doomhammer's plans. Also, how is he more dangerous than Cenarius, a demigod, and an Elune-empowered Tyrande?
--Zarah should try another strategy regarding Khadgar. Why invade Karazhan, a place that Zarah has no knowledge about, when they should force Khadgar to come to them? The High Death should destroy anything resembling a civilization in the Eastern Kingdoms, until Khadgar came out and faced them.
--I wonder how Mike is doing? I miss him so much.

 

[Resyak]

My review
Chapter Four:
-Grammar:
--Main Quest: "... citadel. The death of the..."
-Gameplay:
--The goldmine in the west having only 8000 gold seems a bit too low
--I hate those Sorcerers so much. Their Slow is so annoying and they are immune to magic!
--Sadly I wasn't able to level up Xernobog until he maxed out all of his abilities. I only reached level 16
---You: Level 16?!! How many units did you have to kill to reach such level?
---Me: How many breads have you eaten in your life?
--Xernobog's icon in the ending screen is bugged

Secret Chapter:
-Grammar:
--Main Quest: "... village. These beasts..."
--Karla: "The king has given..."
--Grommah says "princess", but he means "prince", right?
-Gameplay:
--I was finding this mission so easy, but I knew that Arthas would die one way or another. I was just waiting for the moment.
--Since, during this period, the Alliance didn't exist, the Riflemen should be replaced by Archers.
--I noticed that there were Sorceresses in town. Why is this mission the only they appear?
--Wait, the orcs and trolls set up this trap in order to get Kara, and Arthas was merely a bonus?
--Hold on. Kara is Zarah's sister. Does that mean that Kara is the Baroness?

Interlude
-Grammar
--"How you know?" --> "How did you know?"
--"That wretch will pay!"
-Lore:
--Wow, Antonidas calling Kara, who died alongside Arthas, a whiny brat. Now I am even more annoyed that Zarah didn't kill him
--Pity that Zarah didn't say "Kel'Thuzad sends his regards".
--It's so weird that Zarah, a misanthrope that wants to enslave all of Azeroth, apparently has more empathy than her family. I mean, she was the only that mourned her sister's death? What kind of dysfunctional family she came from?
--I would scold Zarah'Shar for playing around with Antonidas, but then again why would she have expected someone to rescue Antonidas?
--Zarah is overestimating Khadgar. The Alliance only won the Second War because Gul'dan's betrayal ruined Doomhammer's plans. Also, how is he more dangerous than Cenarius, a demigod, and an Elune-empowered Tyrande?
--Zarah should try another strategy regarding Khadgar. Why invade Karazhan, a place that Zarah has no knowledge about, when they should force Khadgar to come to them? The High Death should destroy anything resembling a civilization in the Eastern Kingdoms, until Khadgar came out and faced them.
--I wonder how Mike is doing? I miss him so much.

The idea of low gold mines is to force the player to be aggressive and attack, which is why we designed it that way. On the other hand, we incorporated an experience limiter that reduces the experience received by the hero as he levels up to prevent the player from being able to max it out in the first mission, that's why you couldn't do it, even so it's surprising that you got there at level 16 since from level 13 the experience received is only 5%

Well, the secret chapter is set just before the canon Reign of Chaos story, so technically, the Alliance of Lordaeron was in effect, hence the riflemen and high elves.

Yes, Karla is the sister of Zarah'Shar. But Arthas's death wasn't exactly a coincidence, it's something that will continue to develop from here on out. This event was not relevant in the first part but from this point, in which the story begins to connect, it will become very important.

Zarah'Shar's fear is not how powerful Khadgar can be, it is more his intelligence and ability to overcome difficulties, as he said in a dialogue, his determination. We were quite inspired by the short story that narrates Gul'dan's encounter with Khadgar, and as the mage even though Gul'dan had stolen a huge demonic power, he did not give up. That is why Zarah'Shar does not want to wait and give him the opportunity to carry out his plans. Of course it is only our vision, each player can have his own point of view and not coincide.

Thank you very much for another review, for the corrections and for playing our content, hope you are enjoying it.

Regards and happy new year.

PS: Mike will return as a playable hero in third part.

 

[LISBOAH]

On the other hand, we incorporated an experience limiter that reduces the experience received by the hero as he levels up to prevent the player from being able to max it out in the first mission, that's why you couldn't do it, even so it's surprising that you got there at level 16 since from level 13 the experience received is only 5%

I wanted to test the three abilities that we could get access to after leveling up to level 17, so I started farming in order to level up Hernoborg. It took around two hours and half for him to reach level 16. However, I eventually grew tired and decided to focus on finishing the mission.

Yes, Karla is the sister of Zarah'Shar. But Arthas's death wasn't exactly a coincidence, it's something that will continue to develop from here on out. This event was not relevant in the first part but from this point, in which the story begins to connect, it will become very important.

Ok, I believe you. I was annoyed that the Baroness had little development in the first part, plus her abilities were generic, so I'm looking forward to see this.

Zarah'Shar's fear is not how powerful Khadgar can be, it is more his intelligence and ability to overcome difficulties, as he said in a dialogue, his determination. We were quite inspired by the short story that narrates Gul'dan's encounter with Khadgar, and as the mage even though Gul'dan had stolen a huge demonic power, he did not give up. That is why Zarah'Shar does not want to wait and give him the opportunity to carry out his plans. Of course it is only our vision, each player can have his own point of view and not coincide.

The thing is that he would have been more of a threat if we hadn't just ravaged Lordaeron and wiped out the Kirin Tor. Khadgar by himself can't do much without allies.
And we defeated the Night Elves and Cenarius, that were far more experienced and powerful than Khadgar.

Thank you very much for another review, for the corrections and for playing our content, hope you are enjoying it.

I am loving it!

Regards and happy new year.

Happy New Year to you too!

PS: Mike will return as a playable hero in third part.

Yay!

 

[nv4]

Played version 1.7, was enjoyable overall.
New spell leveling mechanic is cool. I wouldn't go as far as to say that it enables some noticeably variety in build options, since there's clearly a single best option for each hero, while other options are more like self-imposed challenges for extra fun, and not really a different concurent builds. But at the very least it deserves appreciation for bringing extra "strategy" in that "Real Time Strategy".

Spoiler: Leveling mechanic, simple minmaxing analysis

Look at Xernobog's spell and requirements.
Throw Spectral Scythe - active spell, scales from strength and agility.
Marked by Death - active spell, scales from intelligence.
Death Aura - passive aura, scales from intelligence.
Strangle Soul - active spell, scales from strength and agility.
So he has 2 active spells scale with stats that don't increase mana pool or mana regeneration. And 1 aura that synergises with basic attacks, but scales with intelligence on agility-based hero, so basic attacks gain no benefit from intelligence. So except for Marked by Death, spells scale with stats opposite of what they get actual benefit from. And also all spells require the same amount of stats increase, that is 3 agility & 3 strength or 3 intelligence for lvl up. And lvl up options are:

• +3 agi +3 dmg
• +2 str +1 agi +50 hp
• +2 int +1 agi +25 mana
• +1 all +1 armor

So what are my options for, take for example, 6 lvl ups?
6 times (+3 agi +3 dmg) - no spell lvl ups, but +36 (+65% relative to base damage) damage increase and a bit of attack speed. Might sound good, but the damage increase is relative
6 times (+ 2 str +1 agi) - 2 extra lvls for Throw Spectral Scythe and Strangle Soul, but no mana pool\regen to. And +300 hp.
6 times (+ 2 int +1 agi) - no spell lvl ups, no great damage increase - terrible decision, no point in having lots of mana if your spells suck.
6 times (+ 1 all +1 armor) - 2 extra lvls for all spells. +20% lifesteal is better than +300 hp and +100 damage for Throw Spectral Scythe is better than +36 basic attacks damage. Seems like the best option out of these 4.
But what about combining them? Since it's most beneficial to gain spell lvl ups, and all spells require +3 stats, the goal is to get equivalent increase for all stats.
(+3 agi +3 dmg) is already out, since it won't be equivalent. Omitting some needless speculations, taking 1 lvl of each of other 3 options for each 3 hero lvl ups seems to be the best choice. And the order of lvl ups doesn't really matter as long as you end up with +3 all stats for each 3 hero lvl ups.
So the best overall build would be to maximize spell lvls ASAP while differentiating lvl up options, and after maxing out spells just take (+3 agi +3 dmg).

Similar reasoning applies to Zarah's case, except Seduce has int scaling only, which potentially could be some peculiar build option, but it's obviously weaker than taking +3 all stats for each 3 hero lvl ups and maxing all spells, so I don't really see the point in leveling int only.

The dialogues are mostly good. I especially like those little details, such as Mike's "I have always liked to travel by boat" pun.
The custom music is a nice touch. Though it's kind of a bummer that this campaign doesn't use it to make a cool intro. You know, like in The Legend of Mikokoro prologue starts with that mysteriously-eerie music, which is very cool and sets the mood really well.

Well, one really unfortunate thing is story. I expected this campaign would be a great improvement in that regard, considering that Bones Scourge and Fallen Kingdoms were early works and Legend of Mikokoro featured a pretty cool and solid story, which showed a clear improvement over BS and FK. This campaign though... Can't really call it an improvement compared to Mikokoro, rather a step back. But at least it's better than BS and FK.

