World of Warcraft’s battle for Azeroth rumbles on, and it looks like Blizzard has some big plans for certain characters. A number of new models arrived on the Public Testing Server last night, suggesting a long-awaited return and an enhanced role for some fan favourites. Fair warning, this article could contain spoilers for future Battle for Azeroth story content.
As pointed out by Wowhead, four new models appeared on the PTR last night. Valeera and Calia get new looks, but it’s the other two models that are more interesting. Zekhan – a jungle troll better known by the WoW community as Zappyboi – now has his own model, suggesting that he’s on his way to becoming a fully-fledged NPC.
Even more notable is the return of Wrathion. The long-serving NPC has been around since Cataclysm, but disappeared from Azeroth after the events of Warlords of Draenor. Recent events have seen players attempt to seek Wrathion out, and it looks as though patch 8.2.5 will see the black dragon return to the game.
Players have been quick to notice, however, that Wrathion has adopted a bold new look. His turban, hoop earrings, white-and-gold-armour and even his soul patch are gone. In their place are shoulder-length black hair, some swanky dragon-themed pauldrons and gauntlets, and a goatee.
For some players, this causes something of a problem. The top comment under the Reddit post about the new model simply reads “Oh no, he’s hot!” Wrathion’s new-look certainly offers him some swarthy charm. As other players have been quick to point out however, Wrathion might be a powerful black dragon, but canonically, he’s only five years old.
Quite what role any of these four new characters are set to play in the next steps of Battle for Azeroth remains to be seen. But given Wrathion’s long-term disappearance and Zappyboi’s status as confirmed fan-favourite, I’m excited to see what happens to them.