66 Why the elves became weak in the game?

Heaven above didn't seem to hear Tom's prayer; the current battlefield was in fact in chaos. Trolls spread around trying to chase the impossible and paid the due price. Tom's group was just one of many who suffered and could be said to be among the luckiest few. Because the ranger's bait worked most of the time, angering the trolls to fall into their traps. There were very few leaders whose minds were sane like Tom's. If not falling for the first trap, most of the trolls fell for a second one like Tom's final decision phase, where the elves seemed to give them an opportunity.

To Tom, it appeared the battle was sparse and as close to skirmish because the prior ambush dwelled his mind into confusion. The truth was the previous engagement occurred on a huge field, including all the trolls in the forward elements against 1000 Windrunners and 500 more in reserve to react to any situation. Lireesa was sitting on the dragonhawk gliding in the sky and overlooking the whole battlefield. She watched the initial phase where arrows rained down on trolls to the point her rangers made a tactical retreat and annihilated some groups.

The reaction of trolls ensued as Lireesa had guessed; most trolls suffered casualties on the first contact and the rest of the number piled up due to underestimating the elves when they retreated, thinking Windrunner were frightened of them. Or some knew the tricks and tried to avoid but when the mentalities were agitated to the breaking point, trolls lost control and fell in the palm of their enemies.

The battle appeared too easy for Windrunner without the interference of quasi-legends from the troll side. In conventional case for high elves, the battle was only deemed victory if the ratio between the enemy and the elf was 10 to 1. Otherwise, even if victory was achieved, they lost in the long run. Every loss took a huge amount of time to recover, especially for the elites. Quel'Thalas hated Pyric's victory because the population of the entire kingdom itself was very low and no one could bear such a loss. Perhaps in addition to the good moral values, this might be a factor why elves rarely went to war.

Lireesa staying from above had a clear sight and awareness of the battle situation. She even directed some maneuvers downward by delivering commands to the two dragonhawk riders who served as a messenger exactly for this case. She moved some Windrunners who were available after finishing off their opponents to cut off some trolls' retreat paths. Before this battle started, the plan was to consume as many trolls as they could before the rest of the troll's elements could react.

Viewing from above and adding some new adjustments was a whole different experience for Lireesa. Her predecessor's memory had never done this. Bird's eye view was the tactical advantage she had, except that her orders weren't communicated fast as she hoped for. Lireesa could see the current trolls their Windrunners were killing were definitely different. Even though many were confused by the elves' new maneuver, she could discover them making a good decision. The opponent her ranger faced this time could be considered elite.

Her eyebrows raised at the thoughts these trolls even brought the elite quick to confront her small-size force. It appeared the troll chief of this tribe, where her target was, was either an idiot who didn't understand politics or a great visioner who already predicted what Lireesa was planning ahead. Lireesa would choose the former because unless necessary Quel'Thalas wasn't willing to go to war. If the chief himself was present as Sena had guessed, Lireesa would be speechless.

Even at a great height, no disturbances annoyed Lireesa as the flight itself was steady and the wings flap were minimum when her dragonhawk was gliding. She was able to think deeply about other topics whilst her concentration was on the battlefield. Since her friend Sena was the commander of this entire ranger element, Lireesa wasn't needed as much except for some advice. Her prior command was actually what she deemed fit according to the situation and wouldn't appear patronizing to Sena.

Some might ask if Lireesa's Windrunners were already powerful, why did her family suffer tragedies in the plot? The only reply she had was shrugging her shoulders and saying nope. She didn't know the exact reason but she had some guesses after staying on Azeroth for some time.

First, trolls weren't nobody and they founded a huge empire long before the arrival of elves and the human without reason. They were strong and respectable opponents if one ignored their barbaric cultures. Windrunners slaughtered these trolls because they were too weak. If their size grew and their average level rose, what awaited ahead for Windrunners was a tough battle. Should they have the same levels and numbers compared to her Windrunners, Lireesa betted all her possession that her ranger could handle them but at a grave price.

However, it was impossible for trolls to even come up with 1500 high-levels for any battles because they just didn't possess these numbers. A long-lived species prospered due to its distinguished advantages but with dreadful costs. Living long meant having more training time and the chances of upgrading were higher because of sufficient time.

Races other than elves rarely managed to upgrade to a high level before their lives ran out. And those who were already capable of breakthroughs were exceptionally talented. There was no doubt about it. At the same time, elves couldn't recover quickly from the war like trolls and humans did since it took 10 times longer. So, the Windrunner weakened for an obvious basis on Azeroth. Continuous war consumed the elites.

