World of Warcraft: Legion Review

Jos

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Over the course of the first five expansion packs, Blizzard has slowly evolved World of Warcraft into something very different than the MMO that launched back in 2004. The Legion expansion feels like an entirely new game.

After 12 years of performing outrageous acts of heroism in the name of the Alliance or Horde, it’s time for World of Warcraft players to take their place in the pantheon of Azeroth’s greatest heroes. Where 2014's Warlords of Draenor elevated player characters from adventurers to military commanders, Legion makes them legends, wielding weapons of unimaginable power against the greatest threat the fantasy world has ever faced.

Read the complete review.

 
Thankfully in 7.1, alts wont have to grind out rep for world quest access, as well as access to the Suramar Dungeons.

It can be punishing if you chose a healing spec first, having to wait till 102 to get other Artifacts.

It can also be punishing if you're that Utility player that plays all specs of your characters. Raid needs a Tank? change from dps to tank. Sure you can keep the relics updated, but it's difficult to achieve a 20 in all artifact points, early on. I would have rather that the points be a blanket level. So that if you change your spec you have the points allocated differently.
 
I did get back into WoW for Legion and I absolutely loved it. I'm sort of losing it now though, I'm stuck in the Heroic > Mythic gap and don't really have an active guild. Everyone else just gets boosted for the keys and ain't interested in making a group. Even if they are they want astronomical ilvl for what it actually is.

The thing that I don't like about WoW now (And in the past few expansions). It's sort of lost the whole "MMO" feel somewhat. Sometimes I feel like I might as well be playing singleplayer. Nobody talks, even in dungeons. In Vanilla/TBC if you saved someone from 4-5 mobs by jumping in and AOE before they died or healing them they'd definitely say thank you or emote you to say thanks, etc. Now adays you barely get an emote, and usually they just run off like nothing has happened.

I miss actually talking to people and getting to know people on WoW. I fear it's lost most of that.
 
My thoughts about the artefacts are similar to yours, the idea is cool, but once you get it, the hype is gone. "Nice! I got my Ashbringer! oh, look another Ashbringer, and another, and another, and another.."
 
I did get back into WoW for Legion and I absolutely loved it. I'm sort of losing it now though, I'm stuck in the Heroic > Mythic gap and don't really have an active guild. Everyone else just gets boosted for the keys and ain't interested in making a group. Even if they are they want astronomical ilvl for what it actually is.

The thing that I don't like about WoW now (And in the past few expansions). It's sort of lost the whole "MMO" feel somewhat. Sometimes I feel like I might as well be playing singleplayer. Nobody talks, even in dungeons. In Vanilla/TBC if you saved someone from 4-5 mobs by jumping in and AOE before they died or healing them they'd definitely say thank you or emote you to say thanks, etc. Now adays you barely get an emote, and usually they just run off like nothing has happened.

I miss actually talking to people and getting to know people on WoW. I fear it's lost most of that.
Many people say this but don't you think it's not games fault for people being less social? I have no such problems. Things are going to be much better if you find a good guild or play with a bunch of friends. It has always been like that in any game.
 
It can be punishing if you chose a healing spec first, having to wait till 102 to get other Artifacts.

Leveling in a heal spec in general is not the path of least resistance, but by the time a player reaches level 100, hopefully they would know this, and take it into account when they make the decision. It's no more punishing than leveling in a heal spec would be in any other circumstance.

Also, you don't need an artifact to level. You still have the option of using regular weapons (previous expansion level 100s or the class-specific greens from the vendor in your class hall), which should be perfectly adequate for leveling. The levels come pretty quickly, and you will be back on track with another relic soon.

It can also be punishing if you're that Utility player that plays all specs of your characters. Raid needs a Tank? change from dps to tank. Sure you can keep the relics updated, but it's difficult to achieve a 20 in all artifact points, early on. I would have rather that the points be a blanket level. So that if you change your spec you have the points allocated differently.

The choice of which weapon to pursue first is supposed to be a choice that matters. These are legendary weapons that are essentially being handed to us for far less effort than we used to have to put in for our first blue at level cap; we're supposed to think about it a little before choosing. A player is not supposed to be able to play a DPS spec exclusively from day one, then one day decide to become a tank and instantly be just as well-equipped as someone who was in a tank spec from the start.

Still, it's not hard to make up lost ground. When you first get your relic weapon at 100, it only takes a few hundred artifact power points to go up a rank, but the points come relatively slowly too. As the weapon increases in level, the artifact power needed to gain a rank increases geometrically, but the rate that artifact power is gained increases too, especially after the player reaches 110 and begins artifact research. It isn't very long before world quests are awarding a thousand or more artifact points... which is barely enough to move the progress bar toward the next rank on the first weapon, but enough for a couple of ranks on a newly-acquired relic. You can catch up pretty quickly that way.

It used to be that to change specs, you usually needed a new full gear set. Tanking gear, DPS gear, and healing gear were all separate. Now the armor is universal within a type; all mail gear items work for ranged agility-based DPS (hunters), melee DPS (enhancement), caster DPS (elemental), and healing (resto). The burden of having to assemble a full new 14-piece armor set for the new spec has been waived... all we have to do now is level the free legendary weapon we got a bit.

I sure hope my quotations and formatting make it through... since there is no preview available and no option to edit posts, TS...
 
I sure hope my quotations and formatting make it through... since there is no preview available and no option to edit posts, TS...
It's called jumping to forum mode, you can even delete your own posts if you want. It's between the last post and the Add New Comment section.
 
It used to be that to change specs, you usually needed a new full gear set. Tanking gear, DPS gear, and healing gear were all separate. Now the armor is universal within a type; all mail gear items work for ranged agility-based DPS (hunters), melee DPS (enhancement), caster DPS (elemental), and healing (resto). The burden of having to assemble a full new 14-piece armor set for the new spec has been waived... all we have to do now is level the free legendary weapon we got a bit.

Yes, you don't have to rebuild another armor set. But if you're min/maxxing you should. It's a known issue that each spec seems to rely on top 2nd skill priority. Take Arms War with mastery/versatility meshes well with Prot War, but Haste/crit of Fury War does not.

as for making up for lost ground. That's an annoyance. I think my AK (artifact knowledge) is up to 8 and it still feels slow.

A bit disgruntled at having the class hall leveled to allow 2 legendaries, and I don't have one. I'm not burned out on the game, but I'm finding myself shying away from my main. I know it's random, but putting nearly all spare time and even sleep time into playing one character since release... there was an expectation that I'd have a legendary (even one of the crap ones) by now (6+hrs a day). It's not comforting that the Bliz devs to come out and say they don't even have a legendary. Being practically forced to run back to back heroic/mythic/mythic+'s to increase my badluck protection has run thin. It's making me want to play D3 again, hopefully there will be a good announcement at blizzcon.

This is more or less better than WoTLK, so far. They fixed a lot of RNG issues, but created others. It's great what they did pulling Grifts from D3 and making mythic+.. but they also pulled the idea of gear stacking. My bank is full of all types of gear with different stats. In case they make a minor change that forces my main 2nd stat to another stat. Or change my spec.
 
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