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World of Warcraft/Tropes I-P: Difference between revisions
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** Awilo in Dalaran really loves serving up gnome!
** Also many/most/really any Troll tribe except the Darkspears (and Revantusk) practice cannibalism.
** One quest in Silverpine now sends you after bear meat, but due to [[Dying as Yourself]] we find out those bears were actually worgen druids.
** Worgen, being basically werewolves, don't seem to shy away from taking bites out of their opponents, sentient or not (This has no affect on gameplay, unlike forsaken, it's just the set up for some "I like my meat rare/bleeding" jokes several npcs, and the players, make).
** In Uldaman, [[Lost Vikings|three Dwarves]] are in a holdout position against the Troggs, an item that might appear at their camp is a cookbook suggesting they've been eating the Troggs they killed. Uldaman is a Titan installation, and an artifact there reveals that {{spoiler|Dwarves and Troggs are decendants of the Earthen.}}
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* [[Interplay of Sex and Violence]]: The Worgen besides being the most "savage" race in the Alliance (they're werewolves, after all) are also the most [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQqIPjT9ulM shamelessly] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjwDrF2RSak&feature=related sexual].
** That's nothing compared to some of the removed female draenei flirts.
* [[In the Blood]]: {{spoiler|After her battle against Deathwing, which ends with both combatants severely wounded,}} Alexstrasza comes to the conclusion that Deathwing's very blood is corrupt, and that it extends through his entire bloodline, i.e. every single black dragon; she orders the entire black dragonflight slain.
** Rheastrasza's questline in the Badlands involves purifying a black dragon egg from said corruption. The followup "Fangs of the Father" questline shows the outcome of this.
{{quote|“They wanted to hold me, to keep watch over me – a prisoner in all but name. But I will NOT be held accountable for the sins of my father. My destiny will be my own.”- Wrathion, the Black Prince}}
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** Overlord Agmar has one particular moment that solidifies him as a jerk. When you bring him {{spoiler|the letter of a dead troll mage [[Fake Defector]] in Malygos' army who was forced to work for him so that his sister and her family wouldn't be killed}}, he initially threatens to kill you if you waste his time, then laughs at the letter, [[Fantastic Racism|suggesting that trolls are not to be trusted]]. He concedes that Deino is a good troll, and offers to not tell her that {{spoiler|you killed her brother}}, albeit while [[Blackmail|saying that he "own(s) you" now]].
** [[General Ripper|Conquerer Krena]] takes the cake on this, her first act is to outright say you're nothing to her, regardless of your past accomplishments. A few more quests down she [[Kick the Dog|orders a troll's legs broken for using bear instead of wolf hides to fulfill an order that was physically impossible to fulfill in the given timeframe.]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|And has two blood elven eye candies who serve no other purpose.]] Your accomplishments even under her command and undermining her more ruthless orders eventually leads her to challenge you in a fight to the death in the arena, with significantly nicer sister aiding you, [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|the change in leadership when said sister took her place was appreciated by everyone in the hold.]]
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Moodle the Gorloc, who is the smartest and (one of) the rudest of the Gorlocs /and/ Wolvar you'll meet throughout Sholozar basin. He [[Pet the Dog|pets the dog]] several times through his lines during a quest to save the Mosswalker Gorlocs.
* [[Jet Pack]]: Everyone gets one to mess around with prior to the gunship battle in Icecrown Citadel. (Oh, and use them in the actual battle too.) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBZUXhSbOA Druid bear form + jet pack = comedy gold]
* [[Jiggle Physics]]: All the females have plenty of jiggle to an ample bust, but the female Tauren and Trolls have it particuarly bad - their idle animation has them stand there breathing, while their massive boobs bounce up and down like they're busy on a trampoline.
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* [[Lantern Jaw of Justice]]: King Varian Wrynn's. Deathwing has a villainous one.
* [[Large Ham]]: Most bosses love to yell hammy lines at you while they're trying to smash you into a pulp. Some of the most memetic examples are Kael'thas, Malygos, Gothik the Harvester, the Headless Horseman, Lord Jaraxxus, Kologarn, Thorim, Sindragosa, and of course Yogg-Saron, who has possibly the best [[Evil Laugh]] ever recorded in a game [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLlgxOo55IQ\].
* [[Last Chance Hit Point]]:
** Protection Paladin's Ardent Defender will allow them to survive a hit that would otherwise kill them, and instead heal them for 15% of their health.
** Subtlety Rogues' [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Cheat Death]] ability will give the player a boost of HP when they are hit by an attack that would otherwise kill them, it comes with a debuff that prevents Cheat Death from happening more than once every 90 seconds, so they don't become immortal.
