World of Warcraft: Legion

Vicxas

Well, well, well

Looks like Blizzard are coming out swinging in face of the recent sub losses.

The return of the Legion may actually bring a lot of people back in, especially with the new Demon Hunter class.

More info here:

http://kotaku.com/blizzard-announces-world-of-warcraft-legion-1722477742

super_furry

Seems like they're just out of ideas and scrapping the barrel going back again to the Burning Legion. Remember all the stuff that was in WoW when you loved it? Well it's back! Having Illidan as the reveal in their teaser trailer is so unambitious.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they wheel out Kael'thas again with him whinging about Magisters' Terrace being merely a setback.

TheDoc

I'm such a fanboi, if I could pre-order now, I would.

Demon Hunter, been wanting that since Vanilla alpha.. My favourite hero from WC3. Definitely going to be checking that out, probably not as a main, but most defo as my main alt.

One of the big things there was the PVP change, totally isolated and separate to PVE, will make balancing classes much better

Fingers crossed it is good enough to wipe my memory of WoD

Vicxas

TheDoc wrote: »

I'm such a fanboi, if I could pre-order now, I would.

Demon Hunter, been wanting that since Vanilla alpha.. My favourite hero from WC3. Definitely going to be checking that out, probably not as a main, but most defo as my main alt.

One of the big things there was the PVP change, totally isolated and separate to PVE, will make balancing classes much better

Fingers crossed it is good enough to wipe my memory of WoD

WOD left a really bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths, i'm hoping this will clear a lot of bad blood.

super_furry

Is WoD thought poorly of? I enjoyed what I played of it and thought it was a big improvement on Pandaria, but never got beyond a few weeks of LFRs. I know I'm giving out about Legion but I'll probably by it, level up to 110 and then drop it after a month. Think that's where a lot of people are with WoW now.

IRL_Sinister

Incredible. One of the guys in our Guild was at it and was sending us pics and information the whole time. Blizzard have my money already. Can't wait.

TheDoc

super_furry wrote: »

Is WoD thought poorly of? I enjoyed what I played of it and thought it was a big improvement on Pandaria, but never got beyond a few weeks of LFRs. I know I'm giving out about Legion but I'll probably by it, level up to 110 and then drop it after a month. Think that's where a lot of people are with WoW now.

Levelling was good, raid content was excellent, Garrisons turned out to be ****, just nothing to do outside of raid. and a lot of class issues and other bits and bobs.

The move back to a city is a big plus

Vicxas

TheDoc wrote: »

The move back to a city is a big plus

This, so much this.


Garrisons felt like you were ostracized from the rest of the Alliance/Horde. Cities had a sense of camaraderie and a sense of/showoff.

There was nothing better then rocking into a city with your new kit/mount, it wasnt the same with having to hearth to Stormwind to showoff.

Gonzo

super_furry wrote: »

Is WoD thought poorly of? I enjoyed what I played of it and thought it was a big improvement on Pandaria, but never got beyond a few weeks of LFRs. I know I'm giving out about Legion but I'll probably by it, level up to 110 and then drop it after a month. Think that's where a lot of people are with WoW now.

The questing in WoD was fantastic and the zones look great and everything showed such promise after a strong start.

Then we were thrown into a 'facebook' game with the Garrisons, nothing to do except send followers on quests, stand in garrison, read the chat, everything could be done in the Garrison, total isolation. No reason to ever go beyond Draenor, no reason to go to a city. Outside of raiding there is absolutely nothing to do in WoD, worst expansion ever.

Im really looking forward to Legion, hoping it will fix many of WoD's problems and give people lots of stuff to do beside raiding.

IRL_Sinister

My concern is regarding class halls taking people out of the cities. I also hope people rolling around with the same weapon for an entire expansion doesn't get stale. It's going to be hard to show off my sick gear when everyone has same weapon as me.

Solitaire

Vicxas wrote: »

Well, well, well

Looks like Blizzard are coming out swinging in face of the recent sub losses.

The return of the Legion may actually bring a lot of people back in, especially with the new Demon Hunter class.

Good news everyone! Remember how 6.3 was cancelled? well it wasn't! It was simply renamed "7.0" to give it a €50 price tag! [/farnsworth]

TheDoc wrote: »

Levelling was good, raid content was excellent, Garrisons turned out to be ****, just nothing to do outside of raid. and a lot of class issues and other bits and bobs.