Spoiler: Story

First, Zarah'Shar. If your intention is to make her an unlikeable character - congratulations, that certainly did it for me. Although I'd say she's not just unlikeable, but also somewhat bad in terms of general character design.
I don't like Zarah'Shar, she's just too bland and feels like some kind of Mary Sue. Failed at her magic studies, and then suddenly got demonic powers served for her on a silver platter? And not even a usual kind of shady deal with demons, where there's some catch and you end up being completely fucked by that kind of deal. Nope, she just got it for free, no strings attached at all. Also no lore for how exactly it happened either, and dreadlords don't even care about that as if humans assuming a demon form and assimilating demon powers is a common thing.
And what's with her motivation? Parents considered her a disappointment and she just went "fuck the whole world" mode? Really? That's some Hatred level of edgyness.
And that chapter 7 ending cutscene... Baroness encouraged Zarah'Shar throughout the whole campaign and that was enough of an evidence to conclude that Baroness is her sister? Really? Well, with that level of deductive thinking she might as well conclude that Mike is actually her long lost and mutated brother.
I mean, prior to being recruted by the Cult, Zarah'Shar was virtually nobody, considered a disappointment by all important figures of Kirin Tor. Then suddenly some cultists approch that failure of a mage and soon she even Kel'Thuzad in person, who offers her to meet with Baroness, the very leader of that cult. And all that sudden attention to her persona didn't seem suspicious, didn't set her deductive genius on a path of discovering Baroness' identity. But a bit of "kindness" and encouragement from Baroness was enough to deduce her identity.
Antonidas may be a grumpy old asshole, but he is 100% right about calling Zarah a whiny brat. So in the prologue she mentions how she's disappointed by the lack of actions from nobility and how they mourn Arthas' death for 2 months already, while common people suffer from hunger and other hardships. And then, when she's about to kill Antonidas, she whines about her sister being the only person acting kind towards her. And 0 fucks given about all the lives she ruined. So basicaly the same attitude as that of Lordaeron's nobility, which she hates and blames so much. A hypocritical whiny brat.

Now, the "what if..." part. The campaign description mentions only Arthas' death as major difference over original W3 story, so what I expect from this alternative story is that it would develop from that exact difference, and everything else before that point would be the same. If your story actually includes some other changes of original story prior to Arthas' death, then I suppose my negative reaction in that regard is mostly unjustified, but these other potential changes aren't really explained or even mentioned, so I consider them plotholes.
1) Plague, hunger and other illhappenings in Lordaeron. It's mentioned in Prologue, mentioned in dialogue with Clay, with Antonidas, and a couple more times in some other dialogues. So... What plague and hunger? It's mentioned multiple times, but never anything concrete. Like, how severe is it, how did happen, what caused it? Lordaeron wasn't exactly a Heaven on Earth, but it was far from having some major problems like that either. I'd assume that plague and hunger were the work of Cult of the Damned, but the story here implies that Arthas' death ruined all original plans of Lich King and so he decided he'd have better chances in Kalimdor. So it wasn't the Cult's doing. And since nothing else mentioned in the original story or this alternative story might be the cause of such kingdom-wide problems, verdict is - plothole.
2) Orcs. Grom's dialogue mentions that he is not a warchief and that the warchief wouldn't like that he's about to kill Arthas. So I assume, as no other changes of original story were mentioned, that Thrall is warchief. Naturally, Thrall wouldn't permit to take a small army of orcs to raid and pillage nearby human settlements. Yet Grom brought enough orcs to even overcome Garithos' forces.
3) Why were Garithos' forces so few? In the original story, the pitiful state of Lordaeron's army was the result of opposing the Scourge. But here the High Death just went for Kalimdor instead, leaving Lordaeron virtually untoched.
Also, about that cutscene of Grom's orcs vs Garithos' forces. Garithos is incompetent xenophobic idiot, but I believe he's seen his fair share of action, enough to know at least that a proper army should fight in specific unit formations. Well, at least as much "ranged units at the back, melee units at the front". And they knew that orcs were coming, so surely defending forces had enough time to form proper positioning. But the cutscene shows just a handful of units standing on their positions when the attack begins, and lots more running to frontline from the back of the camp, in complete disarray, as if they were taking a nap and suddenly woke up like "oh shit, we're under attack". 0 discipline and strategic knowledge from alliance forces. Surely they're not that incompetent. That just looks silly.
4) What the fuck is even Lich King's motivation to invade Kalimdor over Lordaeron? Kalimdor, half of continent is deserts, sands and rocks, a territory that is hard to conquer even in terms of logistics, and the other half is forests inhabited by night elves. Elves who lived thounds of years, are extremely expirienced figthers, with huge advantage of fighting on the territory they have complete control over and know every square meter of land there. Even defeated Legion once. And had a literal half-god on their side. And meanwhile Lordaeron is dealing with orcs, hunger and plague, the whole kingdom is collapsing even without undeads' help. I imagine the Lich King's thought process was like: "Lordaeron? That's too easy, I didn't spend all those years mastering my craft to pick an easy difficulty. Now Kalimdor is a worthy challenge".
5) Okay, let's say the power of Well of Eternity is what lured the Lich King. But dreadlords are still a thing, how did they miss everything that led to that point? I mean, invading Kalimdor isn't something you do during your lunch time, so how did they only spot it when High Death was halfway done? But okay, better later than never, right? So how did they handle a threat of sabotaging the whole plan of Legion's invasion, a threat of someone else taking the Well of Eternity, the very reason for the whole invasion? They sent one (1) dreadlord with a bunch of orcs. They just said that their (whole) forces in Lordaeron are not enough to oppose the Scourge and they sent only 1 fucking dreadlord with a bunch of orcs to do deal with a problem, that couldn't be dealt with by their entire forces. Bear in mind, dreadlords are supposed to be highly intelligent, masters of plans and strategies. Not even a single puny demon came through the portal along with the orcs.
Oh, and Malganis died like a complete chump, not even some cutscene or dialogue. Just got defeated and forgotten, that's it. Shame.
6) Same issue as was in BS and FK - how did the High Death accumulate enough troops to deal with the elves? So High Death consists of 3 "factions".
Harpies were acquired at Kalimdor, and they're not really that strong or numerous.
Undeads simply can't be that numerous - in the original campaign Scourge's countless troops were the result of ravaging the Lordaeron + troops from Northrend. Neither is the case here, since all original plans concerning the Lordaeron were ditched in favor of Kalimdor.
Skavens are the only "faction" whose potential numbers and might are justified by the story.
Now, having a huge army is one thing, even if it wasn't so plothole-y, there'd still be 1 question. How did that hypothetical army sail to Kalimdor? They did they get enough ships? Another important detail left in a state of plothole.
And even if I omit these questions, I still find it rather unbelieveable that High Death managed to stop NE like that. It took a full-scale invasion of Legion, deception of Grom's orcs and Scourge forces to lay waste to NE. And even then NE managed to win. And yet in this campaign all that and even more was achieved with by a bunch of rats, flying hags and 1 whiny brat with a bit of undeads? I don't even...
7) Speaking of overcoming elves. Cenarius' death was... Actually, I'd say it's one the least questionable moments. The idea with corrupting the earth to weaken him is nice. Gameplay-wise, it felt off that he was just standing there passively, and NE overall played strictly defensively here. That is, this mission being non-build, leaning to RPG playstyle instead of RTS like in the original campaign, is not something I'd prefer, but it's more of a personal preference, so whatever.
However, the way this plague was introduced is plothole-y. Like, what is this plague even? The plague in the original campaign is the plague of undeath, it has nothing to do with corruption the earth. And there was no mention of any other plague being developed specifically as a tool for invading Kalimdor. Especially so potent that it took so little time to weaken Cenarius so much.
8) So before High Death acquired harpies and brought in all its forces, Cenarius and Tyrande were willing to bring down the very stars upon any intruder. They were not just ready but fully capable of destroying (or at least heavily damaging) a small army with their starfalls and all. But when the High Death commenced the full scale attack, both Tyrande and Cenarius apparently forgot what they're capable of.
9) Cenarius sending Tyrande off to defend Hyjal is some B-tier horror movie characters' logic. You know, when in such movies characters decide to split up for no sensible reason and then they all end up being killed.
10) You know, story being bad on its own is one thing, but story being disjuncted with gameplay is probably even worse. So Zarah absorbed Well of Eternity's energies, the most potent source of power on Azeroth, a source so potent that it became Legion's main objective to obtain it, so desirable that Archimonde, basically #2 in terms of power in the entire Legion (#1 being Sargeras), wanted it for himself. And Zarah, a mere human that couldn't even handle her magical studies at Kirin Tor, got it all for herself. I don't even question how a puny being like her was able to absorb it.
The main issue here is that such a major story point has virtually no impact on the story. So she got all that immense power, and then all she used it for is... Nothing. She just bragged it being most powerful mage on Azeroth and that's really it. All other feats of her are no better than what she was capable before. She still needs her army, she still has to resort to some dirty tricks instead of effortlessly overcoming everyone and everything, like would be expected from someone so powerful, and somehow she's even intimidated by Khadgar? I mean, she just destroyed night elves, virtually the most powerful faction of Azeroth at that moment, and she did it BEFORE absorbing Well's energies. And now, after becoming immesurably stronger, she can't even purge Lordaeron without Mike's help? That very Lordaeron that can't even handle orcs, and is doomed to fall on its own due to plague and hunger (especially hunger after both orcs and High Death took care of grain reserves)? The only logical explanation here is that she is so incompetent that she doesn't even realise the real scale of power she now possesses and doesn't know how to use it. And considering she failed even at her studies in Kirin Tor, that explanation seems fitting.
And remember how in the original campaign after Antonidas' and Medivh's dialogue, Jaina tells Antonidas that she sensed immense power in Medivh? So that means that mages can roughly sense the power level of other mages. And here Zarah absorbed Well's power and not a single mage in Kirin Tor sensed anything. Guess her theatrical skills are just that good. Should've just had a career of an actress, surely it would be leagues more successful than her career of a mage.
Now, the actual gameplay. She feels weaker in part 2 than she was in part 1. Seduce and Summon Shivarra are the same. Invisibility, despite its great tactical potential, feels weaker than anti-magic shell. Raise Dead is the same spell that ordinary necromancers have. She raises tha same ordinary skeleton that any other necromancer can. While Implosion is a unique skill and, unlike Raise Dead, actually gives the impression that it could be something that Zarah got after absorbing Well's enegrgies. Burn Life is cool and strong, but it's nowhere near Blizzard, which is capable of leveling down the whole armies and bases almost entirely on its own. And also the lack of powerful artefacts, that she had in part 1, also makes it feel like became weaker.
11) Oh, and what the fuck was Maiev's problem? She does know Zarah absorbed immense power from the Well, she does know that Sentinels are no more and NEs are fleeing south, she does relise that there's no way she can win it. Yet she does the stupid thing instead of retreating and regrouping in the south along with other NEs, to have at least some chances. And after being crushed, instead of fleeing (you know, Warden with her famous blink that enables her insane mobility and elusiveness) she simply stands there and accepts to get horribly tortured to death?

