So given that my laptop has a framerate of like, 3, I'm holding off on running any dungeons on my Demon Hunter until I get back from this trip tomorrow. Still, after trying out Vengeance during a demonic invasion, I'm actually feeling a bit more confident on taking the Demon Hunter for a run in the driver's seat.
We're at a weird place where half of all tank classes now wear Leather instead of Plate (and still no Mail classes, which is kind of odd.) Obviously Vengeance gives certain bonuses to armor and straight damage reduction to ensure that you can take hits like other tanks.
You have two major active mitigation abilities. The first is the more straightforward one - Demon Spikes. This has two charges on a reasonably short recharge and costs some of the Vengeance resource, Pain (which is generated by some abilities and I believe also by taking damage, making it similar to Rage, but not exactly.) Demon Spikes increases your parry chance and reduces damage you take.
The other defensive ability is Soul Cleaver, which hits targets in front of you in a cone and sucks in the various Lesser Soul Fragments you've generated (see below) to heal you. This one costs 30 to 60 Pain (Demon Hunters are really into randomness,) and of course needs to be "recharged" by getting those Lesser Soul Fragments out there, meaning you'll be using this less frequently.
Your main filler is Shear (an iconic Illidan ability that they obviously had to give to the class.) Shear will deal physical damage and then have a chance to shear off a lesser soul fragment from your enemy, dropping it nearby (like a more frequent Gift of the Ox for Monks.)
For AoE, you have a couple solid options.
Immolation Aura can't be kept up all the time, but it bursts for fire damage around you and then continues to pulse damage for a few seconds, generating Pain as well. Probably to be used on cool down.
Throw Glaive has no cool down or cost, and hits multiple targets, bouncing between them like Avenger's Shield for Paladins (so aim it for enemies on the side of a pack.)
Sigil of Flame is one of several Sigil spells that you place on the ground and let it go off after a couple seconds. This one just damages the targets, so it should probably be used on cool down.
Infernal Strike is similar to Heroic Leap, allowing you to hop a fair distance and deal fire damage to enemies where you land. It has two charges and should be great for dungeon groups if you don't need to pull them back (Throw Glaive and possibly Sigil of Silence would be what you'd want for that, I think.)
In terms of Defensive Cooldowns, you have Empower Wards - a 20-second CD that reduces magic damage taken. You also have Fiery Brand, which deals fire damage over time to the target and also reduces the damage they do to you for a few seconds (probably something you'll use rotationally, actually.)
And then of course, there's Metamorphosis, in which you transform into a big honking demon, increasing current and max health and generating Pain over time.
At the pull, you'll probably use either Throw Glaive to pull targets to you or throw down a Sigil of Flame and then Infernal Strike into the pack (at a distance, you can use Sigil of Silence to to make sure that casters come at you.)
Rotationally, you'll be using Shear to build up Pain and then periodically working in Demon Spikes, trying to keep them up as much as possible (and saving one charge in case there's an active-mitigation-specific ability you're watching out for.) You'll then use Soul Cleave if you've got Pain to spend but no Demon Spikes charges or if you need a quick heal.
You'll probably want to use Immolation Aura on cool down, though I don't think you'll need Throw Glaive after the pull, as IA and Soul Cleave should probably take care of your multi-target threat (also Sigil of Flame.) Shear should really be your filler ability.
I'll have a better sense of how tough the Vengeance spec is once I can play on my desktop, but at least when fighting demons in Westfall, I really didn't see my health falling very much except on the final boss, when lag made it impossible to get out of various fires.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Broken Shore: Alliance Side (Live, so I Know What Happens in the Cutscenes!)
So SPOILER ALERT.
This is a really big event that kicks of the expansion and sets the dire tone for what follows. Ultimately, the last two expansions were sort of lower-stakes than the previous ones - failure would mean conquest, not annihilation. This time, though, things are the highest stakes we've ever had, and big things happen to establish that fact.
Spoilers Ahead:
This is a really big event that kicks of the expansion and sets the dire tone for what follows. Ultimately, the last two expansions were sort of lower-stakes than the previous ones - failure would mean conquest, not annihilation. This time, though, things are the highest stakes we've ever had, and big things happen to establish that fact.
Spoilers Ahead:
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Oh, You Meant Gameplay? Demon Hunter First Impressions Part Two
Well, I got so caught up in recapping the Demon Hunter Starting Experience (which is really good - lots of fun, not too hard, lots of secrets to discover if you're using Spectral Sight or just observant) that I forgot to actually talk about gameplay.
While there's a good chance that Veranos, my Demon Hunter who is currently chilling in Stormwind after having fended off an invasion of Dun Morogh, is going to eventually go Vengeance as his main spec, I haven't really done much with that other than simply arrange action bars and assign talents.
So instead, we've got Havoc to talk about.
Actually, before we do that, let's talk mobility. You obviously have double-jumping and glide, which Mardum is basically designed to work well with - lots of long sloping paths that you can glide over. Both specs get these two features, which can also be used in combat to get over nasty things on the ground (which any WoW veteran will recognize as a pretty popular boss mechanic.)
All Demon Hunters will start out in the Havoc spec. It think that you unlock Vengeance at level 99 (a little over halfway into the Mardum section of the starting experience) though there's also a later quest that explicitly tells you to choose a spec, though obviously with the new system you can switch specs any time you're out of combat.
Havoc uses Fury as its main resource. You'll build up this purple bar using Demon's Bite, which gives 20-30 Fury.
Your "filler" spender, that you start off with, is Chaos Strike, which does a bunch of Chaos damage and then refunds the Fury spent on it if it crits, making crit a pretty attractive stat.
You'll eventually unlock Eye Beam and Blade Dance, which are also rotational abilities you'll want to use, though these have cool downs (Blade Dance is only something like 8 seconds reduced by haste, so you'll use it pretty often, while Eye Beam has I think a 45-second cool down, meaning it should be used whenever possible, but maybe save it if you've got some outdoor enemy on the ropes already.)
Both Eye Beam and Blade Dance hit multiple targets, giving you some AoE options. Blade Dance hits enemies in an area (I think around the Demon Hunter) while Eye Beam is a... beam attack that hits enemies in front of you - it's channeled and always crits.
