The "end" of an expansion is always sort of open to interpretation. You could argue that it's the expansion's final content patch, which in this case was 6.2.3, which added Cataclysm timewalking dungeons and the Infinite dragon mount (that I MUST have.) But of course, people need to play through that content, and that takes a while.
There's no clear time when players begin to step away from the game, satisfied with what they've accomplished or bored with what's there, willing to wait until something new comes around. All of that is up to the player.
So it might be easiest to say that the definitive time when an expansion ends is when the next expansion begins. I'm going to go a little earlier than that and argue that it's the next expansion's pre-patch that signals the beginning of a short (in this case about a month and a half) interregnum between expansions. You're no long concerned with the content of the old one (except perhaps as testing grounds for the patch's changes) and most of your efforts in-game will be to enjoy the pre-expansion event and prepare yourself for what's coming next.
Given that 7.0 begins on Tuesday, by this metric, Warlords of Draenor is ending in two days. This expansion has been... divisive, certainly. It has seen a sharp decline in subscriber numbers, which even led Blizzard to stop announcing them (to be fair, they had been the only subscription-based MMO to do so, but on the other hand, they had largely used it for bragging rights back when the game had 10-12 million active subscribers.)
Before we get into specifics, Warlords' biggest problem, objectively, was that there was not enough to it. There was only one major content patch, which added a zone that most of has had originally assumed was going to be in-game from the start. There were fewer dungeons than any previous expansion and none added after the launch. There were only two raid tiers (though to be fair, there were still more raid encounters than Cataclysm had,) which meant the story of the expansion felt tied up far too quickly. And despite this lack of content, we aren't getting the following expansion significantly faster than we would have in a typical release cycle.
But not everything was bad. Let's look at the expansion's various aspects.
Story:
Unfortunately, story is a place I'm going to have to knock the expansion. This is, by far, by an enormous margin, the most convoluted story that any World of Warcraft expansion has ever had, which is kind of saying something. Blizzard's motivation was to have us fight the major figures of the Old Horde, but they didn't want to simply have Garrosh go around resurrecting them, because that would raise questions of whether they were undead and if this was a kind of Horde/Scourge thing. So instead we:
Go back in time.
To another planet.
In an alternate universe.
We are removed from our familiar Azeroth three ways, and it really makes the stakes of the expansion unclear. For example, Alliance players watch as the Prophet Velen sacrifices himself to purify a Naaru. But this isn't our Velen. Our Velen is perfectly fine, chilling in the Exodar back home. One really has to wonder: once the Iron Horde was sealed away from us, what more reason did we have to stay? And how many other universes are watching the Horde massacre the Draenei?
Setting these things aside, there's also the anticlimax that is the Iron Horde. We defeated all but two of the eponymous Warlords within the first content patch, and Grom Hellscream, the headliner and Warchief of the Iron Horde is never even fightable.
In fact, what we see instead is that Grom's failure to defeat us causes the other Orcs to embrace Gul'dan's demon blood platform and he takes over, more or less turning the Iron Horde into the same old thing. Grom never has to answer for what he did, and in fact at the end of the expansion, he seems to take leadership over the Orcs again without any consequences - sure, he realizes we're the good guys and won't be attacking us again, but it's not like the Iron Horde was just purely honorable soldiers fighting a war by mistake - they were still a genocidal imperialist organization that used horrifying magic and sacrificed people to keep the Dark Portal open.
I will say that it was great to see the Draenei play a big role in the game for once - arguably being the most relevant Alliance race in the expansion - but the fact that it was a different group of Draenei who had not experienced any of the things our Draenei had kind of undercut this.
Questing:
While the overall story was a convoluted mess, the good news is that the questing was very well done. The pacing was great, making sure you didn't feel stuck in one area or another. They also managed to break some of the linear quest-structure that we've been seeing since Cataclysm by often giving you different questlines to pick from, all of which would eventually come around to some climactic event at the end of the zone.
Leveling up was a lot of fun and offered some variety. One great thing was that the Alliance and Horde started in different zones (after the brief Tanaan Jungle intro,) with entirely different quest lines.
World Design:
They did a remarkable job of making Draenor pretty gorgeous, and while they clearly took some liberties translating Outland back to its non-destroyed self, it was still fun to look and see how the various parts of the world corresponded to their other selves. Shadowmoon Valley in particular was an amazing place to see - possibly World of Warcraft's most beautiful zone, which makes the tragedy of Outland's fel-blasted black-and-green landscape all the more potent.
My only major complaint is: where the hell was Farahlon? Of all the zones in Draenor, this was the one I most wanted to see. It's the only Outland zone (Netherstorm, in case you were wondering) whose original name we already knew. Bah!
Garrisons:
Oh boy.
Players have been clamoring for Player Housing for many years. Blizzard announced Garrisons as WoW's equivalent of player housing. It was not.
Really, Lunarfall and Frostwall were just customizable cities. But they provided too much for the player - particularly the mine and the herb garden. The availability of things like herbs and ore then allowed them to complicate professions by making Tailors suddenly care about herbs or Leatherworkers suddenly care about metal. And with materials so easily available, everything became gated behind daily cooldowns.
Essentially, garrisons created a bunch of solutions that Blizzard suddenly needed to create problems for.
On top of that, there was almost no cosmetic customization for the garrisons. Alliance ones all had a clear white-stone Stormwind look while Horde ones all had red-and-spikes of the Orc look. The very thing that players had wanted - something that they could customize to feel like their own space - was instead a small, isolated plot where they'd never see other players.
On top of that, follower missions gave better gear than LFR. How is that better than the old Valor Point system?
If Blizzard ever does player housing again, they need to think of it the way that they do Toys, Pets, Mounts, or now Appearances - make it something where you can collect things for your house, including house styles, and don't force it to play a major gameplay role.
Moving on.
Dungeons and Raids:
The short answer is that they were great, there just weren't enough of them.
Blizzard actually did some really great work with the dungeons. Grimrail Depot remains one of the most exciting dungeons they've ever done, and others, like Shadowmoon Burial Ground and Auchindoun, had a fantastic sense of atmosphere.
But not only did the removal of Valor (later reinstated, but only for item upgrades, so kind of missing the point) make this content irrelevant very shortly, there were also just so few dungeons. There has been a downward trajectory in dungeon content for a long time (thankfully reversing in Legion) and having only eight for two years is pretty sad.
The raids were also good, though aesthetics could have been a bit better. Blackrock Foundry, for example, looked very similar to the second half of Siege of Orgrimmar, and Hellfire Citadel was kind of a fel-touched version of the same.
The fights were actually quite good, with lots of cool new ideas like fighting two guys on a set of conveyor belts or dealing with a rapidly-growing forest of mushrooms. Personally, my favorite fight was actually the very first - fighting Kargath Bladefist within a gladiatorial arena and getting flung up into the stands to fight the audience. We were missing a raid tier, but the quality of the fights we did get was fine.
PvP:
Ok, not a PvPer. As a PvEer I really liked Ashran, but I'm given to understand that the people who actually like to fight other players felt it was too sprawled out and focused on other objectives. With no new battlegrounds, Ashran had a lot riding on it, and I don't know how well it did. Standing off to the side, I like that it's a PvP zone that isn't just a battleground on a timer like Wintergrasp and Tol Barad, but I can't really comment further.
