World of Warcraft: Legion

World of Warcraft: Legion
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Director(s)	Tom Chilton Ion Hazzikostas Alex Afrasiabi
Designer(s)	Cory Stockton Jonathan LeCraft Jeremy Feasel Brian Holinka Chadd Nervig
Composer(s)	Russell Brower Neal Acree Clint Bajakian
Series	Warcraft
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, OS X
Release date(s)	August 30, 2016
Genre(s)	Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

World of Warcraft: Legion is the sixth expansion set in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Warlords of Draenor. It was announced on August 6, 2015 at Gamescom 2015.^[1] The expansion was released on August 30, 2016.^[2]

The expansion raises the existing level cap from 100 to 110, features artifact weapons for each classes' specializations, includes a new area on Azeroth called the Broken Isles and introduces the demon hunter hero class that starts at level 98. It initially included ten 5-man dungeons and two raids.^[3]

Gameplay

The expansion allows players to level up to 110 in the Broken Isles, an increase from the cap of 100 in the previous expansion Warlords of Draenor. Initially there are ten dungeons with patch 7.1 adding the revamped Karazhan dungeon and patch 7.2 will add the Sargeras related dungeon Cathedral of the Eternal Night. There are three raid tiers planned for Legion, with "The Emerald Nightmare" raid that opened three weeks after release, the small raid "Trial of Valor" in patch 7.1, "The Nighthold" raid in patch 7.1.5 and the raid, "Tomb of Sargeras" in patch 7.2.^[4] After Emerald Nightmare was opened, Mythic+ dungeons and Legion's first player versus player (PvP) season began.

The development team made a number of changes to the PvP aspects of the game. There is a PvP honor system that unlocks PvP honor talents and there are separate abilities for use only in PvP that are not available in player versus environment gameplay. Honor talents are abilities earned through increased levels in PvP and are activated while players engage in PvP. Once players hit maximum honor level, they can choose to earn a prestige level that resets the honor talents earned and gives cosmetic bonuses. In PvP combat, gear will be nullified and all bonuses related to gear will be deactivated, with the exception of artifact weapons and their related powers. Instead, Legion will predetermine a set of stats configured to a player's specialization that can be modified for class balance purposes. However, a player's average item level will still factor in PvP; every point above item level 800^[5] results in a 0.1% increase to a player's PvP stats.^[6]

Artifact weapons

Artifact weapons are powerful items that were wielded by legends of the Warcraft universe, and only available to player characters in Legion. There are 36 unique weapons specific for every class and specialization combination, which include the Ashbringer (the sword wielded by Tirion Fordring) for retribution paladins, the Doomhammer (the warhammer wielded by Thrall) for enhancement shamans, the Icebringer and Frostreaper (twin blades together known as the 'Blades of the Fallen Prince' that are forged from the Frostmourne formerly wielded by the Lich King) for frost death knights, and other powerful weapons from the Warcraft lore. In addition, there is a fishing artifact called the Underlight Angler for those dedicated to fishing.^[7] Players will complete quests to obtain these weapons, and the weapons will gain power alongside the player as they level up through the Broken Isles, complete world quests, and defeat dungeon and raid bosses. The appearance of artifacts can be customized.^[8] At level 102, quests are available to acquire the other artifact weapons from a player's class.

Demon hunter

The demon hunter is the second "hero class" in World of Warcraft, joining the death knight that was introduced in Wrath of the Lich King. Demon hunters begin as members of the Illidari, the elite guard of Illidan Stormrage during his rule of Outland in The Burning Crusade. Demon hunters operate on the concept of "fighting fire with fire", wielding demonic fel magic to fuel their attacks, and harnessing the powers of demons they kill in order to fight against the Burning Legion. To become demon hunters, an initiate must consume the heart of a demon that results in most initiates dying due to being overwhelmed by the demonic energy or going insane; the survivors become part demon, taking on demonic aspects including horns, wings, claws and hooves.^[9] Demon hunters ritually blind themselves to gain 'spectral sight', allowing them to detect demonic energy from demons and to see stealthed enemies.^[10]

Similar to death knights, demon hunters are able to fill the tank or damage dealer role, but only have two specializations: vengeance (tank) and havoc (damage). They wear leather armor and wield a pair of warglaives, a weapon type that is a curved two-bladed short sword, similar to the twin blades wielded by Illidan.^[3] Unlike the death knight, which is available to all races except for pandaren, demon hunters are only playable by the two elvish races - the night elves (Alliance) and the blood elves (Horde).^[11] While any race has the potential to become a demon hunter, Illidan only trained night elves and blood elves in the Black Temple. Each player is only allowed one demon hunter per realm and must already have a level 70 on that realm in order to create one.

As a hero class, the demon hunter does not start at level 1 but instead starts at level 98.^[12] Demon hunters have a unique starting experience, similar to death knights; their story begins ten years before Legion (shortly before Illidan's death in the Black Temple raid, as depicted in The Burning Crusade) on the shattered Burning Legion world of Mardum, where they have been sent by Illidan to obtain a demonic artifact, the Sargerite Keystone, in order to defeat the Legion on other worlds. Upon returning to Outland, the demon hunters find Illidan slain by the Wardens, and are captured and imprisoned in the Vault of the Wardens back on Azeroth. Ten years later, demon hunters are freed in order to fight against the Legion's invasion after losses at the Broken Shore.^[11] As a base of operations, the class's order hall is the Fel Hammer located on Mardum.^[10]

Order halls

Each class has an "order hall" - a place of great power linked closely to a character's class, such as Acherus (the hub for death knights introduced in Wrath of the Lich King) or the Peak of Serenity (the hub for monks introduced in Mists of Pandaria), where only members of that class can congregate. Player characters can upgrade the look and abilities of their artifact weapons in their class's order hall and engage in missions in the Broken Isles. The player character, for lore purposes, is the leader of the class's organization in question (e.g. a paladin character is the Highlord of the Order of the Silver Hand), similar to being the commander of Alliance or Horde forces in Warlords of Draenor. The order hall locations include the sanctuary beneath Light's Hope Chapel for paladins, a cave overlooking the Maelstrom for shamans, and an enclave on the Burning Legion portal world of Dreadscar Rift for warlocks.^[13] The order halls do not include access to the auction house or banks to encourage players to go to the major cities.