Spoiler: Some thoughts

1) Blood Magic Book - Blood Pact - would be cooler if it could be used on living targets as well. And I mean cooler both gameplay-wise (synergy with Seduce) and design-wise (it's blood pact and most undead don't have blood running inside them anymore).
Also tooltip mentions that it can be upgraded, but Nagred refused to upgrade it. Did I miss something? Nagred even gets a new model with each upgrade, so I definitely feel like I missed something and there's more to it.

The Scourge of Kalimdor
Chapter 1
2) So ogre lords drop books. Ogres. With books. And Zarah'Shar says "I'm sure that the other lords will have more". Maybe my knowledge about ogre culture is outdated, but ogres with books is not something you see everyday. IMO the dialogue would be better if Zarah'Shar was rather confused why did this ogre carry a book and wonder if other ones also carry similar books.

Chapter 2
3) Scroll of Rat Box - maybe it would be better to make it function like Amulet of Recall (teleport units to caster, the caster being Rat Box in this case) instead of like Scroll of Town Portal (teleport caster and nearby units to town hall). That way it wouldn't take hero's inventory slot. Also it would allow to give this amulet to hero and teleport newly hired units back to hero instead of waiting for them to walk across half the map.
4) Monstrous Spider (level 8) deals chaos damage but Purple Spider (level 12) deals normal damage? Should also deal chaos damage.

Chapter 3
5) No issues here, just want to mention that it's the best chapter in The Scoure of Kalimdor.

Chapter 8
6) What's the point of forcing non-hero units to be left behind magical barriers? Shivarra can be simply resummoned, flying units can just fly over the barrier, and other units aren't that strong to make big difference for the boss fights.

The Eastern Plague
Chapter 1
7) Aelon didn't even say who his friend is. Not an issue in-game since there's only 1 cage there, but that's immersion-breaking that Zarah is tasked to find and free some mysterious friend that she has to look for throughout the whole town (village?) and not her, nor Aelon thought it necessary to at least mention how that friend looks.

Yeah, balance is again an issue.

Spoiler: Balance issues

1) Rat Vitality - at first I even thought that it's a bug, but since Mindless Fury is similar to that, I guess it's intended to be that way. So the values are completely unbalanced - Fly Swatter loses ~13% damage while Sharp Cutter loses ~51%, and the health gain difference between them is only 50 points. The damage decrease value should be percentage based, not flat.
Also, the tooltip gives the impression that it would work like Mountain Giant's Hardened Skin, reducing the damage that rats receive, but it actually reduces the damage they do. It should be worded better - at least use "but" instead of "and", so it would be "...but reduces their damage by 10 points". And Mindless Fury's tooltip might also use "but" instead of "and".
2) Anti-magic shell (AMS) is literally the most important spell in the entire Scourge of Kalimdor. There are just too many nasty things that will inevitably make you lose if you don't permanently keep AMS on.
The most vivid example would be the final fight with Tyrande. Using only basic attacks, Tyrande alone will easily dish in more damage than Mike and Zarah combined, and Tyrande even has starfall from obelisks and priests to further increase her DPS. So damaging and debuffing her with abilities is vital here. Now here's the problem - her Mana Burn burns 400 mana in a single cast, and that A LOT. I didn't give Mike any tomes and he even died once, so at lvl 20 he had 555 max mana, and serious shot costs 100. So 1 mana burn, 1 serious shot and Mike is out of mana. So AMS is must-use here. But Tyrande can dispell it. So the only really difficult part of the fight is to cast AMS before Tyrande burns all your mana. And as long as you can do that, the fight is rather easy.
Same story with Rodmilak - he's slow and kiting him is easy, but he has a high-damage burst, capable of obliterating your heroes in 2-3 casts, and he doesn't hesitate to use it. So again the fight goes rather easy, but suddenly dryads appear and now it's a race of whos hand is faster - delay your AMS and get instantly punished.
Chapter 2 - Mo'args will scorh your entire army like it's nothing, but cast AMS on a few units and you're able to slice through everyone like a knife through hot butter.
Chapter 4 - Cast AMS and half of the harpies can't even attack you, refuse to cast it and watch one of your heroes sleep until the other dies.
Chapter 6 - Cast AMS and Blizzard the entire orc base to the ground or don't cast AMS and get stunlocked by warlocks until you die.
That is to say, half of prat 1 is relatively easy with AMS, and borderline impossible without it.
3) Part 1 has its issues, but it's nothing compared to part 2. So in part 2 the first 3 chapter were fine, but chapter 4... It's not even bad, it's downright atrocious. And it's just one chapter yet, but since the issues are integral to the tech tree, I expect this issues will be also a thing in later chapters.
Literally, what the fuck is that bullshit? [screenshots]
It's even worse than that chapter with satyrs in Fallen Kingdoms.
And I'm not just talking about the numbers of enemies, these fucking sorcerers are insanely overpowered. Magic immunity, slow, summon elemental (that is as strong as Archamge's lvl ~2.5 elemental) that doesn't even get resummoned but instead multiple elementals can be summoned at the same time, and crushing wave. And if that's not enough, they also have 750 hp, 40-42 magic damage with average attack speed and 800 range.

Spoiler: What. The. Fuck.

So how do you deal with them? Since they're immune to magic, only other way left is basic attacks. They have unarmored armor type, so the go-to damage types would be piercing and siege. That is skeletal grinder, skeletal archer, earth imp, venom imp. Here's a problem - grinders are melee and struggle to even get close to sorcerers. Skeletal archers and imps get shamefully outranged by sorcerers, and archers even receive extra 25% damage from magical attacks. So the imps seem to the best choice, but they're quite expensive. Though here's another problem - sorcerers summon water elementals, and they have piercing damage type, that is 200% damage to imps' unarmored type. Oh, and don't forget about slow - they will cast it on your every single unit, and good luck outdamaging them while your entire army is slowed. And if somehow you manage to amass decent army, you will get fucked anyway - they will just obliterate your entire army with crushing waves. And if you think about using any units with heavy armor type - forget about it, with 40-42 damage, average attack speed and 200% damage against heavy armor type, your heavy-armored units will get melted.
And the Archmages are basically stronger sorcerers - slow from basic attacks, summon 2 elementals in a single cast, even higher damage and more durability, no magic but (90% magic damage resistance from bracers * 30% armor type resistance =) 93% magic damage resistance, meaning magic is only good vs them as a crowd control. Oh, and all 3 Archmages can even attack at the same time, along with other units. Good luck dealing with them when you can't even cast Strangle Soul because it'll be immediately dispelled by priests.
With mages that insanely strong, it's a miracle that Alliance didn't annihilate orcs in like a month.
Kirin Tor Tower. 1000 health, 10 fortified armor, 15-20 chaos damage with very fast attack speed, 700 range and even mana burn. If Kirin Tor outsourced a bunch of these towers to defend grain reserves, both orcs and Clay's gang would be shitting their pants to the end of their days, assuming they'd even survive such encounter.

Now, those are the issues with the tech tree. The issues with chapter 4 itself is the design of it - in general, there's nothing wrong with forcing an aggressive playstyle, but here there's simply no way to successfuly play like that. Those towers are a pain in the ass and High Death tech tree has no long-range units, let alone long-range siege units, so dealing with the towers requires an overwhelming force. Which, again, is not a problem in general, but with enemy AI being rather aggressive itself, and the limited time and resources at the start, all things combined result in an unfairly hard task.

Oh, and Xernobog's spells - Marked by Death and Strangle Soul can be dispelled by priests, which AI uses actively, so they're not really that useful. And Marked by Death is somewhat underwhelming - Xernobog's playstyle is more like outdamaging your enemies due to vampirism and high damage, and time spent casting Marked by Death is time that could be spent doing damage and healing. And if there are any priests, they will instantly dispell it anyway, so no point to cast it really.

Spoiler: Bugs

1) What is that flickering under Zarah'Shar? Like hero glow, but bigger and flickering. Don't know if it can be considered a bug, but it's irritating enough for me to call it so.
2) I remember mentioning it in some other campaign so it's probably Warcraft's own bug, but anyway. Having NE units with shadowmeld selected in squad with other units messes up actions menu.

Spoiler: Shadowmeld bug

3) Blood Magic Book - Kill can be used on magic immune targets but it doesn't do anything. Should either refuse to target immune units or pierce the magic immunity.
4) Blood Magic Book - Blood Pact can be used on Kel'Thuzad. A single missclick can lead to an unfortunate defeat. Had to constabtly keep anti-magic shell on him to protect him not from the enemies but from myself lol.
5) Set of gemstones - tooltip doesn't mention it (tooltip window doesn't fit all the text?), but it also gives +500 max hp.
6) NE units have legacy hotkeys.
7) Chapter 2 - Skeletal Elite Mage has Raise Dead spell, but it's impossible to unlock it in this chapter. I think it would make sense to make the icon hidden like in chapter 1.
6) Chapter 6 - Malganis has bugged AI - if you interrupt him when he runs to attack your base, he then just keeps staying where he got interrupted.