Professions:
Surprisingly, this is not all negative! But it's mostly negative. Like I said in the thing about garrisons, the easy availability of ore and herbs (but oddly not leather) led Blizzard to add some weird ingredients to professions that had always gotten along without such things. Being unable to craft Hexweave Cloth on my own until hitting level 96 really felt crappy.
And far worse was the fact that every single profession was limited to producing a certain amount of stuff a day. It got to a point where there simply was no reason to collect more materials, because you'd never be able to make more stuff.
The one good thing is that they managed to make the pieces you made early on the expansion retain relevance. My Paladin is still wearing the goggles he made way back in late 2014, and it's not because he's had bad luck with gear. Being able to keep upgrading those items means that your profession remains relevant over the course of an expansion, which is pretty great. Granted, requiring a specific garrison building to get the universal upgrade material (Savage Blood) is not great.
Lasting Impact:
What are bringing from Draenor? Well, we did see a pretty serious "ability cull" between Mists and Warlords, though we're seeing a far more thorough one in Legion. We also got the stat squish, and to Blizzard's credit, I think it's very easy to forget that that even happened (I remember that my DK was doing 300k dps pretty consistently at the end of Mists.)
We also got new character models, which I really think were almost universally successful. I'm still not totally sold on the new Male Night Elf, whose faces seem a little rounder than they used to be. Also, my Draenei's tentacle-goatee is thicker and straighter than it once was. But generally, it's great, and I hope they one day find the time to update the Goblin and Worgen models with that new face-rigging tech.
Personally, my hope for Warlords' biggest longterm impact is that Blizzard never again tries this "short expansion cycle" concept. Not only did it clearly fail (we still wound up with about a solid year between the last raid and the next expansion) but it also felt like a kind of money-grabbing tactic to get the burst of fifty bucks from us more frequently. It's much better to let an expansion age and mature, to build up to that finale and make it feel like the time we've spent in the new area had relevance.
Thankfully, it sounds like they're taking these ideas to heart in Legion. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure there will be plenty to complain about in two years when Legion is wrapping up, but I hope that the problems are new ones and not anything like the ones we've had in Warlords.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Specs From Level One
Specializations are far more distinguished than they have ever been before in 7.0, and that means that spending the first ten levels without a spec, simply using the "generic" class abilities that all specs use (or replace with something) doesn't really work anymore. For example, there's no more Frostfire Bolt, so Mages really have to have either Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, or Fireball to start off with at level 1.
Reaching level 10 lets you switch specs, and from that point on, you'll have all three (or four if you're a druid, or two if you're a Demon Hunter, though they'll never be lower than level 98) specs available to you any time you're outside of combat.
So what specs do the various classes start with? Generally I think the theme is which spec is closest to the heart of what the class is. With the exception of the Priest, they're all DPS specs, which makes a lot of sense given that you're not going to be doing any group content before level 10. They generally go with a mix of iconic, simple, and flavor.
Rogue: Assassination
Assassination and Subtlety would both be decent contenders here, but I think that because Assassination's mechanics are simpler (and since you can't get Gloomblade until level 15, you don't have to deal with backstab) and also draw the most from the classic rogue toolkit. And since most Rogues use daggers, it's got to be a dagger spec.
Warlock: Affliction
While Warlocks have moved away from all specs maintaining a million DoTs, Affliction retains that gameplay. It's also pretty simple - the spec is entirely built around maintaining these DoTs. Once again, Affliction has the most old-school abilities.
Warrior: Arms
Arms doesn't have the unique Titan's Grip aspects of Fury nor the tanking role of Protection. It's really the most classic "I'm a soldier who hits things with my big weapon" spec in the game, and is easy to wrap your head around.
Paladin: Retribution
Retribution is the Paladin's only DPS spec, and arguably fits with the icon of the Warcraft Paladin - wielding a big ol' warhammer - than the other two specs (I know some Holy Paladins are complaining that the Silver Hand looks like a two-hander, but that just makes them look more like Uther and his guys, which I think is a positive boon.)
Hunter: Beast Mastery
I might have expected Marksmanship, but especially since Marks was conceived in Legion as being always petless - something they thankfully walked back and made a talent - it makes sense that Beast Mastery would be the default choice, as it retains the ranged role and the pets of the classic Hunter archetype. It's also simpler to play than Marksmanship.
Priest: Discipline
This is the only non-DPS spec that you start with at level 1, but that makes sense for a couple of reasons. First off, Priests are the only class with multiple healing specs. Shadow is the minority when it comes to roles. Additionally, Discipline in Legion really blends Shadow and Light to be the "Grey" spec, on top of also blending healing and damage - the latter meaning that the spec should do fine soloing, especially in those early levels. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't even get a heal until after level 10. If they started off Shadow, it would make Priests in general look like a "bad guy class," which healing priests, especially Holy ones, really shouldn't.
Shaman: Elemental
This one's not too much of a shock. Elemental is the caster DPS spec, which makes it similar to Restoration (caster, ranged) and similar to Enhancement (DPS.) Lightning Bolt, probably the most iconic Shaman spell, is central to its rotation, so there you have it.
Mage: Frost
Arguably Arcane is the most flavorfully "Mage" spec, but Frost has always been a very solid choice for soloing, thanks to the slowing effect of Frostbolt. Frankly, all three specs are pretty even on the "iconic" scale, but for ease of play for new players, Frost is probably the best option.
Monk: Windwalker
Technically I'd say Brewmaster is the most iconic Monk spec, given that it's based largely on Chen's Brewmaster hero in Warcraft III. But with Windwalker as the only Monk DPS spec, this was probably the right way to go.
Druid: Feral
Druids are a crazy class, and with four specs, there's no majority on the "ranged caster" and "melee physical" question. But if you were to describe the most notable thing about Druids to someone who had never played the game, you'd probably start with the shapeshifting, and since Balance's shapeshift form is more of a bonus that can come later, Feral seems the obvious choice.
Death Knight: Unholy
Death Knights are pretty famous for raising the dead, which already puts Unholy in a good position. Then you factor in the fact that it's the DPS spec that uses a two-handed weapon, which is the loadout of 2/3 of the DK specs, and the fact that, well, it's a DPS spec, and it's again pretty clear that this makes the most sense. If two-handed Frost were still a thing, it might have had a chance (it is the simpler of the two specs,) but Unholy really nails the iconic factor.
(Fun fact, DKs are the only available class that begins in a rested area, thus not forcing me to wait 20 seconds to log out!)
Demon Hunters: Havoc
Obviously I haven't tried this out myself, but I know that Demon Hunters start off as Havoc thanks to various YouTube videos. It also makes perfect sense - Demon Hunters only have one tank and one DPS spec, so there you have it.
I haven't played any of these guys except the Rogue past level 10 (and he just hit 11,) so I don't know what they've done to adjust when you get your various abilities.
It's a tough balance to strike, making sure that low-level players feel like they have enough stuff going on that they're having fun while also ensuring that leveling up in the higher levels feels like something more than just "oh, and now all my numbers have gone up slightly." This is a problem that will get tougher and tougher as the level cap rises, though I'm hoping that if Legion's zone-scaling works, they can really accelerate the rate at which one levels up without making people feel like they out-level a zone after two quests.