** Fire Mages have the [[Heal It with Fire|Cauterize]] ability that will give them back 40% of their health when they die, but adding a DoT that deals 48% damage in 6 seconds.
* [[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others]]: The quest leading you to Rhea involves a package containing compressed blasting powder, a tempered mithril bomb casing, and some safety goggles; being Goblins, the safety goggles were the hardest thing to find.
* [[Last Second Chance]]: The "Heart of Arthas" quest chain is basically Fordring trying to determine if there's anything redeemable left in the Lich King. {{spoiler|To the surprise of few, there ''isn't''. This gives Fordring and the Argent Crusade renewed determination to defeat the Scourge.}}
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* [[Level Grinding]]
* [[Level-Locked Loot]]: The only things that aren't implicitly so are the items you get from quests... which you have to be a certain level before they're available for you to accept ''anyway''.
* [[Ley Line]]: Ley nodes are shown in the elven territory, and Karazhan is highly spooky because every single ley line passes through it.
** Malygos's master plan was to reroute every one of these on the planet to run under his fortress, then channel all their power into space, removing magic from the world and thereby preventing mortals from abusing it. That this would most likely result in an [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] didn't quite register to him.
* [[A Lighter Shade of Black]]: The Scarlet Crusade vs the Scourge. {{spoiler|At least until Wrath of the Lich King.}}
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* [[Loophole Abuse]]: A lot:
** If you attacked players in neutral towns, the guards would slaughter you both, no matter who started it or if they fought back. Cue rogues and hunters griefing by stabbing or shooting a player, then throwing aggro off of them as the guards slaughter the poor victim.
** In Gadgetzan and Duskwood (Mostly Gadgetzan), guards would not climb buildings or jump onto roofs, so players would get on there and snipe at players who cannot fight back, while the Guards either simply stand around or run to a ledge and stand there, unable to jump up. This was fixed in an [[Obvious Rules Patch]] where snipers were added. This was called "Rooftop Camping".
** [[Aint No Rule]] against naming your arena team similar names with only one letter difference to screw up macros.
** [[Aint No Rule]] against naming your hunter pet [[Hello, Insert Name Here|the same as you]] to screw up targeting macros.
** Priests (as well as hybrid classes) would carry around two sets of gear, a set that was more appropriate for healing and support and another set that was more appropriate for damage. Cue quick-change mods happening where people would appear to be walking around as a healer suddenly draw an axe or go shadowform and slaughter you. Also cue priests who would look like shadow priests suddenly start spamming heals so they wouldn't [[Shoot the Medic First]]. likewise, [[Aint No Rule]] against using Transmogrification for the same thing.
** One thing that really annoys people in the dungeon and raid finder (Especially the latter) is that there [[Aint No Rule]] against having friend(s) who already are geared queue with you, roll for the same piece of gear, and then give it to you since you actually ''need'' it. There is nothing saying you can ''not'' do this, but the 20 or so who are ''not'' playing with two or more friends will typically shake their fists at you in frustration, since they're always getting outrolled by people who already have gear and there are plenty of people who have not won a single piece of gear since 2011.
* [[Lost Forever]]: Several one-time-only events offered goodies which are otherwise unobtainable. A particularly rare mount could only be obtained after an event requiring countless man-hours from the entire server, for a period of less than a day. Any future new servers will have this event completed already, as well. Add in holiday rewards, anniversary pets, world events, and advertising promotion rewards...
** The Battle For Undercity quest chain, which originally followed the Wrath Gate, has been removed as of Cataclysm.
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* [[MacGuffin Girl]]: Anveena.
* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: Several Alliance aircraft certainly qualify; Mages using [[Doppelganger Attack|Mirror Image]] are a slightly more arcane version.
** An early Alliance quest in Northrend requires the player to defend an excavation site from gargoyles. The plane's [[Macross Missile Massacre]] even [[Roboteching|Robotechs]] to the targets.
* [[Made of Explodium]]: Goblin Technology.
* [[Made of Phlebotinum]]: ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' seems more [[Made of Phlebotinum]] than most fantasy worlds, what with all its [[Magitek|magically-powered civilizations]] and [[Cool Starship|crystal planeships]] and such.
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* [[Magic Knight]]: Paladins, Death Knights, and Enhancement Shaman.
* [[Magic Pants]]: Druids can transform into various beasts without removing their clothes. Standard issue for Worgens in ''Cataclysm''.
** Lampshaded by Prince Anduin Wrynn who has a different phrase for each class when you escort him. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Naturally]] this is what he asks druids about.