Spoiler: Malganis AI bug

8) Chapter 8 - so I destroyed the obelisks and Rodmilak lost his magic immunity, as is supposed to happen, but at some point he gained his immunity again. And then lost it again when giants spawned. So I guess it's a bug that he temporarily gained magic immunity?

P.S. Is Xernobog's name supposed to be that way? Judging from his dialogue, I guess he's refering to Chernobog, which has a few spelling variations but none of them (at least as far as I know) is spelled with "X".

 

[LISBOAH]

Spoiler: Leveling mechanic, simple minmaxing analysis

Look at Xernobog's spell and requirements.
So what are my options for, take for example, 6 lvl ups?
6 times (+3 agi +3 dmg) - no spell lvl ups, but +36 (+65% relative to base damage) damage increase and a bit of attack speed. Might sound good, but the damage increase is relative
6 times (+ 2 str +1 agi) - 2 extra lvls for Throw Spectral Scythe and Strangle Soul, but no mana pool\regen to. And +300 hp.
6 times (+ 2 int +1 agi) - no spell lvl ups, no great damage increase - terrible decision, no point in having lots of mana if your spells suck.
6 times (+ 1 all +1 armor) - 2 extra lvls for all spells. +20% lifesteal is better than +300 hp and +100 damage for Throw Spectral Scythe is better than +36 basic attacks damage. Seems like the best option out of these 4.
But what about combining them? Since it's most beneficial to gain spell lvl ups, and all spells require +3 stats, the goal is to get equivalent increase for all stats.
(+3 agi +3 dmg) is already out, since it won't be equivalent. Omitting some needless speculations, taking 1 lvl of each of other 3 options for each 3 hero lvl ups seems to be the best choice. And the order of lvl ups doesn't really matter as long as you end up with +3 all stats for each 3 hero lvl ups.
So the best overall build would be to maximize spell lvls ASAP while differentiating lvl up options, and after maxing out spells just take (+3 agi +3 dmg).

Did you manage to level up all of Xernobog's spells? I spent hours trying to do it, but I found it unable to do so. Eventually he reached max level, but he still required +1 to all stats in order for all of the spells to reach level 5.

First, Zarah'Shar. If your intention is to make her an unlikeable character - congratulations, that certainly did it for me. Although I'd say she's not just unlikeable, but also somewhat bad in terms of general character design.
I don't like Zarah'Shar, she's just too bland and feels like some kind of Mary Sue. Failed at her magic studies, and then suddenly got demonic powers served for her on a silver platter? And not even a usual kind of shady deal with demons, where there's some catch and you end up being completely fucked by that kind of deal. Nope, she just got it for free, no strings attached at all. Also no lore for how exactly it happened either, and dreadlords don't even care about that as if humans assuming a demon form and assimilating demon powers is a common thing.

I'm not sure that I would classify her as a Mary Sue, since she becomes sadistic and a bit arrogant. Though I agree that parts of her character design still haven't been explained, like her demonic form.

And regarding her backstory, it's much darker than that. She was pretty disowned by her family, became homeless and was apparently raped. Not to mention that her sister, the only person that supported her, died alongside Arthas and apparently no one cared.

Antonidas may be a grumpy old asshole, but he is 100% right about calling Zarah a whiny brat.

I am a bit biased since I actually don't like Antonidas, so I can't complain.

So in the prologue she mentions how she's disappointed by the lack of actions from nobility and how they mourn Arthas' death for 2 months already, while common people suffer from hunger and other hardships. And then, when she's about to kill Antonidas, she whines about her sister being the only person acting kind towards her. And 0 fucks given about all the lives she ruined. So basicaly the same attitude as that of Lordaeron's nobility, which she hates and blames so much. A hypocritical whiny brat.

My guess is that Zarah's past made sure that she never grew up to be a sane and stable individual. She's pretty much a preteen child that was given a lot of power and the chance to get back at everyone she believes is responsible for her suffering. But yeah, this attitude is kind of disproportionate.

2) Orcs. Grom's dialogue mentions that he is not a warchief and that the warchief wouldn't like that he's about to kill Arthas. So I assume, as no other changes of original story were mentioned, that Thrall is warchief. Naturally, Thrall wouldn't permit to take a small army of orcs to raid and pillage nearby human settlements. Yet Grom brought enough orcs to even overcome Garithos' forces.

I am still seeking answers for that.

4) What the fuck is even Lich King's motivation to invade Kalimdor over Lordaeron? Kalimdor, half of continent is deserts, sands and rocks, a territory that is hard to conquer even in terms of logistics, and the other half is forests inhabited by night elves. Elves who lived thounds of years, are extremely expirienced figthers, with huge advantage of fighting on the territory they have complete control over and know every square meter of land there. Even defeated Legion once. And had a literal half-god on their side. And meanwhile Lordaeron is dealing with orcs, hunger and plague, the whole kingdom is collapsing even without undeads' help. I imagine the Lich King's thought process was like: "Lordaeron? That's too easy, I didn't spend all those years mastering my craft to pick an easy difficulty. Now Kalimdor is a worthy challenge".

Not sure. Maybe Kalimdor lacking civilizations, beside the Night Elves, that could stand against the Scourge would make it a more suitable base for the undead to expand their ranks before invading other regions.

6) Same issue as was in BS and FK - how did the High Death accumulate enough troops to deal with the elves? So High Death consists of 3 "factions".
Harpies were acquired at Kalimdor, and they're not really that strong or numerous.
Undeads simply can't be that numerous - in the original campaign Scourge's countless troops were the result of ravaging the Lordaeron + troops from Northrend. Neither is the case here, since all original plans concerning the Lordaeron were ditched in favor of Kalimdor.
Skavens are the only "faction" whose potential numbers and might are justified by the story.
Now, having a huge army is one thing, even if it wasn't so plothole-y, there'd still be 1 question. How did that hypothetical army sail to Kalimdor? They did they get enough ships? Another important detail left in a state of plothole.
And even if I omit these questions, I still find it rather unbelieveable that High Death managed to stop NE like that. It took a full-scale invasion of Legion, deception of Grom's orcs and Scourge forces to lay waste to NE. And even then NE managed to win. And yet in this campaign all that and even more was achieved with by a bunch of rats, flying hags and 1 whiny brat with a bit of undeads? I don't even...

Maybe the undead were more stealthy in Lordaeron and went to graveyards rather than using the plague to gather more corpses.

The High Death was also more stealthy than the Legion. They killed Malfurion while he was still asleep, unleashed the plague on Ashenvale and retreated before the main Sentinel army and Cenarius could arrive. And they weakened Cenarius before actually facing him.

10) You know, story being bad on its own is one thing, but story being disjuncted with gameplay is probably even worse. So Zarah absorbed Well of Eternity's energies, the most potent source of power on Azeroth, a source so potent that it became Legion's main objective to obtain it, so desirable that Archimonde, basically #2 in terms of power in the entire Legion (#1 being Sargeras), wanted it for himself. And Zarah, a mere human that couldn't even handle her magical studies at Kirin Tor, got it all for herself. I don't even question how a puny being like her was able to absorb it.

My guess is that she was unable to fully absorb it and just took part of the Well's power.

11) Oh, and what the fuck was Maiev's problem? She does know Zarah absorbed immense power from the Well, she does know that Sentinels are no more and NEs are fleeing south, she does relise that there's no way she can win it. Yet she does the stupid thing instead of retreating and regrouping in the south along with other NEs, to have at least some chances. And after being crushed, instead of fleeing (you know, Warden with her famous blink that enables her insane mobility and elusiveness) she simply stands there and accepts to get horribly tortured to death?

Maiev probably doesn't know the full story of what has occured, doesn't know how powerful Zarah is and her pride is something that is quite well-known.

2) So ogre lords drop books. Ogres. With books. And Zarah'Shar says "I'm sure that the other lords will have more". Maybe my knowledge about ogre culture is outdated, but ogres with books is not something you see everyday. IMO the dialogue would be better if Zarah'Shar was rather confused why did this ogre carry a book and wonder if other ones also carry similar books.

Well, there Ogre Magi during the Second War. And Cho'gall seems quite intelligent, despite his whole "want to destroy the world" thing.

3)
And I'm not just talking about the numbers of enemies, these fucking sorcerers are insanely overpowered. Magic immunity, slow, summon elemental (that is as strong as Archamge's lvl ~2.5 elemental) that doesn't even get resummoned but instead multiple elementals can be summoned at the same time, and crushing wave. And if that's not enough, they also have 750 hp, 40-42 magic damage with average attack speed and 800 range.

That I have to 100o% agree. Those sorcerers were super annoying. How come they get Spell Immunity (while our best melee unit has Spell Resistance), lots of annoying spells and have a range that's far larger than any of our units?
Spell Immunity means that Xernobog had to solely rely on melee damage in order to kill them, as they were even immune to his passive damage aura. Not even the Archmagi were this broken.

So how do you deal with them? Since they're immune to magic, only other way left is basic attacks. They have unarmored armor type, so the go-to damage types would be piercing and siege. That is skeletal grinder, skeletal archer, earth imp, venom imp. Here's a problem - grinders are melee and struggle to even get close to sorcerers. Skeletal archers and imps get shamefully outranged by sorcerers, and archers even receive extra 25% damage from magical attacks. So the imps seem to the best choice, but they're quite expensive.

I had to rely greatly on my Butchers to kill them, since they had Spell Resistance, and used the Necromancers' Death Coil and Xernobog's aura to keep them alive.

 

[Resyak]

Played version 1.7, was enjoyable overall.
New spell leveling mechanic is cool. I wouldn't go as far as to say that it enables some noticeably variety in build options, since there's clearly a single best option for each hero, while other options are more like self-imposed challenges for extra fun, and not really a different concurent builds. But at the very least it deserves appreciation for bringing extra "strategy" in that "Real Time Strategy".

