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Allied Races in Battle for Azeroth Expansion

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In Battle for Azeroth, we're getting 6 new allied races that start at level 20. Alliance has access to Dark Iron Dwarves, Void Elves and the Lightforged Draenei, while the Horde can play as Nightborne, Highmountain Taurens and Zandalari Trolls!

Here's a rundown of new sub-races available to both factions. In the screenshots, the characters are wearing what Blizzard calls Heritage Armor. It's a reward to show off your accomplishments and it is earned from leveling your Alied Hero character from 20 to 110. If you're buying a race change, you won't get it. In the What's Next Panel, we learned that it ignores armor types, so it seems all classes will be able to transmog the set once it's unlocked. Six allied races will be initially available and more will be added later on in the expansion. You can find out more information on the official website.

Alliance

  • Void Elves (Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior)
  • Lightforged Draenei (Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Warrior)
  • Dark Iron Dwarves

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Horde

  • Nightborne (Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior)
  • Highmountain Taurens (Druid, Hunter, Monk, Shaman, Warrior)
  • Zandalari Trolls

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Highmountain Tauren Racials (Passive)

Bull Rush (Instant, 2 min cooldown)

  • Charges forward for 1 sec, knocking enemies down for 1.5 sec.

Mountaineer (Passive)

  • Increases your Versatility by 1%.

Pride of Ironhorn (Passive)

  • Mining skill increased by 15 and allows you to mine faster.

Rugged Tenacity

  • Reduces damage taken by X.

Waste Not, Want Not (Passive)

  • You have a chance to loot additional meat and fish.

(Source)

Lightforged Draenei Racials

Demonbane (Passive)

  • Experience gains from killing Demons increased by 20%.

Final Verdict (Passive)

  • When you die the Light avenges you dealing X Holy Damage to enemies within 8 yards and healing allies for X.

Forge of Light (Passive)

Summon a Forge of Light, enabling Blacksmithing. Blacksmithing skill increased by 10.

Light's Judgment (Instant, 2.5 min cooldown, 40 yd range)

  • Call down a strike of Holy energy, dealing X Holy damage to enemies within 5 yards after 3 sec.
  • The racial looks very similar to the Vindicaar Core Matrix Power on Argus > Light's JudgmentLight's Judgment.

(Source @Kalrell's tweet // Sloot's stream)

Placeholder for tweet 926579843571093504

(Source // Official Website)

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I'm getting Warlords of Draenor vibes off of this, and not in a good way. It feels like a filler xpac, similar to MoP -> WoD -> Legion. Now Legion -> BfA -> Voidlords.

 

Bummer. :( I hope they prove me wrong though...

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1 hour ago, Yridaa said:

I'm getting Warlords of Draenor vibes off of this, and not in a good way. It feels like a filler xpac, similar to MoP -> WoD -> Legion. Now Legion -> BfA -> Voidlords.

 

Bummer. :( I hope they prove me wrong though...

I don't think the Alliance & Horde conflict will be the only thing Blizzard has in store for us :P. There's obviously more to the story, Azshara mention was vague and I see her as "Gul'dan" of the expansion, but not a final boss.

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5 minutes ago, Stan said:

I don't think the Alliance & Horde conflict will be the only thing Blizzard has in store for us :P. There's obviously more to the story, Azshara mention was vague and I see her as "Gul'dan" of the expansion, but not a final boss.

Well you were right when I and @Blainie were wrong regarding the zone level scaling. I hope it is the case here as well.

 

However, I mean, lore-wise this totally doesn't make any sense. When your planet is on the verge of being destroyed, you don't fight with the only ones willing to help you save it.

 

Absolutely no matter what.

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9 minutes ago, Yridaa said:

Well you were right when I and @Blainie were wrong regarding the zone level scaling. I hope it is the case here as well.

 

However, I mean, lore-wise this totally doesn't make any sense. When your planet is on the verge of being destroyed, you don't fight with the only ones willing to help you save it.

 

Absolutely no matter what.

What if both factions were corrupted by the Old Gods from the get-go? :P

Azeroth wounded, factions distracted by their wars...

Magni is giving us an Artifact. "The king of diamonds has been made pawn." suddenly has an entirely different meaning.

Legion has been amazing in terms of story-telling and I think Battle for Azeroth will be no different.

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Just now, Stan said:

What if both factions were corrupted by the Old Gods from the get-go? :P

So you help build an army and try to beat the other faction?

