Early Legion Impressions

So far Legion is … well, just like playing WoW.

On your mark, get set, …

I only played for about an hour and a half last night. I stopped right after I got my Mage Artifact staff Ebonchill. Obviously I haven’t seen all there is to see in Legion, but it starts out with … quests. Just like you’ve done in WoW for the last 50 bazillion years.

As yet there is no emergent new gameplay to be seen, which makes it a bit less interesting for me than the pre-expansion Invasions. I hear there will be something like Invasions somewhere in the expansion, though. Here’s hoping.

As per usual, this WoW Lore newbie has no idea what is going on or who any of the people or places are that the quests refer to. They really don’t explain much in the quest dialog text itself. I can only assume that there are external sources (like the trailers maybe, or comic books, or fan sites that deep dive into lore) that give some context to all of this.

Not understanding the lore is nothing new for me and WoW, though, and it wouldn’t stop me from playing. I mention it though because it would be nice if they could put some thought into helping new, super casual tourists to understand the characters and story. (Inside the game that is.)

Oh! I just thought of something they might try. They could link to the previous quests in previous expansions that would give you the background you need for the current story. In the quest text somewhere, it might say, “Click here to get the Level X quest that introduces Character Y.” (Like Khadgar, for example. I have no idea who he is or why he’s important in this expansion. And the whole thing where Jaida(?) stormed out of that one meeting. Who the heck is Jaida?) They could provide a whole list or index of the previous quests. Something like that. Maybe somebody could make an Addon like that.

Anyway, on to other things. I really like the concept of the class halls. It ensures (I assume) that each alt you play will have a different Legion experience. I don’t know how far the unique class path goes, but I hope it goes beyond the point where you get your Artifact weapon. So, for people who play lots of alts, this should be a bonanza. (I only have two characters at level 100 though.)

Unfortunately it was a huge disappointment when I got my Artifact and came back to my class hall to find a whole bunch of other players were trespassing all over the space that I thought I would have all to myself. Let’s hope I don’t have to spend a lot of time there watching people run in circles and jump up and down.

One thing that was a big surprise to me was how hard it was to get my Artifact. I’m playing a Frost Mage, who I just leveled from level 74 to 100 using Invasions. I thought I had all the ilevel 700 gear, but I got killed six or seven times in demon-occupied territory.

Likely to be attacked indeed…

(I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I learned nothing about how to play my class solo from those Invasions.)

My experience of soloing with the Mage class over the years is basically that you need to stand there and kill the other guy before he kills you. Kiting is usually not an option since all the best spells have a cast time. The Mage has nothing in the way of self-heals, and also when starting Legion, I realized I had no healing potions because in leveling to 100, all of my previous potions became obsolete, and I never bought any new ones. (I don’t even know where to buy them.)

Usually the mobs in WoW are pushovers so killing them quickly is easy. But it wasn’t the case here. So it was that in fighting the Big Bad to get my Artfiact, I had to pull out every trick I could think of to increase my damage output and mitigate damage input. I think it took four tries before I got him. It was a very unexpected obstacle to overcome, since I seem to recall blowing through everything at light speed in the last expansion.

This is a good thing, right?

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It’s kind of cool to be challenged in WoW for a change. As yet I can’t tell if it’s just me or if they have actually designed it to be challenging. (My bet is that it’s me. I probably missed an obvious button I was supposed to push that would insta-gib the guy.)