Especially with character boosts, I imagine that there are far fewer players starting brand-new level 1 characters these days. But I'm glad that Blizzard is at least considering how to accommodate those people in a very different world than the one we started in.
To do a brief little flashback, when I started playing back in late vanilla, all classes had their abilities divided between three tabs in the spellbook, corresponding to spec. Some of these didn't make a huge amount of sense, like Consecration, a damaging ability, being on the "Holy" page of the Paladin spellbook.
But at level 1 you would always start with three abilities - one from each spec-page. If I recall correctly, Paladins started with Devotion Aura (Protection,) Seal of Righteousness (Holy, and it used to last 30 seconds, add holy damage to your attacks, and get consumed by Judgment to deal a burst of holy damage to the target - Seal & Judge was almost the entirety of Paladin gameplay back then) and Judgment (Retribution.) I think Mages started with Fireball, Frost Armor, and Arcane Missiles. Anyway, we've come a long way since then.
Blizzard seems to want to give you something cohesive right off the bat with this new system, even if it means that brand-new players might feel pushed toward one spec over the others because of what's familiar. On the other hand, especially with the gearing changes, it'll be a lot easier for them to switch specs once they get used to the game in general.
Reaching level 10 lets you switch specs, and from that point on, you'll have all three (or four if you're a druid, or two if you're a Demon Hunter, though they'll never be lower than level 98) specs available to you any time you're outside of combat.
So what specs do the various classes start with? Generally I think the theme is which spec is closest to the heart of what the class is. With the exception of the Priest, they're all DPS specs, which makes a lot of sense given that you're not going to be doing any group content before level 10. They generally go with a mix of iconic, simple, and flavor.
Rogue: Assassination
Assassination and Subtlety would both be decent contenders here, but I think that because Assassination's mechanics are simpler (and since you can't get Gloomblade until level 15, you don't have to deal with backstab) and also draw the most from the classic rogue toolkit. And since most Rogues use daggers, it's got to be a dagger spec.
Warlock: Affliction
While Warlocks have moved away from all specs maintaining a million DoTs, Affliction retains that gameplay. It's also pretty simple - the spec is entirely built around maintaining these DoTs. Once again, Affliction has the most old-school abilities.
Warrior: Arms
Arms doesn't have the unique Titan's Grip aspects of Fury nor the tanking role of Protection. It's really the most classic "I'm a soldier who hits things with my big weapon" spec in the game, and is easy to wrap your head around.
Paladin: Retribution
Retribution is the Paladin's only DPS spec, and arguably fits with the icon of the Warcraft Paladin - wielding a big ol' warhammer - than the other two specs (I know some Holy Paladins are complaining that the Silver Hand looks like a two-hander, but that just makes them look more like Uther and his guys, which I think is a positive boon.)
Hunter: Beast Mastery
I might have expected Marksmanship, but especially since Marks was conceived in Legion as being always petless - something they thankfully walked back and made a talent - it makes sense that Beast Mastery would be the default choice, as it retains the ranged role and the pets of the classic Hunter archetype. It's also simpler to play than Marksmanship.
Priest: Discipline
This is the only non-DPS spec that you start with at level 1, but that makes sense for a couple of reasons. First off, Priests are the only class with multiple healing specs. Shadow is the minority when it comes to roles. Additionally, Discipline in Legion really blends Shadow and Light to be the "Grey" spec, on top of also blending healing and damage - the latter meaning that the spec should do fine soloing, especially in those early levels. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't even get a heal until after level 10. If they started off Shadow, it would make Priests in general look like a "bad guy class," which healing priests, especially Holy ones, really shouldn't.
Shaman: Elemental
This one's not too much of a shock. Elemental is the caster DPS spec, which makes it similar to Restoration (caster, ranged) and similar to Enhancement (DPS.) Lightning Bolt, probably the most iconic Shaman spell, is central to its rotation, so there you have it.
Mage: Frost
Arguably Arcane is the most flavorfully "Mage" spec, but Frost has always been a very solid choice for soloing, thanks to the slowing effect of Frostbolt. Frankly, all three specs are pretty even on the "iconic" scale, but for ease of play for new players, Frost is probably the best option.
Monk: Windwalker
Technically I'd say Brewmaster is the most iconic Monk spec, given that it's based largely on Chen's Brewmaster hero in Warcraft III. But with Windwalker as the only Monk DPS spec, this was probably the right way to go.
Druid: Feral
Druids are a crazy class, and with four specs, there's no majority on the "ranged caster" and "melee physical" question. But if you were to describe the most notable thing about Druids to someone who had never played the game, you'd probably start with the shapeshifting, and since Balance's shapeshift form is more of a bonus that can come later, Feral seems the obvious choice.
Death Knight: Unholy
Death Knights are pretty famous for raising the dead, which already puts Unholy in a good position. Then you factor in the fact that it's the DPS spec that uses a two-handed weapon, which is the loadout of 2/3 of the DK specs, and the fact that, well, it's a DPS spec, and it's again pretty clear that this makes the most sense. If two-handed Frost were still a thing, it might have had a chance (it is the simpler of the two specs,) but Unholy really nails the iconic factor.
(Fun fact, DKs are the only available class that begins in a rested area, thus not forcing me to wait 20 seconds to log out!)
Demon Hunters: Havoc
Obviously I haven't tried this out myself, but I know that Demon Hunters start off as Havoc thanks to various YouTube videos. It also makes perfect sense - Demon Hunters only have one tank and one DPS spec, so there you have it.
I haven't played any of these guys except the Rogue past level 10 (and he just hit 11,) so I don't know what they've done to adjust when you get your various abilities.
It's a tough balance to strike, making sure that low-level players feel like they have enough stuff going on that they're having fun while also ensuring that leveling up in the higher levels feels like something more than just "oh, and now all my numbers have gone up slightly." This is a problem that will get tougher and tougher as the level cap rises, though I'm hoping that if Legion's zone-scaling works, they can really accelerate the rate at which one levels up without making people feel like they out-level a zone after two quests.
Especially with character boosts, I imagine that there are far fewer players starting brand-new level 1 characters these days. But I'm glad that Blizzard is at least considering how to accommodate those people in a very different world than the one we started in.
To do a brief little flashback, when I started playing back in late vanilla, all classes had their abilities divided between three tabs in the spellbook, corresponding to spec. Some of these didn't make a huge amount of sense, like Consecration, a damaging ability, being on the "Holy" page of the Paladin spellbook.
But at level 1 you would always start with three abilities - one from each spec-page. If I recall correctly, Paladins started with Devotion Aura (Protection,) Seal of Righteousness (Holy, and it used to last 30 seconds, add holy damage to your attacks, and get consumed by Judgment to deal a burst of holy damage to the target - Seal & Judge was almost the entirety of Paladin gameplay back then) and Judgment (Retribution.) I think Mages started with Fireball, Frost Armor, and Arcane Missiles. Anyway, we've come a long way since then.
Blizzard seems to want to give you something cohesive right off the bat with this new system, even if it means that brand-new players might feel pushed toward one spec over the others because of what's familiar. On the other hand, especially with the gearing changes, it'll be a lot easier for them to switch specs once they get used to the game in general.
