World of Warcraft/Tropes I-P: Difference between revisions

** The thing with Stalvan was retconned into being a worgen thing even though this leads to a lot of [[anachronism Screw]]

* [[I Have Your Wife|I Have Your Hatchlings]]: On the Lost Isles, the Goblins try to end the Naga threat by [[Adult Fear|kidnapping a dozen hatchlings]], and demanding their surrender. It almost works as the Naga stop attacking, but their leader, a [[Bad Boss|Faceless One]] doesn't give a damn about the Naga and will attack you anyway.

** Also subverted with the Alysrazor fight, hitting her in a specific phase gives a buff implying there is still some green dragon in there but nothing comes of it besides a convenient buff

* [[I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You]]: A new quest in the Southern Barrens called By Hook Or Crook has you interrogate a Quilboar (Pig-like men) to learn the name of his leader. If you choose to kick or punch the Quilboar he will eventually exclaim that "Tortusk trained us not to break" he will then Lampshade this by saying he "said too much".

* [[Inevitable Tournament]]: The Argent Tournament, and, on a lesser scale, the Ring of Blood in Nagrand, the Amphitheater of Anguish in Zul'Drak, and the Crucible of Carnage in the Twilight Highlands.

* [[The Infiltration]]: On several quest lines, players have to infiltrate an evil group, [[Dressing As the Enemy|posing as a member of said group]], and then doing quests for them. In one notable case, the Knights of the Ebon Blade send you to infiltrate the Lich King's operation in Zul'Drak as yourself, as a Scourge infectee.

* [[Informed Equipment]]: The new Transmogrification feature plays this straight in a good way, by letting you reskin your equipment if you don't like how it looks.

* [[Informed Attribute]]: Tauren are supposed to be nice according to the lore but asides from some [[Easily Forgiven]] to Garrosh for killing their leader(admittedly in a duel to the death but he only won because outside interference poisoned his weapon) and not giving a crap about the ensuing Coup they haven't done anything to show any kind of distaste for the current Horde which is willing to attack neutral nations, use chemical warfare to kill civilians or just killing civilians who are fleeing the chemical warfare or the mass [[Mind Control]] or allying with the Dragonmaw who still enslaves dragons who are sentient or more

* [[Item Crafting]]: 13 different professions, all but two of which can craft to a certain extent.

* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: As a shoutout to ''[[The Rock]]'', Apothecary Baxter says this line to Apothecary Hummel when he is killed during Love is in the Air.

{{quote| You were bitten by a worgen. The wound looks minor... maybe it'll go away with time?}}

** To put it mildly, it doesn't.

** There's also an achievement for throwing a snowball at Cairne Bloodhoof, possibly the nicest faction leader of all (if you're Alliance you have to throw it at Magni Bronzebeard instead). After the Cataclysm, you now throw snowballs at Cairne's son, Baine and Magni's brother, Muradin.

** 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]].

* [[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]

* [[Leaning On the Fourth Wall]]: The quest "Welcome to the Machine" where the player spends the entire quest as a quest giver.

** When players defeat Maloriak in Blackwing Descent on Heroic mode, Nefarian (boss of the Blackwing raids and infamous [[Genre Savvy]] [[Troll]]) congratulates them and temporarily grants a vanity title of the sort rewarded for completing difficult achievements. The title is "<Name>, Slayer of Stupid, Incompetent, and Disappointing Minions."

* [[Leave No Witnesses]]: During the Goblins' escape from Kezan, they run into an Alliance fleet attacking a Horde ship; when the Alliance sees the unidentified ship, they cite this before firing on it. This event leads some Goblins to [[Neutral No Longer|joining the Horde]].

* [[The Legions of Hell]]: The Burning Legion, pretty much literally.

* [[Let's You and Him Fight]]: Lantresor, a half-orc, half-draenei in Nagrand, arranges a heroic version of this, with your assistance.

* [[Level Grinding]]

* [[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.

** 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.

** 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.

* [[Master Poisoner]]: The Assassination talent tree for Rogues partially focuses on this.

* [[May Contain Evil]]: Saronite. In fact many forget that it doesn't just contain evil, it's ''made'' of evil. It's made of the blood of the Old God Yogg-Saron, and people who mine it tend to go insane. So clearly, the logical response here was to ''wear'' the stuff, preferably on your head so Yogg-Saron can whisper in your ear more easily.

* [[Mayincatec]]: The [[Our Trolls Are Different|trolls]].

* [[Mega Manning]]: The death knight spell 'Dark Simulacrum' allows them to copy the next spell their target casts and fire it as their own.

** In ''Cataclysm'', there's a quest in Silverpine which is essentially you riding horseback next to Sylvanas while she tells you the history of Lordaeron and how the Forsaken came to be. It lasts for a good 2-3 minutes and plays out all in a cutscene.

** A Shattrath City quest involves Khadgar summoning a familiar to show you around the city and tell you about the Aldor and the Scryers.

* [[Multishot]]: A hunter skill.

* [[Mundane Utility]]: The Tahret Dynasty Mallet was "crafted by the titans, blessed by the sun-kings and who knows what else", and you're going to use it to smash pygmys. [[Lampshade Hanging|The item's description says it all.]]

* [[New World Tease]]: Sort of: In the final chamber of the Blood Furnace, you can look straight down through the floor and catch a glimpse of Magtheridon's Lair. And in Magister's Terrace, there is a scrying orb that you can click to get a glimpse of the Sunwell Plateau.

