Cameron Duren

cduren@rgj.com

Technobubble covers games, gadgets, technology and all things geek. Follow Technobubble poobah Jason Hidalgo’s shenanigans on Twitter @jasonhidalgo

Azeroth, we have a problem.

This is how the new Warcraft expansion starts off with Khadgar announcing to the world that its biggest and most constant threat, The Burning Legion, is back and bigger than ever.

On the bright side, we have help in a variety of different ways to address the threat this time around. Personally, I’ve been playing the “World of Warcraft: Legion” expansion for almost every free second I could muster in my life since the game launched. It can be quite easy to give a great review of a game during initial release when the experience still feels shiny and fresh. With any MMO, however, I don’t think it’s a good idea to score it right away. Folks who are familiar with the genre know that the experience prior to leveling content is so much more different than what the bulk of it is going to be.

For this review, I have put in roughly 268 hours of playing time across three characters. I have Arena’d a fair bit, done Battle Grounds and also done Level 7 of Mythic Plus, which is the hardest dungeon content in the game. On top of that, I have completed all of Emerald Nightmare, which is the first tier of endgame raiding on Normal difficulty and most of Heroic. Having done all of that, I can say one thing for sure. This game has been a Renaissance in the WoW universe.

I kicked off my adventure as a Priest and set out to search for my specific “spec” weapon. One interesting thing that Legion has done is that you don’t get a “new” weapon for this expansion. Instead you acquire what is called an Artifact Weapon, which you get to slowly power up over the course of the entire expansion. This is one of the greatest ideas that Blizzard has ever had for WoW. Yes, there are flaws with this system. One is that if you change your weapon, you will have to power the new one from scratch. It can be a little disheartening to do so as every class gets a weapon for each specialization, with most classes having three and one class even having four weapons that you will have to maintain over the expansion. Overall, though, it provides a sense of progression and power that I really have yet to see in another MMO.

Once you secure your weapon, you are brought into your Class Order Hall. Keep in mind that your mileage might vary as some classes will actually get to see this before getting their weapon. You will then become “Champion of your Class” and granted your first task: selecting any zone in the Broken Isles so you can help push back the Burning Legion in that area. For me, this move was quite welcome. I hate alts and having the ability to pick any zone in any order while being able to just start questing has been a breath of fresh air.

Jotun: Valhalla Edition review | Technobubble

Jotun: Valhalla Edition review | Technobubble

Blank space: No Man’s Sky review | Technobubble

These zones are vastly different in how they are presented. You can go to Azshara which houses a ghostly undead elf race that you must help in your quest to bring down the Burning Legion. You can go to Val’sharah, which is a deep forest area close to the Emerald Dream that’s essentially the blueprint for all of Azeroth. Highmountain, meanwhile, has the feel of a Native American land where its inhabitants are close to nature and the animals that inhabit it. The last zone you can start off from is Stormheim, a zone that currently serves as the battleground for the alliance and Horde armies. The area has a heavy norse mythology theme to it with Valkyries and Odyn, a direct reference to Odin, being involved there.

Even though I had three characters doing the exact same quests, doing them in different order actually kept the leveling process fresh for me. For people who may not like the zone they are in currently in, you can always return back to your Class Order Hall. There, you can unlock another area after doing that very first quest that takes you to the zone, allowing you to access all the leveling zones right away.

We also have a brand-spanking new class to mess around with in the form of the Demon Hunter. Those familiar with Warcraft lore will recognize this as Illidan Stormrage’s class, complete with all the powers that cause his foes to be woefully unprepared. With this class you can now double jump and glide, removing the prospects of death from fall damage. It also packs a pretty solid punch. As far as specializations, it only has two so you basically have two artifact weapons to maintain and you can be either a tank or a damage-dealing class. This class is great for newcomers as it’s easy to just shoot eye lasers at everything but it also has a high skill ceiling for those who want to maximize the potential of their classes. Demon Hunter tanks even have an awesome mechanic where they put glyphs on the ground that bring chaos to the battlefield and help them in their tanking ways. Overall, I’m very happy with what Demon Hunter has brought to the WoW.

Another thing that Blizzard did well for this expansion was having a max level zone ready from the start for players to explore. This zone is Suramar, a giant quest-filled area that lets you walk around a true city — one that feels the way an actual city should in this game. I won’t go into detail about the story here because I don’t want to spoil it but everything you do in Suramar feels like it has weight. That’s because the quests you solve have a noticeable impact when it comes to the overall story and what you are trying to progress. Right now, Suramar has become my favorite zone and I honestly can’t wait to see where they go with it during the first big content patch.

Another thing that Legion provides to max level players involves World Quests, which represent a new take on the daily system. Instead of doing the exact same quest every day and getting burned out, you get random quests all over the map. Just like regular quests in a zone, all you need to do is show up and knock them out. These quests change roughly every 12 hours with some being longer and some being shorter. This is arguably my favorite change in the game because there’s always content to do that can improve your character. Honestly, I’ve never really enjoyed Daily Quests but I found myself still fully enjoying these a month after I started playing. That held true even when I was only doing the four daily quests for my emissary cache, which is a reward for doing certain zone or faction World Quests that you get every day.

Legion also finally gives you a good reason to do dungeons. Something that Blizzard has been rightfully criticized for is not giving users a proper incentive to do dungeons in past expansions because you would do one maybe once or twice and you were pretty much finished. The game moved a little in the right direction by adding in Mythic difficulty which was harder and provided actual rewards. Blizzard decided to take a page out of its own Diablo playbook and add in what are called Mythic Plus dungeons, which earn you a keystone that you can use to empower a specific dungeon. You now have a set time limit to clear the dungeon but with a twists: you must beat every boss and kill a certain amount of trash. Mythic Plus levels scale as well so the higher the level, the more life and damage an enemy will dish out. The game also adds in Keywords such as Sanguine, which puts a puddle of blood on the ground whenever an add dies that will heal enemies and do massive damage to your team. As such, so you have to constantly move the adds around so you can kill them. Overall Mythic Plus has been a great addition from a gameplay standpoint.

Admittedly, I have been burned by Warcraft in the past. It’s honestly been about three expansions since I’ve actually been hooked on Warcraft. Blizzard, however, seemed to nail everything right with the Legion expansion. About my only big gripe at this point is the need to tone down some of the RNG a little when it comes to gear. I still haven’t gotten a Legendary on any of my characters, for example. To be fair, though, it’s not that big of a deal right now and after five weeks of playing that is really my only complaint with the game. Some bad RNG can be annoying or even disheartening when it comes to playing and seeing everyone else get a legendary. I don’t mind the grinding to try to put RNG in my favor as I love MMORPG’s. With any luck this game will keep me playing for a long while.

FINAL THOUGHTS

After its recent underwhelming expansions, Blizzard finally manages to get back on the right track with “World of Warcraft: Legion.” If you have never played WoW before or if you feel that you have been burned in the past, I suggest giving the game another shot as the game adds many new mechanics and features that make it feel fresh and compelling. Add a big content patch that’s incoming plus Blizzard being more in tune with what the game’s fan base wants and you have an expansion that’s as close to perfect as WoW has been in a long time.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

4.75 out of 5 Cost: $49.99 plus subscription, PC

$49.99 plus subscription, PC https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/

The Game Vault: Technobubble Video Game Reviews