Friday, July 15, 2016
It's Official: 7.0 Lands July 19th
So yeah, 7.0 arrives on July 19th, which is this upcoming Tuesday.
Let's do a quick recap of what to expect:
Class and Spec Changes:
I feel like I say this with every expansion, but most classes and specs are seeing some very big mechanical changes. Survival Hunters are going to become a melee specs. Combat Rogues will now be Outlaw Rogues with a clearer Pirate theme. Many DPS specs are getting new, non-mana primary resources: Shadow Priests will get Insanity, Balance Druids will get Astral Power, and Enhancement and Elemental Shamans are getting Maelstrom. Protection Paladins and Holy Paladins will no longer use Holy Power while Mistweaver Monks and Brewmaster Monks will no longer use Chi. Death Knight Runes are all just Runes - no more Blood, Frost, or Unholy Runes. Hunter Focus now regenerates faster on its own, and all three specs have gotten big changes to their rotations. Discipline Priests now focus far more on the Atonement damage-to-heal style, but they will need to actively ensure that their allies have the Atonement buff for them to receive this healing.
Really, only a handful of specs are coming out of this without significant changes. Expect to spend a bit of time putting things back together.
Everyone's Tri-Specced (Except Druids and Demon Hunters, for Obvious Reasons:)
Class Trainers have become a fully vestigial part of the game. You can now change specs at any time you're outside of combat, and it will simply treat all three (or two for Demon Hunters and four for Druids) of your specs as you would treat dual-specs, with saved action bar layouts and talent choices.
Somewhat More Commitment to Talents:
Talents can now only be changed while in a "rested" area like a friendly city or an inn. So you'll need to choose a good loadout of talents for the content you're intending to play, and you won't be able to swap them out between every fight (unless you want to really tick off your fellow party/raid members as they wait for you to hearth and summon you back.)
New Transmog System and Appearances Collection:
You will now permanently collect the appearances of any gear that is soulbound to you, as long as it's appropriate to your class (Warriors can't collect cloth appearances, Priests can't collect gun appearances, etc.) You'll also automatically get the appearances of every quest reward from every quest you've ever done.
You can also get Weapon Enchant Illusions, which come from multiple sources - some as boss drops, some from reputation vendors, and many come from items that Enchanters can create called Tomes of Illusion. These illusions will be counted among your Appearance collection and can be applied to weapons by a transmogrifier NPC.
You can now choose to hide helmets, cloaks, and shoulder armor using the transmog NPC.
You can put together and save transmog outfits with the transmog NPC, allowing you to easily switch between sets you like.
You can also now choose to transmog your gear a certain way only for a specific spec, so your Rogue can have a shadowy assassin look for her Subtlety spec while going for a more flamboyant pirate look when she switches to Outlaw.
Stat Changes:
Spirit, Bonus Armor, and Multistrike are gone and will be converted to other stats when the patch goes through. Likewise, in the future, Rings and Necklaces will no longer have Strength, Agility, or Intellect on them, while Cloaks will have all three. Thus, going forward the only piece of gear you're going to have to swap out when you switch specs will be your weapon (especially when Legion itself goes live and we all have spec-specific artifact weapons. For now, if you want to switch from Fury to Arms you can just unequip your off-hand weapon.)
Broken Shore Event:
Likely the first major thing to be live, the Broken Shore event is a quest chain that has you assaulting the Broken Shore, which is where the Tomb of Sargeras and the main base of Legion operations in Azeroth are. Following this event is a questline that sets up some of the future story of Legion and awards some 695 gear, including a weapon.
Doomsayers and Dreadlords in the Capitals:
You'll find doomsday cultists distributing literature in Stormwind and Orgrimmar, and occasionally random players will be affected by Dark Whispers. This causes them to briefly side with the Legion. You can opt out of this by right-clicking the buff, but if you don't, you can use various sneaky abilities to subvert your allies and convert them. If you find yourself caught, you can then transform into a massive Dreadlord, which gives you new abilities to use against the pathetic mortals that stand against you.
Legion Invasions - Sometime Later:
Some time after the patch has been released, demonic invasions will begin to hit Westfall, Dun Morogh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Tanaris, Northern Barrens, and Azshara. These are massive events where a huge contingent of demons will assault the biggest population center (in Dun Morogh they go for Kharanos and in Azshara they assault the northern gate of Orgrimmar.) These invasions go in four stages, with stage three seeing demons flood the entire zone. Completing these invasions gives you a currency called Nethershards, which can be traded to Illidari vendors for gear and a battle pet, and you'll also get loot boxes with item level 700 armor and a chance to get a 700 weapon or an item to increase the item level of one such weapon, up to a max of 725 (the upgrade item can also be purchased from the Illidari.)
Demon Hunters - Sometime Later, Probably August 17th:
Players who have pre-purchased Legion will be able to create their Demon Hunter characters at some point later in the patch. Blizzard has said that they will be available August 17th at the latest, which is about two weeks before the expansion launches.
Demon Hunters are WoW's second Hero Class. They are a melee class that can Tank or DPS. Demon Hunters dual-wield their own special weapon-type called Warglaives. They use fel magic to become partially demonic themselves in order to fight against the demons of the Burning Legion. Only Blood Elves and Night Elves can become Demon Hunters, but they get some unique character customization options, including tattoos, horns, blindfolds, and potentially scales. Demon Hunters have their own voice-over emotes as well.
Demon Hunters begin at level 98 in their own class starting experience. When they finish their opening quest chain they should be level 100, and thus ready to head to the Broken Isles along with the other heroes of Azeroth.
And Then Legion:
Legion launches on August 30th. I think that we're all chomping at the bit to get out of our garrisons and return to Azeroth. This is how all that begins.
Let's do a quick recap of what to expect:
Class and Spec Changes:
I feel like I say this with every expansion, but most classes and specs are seeing some very big mechanical changes. Survival Hunters are going to become a melee specs. Combat Rogues will now be Outlaw Rogues with a clearer Pirate theme. Many DPS specs are getting new, non-mana primary resources: Shadow Priests will get Insanity, Balance Druids will get Astral Power, and Enhancement and Elemental Shamans are getting Maelstrom. Protection Paladins and Holy Paladins will no longer use Holy Power while Mistweaver Monks and Brewmaster Monks will no longer use Chi. Death Knight Runes are all just Runes - no more Blood, Frost, or Unholy Runes. Hunter Focus now regenerates faster on its own, and all three specs have gotten big changes to their rotations. Discipline Priests now focus far more on the Atonement damage-to-heal style, but they will need to actively ensure that their allies have the Atonement buff for them to receive this healing.
Really, only a handful of specs are coming out of this without significant changes. Expect to spend a bit of time putting things back together.
Everyone's Tri-Specced (Except Druids and Demon Hunters, for Obvious Reasons:)
Class Trainers have become a fully vestigial part of the game. You can now change specs at any time you're outside of combat, and it will simply treat all three (or two for Demon Hunters and four for Druids) of your specs as you would treat dual-specs, with saved action bar layouts and talent choices.
Somewhat More Commitment to Talents:
Talents can now only be changed while in a "rested" area like a friendly city or an inn. So you'll need to choose a good loadout of talents for the content you're intending to play, and you won't be able to swap them out between every fight (unless you want to really tick off your fellow party/raid members as they wait for you to hearth and summon you back.)