 

I agree with you if it's Siege of Orgrimmar-esque/favoured, but it's strange that everyone would join in (khadgar etc). We've seen how hard it is for the old gods to control people, and how subtle or how few. Suddenly going from "we have peace because there's great threats out there" to "everyone hates the other faction" in just a split second, including people like Sylvanas (Who has shown great resilience to corruption in Warcraft 3) and Anduin (One of the few people out there capable of purging the Sha corruption a.k.a. old gods).

 

Feeble minded soldiers, miners etc? I can see that happening, even people lusting for hate like Graymane. But... everyone?

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I didn't get it. I have 12 chars on the server now. Do I need to delete them in order to create a new sub-race or buy change race? 

I didn't here any options to change race for those like me... 

All this stuff with new expansion is just create more questions then give answers. 

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1 hour ago, Yridaa said:

Well you were right when I and @Blainie were wrong regarding the zone level scaling. I hope it is the case here as well.

 

However, I mean, lore-wise this totally doesn't make any sense. When your planet is on the verge of being destroyed, you don't fight with the only ones willing to help you save it.

 

Absolutely no matter what.

But... it does make sense. If you look at it, Jaina and Sylvanas disappeared for most of Legion, I wouldn't doubt that it's these two characters who are the major driving forces behind this large scale war. Sylvanas especially, she is greedy and only seeks power for her own kind the Forsaken while showing disgust towards the Alliance faction. And with her being the war-chief I wouldn't be surprised if it was her who prompted this whole event, which probably explains why we see the Alliance sieging Lordaeron in the cinematic. Also, we can bet our asses that N'zoth will show up in this expansion as for when and how, who knows. 

You're looking at this all wrong. Sure Draenor failed, but it failed due to lack of content, certain content being poorly exected *cough* garrisons *cough*, and lack of overall interest. And we did see some things work well in Draenor or done perfectly like the raids or world objectives. But the main point of my argument is that they won't repeat the same mistakes again, they dropped the ball hard on Draenor and they can tell it has affected the player base quite a lot. Repeating those mistakes again will have heavy repercussions and will more than likely cut into their subs with ease. 

Anyways, I have high hopes for this expansion. We haven't had an expansion dedicated to the very frustrations between the Horde and Alliance. Having to see that it's not some major world ending threat brings a breathe of fresh air to the game in my opinion.

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52 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

Sylvanas especially, she is greedy and only seeks power for her own kind the Forsaken while showing disgust towards the Alliance faction.

The spirits told Vol'jin to give leadership to her; I doubt that was without reason. That and she could have killed Varian in the Legion cinematic but chose not to. Then she could have retreated way before things went bad for Vol'jin/Thrall and that would have been a much more decisive blow against the Alliance compared to the house of puppets it is right now.

55 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

If you look at it, Jaina and Sylvanas disappeared for most of Legion

Sure, but anyone following Jaina so blindly after she lost her temper deserves to have ill befalling them. If Anduin got persuaded by Jaina even though he was so adamant in SoO cinematic and again in the book War Crimes then that better have an incredibly damn good reason.

58 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

Also, we can bet our asses that N'zoth will show up in this expansion as for when and how, who knows. 

Which makes all the less sense for the two factions to go berserk against one another. They got these massive problems to deal with but rather fight among each other. Again, I hope they have some damn good lore reason for that.

 

 

We see a cinematic of Horde fighting Alliance and suddenly we're hyped. I just don't get the driving point or motivation. Much unlike the Legion's opening, which showed camaraderie between the two factions as Sylvanas saved Varian's ass by killing that Infernal. At least that showed they cared for more than a pitiful cease-fire-but-war-anyway-for-20-years-that-leads-nowhere.

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24 minutes ago, Yridaa said:

The spirits told Vol'jin to give leadership to her; I doubt that was without reason. That and she could have killed Varian in the Legion cinematic but chose not to. Then she could have retreated way before things went bad for Vol'jin/Thrall and that would have been a much more decisive blow against the Alliance compared to the house of puppets it is right now.

Killing Varian right then and there wouldn't make sense. She would have not only doomed the Horde but Azeroth itself as these two major factions wouldn't have united due to her actions if that was the case. Also, as I said before, with her being War-chief and the large overall Legion threat in and out of the way who's to say she isn't going about trying to make her Horde or rather the Forsaken prosper? In the Overview we saw Teldrassil the world tree being burned alive, and there is even art of the tree on fire with Sylvanas in front of it. Was this to strike a blow to the Alliance? Who knows, but we can definitely be sure that she is the driving factor for this war.

Quote

Sure, but anyone following Jaina so blindly after she lost her temper deserves to have ill befalling them. If Anduin got persuaded by Jaina even though he was so adamant in SoO cinematic and again in the book War Crimes then that better have an incredibly damn good reason.