The move back to a city is a big plus

Also, the insane dumbing-down of gear and professions. Streamlining professions and offspec support - good. Removing everything else, like prof bonuses, upgrading, reforging, gemming, inscribing, almost all enchants... was just an almighty act of incredible stupidity. The lack of tweakability was basically a massive nerf to every spec that had any kind of significant stat polarization as you could no longer un**** your gear. Leaving you even more at the mercy of humanity's great foe, RNGesus.

It makes the changes introduced in MoP look like a work of genius in comparison :rolleyes:

IRL_Sinister wrote: »

My concern is regarding class halls taking people out of the cities. I also hope people rolling around with the same weapon for an entire expansion doesn't get stale. It's going to be hard to show off my sick gear when everyone has same weapon as me.

But that's silly, surely Blizz wouldn't make the same mistake twice- owait. Blizz. Well, at least we answered that one ._.

And they won't all look the same, because skins!

Sure, one will be reserved for HC raiders... and another for Mythic raiders with all chievs... and two more for the worldchiev whores...

But! There's lots of PvP skins too! At least for hardcore PvPers with maxed-out Prestige anyway. And another 54676745 skins for the top 100 arena junkies in each Battlegroup...

...yeah, everyone's (read: 95% of server pop) gonna have the same weapon skin ._.

Not a NSA agent

Im excited for it but after WoD Im going to wait for it to go on sale.

WoD was the most expensive expansion with the least in it. The leveling was great but as soon as I finished Nagrand and I was left asking now what? Blizzard has a habit of finding something we like, going over the top with it and then removes it completely.

Im wondering how weapons will work, it looks like you get the artifact early on so I doubt there will be any other weapons.

I'll give it a few months after release and see how things are going but I am not spending more money on less content.

Solitaire

Crazy guess: Relic ilvl will advance through campaign quest completion until campaign is complete and you're at 110, then advances through legendary questline. Regular weapons will be fewer than in the past and will mostly fill in gaps where you've done goofed and advanced beyond your relic weapon somehow (most likely because RNGesus has gifted you a high-ilvl weapon but no magical quest McGuffins to advance your legendary quest chain). No idea if the relic's talent tree will affect regular weapon operation or if it needs to be your current weapon for them to work.

Not a NSA agent

My idea was right, my worry that it would ruin weapon transmog was also sorted.

You’re not going to be getting weapon drops in Legion — you get your artifact weapon early, and it levels up as you do, so you shouldn’t ever need to replace it. Don’t worry — while you can’t use it to transmog other items, you can transmog another item’s appearance over it. So you Ret Paladins that don’t want to use Ashbringer for some reason can mog over it.

http://blizzardwatch.com/2015/08/07/survival-hunters-going-melee-icy-veins-dev-interview/

Dcully

Meh, the last two expansions were a snoozefest for me.
WOW is possibly my favourite game ever, this is the first expansion I have zero interest in, that might change as it gets closer to release I really hope it does.

Vicxas

Dcully wrote: »

Meh, the last two expansions were a snoozefest for me.
WOW is possibly my favourite game ever, this is the first expansion I have zero interest in, that might change as it gets closer to release I really hope it does.

Maybe thats good, you wont get on the hype train.

Polar101

I'm just thinking the next expansion after this will be Revenge of the Lich King, or something like that.

after that:
World of Warcraft: Apocalypse
World of Warcraft: Flames of Pandaria

MagicIRL

Artefact weapons seem pretty cool - I imagine balancing DPS will be eaiser with everyone having the same base weapon plus/minus custom gems and stuff.

After the disaster that currently is Farmville WoW edition, I am sceptical beyond belief about Class Orders and anything follower/garrison related. Words cannot describe how infuriating having this stupid snowy orc hut tied into everything in WoD really is.

Finally, I'm not sure how well they're going to tell so many stories simultaneously. I really hope they pull it off, because it sounds brilliant. There's also a tinfoil hat going around online that WoD was never supposed to happen, but Legion hit a huge roadblock and had to be put off two years, so WoD was smashed together to bridge the gap. Something to with Wraithion and the Legendary Cloak quest points towards Legion and then... WoD happened instead.