* [[Nice Hat]]: Many hats in the game, but the tophats that the citizens of Gilneas wear takes the cake.

** 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.}}

** 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.

** 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.]

* [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]]: The ''players'' get to do this to, of all people {{spoiler|''the Lich King''}}. Granted, you have had three phases of fight with him beforehand not counting Remorseless Winter, and he's just been the victim of Tirion.

* [[Noisy Nature]]: Every thing that attacks on both planets will make a lot of noise in the process, even (sometimes especially) when it shouldn't.

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]:

** Blackrock Depths is built inside a volcano, and is populated by evil dwarves. What makes them evil? The handrail-less bridges and walkways that are nothing but giant chains built over pools of lava. Even the capital cities feature these.

** Gilneas has several ''very high'' bridges with no railings whatsoever.

** Grim Batol, a high-end dungeon, prevents you from Mind Controlling enemies to prevent abuse of this trope, since there are pits everywhere.

* [[North Is Cold South Is Hot]]: Azeroth fits this trope to a T. In the south, you will find [[Shifting Sand Land|Tanaris]], [[Jungle Japes|Stranglethorn Vale]] and the [[Bubblegloop Swamp|Swamp of Sorrows]]. In the north, you have [[Grim Up North|Northrend]], and the snowy Winterspring in northern Kalimdor.

* [[The Nothing After Death]]: Both Arthas and {{spoiler|Sylvanas}} refer to this. It might have something to do with both of them being already undead though.

* [[Not So Different]]: The Horde and the Alliance. See [[Grey and Gray Morality]]. The Lich King also includes this argument in his [[Hannibal Lecture]] to you as you advance through the Shadowmourne questline.

** The quests for the Forsaken in Cataclysm seem to say this about them compared to the Scourge. The actions in Hillsbrad disturbingly mirror the actions of some of the Scourge scientists.

* [[Not Worth Killing]]: One has to wonder why so many minor threats are allowed to exist in the starting areas, which are near major capitals, instead of being wiped out to secure the area. In the case of the Frostmane Trolls south of Anvilmar, the Dwarves simply don't consider them a major threat, focusing more on the Troggs, the still warring Dark Iron Dwarves, and the other Trolls.

** 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.

* [[Omnicidal Maniac]]: The goal of the Burning Legion is to unmake the universe.

** Deathwing becomes this as a result of the Old Gods' corruption.

* [[One Steve Limit]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by one shaman of the Earthen ''Ring'' who is worried that people are getting them confused with the druid group, the Cenarion ''Circle''.

{{quote| '''Stormcaller Jalara''': Many confuse the Earthen Ring with the Cenarion Circle. ...I TOLD Thrall we should name ourselves the "Earthen Square".}}

** In Winterspring is a large owl the locals called "Deathwing", until they found out that name was taken, so now they call her "Hell-Hoot".

* [[Only Mostly Dead]]: Death just flings your spirit to the nearest spirit healer. One could technically apply the same logic to the continually respawning NPCs; maybe they just run back from the graveyard. This gets a special [[Lampshade Hanging]] by a villainous NPC who writes about being constantly killed and resurrected in his diary. Also played with by Azuregos (a blue dragon who used to drop several important quest items). He's not quite sane after being killed so many times by players, and after deciding to stay dead to avoid being killed again, has ''fallen in love with a spirit healer''.

* [[Only One Female Mold]]: This has been a consistent complaint. The alpha builds, while rough, often had the females look like counterparts to the males of their race, but when it came time for final builds (after receiving many complaints about ugliness) it was like the developers threw up their hands and said "Screw it, let's make them barbie dolls with bad teeth".

* [[Our Werewolves Are Different]]: The Worgen look like werewolves but their descriptions go some way to insisting they are not. They were originally Druids who liked becoming wolves. And with the Cataclysm expansion, you can ''be'' one.

* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: And playable since the beginning.

* [[Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles]]: Some areas have fissures which spew enough oxygen for your character to breathe underwater.

{{quote| "Hrm, what a strange tree. I must investigate."}}

** In Burning Steppes there's a quest where you infiltrate the enemy army wearing, essentially, a paper mask and no other disguise. And they give no sign, whatsoever, of being at all suspicious of you, even though your backside is completely obviously whatever race you are.

* [[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.

* [[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]].

* [[The Power of Hate]]: Alizabal, Mistress of Hate is the third boss in Baradin Hold. She once used her powers to incite her guards into a murderous rage, she uses the word "hate" in everything she says, and one of her special attacks is called "Seething Hate".

* [[The Power of Rock]]: As an April Fools gag, Blizzard stated that there was a bard hero class for the [[Expansion Pack]] that utilized [[Guitar Hero]]-style controls and abilities such as "Epic Jam", "Shoegazer" and "Nonconformity". Don't forget their epic axe, "The Facemelter", with the chance on hit to "blow your target's mind".

* [[Powerup Mount]]: Mounts can double your travel speed, fly at 4 times your running speed, but you have to dismount to do almost anything else.

* [[Practical Taunt]]: Every tank spec has a taunt, which boosts the tank's threat level to that of their target's current target and forces the target to attack them for a few seconds no matter what.

* [[Precursors]]: The Titans

* [[Predators Are Mean]]: Strangely, predator mobs will run to attack players, critters, and some NPCs, but don't eat them at all. Even a few of these who have been tamed by hunters will attack critters when they're not on hostile.