* [[Magikarp Power]]: From Vanilla through to ''Wrath of the Lich King'', a number of classes and/or specializations suffered from having a limited skill set at low levels, not receiving their core abilities or important passive skills till higher levels. This has thankfully been averted come ''Cataclysm'', where each character now gets to choose their main specialization at level 10, receiving one signature spell/ability from that talent tree and a number of innate passive bonuses relating to that spec.
* [[Magitek]]: Naaru constructs such as the Exodar and Tempest Keep, Ethereal technology, Titan technology.
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* [[Man On Fire]]: {{spoiler|Bolvar Fordragon}} at the end of Icecrown Citadel. More generally, many attacks and spell animations involve this at some point, whether it's [[Kill It with Fire|on the recipient's end]] or the caster's. The Warlock spell Hellfire is a particularly notable example as it damages the caster as well as all surrounding enemies. Demonology Warlocks also have Immolation Aura while (and only)in demon form. They are, essentially, on fire and hurting any foes nearby, though it does not affect the warlock or allies.
* [[Marathon Level]]: Taken to an extreme in many classic dungeons and raids, but toned down significantly with each expansion. Blizzard discovered that dungeon/raid participation among the player base improved dramatically as the requirement to spend multiple hours in them at a time (or per week, for raids) was reduced.
* [[Marshmallow Hell]]: A quest giver (specifically, a dryad) in Mount Hyjal is described as doing this to the player prior to giving out a quest.
* [[The Masquerade]]: Many dragons will take on a humanoid form for the purposes of interacting with smaller races. Once a deceptive tactic of Machiavellian proportions (as in the case of Onyxia/Lady Prestor, for example), the practice is by now so well-known and common that it borders on [[They Walk Among Us]].
* [[Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest]]
* [[Master Poisoner]]: The Assassination talent tree for Rogues partially focuses on this.
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** Thrall becomes this to the orcs, and both the Naaru and (though to a lesser extent) Velen to the draenei.
* [[Metal Detector Puzzle]]: Digging fragments for Archaeology involves surveying a dig-site, which places a scope and indicator light on the ground. The scope's direction, and the color of the light give a vague idea where the fragments are.
* [[Miles Gloriosus]]: Kingslayer Orkus. {{spoiler|At least, at first. Thanks to some [[Character Development]], he [[Becoming the Boast|becomes the boast]] and performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] so the player can get Alliance war plans back to Horde command, thus becoming the hero he had always dreamed of being.}}
* [[Mind Control]]: Tons of examples among the various NPCs and bosses, both in the lore and in the game itself. There is also a spell available to the Priest class that lets them take control of other players/monsters for a short while.
* [[Minor Injury Overreaction]]: In Nagrand, Harold Lane gets a scratch and is found dying in his tent; the other members of his hunting party generally ignore him, and after players complete a number of quests for him, he [[Unexplained Recovery|miraculously recovers]].
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* [[Monster Sob Story]]: Murlocs are found in almost any zone with water in it, and cause no end of trouble; until players reach the Blasted Lands, and find an entire Murloc village [[Always a Bigger Fish|enslaved by the Naga]]; and no matter what players do, [[Perpetually Static|they cannot be saved]].
** And the Naga get some of their own medicine in Northrend, when they are attacked and almost wiped out by the Kvaldir; one Naga questgiver is completely unrepentant, but has no choice but to [[Enemy Mine|ask for help]] as the Kvaldir are about to awaken a [[Sealed Evil in a Can]].
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Although it's constantly possible in an open-world game like this, it's especially noticeable in the standard Forsaken zone progression. Silverpines is a dramatic and dark war story in which the tragic plight that is the heart of the Forsaken's problems are explored... and then your character enters Hillsbrad Foothills, and things suddenly become a knockabout comedic parody.
** Within Hillsbrad's own quests, there's one notable instance of this. Meeting Orkus, he's proven himself an incompetant blowhard throughout the entire quest chain. Then while on Purgation Isle, he begins telling you things about his life, like how he met his frost wyrm mount, Horde politics, and at one point, says you're his first real friend. {{spoiler|Then he takes on three level ?? Alliance "players" and tells you to get on his mount and fly away, leaving him to fend for himself. You fly a short distance before the wyrm u-turns and picks him back up. Before reaching Tarren Mill, he asks you to take his mount somewhere cold to live before dying of his injuries. When you land, the NPC's in Tarren Mill honor him as a fallen hero and his death is treated as genuinely sad.}}
*** Silverpine itself has one. As mentioned, the overall quest chain is quite dark. Then you get the quest to kill the worgen druids sneaking around pretending to be actual bears. The questgiver lamphades the absurdity of the situation.