New Transmog System and Appearances Collection:
You will now permanently collect the appearances of any gear that is soulbound to you, as long as it's appropriate to your class (Warriors can't collect cloth appearances, Priests can't collect gun appearances, etc.) You'll also automatically get the appearances of every quest reward from every quest you've ever done.
You can also get Weapon Enchant Illusions, which come from multiple sources - some as boss drops, some from reputation vendors, and many come from items that Enchanters can create called Tomes of Illusion. These illusions will be counted among your Appearance collection and can be applied to weapons by a transmogrifier NPC.
You can now choose to hide helmets, cloaks, and shoulder armor using the transmog NPC.
You can put together and save transmog outfits with the transmog NPC, allowing you to easily switch between sets you like.
You can also now choose to transmog your gear a certain way only for a specific spec, so your Rogue can have a shadowy assassin look for her Subtlety spec while going for a more flamboyant pirate look when she switches to Outlaw.
Stat Changes:
Spirit, Bonus Armor, and Multistrike are gone and will be converted to other stats when the patch goes through. Likewise, in the future, Rings and Necklaces will no longer have Strength, Agility, or Intellect on them, while Cloaks will have all three. Thus, going forward the only piece of gear you're going to have to swap out when you switch specs will be your weapon (especially when Legion itself goes live and we all have spec-specific artifact weapons. For now, if you want to switch from Fury to Arms you can just unequip your off-hand weapon.)
Broken Shore Event:
Likely the first major thing to be live, the Broken Shore event is a quest chain that has you assaulting the Broken Shore, which is where the Tomb of Sargeras and the main base of Legion operations in Azeroth are. Following this event is a questline that sets up some of the future story of Legion and awards some 695 gear, including a weapon.
Doomsayers and Dreadlords in the Capitals:
You'll find doomsday cultists distributing literature in Stormwind and Orgrimmar, and occasionally random players will be affected by Dark Whispers. This causes them to briefly side with the Legion. You can opt out of this by right-clicking the buff, but if you don't, you can use various sneaky abilities to subvert your allies and convert them. If you find yourself caught, you can then transform into a massive Dreadlord, which gives you new abilities to use against the pathetic mortals that stand against you.
Legion Invasions - Sometime Later:
Some time after the patch has been released, demonic invasions will begin to hit Westfall, Dun Morogh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Tanaris, Northern Barrens, and Azshara. These are massive events where a huge contingent of demons will assault the biggest population center (in Dun Morogh they go for Kharanos and in Azshara they assault the northern gate of Orgrimmar.) These invasions go in four stages, with stage three seeing demons flood the entire zone. Completing these invasions gives you a currency called Nethershards, which can be traded to Illidari vendors for gear and a battle pet, and you'll also get loot boxes with item level 700 armor and a chance to get a 700 weapon or an item to increase the item level of one such weapon, up to a max of 725 (the upgrade item can also be purchased from the Illidari.)
Demon Hunters - Sometime Later, Probably August 17th:
Players who have pre-purchased Legion will be able to create their Demon Hunter characters at some point later in the patch. Blizzard has said that they will be available August 17th at the latest, which is about two weeks before the expansion launches.
Demon Hunters are WoW's second Hero Class. They are a melee class that can Tank or DPS. Demon Hunters dual-wield their own special weapon-type called Warglaives. They use fel magic to become partially demonic themselves in order to fight against the demons of the Burning Legion. Only Blood Elves and Night Elves can become Demon Hunters, but they get some unique character customization options, including tattoos, horns, blindfolds, and potentially scales. Demon Hunters have their own voice-over emotes as well.
Demon Hunters begin at level 98 in their own class starting experience. When they finish their opening quest chain they should be level 100, and thus ready to head to the Broken Isles along with the other heroes of Azeroth.
And Then Legion:
Legion launches on August 30th. I think that we're all chomping at the bit to get out of our garrisons and return to Azeroth. This is how all that begins.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Mark Your Targets: Marksmanship in 7.0
Marksmanship Hunter, much like Beast Mastery, might have their changes overshadowed by Survival's radical redesign. Marks is still a ranged spec that deals mostly physical damage, and by default, they still have a pet (though they are uniquely the spec with "Lone Wolf" as a talent.) So superficially, the spec looks similar to what we've had before.
However, in fact, the spec has received some pretty big changes. Let's go over them!
Focus:
Focus for all Hunters has been changed to regenerate faster. I believe that at this point it's functionally identical to Energy, but it's still a brown/orange bar for Hunters.
Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot now generate Focus, rather than costing it. Arcane gives you 5 Focus while Multi gives you 2 per target hit. Neither has a cooldown, which of course makes these clear filler abilities any time you can't do your other stuff.
Set Ups to Set Ups:
So here's where things get interesting and arguably weird:
Your auto shots have a chance to make your next Arcane or Multi-Shot put Hunter's Mark on anything they hit.
Having a Hunter's Mark then activates Marked Shot, which costs 30 Focus and hits any targets with Hunter's Mark within range for some physical damage but then puts a debuff called Vulnerable on them.
Vulnerable lasts 30 seconds and increases the damage taken by Marked Shot and Aimed Shot by 25%, stacking up to 3 times (and refreshing when gaining a new stack.)
So that's a proc that tells you to hit one of two abilities (depending on the number of targets,) which activates another ability that buffs itself and another ability.
Are you following?
Aimed Shot:
Your biggest-hitting ability, especially when there are three stacks of vulnerable on the target, is Aimed Shot, which costs 50 Focus and has a 2.5-second cast time (of course, faster with haste.) You can't cast Aimed Shot while moving, so you will have to occasionally stand still.
Trueshot:
Your new major cooldown is Trueshot, which has a 3-minute cooldown and lasts 15 seconds. It increases your Haste by 40% and causes every Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot to apply Hunter's Mark.
Sniper Training:
Your new mastery increases the range on all of your ranged abilities and also increases the damage of your Focus-spenders (so Aimed and Marked Shots) by a fairly large amount.
Of course, you can add abilities to the rotation via talents, but the core to the gameplay is going to be applying Hunter's Mark and then using Marked Shot to keep up the Vulnerable debuff on your targets. It is a very reactive spec, but grants you a great deal more focus on the ranged physical attacks of the spec.
However, in fact, the spec has received some pretty big changes. Let's go over them!
Focus:
Focus for all Hunters has been changed to regenerate faster. I believe that at this point it's functionally identical to Energy, but it's still a brown/orange bar for Hunters.
Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot now generate Focus, rather than costing it. Arcane gives you 5 Focus while Multi gives you 2 per target hit. Neither has a cooldown, which of course makes these clear filler abilities any time you can't do your other stuff.
Set Ups to Set Ups:
So here's where things get interesting and arguably weird:
Your auto shots have a chance to make your next Arcane or Multi-Shot put Hunter's Mark on anything they hit.
Having a Hunter's Mark then activates Marked Shot, which costs 30 Focus and hits any targets with Hunter's Mark within range for some physical damage but then puts a debuff called Vulnerable on them.
Vulnerable lasts 30 seconds and increases the damage taken by Marked Shot and Aimed Shot by 25%, stacking up to 3 times (and refreshing when gaining a new stack.)