Spoiler: Leveling mechanic, simple minmaxing analysis

Look at Xernobog's spell and requirements.
Throw Spectral Scythe - active spell, scales from strength and agility.
Marked by Death - active spell, scales from intelligence.
Death Aura - passive aura, scales from intelligence.
Strangle Soul - active spell, scales from strength and agility.
So he has 2 active spells scale with stats that don't increase mana pool or mana regeneration. And 1 aura that synergises with basic attacks, but scales with intelligence on agility-based hero, so basic attacks gain no benefit from intelligence. So except for Marked by Death, spells scale with stats opposite of what they get actual benefit from. And also all spells require the same amount of stats increase, that is 3 agility & 3 strength or 3 intelligence for lvl up. And lvl up options are:

• +3 agi +3 dmg
• +2 str +1 agi +50 hp
• +2 int +1 agi +25 mana
• +1 all +1 armor

So what are my options for, take for example, 6 lvl ups?
6 times (+3 agi +3 dmg) - no spell lvl ups, but +36 (+65% relative to base damage) damage increase and a bit of attack speed. Might sound good, but the damage increase is relative
6 times (+ 2 str +1 agi) - 2 extra lvls for Throw Spectral Scythe and Strangle Soul, but no mana pool\regen to. And +300 hp.
6 times (+ 2 int +1 agi) - no spell lvl ups, no great damage increase - terrible decision, no point in having lots of mana if your spells suck.
6 times (+ 1 all +1 armor) - 2 extra lvls for all spells. +20% lifesteal is better than +300 hp and +100 damage for Throw Spectral Scythe is better than +36 basic attacks damage. Seems like the best option out of these 4.
But what about combining them? Since it's most beneficial to gain spell lvl ups, and all spells require +3 stats, the goal is to get equivalent increase for all stats.
(+3 agi +3 dmg) is already out, since it won't be equivalent. Omitting some needless speculations, taking 1 lvl of each of other 3 options for each 3 hero lvl ups seems to be the best choice. And the order of lvl ups doesn't really matter as long as you end up with +3 all stats for each 3 hero lvl ups.
So the best overall build would be to maximize spell lvls ASAP while differentiating lvl up options, and after maxing out spells just take (+3 agi +3 dmg).

Similar reasoning applies to Zarah's case, except Seduce has int scaling only, which potentially could be some peculiar build option, but it's obviously weaker than taking +3 all stats for each 3 hero lvl ups and maxing all spells, so I don't really see the point in leveling int only.

The dialogues are mostly good. I especially like those little details, such as Mike's "I have always liked to travel by boat" pun.
The custom music is a nice touch. Though it's kind of a bummer that this campaign doesn't use it to make a cool intro. You know, like in The Legend of Mikokoro prologue starts with that mysteriously-eerie music, which is very cool and sets the mood really well.

Well, one really unfortunate thing is story. I expected this campaign would be a great improvement in that regard, considering that Bones Scourge and Fallen Kingdoms were early works and Legend of Mikokoro featured a pretty cool and solid story, which showed a clear improvement over BS and FK. This campaign though... Can't really call it an improvement compared to Mikokoro, rather a step back. But at least it's better than BS and FK.

Spoiler: Story

First, Zarah'Shar. If your intention is to make her an unlikeable character - congratulations, that certainly did it for me. Although I'd say she's not just unlikeable, but also somewhat bad in terms of general character design.
I don't like Zarah'Shar, she's just too bland and feels like some kind of Mary Sue. Failed at her magic studies, and then suddenly got demonic powers served for her on a silver platter? And not even a usual kind of shady deal with demons, where there's some catch and you end up being completely fucked by that kind of deal. Nope, she just got it for free, no strings attached at all. Also no lore for how exactly it happened either, and dreadlords don't even care about that as if humans assuming a demon form and assimilating demon powers is a common thing.
And what's with her motivation? Parents considered her a disappointment and she just went "fuck the whole world" mode? Really? That's some Hatred level of edgyness.
And that chapter 7 ending cutscene... Baroness encouraged Zarah'Shar throughout the whole campaign and that was enough of an evidence to conclude that Baroness is her sister? Really? Well, with that level of deductive thinking she might as well conclude that Mike is actually her long lost and mutated brother.
I mean, prior to being recruted by the Cult, Zarah'Shar was virtually nobody, considered a disappointment by all important figures of Kirin Tor. Then suddenly some cultists approch that failure of a mage and soon she even Kel'Thuzad in person, who offers her to meet with Baroness, the very leader of that cult. And all that sudden attention to her persona didn't seem suspicious, didn't set her deductive genius on a path of discovering Baroness' identity. But a bit of "kindness" and encouragement from Baroness was enough to deduce her identity.
Antonidas may be a grumpy old asshole, but he is 100% right about calling Zarah a whiny brat. So in the prologue she mentions how she's disappointed by the lack of actions from nobility and how they mourn Arthas' death for 2 months already, while common people suffer from hunger and other hardships. And then, when she's about to kill Antonidas, she whines about her sister being the only person acting kind towards her. And 0 fucks given about all the lives she ruined. So basicaly the same attitude as that of Lordaeron's nobility, which she hates and blames so much. A hypocritical whiny brat.