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* [[Nice Hat]]: Many hats in the game, but the tophats that the citizens of Gilneas wear takes the cake.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: You do this in an uncomfortably high number of quests.
** Drak'tharon Keep, a citadel of hostile ice trolls, is proving to be a major impediment for the war effort, so the player is tasked with capturing ice trolls so that they may be interrogated for information. Drakaru, one of your captives, tells the player that the Keep is currently besieged by Scourge and offers the player a truce: if the player can gather the components Drakuru needs, Drakuru will perform a magical ritual to cleanse the Keep, presumably earning the trolls' gratitude. The player agrees and, after a series of quests, eventually enters the Keep with Drakaru, but in the process causes the Keep to fall to the Scourge. {{spoiler|Turns out Drakuru was secretly an agent of the Lich King and the "cleansing" ritual was designed to break the Keep's last magical defenses holding back the Scourge.}} When the player enters Zul'Drak, the neighboring zone and home of the ice trolls, he finds the loss of the Keep to the Scourge has let in a large Scourge invasion force {{spoiler|led by Overlord Drakaru, now seeking to "cleanse" all of his troll brethren}}. The player must now undermine the Scourge invasion {{spoiler|all the while pretending to work with Drakaru, who thinks the player is his best buddy for helping him take over the Keep}}. In the end, the player succeeds {{spoiler|and defeats Drakaru in battle after disrupting his operations in Zul'Drak.}}
{{quote|'''Arthas:''' As for you... I spare your insignificant life as a reward for this amusing betrayal. There may yet be a shred of potential in you.}}
** In Shadowmoon Valley, you hear rumors that Teron Gorefiend, the first ever death knight and a generally very evil guy, may have returned to the Valley, though he's supposed to have fallen in battle ages ago. Given this potential threat, you seek out information from an Ancient Shadowmoon Spirit. The Spirit requests you gather items that once belonged to Gorefiend so that the Spirit can use the items' residual connection to Gorefiend to locate him. You gather the items, only to discover {{spoiler|that the Spirit is the trapped spectral remnant of Gorefiend and}} that bringing the items together allows Gorefiend to return. Gorefiend thanks you for freeing him and promptly rides off to join up with Illidan and become a raid boss in Black Temple.
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** While on one of your periodic murderous rampages through Northern Stranglethorn Vale, you come across an adorable baby raptor who adopts you as a parent and follows you around. Dawww. A few totally unrelated quests later while she's tagging along, she digs up a troll skull which you feel the need to take to an NPC for examination. You inexplicably agree to try to resurrect the troll to whom said skull belongs. No points if you guess early on that the skull belonged to someone who should have remained dead, possibly even by your hand a long time ago. The resurrected bad guy kidnaps your newest friend and as of 4.1 is the source of no shortage of trouble in the area.
** A quest chain in Alterac Valley starts with a dwarf suggesting you go investigate strange voices in the ruins. The voice claims to be a princess and has you undertake a series of quests that will free her from bondage. Turns out she's not a princess, and when you report back to the dwarf he is nonplussed at your actions. Fortunately he knows how to reverse the effect.
* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: The Forsaken invasion of Gilneas drives the Worgen to rejoin the Alliance.
** An Alliance ship shooting down the goblins and the hostile SI-7 lead the goblin refugees to team up with the orcs.
** Kologarn in Ulduar, whose corpse conveniently becomes a bridge across an otherwise impassible ravine. [http://biggerthankologarn.blogspot.com/2009/06/kologarn-is-going-to-stop-your-raid.html Highlighted here.]
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: [http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/july/undeadonraptoronsharkwithfrickinlaserbeams.jpg What. WHAT.]
** ''EPICUS MAXIMUS!!''
** Sadly, he's not seen around Maelstrom as in the Beta. He does appear in a quest in Uldum as a holographic projection however.
* [[Noble Demon]]: Thassarian pre-[[Heel Face Turn]].
* [[Nobody Calls Me Chicken]]: Male Goblin. Try a /chicken when playing as one. Other races work too, but this one plays the trope straight.
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** Arthas plays with this, as a necromancer he wants to kill the mightiest warriors in Azeroth, and raise them as part of his undead army; so unlike other cases of this trope where the killer doesn't feel the victim is worth the time or effort to kill, he spends a lot of time and effort looking for the strongest warriors, and using challenges to make them [[I Need You Stronger|as strong as possible]] before killing them.