So that's a proc that tells you to hit one of two abilities (depending on the number of targets,) which activates another ability that buffs itself and another ability.
Are you following?
Aimed Shot:
Your biggest-hitting ability, especially when there are three stacks of vulnerable on the target, is Aimed Shot, which costs 50 Focus and has a 2.5-second cast time (of course, faster with haste.) You can't cast Aimed Shot while moving, so you will have to occasionally stand still.
Trueshot:
Your new major cooldown is Trueshot, which has a 3-minute cooldown and lasts 15 seconds. It increases your Haste by 40% and causes every Arcane Shot or Multi-Shot to apply Hunter's Mark.
Sniper Training:
Your new mastery increases the range on all of your ranged abilities and also increases the damage of your Focus-spenders (so Aimed and Marked Shots) by a fairly large amount.
Of course, you can add abilities to the rotation via talents, but the core to the gameplay is going to be applying Hunter's Mark and then using Marked Shot to keep up the Vulnerable debuff on your targets. It is a very reactive spec, but grants you a great deal more focus on the ranged physical attacks of the spec.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
PTR Goes to Release Build
Well, given that the PvP season ends this coming Tuesday, the common wisdom has been that we're going to see 7.0 drop next week as well. Seemingly confirming this, a new patch has arrived on the PTR labeled as "Release," meaning it's a build they feel confident enough to release live - it doesn't mean they won't make changes, but it means that they're basically good to go.
So what should you do in the meantime?
Update Addons:
Patches, especially big ones, tend to break addons. So update the ones you can. Some addon-makers might not be totally keeping up with things, in which case some of your addons might not work for a couple weeks. But update the ones you can.
Sell Garrison Follower Armor Items:
Let's face it, you're not going to be managing your Garrison Followers all that much after we've left Draenor behind. You probably don't need to keep all those armor and weapon upgrades.
Well sell them off now! You can get a pretty large amount of gold for them at a vendor now, but in 7.0, they'll be worth only a few copper a piece. Sell now!
Dump Other Stuff You're Not Going to Use:
Got a bag full of ship equipment? Get rid of that crap. You're not going to be using it. Got reputation items for Draenor factions? Just use them now.
Oh, But Hold On To Your Gear:
Hold on to every little bit of soulbound gear that your character would realistically use (if it's cloth and you're a warrior, feel free to vendor/de that stuff.
The new transmog system will save the appearances of all the gear in your inventory, bank, and void storage, after which you'll be able to toss it all out (though I know I'm going to be holding on to some pieces for pure nostalgia.) But it won't save that gear until the patch actually hits, so hold the hell onto it for just a few more days!
Use Up Baleful Gear:
Nothing's really happening to the Baleful stuff as far as I know, but the Demonic Invasions are going to be rewarding better stuff. However, the demons in said invasions (particularly the "no really, this is a raid boss" demonic generals) hit hard enough that they seem to expect you to be wearing something a little better than your Nagrand leveling greens (that said, you'll get credit even if you just sit in the zone, so don't worry if you find yourself spending several minutes as a ghost over the course of the invasions - you still get your loot boxes and Nethershards.)
Good Luck on that Legendary Ring...
You will no longer be able to start the Legendary Ring quest chain, but if you're on the second stage (the Highmaul one, I think,) you will be able to continue for the next couple weeks, until the expansion itself lands.
Starting it now will not give you enough time to complete the whole thing, I'd guess, but if you're on the last stage, I'd start making sure I was running all of HFC every week to maximize my chances of getting the thing done.
Run as Many Gold-Gathering Follower Missions as You Can:
Garrison gold is getting nerfed hard so that people won't feel compelled to return to their garrisons. So get that last burst of gold while you can!
Bid a Tearful Farewell to Abilities You'll Miss:
Every spec is getting pared down, and while I think that in almost every case it's a good move for the game's design, I'll certainly miss some of them. So farewell, Holy Wrath. Goodbye, Dizzying Haze. So long Plague Strike (actually, I never really liked that guy.) See you in another life, Magma Totem. Via con Dios, Dispatch. Safe travels, Hurricane. Keep fighting the good fight, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath. And a special moment of silence now for Gladiator's Resolve. Maybe some day we'll have a dedicated sword-and-board melee spec, but you were never long for this world.
But the overall design of the 6.0 Arms Warrior? You go back to hell where you came from!
Moose! Moose!
I still have not gotten a Grove Warden mount. I hate pugging raids, which I often experience as "all the toxicity of LFR, but you never down any bosses!" The good news is that even if you don't get it this week, you'll be able to keep getting it through August until Legion itself drops. There is another magic-looking moose mount for Glory of the Legion Raider, but it's A: Nightmare corrupted (read: black, white, and red, like a White Stripes album) and B: doesn't have the cool glowing eyes or antler runes or fancy barding.
But fret not if this week doesn't work for you - you still have over a month to get this guy.
So what should you do in the meantime?
Update Addons:
Patches, especially big ones, tend to break addons. So update the ones you can. Some addon-makers might not be totally keeping up with things, in which case some of your addons might not work for a couple weeks. But update the ones you can.
Sell Garrison Follower Armor Items:
Let's face it, you're not going to be managing your Garrison Followers all that much after we've left Draenor behind. You probably don't need to keep all those armor and weapon upgrades.
Well sell them off now! You can get a pretty large amount of gold for them at a vendor now, but in 7.0, they'll be worth only a few copper a piece. Sell now!
Dump Other Stuff You're Not Going to Use:
Got a bag full of ship equipment? Get rid of that crap. You're not going to be using it. Got reputation items for Draenor factions? Just use them now.
Oh, But Hold On To Your Gear:
Hold on to every little bit of soulbound gear that your character would realistically use (if it's cloth and you're a warrior, feel free to vendor/de that stuff.
The new transmog system will save the appearances of all the gear in your inventory, bank, and void storage, after which you'll be able to toss it all out (though I know I'm going to be holding on to some pieces for pure nostalgia.) But it won't save that gear until the patch actually hits, so hold the hell onto it for just a few more days!
Use Up Baleful Gear:
Nothing's really happening to the Baleful stuff as far as I know, but the Demonic Invasions are going to be rewarding better stuff. However, the demons in said invasions (particularly the "no really, this is a raid boss" demonic generals) hit hard enough that they seem to expect you to be wearing something a little better than your Nagrand leveling greens (that said, you'll get credit even if you just sit in the zone, so don't worry if you find yourself spending several minutes as a ghost over the course of the invasions - you still get your loot boxes and Nethershards.)
Good Luck on that Legendary Ring...
You will no longer be able to start the Legendary Ring quest chain, but if you're on the second stage (the Highmaul one, I think,) you will be able to continue for the next couple weeks, until the expansion itself lands.
Starting it now will not give you enough time to complete the whole thing, I'd guess, but if you're on the last stage, I'd start making sure I was running all of HFC every week to maximize my chances of getting the thing done.
Run as Many Gold-Gathering Follower Missions as You Can:
Garrison gold is getting nerfed hard so that people won't feel compelled to return to their garrisons. So get that last burst of gold while you can!