Now, the "what if..." part. The campaign description mentions only Arthas' death as major difference over original W3 story, so what I expect from this alternative story is that it would develop from that exact difference, and everything else before that point would be the same. If your story actually includes some other changes of original story prior to Arthas' death, then I suppose my negative reaction in that regard is mostly unjustified, but these other potential changes aren't really explained or even mentioned, so I consider them plotholes.
1) Plague, hunger and other illhappenings in Lordaeron. It's mentioned in Prologue, mentioned in dialogue with Clay, with Antonidas, and a couple more times in some other dialogues. So... What plague and hunger? It's mentioned multiple times, but never anything concrete. Like, how severe is it, how did happen, what caused it? Lordaeron wasn't exactly a Heaven on Earth, but it was far from having some major problems like that either. I'd assume that plague and hunger were the work of Cult of the Damned, but the story here implies that Arthas' death ruined all original plans of Lich King and so he decided he'd have better chances in Kalimdor. So it wasn't the Cult's doing. And since nothing else mentioned in the original story or this alternative story might be the cause of such kingdom-wide problems, verdict is - plothole.
2) Orcs. Grom's dialogue mentions that he is not a warchief and that the warchief wouldn't like that he's about to kill Arthas. So I assume, as no other changes of original story were mentioned, that Thrall is warchief. Naturally, Thrall wouldn't permit to take a small army of orcs to raid and pillage nearby human settlements. Yet Grom brought enough orcs to even overcome Garithos' forces.
3) Why were Garithos' forces so few? In the original story, the pitiful state of Lordaeron's army was the result of opposing the Scourge. But here the High Death just went for Kalimdor instead, leaving Lordaeron virtually untoched.
Also, about that cutscene of Grom's orcs vs Garithos' forces. Garithos is incompetent xenophobic idiot, but I believe he's seen his fair share of action, enough to know at least that a proper army should fight in specific unit formations. Well, at least as much "ranged units at the back, melee units at the front". And they knew that orcs were coming, so surely defending forces had enough time to form proper positioning. But the cutscene shows just a handful of units standing on their positions when the attack begins, and lots more running to frontline from the back of the camp, in complete disarray, as if they were taking a nap and suddenly woke up like "oh shit, we're under attack". 0 discipline and strategic knowledge from alliance forces. Surely they're not that incompetent. That just looks silly.
4) What the fuck is even Lich King's motivation to invade Kalimdor over Lordaeron? Kalimdor, half of continent is deserts, sands and rocks, a territory that is hard to conquer even in terms of logistics, and the other half is forests inhabited by night elves. Elves who lived thounds of years, are extremely expirienced figthers, with huge advantage of fighting on the territory they have complete control over and know every square meter of land there. Even defeated Legion once. And had a literal half-god on their side. And meanwhile Lordaeron is dealing with orcs, hunger and plague, the whole kingdom is collapsing even without undeads' help. I imagine the Lich King's thought process was like: "Lordaeron? That's too easy, I didn't spend all those years mastering my craft to pick an easy difficulty. Now Kalimdor is a worthy challenge".
5) Okay, let's say the power of Well of Eternity is what lured the Lich King. But dreadlords are still a thing, how did they miss everything that led to that point? I mean, invading Kalimdor isn't something you do during your lunch time, so how did they only spot it when High Death was halfway done? But okay, better later than never, right? So how did they handle a threat of sabotaging the whole plan of Legion's invasion, a threat of someone else taking the Well of Eternity, the very reason for the whole invasion? They sent one (1) dreadlord with a bunch of orcs. They just said that their (whole) forces in Lordaeron are not enough to oppose the Scourge and they sent only 1 fucking dreadlord with a bunch of orcs to do deal with a problem, that couldn't be dealt with by their entire forces. Bear in mind, dreadlords are supposed to be highly intelligent, masters of plans and strategies. Not even a single puny demon came through the portal along with the orcs.
Oh, and Malganis died like a complete chump, not even some cutscene or dialogue. Just got defeated and forgotten, that's it. Shame.
6) Same issue as was in BS and FK - how did the High Death accumulate enough troops to deal with the elves? So High Death consists of 3 "factions".
Harpies were acquired at Kalimdor, and they're not really that strong or numerous.
Undeads simply can't be that numerous - in the original campaign Scourge's countless troops were the result of ravaging the Lordaeron + troops from Northrend. Neither is the case here, since all original plans concerning the Lordaeron were ditched in favor of Kalimdor.
Skavens are the only "faction" whose potential numbers and might are justified by the story.
Now, having a huge army is one thing, even if it wasn't so plothole-y, there'd still be 1 question. How did that hypothetical army sail to Kalimdor? They did they get enough ships? Another important detail left in a state of plothole.
And even if I omit these questions, I still find it rather unbelieveable that High Death managed to stop NE like that. It took a full-scale invasion of Legion, deception of Grom's orcs and Scourge forces to lay waste to NE. And even then NE managed to win. And yet in this campaign all that and even more was achieved with by a bunch of rats, flying hags and 1 whiny brat with a bit of undeads? I don't even...
7) Speaking of overcoming elves. Cenarius' death was... Actually, I'd say it's one the least questionable moments. The idea with corrupting the earth to weaken him is nice. Gameplay-wise, it felt off that he was just standing there passively, and NE overall played strictly defensively here. That is, this mission being non-build, leaning to RPG playstyle instead of RTS like in the original campaign, is not something I'd prefer, but it's more of a personal preference, so whatever.
However, the way this plague was introduced is plothole-y. Like, what is this plague even? The plague in the original campaign is the plague of undeath, it has nothing to do with corruption the earth. And there was no mention of any other plague being developed specifically as a tool for invading Kalimdor. Especially so potent that it took so little time to weaken Cenarius so much.
8) So before High Death acquired harpies and brought in all its forces, Cenarius and Tyrande were willing to bring down the very stars upon any intruder. They were not just ready but fully capable of destroying (or at least heavily damaging) a small army with their starfalls and all. But when the High Death commenced the full scale attack, both Tyrande and Cenarius apparently forgot what they're capable of.
9) Cenarius sending Tyrande off to defend Hyjal is some B-tier horror movie characters' logic. You know, when in such movies characters decide to split up for no sensible reason and then they all end up being killed.
10) You know, story being bad on its own is one thing, but story being disjuncted with gameplay is probably even worse. So Zarah absorbed Well of Eternity's energies, the most potent source of power on Azeroth, a source so potent that it became Legion's main objective to obtain it, so desirable that Archimonde, basically #2 in terms of power in the entire Legion (#1 being Sargeras), wanted it for himself. And Zarah, a mere human that couldn't even handle her magical studies at Kirin Tor, got it all for herself. I don't even question how a puny being like her was able to absorb it.
The main issue here is that such a major story point has virtually no impact on the story. So she got all that immense power, and then all she used it for is... Nothing. She just bragged it being most powerful mage on Azeroth and that's really it. All other feats of her are no better than what she was capable before. She still needs her army, she still has to resort to some dirty tricks instead of effortlessly overcoming everyone and everything, like would be expected from someone so powerful, and somehow she's even intimidated by Khadgar? I mean, she just destroyed night elves, virtually the most powerful faction of Azeroth at that moment, and she did it BEFORE absorbing Well's energies. And now, after becoming immesurably stronger, she can't even purge Lordaeron without Mike's help? That very Lordaeron that can't even handle orcs, and is doomed to fall on its own due to plague and hunger (especially hunger after both orcs and High Death took care of grain reserves)? The only logical explanation here is that she is so incompetent that she doesn't even realise the real scale of power she now possesses and doesn't know how to use it. And considering she failed even at her studies in Kirin Tor, that explanation seems fitting.
And remember how in the original campaign after Antonidas' and Medivh's dialogue, Jaina tells Antonidas that she sensed immense power in Medivh? So that means that mages can roughly sense the power level of other mages. And here Zarah absorbed Well's power and not a single mage in Kirin Tor sensed anything. Guess her theatrical skills are just that good. Should've just had a career of an actress, surely it would be leagues more successful than her career of a mage.
Now, the actual gameplay. She feels weaker in part 2 than she was in part 1. Seduce and Summon Shivarra are the same. Invisibility, despite its great tactical potential, feels weaker than anti-magic shell. Raise Dead is the same spell that ordinary necromancers have. She raises tha same ordinary skeleton that any other necromancer can. While Implosion is a unique skill and, unlike Raise Dead, actually gives the impression that it could be something that Zarah got after absorbing Well's enegrgies. Burn Life is cool and strong, but it's nowhere near Blizzard, which is capable of leveling down the whole armies and bases almost entirely on its own. And also the lack of powerful artefacts, that she had in part 1, also makes it feel like became weaker.
11) Oh, and what the fuck was Maiev's problem? She does know Zarah absorbed immense power from the Well, she does know that Sentinels are no more and NEs are fleeing south, she does relise that there's no way she can win it. Yet she does the stupid thing instead of retreating and regrouping in the south along with other NEs, to have at least some chances. And after being crushed, instead of fleeing (you know, Warden with her famous blink that enables her insane mobility and elusiveness) she simply stands there and accepts to get horribly tortured to death?

Spoiler: Some thoughts

1) Blood Magic Book - Blood Pact - would be cooler if it could be used on living targets as well. And I mean cooler both gameplay-wise (synergy with Seduce) and design-wise (it's blood pact and most undead don't have blood running inside them anymore).
Also tooltip mentions that it can be upgraded, but Nagred refused to upgrade it. Did I miss something? Nagred even gets a new model with each upgrade, so I definitely feel like I missed something and there's more to it.

The Scourge of Kalimdor
Chapter 1
2) So ogre lords drop books. Ogres. With books. And Zarah'Shar says "I'm sure that the other lords will have more". Maybe my knowledge about ogre culture is outdated, but ogres with books is not something you see everyday. IMO the dialogue would be better if Zarah'Shar was rather confused why did this ogre carry a book and wonder if other ones also carry similar books.

Chapter 2
3) Scroll of Rat Box - maybe it would be better to make it function like Amulet of Recall (teleport units to caster, the caster being Rat Box in this case) instead of like Scroll of Town Portal (teleport caster and nearby units to town hall). That way it wouldn't take hero's inventory slot. Also it would allow to give this amulet to hero and teleport newly hired units back to hero instead of waiting for them to walk across half the map.
4) Monstrous Spider (level 8) deals chaos damage but Purple Spider (level 12) deals normal damage? Should also deal chaos damage.

Chapter 3
5) No issues here, just want to mention that it's the best chapter in The Scoure of Kalimdor.

Chapter 8
6) What's the point of forcing non-hero units to be left behind magical barriers? Shivarra can be simply resummoned, flying units can just fly over the barrier, and other units aren't that strong to make big difference for the boss fights.

The Eastern Plague
Chapter 1
7) Aelon didn't even say who his friend is. Not an issue in-game since there's only 1 cage there, but that's immersion-breaking that Zarah is tasked to find and free some mysterious friend that she has to look for throughout the whole town (village?) and not her, nor Aelon thought it necessary to at least mention how that friend looks.

Yeah, balance is again an issue.

Spoiler: Balance issues

1) Rat Vitality - at first I even thought that it's a bug, but since Mindless Fury is similar to that, I guess it's intended to be that way. So the values are completely unbalanced - Fly Swatter loses ~13% damage while Sharp Cutter loses ~51%, and the health gain difference between them is only 50 points. The damage decrease value should be percentage based, not flat.
Also, the tooltip gives the impression that it would work like Mountain Giant's Hardened Skin, reducing the damage that rats receive, but it actually reduces the damage they do. It should be worded better - at least use "but" instead of "and", so it would be "...but reduces their damage by 10 points". And Mindless Fury's tooltip might also use "but" instead of "and".
2) Anti-magic shell (AMS) is literally the most important spell in the entire Scourge of Kalimdor. There are just too many nasty things that will inevitably make you lose if you don't permanently keep AMS on.
The most vivid example would be the final fight with Tyrande. Using only basic attacks, Tyrande alone will easily dish in more damage than Mike and Zarah combined, and Tyrande even has starfall from obelisks and priests to further increase her DPS. So damaging and debuffing her with abilities is vital here. Now here's the problem - her Mana Burn burns 400 mana in a single cast, and that A LOT. I didn't give Mike any tomes and he even died once, so at lvl 20 he had 555 max mana, and serious shot costs 100. So 1 mana burn, 1 serious shot and Mike is out of mana. So AMS is must-use here. But Tyrande can dispell it. So the only really difficult part of the fight is to cast AMS before Tyrande burns all your mana. And as long as you can do that, the fight is rather easy.
Same story with Rodmilak - he's slow and kiting him is easy, but he has a high-damage burst, capable of obliterating your heroes in 2-3 casts, and he doesn't hesitate to use it. So again the fight goes rather easy, but suddenly dryads appear and now it's a race of whos hand is faster - delay your AMS and get instantly punished.
Chapter 2 - Mo'args will scorh your entire army like it's nothing, but cast AMS on a few units and you're able to slice through everyone like a knife through hot butter.
Chapter 4 - Cast AMS and half of the harpies can't even attack you, refuse to cast it and watch one of your heroes sleep until the other dies.
Chapter 6 - Cast AMS and Blizzard the entire orc base to the ground or don't cast AMS and get stunlocked by warlocks until you die.
That is to say, half of prat 1 is relatively easy with AMS, and borderline impossible without it.
3) Part 1 has its issues, but it's nothing compared to part 2. So in part 2 the first 3 chapter were fine, but chapter 4... It's not even bad, it's downright atrocious. And it's just one chapter yet, but since the issues are integral to the tech tree, I expect this issues will be also a thing in later chapters.
Literally, what the fuck is that bullshit? [screenshots]
It's even worse than that chapter with satyrs in Fallen Kingdoms.
And I'm not just talking about the numbers of enemies, these fucking sorcerers are insanely overpowered. Magic immunity, slow, summon elemental (that is as strong as Archamge's lvl ~2.5 elemental) that doesn't even get resummoned but instead multiple elementals can be summoned at the same time, and crushing wave. And if that's not enough, they also have 750 hp, 40-42 magic damage with average attack speed and 800 range.

Spoiler: What. The. Fuck.

