I think the problem is that there's been a bit of a mythos-creep in the Warcraft universe, due to pressure set by the tropes of the MMO. In the original RTS, the Alliance had paladins basically following a "generic God" type deity -- even to the point that there were references to "God" in conjunction with the priests and paladins of Northshire. That was eventually replaced with more-generic references to the "Light," but even then it seemed to be a deity-like entity tending toward goodness, healing, etc.
Over time, however, the Light has become just another source of energy that just happens to be opposed to Shadow/Void. Sure, Light energy just HAPPENS to be well-suited to healing, but its use has little to nothing to do with the power of its wielder. Partly I think this is because in the demands of the MMO, "all things must be fought." If there is a cute new baby ducky introduced to the game, there will be a quest where you have to go kill cute baby duckies "to preserve the balance of nature." If there are paladins, shamans, mages, unicorns, wish-granting dragons, YOU NAME IT, at some point you will be given a quest to kill it. Are we going to finally introduce the Titans after all this time? Well, only if we have some convoluted reason why we have to FIGHT THEM, because this is a game about fighting things, so if you can't fight it, it has little reason to be in the game.
I exaggerate, but there seems to be a lot of creative pressure in that direction.
Whatever came first, it works its way into the lore. The different types of magical energy -- whether they come from nature, light, shadow/void, fel, arcane, etc. -- basically just devolve into different "flavors" or "colors" of energy, and maybe on occasion certain targets are more vulnerable to certain types of energy, but most of the time that can just be safely ignored as you button-mash every spell you've got as soon as the cooldown hits in order to maximize your DPS to take down that boss.
Want to power a big stompy robot with magitech? Well, choose what color you'd like the glowy bits to be, and we've got an energy for you. Neon green? Fel. Light blue? Arcane. Purple? Shadow/void. Golden? Light. I mean, seriously, a Warforged Frame powered by "the light." Show up to Brewfest, and every few seconds someone will be commenting about "Voidwine is my favorite drink ever!" I'm pretty sure there's somewhere you can get felburgers, with absolutely no dire consequences whatsoever for consuming them. Once upon a time, there were big plot points about how the high elves suffered from magic-addiction due to dabbling so long in the arcane, yet no longer having access to the Well of Eternity, and this led to all kinds of shenanigans with Blood Elves, Void Elves, etc., but ... eh, they just found different energy sources. And while a standard D&D trope is that healing is a bad thing for the undead (I don't know if that was a thing in the RTS games), I guess they couldn't abide by that for long if they were going to make the Forsaken be playable characters. Never mind if your Forsaken guy is missing a jaw, or if we can see your ribs sticking out -- you'll still get drunk and heal from food and spells and potions the exact same as everyone else, because any other mechanic would be a pain to implement.
Once upon a time, back in "vanilla," if you were playing a warlock, there was at least some slight pretense that you were being secretive about it, but they never bothered to have you "hide" your prancing imps or strutting succubi when you walked through Stormwind, and I guess at some point programmers thought it would be cute to have NPCs refer to you by your class ("Good job, Warlock!") so I guess it's canon that it's brazenly obvious at a glance what powers you dabble with and it's no big deal anywhere.
I get why things would drift this way -- this franchise has been around a LONG time, the original creators are gone, and there's inevitably going to be some "adaptation entropy." The problems arise, I think, when I run into things that reference those lingering bits of lore that hint that maybe it DID matter what sort of magic you were dabbling with, and it mashes horribly with the current state of, "Oh, demons, demon-hunters, paladins, void monsters, mages, druids, we all just get along swimmingly -- tra la laaaaa!" XD
no subject
Over time, however, the Light has become just another source of energy that just happens to be opposed to Shadow/Void. Sure, Light energy just HAPPENS to be well-suited to healing, but its use has little to nothing to do with the power of its wielder. Partly I think this is because in the demands of the MMO, "all things must be fought." If there is a cute new baby ducky introduced to the game, there will be a quest where you have to go kill cute baby duckies "to preserve the balance of nature." If there are paladins, shamans, mages, unicorns, wish-granting dragons, YOU NAME IT, at some point you will be given a quest to kill it. Are we going to finally introduce the Titans after all this time? Well, only if we have some convoluted reason why we have to FIGHT THEM, because this is a game about fighting things, so if you can't fight it, it has little reason to be in the game.
I exaggerate, but there seems to be a lot of creative pressure in that direction.
Whatever came first, it works its way into the lore. The different types of magical energy -- whether they come from nature, light, shadow/void, fel, arcane, etc. -- basically just devolve into different "flavors" or "colors" of energy, and maybe on occasion certain targets are more vulnerable to certain types of energy, but most of the time that can just be safely ignored as you button-mash every spell you've got as soon as the cooldown hits in order to maximize your DPS to take down that boss.
Want to power a big stompy robot with magitech? Well, choose what color you'd like the glowy bits to be, and we've got an energy for you. Neon green? Fel. Light blue? Arcane. Purple? Shadow/void. Golden? Light. I mean, seriously, a Warforged Frame powered by "the light." Show up to Brewfest, and every few seconds someone will be commenting about "Voidwine is my favorite drink ever!" I'm pretty sure there's somewhere you can get felburgers, with absolutely no dire consequences whatsoever for consuming them. Once upon a time, there were big plot points about how the high elves suffered from magic-addiction due to dabbling so long in the arcane, yet no longer having access to the Well of Eternity, and this led to all kinds of shenanigans with Blood Elves, Void Elves, etc., but ... eh, they just found different energy sources. And while a standard D&D trope is that healing is a bad thing for the undead (I don't know if that was a thing in the RTS games), I guess they couldn't abide by that for long if they were going to make the Forsaken be playable characters. Never mind if your Forsaken guy is missing a jaw, or if we can see your ribs sticking out -- you'll still get drunk and heal from food and spells and potions the exact same as everyone else, because any other mechanic would be a pain to implement.
Once upon a time, back in "vanilla," if you were playing a warlock, there was at least some slight pretense that you were being secretive about it, but they never bothered to have you "hide" your prancing imps or strutting succubi when you walked through Stormwind, and I guess at some point programmers thought it would be cute to have NPCs refer to you by your class ("Good job, Warlock!") so I guess it's canon that it's brazenly obvious at a glance what powers you dabble with and it's no big deal anywhere.
I get why things would drift this way -- this franchise has been around a LONG time, the original creators are gone, and there's inevitably going to be some "adaptation entropy." The problems arise, I think, when I run into things that reference those lingering bits of lore that hint that maybe it DID matter what sort of magic you were dabbling with, and it mashes horribly with the current state of, "Oh, demons, demon-hunters, paladins, void monsters, mages, druids, we all just get along swimmingly -- tra la laaaaa!" XD