World of Warcraft: Legion (7.3.5 edition)

kilanash wrote:

Anyone from our groups out at Blizzcon this year? I'm out here and hopefully we can meet up to hang and shoot the sh*t. Tweet at me if you are.

I haven't heard of any of our group, but I will see if Plane's people are.

So, looks like they're grafting the adventure mode from Diablo 3 into the game with this expansion, along with the level scaling from Guild Wars 2?

Class previews for Legion start off with hunter.

Seems that Blizzard is finally taking seriously the idea of a melee hunter (an old joke; huntards will get it), as survival becomes a melee class.

Marks might actually go without a pet. (It's unclear from the notes, though Lone Wolf becomes default.)

Looks like BM becomes a pet-managing spec.

Also, only Surv hunters will have traps.

I don't play hunter much any more, but he was my first main, and I've played him since Vanilla, mostly as Marks. I can't see him roaming the world without his pets by his side. Strange days.

MM is petless, since you're stuck with the Lone Wolf talent.

Favorited this thread now too. Question: Why a new thread for each expansion? Why not just update the old one? Entirely out of curiosity.

ahrezmendi wrote:

Favorited this thread now too. Question: Why a new thread for each expansion? Why not just update the old one? Entirely out of curiosity.

To give the illusion that people are still playing? I dunno. I just did it. Doesn't really matter which thread you reply to, to be honest.

Once upon a time (so I've heard; this is before my time here), the mods created the MMO forum because every third post in the gaming forum was about WoW. Now I think there are only two active WoW threads (this one and the Warlords one). Changing times ...

I remember the days when no game except WoW existed, back in ought 4. Those were good times.

Thanks for clarifying. I just need to know where to sub to get my periodic fix of WoW.

Same reasons new games in series get their own threads; keeps things fresh, limits the amount of digging to find content discussion specific to the current version.

Today's class previews: mage (which I have barely played) and priest (I roll disc when I play Horde side).

The big Disc change (big to me, anyway) is that Penance (my second-favorite spell in the game) appears to become an offensive-only spell. Overall, Disc will lose some shield potency and do some (most?) of healing via doing damage - kinda sorta a return to smite healing.

Anyone who plays Disc more than I do might be able to make better sense of the changes.

Looks like Holy will retain the traditional healer role and Shadow will be DPS. Shadow will dump mana for insanity, which appears new but isn't really rage or energy.

Class previews continue with Warlocks and Paladins.

Destro Locks will swap out Burning Embers for good ol' soul shards. Otherwise, things won't change much. It seems like Afflocks and Demonlocks will undergo more of a revamp, but I haven't played either in a while and don't know how dramatic the changes will be.

As for paladins, Holy Power is being retired for Prot and Holy. I don't care either way, frankly, but it's back to having to manage mana, which isn't much fun.

Ret (my main's primary spec) will continue to use Holy Power. Blizzard said they're recalibrating the spec a bit to make rets be closer to their targets. Sure, it's nice to have Judgment, Hammer and an insta-cast Exorcism as ranged attacks, but rets have to be close to use their two main big-damage attacks (CS, TV). Ret looks more like your normal every-expansion tweak than any substantial overhaul.

Holy (my main's secondary spec) will get some more offensive utility (shockadins FTW!). They'll get a new heal that will let them sacrifice some of their own health to heal others. Most significantly, they'll do better when they're closer to the players they're trying to heal. That will be a fun change. I tend to get close to mobs so I can use Crusader Strike to build up HP charges, so this will fit well with how I play.

Edit: Here's the DK overview. The big change for all specs is that DKs will have 6 runes, rather than 2-2-2. DK for me has always featured too much button-smashing. Maybe I'd feel differently if my main was a DK (it's as close to a ret paladin as I've found), but I could never really get my head around the way the different runes worked (or in my case didn't).

I'm still on the fence about purchasing this. I like the spriest changes I saw in the rundown, so at the very least it might be fun to fiddle with that, but I'm still perfectly content to let my sub lapse until release date is much closer.

Playing through the new areas and doing all the quests is usually my favorite part of each expansion anyway.