Also,

Edgarfrndly

I played WoW since it came out, right up until just before Pandaria was released. By then, at least for me - it became extremely stale and no expansions could change that. All my friends that I started with had quit by then. Got a free week to check out Pandaria a few months later, and my thoughts were only confirmed even more after playing it. Any fun I had in the early days of Vanilla WoW or BC were long gone, and all that was left in it's absence was a sense of desperation on Blizzard's behalf to preserve players.

The game is a over decade old now, and using an engine that doesn't need an overhaul - but needs a complete replacement. I love the lore in Warcraft. Idealistically, I would love them to produce a new Warcraft MMO, with graphics and gameplay to meet today's standards. Legion has caught my interest mildly, but it's nowhere near enough to ever bring me back to playing WoW.

TheDoc

Class halls got cleared up.a bit. It's only a place to like centrslly respectively, change spec and do relevant class style quests and artifact progression.

But you won't be hanging around it, unless you actually want too. Dalaran looks like where most of the downtime will be.

The initial stuff has my interest peaked. Hope they can pull it off. Some of the initial stuff is actually really enticing.

Noxin

Underwhelming tbh.

Ok the new class looks fun. But they're just recycling old content again and slapping a price tag on it.
I've played since vanilla but quit a while back. Like others have said, WOD was great for leveling and probably the best expansion I've seen for it. But those ruddy garrisons just ruined it. I wanted a housing system in wow for years... that was not what I wanted though.

Just can't see the point in going back atm. I'll keep an eye on it for sure. But I deffo will not be pre-ordering it as I normally would.
I'm still angry about what they did to the talent system and crafting

TheDoc

I think recycling old content is lazy analysis. It's an entirely new continent, with entirely new areas. New raids and dungeons.

The only thing that is being "recycled" is Illidan, and it's not clear if he will be an enemy, or an ally. something tells me he will be an ally this time round. It seems the recycling thing comes from misinterpretation of the lore. You didn't kill him in Bt, you defeated Illidan. He was then captured and placed in that holding prism. (Where afaik he initially broke out off)

More I read about it more I'm excited. Good shake up of a few classes, the artifcat thing looks excellent and will bring genuine reasons to keep playing for me outside of raids. The talent system within the artificats look good also.

I think having no weapon drops in WoD is good. Since its redundant anyway. I got my weapon in Highmaul, I replaced it in BRF, which I kept and still have in HFC. Bsically weapons for a lot of classes, only ever changed when the new BIs dropped in the next tier. So having one the entire expansion isn't a bad thing.

I'm back playing my DK now, s Frost. DW seems the spec to go, and I'm having a NIGHTMARE trying to get my hands on two one handed weapons

The class hall is grand. A place for class specific quests, but nothing in it to keep you there indefinitely. The move back to the city is a good one.

Garrisons are totally gone btw, its still in Draenor, but it wont go with you in the new expansion.

They are redoing professions and adding quests for them. Again recognition they ****ed that part up, so hopefull it gets better. A return to crafted gear being meaningful would be nice. This **** of making one, that you just upgrade was a bit rubbish. I didn't even bother with them past the initial 640 gear for highmaul.

And PVP being done so it seperates from PvE, and can be balanced independently? That's great for both genre of player. It's also slowly removing excuses for all specs not being viable in both parts of content. Sure there will always be one that is the best, but having them all VIABLE is great for the majority of players.

Genuinelly hopeful they have learned some lessons and the game will get a bit more back to its core, and provide content to keep people playing outside of monotonous stuff like shipyard and garrisons missions queing. They have indicated dungeons need to change back to being something kept relevant for an entire expansion. That excites me. Potential return to a gear related currency?

MagicIRL

I think, in terms of playability, they need to address the alt situation now. Everyone has more than one max level toon these days, and WoD, for example, is an absolute nightmare with more than one max toon.

TheDoc

MagicIRL wrote: »

I think, in terms of playability, they need to address the alt situation now. Everyone has more than one max level toon these days, and WoD, for example, is an absolute nightmare with more than one max toon.

Yeah I feel a lot of problems with my alts, logging them all to queue up garrisons and shipyards, its about 30 minute gametime for absolute nonsense.