You also have Fel Rush, which has two charges and sends you shooting forward, dealing damage to enemies in your path. This is a pretty good ability for both mobility and AoE damage, though like a Monk's Roll, you can easily overshoot enemies, so be sure to be quick on turning with the mouse (something that I could not do on my laptop. Oh well.)
Metamorphosis is your big cooldown. It's actually a combination attack and short-term buff. Hitting it will give you a target reticle. You'll jump into the area, dealing damage to anyone nearby and also transforming into a demon, which increases damage and transforms some of your attacks into other, more powerful attacks. This is on a standard three-minute cool down, so certainly useable on every boss in a dungeon and multiple times per raid fight.
In terms of rhythm, you will be spending a fair amount of time just alternating Demon's Bite and Chaos Strike, though the variable gain on the former and the variable cost on the latter mean you'll actually be paying more attention to your resource bar than most classes.
Blade Dance is on a quick enough cool down that you won't feel like you're missing it, though Eye Beam is on a long enough cool down that you'll sometimes find you really need that burst of damage and don't really have it available.
Chaos Nova is on a one-minute cool down, damaging and stunning nearby enemies. I'm not yet really sure whether this is meant as a rotational ability or a utility cool down. Likewise, Vengeful Retreat does damage, slows enemies, and sends you backwards, and I believe that some talent setups will get a lot of damage out of that and Fel Rush, but will require you to constantly worry about your positioning.
Much as the Brewmaster Monk really embraced the new paradigm of active mitigation, Havoc at least is really embracing the simpler rotation with more dynamic abilities. You won't need forty keybinds to play this spec, but I suspect that that doesn't mean there won't be a noticeable difference between good players and bad ones.
Cosmetically, you'll pick out the normal stuff and then tattoo style and color (separately,) horns, and your blindfold type. Thankfully all of this stuff is changeable in the Barber Shop, so if you pick out a silly looking blindfold, for example, you aren't stuck with it forever. The one thing you can't change is skin color.
You do get alternate skin colors and facial options. Some of the skins have cracks where fel energy shows through, while others give you a sort of scaly appearance. Faces include some with scars or demonic spikes just poking out of the forehead a bit.
And of course all the voice acting is different than standard Night Elves or Blood Elves - not just a modulator like for Death Knights but full on different statements (including Demon Hunter-themed jokes and flirts.)
Demon Hunters do look really cool, though I hope that after we ditch our artifact weapons post-Legion, we get more Warglaive models, because using swords or axes on this class would just seem so... wrong. (I'd love to see some unconventional Warglaives, like the druidy wooden ones from the Shando Illidan skin in Heroes of the Storm.)
While there's a good chance that Veranos, my Demon Hunter who is currently chilling in Stormwind after having fended off an invasion of Dun Morogh, is going to eventually go Vengeance as his main spec, I haven't really done much with that other than simply arrange action bars and assign talents.
So instead, we've got Havoc to talk about.
Actually, before we do that, let's talk mobility. You obviously have double-jumping and glide, which Mardum is basically designed to work well with - lots of long sloping paths that you can glide over. Both specs get these two features, which can also be used in combat to get over nasty things on the ground (which any WoW veteran will recognize as a pretty popular boss mechanic.)
All Demon Hunters will start out in the Havoc spec. It think that you unlock Vengeance at level 99 (a little over halfway into the Mardum section of the starting experience) though there's also a later quest that explicitly tells you to choose a spec, though obviously with the new system you can switch specs any time you're out of combat.
Havoc uses Fury as its main resource. You'll build up this purple bar using Demon's Bite, which gives 20-30 Fury.
Your "filler" spender, that you start off with, is Chaos Strike, which does a bunch of Chaos damage and then refunds the Fury spent on it if it crits, making crit a pretty attractive stat.
You'll eventually unlock Eye Beam and Blade Dance, which are also rotational abilities you'll want to use, though these have cool downs (Blade Dance is only something like 8 seconds reduced by haste, so you'll use it pretty often, while Eye Beam has I think a 45-second cool down, meaning it should be used whenever possible, but maybe save it if you've got some outdoor enemy on the ropes already.)
Both Eye Beam and Blade Dance hit multiple targets, giving you some AoE options. Blade Dance hits enemies in an area (I think around the Demon Hunter) while Eye Beam is a... beam attack that hits enemies in front of you - it's channeled and always crits.
You also have Fel Rush, which has two charges and sends you shooting forward, dealing damage to enemies in your path. This is a pretty good ability for both mobility and AoE damage, though like a Monk's Roll, you can easily overshoot enemies, so be sure to be quick on turning with the mouse (something that I could not do on my laptop. Oh well.)
Metamorphosis is your big cooldown. It's actually a combination attack and short-term buff. Hitting it will give you a target reticle. You'll jump into the area, dealing damage to anyone nearby and also transforming into a demon, which increases damage and transforms some of your attacks into other, more powerful attacks. This is on a standard three-minute cool down, so certainly useable on every boss in a dungeon and multiple times per raid fight.
In terms of rhythm, you will be spending a fair amount of time just alternating Demon's Bite and Chaos Strike, though the variable gain on the former and the variable cost on the latter mean you'll actually be paying more attention to your resource bar than most classes.
Blade Dance is on a quick enough cool down that you won't feel like you're missing it, though Eye Beam is on a long enough cool down that you'll sometimes find you really need that burst of damage and don't really have it available.
Chaos Nova is on a one-minute cool down, damaging and stunning nearby enemies. I'm not yet really sure whether this is meant as a rotational ability or a utility cool down. Likewise, Vengeful Retreat does damage, slows enemies, and sends you backwards, and I believe that some talent setups will get a lot of damage out of that and Fel Rush, but will require you to constantly worry about your positioning.
Much as the Brewmaster Monk really embraced the new paradigm of active mitigation, Havoc at least is really embracing the simpler rotation with more dynamic abilities. You won't need forty keybinds to play this spec, but I suspect that that doesn't mean there won't be a noticeable difference between good players and bad ones.
Cosmetically, you'll pick out the normal stuff and then tattoo style and color (separately,) horns, and your blindfold type. Thankfully all of this stuff is changeable in the Barber Shop, so if you pick out a silly looking blindfold, for example, you aren't stuck with it forever. The one thing you can't change is skin color.
