So today was a good day. To me, it feels like a holiday when Blizzard announces the release date for a patch I’ve been excited about. 8.2 especially so because I love Queen Azshara. She’s a key part of Azeroth’s history, and a catalyst for a lot of things that have happened throughout time. When I was still new to the game I would read about Warcraft lore for hours, and back then I had a small glimmer of hope that Azshara would be even just mentioned in the game. She was like this mysterious character that seemed so far away, and we only got vague hints that she was even still alive. I want to know what her plan has been, ever since she sank beneath the sea ten thousand years ago. It has to be good, right? I just hope that Blizzard takes the time to give one of their coolest characters a fitting story. I already made a post about Queen Azshara, so I’m not going to talk about why I’m fascinated by her here, but I am glad that we are almost here. I would be even happier if we got a continuation of the Teldrassil story with maybe some insight into who/what Elune is, but I’ll take what I can get.
Azshara is also a big part of Aurashot’s story. In fact, Aura’s life would have been much different if it weren’t for the invasion of the Burning Legion and the subsequent War of the Ancients. I haven’t gotten around yet to organizing her story so that I can make sure it fits nicely into a series of blog posts, also because there’s a lot of revising to be done, but I can’t wait to talk more about that. The bottom line is that this upcoming patch holds special meaning to a story that I have been writing and re-writing both in my head and on paper, and I’m not quite sure yet what will happen next for Aura. I’ll be excited to do some exploring around Nazjatar, and gather what I can about Night Elf lore.
8.2 is going to be a pretty big content update with different things to choose from. The key points are going to be the two new landmasses – Nazjatar, capital of the Naga and Queen Azshara, and Mechagon, island of the mysterious Junker Gnomes. There’s a new raid, Azshara’s Eternal Palace, and a mega-dungeon called simply Mechagon. The island of Mechagon is going to function a lot like the Timeless Isle from Mists of Pandaria, in that there’s lot of re-playable content like rare bosses that drop cool items or treasures to discover. There’s also a new type of engineering on Mechagon, and when you explore the island and collect resources eventually you’ll be able to construct cool things like mounts or pets. Nazjatar will be a smaller area in comparison, and it’s primary focus is to help deliver the story of the new patch to the player. After all, Queen Azshara lured us into a trap by allowing us to find Nazjatar, so now we need to figure out her plan.
One of the things that surprised me the most about 8.2 is how my opinion about all the Mechagon stuff changed. At first I wasn’t excited for it at all, in fact I thought it was going to take away from how cool all the other content seemed to be. But the more I saw pictures of Mechagon City and I read a little bit of the story with the Junker Gnomes and some of the things we’ll be able to craft, I changed my mind. Gnomes are cool. I never thought I’d openly admit that, but there it is. Plus we need to find out what happened to Mekkatorque after the Battle of Dazar’alor!
Until then, Aurashot will be preparing for what’s sure to be a relaxing beach vacation…