[World of Warcraft] Island Expeditions: Their Wasted Potential

While Battle for Azeroth has been out for quite a while and Shadowlands is now on the horizon, I felt it would be a good time to look back on island expeditions and the potential that they wasted. While the concept in general was sound and interesting, there were a lot of opportunities left unexplored and this potentially amazing content became another lackluster grind. The main offender is the fact that every island is exactly the same just with a slightly different coat of paint slapped on top. While one chaotic dash and grab island would have been fine, there needed to be more variety and a lot more focus on pvp islands. While there are eleven islands in total at time of writing, I’ve come up with six island ideas that might have made for a lot more interesting gameplay, if at least something a little different. Thanks to the Polygon Map Generator for the base map images and thanks to Paint 3D for being the only art program I have on my computer. I tried to make some rudimentary maps just as a little visual aid and are in no way actually designed to be viable as is.

The Blistered Lands

On a craggy island with terrain of varying heights, nodes of Azerite varying in size have blistered to the surface. An initial mining effort was made by both the Alliance and Horde, but both were forced to retreat, leaving their mining equipment behind. Now both factions are looking to seize as much Azerite from the island as they can, each sending a small team of operatives to get the job done. Each team must eliminate hostile forces from a node and reactivate the mining equipment attached. The Azerite gained from a node is dependent on the node’s size, with the largest gains coming from the massive Azerite node in the middle of the island. Smaller nodes are found closer to the shoreline and though they give less Azerite, they also have weaker foes and are less likely to be contested by the other team. As a node is being mined, it will eventually attract more enemies that will start to break the equipment, requiring either defending or reactivation at a later time.

The Slithering Expanse

The Alliance and Horde have both been made aware of a remote island hosting a village of Naga. On further investigation, these Naga have discovered veins of Azerite and converted it all into trinkets, weapons, and armor already. Deciding to take out two birds with one stone, both factions have sent a team to eliminate the Naga and gather up the Azerite items. The island is comprised of three sections, a small amount of farmland, the village proper, and the barracks. Further from the farmland and closer to the barracks the Naga are more difficult to deal with but the Azerite comes in larger amounts. All Azerite items must be brought back to a collection area near the middle of the farmland to be crated up, then the crate taken back to the ship for collection.

Thousand Rivers

The Stormsages have discovered an island with large, underground seams of Azerite that could be mined. Unfortunately, theses seams intersect with an underground river that makes mining unstable. Instead, the Stormsages used the island’s streams to draw eroded Azerite to the surface where it can flow into collection nets. Since the Stormsages were corrupted and left the island, the Alliance and Horde have sent in teams to control the flow themselves. Azerite flows out of the ground at two separate points and into the network of streams crisscrossing the island. At intersections, the Stormsages have set up runes that can alter the direction the water flows in as well as guardians to prevent interference. Each team must redirect the Azerite flow to their own collection net while preventing the other team from doing the same.

Heartsbane’s Landing

On a heavily forested island, the Coven has taken control of a large pool of liquid Azerite and warded it against intrusion. Both the Alliance and Horde have sent a team to take control but, lacking the ability to dispel the Coven’s magic, must instead use the Coven’s constructs against them. Scattered about the island are constructs of various sizes that can be seized from the witches and controlled by either team to harvest the Azerite pool. Larger constructs are better guarded but harvest Azerite quicker. Unfortunately, controlling a construct also leaves the controller’s body vulnerable as it stays in place after the mind enters the construct meaning either can be destroyed to prevent further harvesting.\

Isle of G’huun

The Blood Trolls have taken over an island and prepared a shrine to G’huun at the highest point. At various locations around the island captives are infused with Azerite and prepared as sacrifices to the blood god. Both the Alliance and the Horde have sent a team to rescue these captives and drain the Azerite infusion from them. Each team must make their way around the island, killing Blood Trolls and rescuing their sacrifices, escorting them back to a collection device near the ship that can safely extract the Azerite. Captives closer to the shrine have more Azerite infused into them as they are closer to being sacrificed but are also better guarded. At the shrine itself are the most powerful Blood Troll priests who carry Azerite infusers which can be used by whoever kills their wielder to extract Azerite directly for a short time.

Isle of Ol’ N’Zoth

N’Zoth has sent his minions to an island in order to find a way to corrupt the large amount of Azerite there. Wrathion has gone to the island to monitor and help the Alliance and Horde teams attempting to claim the Azerite there. While the beachhead is relatively safe, moving deeper into the island means moving further into N’Zoth’s corruption, draining the teams’ sanity faster the further they go. The Azerite also harbors the Old God’s taint, further causing dangerous figments to appear to anyone carrying it. Both teams must collect Azerite and bring it to Wrathion for cleansing and collection. Failing to maintain their sanity will cause a team member to fall into a vision of N’Zoth, an incredibly dangerous situation but allowing for the collection of greater fragments of Azerite and other helpful tools.

Conclusion

The overall idea here was just to make the mechanics a bit more diverse so each map would require different strategies and promote more engagement with players. It is unlikely that there will be any changes to the Island Expeditions now that we are so far into the expansion, but it might at least serve as some inspiration for either the developers moving forward, or perhaps for anyone else creating similar content in their own games.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent" -John Donne