You do get alternate skin colors and facial options. Some of the skins have cracks where fel energy shows through, while others give you a sort of scaly appearance. Faces include some with scars or demonic spikes just poking out of the forehead a bit.
And of course all the voice acting is different than standard Night Elves or Blood Elves - not just a modulator like for Death Knights but full on different statements (including Demon Hunter-themed jokes and flirts.)
Demon Hunters do look really cool, though I hope that after we ditch our artifact weapons post-Legion, we get more Warglaive models, because using swords or axes on this class would just seem so... wrong. (I'd love to see some unconventional Warglaives, like the druidy wooden ones from the Shando Illidan skin in Heroes of the Storm.)
Demon Hunter First Impressions
Well, despite only having my laptop right now (though with a new SSHD that helps a lot,) I just had to start my Demon Hunter character. I played through the starting experience - I'm sure I'll take my time a bit more the second time around when I do my Horde one - and now I'm in Stormwind (well, until the World Server went down.)
One thing that's interesting is that the starting cinematic is, for the first time, not that guy (actually I think they switched voice actors after the original one died, but the new guy does a good impression) explaining your race/class to you. Instead, you begin with a first person POV shot of Illidan telling you about your mission to Mardum and then sending you through a portal while he deals with these Azerothian heroes.
I'd say about two thirds of your starting experience is on Mardum. You kill demons and get your new abilities that way (not sure if this works for Vengeance - I just went Havoc the whole way.) Eventually, you battle the Spider Queen Tyrannia on her ship, the Fel Hammer, which flies above Mardum, and head back to the Black Temple...
Only to find Maiev there with several other Wardens. She encases you in a crystal and ships you off to the Vault of the Wardens. You "several years" (nine, real-time) in stasis, until Maiev breaks you out, throws you a new set of Glaives (you actually don't get to keep the original ones. I'll have to check that for transmog) and sets you off on the path to help break out your fellow Illidari.
You're then introduced to the conflict between Altruis the Sufferer (who was actually a quest-giver in BC that sent you after the Illidari) and Kayn Sunfury. The former broke off with Illidan because he felt the Betrayer had gone a little nuts and was acting too much like an actual demon, while the latter is fiercely loyal to the master. And one's a Night Elf and the other a Blood Elf, if that makes a difference to you.
Gul'dan and Cordana manage to steal Illidan's body, which cannot be good.
You fight your way through the literal dungeon, actually putting some of the bosses back in stasis while the demons pour out of their prisons, and eventually have to choose between either Kayn or Altruis to be your second-in-command, with the other going off on their own (I went with Altruis. I like to think that my guy wants to keep himself honest, and having a lieutenant who is willing to stand up to him is good for that. We'll have to see what the long-term effects of this choice are.)
Finally, you face the Eredar leader of the assault, after which you meet up with Khadgar, who brings you to your capital and then the quests begin to sync up with what the other players experience with demons attacking the leadership of your faction.
My computer is so ancient that it's hard to get a real feel for the flow of the class, but so far I really like the aesthetic (except the helmet I currently have - you get a second set of quest rewards in the vault that have a different look, but my older one upgraded to epic, so I'll have to take a trip to the transmogrifier.)
Anyway, DEMON HUNTERS ARE LIVE!
I can't wait to start doing all the other launch event stuff, but I think a lot of that will wait until I'm back home and can use my main computer.
One thing that's interesting is that the starting cinematic is, for the first time, not that guy (actually I think they switched voice actors after the original one died, but the new guy does a good impression) explaining your race/class to you. Instead, you begin with a first person POV shot of Illidan telling you about your mission to Mardum and then sending you through a portal while he deals with these Azerothian heroes.
I'd say about two thirds of your starting experience is on Mardum. You kill demons and get your new abilities that way (not sure if this works for Vengeance - I just went Havoc the whole way.) Eventually, you battle the Spider Queen Tyrannia on her ship, the Fel Hammer, which flies above Mardum, and head back to the Black Temple...
Only to find Maiev there with several other Wardens. She encases you in a crystal and ships you off to the Vault of the Wardens. You "several years" (nine, real-time) in stasis, until Maiev breaks you out, throws you a new set of Glaives (you actually don't get to keep the original ones. I'll have to check that for transmog) and sets you off on the path to help break out your fellow Illidari.
You're then introduced to the conflict between Altruis the Sufferer (who was actually a quest-giver in BC that sent you after the Illidari) and Kayn Sunfury. The former broke off with Illidan because he felt the Betrayer had gone a little nuts and was acting too much like an actual demon, while the latter is fiercely loyal to the master. And one's a Night Elf and the other a Blood Elf, if that makes a difference to you.
Gul'dan and Cordana manage to steal Illidan's body, which cannot be good.
You fight your way through the literal dungeon, actually putting some of the bosses back in stasis while the demons pour out of their prisons, and eventually have to choose between either Kayn or Altruis to be your second-in-command, with the other going off on their own (I went with Altruis. I like to think that my guy wants to keep himself honest, and having a lieutenant who is willing to stand up to him is good for that. We'll have to see what the long-term effects of this choice are.)
Finally, you face the Eredar leader of the assault, after which you meet up with Khadgar, who brings you to your capital and then the quests begin to sync up with what the other players experience with demons attacking the leadership of your faction.
My computer is so ancient that it's hard to get a real feel for the flow of the class, but so far I really like the aesthetic (except the helmet I currently have - you get a second set of quest rewards in the vault that have a different look, but my older one upgraded to epic, so I'll have to take a trip to the transmogrifier.)
Anyway, DEMON HUNTERS ARE LIVE!
I can't wait to start doing all the other launch event stuff, but I think a lot of that will wait until I'm back home and can use my main computer.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Demon Hunters' Eve and the Staggered Release of Legion
In some ways, Legion is the opposite of Warlords of Draenor. In Warlords, we didn't get any new toon incentive - no new class or race was added (though the new character models for the old races should not be ignored as a serious improvement to the game.) It also funneled absolutely everyone into the same area at the same time - while Alliance and Horde went to opposite ends of the continent for their first full quest zones, everyone was put through a pretty bottlenecked series of quests in Tanaan Jungle - the only glimpse we got of the zone before it got super fel-corrupted.
