Darion Mograine, your commander in the Death Knights, meets the shade of his father — a powerful good knight. Darion then wrests himself from the Scourge’s control, aiding the hero Tirion Fordring in driving out Arthas.
Your Death Knight joins the Horde or the Alliance as an ally after the battle is over. This video does a nice job depicting the battle.
“It’s the setting and voice acting,” said the player Clorana, a priest, in game. “Plus the story links, to flesh out Darion Mograine, by bringing in his father. At first, you stand there and wait for the event, and Mograine has some cool lines. Blood rain starts to fall, and you have your whole undead army there. Then, you go and crush the Argent forces until Tirion and the Lich King square off. Having played undead a lot in [the strategy game] Warcraft 3, I could really appreciate the strength of the undead.”
Above: Shattrath remains a city under siege even after The Battle of Shattrath.
6. The Battle of Shattrath
This battle is the massive conclusion of the Talador zone quests in the new Warlords of Draenor expansion, so don’t read on in this one if you’re avoiding spoilers. It’s one of my favorites, and was mentioned by other players in forum posts for this story.
Throughout the zone, you have been working against the invasion of the Iron Horde Orcs, united by big bad guy Garrosh Hellstream. (The Iron Horde is not to be confused with the just-plain Horde, the faction that players can choose in the game.)
Finally, it comes time to set foot in the capital city under siege: Shattrath. Players confront Hellscream and drive out the Iron Horde Orcs occupying the city. You’re helped by the Archmage Khadgar, a powerful Alliance hero who doesn’t mind working with Horde players; Vindicator Maraad of the Draenei, one of the Alliance leaders; and Frostwolf Chieftan Durotan, one of the Horde’s Orc leaders rebelling against the invaders.
It is a wonderful area for longtime WoW gamers, as the Burning Crusade expansion used Shattrath as the main capital city for players. In Warlords of Draenor, the latest expansion, players are in an alternate timeline set in the same place. Here, the city is a ruin, wracked by the fighting between the Iron Horde and friendly forces.
Not only does this story line allow you to roll around in the city in a giant Iron Star (sort of a monstrous metal bomb combined with a hamster ball), crushing every last enemy, but the multi-step cinematic/battle stages at the end build enormous suspense, as characters that had been in the Warcraft storyline from the beginning fall and others struggle to finish the fight against Garrosh.
You can watch the climactic closing cinematic here. It contains huge spoilers for players who haven’t completed the series yet.
For Horde players in Draenor, I’d also highly recommend The Battle of Thunder Pass, which completes the Horde Frostfire Ridge starting area.
Above: “I was wondering if you’d show up,” human hero Bolvar Fordragon tells the orc Dranosh Saurfang during the Battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate. “I couldn’t let the Alliance have ALL the fun today,” he replies.
5. The Battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate
In this battle, Horde and Alliance heroes join together to attack the Wrathgate, driving for a chance to kill Arthas, a paladin who betrayed his people and became the Scourge leader the Lich King. It’s the first time players in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion could see the end boss, and it features a cinematic with some of the best dialog, music, and voice acting ever created for the game.
The Lich King faces down the Horde and Alliance champions, striking down the Orc leader Dranosh Saurfang (whom he would later raise as an evil boss in his citadel) and moving on the human Bolvar Fordragon, until an Undead army intervenes.
The Undead attack both the Lich King’s Scourge forces and everyone else by lobbing poison bombs, betraying everyone, cutting down Bolvar, and driving out the Lich King to fight another day.
The sequence is especially stunning for Horde players, who have been unknowingly helping the Undead alchemists create the poison used in the attack (Undead is one of the Horde races).
“Did you think … we had forgotten,” the Undead commander Grand Apothecary Putress roars. “Did you think … we had forgiven? Behold, now, the terrible vengeance of the Forsaken. Death to the Scourge! And death to the living!”
“The first thing I think of is that final cutscene,” said player Christopher Lehr in-game. “Such a huge reward for going through the whole long line of quests. It had direct ties with the dragonflights, and with my personal favorite family of orcs in WoW.”
Above: My mage (note the exclamation point over her head) takes the role of a quest NPC and prepares to give a quest to NPC “player” Johnny Awesome.
4. Welcome to the Machine
Blizzard frequently incorporates player feedback and complaints into the game as funny items or NPCs, but never more so than with this series for lower-level Horde players in the Hillsbrad Foothills zone. This objective puts you in the place of a quest giver at the Southpointe Gate outpost, handing out missions to other “players” — NPCs that depict the worst behavior players had to offer. This is another of my favorites.
The whole series is hilarious. High Executor Darthalia tells you what to do. “I want you to take these orders and dispense them to the lowly scrubs that come along looking for work,” she said. “Who you give what to is wholly at your discretion.
“When you’re ready, mount up on my trusty skeletal steed — so they don’t miss you — and start living the life! Which means just stand there and wait.”