I would think that after eight years of playing World of Warcraft, I wouldn’t be excited enough about a new expansion to stay up for launch. I stayed up for the last three, and the last – for Warlords of Draenor – was an unmitigated disaster. Still, I felt anxious to begin questing in World of Warcraft Legion.
The three weeks prior to Launch Day were spent getting my main character, an Arms Warrior, up to snuff. I had been away from the game for months, and his gear was a little lacking. I spent that time also creating and preparing a Demon Knight, the new “hero” class for the expansion. Luckily, Blizzard knows how to handle pre-launch content, and I had plenty to do during those three weeks.
As the hours ticked away to time-zero, I made sure my toons were ready. Of course, I also steeled myself for the eventual disappointment. I recalled the shitstorm that was the Warlords of Draenor launch event. Not only was the opening questline poorly designed to handle thousands of players at once, a DDoS attack crippled the servers. Much bile was spilled that day.
Cut to the Legion launch and…it was smooth. Time-zero hit, my experience reappeared, and an NPC flew in to give me the beginning of the new questline. No hiccups, no major issues, just getting down to business. Lovely!
From there on, the goodness continues. A good portion of the initial questline consists of solo scenarios, further limiting the bottlenecks. Soon enough I am introduced to the big new systems for Legion: the class hall and artifact weapon. While the class hall may seem like a glorified version of the garrisons in WoD, artifact weapon system is pretty solid. I especially love the storyline for each. I managed to grab the artifact weapon for both my main Arms spec and Protection off-spec, available once I hit level 102. Both questlines were great. My Arms Warrior’s questline had me seek out Strom’kar, the Warbreaker; the sword once wielded by King Thoradin himself. If there is one thing Blizzard cannot be faulted for, it’s their attention to the lore of the source content.
Once I established my class hall and got my weapon, I was able to choose a leveling zone out of four. That helps dilute the player base even further, making sure the servers don’t chug too hard. I chose Stormhelm. Any choice is fine; the zones scale depending on a player’s level. Again, it is an excellent way of ensuring the servers are not taxed by thousands of players in one area.
Once I got into the meat of the World of Warcraft Legion, it all became more of the same. After thousands of “kill x to get y” quests, it becomes brain-numbing. Still, World of Warcraft Legion was a great return to the land of Azeroth. I’m hoping it will keep my attention for a while longer; after eight years of history, I’m glad I can delve back into it.
