Featuring interviews with Venruki, Treckie and Tegu!
The question on everyone's minds in the run up to Legion is: will this bring back all those subscribers? We sat down with some of the finest PvP and PvE players in the game to discuss some of the highlights of the past, as well as what Blizzard should be aiming to do with Legion.
In order to assess the topic fairly, we're going to break this down into a few main topics. There are of course more ways to look at the issue, but I felt these were the main contenders. Things like class balance can't really be spoken about here, since we haven't seen any balancing taking place yet. You can choose which topics to read by clicking on them below:
New class (TL;DR Version)
Leveling in Legion (TL;DR Version)
Artwork (TL;DR Version)
PvE (TL;DR Version)
Interview with Treckie
Interview with Tegu
PvP TL;DR Version
Interview with Venruki
General Conclusions
Demon Hunters
Demon Hunters are one of those classes that have been rumoured and whispered about for a long time. Ever since the Burning Crusade, players have been awaiting their introduction, especially after seeing so many of them at the Black Temple.
From a lore perspective, I think Blizzard are definitely going about this in the right way. Demon Hunters have been restricted to the Elven races, as they should be, and have been given a pretty great starting zone. I don't think anyone can say that the other hero class, the Death Knight, had a better starting zone than this.
Throughout the starting zone, you encounter these incredible moments that hark back to the times of the Burning Crusade, with certain NPCs and names popping up throughout the zone. You get an amazing feeling of nostalgia mixed with awe, an interesting combination since you are experiencing new content while revisiting incredible aspects from the past.
One of the more interesting highlights within that starting zone is the ability to choose your path and it's something that Blizzard is actually touching on more in Legion. Choice is one of the most important features in an MMO as big as WoW. If players are forced to do certain things a certain way, you start moving away from that "open" feel. The Demon Hunters are given the choice of which individual to follow during their starting zone, either Kayn, who remains loyal to Illidan, or Altruis, who instead aided the Alliance and Horde in the Burning Crusade.
The quest window that appears when you have to make your choice.
I love the fact that you are choosing which story to follow, even if it is a purely visual and lore-based choice. These little things allow players to enjoy different aspects depending on their preferences, as well as having some level of replayability. Most players that enjoy the Demon Hunter class will most likely level a Night Elf and Blood Elf version, so it's nice to allow players to experience a different story each time.
From a visual perspective, nobody can deny that the Demon Hunters look fantastic. Their abilities are incredibly visually appealing, as well as the actual models of the characters. Tattoos are something that has been widely requested ever since we saw such incredible artwork on the Vrykul, but the Demon Hunter markings are wonderful. They match the aesthetic perfectly, as well as having enough styles to ensure we're not all wandering around looking like Illidan.
The Demon Hunters aren't perfect, unfortunately. Gameplay-wise, I feel that they do need some work to make sure they have a sufficiently interesting gameplay style. This is especially true for Havoc, in which you can essentially perform the rotation with 2-3 buttons. This is slowly being addressed, especially with reworks to the higher level talents, but I still think the gameplay needs work. If they can fix the problems here, we're going to see a perfect addition to the world of Azeroth.
TL;DR - Demon Hunters have been given a fantastic visual treatment, with flashy skills and amazing models. The starting zone is great, it keeps you focused on the story, but the gameplay needs work. It's very stale right now, with barely any keys to press. It got better, but needs more.
Leveling in Legion
Despite only experiencing a small number of zones so far, the leveling in Legion is taking an interesting turn. In Warlords of Draenor, one of the problems with leveling lay in the linear format. As we said above, choice is one of the most important things in the game. If players are forced to do things in the order Blizzard wishes, it all becomes very stale, very quickly and any replayability factor is destroyed.
Legion is taking a different approach, in which players will begin their journey with the artifact quest. You are allowed to choose which artifact to pursue, regardless of the specialisation you are playing at the time. Once it has been completed, you can venture into any zone of the Broken Isles questing that you wish. There is no specific starting zone, since they all act as one. This is a hugely welcome change, since it means players can experience content at different levels, meaning it will have varying difficulty. A piece of gear obtained at level 106 might make one zone a lot easier, whereas if you were to do it at level 104 without that gear, you might find yourself struggling slightly.