I don't think Anduin was persuaded by Jaina, but rather provoked by Sylvanas. Also remember that Sylvanas ditched Varian on the shore and left him and his party overwhelmed leaving the king to die? Yea. I betcha that Manduin has a thirst for vengeance which will lead to some interesting character development on his part as we watched him wanting peace from MoP.

Quote

Which makes all the less sense for the two factions to go berserk against one another. They got these massive problems to deal with but rather fight among each other. Again, I hope they have some damn good lore reason for that.

But they don't know about N'zoth. Sure they received warnings and hints from various characters but wouldn't that easily be out of mind when your in this all out war with the opposite faction?

Quote

 

 

We see a cinematic of Horde fighting Alliance and suddenly we're hyped. I just don't get the driving point or motivation. Much unlike the Legion's opening, which showed camaraderie between the two factions as Sylvanas saved Varian's ass by killing that Infernal. At least that showed they cared for more than a pitiful cease-fire-but-war-anyway-for-20-years-that-leads-nowhere.

There are varying motivations and driving points, just by watching the cinematic or the review trailer we can draw countless of ideas as to what. Blizzard is pretty good at leaving us guessing, so the only way we can see is by playing through the story line itself. If you really have that bad of feeling about this Expac then don't buy it. Wait till a couple of months and gauge how other people feel about it and what the story line really is. But chalking it up as a possibility of a "Draenor" expansion even though we all know why it failed doesn't do much good.

Edited by Rhondis

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21 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

Killing Varian right then and there wouldn't make sense. She would have not only doomed the Horde but Azeroth itself

How is that different from the BfA cinematic? Just because you don't see the threat in the cinematic, doesn't mean it isn't there.

23 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

Also remember that Sylvanas ditched Varian on the shore and left him and his party overwhelmed leaving the king to die?

Of course I did, but it was either Varian or them. (Potentially both)

24 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

But they don't know about N'zoth. Sure they received warnings and hints from various characters but wouldn't that easily be out of mind when your in this all out war with the opposite faction?

But they know about the Void Lords themselves, they know about the massive wound in Azeroth. They know Magni speaks for her and they'd be fools to not heed his (And Azeroth's) warning regarding old gods. Then there's Velen with the gift of Foresight and Khadgar. There's the bronze dragonflight warning of these void lords as well.

It is far more than "some warnings and hints". The void is there, they can reach it and into it. They can simply ask the Nightborne, they know of it.

So now they'd rather annihilate each other first before worrying about anything else. So if one of them manages to do that (Which is obviously not gonna happen for gameplay reasons) then they stand alone against that darkness.

32 minutes ago, Rhondis said:

But chalking it up as a possibility of a "Draenor" expansion even though we all know why it failed doesn't do much good.

That's fair enough. Let's just keep it at "The delivery of BfA doesn't make any sense to me, similar to the delivery of WoD"

 

Something of a... "it's something in between before we develop how the story should continue" --- A filler. That's the vibe I'm getting. And no that doesn't do much good, neither does hyping it up. We all speak our minds (Both positive and negative), but as long as we all keep it civil - like we have been - it won't do any bad either. :)

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I am hyped, thankful to still be able to hype about at least one thing....it might just be as naiv as it is a blessing, but I am looking for ward to it...and really hope to get a beta key.
Last two times...alot of friends got one, most of them not wanting to play, not wanting to help with the progress and process, completely wasted keys. And I was sitting in my chair, so eager to play it, so eager to find everything to enjoy and every little mistake so they may be able to get rid of it and make something awesome.
I understand your sceptical views...but as said, maybe I am just blessed with naivety.

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2 hours ago, XeaKon said:

I have one question: How ,god dammit, did Blizzard create a new subrace called Void Elves(Nightborne counterparts) ?

High elves that follow Alleria and dabble with void powers. That simply means we won't see Windrunner sisters reunite soon :D

Anyway i am really happy for expansion. It's nice change after all that world destruction threat. Most of the new expansion plot is unknown so just ppl that moan about faction war as center should shut up and see what will be unveiled with time. 

Sub-races are great, awesome zandalari trolls and highmountain taurens, don't mind nightborne, they are ok. Alli got decent one except Draenei. Also they told us that its just start so we can see some more in future which nice and fresh way to implement something fresh without waiting every expac for new race.

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13 hours ago, Yridaa said:

How is that different from the BfA cinematic? Just because you don't see the threat in the cinematic, doesn't mean it isn't there.

So you are agreeing that there is seething hatred from Sylvanas herself during Legion? Well, that's probably why BfA is happening.

