The Narrowing List of Legion's Final Boss Possibilities

For quite a while, I was convinced that the Tomb of Sargeras would be our final raid in Legion. I was concerned that there wasn't an obvious "middle tier," and that the design of the expansion was built, like Warlords, around only two raid tiers.

Now it's possible that this was the case in early designs - when Warlords came out, Legion had to have already been in at least early stages of development, and at the time Blizzard was still talking about yearly expansions that would, inevitably, have to be smaller. Of course, Blizzard demonstrated that even with a smaller expansion, it still takes about two years to get through the cycle. I don't think players were all that excited to pay 50 or 60 bucks twice as frequently either. But it's possible that the original concept for this expansion was to have us hit the Nighthold, then the Tomb of Sargeras, and then move on.

Thankfully, at Blizzcon they confirmed that that is not how things are going this time.

The middle tier is the Tomb of Sargeras, and we know that it will be a 9-boss raid (which is a bit on the small side, but remember that Black Temple also had 9 bosses, and that was a pretty popular one. We're not talking Trial of the Crusader here.)

We don't yet know a ton about the Tomb of Sargeras, but we do know that it will have Kil'jaeden as its final boss, as well as a reanimated Avatar of Sargeras (the reason it's called his Tomb even though he's definitely not dead) somewhere in there as well. We also know there will be at least one Naga boss, though not Queen Azshara (I suspect that she's either going to be the final boss of a raid or she's going to have her own expansion - it really depends on whether we fight N'Zoth in an aquatic setting or in an Underdark-style setting.)

But this leaves us with an interesting question: Who is going to be Legion's final boss? And there's one answer to that that seems as inevitable as it is impossible:

Sargeras.

On the pro side:

1. Sargeras is the master of the Burning Legion. This expansion is called Legion, so it would be a bit of an anticlimax for us to face anyone other than its creator and master.

2. The next rung down on the Legion's hierarchy is occupied by two individuals - Archimonde and Kil'jaeden. Archimonde was the final boss of Warlords of Draenor, and we will have just beaten Kil'jaeden in Tomb of Sargeras. Both characters will have already been beaten in two raid fights each.

And on the con side:

1. He's by far the most powerful entity we've heard of (the Void Lords might beat him - might - but we haven't really had any real interactions with them.) This is a guy who killed multiple Old Gods with a single blow (plus the planet they were on and the Titanic World-Soul that rested within said planet.) Remember that the Pantheon didn't kill Azeroth's Old Gods - not because they couldn't, but because they were too powerful and risked damaging Azeroth itself. Now, being powerful doesn't disqualify someone, especially when they'd be the final boss of an expansion. But it's hard to imagine anything at all feeling like a threat after we've faced Sargeras himself. WoW isn't going to end until it's totally unprofitable (and if they keep putting out expansions like this one, that isn't going to happen for a long time.) Sargeras would be the obvious answer to who the ultimate final boss of WoW would be, but I don't see Blizzard ending the game until they have to.

2. He's literally the size of, or even bigger than, a planet. In fact, Sargeras is, kind of literally, a planet. Presumably, eons ago, there was a planet Sargeras that eventually hatched or transformed into the Titan who would later go insane. We don't know exactly how the process works (something we should find out about before Azeroth emerges) but the point is that physically, Sargeras is unbelievably huge. Like, the speed of light probably plays a significant role in how fast his brain can communicate with his limbs (though, as a being of arcane magic, he might be able to bypass that.) As a tank, I'm up for tanking anything, but where would I even stand?

Of course, my ongoing theory about what role Illidan is going to play in this expansion just seems to be getting more and more plausible or even necessary. To reiterate:

Illidan's story is all about how he doesn't really get sacrifice - he's been willing to take huge costly risks, but it's always someone else who pays the price for him. Loramus Thalipedes showed us in Blasted Lands that by drawing a demon into himself, both can be banished (though this banishment was not permanent, as Demon Hunters find out early in their class campaign.) So my theory has been that Illidan's sacrifice will take the following form - he'll draw Sargeras into himself, and then we will fight and kill Illidan, sending both the Betrayer and the Dark TItan into the abyss together.

So that's my narrowed list - we fight either Sargeras proper, or Illidan possessed by Sargeras. I really can't think of anyone else who would fit the bill.

You Get a Class Mount! You Get a Class Mount! Everybody Gets a Class Mount!

I'm very happy to see that class content will continue to be a theme going forward in Legion. One way in which this will be happening is that there will be continuations for the Class Campaigns in 7.2.