* [[Obvious Beta]]: A more mild example. The game was playable but there were still a lot of bugs and issues with balancing, and in some cases, the developers intentionally left things as an [[Obvious Beta]] so that they can go rework it or add more stuff in a later patch. Some of these include:
** The endboss of a lot of raids was intentionally made [[Unwinnable by Design|unwinnable]] so that players wouldn't storm through the dungeon so fast and be on the boards complaining that there's nothing to do. Nefarian was not even ''completely coded'' into the game yet, but when he was, it turned out to be worth the wait.
*** The initial raid dungeons were bugged; partly because they weren't completely tested. The first guild that killed Vashj had her instantly respawn and kill the raid. It was also possible to kill Arthas by throwing bombs at him, which resets the outer ring and thus makes the Valkyr unable to drop people off in Phase 2. When players are able to ignore the Valkyr, they have more freedom to position Defiles appropriately, and can spend more time [[DP Sing]] the boss, making Phase 2 shorter and easier.
** Silithus was an [[Obvious Beta]] ''zone''. The zone was left unfinished at launch with minimal quests leading into the zone and by patch 1.8, it was actually finished. (Heck, before 1.8, you couldn't even go through ''half the zone''!)
** This was one of the criticisms of ''Cataclysm'', which was rushed to make the release to make sure it actually made it on time. Vashj'r had problems with mob density and respawn rates (See [[Offscreen Teleportation]]) but the respawn rates weren't [[Mis Blamed|entirely Blizzard's fault]]. Amongst other things, it was released with a lot of bugs but was still playable. There were still some bugs after the first major content patch, too.
** Death Knights, at release. Also Paladins in patch 3.0. There was a time in ''Wrath'' beta when paladins could solo the fel reaver. They both got nerfed in short order.
* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: Because the game needs to respawn enemies for other players to kill/loot, it's extremely common to be ambushed from an enemy that you killed. This was especially prevalent in the release of ''Cataclysm'', and in Silithus where the mob density is actually quite high.
** And because the game is controlled by a server, it doesn't always wait for the "offscreen" part; at its most extreme, a new enemy can respawn the instant the first one is killed, right on top of the first one's corpse.
* [[Oh Crap]]: The Goblin captain and navigator of Trade Prince Gallywix's ship are arguing over who got them lost in a thick fog, but when they get out of the fog, they end up in the middle of an Alliance-Horde naval battle.
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* [[Pink Elephants|Pink Elekks]];
* [[Pirate|Pirates]]: The "Booty" in Booty Bay refers to pirate booty, not the other kind. There's even a quest where players become pirates, and kill [[Ninja|Ninjas]].
** There's also a commonly available food that will turn you randomly into one or the other, as well as costume wands given out around Hallow's End that let you turn other people into them.
* [[Plaguemaster]]: The Forsaken of the Royal Apothecary Society, who as of ''Wrath of the Lich King'' have brewed a plague capable of destroying both the living ''and'' undead.
** Death Knights are the only player class capable of casting diseases and the Unholy talent tree grants numerous bonuses to them.
** Professor Putricide in Icecrown Citadel boasts of creating a plague that can destroy all life on Azeroth, and attacks the raid with a variety of chemical and biological weapons, including [[One-Winged Angel|transforming himself into a tentacled monster]].
* [[Pocket Dimension]]: This is functionally what instances (dungeons, raids, and battlegrounds) are. A portal takes players to an area that is cut off from the rest of the gameworld, though [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|thematically]] they are still in the same world that everyone else is in. This is most apparent with the outdoor instances like Shadowfang Keep or Zul'Gurub, players can fly over these areas and find very little there until they go through the portal and find the places crawling with ghosts and trolls.
** The Firelands area is next to the Molten Front, and players in MF can get a quest to fly over FL and bomb the enemies there; on occasion, they may see a "raid group" at the start of the "instance", [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|who can also be bombed]].
** ''Mists of Pandaria'' plans to break instances out of Pocket Dimension by making the dungeon present in the world, to scale, and inside will feature outside segments to remind players where they are.
* [[Poke the Poodle]]: By the Undercity Champion at the Argent Tourney during 'confession.'
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* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Orcs most obviously, Tauren to a lesser extent. Vrykul are something of a deconstruction, playing it dead straight to the point of being a bunch of brutal murderers.
* [[Psychic-Assisted Suicide]]: Shadow Priests + [[Mind Control]] + a tall cliff = [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* [[Punctuated!
{{quote|'''Warchief Mor'ghor says:''' This is.....
'''Warchief Mor'ghor yells:''' DRAGONMAW!! }}
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