I had originally planned to write this post Thursday, but the amount of information unloaded on us was staggering. We knew we were getting an expansion announced, but the amount of detail we go on some of the features was really surprising. I'm going to go through this post with the assumption that you have either seen or read most of the information released, and I'll touch on each of the features point by point. Let's dive right in to World of Warcraft: Legion.
The Demon Hunter Hero Class:
The Demon Hunter has probably been the most requested new class since Burning Crusade. Leading up to the announcement of every expansion you could count on multiple posts on Warcraft fan sites speculating on that it was time for them to make their appearance. Well here they are and we got a decent amount of detail on them. They are going to be a Leather wearing class, with one Melee DPS spec; Havoc, and one Tanking spec; Vengeance. The pictures above are of their respective Metamorphosis form. They are available only to Night Elves and Blood Elves unfortunately. And they will apparently work on a Demonic Fury resource, but we don't have the details of exactly how that will work. We don't know yet what level they will be starting at, but if I had to venture a guess I would say 90-95. We will probably level as we go through the Hero Class starting experience, and have that join up with the end of Warlords at level 100.
Back when people were predicting Demon Hunters regularly, I was one of the naysayers. Too many of the iconic abilities had been given to other classes (Metamorphosis!), and they always looked too farfetched when compared to the classes we already had. While I have no problem admitting I was wrong (since they are here), but those same reasons have me less excited about this new class. Right now, classes are differentiated visually primarily by gear. When you see a Troll in Skyshatter you know its a Shaman, and the same is true of a Paladin in Judgement. Demon Hunters break that mold in a huge way. As you walk through Dalaran in Legion amidst the player models you have seen for years, will be things with giant horns and wings. I guess I am just more of a traditionalist, and the Demon Hunter has broken the mold a little too far. It's also a little disappointing that they are reserved strictly for Elven races. I play primarily Horde and I've never been a fan of Blood Elves mostly because they seem to be overpopulated. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to come off as totally against the class. I will absolutely roll a Demon Hunter and give it an honest try, but I don't think it will be replacing my main anytime soon. PS: Why are people so excited about double jump? Maybe I'm out of the loop but it doesn't really seem to accomplish anything other than look cool.
Artifact Weapons:
Artifact Weapons are really exciting to me. They seem to be a lot of things rolled into one feature. At their core, Artifacts are powerful named weapons specific to a individual spec. Underneath that, they are a player progression system and potentially an epic class quest rolled into one. Shortly after we begin our journey to the Broken Isles we will be given a unique quest that leads to us receiving our unique weapon. I imagine this will be a smaller version of the Warlock green fire quest. That quest line was really well done and delivered not only some cool lore, but also a really unique experience. I don't think Blizzard will go into that level of depth 36 times for these weapons, but there is a chance and even something half as epic would be pretty cool.
After we earn our weapon, we unlock the player progression path in the image above. Throughout our leveling process, and as we complete level 110 content, we will power up our weapon and unlock points to spend on its unique talent tree to earn various spell buffs and other effects. Eventually you will be able to unlock all of the bonuses and earn various model changes and color tints. I think this is a really nice way to reward the leveling process and max level progression on an individual basis. I think of it as a vastly improved version of the Draenor perks we got this expansion. Instead of every two levels getting a spell buff that you then forget about since it's baked into the spell, we get a choice of how to augment our character as we go on. I honestly don't remember what any of the perks I earned were leveling through Draenor. I have no doubt this system will feel infinitely better.
Another subtle side of the Artifact Weapons is that they seem to replace the system that the more negative side of the community would call "welfare legendaries". I admit I have grown tired of the expansion long process of grinding out assorted items in order to eventually earn a legendary that everyone else has. And while this system will no doubt have the same issue to an extent, I would rather have an item that is at least unique to my spec rather than specific to all casters or all tanks. The shift from Legendary to Ancient also opens Blizzard up to bring back traditional legendaries that can make a select few players truly feel special and unique. A new legendary would need to be in a non-weapon slot, but that doesn't seem like too big of a hurdle. Maybe a legendary Skull of Guldan trinket. At this point this is probably the feature I am most excited about from what we have seen so far.
The Broken Isles:
Possibly the most overlooked part of every expansion, the new continents and zones are one of the things I end up looking forward to the most. After you have seen a few expansions, the new areas can quickly become something you just expect to see and then dismiss just as quickly. But I think there is something to be gained from looking ahead to the zones we will be immersing ourselves in for at least a year. This time around the new continent has a lot that veteran players can be excited about. Highmountain in the north is the home of the Highmountain Tauren who to this point have only been mentioned in game. Tauren lore has been somewhat lacking since the Cataclysm brought the Grimtotem back into the fray so getting a real look at ancient Tauren civilization would be really fun. Stormheim is a zone that will remind players a lot of Wrath of the Lich King. Early screenshots remind me a lot of less snowy Borean Tundra. Here will learn more about what happened to the Vrykul that left Northrend, what the origin of the Val'kyr is, and what's going on with the two warring Titan keepers. With the Val'kyr playing a role, expect this to be the main reason for Slyvanas' interest in coming along to the Broken Isles. Val'Sharah is where Malfurion became the first Druid, and it is where we will be confronted by Xavius and the forces coming through from the Emerald Nightmare. Much of what happened in the Emerald Dream was dealt with in the novel Stormrage, but the initial raid of this expansion will be a nice way to close out that story and let players see an area they have been asking for since classic WoW. The last two major zones are linked together in what's going on, and I think both zones will have a lot of story for us to explore. Suramar is the ancient capitol of the Kaldorei and now houses a race of Night Elves that have continued to embrace the use of arcane magic and have flourished with it. To the west of Suramar is Azsuna, which is home to the spirits of ancient Night Elves in addition to a sect of elves called the Nightfallen who were exiled from Suramar. While we don't know exactly what the story is between these two zones, but we do know that Queen Azshara will at least make an appearance as we progress through them. Azshara is the most threatening being on Azeroth besides the Legion and the Old Gods, so if she is getting involved it's definitely worth paying attention to. The potential for amazing story threads on top of Ancient Night Elf architecture should make these two zones great. I'm really looking forward to leveling through these zones to 110, especially if Blizzard carries the process over from Warlords of Draenor since it was one of Warlords' few strong points.
Class Order Halls:
The last feature I want to talk about is the one we've gotten the least amount of detail on. Class order halls will apparently be instanced areas that players will go and share with other players of the same class similar to how Acherus works for Death Knights now. This is where we are going to upgrade and tweak our Artifact Weapons, and it will apparently be a altered form of Garrisons. We will act as the leader of the order for our class, and we will recruit and lead notable characters of the same class to go on new forms of missions for us. Unlike Warlords however, these recruits will unlock content for us rather than be names and rewards on a mission table. The example the developers gave was that we send them out to a zone, and while they are there they discover a cave or a disturbance and they come back and tell us about it so that we can handle it. This sounds great in theory but I really want to see the process in action in the beta. Garrisons have left a really sour taste in peoples mouths so going back to that well may end up doing more harm than good.
Well, thanks for reading as always friends! Let me know what you think about the expansion. What are you excited about? What are you hoping for that we maybe haven't heard about yet?
Until next time,
Chris
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