The launch of Warlords was far from perfect - DDoS attacks (to be fair, not Blizzard's fault) made the first few hours pretty hard to play, though after the first day things got better.
So what Blizzard is doing is kind of clever. At first, the unprecedented release of Demon Hunters before the expansion itself launched seemed like a bad move - in the past, we've had people starting their Monks, Worgen, Death Knights, etc. while others decided to steam on ahead on their mains and go to the new continent, nicely dividing the players into two or three groups (three when we have a new race for each faction.)
But actually, releasing Demon Hunters tomorrow actually plays into the clever staggering that the game will be using this go around.
For one thing, we got the systems patch weeks ago, meaning that people have had time to update add ons and get used to new rotations (and pick out their best transmog set.)
Now we'll be getting the Demon Hunters and the biggest pre-launch event we've had since Cataclysm. But then it will be three more weeks before the expansion itself launches.
Not every player who intends to play Legion will have a Demon Hunter yet, though. Those who want physical copies (including the physical collector's edition, though I think there's digital version as well) will need to wait until the 30th. So not every player is going to be starting their DHs the moment the servers come back up tomorrow (I'm assuming that's when they'll be unlocked, as opposed to midnight tonight.)
But then the expansion itself is staggered in a clever way as well.
Players will have a series of quests that eventually send them off to Dalaran in its new location above the Broken Isles. From there, the player base is divided not in two, by faction, but in twelve, by class. While some of these quests will still take place in Dalaran, a lot of them shuffle people off into separate zones and instances. And shortly after starting this chain, players will get split into thirty-six different quest lines as each player pursues their own artifact weapon. Yes, there's some overlap - I know that Affliction Warlocks, Unholy Death Knights, and Balance Druids all get sent to Deadwind Pass, but that's really not too bad, having to share a zone with a twelfth of other players.
And then, of course, you get into solo scenarios.
After completing the quest chain to get your artifact weapon, it will have already been enough time for different players to be finished at different times. And after that, each player is going to choose which zone to start in, meaning that even after all the class-and-spec specific content, you're still going to have people going to different parts of the Broken Isles (and probably dividing at least some of those players between different parts of the zone depending on faction.)
This is really a pretty complex and comprehensive way to get players to spread the hell out. Sure, Dalaran will probably be Dalalaggy as people arrive, but they're sent off pretty quickly.
Obviously, anything can go wrong, and simply having so many players logged in at the same time will probably put strain on the servers regardless of how spread out things are. But I think Blizzard is trying a new and very clever plan to make the launch-day experience far better than it has been in the past.
Looking forward to it, but I'm focused more on Demon Hunters tomorrow! And my laptop has a new SSHD, so I might actually be able to do more than simply pick out the hair/face/skin color/etc. of my Demon Hunters!
The launch of Warlords was far from perfect - DDoS attacks (to be fair, not Blizzard's fault) made the first few hours pretty hard to play, though after the first day things got better.
So what Blizzard is doing is kind of clever. At first, the unprecedented release of Demon Hunters before the expansion itself launched seemed like a bad move - in the past, we've had people starting their Monks, Worgen, Death Knights, etc. while others decided to steam on ahead on their mains and go to the new continent, nicely dividing the players into two or three groups (three when we have a new race for each faction.)
But actually, releasing Demon Hunters tomorrow actually plays into the clever staggering that the game will be using this go around.
For one thing, we got the systems patch weeks ago, meaning that people have had time to update add ons and get used to new rotations (and pick out their best transmog set.)
Now we'll be getting the Demon Hunters and the biggest pre-launch event we've had since Cataclysm. But then it will be three more weeks before the expansion itself launches.
Not every player who intends to play Legion will have a Demon Hunter yet, though. Those who want physical copies (including the physical collector's edition, though I think there's digital version as well) will need to wait until the 30th. So not every player is going to be starting their DHs the moment the servers come back up tomorrow (I'm assuming that's when they'll be unlocked, as opposed to midnight tonight.)
But then the expansion itself is staggered in a clever way as well.
Players will have a series of quests that eventually send them off to Dalaran in its new location above the Broken Isles. From there, the player base is divided not in two, by faction, but in twelve, by class. While some of these quests will still take place in Dalaran, a lot of them shuffle people off into separate zones and instances. And shortly after starting this chain, players will get split into thirty-six different quest lines as each player pursues their own artifact weapon. Yes, there's some overlap - I know that Affliction Warlocks, Unholy Death Knights, and Balance Druids all get sent to Deadwind Pass, but that's really not too bad, having to share a zone with a twelfth of other players.
And then, of course, you get into solo scenarios.
After completing the quest chain to get your artifact weapon, it will have already been enough time for different players to be finished at different times. And after that, each player is going to choose which zone to start in, meaning that even after all the class-and-spec specific content, you're still going to have people going to different parts of the Broken Isles (and probably dividing at least some of those players between different parts of the zone depending on faction.)
This is really a pretty complex and comprehensive way to get players to spread the hell out. Sure, Dalaran will probably be Dalalaggy as people arrive, but they're sent off pretty quickly.
Obviously, anything can go wrong, and simply having so many players logged in at the same time will probably put strain on the servers regardless of how spread out things are. But I think Blizzard is trying a new and very clever plan to make the launch-day experience far better than it has been in the past.
Looking forward to it, but I'm focused more on Demon Hunters tomorrow! And my laptop has a new SSHD, so I might actually be able to do more than simply pick out the hair/face/skin color/etc. of my Demon Hunters!
Friday, August 5, 2016
The End of Legion
The upcoming expansion is simply called Legion, and that carries with it some serious implications. The title of WoW's first expansion, the Burning Crusade, actually referred to basically the same thing - one could make the argument that the Burning Crusade is an action while the Burning Legion is a group of demons and one Titan, but the Burning Crusade is what the Legion does.
Of course, the Burning Crusade split its focus considerably. For one thing, the headlining villain (though not the main figure on the box art - mirroring Vanilla's Dwarf/Night Elf and Orc/Tauren art, BC had a Draenei/Blood Elf box) is decidedly not a member of the Burning Legion.