While there will be new artifact appearances to unlock (ones that were datamined during the Beta but have been unattainable so far in game - I'm super excited about the Prot Paladin one that gives us a flail) the main reward at the end of the second part of the class campaign will be a class-specific mount.

All these mounts will be capable of flight, which is good news given that 7.2 will also allow us to complete part 2 (of 2) of Broken Isles Pathfinder.

Check out this post from MMO-Champions for the images.

Monks:

Monks seem to be getting a somewhat Celestial-looking Tiger mount. It comes with spirit beads, a big keg of brew on the back, and some drinking gourds hanging on the side. I don't know if it sprouts wings or just mystically floats when flying.

Warlock:

This appears to be a skeletal horse burning with green fel fire. Much as I'm proud of my greed dreadsteed, it's still using a vanilla model, so this is a pretty big update. The horse is mostly covered in what looks like black barding, and it has two big horns, but underneath the armor, it is glowing bright green.

Hunter:

The Hunter mount appears to be some kind of winged wolf. The wolf has wooden armor with fang-like spikes on it and its forearms have feathers.

Mage:

Mages have some kind of magical floating disk, which they can surf on like the Red Flying Cloud. It seems to have an intricate design with orbs of arcane energy at three points around the disk.

Warriors:

Warriors have what looks like a red dragon with spiky metal armor on it. I can't tell if this is a super-updated Proto-drake (it appears to have only four limbs, unlike most dragon-dragons who have six) or if it's a Storm Drake (though it doesn't have their glow.) Anyway, big red dragon-like thing.

Paladins:

Paladins get a much more modern-looking charger - a horse with glowing golden eyes and white barding with gold and blue accents. Naturally, the Paladin mount comes with a big libram hanging from the saddle.

Priests:

Priests get a... ok, imagine a gryphon, but instead of an eagle head, it's an owl (think like a barn owl.) The Priest mount seems to radiate light and bright feathers and has a big glowing symbol on the back (I'd love to see if this changes when you're Shadow-specced, though I doubt it would.)

Rogues:

Rogues get a giant raven, which has a little bit of armor on its wings and head, and seems to carry a cloud of shadow around with it. I'm very happy about this one.

Shamans:

Shamans get a big air elemental. They ride on its shoulders, and the elemental has big purple bracers (with gold and lightning-blue accents) as well as a metal helmet and harness. Like the Mage mount, Shamans will sort of "surf" on the elemental's shoulders. Again, very happy about this one.

Druids:

This appears to be a shapeshift - a kind of alternate flight form. You'll take on the form of a massive horned owl with a moon symbol between the horns and a little armor on the wings.

Demon Hunters:

Demon Hunters get a big armored Fel Bat mount, who wears a black-and-yellow helmet with a massive blade on top of it. The Fel Bat also bears some Illidari runes on it (presumably to keep it under control.)

Death Knights:

Death Knights will get a massive undead fel-drake - a kind of update to the Frostbrood Vanquisher mounts you get for Glory of the Icecrown Raider. The drake glows with fel magic and is pretty much skeletal.

What Will Argus Be Like?

Maybe the biggest WoW bombshell at Blizzcon this year was the announcement that in a patch after 7.2, but still apparently during the Legion expansion, we're going to be heading to Argus.

In case you don't know what that is: Argus was the homeworld of the Eredar people. Sargeras came there and offered infinite knowledge to the curious, intellectual people, and two of the Eredar leaders, Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, accepted the offer while Velen had a vision that showed what the offer truly entailed. Velen convinced a number of Eredar not to take up the offer, but in so doing, incurred the wrath of those who had taken Sargeras' offer. Velen and his people fled, renaming themselves "Draenei," meaning "Exiled Ones."

As far as we can tell, Argus is more or less the home world of the Burning Legion. Sargeras is its leader, but he's about the size of a planet. The Eredar, however, were given a prime position within the Legion's hierarchy, and Archimonde and Kil'jaeden have served as Sargeras' two top lieutenants.

If you play a Draenei character, there's a good chance you were born on Argus, and you have waited thousands of years (originally they said 25,000, though it seems as if they've revised that down to a mere 13,000) to get home.

In terms of geography, there's really only one major feature we know of Argus, which is the capital city of Mac'aree. The Eredar pre-Legion were already an ancient people, and had fused art, science, and magic to create essentially a utopian society. Eredar seem to live pretty much indefinitely, as Velen seems to be the only one we've seen who actually shows signs of old age. I would assume that if their species was not simply long-lived thanks to their inherent biology, then perhaps they used magic or science to alter their aging process or remove it entirely (perhaps Velen looks old because he had already started to age before these scientific advancements were developed, which would really make him that old. Either that or, like US Presidents, having a stressful job leading your people will age you a lot faster.)