Quote

But they know about the Void Lords themselves, they know about the massive wound in Azeroth. They know Magni speaks for her and they'd be fools to not heed his (And Azeroth's) warning regarding old gods. Then there's Velen with the gift of Foresight and Khadgar. There's the bronze dragonflight warning of these void lords as well.

It is far more than "some warnings and hints". The void is there, they can reach it and into it. They can simply ask the Nightborne, they know of it.

So now they'd rather annihilate each other first before worrying about anything else. So if one of them manages to do that (Which is obviously not gonna happen for gameplay reasons) then they stand alone against that darkness.

So they know of the Void lords. Ok. Are the void lords doing anything right now? Are there any major threats happening with them? No. We only received hints and warnings from multiple people yet nothing is happening. Key word: Nothing. Sure, Silithus has been stabbed but that's about it, Sargeras did so in his last attempt to hurt Azeroth before the key events taking place on Argus. Unless the actual threat of the Voidlords have shown up, I really don't see the two factions working side by side to stop a threat that has yet shown up. Let alone since Jaina or Sylvanas are willing to ignore those threats and go about their own agenda's and plans.

Quote

That's fair enough. Let's just keep it at "The delivery of BfA doesn't make any sense to me, similar to the delivery of WoD"

 

Something of a... "it's something in between before we develop how the story should continue" --- A filler. That's the vibe I'm getting. And no that doesn't do much good, neither does hyping it up. We all speak our minds (Both positive and negative), but as long as we all keep it civil - like we have been - it won't do any bad either. :)

WoD was only filler in a way that it didn't make any sense. Time traveling orcs? Everyone can agree they dropped the ball on that story line and the lack of content which is the reason why it failed. BfA on the other hand makes sense, we have been putting aside our own hatred for the other faction for far too long, and now that no impending threats are happening of course an all out war for dominance would break out. Just because we have worked alongside each other doesn't mean the small events that took place in-between didn't feed that hatred.

You're missing the point entirely, you're saying the whole fighting against each other doesn't make sense. Yet you seem to keep Sylvanas and Jaina being missing most of Legion out of your argument as if they aren't the ones prompting the war. Or that N'zoth himself is a small factor or piece in this scheme. Sylvanas doesn't care about the Alliance, she is the new War-chief. What do war-chief's do? They fight for the survival of their clan by all means necessary, and if that means wiping out the Alliance then so be it. Jaina, one of the key figures who went missing at the beginning still has a burning hatred for the Horde after what Garrosh did. Who's to say that she's not provoking the War-chief and trying to get pay back? What if she is fooling Manduin into thinking Sylvanas is after the complete destruction of the Alliance? Who knows. But Blizzard actually built up good variables that explains why this is happening. And what about WoD? Nothing hinted to the fact that we would get time traveling orcs. Nothing.

Edited by Rhondis

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13 hours ago, InfernalDevil said:

I didn't get it. I have 12 chars on the server now. Do I need to delete them in order to create a new sub-race or buy change race? 

 

There is a Youtube channel called Taliesin & Evitel Do Games, and they did an interview with two of the other developers behind BfA. And they asked if there will be more character slots and they said they are planning to do!

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6 hours ago, Rhondis said:

There is a Youtube channel called Taliesin & Evitel Do Games, and they did an interview with two of the other developers behind BfA. And they asked if there will be more character slots and they said they are planning to do!

Yeah I just wathced WoW Q&A on Blizzcon. They Said that they will bring 6 more slots. Bit Still I belie It will be awesome to have at least once "token" for free race change. Me my self is a Blood Elf female hunter and I love my blonde girl! But, my best friend is very upset because he is male tauren and he is super exiting of new taurens. Its unfair to force him to play for race change or delete his main.

Any way... Will see. 

 

P.S. thx for the link I will definitely check it. 

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22 hours ago, InfernalDevil said:

I didn't get it. I have 12 chars on the server now. Do I need to delete them in order to create a new sub-race or buy change race? 

I didn't here any options to change race for those like me... 

All this stuff with new expansion is just create more questions then give answers. 

Ofc you don't need to delete anyone!

They are going to add 6 more slots in each server.

(Not sure abaut the total amount of charss por account)

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2 hours ago, InfernalDevil said:

Yeah I just wathced WoW Q&A on Blizzcon. They Said that they will bring 6 more slots. Bit Still I belie It will be awesome to have at least once "token" for free race change. Me my self is a Blood Elf female hunter and I love my blonde girl! But, my best friend is very upset because he is male tauren and he is super exiting of new taurens. Its unfair to force him to play for race change or delete his main.

Any way... Will see. 

 

P.S. thx for the link I will definitely check it. 

But he doesn't need to delete his main, just start a new character, thas all.