Illidan's relationship with the Legion is something Blizzard has evolved and probably rewritten a few times. Illidan waged a war against the Lich King, for example, at Kil'jaeden's behest (a war he lost, which allowed Arthas to merge with Ner'zhul to become the second Lich King.) Still, Burning Crusade was largely about us fighting the Illidari - Illidan's organization of allied Blood Elves, Naga, Fel Orcs, and of course his far more elite and trusted Demon Hunter disciples - the very characters who we will be able to play starting on August 9th (I'm really eager to take my Demon Hunter through Black Temple and see if there's any special dialogue there - theoretically everything inside should be friendly.)
We did fight the Burning Legion ultimately in the Burning Crusade, especially as it became clear that Kael'thas and his faction had abandoned Illidan in favor of the Legion (a move many were upset about, given that Kael'thas was pretty much a good guy in Warcraft III, his alliance with Illidan a pretty understandable move to survive.) Our ultimate showdown with the Legion was at Sunwell Plateau. This fight ended favorably, but there was absolutely no sense that there was any finality to it - Kil'jaeden was explicitly not dead. We had merely slammed the door in his face. (Meanwhile, we've killed Archimonde twice and both times it's been kind of unclear whether he's actually dead or not. My money is on no, even if Mythic raiders killed him in the Twisting Nether, which is supposed to mean perma-death for demons.)
With an expansion called Legion, where it has been made explicitly clear that we're facing down the Burning Legion's biggest invasion of Azeroth ever, though, I think Blizzard needs to actually make our eventual victory (and I'm assuming it's a victory, because there's going to be a final boss for us to beat) count for something. We can't simply "close the portal" again, because ultimately how would that differ from what we did in the end of Burning Crusade.
What might we actually accomplish by the end of this expansion?
We already know that we'll have killed Gul'dan B - he's the boss of the first major raid. The Emerald Nightmare is also probably going to be considered "dealt with," because even though Xavius isn't the root cause of the Nightmare, I really can't imagine going back in after a raid literally called the Emerald Nightmare. (I'm still really curious about the relationship between the Old Gods, the Nightmare, and the Legion.)
I think that bare minimum, we have to kill Kil'jaeden permanently. We know he's involved in this invasion and the whole "leaving him alive after BC" move was totally to set up a final confrontation with him like this. Archimonde might have a presence if he's still alive, though I kind of hope that when we killed him on Draenor, that counted to actually kill him permanently.
The big question is Sargeras.
Sargeras is literally the size of a planet, so I don't really see him being a raid boss in the conventional sense (unless we all become super-sized in some kind of cosmic arena.) Still, the Tomb of Sargeras, which I am 90% sure will be the expansion's final raid (not saying that the end of the raid will still be on Azeroth, mind you) is the resting place of Sargeras' avatar, which, while huge, is more in keeping with raid bosses we've seen in the past. I could see us fighting Sargeras within an avatar like this.
The question then is whether Blizzard is willing to pull the trigger on actually killing Sargeras off.
Sargeras has been the big bad of Warcraft since the beginning. It's only within very recent periods that we've discovered there might be anything truly more powerful and villainous than he is. The shapeless Void Lords are something we'll probably never even see, because of how final their position within the canon is (plus there was that comic suggesting Anduin's going to fight them in like seventy years, at which point I will literally be one hundred years old.)
However, eliminating Sargeras might not be the total collapse of the Warcraft story that some might fear.
First off, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Demons as a threat. Demons existed before Sargeras created the Legion, and without their master, they might start doing their own thing.
Then you have the Old Gods - we've fought two of them in person, but it seems pretty evident that neither C'thun nor Yogg-Saron are actually dead. Y'Shaarj is (and I believe we cut off the source of the Sha with some unwitting help from Garrosh, even if that doesn't mean that the remaining Sha essence in Pandaria is totally gone.) N'Zoth we haven't even seen (except as a Hearthstone card.)
The Old Gods could absolutely headline an expansion - you could easily have N'zoth do one on his own (the other two surviving OGs I think would need to be presented as part of a package, as we've already faced them.) The Dark Below as a name isn't going to happen, but I think an underground expansion could be really awesome.
I keep wondering about Azshara - it'd be a pretty huge step down after Legion to merely deal with the Queen of the Naga. One could imagine her as a middle-tier boss in a N'zoth expansion, but on the other hand, it might be necessary to lower the stakes significantly after Legion so that things don't go totally insane.
And of course, there's always the possibility of new villains popping up. Garrosh was never mentioned before Burning Crusade, but his campaign to "make the Horde great again" actually made him one of the most nuanced villains we've seen in the game (even if it was infuriating to see the Horde falling into barbarism when you were playing as one of its heroes.)
I'm always going to hold out some hope that the Infinite Dragonflight gets a place in the spotlight, but I also know that that's more of a pet issue and not necessarily on Blizzard's priority list.
The other big question I have about the end of Legion is the fate of Illidan.
To my knowledge, Illidan is going to have to wait a while to actually be resurrected. I think that Gul'dan has his body, so perhaps we'll recover it following the Nighthold Raid, but then what?
Illidan is apparently going to be instrumental in the Naaru's plan to defeat the Legion (which now makes me wonder why they were organizing us to fight him,) and so I could totally see him playing a Thrall/Tirion Fordring role in the final boss fight, but then what?
Does he survive to lead the Illidari once again? Does he reconcile with Malfurion? Does he die to save us all? Can he even die, now that he's demonic enough to be bound to the twisting nether?
We'll have to see how the story develops as the expansion goes on.
Of course, the Burning Crusade split its focus considerably. For one thing, the headlining villain (though not the main figure on the box art - mirroring Vanilla's Dwarf/Night Elf and Orc/Tauren art, BC had a Draenei/Blood Elf box) is decidedly not a member of the Burning Legion.
Illidan's relationship with the Legion is something Blizzard has evolved and probably rewritten a few times. Illidan waged a war against the Lich King, for example, at Kil'jaeden's behest (a war he lost, which allowed Arthas to merge with Ner'zhul to become the second Lich King.) Still, Burning Crusade was largely about us fighting the Illidari - Illidan's organization of allied Blood Elves, Naga, Fel Orcs, and of course his far more elite and trusted Demon Hunter disciples - the very characters who we will be able to play starting on August 9th (I'm really eager to take my Demon Hunter through Black Temple and see if there's any special dialogue there - theoretically everything inside should be friendly.)
