World of Warcraft: Secrets of Argus (Community Blog Topic)

This is my contribution to WoW Insider's Community Blog Topic: Pitch your World of Warcraft expansion.

The open war between alliance and horde was finally over following Mists of Pandaria.
Both factions had traveled to Old Draenor to deal with the Iron Horde.
Back on Azeroth, Wrathion had learned about a titan artifact that could be of great help in the fight against the Burning Legion. This story was told in World of Warcraft: Titan (7.0).


World of Warcraft: Secrets of Argus (8.0)

After the combined forces of the alliance and the horde had successfully managed to retrieve the powerful titan artifact and stopped Azeroth from being reset* in Titan, Velen has a vision. After years and years of meditating, this crucial act of the citizens of Azeroth eliminated several possible outcomes of the war against the Burning Legion, and he now knows what must be done if they are to stand a chance. Velen sees in his vision that the titan artifact from Azeroth has a duplicate on Argus. Leaving the Argus Artifact in the hands of the Burning Legion will nullify the effect of the Azeroth Artifact! While having them both would double the effect. Velen leaves his chambers, surprising his guards with his presence. He dramatically claims "It is time!".

* See the comments in the WoW Insider article for the ideas for this plot. :)

8.0 Secrets of Argus

Heroes from the alliance and the horde board the Exodar. They're going to Argus on a very dangerous mission. Gnome technology (or was it goblin? They're fighting over it) has provided Exodar with a cloaking device. Hovering over Argus, they go on scouting missions on the alien planet. As you cooperate with SI:7, you uncover a group of eredar that are quietly and secretly working against the Burning Legion. They're an underground militia that do small-scale sabotage. How to befriend these eredar and make them trust you? And can you trust them...? Their leader, Nirosas, welcomes you and opens up one of their bases for you. You know there are more bases, but 25,000 years of sneaking around makes people cautious. It turns out that the Argus Artifact has been divided into 7 pieces, which are protected by 7 generals of the Burning Legion. The first two pieces will be found in the two raids launched with the expansion. There will also be six dungeons and six scenarios at launch.

Piece 1: Lord Rajaxxus in Brusader's Boliseum (raid)
Piece 2: Lady Lacrosash in Punwell Slateau (raid)

8.1 Militia

Killing off Lord Rajaxxus and Lady Lacrosash results in two things; (1) the Burning Legion is now aware that there are outsiders on Argus, and (2) Nirosas and the other eredar have started trusting you. Nirosas' second in command, Chalmezaar, takes you to a new zone, where you will help them with their secret sneaky sabotage. Content will open in stages. There will be two new dungeons in the patch.

Piece 3: Grand Warlock Elythass in Planwell Suteau (a world boss that will be available when all the stages are opened)

8.2 The cover is broken

Your Eredar friends are being captured one by one, and brought to the big bad Burning Legion prison, Forge Camp: Pain! You as a player need to keep the ones that are not captured safe and get them evacuated to the Exodar. The prisoners will be tortured or killed if you don't save them! There will be two new scenarios in the patch; (1) where you will find and evacuate hidden eredar, and (2) where you will attack a prisoner escort.

Piece 4: Urazzias the Cruel in Forge Camp: Pain (raid)

8.3 Attack on Exodar

The gnomish cloaking device (or was it goblin? They're both refusing to have anything to do with it) has failed! Forces from the Burning Legion has managed to get on board. Down on Argus, they are summoning a giant pit lady! There will be two dungeons: (1) The Exodar: Fight back the Burning Legion forces! (2) Magtheridonna's Lair: Stop the summoning of Pit Lady Magtheridonna! Or face the consequences of not stopping it...

Piece 5: Pit Lady Magtheridonna in Magtheridonna's Lair (dungeon)

8.4 Betrayal

Nirosas and Chalmezaar have betraaaaayed you (imagine Sindragosa's voice). You find out that they sabotaged the gnomish cloaking device (or was it goblin?)! The friendly eredar need you more than ever. There will be two scenarios with the patch; (1) where you find out about the betrayal, trick them into telling you who else are double agents, and try to escape before they take you as a prisoner, and (2) a scenario released two months later that shows the very dramatic escape from Argus.

Piece 6: Prince Chalmezaar in Zarakhan (solo challenge in legendary quest)
Piece 7: Nirosas the Betrayer in Mystblood Isle (raid)

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New continent: Argus
Officers of the Burning Legion will patrol the zones. There will be dynamic events and world bosses. Every zone has a couple of safe spots (like the ones on Isle of Thunder) where you can catch your breath in between.

New feature: Exodar Disco
The dance studio is here. :) This won't be your low-cost barber shop! If you want that male blood elf dance, you're gonna have to work (it) for it!

Legendary quest
Most of the pieces of the Argus Artifact will be found in raids. However, there will be a personal quest to find one of them. This will provide you with legendary rewards, much like in Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor and Titan.

Roleplayed storyline
The main storyline (concept introduced in Warlords of Draenor) will be animated/acted; The quest givers will give you the quest in speech, when you find an item your character will say "aha, here is this item. It looks something-something. I'd better delivery it to someone-someone so that they can something-something", and so on.

Personal Loot
All dungeons will provide personal loot.

Loot specialization: PVE or PVP
You can now get Valor/Justice Points in battlegrounds, Conquest/Honor Points in dungeons, as well as PVP-gear from questing and raiding.

Scaled heroic dungeons and heroic scenarios
Health of bosses and mobs are scaled to the average item level of the group, and so is the damage they deal and the rewards that they provide. Have an old friend returning to WoW that wants to start raiding with you? Run him through some heroic dungeons with four geared people for better rewards.

Scaled dungeons
You can queue for all dungeons that are lower than your own level. The loot will be based on your ordinary level. If you are max-level, the bosses will provide you with small amounts of Justice Points.

New neutral race
To be announced. Available classes for the new race will be: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Monk, as well as the new class added in 7.0 (you know what class that was, so why tell you?).

The community is in a buzz! Could it be eredar, could it?! Or ethereals? Imagine a starting zone not on Azeroth, but then escaping to Azeroth after completion!

New class/race combos
As we all know, with Warlords of Draenor we got gnome druids, draenei rogues, and pandaren and undead paladins. Titan launched with a new class, which was available for gnomes, night elves, worgen, pandaren, goblins, orcs and tauren.

New class/race combos in Secrets of Argus will be:

• Draenei and tauren warlocks
• Gnome hunters
• Night elf and undead shaman
• Blood elf druids

The lore reasoning for draenei and tauren warlocks are that the eredar are teaching them to protect themselves against fel magic. Warlocks, as long as they are careful, could prove to be helpful against the Burning Legion.
As for gnome hunters, it's about time they get to use explosives and guns!

New paladin spec: Avenger
This will be a ranged DPS spec.

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As you can see, the composition of the expansion I've made is pretty much the same as Mists of Pandaria. I really wish I could think of some cool new features, as most things I've mentioned have already been mentioned by others. I'm quite happy with my expansion, but I'm happy Blizzard have people that will think more outside of the box than what I was able to.

/bow