The Emerald Dream. When?

[Arwyn]

Home of the Green Dragon Flight, since vanillia WoW it has been indicated that the Emerald Dream is in trouble. But instead of addressing what could be a potential playable area, Blizz has left it on the back burner as they work on other content. Though they did bring it briefly to the front in the quest Hope Within the Emerald Nightmare.

So as Azeroth changes in Cata, do you think Blizz will later down the road include the Emerald Dream in a patch as a new Instance or actually make the next exp be about the Emerald Dream?

[Vephriel]

I'm pretty much positive that the next expansion after Cataclysm will be Emerald Dream.

It's a huge topic that isn't really covered in-game so far, and I already know Blizzard is working on something pertaining to it. We still have the Maelstrom to tackle as well, so my guess is an Emerald Dream/Maelstrom joint expansion in the future.

[Saturo]

Yup, me too.

The thing I'm worried about are those annoying death knights... No more lore pertaining to them after WOTLK. But. as someone so wisely stated on the official forums;
"all wariors shud be made dks cuz noobody plauz waror enymore juts dk now"

(Its an actual post! *Shudders...*)

[Vephriel]

The official forums are just a cesspool of the lowest, ugliest forms of humanity gathered into one anonymous den. Also a wonderful demonstration of the GIFT (Greater Internet F#$%wad Theory):

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

[Saturo]

Haha, I used to link that strip everywhere!

[VelkynKarma]

I would love to see the Emerald Dream eventually as a full expansion. I was totally psyched when I heard about it and then it didn't happen.

You do mess around with it a little in-game, but not much. A few quests here, a few references there, one or two Night Elf jokes...that's about it.

But yeah, I'd be willing to wait if Bliz turns it into a full 'zone' and not just an instance. I was a little disappointed when I learned that A-N and Old Kingdom were originally supposed to be an underground zone, but that got ditched. That would've been so COOL!

~VelkynKarma

[Kalasha]

As long as people keep playing they will be making more expansions, and you can bet ED and the Maelstrom are two of those possible settings. Just as they ignored Outland/Northrend in vanilla (aside from some small references) I'm sure they keep those two in reserve for when they need to add new content.

And Veph,, I completely agree with you about the official forums. I never browse them and when I AM impulsive enough to click a link to them, it takes less then 10 seconds for my braincells to start dying...

Hell, its the reason why I use petopia for most of my wow info, folks around here keep things civilized.

[SpiritBinder]

The other thing to coincide with the next expansion will be the possible introduction of the next hero class.

The 1st hero class stared at lvl 55 in Azeroth, my guess is the next hero class will be a higer lvl again, lvl 60-65ish?
That would lead to the assumption that the new hero classes starting point would possibly be in Outland..?

If the next expansion after Cata is going to be the Emerald Dream, where and or what ties would Outland have to the Emerald Dream to have a new hero class tie into lore and class wise?

Would the Cenarian Expidtion start to intervene as it has strong ties to the Emerald dream and it's druids, would it be tied into the new hero class somehow? Or something tied to the events of Cata that give birth to a new race, or new force that has an affinity with the emerald dream.

Would the demon hunters of Shadow moon valley finally decide to join the fight and to break free of their former past and seek redemption, or simply to carve out their own place in the world?

Will they be the new hero class?

My bet is that the next expansion will defiantly be the Emerald Dream, the question is, who what where and when?

I was a little disappointed when I learned that A-N and Old Kingdom were originally supposed to be an underground zone, but that got ditched. That would've been so COOL!

I was rather sad too, it played such a big part in WC3, it would have been great to run around in all of that

[Vephriel]

For the next hero class it's most assuredly going to be some type of healer hybrid. Since Death Knights were DPS/Tank capable, then a Healer/DPS hybrid would only make sense.

[Sonata]

Well I thought I could do to the emerald dream throught the portals with the emerald dragon flight guarding them!...Dreams shattered sadly.

But the Emerald dream would be great as sole expansion, not with Catalysm...maybe there will be the Emerald Nightmare expansion...some day, over the rainbow. (No there must be! I want some more story to the druids)

[Gala]

So, here comes the lore nerd to quash your dreams.

The Emerald Dream, as expansive as it is, could not be a viable expansion. The only thing that would possibly make sense would be for it to be a raid.

The Emerald Dream is what the world would be like, had NO SPECIES ever existed.