Anything more enticing announced about the new hero class? Other than being a fan of horns I was a little meh about it. Not unexcited, but not super stoked either.

They're gonna go over well on RP servers, that's about it.

Xeknos wrote:

They're gonna go over well on RP servers, that's about it.

My prediction:

Most everyone will roll a Demon Hunter because they're new and folks will want to see the new starter area.

A few hardcores will max-level a DH so they can be world/realm first.

If DH proves to be OP, and I think they will be, folks will bring them out to smash faces in PvP or dominate the meters in PvE content. (Remember, DKs were OPAF at the beginning of Wrath, and no amount of nerf batting seemed to make much difference. I suspect Blizzard will err toward the side of OP because, after all, it's a hero class.)

And then everyone will go back to their mains.

Past history might be some guide. Monks are the least-played class in WoW, and Pandas are among the least-played races. (Folks really hate Goblins; Worgens aren't much more popular.)

That said, DH are restricted to Nelfs and Belfs, and those are the No. 3 and No. 2 most popular races after Human.

TL,DR: I think the Demon Hunters will be pretty popular, at least at first.

Unrelated: warrior class preview

Yeah, I'll play a Demon Hunter to get the starting story and see what's going on with Illidan, but I don't really have any interest in the class beyond the class-exclusive story stuff.

I'm much more interested in the class revisions happening to my main characters (paladin, mage, and priest), and am looking forward to the new content in the expansion.

Up next: Shaman (sha-men? shamans?)

Enhance (my current alt) will be overhauled. Their new resource is called Maelstrom, and it appears to work like energy. (Build it up, then spend it.)

I've been pleased with enhance so far. I still mash a lot of buttons randomly, but my shaman puts out a surprising amount of damage, and he's pretty durable, thanks largely to the Alc buff when I have to pull out a heal pot (which is often).

Edit: Here are monks. Looks like monk healers will lose their fistweaving (dmg + healing?) approach.

Shamans (but the etymologically-consistent plural form from the original Evenki is shamasal).

Druids

MASTERY WON'T BE THE STAT FOR BALANCE ANYMORE.

Outlaw (formerly combat) rogues get a pistol finishing move. Delightful.

They need to do more stuff like that across all classes and specs.
I am pretty much wholly unimpressed with the class changes. I was hoping for revamps. The game is 11 years old. The classes are relics of a bygone era yet the hero classes prove that rejuvenating them doesn't cause immediate collapse. In fact they have changed resource systems and seemingly are going to have mixed resources in the same class and the game didn't implode. I am shocked that they are able to do something that drastic and won't go the distance. It is like replacing a 4 cylinder with an 8 or turbo 6 yet still only driving 55 mph and keeping the gearing such that the 0-60 is still 12 seconds.

I also find it really odd that there is a vocal (minority?) that says they won't play Legion due to the content scaling...
WHAT?!

fangblackbone wrote:

I also find it really odd that there is a vocal (minority?) that says they won't play Legion due to the content scaling...
WHAT?!

Filthy casual.

fangblackbone wrote:

I am pretty much wholly unimpressed with the class changes. I was hoping for revamps.

What are some examples of what you were hoping for?

Perhaps I'm just jaded, but I apparently had my expectations set so low for class updates that about half of the ones that affect me are surprisingly good news and have added to my excitement for the expansion.

And this:

fangblackbone wrote:

I also find it really odd that there is a vocal (minority?) that says they won't play Legion due to the content scaling...

Is just completely baffling to me. Scaling the world up to the player is an awesome, awesome change! It allows for that awesome adventure mode stuff they're lifting from Diablo 3 and converting to work in WoW. It's one of the best ideas they've presented for the expansion, and people are going to quit over it?

It's a change. Of course some people are going to quit over it.

What are some examples of what you were hoping for?

This is what WoW classes are competing with and IMHO falling way too far on the conservative end of:

http://camelotunchained.com/v2/class...
http://vanguard.wikia.com/wiki/Classes
http://allods.wikia.com/wiki/Classes
http://warhammeronline.wikia.com/wik...
http://crowfall.club/classes
http://skyforge.wikia.com/wiki/Categ...