Changes to existing classes

Some existing classes experienced major changes. For example, hunters, who are predominantly ranged and rely on animal pets, had their three specializations changed: Survival allows them to wield melee weapons while fighting alongside their pet, Beastmaster can use multiple pets at once and Marksmanship has the option to forego their pet in exchange for stronger ranged abilities.^[14] Warlocks' demonology specialization no longer has the metamorphosis ability because a similar ability was given to demon hunters; this warlock specialization is refocused around using multiple summoned demon minions at once.^[3] Other removals from the game include the Gladiator Stance talent for Protection Warriors, which helps that specialization do increased damage at the expense of tanking ability, and the Fistweaving talent that allows Mistweaver Monks to heal allies by dealing melee damage.^[15] Changes to other classes are explained in each of Blizzard's "Legion Class Preview Series".^[16]

Transmogrify 2.0

The transmogrification system, which allows players to remodel their item's appearance while retaining the item's stats, was expanded with Transmogrify 2.0. All soulbound items players have in their inventory and bank will be added to the wardrobe UI feature, similar to the transmogrification system used in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. Additionally, all applicable gear rewards (such as mail armor for Shaman/Hunters but not leather) from every quest completed and treasure found are added to the player's wardrobe.^[17] The wardrobe can be used to create outfits that can be saved to a list and set to change automatically with specialization changes. After items have been added to the wardrobe, the player does not need to keep them in their bank or inventory in order to retain their appearances in the wardrobe.

In addition to the existing options to hide helms and cloaks from appearing on a player character, an option to hide shoulder armor was added with the expanded system in 7.0. In patch 7.1, options to hide belts, tabard and shirts were added.

Plot

After the defeat of Archimonde at Hellfire Citadel on the alternate timeline world of Draenor, Gul'dan is pushed through a portal to Azeroth of the main timeline in order to open a way for the Burning Legion to invade in far greater numbers than in the War of the Ancients thousands of years earlier. While exploring the hidden vaults of the Broken Isles, Gul'dan finds a dark crystalline prison containing the corpse of Illidan Stormrage, the former Lord of Outland, who was slain during the events of The Burning Crusade.^[18] The Archmage Khadgar, who helped lead the Alliance and Horde player characters against Gul'dan and the Iron Horde on the alternate Draenor, witnesses the return of the Burning Legion and flies to the city of Stormwind to warn King Varian Wrynn of the coming invasion.^[19] The player characters, together with the shunned demon hunters, must learn to master artifact weapons and relics of the Titans located in the ancient Broken Isles that hold the power to stop the Legion's invasion.

During the events of Legion, two characters that were thought to have been lost, Alleria and Turalyon make an appearance.

Setting

The expansion begins approximately two years after the events of Warlords of Draenor and takes place in the Broken Isles, an island chain near the Maelstrom in the middle of the Great Sea. Originally part of the former supercontinent of Kalimdor, the isles were sent to the bottom of the Great Sea after the Sundering ten thousand years earlier, and used by Aegwynn, the Guardian of Tirisfal, to imprison the corpse of the avatar of Sargeras, the dark titan and leader of the Burning Legion. During the events of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the orc warlock Gul'dan raised the islands from the sea floor in search of the tomb; Illidan later explored the tomb in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. There are six zones in the Broken Isles: Azsuna, The Broken Shore, Highmountain, Stormheim, Suramar and Val'sharah. The city of Dalaran, which served as the neutral capital city in Northrend during Wrath of the Lich King, is relocated to the southern part of the Broken Isles to provide a base for the Alliance and Horde forces to fight against the Legion.

Development

Legion entered alpha testing in late November 2015.^[20] The beta test for the game began on May 12, 2016.^[21] The game was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X on August 30, 2016.^[22] Legion has the most voice acting of any Warcraft expansion to date.^[23]

Players who purchase the game will receive one level 100 boost to apply to a character and players who pre-ordered the game receive early access starting on August 9 to the demon hunter class before the official release.^[24] On July 19, 2016, patch 7.0.3 introduced all the game system changes, which included the class, transmogrify and item stat changes.^[25]

On August 9, 2016 (August 10 in the EU) in the weeks before Legion's release, the Burning Legion began its invasion of Azeroth, allowing all player adventurers to defend their world and includes the Broken Shore event—the epicenter of the demonic invasion.^[26]

Reception

Legion was acclaimed, scoring a 88 on Metacritic.^[27] During the first week of the game's launch, the number of concurrent players reached its highest point since the 2010 launch of the Cataclysm expansion.^[30] IGN praised the expansion stating that, "Legion shows World of Warcraft finding its footing again and asserting its relevance after more than a decade."^[28]

Sales

The expansion set sold 3.3 million copies by its official release date of August 30, 2016, matching the previous expansion sales record held by Cataclysm.^[30]

Accolades

References

External links

• Official website (US)
• Official website (EU)
• World of Warcraft: Legion on Wowpedia, a Warcraft wiki