This also ensures a much smoother release for Legion. Warlords of Draenor saw players cramming themselves into single zones in order to level, however there is going to be a more varied approach this expansion. Players will be choosing different zones at different times, so certain zones are going to be much less congested. One hopes that this will ensure that players aren't struggling to play with the amount of lag, as we saw happen with WoD.
Leveling in Legion is going to see a return of one of the best new introductions of WoD, the bonus objective. These are fantastic, allowing players to still level while keeping away from major quest hubs. You can't level solely on these, but they give a hefty heap of experience. I'm definitely welcoming the return of these, they give you a wonderful break from spamming quests and can really speed up leveling an alt.
One of the other fantastic parts of WoD were the cinematics while leveling; they gave players a small insight into the events happening while they were questing, as well as adding an "epic" feel to the major events. Watching Thrall and Garrosh fight in the Mok'gora from a cinematic perspective was a million times better than watching them swing a weapon at each other in-game twice and then /kneel-ing when hurt. If you missed that cinematic (how?!), check it out below:
Judging by the events we have seen so far in the questlines, there are going to be some unbelievably good cinematics coming in Legion. We are yet to see any of them, instead replaced by placeholder text describing them. Regardless, I'm beyond excited for them, especially since it seems Blizzard are bringing characters forward that we haven't seen before, such as Sylvanas appearing in the cinematic trailer.
TL;DR - Blizzard are bringing back a lot of the good parts of WoD, mixed with the new zones and stories. Questing so far looks really good and, with the new choice of where to level, players might find themselves more willing to replay the content when leveling alts.
Artwork
It's difficult to deny that one of the best things about World of Warcraft is the artwork. If you're a fan of the style, you are in for a serious treat with Legion. The new zones look incredible, while still managing to maintain a different feel in every zone. I'll move on to the other aspects of artwork, but I think time is needed to appreciate just how amazing these zones are. Below, you can see a comparison of two zones from the Alpha.
The first zone shown is Suramar and it looks amazing. The natural feel of the image radiates that summery, forest feel from somewhere like Eversong Woods, while still maintaining the strong, darker feel of the Night Elf structures. It's a perfect blend of Blood and Night Elven influences to represent the Kaldorei theme.
The next zone, Stormheim, beautifully encompasses the idea of a rocky landscape hidden in misty hills. Imagine approaching by sea, only to be met by a huge viking carved from stone. Scary stuff!
The zones aren't the only thing that has been designed well in Legion. The new models for so many NPCs and bosses just look fantastic. A perfect example is that of Sylvanas, her model has been changed so many times and yet they have still managed to make it even better. Check it out below:
While the models are looking fantastic on the whole, I do think some of the PvP sets we have just seen released on the Alpha are a bit of a let down. In comparison to the other sets, the cloth set seems extremely underwhelming. While some players might prefer that, I feel that, for example, the mail set is just as simple as the cloth one, but it has small details that make it look special. Take a look at a comparison below:
TL;DR - The artwork so far in Legion is looking great. The new models and zones are fantastically designed, but I'd love to see them spread the love. There are some areas in the artifact and gear area that definitely need some work to bring them up to scratch. If they keep a level of quality consistent with the other work they have done, this expansion is going to look fantastic once again.
PvE
Despite managing to finish the current tier with a high ranking, I felt that I wasn't quite qualified enough to talk about PvE alone. Instead I've brought two guests in to discuss both WoD and Legion PvE, so that we can get a proper analysis of the changes.
My first interview is with Treckie, an accomplished tank who now raids in the guild Nihilum, as well as being in charge of reviewing the Protection Paladin guide here on Icy Veins. You can check out his stream over on Twitch, as well as following him on Twitter.
What was the best part of PvE for you in Warlords of Draenor?
For me, the real strength of PvE for this expansion was the instances being done incredibly well; the instances had some of the best design we have seen in a long time. Hellfire Citadel was, for me, one of the best designed raids in ages. It was nearly perfect, bar one or two bosses.
How did you feel about the style of legendary that Warlords of Draenor brought? Was the gradual increase the right style of nerf?
The legendary questline will always be a pain, but the ring seriously impacted the way fights worked once people got their 735. It was an incredibly powerful DPS increase when you first got it, but the gradual increases were a perfect way of nerfing content. By increasing the item level of your ring each week, you would be getting more powerful every week even if you didn’t have any loot dropping. It wasn’t a crazy buff, but it was still a buff.
