Newcomers to Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft will want to skip the pleasantries of low-level play and join the big leagues. After all, it’s in the endgame where powerful players get to interact with some of the most popular figures in Warcraft lore. Get strong enough, and players can square off against foes such as Arthas Menethil the Lich King, Illidan Stormrage, and even Sargeras the Dark Titan himself. What better way to get to know Warcraft‘s story than from their eyes, right?
Interestingly, a huge portion of Warcraft‘s lore lie beyond these big players. In fact, players might be surprised that a lot of Warcraft‘s more interesting stories lie in smaller quest lines. For instance, the Gnoll Hogger has a minor role in the player’s life as an Elite monster. However, his interactions behind the scenes may shed a lot of insights towards the impact of minor factions to the bigger Warcraft canon.
10 An Indirect Agent
Aside from his infamy as a low-level Elite, Hogger does have his own fair share of lore. In the game, Hogger serves as the indirect representative of both the Riverpaw Gnoll tribe and the Defias Brotherhood. As fans might recall, the Riverpack Gnoll pack has a reputation for their vicious invasion of the Southern Elwynn Forest. Meanwhile, the Defias Brotherhood serves as an anti-Alliance faction of assassins and mercenaries.
Despite the rather mundane nature of the trivia, this does reveal a few intricacies in Stormwind politics. For instance, Hogger’s existence reveals that even smaller factions outside the Alliance form contacts with other minor groups. Moreover, even seemingly-unrelated organizations like the Defias Brotherhood and the Riverpack can actually form alliances.
9 The Beast, Scourge Of Elwynn
Interestingly, Hogger’s infamy as a difficult beginner boss seems to have other forms of symbolism as well – even outside the main MMO. For instance, Hogger is featured in Hearthstone as a boss. In the card game, he has the title of “Scourge of Elwynn.” He gets sent to the Stockade once more after his defeat at the hands of Jaina Proudmoore.
Moreover, Hogger’s classification as a “beast” can get further extended to an apparent reference to the Christian “Beast.” Some fans claim that Hogger has exactly 666 Health, the “Mark” of the Beast. Interestingly, it seems Hogger shares the same HP as Flat Tusk and Old Icebeard, other NPCs that players have to fight as well.
8 Vicious Boss For A Starter Dungeon
Players who want to get into some endgame action don’t necessarily have to get to max level just to enjoy fighting bosses with friends. In fact, Hogger serves as the end boss for a popular starter dungeon: The Stormwind Stockade.
As the name suggests, this small dungeon serves as the heavily-guarded prison below Stormwind City. Players of Level 15 can start attempting this dungeon, but they can comfortably fight enemies at around Levels 20 to 30. Hogger himself has a Vicious Slice targeted attack and a Maddening Call AOE that reduces speed.
7 The Infamous Hogger Raid
In the early days of World of Warcraft, Hogger became the subject of the infamous Hogger Raid. Essentially, Level 1 characters will form a massive raid group to try and “kill” Hogger. Due to their weak stats, they had to try defeating him via the equivalent of StarCraft‘s Zerg Rush. This strategy always resulted in multiple casualties, with raid groups barely able to kill him.
Sadly, the game eventually banned Level 1 characters from forming a raid group of their own. In turn, the Hogger Raid became the stuff of legends for older World of Warcraft players.
6 Fake Loot, Fake News
Sadly, even Hogger became the stuff of fake news in the early days of the MMO. Hogger became the stuff of jokes for high-level characters. Back in the day, these people often boasted how rare items such as Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker Thunderaan or Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian Medivh, became a part of Hogger’s loot.
However, players need to remember that Hogger doesn’t drop powerful loot. Moreover, while newcomers might find Hogger’s instance tricky to complete, rumors that say Hogger “is just as strong” as other popular raid bosses isn’t true as well.
5 Glorified Statistic
Hogger’s reputation as a difficult newcomer boss became a running gag even for the game’s developers. As fans might recall, the game began tracking certain player statistics beginning Wrath of the Lich King. These included deaths due to various circumstances, such as being killed by mobs, or drowning in deep water, or even falling into lava.
However, it seems that Blizzard inserted a nod to Hogger’s infamy by including his own statistic there. Apparently, characters can track how many times Hogger has killed them in their entire playthrough of the game.
4 A Hogger Costume
Players don’t hear much about Hogger after his imprisonment in the Stockade. However, players who do need to go the Stockade might gleam some interesting insights about the other prisoners. For example, players can find the human Kazul as one of the prisoners in the Stockade. This seemingly-harmless human appears to found herself in prison for impersonating Hogger.
Moreover, when players roam around the Stockade, they can see a discarded Gnoll “costume.” This “costume” appears in the form of a lifeless Hogger just lying on some crates in the dungeon.
3 The Undefeatable Hogger
Interestingly, despite Hogger’s strength not being equal to those of other bosses, Hogger did become extremely strong. Blizzard might remember that BlizzCon back in the day used to feature live sessions of World of Warcraft. In particular, BlizzCon 2009 actually featured a live raid of the popular Premonition raiding guild.
As expected, the raiding guild bested the bosses featured in the live raid. However, they eventually came across a Level 80 Heroic version of Hogger. Sadly, the guild wasn’t able to best this version of Hogger.
2 A Quote References Another Quote
Lore fans who look deep into some intricacies within Hogger might realize that even some of his quotes actually serve as references to other pieces of lore. In The Stockade Raid, fighting Hogger will make him scream: “Forest just setback!”
This quote actually serves as a callback to Kael’thas Sunstrider’s infamous line “Tempest Keep was merely a setback” in the Magister’s Terrace Raid. Likewise, Hogger’s callback serves as the second time something referenced the popular quote. The first instance of this happening could be traced to Prince Valanar (Icecrown Citadel) where he says, “Naxxanar was merely a setback!”
1 Inside The Nexus
Interestingly, fans might also encounter Hogger once more in another Blizzard game outside WoW. As it turns out, Hogger becomes a playable character in the Blizzard MOBA Heroes of the Storm. According to Blizzard character designer Samwise Didier, he wanted to include Hogger in the MOBA as early as 2014.
In the game, Hogger wields a flail reminiscent of classic Gnoll creeps as designed for Warcraft 3. As a Bruiser, Hogger specializes in area control. He also boasts strong burst damage, albeit having weaknesses in terms of mobility and poke damage in general.
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