Mac'aree was a super-advanced city that I would guess would make Suramar look like a ramshackle slum by comparison. However, given that it has also presumably been the very heart of the Burning Legion for all this time, we can probably assume that it is a dystopian megalopolis of horrors by now.

In terms of gameplay, I'd be surprised if it's really anything more than a new zone. We'll probably arrive at some sort of battlefront where we'll push against the Legion and work our way toward the expansion's final raid (assuming that we get the standard three tiers.)

We're probably going to link up with the Army of the Light, which is composed of survivors from world that the Legion destroyed. At the moment, it appears that Turalyon is either its leader or one of its leaders. I'm curious to see what other races are introduced, but I have a theory about what sorts of fighters we're going to see:

So, there's a spoiler here for the Paladin class campaign. During your final quest in the campaign, you get reinforcements from the Army of the Light, specifically a Paladin named Lothraxion, who becomes a class Champion.

Lothraxion appears to be a non-demonic Nathrezim, aka Dreadlord.

Given that one of the best examples of long-term enemies of the Legion is the Draenei, it would make sense for much of the Army of the Light to in fact be uncorrupted versions of familiar demons. It appears that most demonic species are those who acquiesced to the Legion - we've even seen it on Azeroth, where Night Elves have become Satyrs. So wouldn't it make a lot of sense for the Army of the Light to be a bunch of Succubi, Felguards, Imps, Inquisitors, Jailers, Observers, and Infernals in uncorrupted forms?

The Vengeance Demon Hunter artifact weapons are the Aldrachi Warblades, but we don't really know anything about the Aldrachi other than that they fought the Legion and lost (like everyone has.) Now, it's probably more likely that we're just not going to see the Aldrachi, but what if we already have? What if, say, the Felguards were originally called the Aldrachi? And we've only seen the corrupted version of them. After all, we had seen the Man'ari Eredar long before we encountered the Draenei.

The Implications of Argus

When Legion was first announced, there was some question of what, exactly, this expansion would entail. Warlords of Draenor only had two raid tiers, and really only one major content patch (6.1 didn't count.) The Burning Legion is such a huge part of the Warcraft mythos - so much the "big bad" of the universe - that the thought that we'd ever actually have our ultimate confrontation with them seemed unlikely - yes, even during an expansion literally called Legion.

Well, it's looking a hell of a lot more likely now.

Ever since Burning Crusade, when the story of how the Draenei fled Argus as the rest of their kin transformed into some of the Legion's most dangerous demons, the planet has seemed like a clear choice for a future expansion.

But today at Blizzcon, they announced that we will be going to Argus some time after 7.2 during the Legion expansion (I assume they didn't say 7.3 in case they wanted to do something similar to 7.1 between the Tomb of Sargeras raid and our journey to Argus.)

All this time, I had assumed that the Tomb of Sargeras would be the expansion's final raid, and that our ultimate victory would be stopping the invasion. But if we're going to Argus, I think we're likely to see a far more definitive conclusion to the expansion.

To quickly recap:

The Nighthold Raid, which doesn't launch until next year, is going to be the first real "tier" raid - Emerald Nightmare and Trial of Valor are basically intro raids in the vein of Mogu'shan Vaults and Highmaul. This will have us defeat Elisande as well as Gul'dan, and in fact there are some leaked videos online that tell you just how that raid will end.

The Tomb of Sargeras will come out in 7.2 - and in fact, that's the name of the 7.2 patch. This will be Legion's middle tier, with 9 bosses including some Naga, the reanimated Avatar of Sargeras (the one that Aegwynn defeated) and Kil'jaeden as the final boss (much like Heroic Ragnaros in the Firelands, it looks like we'll be fighting him from head to toe this time.)

So what does this all mean? Well, with Kil'jaeden already used as a boss (and Archimonde very unlikely to show up so soon after he was the final boss of Warlords of Draenor,) that really doesn't leave anyone to be Legion's final boss except for Sargeras himself.

How that would even work is sort of beyond me, though I've postulated that Illidan's grand sacrifice at the end of the expansion (kind of a theme for him) will be to take Sargeras into his body so that we can kill both of them.

But let's think about what this means:

The Burning Legion is probably, actually going to be defeated. It's possible they'll do some sort of Wrath of the Lich King ending where the Legion still exists in some form (like the Scourge,) but it will clearly no longer be the threat that it once was.