Only someone who is very much in tune with nature is able to walk the Emerald Dream. I suppose it could be possible that Stormrage could possibly create portals, etc. But these things would be very hard to make, and would require many, many druids to maintain them, and to keep the ones walking the Dream safe would be a logistical nightmare. I'm not even entirely sure if your spirit self is even able to damage anything that might be causing problems within the Dream, though i would love to be proved wrong. Artifacts can be forged.

There is a lot of growth options and story potential for the Emerald Dream. But a full-blown expansion? I would be very shocked.

[Sonata]

So, here comes the lore nerd to quash your dreams.

NOOO Don't crush my dreaaams! D:
How the heck will I sleep tonight now?!

[Sarayana]

Galadrael, I'll quote the blue post Spiritbinder found for another topic:

To say that something is anathema to lore is tantamount to saying that something is entirely impossible and in a world full of dragons, demons, undead, and countless other magical wonders, it's good to keep an open mind. Just because you can't envision it, doesn't mean that someone else can't do so in a compelling way.

Sounds to me like nothing's impossible in WoW...

[Azzrazzah]

Maybe to play in ED you'll have to become a dream; able to be whatever the Dream needs to accomplish it's ends???

[VelkynKarma]

So, here comes the lore nerd to quash your dreams.

The Emerald Dream, as expansive as it is, could not be a viable expansion. The only thing that would possibly make sense would be for it to be a raid.

The Emerald Dream is what the world would be like, had NO SPECIES ever existed.

Only someone who is very much in tune with nature is able to walk the Emerald Dream. I suppose it could be possible that Stormrage could possibly create portals, etc. But these things would be very hard to make, and would require many, many druids to maintain them, and to keep the ones walking the Dream safe would be a logistical nightmare. I'm not even entirely sure if your spirit self is even able to damage anything that might be causing problems within the Dream, though i would love to be proved wrong. Artifacts can be forged.

There is a lot of growth options and story potential for the Emerald Dream. But a full-blown expansion? I would be very shocked.

I wouldn't say this is entirely accurate. There is that one quest that starts in Icecrown, remember...when you keep going to various major characters for Tirion Fordring, to try and save that one Crusader's soul? I distinctly remember Remulos sending me to the Emerald Dream/Nightmare to pick up special acorns that had a slight chance of helping that Crusader. Granted, your character falls asleep, but your spirit-self is still there, and able to fight off some nightmares that turn into you, even.

~VelkynKarma

[Saturo]

Actually, the Emerald Dream is just what the world would look like, without intelligent species, which is why they allow druids there... I mean, druids are'nt intelligent! They're friggin' MEAT SHIELDS!

[Hanuremeap]

I heard that a few months after Cataclysm is released Emerald Dream is being released as an expansion...dunno how true that is but is is believable because i don't think Blizzard will leave the level cap at 85 for too long now that they have figured out that they get a LOT of money from releasing expansions.

[Arwyn]

Actually, the Emerald Dream is just what the world would look like, without intelligent species, which is why they allow druids there... I mean, druids are'nt intelligent! They're friggin' MEAT SHIELDS!

We're not MEAT SHIELDS! We're HIPPIES!!

(And oddly, on wowwiki's article on Druids this little sentence appears:

Either way, the tauren and the night elf druids do not participate in the Alliance/Horde conflict, but coexist peacefully within the Cenarion Circle. http://www.wowwiki.com/Druids

.

So from that druids shouldn't even be a playable class from that sentence.)

[rubybeam]

i read on WoWiki the some theroys might be that for the new class they will just improve a greater class of druids for druids that acheve it also that might laso mean impored shamans and humans to want to know what i mean?

spirit-walker ( shaman like a death knight)

beast master (hunter like a death knight)

archdruid ( druid like a death night)

i also heard that in emrald dream if the expansion ever comes out blizzard will also put in mounts that u can use when walking to ur corpse as a ghost

also this might be really coming out soon because most bliazzard employs have been working on it from the start of WoW and so far only 3 contents and they say that thier doing a killer job so i know it's going to be an expansion

[Karathyriel]

I've read a bluepost somewhere that said, that they still have trouble balancing their first hero class so thinking about a second would be just plain stupid. I think the next hero class is way to go before being released.

The emerald dream seems like a running gag to me, somehow. As it is the world as it should be (that's what I understood), they would have to create a second Azeroth. I don't think so. And only the druids and green dragons may go there, so why should all the other be able to do so, suddenly? I'm not expecting the ED anytime soon.