I prefer seeing Blizzard buff the players rather than nerf the bosses, as they have in past expansions.
Did the ring seriously impact the world first race? Was it a race to the rings?
I think Warlords saw Blizzard exploring different legendary paths; in MoP, we had legendaries that were awarded as soon as Siege of Orgrimmar started, while now we had that delay before obtaining them. Method got the world first kill without a ring, but personally I’d like to see them either extend the period in which nobody had a ring or just give everyone a ring at the start. This means that, at the highest levels of PvE, RNG drops won’t play a factor in progression. If you compare getting a legendary ring to getting a piece of gear 1 week earlier, the difference is crazy.
What was the worst part of PVE for you in Warlords?
I was never a fan of the whole split-tier idea. The first tier of Warlords was done really badly, since it basically made Highmaul completely obsolete. We spent some time clearing Highmaul and then, when Blackrock Foundry released, there was no point going back to Highmaul. There was better gear in Blackrock, but it wasn’t even a new tier. MoP did it slightly better, with the first tier being spread across 3 raids that each class required gear from, but I’d prefer to just not see the split-tier thing.
Would you like to see a return to 10 and 25-player raiding or do you prefer Mythic?
I think the way the game is constructed now works so much better. 10 and 25-player raids always had such strange problems, especially when attempting to balance fights. I loved the 25-player raids, but I think 20-player is still big enough. I think the fixed number of raiders is a good thing, since it means there is no debate about X-difficulty being more difficult/easy. For Heroic and Normal, I like the whole scaling idea since it allows slightly less-developed guilds to raid even if certain people don’t turn up.
Are the class changes in Legion moving in the right direction?
There are a few changes where people don’t really feel a change was necessary, but we don’t have all the information that Blizzard does. We don’t know what their final plan for the classes is, yet people still feel very entitled when it comes to demanding changes to be put into place or reverted. I think Blizzard are definitely listening to feedback on the changes, we just can’t see all of the feedback and information that they can. Sometimes, we don’t know what their master plan for a class is, so some changes don’t make sense to us.
How are you feeling about the instances in Legion so far?
I really love the instances in Legion. I’m a huge lore fan, so I think they are doing a really good thing by stepping away from us killing huge lore characters in dungeons, like we did to Ner’zhul in WoD. Instead, we are starting fights with big lore figures and they end up running away after a period, meaning we will face them again at a properly epic stage of the expansion.
I think this takes us back to some of the best dungeons we have had, such as the Icecrown Citadel dungeons in Wrath. We had a preview of the Lich King and what he could do, but we didn’t directly fight him.
It can really take away from the epicness of a boss if you kill him 50 times in a 5-man while barely concentrating.
Would you welcome smaller, 1-boss raids in Legion between tiers?
Ruby Sanctum was the perfect example of this and it was pointless. We still did Icecrown Citadel every week after clearing Ruby Sanctum because it was the “main” raid of the expansion. RS was essentially a world boss in an instance. I would rather have seen another boss added to the main raid to push that “epic” feeling further.
Do you feel add-ons have simplified too much in the game?
Every tier, bosses get more difficult. We see more complex mechanics introduced and more complicated add-ons being created to deal with them. I think some features of add-ons are definitely going too far, such as the radar on Archimonde, but I can’t imagine doing the bosses without them. I think there are definitely certain add-ons that are too advanced, where they alter positions and commands based on the deaths of certain players. This starts to actually do parts of a raid leader’s job for them.
Would you support the introduction of Timewalking raids?
I would, but only if they introduced them at a very low difficulty level. I’d hate to see Timewalking raids introduced and then Blizzard trying to make them a competitive thing. It would be nice for players to go back and experience the fights at the appropriate level, but a Heroic Timewalking event of Wrath would just see people continuously wiping on fights. I would totally support a Timewalking weekend for raids though.
Have you got a favourite boss in WoW?
I think Lei Shen is probably one of my favourite bosses. He had an amazing mixture of intermissions and phases, as well as the incredible aspect of choice. While you were going for your first kill, you would take the easiest route, but this differed depending on your raid. You could choose which pillars to activate and then which mechanics to deal with. Your choices directly impacted the later phases of the fight.