It's a change. Of course some people are going to quit over it.

Of course... sigh. Still though, its the old "I have it and I'll be damned if I condone a system that helps someone else get it, despite the fact that it has no effect on my ability to get/keep it."

cube wrote:

It's a change. Of course some people are going to quit over it.

I had to go look up what it is... aaaaand no big deal.

It isn't like the whole of Azeroth+ is scaled yes? Just the Isles. Unless I read that wrong.

Funny how I am wishing the opposite, that the whole of azeroth be scaled. (aside from dungeons and raids)

Duchess wrote:
cube wrote:

It's a change. Of course some people are going to quit over it.

I had to go look up what it is... aaaaand no big deal.

It isn't like the whole of Azeroth+ is scaled yes? Just the Isles. Unless I read that wrong.

No, this is brand new from a WoW perspective. Imagine being capable at level 1 of going and adventuring in the Blasted Lands for a bit, then go to Stranglethorn Vale, then Darkshore, then Blackrock Mountain, and all of it giving you an appropriate at-level challenge and at-level experience. They're only doing this for the Legion areas for now, but unlike in WoD (where you have to go from Frostfire/Shadowmoon Valley to Gorgrond to Telaar to Spires to Nagrand) you can do the new zones in any order you want while levelling.

fangblackbone wrote:

Funny how I am wishing the opposite, that the whole of azeroth be scaled. (aside from dungeons and raids)

Agreed. SWtOR is really nice right now where you can just quest and not worry about whether you're outlevelling anything or not. It only goes one way (if you're too high, you're brought back in line, but if you're too low, you die), but it's a much smoother experience. Having it go both ways would be ideal.

robkid wrote:

No, this is brand new from a WoW perspective. Imagine being capable at level 1 of going and adventuring in the Blasted Lands for a bit, then go to Stranglethorn Vale, then Darkshore, then Blackrock Mountain, and all of it giving you an appropriate at-level challenge and at-level experience. They're only doing this for the Legion areas for now, but unlike in WoD (where you have to go from Frostfire/Shadowmoon Valley to Gorgrond to Telaar to Spires to Nagrand) you can do the new zones in any order you want while levelling.

fangblackbone wrote:

Funny how I am wishing the opposite, that the whole of azeroth be scaled. (aside from dungeons and raids)

Agreed. SWtOR is really nice right now where you can just quest and not worry about whether you're outlevelling anything or not. It only goes one way (if you're too high, you're brought back in line, but if you're too low, you die), but it's a much smoother experience. Having it go both ways would be ideal.

I'm sort of torn. I have no problem with the idea of everything being scaled (lawls to getting killed by a boar outside of Org though), but as a solo achievement hunter there's been things that have been largely barred to me until I could gain a little ground on them level-wise. This is specifically concerning group achievements where group finder has proved to be highly inconsistent to get people with enough sense/time/maturity/cooperative spirit to do complex tasks.

While I'm not in mode to do chieves lately, is there any (Horde) group here that targets nerd points like that? I should have thought to ask here first, but I was under the impression ya'll play Ally pretty exclusively...

At this point I can't imagine those that still play not having numerous high level characters of horde and alliance faction. Someone will hook you up shortly.

Oh and one positive side to content scaling is that we won't need 50 reskins and color swaps for boars, bears, tigers and wolves!

Duchess wrote:

I'm sort of torn. I have no problem with the idea of everything being scaled (lawls to getting killed by a boar outside of Org though), but as a solo achievement hunter there's been things that have been largely barred to me until I could gain a little ground on them level-wise. This is specifically concerning group achievements where group finder has proved to be highly inconsistent to get people with enough sense/time/maturity/cooperative spirit to do complex tasks.

Sounds like for now there's a limit to what it will do. The Legion leveling zones and leveling dungeons will auto scale between 100 and 110 (? just realized I'm uncertain what the new cap is), though some parts of the leveling zones are said to be 110 all the time. Older content is unchanged.