Blizzard does have places to go after this - the Old Gods remain a threat, and we now know about the Void Lords, their masters. They're also clearly not saying that Azshara is actually in the Tomb of Sargeras raid, and while basically anyone except the Old Gods would be a step down from the Legion in terms of threat, Azshara could probably headline her own expansion.

This does heavily imply that we will not be getting an entire expansion dedicated to Argus, though, which I'll be honest, kind of disappoints me (on the other hand, it would be hard to imagine that the planet retains much of its old identity after thousands and thousands of years serving as the Legion's headquarters. It's probably a lot of black earth and green fire everywhere.)

It is quite heartening to see that Blizzard is planning far ahead. The sum of details on post-7.2 stuff is really just "Argus," but the fact that we know what's going on with 7.2 and that there's already a very clear third tier in the works is very good.

News for Legion 7.1.5, 7.2, 7.3 Holy Crap It's a Lot

Whoo boy. If you were worried about not getting WoW news at Blizzcon this year, worry no more because, well, holy crap.

7.1.5

This patch will do things like class balance (non-Survival Hunters are getting traps back, for one thing.)

We'll also see the return of the Brawler's Guild, adding new bosses that can be fought by multiple players while they wait in their Brawl queue.

7.1.5 will also add Mists of Pandaria Timewalking dungeons. We won't see Warlords ones yet, as they plan on always giving you an expansion-long break from any set of dungeons. So we'll likely get those in the expansion after Legion.

New Artifact Knowledge catch up mechanics will be put in place.

We'll also get a number of micro-holidays like Ahn'Qiraj Remembrance Day. These won't have huge rewards that you'll feel bad on missing, but it'll spice things up.

7.2: Tomb of Sargeras

This will add Tomb of Sargeras as a 9-boss raid, with Kil'jaeden as the final boss.

Order hall campaigns will continue, and the reward will be a class-specific mount for every class.

Making it to the Tomb will involve a campaign similar to Quel'danas or Isle of Thunder, and you'll be able to choose different buildings that affect the story and give different benefits in the zone.

Legion Assaults, similar to the ones we experienced in the pre-launch event, will start hitting the various zones of the Broken Isles. This will put World Quests on pause, but will have its own rewards. At the end you'll be able to queue for a 3-player scenario (like Mists ones - role agnostic) where you take to the skies and fight aboard legion attack ships.

Oh, and speaking of the skies: Broken Pathfinder Part Two will be available, which will be account-wide and allow flight on the Broken Isles. No dungeons required - just world content (one I'd expect is exalted with all the factions, given that part one required revered.)

Artifacts will get new traits, and you'll be able to put a 4th point in all your 3-point traits. Also the cap on Artifact Knowledge will go up.

New relics that modify multiple traits will also arrive.

There will be new artifact appearances that involve challenging spec quests similar to Anathema/Benediction or the Warlock Green Fire chain.

Court of Stars, Arcway, and Karazhan (the latter broken into two halves) will have queueable heroic modes.

Additionally, a new dungeon: Cathedral of Eternal Night, will be a 4-boss dungeon with normal, heroic, and mythic + difficulties (I'd assume also a regular mythic mode.)

PVP Brawls, similar to those in Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, will be available in WoW.

7.3

We're going to FREAKING ARGUS.

Necromancer Coming to Diablo III, Plus Diablo I Being Remastered Diablo III style: "The Darkening of Tristram"

The Necromancer is being added to Diablo III. Inspired by the Diablo II Necromancer, it will be available next year as part of a paid package that will include other stuff (though we don't know yet what.)

Additionally, as part of a free patch, the original Diablo game will be added into Diablo III - you'll be able to take your Diablo III characters through it.

The Diablo I section will have a visual filter that pixelates things to look more like a 1996 game and will limit movement to 8 directions for true authenticity.

So nothing about a new Diablo game or expansion, but I'm SO ON BOARD with getting the Necromancer, even if it does sort of step on the toes of the Witch Doctor. Xul is my favorite Heroes of the Storm character.

New Hearthstone Expansion: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

Hearthstone's new expansion is going to be 1920s gangland themed.

It seems that after the Cataclysm, the goblin town became a real city and of course, being a Goblin city, naturally there are plenty of bootleggers and protection rackets. There are three major gangs represented in the expansion. Each gang will have tri-class cards that can be used in any of the three classes associated with the gang.

Grimy Goons are a big protection racket who use crazy inventions like piranha guns and walk around in the open.

Jade Lotus are secretive assassins who seem to be mostly Pandaren in flavor.

Mage, Priest, Warrior: The Kabal are a secret society that uses illicit potions.

The Kabal leader legendary minion will allow you to create custom spells, choosing a cost and two effects (that are proportional to that cost.)