Bid a Tearful Farewell to Abilities You'll Miss:
Every spec is getting pared down, and while I think that in almost every case it's a good move for the game's design, I'll certainly miss some of them. So farewell, Holy Wrath. Goodbye, Dizzying Haze. So long Plague Strike (actually, I never really liked that guy.) See you in another life, Magma Totem. Via con Dios, Dispatch. Safe travels, Hurricane. Keep fighting the good fight, Exorcism and Hammer of Wrath. And a special moment of silence now for Gladiator's Resolve. Maybe some day we'll have a dedicated sword-and-board melee spec, but you were never long for this world.
But the overall design of the 6.0 Arms Warrior? You go back to hell where you came from!
Moose! Moose!
I still have not gotten a Grove Warden mount. I hate pugging raids, which I often experience as "all the toxicity of LFR, but you never down any bosses!" The good news is that even if you don't get it this week, you'll be able to keep getting it through August until Legion itself drops. There is another magic-looking moose mount for Glory of the Legion Raider, but it's A: Nightmare corrupted (read: black, white, and red, like a White Stripes album) and B: doesn't have the cool glowing eyes or antler runes or fancy barding.
But fret not if this week doesn't work for you - you still have over a month to get this guy.
The Fast and the Furious in 7.0
Fury Warriors always had a similar thing to Frost Death Knights, having two "sub-specs." But in 7.0, Fury will fully embrace Titan's Grip to become all about dual-wielding two-handed weapons. To be fair, Fury's rotation was not nearly as altered by its choice of weapons as Frost, and going single-minded fury always felt more like you were trying to be contrarian than anything else. Fury gets to do something no other spec in the game does, so why resist it?
2 Fast 2 Furious:
Fury retains its Enrage mechanic, which it kept for itself in Warlords after it had previously been something all Warriors used. But Enrage now functions slightly differently. Getting Enraged increases your attack speed by 100%, but it also increases the damage you take by 30%.
Your Mastery still increases the damage you do while Enraged, but the attack speed focus will help you generate significantly more Rage while you are in your Enraged state.
Enrage lasts only 4 seconds.
Spending Rage:
You actually only spend Rage on a couple of abilities.
The primary one is a new ability called Rampage. This costs a whopping 85 Rage, causing you to make 5 strikes in quick succession, dealing a large amount of damage and then automatically enraging you.
Whirlwind is still your AoE Rage-burner, and causes your next Bloodthirst or Rampage to hit 4 additional targets for 50% of their single-target damage.
Finally, there's Execute, which which costs 25 Rage and deals a bunch of damage to targets below 20% health (unlike Arms, there's no "burn more Rage if you have it" component here.)
Generating Rage:
Bloodthirst is still the ability you'll hit on cooldown (4.5 seconds reduced by Haste, I believe) that generates 10 Rage, heals you for 4% of your max health, and Enrages you when it crits.
Raging Blow is now free, and instead generates 5 Rage when it hits, but can only be used when you're enraged.
Finally, Furious Slash doesn't generate Rage, but it costs nothing and has no cooldown, doing light damage and then increasing the critical strike chance of Bloodthirst by 15%, stacking up to 6 times (so 90%, which should be a guaranteed critical strike when you factor in base crit and whatever you have on gear,) but this buff is consumed when Bloodthirst does crit.
And the Rest:
You still have Charge, Heroic Leap, and plenty of utility stuff. You do not, however, have Victory Rush anymore, and in fact you'll mostly be healing via Bloodthirst.
Battle Cry is a new 1-minute cooldown for both Fury and Arms (might also be for Protection) that gives you 100% crit for 5 seconds - which should be extra useful for Fury, given that it means guaranteed Enrages.
Bladestorm is also baseline for Fury and Arms, as a cooldown you'll want to use in AoE situations.
My general understanding is that you're intended to use Rampage to spend your Rage, and then build it back up quickly with Raging Blow and the increased Rage generated by auto attacks during the Enrage, which will then put you near where you need to be to cast Rampage again. You actually get a spell alert when you have enough Rage to cast Rampage. You'll want to hit Bloodthirst on cooldown and fill in with Furious Slash whenever you can't do anything else.
I do wonder a bit about whether it's better to cast Rampage during an enrage if you can, given that it does so much damage - probably more than Raging Blow. But if it's not up, I'd guess RB is what you want to use while Enraged.
I will say that without Vicotry Rush or some of the great Arms survival talents (like Second Wind,) Fury definitely seems less capable of solo questing than Arms, though you can of course supplement yourself with food and bandages. In group situations, though, it'll totally be a matter of preference. If you want to be a blur of slashing swords, Fury definitely lets you do that. So cry havoc and let slip the hogs of war.
What was that? "Dogs" of War? Well I say hogs.
2 Fast 2 Furious:
Fury retains its Enrage mechanic, which it kept for itself in Warlords after it had previously been something all Warriors used. But Enrage now functions slightly differently. Getting Enraged increases your attack speed by 100%, but it also increases the damage you take by 30%.
Your Mastery still increases the damage you do while Enraged, but the attack speed focus will help you generate significantly more Rage while you are in your Enraged state.
Enrage lasts only 4 seconds.
Spending Rage:
You actually only spend Rage on a couple of abilities.
The primary one is a new ability called Rampage. This costs a whopping 85 Rage, causing you to make 5 strikes in quick succession, dealing a large amount of damage and then automatically enraging you.
Whirlwind is still your AoE Rage-burner, and causes your next Bloodthirst or Rampage to hit 4 additional targets for 50% of their single-target damage.
Finally, there's Execute, which which costs 25 Rage and deals a bunch of damage to targets below 20% health (unlike Arms, there's no "burn more Rage if you have it" component here.)
Generating Rage:
Bloodthirst is still the ability you'll hit on cooldown (4.5 seconds reduced by Haste, I believe) that generates 10 Rage, heals you for 4% of your max health, and Enrages you when it crits.
Raging Blow is now free, and instead generates 5 Rage when it hits, but can only be used when you're enraged.
Finally, Furious Slash doesn't generate Rage, but it costs nothing and has no cooldown, doing light damage and then increasing the critical strike chance of Bloodthirst by 15%, stacking up to 6 times (so 90%, which should be a guaranteed critical strike when you factor in base crit and whatever you have on gear,) but this buff is consumed when Bloodthirst does crit.
And the Rest:
You still have Charge, Heroic Leap, and plenty of utility stuff. You do not, however, have Victory Rush anymore, and in fact you'll mostly be healing via Bloodthirst.
Battle Cry is a new 1-minute cooldown for both Fury and Arms (might also be for Protection) that gives you 100% crit for 5 seconds - which should be extra useful for Fury, given that it means guaranteed Enrages.
Bladestorm is also baseline for Fury and Arms, as a cooldown you'll want to use in AoE situations.
My general understanding is that you're intended to use Rampage to spend your Rage, and then build it back up quickly with Raging Blow and the increased Rage generated by auto attacks during the Enrage, which will then put you near where you need to be to cast Rampage again. You actually get a spell alert when you have enough Rage to cast Rampage. You'll want to hit Bloodthirst on cooldown and fill in with Furious Slash whenever you can't do anything else.
I do wonder a bit about whether it's better to cast Rampage during an enrage if you can, given that it does so much damage - probably more than Raging Blow. But if it's not up, I'd guess RB is what you want to use while Enraged.