View attachment 420473View attachment 420474View attachment 420475

So how do you deal with them? Since they're immune to magic, only other way left is basic attacks. They have unarmored armor type, so the go-to damage types would be piercing and siege. That is skeletal grinder, skeletal archer, earth imp, venom imp. Here's a problem - grinders are melee and struggle to even get close to sorcerers. Skeletal archers and imps get shamefully outranged by sorcerers, and archers even receive extra 25% damage from magical attacks. So the imps seem to the best choice, but they're quite expensive. Though here's another problem - sorcerers summon water elementals, and they have piercing damage type, that is 200% damage to imps' unarmored type. Oh, and don't forget about slow - they will cast it on your every single unit, and good luck outdamaging them while your entire army is slowed. And if somehow you manage to amass decent army, you will get fucked anyway - they will just obliterate your entire army with crushing waves. And if you think about using any units with heavy armor type - forget about it, with 40-42 damage, average attack speed and 200% damage against heavy armor type, your heavy-armored units will get melted.
And the Archmages are basically stronger sorcerers - slow from basic attacks, summon 2 elementals in a single cast, even higher damage and more durability, no magic but (90% magic damage resistance from bracers * 30% armor type resistance =) 93% magic damage resistance, meaning magic is only good vs them as a crowd control. Oh, and all 3 Archmages can even attack at the same time, along with other units. Good luck dealing with them when you can't even cast Strangle Soul because it'll be immediately dispelled by priests.
With mages that insanely strong, it's a miracle that Alliance didn't annihilate orcs in like a month.
Kirin Tor Tower. 1000 health, 10 fortified armor, 15-20 chaos damage with very fast attack speed, 700 range and even mana burn. If Kirin Tor outsourced a bunch of these towers to defend grain reserves, both orcs and Clay's gang would be shitting their pants to the end of their days, assuming they'd even survive such encounter.

Now, those are the issues with the tech tree. The issues with chapter 4 itself is the design of it - in general, there's nothing wrong with forcing an aggressive playstyle, but here there's simply no way to successfuly play like that. Those towers are a pain in the ass and High Death tech tree has no long-range units, let alone long-range siege units, so dealing with the towers requires an overwhelming force. Which, again, is not a problem in general, but with enemy AI being rather aggressive itself, and the limited time and resources at the start, all things combined result in an unfairly hard task.

Oh, and Xernobog's spells - Marked by Death and Strangle Soul can be dispelled by priests, which AI uses actively, so they're not really that useful. And Marked by Death is somewhat underwhelming - Xernobog's playstyle is more like outdamaging your enemies due to vampirism and high damage, and time spent casting Marked by Death is time that could be spent doing damage and healing. And if there are any priests, they will instantly dispell it anyway, so no point to cast it really.

Spoiler: Bugs

1) What is that flickering under Zarah'Shar? Like hero glow, but bigger and flickering. Don't know if it can be considered a bug, but it's irritating enough for me to call it so.
2) I remember mentioning it in some other campaign so it's probably Warcraft's own bug, but anyway. Having NE units with shadowmeld selected in squad with other units messes up actions menu.

Spoiler: Shadowmeld bug

View attachment 420471

3) Blood Magic Book - Kill can be used on magic immune targets but it doesn't do anything. Should either refuse to target immune units or pierce the magic immunity.
4) Blood Magic Book - Blood Pact can be used on Kel'Thuzad. A single missclick can lead to an unfortunate defeat. Had to constabtly keep anti-magic shell on him to protect him not from the enemies but from myself lol.
5) Set of gemstones - tooltip doesn't mention it (tooltip window doesn't fit all the text?), but it also gives +500 max hp.
6) NE units have legacy hotkeys.
7) Chapter 2 - Skeletal Elite Mage has Raise Dead spell, but it's impossible to unlock it in this chapter. I think it would make sense to make the icon hidden like in chapter 1.
6) Chapter 6 - Malganis has bugged AI - if you interrupt him when he runs to attack your base, he then just keeps staying where he got interrupted.

Spoiler: Malganis AI bug

View attachment 420472

8) Chapter 8 - so I destroyed the obelisks and Rodmilak lost his magic immunity, as is supposed to happen, but at some point he gained his immunity again. And then lost it again when giants spawned. So I guess it's a bug that he temporarily gained magic immunity?

P.S. Is Xernobog's name supposed to be that way? Judging from his dialogue, I guess he's refering to Chernobog, which has a few spelling variations but none of them (at least as far as I know) is spelled with "X".

Hello, first of all I want to say thank you, you have done an amazing analysis of the campaign and written a very detailed and extremely useful review for us, so again, thanks for your great contribution.

Having said this, I want to comment on several points that seem important to me.


1.- Balance:

In everything that refers to balance, we are aware of units like the sorcerers in chapter 4 that they can break the balance and that, in many situations, they worsen the gameplay. On the other hand, the custom undead race, we know it's far from perfect, it has a lot of shortcomings, we've tried to make a customization simple for a player and bring something slightly different, is it better than the original? Not even in dreams, it's obvious.

Balance work takes many hours of testing, hours that we don't always have available. Perhaps it would be better to delay the updates and polish these aspects better, but we don't want the project to take forever either. I do not justify the deficiencies and errors, we are aware of them and I am not going to deny the obvious. Perhaps in the future we can dedicate time to updates that improve these details.


2.- Gameplay:

The gameplay of the first part is more varied, there were more "interesting" mechanics, on the other hand, in this second part, it is more classic, more killing and that's it. And this is not something that has happened without realizing it, it may have been due to a lack of imagination, but what the story requires at each moment does not always lend itself to interesting mechanics from the gameplay point of view. We are not professionals and we will never do anything similar to what some great creators here or Blizzard itself has done.

Another question would be whether it is worth sacrificing a more "interesting" gameplay for the development of the story, although this point seems to have been the one you liked the least.


3.- Story:

First of all I want to say that our goal from the beginning was to present a story in which different faces of the characters were shown, I mean, there may be players who find more meaning in Zarah's "tantrum" Shar and others, like you, may agree with Antonidas's position that she is "a whiny brats." But that was done that way on purpose, it may not be developed in the best way, but it was our intention.

When it comes to power levels, specifically the gap between the lore and the playable hero, it's been very difficult to fit a supposedly powerful character like Zarah'Shar (although of course, she did not absorb all the power of Nordrassil) into the game, because we can't just make her invincible and yes, We know that it is not coherent, but we have not been able to fit it in a better way. Blasterixx already told me about it at the time and he's right.

On the other hand, the war against the night elves of the first, the forces of the High Death were inferior but the victory was achieved based on the strategy of the blitzkrieg. Is it a flimsy justification? It may be, anyway I have already commented on this on other occasions, like the Khadgar thing, which I already commented on with LISBOAH.

And well, the comparison between the story of The Legend of Mikokoro and this campaign is, sorry to say, extra hateful to me. You don't know how many people have told me that The Legend of Mikokoro is a campaign with a ridiculous story and personally, I've said it before, it's my favorite of all we've done.

Finally, regarding details that have not been explained, events that have not been given importance and have not been named again, the vast majority of them will find answers in future chapters, not all, but I think all the important ones yeah.


There would be a million more things to comment on, but the thing is that I mostly agree with what you have said, after all, we are fans and this project is very big, we have many chapters with a story that covers all of Azeroth and it is very complicated. that everything turns out well, for us it is directly impossible although we try to make it at least enjoyable.

Thank you very much once again and I hope you can enjoy the remainder of the campaign and future updates improve your opinion of it, regards.


PS: With chapter four we had a lot of problems in development, maybe it has variable difficulty, although it may not have been enough.

PS2: Regarding bugs and errors, we will review them, thank you very much.

 

[nv4]

is it better than the original? Not even in dreams, it's obvious.

"Better" is a rather broad term. One thing can be better than another thing in some aspect, and worse in another aspect. Anyway, the balance itself is not a final goal, the final goal is to make something enjoyable to play, and balance is just one way to do that. Things can be unbalanced yet still enjoyable to play.

Another question would be whether it is worth sacrificing a more "interesting" gameplay for the development of the story, although this point seems to have been the one you liked the least.

Oh, you misunderstood me. I didn't mean I don't like part 2, it's actually fine, especially chapter 3 was pretty cool. My "beef" is with Zarah'Shar specifically. I just don't like this huge discrepancy between her story-wise representation and reactual gameplay. So it's more of personal, subjective view.
I understand that making her too strong would indeed trivialize the gameplay of related chapters. So actually I do agree with your decision to make her weaker gameplay-wise, even though I don't like it.
Besides, you say Zarah didn't actually absorb all power of the Well, so that means she's not as powerful story-wise as I assumed her to be. Though it's not mentioned anywhere that she didn't absorb all of it. Would definitely be better to add some dialogue mentioning it.

Perhaps it would be better to delay the updates and polish these aspects better, but we don't want the project to take forever either.

Well, nothing wrong with making mistakes, it's a work in progress, after all. And a free of charge at that. So as long as it helps to make the final product better, it's fine. Besides, having people play it is one way to find all the wrongs and rights

And well, the comparison between the story of The Legend of Mikokoro and this campaign is, sorry to say, extra hateful to me.

Not sure I understood you on this one. I said do like the story in The Legend of Mikokoro, which I also pointed in its own review. Why would that be hateful?

PS: With chapter four we had a lot of problems in development, maybe it has variable difficulty, although it may not have been enough.

Forgot to mention, I played in on normal difficulty, in case that matters. Though as I said, the issues there are mostly with human tech tree.

------------------------------------------

Did you manage to level up all of Xernobog's spells?

No, only leveled up to 13. All that analysis was just theorycrafting.

I'm not sure that I would classify her as a Mary Sue, since she becomes sadistic and a bit arrogant.