We did fight the Burning Legion ultimately in the Burning Crusade, especially as it became clear that Kael'thas and his faction had abandoned Illidan in favor of the Legion (a move many were upset about, given that Kael'thas was pretty much a good guy in Warcraft III, his alliance with Illidan a pretty understandable move to survive.) Our ultimate showdown with the Legion was at Sunwell Plateau. This fight ended favorably, but there was absolutely no sense that there was any finality to it - Kil'jaeden was explicitly not dead. We had merely slammed the door in his face. (Meanwhile, we've killed Archimonde twice and both times it's been kind of unclear whether he's actually dead or not. My money is on no, even if Mythic raiders killed him in the Twisting Nether, which is supposed to mean perma-death for demons.)
With an expansion called Legion, where it has been made explicitly clear that we're facing down the Burning Legion's biggest invasion of Azeroth ever, though, I think Blizzard needs to actually make our eventual victory (and I'm assuming it's a victory, because there's going to be a final boss for us to beat) count for something. We can't simply "close the portal" again, because ultimately how would that differ from what we did in the end of Burning Crusade.
What might we actually accomplish by the end of this expansion?
We already know that we'll have killed Gul'dan B - he's the boss of the first major raid. The Emerald Nightmare is also probably going to be considered "dealt with," because even though Xavius isn't the root cause of the Nightmare, I really can't imagine going back in after a raid literally called the Emerald Nightmare. (I'm still really curious about the relationship between the Old Gods, the Nightmare, and the Legion.)
I think that bare minimum, we have to kill Kil'jaeden permanently. We know he's involved in this invasion and the whole "leaving him alive after BC" move was totally to set up a final confrontation with him like this. Archimonde might have a presence if he's still alive, though I kind of hope that when we killed him on Draenor, that counted to actually kill him permanently.
The big question is Sargeras.
Sargeras is literally the size of a planet, so I don't really see him being a raid boss in the conventional sense (unless we all become super-sized in some kind of cosmic arena.) Still, the Tomb of Sargeras, which I am 90% sure will be the expansion's final raid (not saying that the end of the raid will still be on Azeroth, mind you) is the resting place of Sargeras' avatar, which, while huge, is more in keeping with raid bosses we've seen in the past. I could see us fighting Sargeras within an avatar like this.
The question then is whether Blizzard is willing to pull the trigger on actually killing Sargeras off.
Sargeras has been the big bad of Warcraft since the beginning. It's only within very recent periods that we've discovered there might be anything truly more powerful and villainous than he is. The shapeless Void Lords are something we'll probably never even see, because of how final their position within the canon is (plus there was that comic suggesting Anduin's going to fight them in like seventy years, at which point I will literally be one hundred years old.)
However, eliminating Sargeras might not be the total collapse of the Warcraft story that some might fear.
First off, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Demons as a threat. Demons existed before Sargeras created the Legion, and without their master, they might start doing their own thing.
Then you have the Old Gods - we've fought two of them in person, but it seems pretty evident that neither C'thun nor Yogg-Saron are actually dead. Y'Shaarj is (and I believe we cut off the source of the Sha with some unwitting help from Garrosh, even if that doesn't mean that the remaining Sha essence in Pandaria is totally gone.) N'Zoth we haven't even seen (except as a Hearthstone card.)
The Old Gods could absolutely headline an expansion - you could easily have N'zoth do one on his own (the other two surviving OGs I think would need to be presented as part of a package, as we've already faced them.) The Dark Below as a name isn't going to happen, but I think an underground expansion could be really awesome.
I keep wondering about Azshara - it'd be a pretty huge step down after Legion to merely deal with the Queen of the Naga. One could imagine her as a middle-tier boss in a N'zoth expansion, but on the other hand, it might be necessary to lower the stakes significantly after Legion so that things don't go totally insane.
And of course, there's always the possibility of new villains popping up. Garrosh was never mentioned before Burning Crusade, but his campaign to "make the Horde great again" actually made him one of the most nuanced villains we've seen in the game (even if it was infuriating to see the Horde falling into barbarism when you were playing as one of its heroes.)
I'm always going to hold out some hope that the Infinite Dragonflight gets a place in the spotlight, but I also know that that's more of a pet issue and not necessarily on Blizzard's priority list.
The other big question I have about the end of Legion is the fate of Illidan.
To my knowledge, Illidan is going to have to wait a while to actually be resurrected. I think that Gul'dan has his body, so perhaps we'll recover it following the Nighthold Raid, but then what?
Illidan is apparently going to be instrumental in the Naaru's plan to defeat the Legion (which now makes me wonder why they were organizing us to fight him,) and so I could totally see him playing a Thrall/Tirion Fordring role in the final boss fight, but then what?
Does he survive to lead the Illidari once again? Does he reconcile with Malfurion? Does he die to save us all? Can he even die, now that he's demonic enough to be bound to the twisting nether?
We'll have to see how the story develops as the expansion goes on.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
One Week Until Demon Hunters
I don't typically talk about lore from a "down on the ground" perspective. I generally try to focus on broader concerns and major characters - the nature of the Titans, the motivations of the Infinite Dragonflight, the interaction between Fel magic and the Old Gods. But with a second hero class, I thought I'd talk a little bit about our upcoming Demon Hunter characters.
Personally, I'm going to be confined to my laptop the day that the class comes out, and I might simply wait until I get back from the airport, probably jet lagged and feeling like crap, to create my own DH (actually, DHs, as I fully plan on making a Horde Illidari in addition to the Alliance one.)
Mechanically, hero class has come to mean a class that starts at a higher level and for that reason has its own unique starting experience. For almost eight years, Death Knights have been the only hero class, but we're getting a second one next week.
But flavorfully, this starting experience actually emphasizes the way that members of a hero class are really defined by that class. Becoming a Warlock, Paladin, or Hunter is a life choice, to be sure. But ultimately all of the non-hero classes are essentially a set of skills. It might be very difficult for a lifelong Warlock to seek redemption and wield the Light as a Paladin, but it's not impossible.