Are you excited for Legion or are you waiting to pass judgement?
I’m really excited for Legion. I love lore, I love the story of this game and I can’t wait to see our storyline moving forward again. Warlords of Draenor was a nostalgia expansion, we simply revisited old lore that would then be brushed away as another timeline. I’m excited to see our timeline and the story of WoW moving forward again.
Blizzard need to keep the standard of raids that they did this expansion and they will be in a great position PvE-wise.
The big thing that needs to be changed though is the social aspect of the game. Garrisons slowly killed this off, as well as a general feeling of discontent, so it would be nice to see Blizzard actively promoting the social aspect of the game. The Alpha seems to be moving in the right direction, especially with garrisons gone, but people looked forward to that idea in WoD. It’s really hard to tell how things will impact the game when they are announced, so we’re just going to have to wait and see. Overall though, I’m really excited.
Speaking to Treckie was interesting, especially on the topic of instances in Legion. As he says above, WoD dungeons had two major problems: killing off characters too soon and no reason to go back to the dungeons. Moving forward in Legion, Blizzard is doing a great job of making sure characters don't die too early. His example of Ner'zhul is perfect, since he was meant to be this incredibly powerful warlord, who had just unleashed the power of the Dark Star, and yet we kill him swiftly in a 5-man. Not quite epic.
His point concerning the Lich King is interesting, since the Halls of Reflection did exactly what he describes. We were given a small preview of the final boss of the expansion, but there wasn't any chance of fighting him. We literally just ran. We knew we couldn't defeat him and he didn't feel the need to chase us quickly. We were nothing but bugs under his feet that he could easily squish. We got away because of him underestimating us and a huge heap of luck.
I'd love to see something similar to this brought back into the game, because this was perfectly done. Being able to fight the Lich King in that dungeon would have been equivalent to us deciding to kill Illidan in a 5-man or face Deathwing in The Hour of Twilight. It just completely removes any epic feel to a boss. Running away in terror from a boss that can one shot you? Yes please, that's a boss to be feared.
His point on the split-tiers looks like it's going to happen in Legion, which is unfortunate. I would have preferred to see specific tiers being set out, rather than us (most likely) getting Suramar Palace and Emerald Nightmare set out in the same fashion as Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry. One can only hope Blizzard has other things planned, otherwise there might be another 2-tier expansion on the way.
For my second PvE interview, I sat down with one of, if not the best Death Knight in the world, Tegu from Serenity. He reviews the Frost and Unholy guides here on Icy Veins. Make sure to follow him over on his Twitter, as well as checking out his Twitch.
What were the aspects of PvE that you think Blizzard did well in Warlords of Draenor?
I’ll be honest here, the only thing worth mentioning for me is the raids. Highmaul was fairly enjoyable as a first raid instance, with a few challenging fights put in. I liked the open-plan feel of the raids this expansion as well, since you could choose which bosses and wings to progress first.
What was done badly in Warlords of Draenor in PvE?
I’m sure that this one aligns with most players’ feelings, but garrisons for me were a huge let down. Many people were looking forward to them when the feature was announced, but I think it has seriously hurt the game. The majority of the players spent their WoW time this expansion sitting in their various garrisons, recruiting followers and doing missions. There has also been a crazy amount of inflation caused by the easy gold.
P.S. Thanks for the easy gold cap, Blizzard!
Is there a specific aspect of a past expansion (Vanilla - MoP) that you would like to see brought back to the game in PvE?
I’d love to see certain dungeons brought back into the game, but as I say this, I know that Violet Hold is re-appearing in Legion. That definitely isn’t the type of dungeon I was talking about, please don’t add it! I’d love to see some of the short raid instances brought back, like Throne of the Four Wins and Obsidian Sanctum, since it would mean more content being brought out more regularly.
Are there any aspects of the game that you think are currently damaging PvE in WoW? Should they be removed?
Garrisons. Never again. Please!
Do you feel that the changes made so far in the Alpha are moving in the correct direction? Are Blizzard learning from their mistakes?