I have my 12 chars lvl 110 on my server, and now, i need to decide wich class i'm going to have twice... hard choice hehehe. 

I probably goint to make 6 tanks, they are easy to lvl up, and, finally, I'm going to lvlup an ally (and i'm preaty sure that i'm going to make him my "main alt", bcose i really like the "fog of war" thing they are adding to the game

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On 11/4/2017 at 6:48 PM, Kalrell said:

Why am I getting Twitter credit when I clearly state it was from FinalBossTV's stream!

First time posting even on icy veins :P

Your Tweet kinda gives credit anyway to where it's due :D

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I mean to have read somewhere race changes will work - don't see anything speaking against that. Besides $$$ for Blizz. As far as free race changes - maybe they throw one at us with the xpac. Although free lvl 110 boost seems more likely (same way they did with warlords and legion).

will have to lvl a lighforged paladin, a voidelf hunter and maybe make my b/e hunter a nightborne.

Did they say anything about animations? As most races are already in game, I'd guess they will swing swords, shoot bows and cast spells just like the npcs do now (e.g. the Nightborne are based on Nightelf models afaik, which would make sense of course - could be wrong though).

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      And here are the full changes from the development notes:
      Affliction (Source)
      Affliction Malefic Rapture is now baseline and has been removed from the Affliction tree. Unstable Affliction has been moved to row 1. Writhe in Agony has been moved to row 2. Absolute Corruption and Siphon Life have been moved to row 3. New Talent: Cunning Cruelty - Malefic Rapture has a chance to trigger a Shadow Bolt Volley, dealing damage to 5 enemies within 10 yards of your current target. New Talent: Summoner’s Embrace – Increases the damage dealt by your spells and your demon by 3%. New Talent: Death’s Embrace – Increases Drain Life healing by 30% while your health is at or below 35% health. Damage done by your Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, and Malefic Rapture is increased by 5% when your target is at or below 20% health. New Talent: Relinquished - Agony has 1.25 times the normal chance to generate a Soul Shard. New Talent: Improved Shadow Bolt - The cast time of Shadow Bolt is reduced by 15% and Shadow Bolt deals 20% increased damage. New Talent: Volatile Agony - Refreshing Agony with less than 10 seconds remaining deals Shadow damage to its target and enemies within 10 yards. New Talent: Summoner’s Embrace - Increases the damage dealt or life drained by your Shadow spells and your demon by 3%. New Talent: Malediction - The periodic critical strike chance of Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction is increased by 10%. New Talent: Contagion - Critical strike damage dealt by Agony, Corruption, and Unstable Affliction is increased by 20%. New Talent: Cull the Weak - Malefic Rapture deals 5% increased damage for each enemy it hits. New Talent: Empowered Unstable Affliction - Reduces the cast time of Unstable Affliction by 10/20% and damage dealt by Unstable Affliction has a 5/10% chance to generate a Soul Shard. New Talent: Oblivion - Unleash wicked magic upon your target’s soul, dealing Shadow damage over 3 sec. Deals 10% increased damage, up to 30%, per damage over time effect you have active on the target. Costs 2 Soul Shards. 45 sec cooldown. Siphon Life has been redesigned - Corruption deals 20% increased damage and heals you for 5% of the damage dealt. Kindled Malice has been redesigned - Malefic Rapture damage increased by 4/8%. Corruption damage increased by 10/20%. Malevolent Visionary has been redesigned – Increases the damage of your Darkglare by 70%. When Darkglare extends damage over time effects it also sears the target for Shadow damage. Shadow Embrace has been redesigned - [Shadow Bolt/Drain Soul] apply Shadow Embrace, increasing your damage dealt to the target by [4.0%/2.0%] for 16 sec. Stacks up to [2/4] times. Pandemic Invocation has been removed. Sow the Seeds has been removed. Soul Swap has been removed. Doom Blossom has been removed. Dread Touch has been removed. Soul Flame has been removed. Agonizing Corruption has been removed. Seized Vitality has been removed. Soul-Eater’s Gluttony has been removed. Grand Warlock’s Design has been removed. Grim Reach has been removed. Xavius’ Gambit has been moved to row 6. Withering Bolt has been moved to row 8. Shadow Embrace has been moved to row 7. Inevitable Demise has been moved to row 6. Tormented Crescendo has been moved to row 7. Sacrolash’s Dark Strike has been moved to row 5. Grimoire of Sacrifice has been moved to column 4. Creeping Death has been moved to column 3. Dark Virtuosity has been moved to column 1. Malevolent Visionary has been moved to row 10. Summon Darkglare has been moved to row 9.
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