Likewise, members of the non-hero classes probably relate perfectly well to those of other classes. A dwarf Hunter and a dwarf Warrior could easily have grown up together, even served together in the name of King Magni back in the day. That Hunter would probably feel a much stronger connection to her warrior friend than some Night Elf Sentinel who uses the same techniques she does. Granted, she might get to know and respect that Sentinel after the Alliance brought the Night Elves into the fold, but there is not, inherently, that sense of kinship there.
For hero classes, though?
I think the clearest example is the friendship between Thassarian and Koltira. Now, Thassarian is actually the guy who killed Koltira in the first place, but as members of the Scourge, they actually managed to set aside the old racial distrust (though at the time Thassarian killed Koltira, humans and High Elves were actually allies.) As a Death Knight, one really feels more attached to Acherus and the Ebon Blade than one's original homeland. Your fellow Knights know the cruel addiction you suffer while your countrymen mostly treat you with distrust and disdain.
This effect is deepened with Demon Hunters. The Lich King was pretty equal-opportunity in creating his Death Knights - the Pandaren are the only race that can't be DKs and that's just because Blizzard couldn't figure out a decent workaround for the timeline the way they had for Worgen and Goblins. The Demon Hunters are very specifically elves - Night Elves for the Alliance and Blood Elves for the Horde.
So you sort of have the racial unity built in to the class identity, unless they eventually (in a later expansion, if ever) loosen the restrictions. The Blood Elves are of course distant cousins (or, given the longevity of the Night Elves, nieces and nephews) of the Night Elves.
But at the same time the history experienced by the Illidari is a very different one than the other playable elves.
The first thing to consider is that everything from the end of the Black Temple Raid to the beginning of Legion - so Sunwell Plateau, all of Wrath, the Cataclysm, the war between the Alliance and Horde, and the whole Draenor situation - all of those events are things that your Demon Hunter has totally missed. They'll be stepping into a world that they left under threat of the Scourge and in which Deathwing was a lurking threat and find one that is completely transformed.
But that's not even all of it.
Illidan was freed during the Third War. We don't know for a fact when he first started training apprentices - one would assume that other Demon Hunters from that era would have been killed or imprisoned along with him, so we can probably assume that notable Demon Hunters like Feronas Sindweller, Altruis the Sufferer, and Loramus Thalipedes were probably trained in the period following the Third War, when Illidan was banished from northern Kalimdor but no longer imprisoned.
Given that the Night Elves only joined the Alliance in the period following the Third War and Illidan's banishment, that means that any Night Elf Demon Hunter would only be joining the Alliance now - they last experienced life in their society during the highly bifurcated period before the war. If your DH is a woman, she was probably a Sentinel or a Priestess of the Moon (or possibly a Warden who became intrigued with her most high-profile prisoner's techniques,) and if you have a male character, he was probably a druid sleeping in the barrows (though there are some non-druid male Night Elves like Jarod Shadowsong.)
Blood Elf Demon Hunters would have joined Illidan when Kael'thas went to Outland, escaping from the oppression of Garrithos (the human commander of the remnant of Lordaeron's forces.) So when they left Azeroth, they were seeking an escape from the Scourge and being used as cannon fodder by the Alliance. Illidan had provided the Blood Elves with a source of magic that sated their addiction following the corruption of the Sunwell.
The Illidari were most likely well aware that Kael'thas had betrayed them. Most of the Blood Elves who came to Outland followed him in his disastrous alliance with the Burning Legion. Indeed, given the Havoc Demon Hunter artifact quests, it looks like some of the Demon Hunters even followed him. But presumably your loyalty was to Illidan - your mentor and trainer who had provided salvation to your people.
Returning to Azeroth, you'd be aware that your people back home joined the Horde, though you've never lived under the Horde personally. The last time you saw your homeland, it had been utterly devastated by the Scourge, and so finding out that the Lich King had been defeated and that the Sunwell had been reignited with Holy magic might make you seriously question whether you had been right to follow Kael'thas in the first place.
Something that is apparently in the Illidan novel actually explains more about the nature of Demon Hunters, though, and this is where it starts to become clear that DHs have undergone an experience that is just as transformative and irreversible as that of Death Knights.
Illidan's recruits into the Demon Hunter class are all people who have lost a loved one or loved ones to a demon. Ironically, Illidan doesn't really fit this description, but it's part of his recruitment requirements. Probably the greatest trial in training to be a Demon Hunter is when the Demon Hunter must summon the demon who killed his or her loved one. The novice must slay the demon and then consume its heart, creating a deep connection between the demon and the hunter. The demon becomes a part of the Demon Hunter, a constant reminder of that painful loss but also a source of incredible power. The Demon Hunter's discipline is all that prevents the demonic presence within from taking over.
In a sense, a Demon Hunter has the opposite problem of a Death Knight. A Death Knight is numb, feeling only an endless hunger to inflict pain. A Demon Hunter is constantly assaulted with pain and rage, feeling it all, and indeed seeing all the demonic evil in the universe. Demon Hunters apparently do not gouge out their eyes as some careful ritual - it's more of a side-effect of being able to see through the eyes of the demon they have imprisoned within themselves.
Demon Hunters are transformed into half-demons themselves - their souls are bound to the Twisting Nether, like that of a demon, which allows them to return to life (granted, in-game they'll probably find Spirit Healers - which we now know are benevolent rogue Val'kyr - in the Shadowlands - which I theorize is where we go when we're in ghost form.) In a sense, they aren't really Night Elves or Blood Elves anymore.
But despite their demonic nature - or more likely, because of it - they are fully committed to fighting against the Burning Legion and the other evils that threaten Azeroth. Unlike Death Knights, they chose this path willingly, but either way, they have made a commitment that even death will not release them from.
Personally, I'm going to be confined to my laptop the day that the class comes out, and I might simply wait until I get back from the airport, probably jet lagged and feeling like crap, to create my own DH (actually, DHs, as I fully plan on making a Horde Illidari in addition to the Alliance one.)
