Legion Announced

The new expansion is Legion.

Yes, this is it. The Burning Legion is invading Azeroth.

Most important thing: Demon Hunters confirmed! Looks like a new Hero Class. Demon Hunters will have a lot of unique cosmetic options - more than Death Knights. Demon Hunters begin as members of the Illidari, who are sent away while the older heroes are killing their master. Unfortunately this makes it look like the class will only be available to Night Elves and Blood Elves, especially with all the unique models. You'll have a blindfold (that can be customized) and horns (also can be customized, or opted out.)

DHs will only have two specs - one for DPS and the other for tanking. We actually didn't get a confirmation of which type of armor they'll be using. Given the Artifact Weapons (see below,) we might even not have to worry about them using anything other than Glaives.

Metamorphosis seems to play a role for both specs - which means Demonology Warlocks are probably going to lose it (they better get something really, really cool in exchange.)

The sample abilities that we saw looked very movement and aoe-focused.

DHs will start at a high level - once they finish the starting area, they'll be expected to start the Legion content.

Class Order Halls:

Instead of garrisons that are personal areas just for us, individually, we'll go to various Class Order Halls. I'm not sure if existing ones like Acherus will simply be upgraded or if they'll get a new one. Examples were a Silver Hand sanctum beneath Light's Hope Chapel, a Shaman Cave overlooking the Maelstrom, and a "portal world" for Warlocks.

While the Alliance and Horde are too dysfunctional to work together to deal with the Legion invasion, the various classes will instead band together to fight. You'll be the head of your order (wow. My Paladin is going to be the Grandmaster of the Knights of the Silver Hand?)

There will be a follower-like system that involves a few key allies, and they say they want to make them more interactive - rather than your champions/minions/apprentices going out and doing things for you, they'll provide buffs in various zones or new quests for you to go do with them.

Artifact Weapons:

Pretty much when you start the expansion, you'll retrieve an artifact weapon that is appropriate to your spec. For example, Retribution Paladins will retrieve the Ashbringer and wield it against the Legion.

As you work your way through the expansion, you'll be able to upgrade your artifact weapon and customize its appearance. The weapon will essentially have its own branching talent system that will give you new perks (such as a chance for the Ashbringer to duplicate your Templar's Verdict two seconds after you use it.)

Some examples of weapons also include the Doomhammer for Enhancement Shamans (with some kind of shadowy duplicate for the off-hand) and two new swords forged from the Shards of Frostmourne for Frost Death Knights (I wonder if they're killing 2H frost, which would be bad news for me. Hoping they'll create a 2-h version.) Some of the weapons will of course be new in lore, but there will definitely be specific ones for each spec.

Feral and Guardian (no mention of balance, but they do get to display their weapons) druids will get to customize their forms, given that they can't really do so with their weapons (though the appearance of the weapons will change to for when you're not in form.)

Dungeons and Raids:

There's a promise of more emphasis on 5-player dungeons and giving incentives to keep running them, but nothing terribly specific. They listed nine dungeons, which is an improvement over Warlords though not much of one.

There will be two raids to start with, and very similar to tier 17, we'll get a 7-boss Emerald Nightmare raid with Xavius as the final boss and then Suramar City as the ten-boss raid that ends with Gul'dan.

Level Cap: 110

Location: Broken Isles

The Broken Isles are the remnants of the original Night Elf Society, though we'll also encounter Vrykul and Kvaldir (!) with two of the dungeons as their Valhalla equivalent and Helheim (their hell) which is apparently where Kvaldir come from! We'll also find another Tauren variant on Highmountain, which holds Neltharion's Lair from way back before he was corrupted. Azshara will be aiding the Nightborne Elves in Suramar, who are using something called the Nightwell to power their society (think an evil Sunwell.)

We'll be searching the area for Titan artifacts that were used in the original creation of Azeroth in order to seal up the Tomb of Sargeras, where the Legion is pouring out of.

New Honor System:

Not really my area, but honor is being redesigned to be focused less on gear and more on unlocking a kind of alternate talent system. You'll be able to de-level yourself in order to get cosmetic rewards, which should help even the playing field while still making PvP feel rewarding.

Also, Dalaran will be the capital city in the Broken Isles, though I imagine that we'll just have two Dalarans to visit.

This looks like it will be a pretty dark expansion, and we can expect a lot of important figures to die in the early days of it. Indeed, this is kind of the expansion we know we've been building toward for years. It's way bigger than just Azshara, and best of all, it looks like Gul'dan is the only major Orc character.