I will say that without Vicotry Rush or some of the great Arms survival talents (like Second Wind,) Fury definitely seems less capable of solo questing than Arms, though you can of course supplement yourself with food and bandages. In group situations, though, it'll totally be a matter of preference. If you want to be a blur of slashing swords, Fury definitely lets you do that. So cry havoc and let slip the hogs of war.
What was that? "Dogs" of War? Well I say hogs.
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Legion: How Did We Get Here?
The invasion of the Burning Legion that is the centerpiece of WoW's upcoming expansion is the result of a long chain of events, and in a way, was born out of the best intentions. Let's trace that history.
Deathwing's Last Son:
When Deathwing emerged from Deepholme, he unleashed devastation across the planet. He allied with Twilight's Hammer and sought to destroy the world - either to free or escape the Old Gods (the latter being my fan theory.)
Deathwing was becoming something quite unlike a dragon, and by the time we destroyed him, he had broken apart into some kind of elemental aberration. His brood, the Black Dragonflight, played a somewhat smaller role in the expansion than his new invention, the Twilight Dragonflight. But the old Black Dragonflight was still a presence, particularly in the central Eastern Kingdoms.
It was in the Badlands that we came across a goblin woman named Rhea, who eventually revealed to us that she was Rheastrasza, a Red Dragon who had journeyed there to try to see if there was a way to redeem the Black Dragonflight and free them of the Old God corruption that had spread through them from Deathwing downward.
In the course of your quests there, you manage to use Titan technology to synthesize a Black Dragon egg, using the remains of dead whelps and some corrupted eggs. Rhea sacrifices herself to make Deathwing think the egg has been destroyed, but in fact she has an ally hide it away with her flight.
There's a gap in the story here for most characters, but Rogues have a chance to get the next chapter of the story.
Intercepting a communiqué for Twilight's Hammer, you find out that the egg was taken to Twilight Highlands, and that forces are coming to steal the egg. You arrive too late, finding that the egg has already been taken. You track the egg to Ravenholdt - a familiar location to Rogues from before Cataclysm.
After sneaking into the manor house, you discover that not only has the egg hatched, but that it was the dragon whelp inside who orchestrated his own extraction. Wrathion has more or less taken over Ravenholdt for himself, and while he shares a cause with the Red Dragons, he has no interest in being their slave. Wrathion asks you to work for him instead.
His goal is the complete extermination of his own family, himself obviously excluded. He is indeed free of the corruption of the Old Gods, but he is pragmatically deadly, and employs you in the elimination of the very few remaining Black Dragons in the world. When all is said and done, he has succeeded, and while Baron Sablemane remains an open question, Wrathion at the very least clears Azeroth of his kin.
Visions of Destruction:
Wrathion is only a couple years old when the Alliance/Horde war tumbles over the land of Pandaria. The conflict has exploded into a fully-fledged war, and it appears it won't end without one conquering the other.
Wrathion travels to Pandaria and enlists heroes of all stripes (not just Rogues) to try to push the war to a swift conclusion. He has had a vision, he presumes from the Titan technology that birthed him, of the Burning Legion's invasion. Wrathion wants the war ended swiftly and decisively, and for a new united front across Azeroth to prepare for the arrival of this invasion.
Initially, Wrathion favors the Horde, given Garrosh's aggressive policies and clear will to conquer. But as it becomes clear that Garrosh is dividing his own faction, and could never bring Azeroth's people together in any cohesive whole, Wrathion switches to favoring the Alliance.
But when Varian allows Vol'jin to ascend as Warchief and the two factions agree to a peace treaty, Wrathion is enraged. He is convinced that only a total absorption of the Horde into the Alliance would be enough to face off against the Legion.
Rash Decisions:
Here's where things start to get a little tin-foil-hatty. Garrosh is placed under arrest, awaiting his punishment in Pandaria (which I believe was execution, though I could be wrong. Pandaren don't seem like the types to be into capital punishment.)
Meanwhile, the Bronze dragon Kairoz has been studying the strange effects of the Timeless Isle. Following the Cataclysm, the with all the dragonflights effectively de-powered into mere mortals, the Bronze flight's insight into the flow of time has been lost, and Kairoz is trying to get it back.
So Wrathion, still pissed at Varian, gathers some allies to break Garrosh out of jail. He gets Zaela and other Hellscream loyalists to assist, as well as Kairoz, and then several Infinite Dragons. Yes, the Infinite Dragonflight was part of Garrosh's escape.
Kairoz brings Garrosh and the others to an alternate timeline of Draenor - one that is 35 years in the past, and is slightly different in a few subtle ways. Wrathion comes with them, but he becomes separated at some point. The Infinite Dragons are nowhere to be seen.
That is, unless you count Kairoz. In truth, he never displays the Infinite corruption we've seen in other dragons, but this seems like a very likely first step along the way to the corruption of the Bronze Flight - something we already know about because the Infinites have been traveling back to our past to try to change the timeline.
The goal here is to have Garrosh create a new Horde that will conquer Azeroth. Wrathion wants it to do so in order to provide a strong war machine to fight off the Legion. Kairoz wants it so that he can have a potentially infinite army under his control, hopping from universe to universe and replicating his forces.
Garrosh just wants revenge. And once Kairoz makes it clear that this would only be an Orc-led Horde officially, but not in practice, Garrosh murders him.
Garrosh meets with the alternate-universe doppelgänger of his father and appears as a prophet, showing him a very distorted vision of the Horde's history - focusing a lot on the drinking of demon blood and then the internment camps - much less Thrall's successful bid of independence or Garrosh's own making a muck of it.
The Iron Horde is created, and Gul'dan is imprisoned - but not killed. Not content to simply have his ideal all-Orc Horde, Garrosh wants to return to Azeroth and take revenge. This, of course, bring the attention of the Alliance and the Horde proper, who very swiftly dismantle the Iron Horde. With Garrosh and most of the Iron Horde's leadership dead, and Gul'dan released during the initial fighting, the remaining leadership of the Iron Horde deposes Grom and instead turns to Gul'dan - ironically creating the exact "failed Horde" Garrosh had come to prevent.
This new Gul'dan slips through our grasp in the attempt to take down the Fel Iron Horde, and he eventually travels to our Azeroth, with thirty years of history and knowledge of his own doppelganget's mistakes.
It's here that the details become fuzzy, and I'm sure we'll have to wait until Legion to really find out what's going on. But Gul'dan finds the body of Illidan Stormrage, recovered from Outland several years ago and sealed within a crystal prison in the Broken Isles.
Somehow, Gul'dan is able to use Illidan to open a massive portal at the Tomb of Sargeras that allows the Legion to invade our world.
Irony:
This is a story of compounded irony. Wrathion seeks to save the world from the Burning Legion, and through his actions, he creates the opportunity for them to strike. Garrosh seeks to create a pure Horde, free of the history of demonic corruption, only to have the Iron Horde fall to the demons and leave Azeroth threatened by an even greater Legion invasion than the Third War.
But if you really want to trace it all the way back, we can blame ourselves. We were the ones who messed with a bunch of Black Dragon organic matter in an attempt to create something that hadn't existed in ten thousand years. You can hardly say it was intentional, but we played our own part in bringing this whole mess to pass.
So I guess it's our job to clean it up.
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