Mechanically, hero class has come to mean a class that starts at a higher level and for that reason has its own unique starting experience. For almost eight years, Death Knights have been the only hero class, but we're getting a second one next week.
But flavorfully, this starting experience actually emphasizes the way that members of a hero class are really defined by that class. Becoming a Warlock, Paladin, or Hunter is a life choice, to be sure. But ultimately all of the non-hero classes are essentially a set of skills. It might be very difficult for a lifelong Warlock to seek redemption and wield the Light as a Paladin, but it's not impossible.
Likewise, members of the non-hero classes probably relate perfectly well to those of other classes. A dwarf Hunter and a dwarf Warrior could easily have grown up together, even served together in the name of King Magni back in the day. That Hunter would probably feel a much stronger connection to her warrior friend than some Night Elf Sentinel who uses the same techniques she does. Granted, she might get to know and respect that Sentinel after the Alliance brought the Night Elves into the fold, but there is not, inherently, that sense of kinship there.
For hero classes, though?
I think the clearest example is the friendship between Thassarian and Koltira. Now, Thassarian is actually the guy who killed Koltira in the first place, but as members of the Scourge, they actually managed to set aside the old racial distrust (though at the time Thassarian killed Koltira, humans and High Elves were actually allies.) As a Death Knight, one really feels more attached to Acherus and the Ebon Blade than one's original homeland. Your fellow Knights know the cruel addiction you suffer while your countrymen mostly treat you with distrust and disdain.
This effect is deepened with Demon Hunters. The Lich King was pretty equal-opportunity in creating his Death Knights - the Pandaren are the only race that can't be DKs and that's just because Blizzard couldn't figure out a decent workaround for the timeline the way they had for Worgen and Goblins. The Demon Hunters are very specifically elves - Night Elves for the Alliance and Blood Elves for the Horde.
So you sort of have the racial unity built in to the class identity, unless they eventually (in a later expansion, if ever) loosen the restrictions. The Blood Elves are of course distant cousins (or, given the longevity of the Night Elves, nieces and nephews) of the Night Elves.
But at the same time the history experienced by the Illidari is a very different one than the other playable elves.
The first thing to consider is that everything from the end of the Black Temple Raid to the beginning of Legion - so Sunwell Plateau, all of Wrath, the Cataclysm, the war between the Alliance and Horde, and the whole Draenor situation - all of those events are things that your Demon Hunter has totally missed. They'll be stepping into a world that they left under threat of the Scourge and in which Deathwing was a lurking threat and find one that is completely transformed.
But that's not even all of it.
Illidan was freed during the Third War. We don't know for a fact when he first started training apprentices - one would assume that other Demon Hunters from that era would have been killed or imprisoned along with him, so we can probably assume that notable Demon Hunters like Feronas Sindweller, Altruis the Sufferer, and Loramus Thalipedes were probably trained in the period following the Third War, when Illidan was banished from northern Kalimdor but no longer imprisoned.
Given that the Night Elves only joined the Alliance in the period following the Third War and Illidan's banishment, that means that any Night Elf Demon Hunter would only be joining the Alliance now - they last experienced life in their society during the highly bifurcated period before the war. If your DH is a woman, she was probably a Sentinel or a Priestess of the Moon (or possibly a Warden who became intrigued with her most high-profile prisoner's techniques,) and if you have a male character, he was probably a druid sleeping in the barrows (though there are some non-druid male Night Elves like Jarod Shadowsong.)
Blood Elf Demon Hunters would have joined Illidan when Kael'thas went to Outland, escaping from the oppression of Garrithos (the human commander of the remnant of Lordaeron's forces.) So when they left Azeroth, they were seeking an escape from the Scourge and being used as cannon fodder by the Alliance. Illidan had provided the Blood Elves with a source of magic that sated their addiction following the corruption of the Sunwell.
The Illidari were most likely well aware that Kael'thas had betrayed them. Most of the Blood Elves who came to Outland followed him in his disastrous alliance with the Burning Legion. Indeed, given the Havoc Demon Hunter artifact quests, it looks like some of the Demon Hunters even followed him. But presumably your loyalty was to Illidan - your mentor and trainer who had provided salvation to your people.
Returning to Azeroth, you'd be aware that your people back home joined the Horde, though you've never lived under the Horde personally. The last time you saw your homeland, it had been utterly devastated by the Scourge, and so finding out that the Lich King had been defeated and that the Sunwell had been reignited with Holy magic might make you seriously question whether you had been right to follow Kael'thas in the first place.
Something that is apparently in the Illidan novel actually explains more about the nature of Demon Hunters, though, and this is where it starts to become clear that DHs have undergone an experience that is just as transformative and irreversible as that of Death Knights.
Illidan's recruits into the Demon Hunter class are all people who have lost a loved one or loved ones to a demon. Ironically, Illidan doesn't really fit this description, but it's part of his recruitment requirements. Probably the greatest trial in training to be a Demon Hunter is when the Demon Hunter must summon the demon who killed his or her loved one. The novice must slay the demon and then consume its heart, creating a deep connection between the demon and the hunter. The demon becomes a part of the Demon Hunter, a constant reminder of that painful loss but also a source of incredible power. The Demon Hunter's discipline is all that prevents the demonic presence within from taking over.
In a sense, a Demon Hunter has the opposite problem of a Death Knight. A Death Knight is numb, feeling only an endless hunger to inflict pain. A Demon Hunter is constantly assaulted with pain and rage, feeling it all, and indeed seeing all the demonic evil in the universe. Demon Hunters apparently do not gouge out their eyes as some careful ritual - it's more of a side-effect of being able to see through the eyes of the demon they have imprisoned within themselves.
Demon Hunters are transformed into half-demons themselves - their souls are bound to the Twisting Nether, like that of a demon, which allows them to return to life (granted, in-game they'll probably find Spirit Healers - which we now know are benevolent rogue Val'kyr - in the Shadowlands - which I theorize is where we go when we're in ghost form.) In a sense, they aren't really Night Elves or Blood Elves anymore.
But despite their demonic nature - or more likely, because of it - they are fully committed to fighting against the Burning Legion and the other evils that threaten Azeroth. Unlike Death Knights, they chose this path willingly, but either way, they have made a commitment that even death will not release them from.
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