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World of Warcraft: Legion

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

World of Warcraft: Legion is the sixth expansion set to 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 will be 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 will initially include ten 5-man dungeons and two raids.[3]

Gameplay

Main article: Gameplay of World of Warcraft

The expansion allows players to level up to 110, an increase from the cap of 100 in the previous expansion Warlords of Draenor.

The development team made a number of changes to the player versus player (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 its 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; for every one point increase in average item level results in a 0.1% increase to PvP stats.[4]

Artifact weapons

Artifact weapons are powerful items that were wielded by legends of the Warcraft universe, and will be the main weapon 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, Icebringer and Soulreaper (swords forged from the shattered 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.[5] 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 and defeat dungeon and raid bosses. The appearance of the weapons can also be customized.[6]

Changes to existing classes

Some existing classes will experience major changes. For example, hunters, who are predominantly ranged and rely on animal pets, will have their three specializations changed: Survival will allow them to wield melee weapons in conjunction with a pet, Beastmaster can use multiple pets at once and Marksmanship will have the option to rely solely on ranged attacks or have weaker ranged attacks along with the aid of a pet.[7] The warlock's Demonology specialization, which was described as "dominated" by their metamorphosis ability (a similar ability to turn into a demon was given to demon hunters) will be refocused on their summoned demon minions.[3] In addition, the Gladiator Stance talent for Protection Warriors that helps that specialization do increased damage while not tanking and the Fistweaving talent that allows Mistweaver Monks do melee damage in order to heal, are being removed from the game.[8]

Order halls

Each class will have an "order hall" - a place of great power linked closely to a character's class that is similar to the existing class hall for death knights called Acherus, 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. the Order of the Silver Hand, for paladins), similar to being the commander of Alliance or Horde forces in Warlords of Draenor. Some of 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.[9] The order halls will not include access to the auction house or banks.

Demon hunter

The demon hunter will be the second "hero class" in World of Warcraft, joining the death knight that was introduced in Wrath of the Lich King. Just as death knights begin as servants 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 magic to fuel their melee attacks, and harnessing the powers of demons they kill in order to fight against the Burning Legion. To become Demon Hunters, they must consume the heart of a demon that results in nine out of ten 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.[10] Demon hunters ritually blind themselves to gain "spectral sight", allowing them to better detect their enemies, even hidden ones.[11]

Similar to death knights, demon hunters are able to fill the tank or damage role, but only have two specializations: havoc (damage) and vengeance (tanking). 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 for the Alliance and the blood elves for the Horde.[12] However, any race has the potential to become a demon hunter, although almost all demon hunters are night elves, with a few blood elves and are rarely found from any other race. Each player is only allowed one demon hunter per realm and the player must already have a level 70 on that realm.

As a hero class, the demon hunter will not start at level 1 instead starting at level 98.[13] Demon hunters will have a unique starting experience, just as death knights do, including undergoing quests given by Illidan ten years before Legion on the shattered Burning Legion world of Mardum, freeing that world of the Legion and becoming level 100. Upon returning to Azeroth, the Demon Hunters are captured and imprisoned in the Vault of the Wardens and ten years later are freed in order to fight against the Legion's invasion.[12] As a base of operations, the class's order hall is established on Mardum.[11]

Transmogrify 2.0

The transmogrification system, which allows players to remodel their item's appearance while retaining the item's stats, will be expanded. All soulbound items players have in their inventory and bank will be added to the new 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 will be added to the player's wardrobe.[14] 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 a helm and cloak from appearing on a player character, an option to hide shoulder armor will be 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.[15] 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.[16] The player characters must learn to master artifacts — mighty weapons that hold the power to take down the Burning Legion — and make a pact with the demonic Demon Hunters in order to repel the invasion.

During the events of Legion, two characters that were thought to have been lost, Alleria and Turalyon will return to Azeroth.

Setting

The game is set 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.[17] The beta for the game has not started. The game is set to be released for Microsoft Windows and OS X on August 30, 2016.[18]

Players that purchase the game will receive one level 100 boost for a character and players that pre-order the game will receive at least seven days of early access to the demon hunter class before the official release.[19]

References

  1. ^ Karmali, Luke (August 6, 2015). "Gamescom 2015: World of Warcraft: Legion Announced". IGN. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  2. ^ The Legion Returns August 30 - World of Warcraft
  3. ^ a b c "WoW: Legion details at gamescom: Interview with Tom Chilton & Ion Hazzikostas - Icy Veins Forums". Icy-veins.com. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  4. ^ Blizzard Details World of Warcraft: Legion PvP Overhaul December 18, 2015.
  5. ^ List of Artifact Traits and Possible Fishing Artifact Wowhead November 27, 2015
  6. ^ "Legion Artifacts: What We Know - Wowhead News". Wowhead. July 28, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  7. ^ Legion MM Hunter to get pet back as baseline - Forums - World of Warcraft 17 March 2016.
  8. ^ "RIP Fistweaving & Gladiator Stance - Forums - World of Warcraft".
  9. ^ "'World of Warcraft: Legion' First Impressions – AiPT!". Adventuresinpoortaste.com. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  10. ^ King, William (April 12, 2016). Illidan: World of Warcraft:. Del Rey. ISBN 9780399177569.
  11. ^ a b "Demon Hunter - Game Guide - World of Warcraft". Us.battle.net. November 28, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  12. ^ a b Perculia. "Demon Hunters: What We Know - Wowhead News". Wowhead.com. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  13. ^ "MMO-Champion - Timewalking Reward Costs, Accolade Trinkets and PvP Gearing, Tweets, Wildstar F2P". Retrieved September 4, 2015.
  14. ^ BlizzCon 2015: New Legion Transmog System, Wardrobe, Outfits, New Transmog Slots November 18, 2015
  15. ^ "World of Warcraft Cinematic Teaser". YouTube. August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  16. ^ "World of Warcraft: Legion – Feature Overview". YouTube. August 6, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  17. ^ "World of Warcraft's Legion alpha is now live". Blizzard Watch. November 23, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
  18. ^ Chalk, Andy (April 19, 2016). "World of Warcraft: Legion will arrive in August". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  19. ^ "World of Warcraft: Legion Revealed - MMO-Champion BlueTracker". Blue.mmo-champion.com. August 6, 2015. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
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