I really do, I have the Alpha and I’ve been testing a few classes. I’m really enjoying it right now, not because it’s new content, but because the game feels like what WoW should be. The choice rests with the player. You choose the way you level, you choose where you level, there are things around the world to do outside of the normal stuff. I love the levelling experience, the quests are well done and the new system of zone-choice might mean we have a better launch than WoD did.
The artifact weapons are another good point for me. I like that we can upgrade their power through a number of different ways, rather than forcing players to do one single thing. The new legendaries are also pretty interesting, but I’m waiting to see the effect these will have on raiding.
Even with what’s on the Alpha, there’s still more enjoyable content than WoD, so I think it’s looking pretty positive right now!
Given your role as a melee DPS, are there any changes that you feel “need” to happen in Legion?
I think we need to exclude fights like Blackhand, where we saw nearly every melee sidelined and replaced by a ranged DPS. Rogues had their positions in the fight, but the other melee just weren’t deemed good enough. I think outside of this, melee is in a good position. I’d like to see slightly more competitive DPS figures (and more mobility for my Death Knight!), but unfortunately that can only be guaranteed if there is 100% uptime on the bosses for the melee. This likely won’t happen, since the fight mechanics will have to be extremely basic for the melee. I’d also love to see some of the other melee specs represented next expansion, ones that perhaps we didn’t see much of at the top tiers of raiding in WoD.
As a melee DPS, do you think melee are at a disadvantage at the highest levels of raiding? Are ranged more useful?
I think this was much more prominent in older tiers, where the ranged basically could do everything a melee could. It has definitely got better, with melee players bringing certain utilities, such as Rogues using Feint and Death Knights using Gorefiend’s Grasp. We saw melee represented very well this tier, so I think they are definitely fixing the issue.
Do you think the introduction of yet another melee DPS class is going to affect the class balance in a negative way? Since melee spots are already quite limited, will Demon Hunters cause a lot of problems during raid setups?
I think that no matter what role a new class takes, it’s going to cause problems. There’s a lot of classes and there will always be a struggle trying to fit a completely new class into the raid. It will most likely depend on how good their DPS is, as well as the raid utility they bring.
With another melee class that will most likely start the expansion being very strong, do you think we will see a return to the vanilla-style of certain classes being forced out of certain roles? Will we see a return to people being completely rejected as, for example, a DPS paladin?
In the top guilds, there is always a huge amount of class rotation before and during progress. This ensures that they can clear the raids with the best setup, in the fastest possible time. There are a lot of unique abilities being given to classes, like the mobility spells being given to Ret Paladins (don’t forget DKs!). I think these unique abilities are going to ensure that people can maintain spots in raid groups, regardless of their specific spec and class.
What’s your favourite boss and why?
Patchwerk, because nothing is more enjoyable than being able to smash my keys and never move, right? For real though, Mimiron is probably my favourite boss. It was just a simply unbelievably amazing fight from start to finish, whether on the normal or hard mode. From this expansion, Operator Thogar really stands out for me. It brought a really unique twist to the game’s mechanics and forced raid groups to adapt. I loved it.
Would you like to see Blizzard re-visit the old “favourites”, such as re-using older challenging mechanics in new ways, or do you prefer to see new mechanics on each boss?
WoW could always use more trains and Mimirons, just preferably not in the Violet Hold (please!). Blizzard never disappoints with their mechanics, they really make some fantastic new ones every expansion that continue to adapt and challenge us as players. I’m really looking forward to it!
I think Tegu touches on a few interesting points here, most notably about the utility of melee classes in WoD. As you most likely already know, melee classes often struggle with uptime on certain bosses. The ranged have no issue in regards to range, movement, whatever it may be, they can normally adjust themselves to keep DPSing the boss.
Unfortunately for melee, we don't have that luxury when moving from a mechanic, hence why raids often appoint stack locations close to the boss. Instead, certain classes got given utility that really made them stand out. Rogues using Feint could avoid huge amounts of damage when soaking abilities from bosses, as well as Death Knights simplifying many fights with a number of adds by using Gorefiend's Grasp. This is an ability that also simplifies large portions of Challenge Modes, by ensuring AoE stuns and abilities hit every mob.
I'd love to see more of these abilities introduced in Legion to make sure melee classes stay competitive. We don't want another scenario like with Blackhand Mythic, where many melee raiders were forced to sit out or attend on an alt due to their complete uselessness on the fight.