Yeah, I agree calling her Mary Sue isn't exactly right. I meant it more in a way how she achieves everything without putting any actual effort into, it doesn't feel like there's any real progress or that she deserves it. At first she gets her demonic powers without any price for it, then she defeats night elves with almost no effort, and even absorbs Well of Eternity's powers, a feat that even Legion couldn't accomplish. And all that for the price of... Well, virtually nothing. Sure, Baroness died, that wasn't even Zarah's fault. She didn't have to choose between Well's power or saving Baroness or anything like this. No hard choice, no some personal sacrifice. She achieves everything just because.

And regarding her backstory, it's much darker than that. She was pretty disowned by her family, became homeless and was apparently raped. Not to mention that her sister, the only person that supported her, died alongside Arthas and apparently no one cared.

I got the impression that it's not her backstory, but simply a lie she told to see how Titus would react, if he would show at least some bit of compassion hearing that. I mean, I can hardly believe she was literally thrown out of the house and had it that bad. After all, Kirin Tor consists of the most respected and powerful mages of Dalaran, so she's a daugther of some wealthy noble mage family. And despite being considered a failure by a bunch of mages with high expectations, she was versed in magic at least to some degree, so I'm sure she could at least stand for her own. Besides, her sister cared about her, so surely she wasn't left completely alone.

The High Death was also more stealthy than the Legion. They killed Malfurion while he was still asleep, unleashed the plague on Ashenvale and retreated before the main Sentinel army and Cenarius could arrive. And they weakened Cenarius before actually facing him.

Malfurion, even as strong as he is, is still just one druid.
Regarding the plague - so did the Legion. Remember corrupted furbolgs and cursed glade in chapter 4 (The Druids Arise) of original campaign, satyrs defiling fountains, the whole Felwood corruped via Skull of Gul'dan and all that?

Maiev probably doesn't know the full story of what has occured, doesn't know how powerful Zarah is and her pride is something that is quite well-known.

There's pride and there's stupidity. Again, remember the original campaign. Maiev didn't try to fight Illidan at the Tomb of Sargeras, where she was clearly at disadvantage, instead she retreated, as was most appropriate. And she certainly cared about her watchers, promising that their deaths will be avenged and won't be forgotten. So saving the lifes of her watchers instead of throwing them away for pointless deaths is another reason to tactically retreat instead of fighting Zarah like this.
And speaking about pride and reason, remember the chapter 4 (Wrath of the Betrayer) of the original campaign? Maiev didn't just fight Illidan head-on, like some idiot that is incapable of sensibly assessing the situation. She knew she had no chances to defeat Illidan alone, so sent a runner to get help from Sentinels. So Maiev's pride is a thing, I agree, but she's certainly not blinded by her pride and knows when's the time and place for fighting or retreating.
And regarding that she "doesn't know the full story" - Zarah literally said that she killed Malfurion, defeated Sentinels and absorbed Well's power. Besides, news like that spread like fire, surely Maiev knew what she's dealing with.

Well, there Ogre Magi during the Second War. And Cho'gall seems quite intelligent, despite his whole "want to destroy the world" thing.

Just a couple exceptions which don't change the fact that the absolute majority of ogres are low-intelligence creatures, so an ogre with a book is a very rare sight.

 

[Resyak]

Not sure I understood you on this one. I said do like the story in The Legend of Mikokoro, which I also pointed in its own review. Why would that be hateful?

I meant that you liked that campaign (The Legend of Mikokoro) and its story, but most don't and consider it ridiculous and pointless. People tend to prefer more common, more typical stories. But I love that there are people who enjoy stories like The Legend of Mikokoro. That's why I wanted to include some character cameos from that campaign in this one.

 

[LISBOAH]

I understand that making her too strong would indeed trivialize the gameplay of related chapters. So actually I do agree with your decision to make her weaker gameplay-wise, even though I don't like it.
Besides, you say Zarah didn't actually absorb all power of the Well, so that means she's not as powerful story-wise as I assumed her to be. Though it's not mentioned anywhere that she didn't absorb all of it. Would definitely be better to add some dialogue mentioning it.

My beef with Zarah's power is that she fought against the Night Elves, the fel orcs led by Mal'ganis and crushed the Kirin Tor. And yet she somehow was outsmarted by Khadgar and seems him as an actual threat. Khadgar, of all people, is seen as the greatest threat to her plans. We made at least three factions crumble and one guy makes Zarah feel anxious.

Yeah, I agree calling her Mary Sue isn't exactly right. I meant it more in a way how she achieves everything without putting any actual effort into, it doesn't feel like there's any real progress or that she deserves it. At first she gets her demonic powers without any price for it, then she defeats night elves with almost no effort, and even absorbs Well of Eternity's powers, a feat that even Legion couldn't accomplish. And all that for the price of... Well, virtually nothing. Sure, Baroness died, that wasn't even Zarah's fault. She didn't have to choose between Well's power or saving Baroness or anything like this. No hard choice, no some personal sacrifice. She achieves everything just because.

Maybe Zarah is this dangerous because she has nothing left to lose.

I got the impression that it's not her backstory, but simply a lie she told to see how Titus would react, if he would show at least some bit of compassion hearing that. I mean, I can hardly believe she was literally thrown out of the house and had it that bad.

Considering how Titus reacted after hearing her story, I am seriously considering that Zarah's family was a dysfunctional one. While she might have exaggerated some parts, she has clearly suffered. There were a lot of dysfunctional families in the Middle Ages and it was not rare for families to disown each other.

Besides, her sister cared about her, so surely she wasn't left completely alone.

Her sister was probably the only thing that helped her keep her sanity. And when she died, Zarah went to the deep end.

Malfurion, even as strong as he is, is still just one druid.

Malfurion was a leader and a beacon of hope for the Night Elves. The High Death broke them by killing Malfurion.

Regarding the plague - so did the Legion. Remember corrupted furbolgs and cursed glade in chapter 4 (The Druids Arise) of original campaign, satyrs defiling fountains, the whole Felwood corruped via Skull of Gul'dan and all that?

True. Maybe the High Death had more experience in unleashing a plague and their version was more powerful. Not to mention that Illidan stopped the corruption by absorbing the Skull of Gul'dan. The High Death created more than one corruption source.

And regarding that she "doesn't know the full story" - Zarah literally said that she killed Malfurion, defeated Sentinels and absorbed Well's power. Besides, news like that spread like fire, surely Maiev knew what she's dealing with.

Maiev might have believed that Zarah was lying just for gloating. Or maybe she wanted to fight till the end after believing that her civilization was gone for good.

Just a couple exceptions which don't change the fact that the absolute majority of ogres are low-intelligence creatures, so an ogre with a book is a very rare sight.

That's true.

 

[Resyak]

My beef with Zarah's power is that she fought against the Night Elves, the fel orcs led by Mal'ganis and crushed the Kirin Tor. And yet she somehow was outsmarted by Khadgar and seems him as an actual threat. Khadgar, of all people, is seen as the greatest threat to her plans. We made at least three factions crumble and one guy makes Zarah feel anxious.

Maybe Zarah is this dangerous because she has nothing left to lose.

Considering how Titus reacted after hearing her story, I am seriously considering that Zarah's family was a dysfunctional one. While she might have exaggerated some parts, she has clearly suffered. There were a lot of dysfunctional families in the Middle Ages and it was not rare for families to disown each other.

Her sister was probably the only thing that helped her keep her sanity. And when she died, Zarah went to the deep end.

Malfurion was a leader and a beacon of hope for the Night Elves. The High Death broke them by killing Malfurion.

True. Maybe the High Death had more experience in unleashing a plague and their version was more powerful. Not to mention that Illidan stopped the corruption by absorbing the Skull of Gul'dan. The High Death created more than one corruption source.

Maiev might have believed that Zarah was lying just for gloating. Or maybe she wanted to fight till the end after believing that her civilization was gone for good.

That's true.

I don't want to delve too much into the details of the story because many of the things both mention are already prepared and will be clarified in the future. But I love that theories are made, at least at that point we got what we wanted with the story, not It was flat, like, "these are the good guys and these are the bad guys."

 

[LISBOAH]

My review of the new chapters

Chapter Five
-Lore:
--Wow. Sobere was invited to Azeroth's version of the Red Wedding. Luckily he didn't go there before when he was expected
--And Xernobog ends up avenging Kara's death without even knowing it
--Khadgar is a true idiot. Not only does he decide to act only after the Alliance has already been pretty much dismantled, but he only casts the barrier around Karazhan Tower, leaving the remnants of the Alliance he's trying to protect at the undeads' mercy. He doesn't even come to help his allies.
-Grammar
--Stick: "Summons Sobere..." There's only one Sobere after all.
--"... with that golem. It emanates... energy. Maybe the grinders can contain..."
--"... Pyrewood. My lady..."
--Optional Quest: "... settlement. Destroy..."
-Gameplay:
--Compared to the previous mission, this one was easier, though it might have something to do with the sorcerers' nerf. The occasional attacks were annoying, but we managing to get more units and later build a base helped me a lot.
--Completing all those Optional Quests was totally worth it. A fully-empowered Xernobog with all those items and a summonable Sobere slaughtering the Alliance was a sight to behold
--Those books aided me in leveling up all of Xernobog's abilities

Interlude
-"Shackled would-be creator" Is Anetheron referring to Zovaal?
-So Anetheron was planning all of this simply for the slight chance that Zarah'Shar would leave Azeroth powerless against Yogg-Saron's return? That's so convoluted, even for a dreadlord. So much stuff could have gone wrong.
-Why on earth did Anetheron said all this? If anything, he should have waited until the High Death had dealt with all possible threats to Yogg-Saron! Now Zarah will focus on going to Northrend!
-Does this mean that Zarah's warped mindset was due Anetheron's and the Void's corruption?