Second, what annihilated Lireesa's family was the orcs, not the trolls. Windrunners didn't have a better knowledge of these monsters' fighting capabilities and were suddenly attacked without warnings. Since orcs had higher numbers and were more elite compared to trolls, Windrunners naturally suffered, not to mention the vanguard which invaded Azeroth was made of the best of the best and most drank Devil blood, using fel energy.

All WOW players were aware of these monsters' combat rose tremendously with the help of Fel. A legendary orc, named Grom Hellscream, even killed a demigod Cenarius personally without assistance, breaking the myth of demigods being unkillable by mortals.

Therefore, with their superior numbers and plus points, even rangers' elites lost their edges. Furthermore, rangers displayed high effectiveness in different scenarios except for defense, which was the battle Windrunners confronted the orcs. Windrunners in the lore all went into battle under minus points.

Third, continuous wars drained not only Windrunners but also the entire Quel'Thalas, which led to their downfall during Scourge Invasion where her second daughter also died and was revived as undead. The intensity of the times of war outbreaks outpaced the elves' recovery phase.

Whenever people in the past world always praised humans as talented in any universe, Lireesa sneered at their remarks and strangely discovered the weird phenomenon, where even in the movie world, humans were egocentric. Yes, that was the whole truth. Beginning from history and theories, many thought they were the center of the universe, which was also the reason why some even depicted the sun, other stars, and planet revolving around Earth. Some even went to the extreme, only humans were the intelligent species in the universe. How delusional was humankind in the past or might be till today?

In World of Warcraft, Lireesa always saw these arguments humans were talented as such even the elves had to bow down in front of the alliance. It was never talent that made them superior; it was an inevitable result of several events leading toward this. The explosion of Tree of Eternity alongside big boss like Archimonde raised the energy levels of Azeroth, allowing more powerhouses to breakthrough quasi or whatnot above. Consequently, during these high tides of mana, the race with more population won, which was indeed humanity when all races across Azeroth went through destruction and into recovery mode. Since everyone was back to square one, humans had an easier time catching up and overpassing the elves. Even then they weren't able to surpass the night elves whose foundations were deep for ten thousand years.

For instance, before the orcs invaded Azeroth, high elves had a huge number of Legend experts compared to a tiny portion of humanity. To enter these realms, one required a colossal accumulation of mana and an understanding of the law; elves had an easier path whereas humans had to fight their lifespan along. The mana tide was also low and gave birth to fewer legends. This never meant humanity was weak; in fact, Lireesa could directly point out Aegwynn, a female human magister, whose power was equal to demigod level. She could be known as the most powerful archmage in the entire Azeroth. But was she comparable to Queen Azshara who was the pinnacle of the elf's civilization? Not an inch.

Were humans more talented than elves? The answer was a big no. If one pointed out the ratio of successfully becoming a mage between two races, humans were chosen only one out of every 100000 populations, while the elves could choose 1 out of every thousand. The inevitable downfall of Quel'Thalas saddened and reminded Lireesa to change this situation to a second goal besides saving her family. Even if her previous life was a human, the past was gone and what beheld was the future. Now guessing the true reasons, Lireesa had one option—to increase Windrunners' strength by any means necessary as long as it didn't break the moral and ethical boundary.

Lireesa continued soaring in the sky as she watched trolls beaten and regrouped. Only fewer than half the previous numbers of trolls survived this ambush and precarious circumstances stood just a distance away. There wasn't enough time for the Windrunners before the rest of the troll's element reacted to their ambush. No matter how much her rangers tried to agitate them, these trolls were unmoved. Even under the barrage of arcane burst shots, they tolerated. Although these attacks were damaging, it was better than rushing to the elves for deaths. The elven women felt like they were catching a turtle in the urn.

If Lireesa knew these trolls were still complaining to their scouts about their misfortune, she would mock them out loud. Troll's scouts were useless as soon as they left the group as dragonhawk riders eliminated them or high-level rangers on the ground shot them before they made it alive to report. There was no way except if the scouts were all piled up with high-level professions.

Soon, Lireesa saw her rangers retreating orderly and disengaging the battle, showing the rest of the trolls were nearing and Sena favored tactical pause to further plan for these trolls. Another dragonhawk rider came to her and confirmed the news. Lireesa was here to guard against suspected Legend and she wasn't too eager to be on the battlefield. She nodded at her subordinates and flew back to the staging area. Her eyes noticed trails of trolls' corpses littered across the plain and lamented these soils would be fertile in a short year.