The Apex dailies are a slog. I did them across a range of alts to gear to relatively new alts. I'm back playing my DK and while I want to get his ilvl up, couldn't be aarsed doing a third apex grind.

The idea is good, I like the way they provide final patch catchup mechanics for alts, but the variety within the apex dailies is piss poor. The table mission is fine, then you get a quest, to do TWO MORE bonus objectives, where everyone runs the same ones over and over.

To be honest I probably wouldn't have so much of a problem if I had more gametime, nowadays I don't. So I struggle to get everything done. But I cant exactly ask Blizzard to accommodate me, since that is moving away from the core principle, something I want them to move back to. If anything, maybe next expansion I'll stop with so many alts, and just stick to 2-3, raid them, and keep them well geared.

Not sure what major changes they could make for alts. While I agree its something everyone does, it something people do when they have time for it. I don't think its integral to the game, and I think if alts got TOO easy to manage, gear and maintain, it would dilute raids severely.

Calhoun

I don't agree bliss should have a big alt focus bar one maybe two. The focus on alts so much has diluted the uniqueness of each class, in a focus to make sure everyone can play any class they want easily they have basically simplified and standardised class abilities so much that individual classes have lost their identities.

Moving back to a more class focused approach with more focus on one class can only be a good thing in my eyes.

Also agree with your point doc I would take it further and say the easy accessibility of alts has actua.ly devalued player achievement as people just become throwaway as there are more alts out there to pick up the slack.

Lone Stone

i enjoyed wad as a single player experiance, but yeah i dunno i think im just done with mmo's they dont have that exploring a world feel anymore for me. but knowing me im sure il get it at some stage and lvl to cap.

MagicIRL

Its all about the raiding for me. Love progression raids with a good group of people. My current guild is an absolute blast, and only two days a week too.

WoD had some great raids and mechanics in BRF and HFC. Hope they continue it in Legion.

TheDoc

Actually something I'm looking forward to is the pre-expansion invasion

Hasn't been one since WOTLK zombie invasion. For a game that has a leaving breathing world, Blizz never properly harness it.

Three of my most memorable wow moments have been related to world events , and not some epic drop I got.

In beta before they shut down the servers they did an infernal/legion invasion. It was epic. Cities were being crushed and hundreds of players with absolutely no way to kill them, were working together to try. IT was brilliant

I also fondly remember Vanilla where spontaneous battles and fights would break out. The Barrens, Tarren Mill, Ashenvale. I was horde at the time and alliance would arrive in batches kicking the **** out of us. Then more horde would come to help, and Alliance would be pushed back. The battles would go back and forth. We'd push them back to ashenvale, theyd push us back to thousand needles. IT was immense. You didn't worry about levelling, getting drops, running dungeons. You just got caught up in a moment.

I really want Blizzard to harness the world they have, and have more world events.

Headless Horseman event is my favourite that still happens. Something about dark October nights and all the Halloween décor. I remember I did the achiev which meant going to all the inns and it was brilliant.

Kiith

I don't ever see them going back to that frame of mind though. Southshore/Tarren Mill battle were one of my favourite experiences in Warcraft. So much fun having a huge fight, and getting pushed right back to your town. Spent hours just messing about there.

As for this expansion, i'll probably pick it up again, but only for a month or so i'd say. I like the story, and it's always good to see the Burning Legion, so that'll keep me interested for a while. The levelling will no doubt be excellent again, as they have really learned how to create an entertaining levelling experience.

Calhoun

Kiith wrote: »

I don't ever see them going back to that frame of mind though. Southshore/Tarren Mill battle were one of my favourite experiences in Warcraft. So much fun having a huge fight, and getting pushed right back to your town. Spent hours just messing about there.

As for this expansion, i'll probably pick it up again, but only for a month or so i'd say. I like the story, and it's always good to see the Burning Legion, so that'll keep me interested for a while. The levelling will no doubt be excellent again, as they have really learned how to create an entertaining levelling experience.

That stuff still happens you just have to be on the right server, wpvp still happens however it happens in smaller map sizes like tanaan, spires of arak, timeless isle ect. It happens outside of these places but these are the natural hubs.

Vicxas

Im assuming we're looking at a November release again.

Plenty of time to justify spending all my money on warcraft again hehe