TL;DR - Both Treckie and Tegu are hyped for Legion, with each of them pointing out their expectations and hopes for the expansion. They both agree that PvE was very strong in WoD for the most part, with BRF and HFC being incredibly well designed raids. Let's hope this continues in Legion!
PvP
We recently saw a huge patch go out on the Alpha introducing a preview of the PvP action in Legion. With a revival in the tournament scene of WoW from GCD TV, it's becoming more important that the PvP scene is paid the attention it is due!
I sat down with arguably one of the best PvPers in the world currently, Venruki, to discuss some of the changes that need to happen. Our interview actually took place before the patch released on the Alpha, so I'll discuss that more later on. If you enjoyed reading through Venruki's points, make sure to check out more of his content on his Twitter, YouTube and Twitch.
In Warlords of Draenor specifically, what do you feel were some of the highlights of the expansion for PvP?
Personally, I think Blizzard did a fantastic job of ensuring that every class (excluding tanks) had a viable team that they could bring to high-rated arenas. Even Retribution Paladins were able to play at Gladiator/Rank-1 levels this expansion. If we look at the Blizzcon qualifiers and main tournaments, every class was represented except Monks. In terms of balance, they really nailed it this expansion.
Despite them doing so well on the balancing front, there is always the issue of bots interfering with the balance. Is this something that you encounter at higher ratings in arena or are the banwaves removing enough of the cheaters?
This is definitely something that we encounter and it’s a huge problem right now. The problem with the banwaves is the sheer delay in punishing those that cheat. If I was to submit video evidence of someone cheating on League of Legends or Counter-Strike, that person would most likely be banned within the next few days.
Blizzard’s banwaves cause them to wait, gathering multiple reports until they can ban a large portion of the cheaters at once. This means I can submit video evidence of someone cheating and they will still be able to play for a few months before getting banned. It can become extremely frustrating playing against someone that I know is cheating and has been for months, but won’t be banned until the next banwave.
Do you feel that Blizzard needs to introduce a targeted team that looks solely into reports and bans? An anti-cheating task force might be able to put out more frequent bans that punish cheaters much faster, rather than allowing them to continue playing.
Yeah, I think it would be a really smart move on Blizzard’s part to have a dedicated team that investigates cheating and bans those that are breaking the ToU as soon as they are reported. I’m sure they get a huge number of videos and reports sent in, but botting is becoming a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
One would assume that, with the introduction of the “Prestige System” in Legion, botting is only going to become more common, so they’ll hopefully have a better system of reporting in place before then.
For sure. It will become incredibly disheartening for players that have worked hard to grind their prestige levels, but are still less “prestigious” than someone that just botted for a week.
Do you think the prestige system is going to work out for Blizzard? Are we going to see players coerced into battlegrounds in order to earn the rewards, despite them being solely arena players?
I think that the prestige system needs to stay as a purely cosmetic system, otherwise we are just going to see a repeat of the problems that players had with Ashran. It will be really awesome to have something to do outside of arenas, as well as a new target to work towards rather than just rating.
Was Ashran one of the worse parts of the expansion for you then?
I think they fixed a lot of the problems with Ashran, but certain gear only dropping from Ashran was a huge mistake. It was completely RNG-based and meant that two situations were happening for classes like Warlocks and Warriors: either they would get their accolade trinket within the first few weeks and have a huge advantage or they are still sitting there now, being forced to continue doing Ashran in the hopes of getting the trinket to drop.
Don’t get me wrong, the lootboxes were a fantastic addition, but they never should have had exclusive gear added to them. It just meant that people geared at completely different rates, depending on the luck of getting the right piece of gear early on.
Would the introduction of standardised gear help to avoid these kinds of issues in Legion?
I hope that what is planned for Legion is going to address the issue of different gear levels. There’s two main perspectives that we need to look at the situation from: the geared player and the undergeared player.
Players that manage to get the right gear early will love running into battlegrounds, stomping through teams of poorly geared players. They might be fantastic players, but there’s only so much you can do with such terrible gear. It’s extremely satisfying to watch your spells nearly one-shot players while reminiscing about all those old PvP videos, where players would plough their way through entire teams.
The problem with this is that there’s a player on the other end of those one-shots. It’s completely demoralising to sit there and be completely incapable of fighting an opponent simply because of gear differences. My opinion is that we need to have players fighting on a relatively level playing field to ensure that they have a fighting chance, if they really do have the skills to beat their opponent.
Despite the gear changes planned in Legion, do you think the class pruning is going to counter the positives of the changes? Are we going to see classes becoming too similar?
I think they’re actually doing a pretty good job of keeping the classes separate and unique. They’re removing abilities that, in the past, caused certain specs to be played in almost exactly the same way. An example of this would be Frost and Fire mages in Cataclysm, which shared nearly exactly the same playstyle.
I’ve tried out Arcane and Fire on the Alpha and I loved both of them. They play very differently and, outside of a few core spells, such as Blink and Polymorph, have a really unique feel to them. I haven’t played every class, but, at least for Mages, it’s looking good.
You mentioned Cataclysm there, so I was just wondering if you had any aspects of an older expansion that you’d like to see brought back with Legion?
If I had to pick one, I’d say the progressive rating requirements for gear in Burning Crusade. I absolutely loved that you had constant progression for pieces of gear as you climbed up the ladders, rather than just getting all your gear and farming rating. With the way the game works now, it probably wouldn’t work well for balance between teams at different ratings, but I’d love to introduce a cosmetic progression system.
This would allow you to, for example, unlock different parts of the elite gear at different ratings, rather than having to farm all the way to a specific rating to purchase every piece. The other big downfall of the current system is that players have to spend an insane amount of Conquest Points on the cosmetic elite gear. I think you should be able to just unlock the gear and then buy the “skin” for your wardrobe for a tiny bit of gold.
I’d also love to see rewards brought back to different brackets in arena. Personally, I love playing 5v5 arenas but nobody wants to queue them anymore. Since they removed the rewards from everything except 3v3, nobody wants to play anything other than that. They could even introduce a model of shorter seasons in which the rewards come from different brackets depending on the season.
Are you someone that supports a model of shorter, more frequent seasons then? I saw that you recently tweeted to Holinka requesting a ladder reset, but with no new gear added.
Here’s the problem. The season begins, people farm their gear and then they basically play for a few weeks, farming themselves to some relatively high-level of rating. We then hit the dead period that occurs during every single season recently, where players simply stop playing. This means that high-rated players will sit on their extremely high ratings, but they can’t be caught up to since their rating isn’t being re-injected into the queueing pool. These players return later into the season, during those final weeks, and the ladder suddenly reignites with activity.
It’s a really horrible model to play in and I think one of the solutions might be the shorter season model. I personally don’t care about the gear farm, especially since it almost becomes a chore when you have this many characters. I play to play the game with friends, achieve higher ratings and just have fun. I’d love to see temporary rewards introduced in shorter seasons that allow people to just keep playing, rather than playing for 25% of a season.
Adding new gear is definitely still important, since gear can change the way certain match-ups work, and they should continue doing it, but it could be new gear every other season rather than every season with the shorter model.
Outside of ladders, the competitive scene of WoW has slowly died over time. With the introduction of GCD TV, do you feel that we might finally see a revival of something that was once so great?
Firstly, I think that WoW is still holding out strong given that the finals at Blizzcon had such huge viewing figures. Outside of Blizzard-hosted events, I think GCD has shown that WoW is still very popular. Thousands of people watch the games on Twitch and enjoy the content that is there. Both David and Hannah have put it a huge amount of work and they’re doing a great job to keep the company running as well as it is.
I feel like there is a die-hard community behind the scenes of the WoW tournaments that continue to drive the game forward. It’s this community that allows us to keep WoW relevant on the big stages. I also think streamers really advertise the scene well, since they are something to aspire to. When I used to play CS: GO, I’d watch these legendary players making these unbelieveable plays in tournaments. I’d sit there and think, that’s what I want to do. I want to be able to play that well. It made me work harder to become better and without it, I wouldn’t have had something to really push towards.
I think GCD is really showing us what can be done for WoW competitively. People want to see skilful players battle it out in arena and that’s what GCD is bringing to the table, along with some great casters.
Is there a season that really stands out for you as you’re favourite?
I think it has to be season 3 or 4, since I really enjoyed playing with my teammates at the time. I still love my team now, but we were playing a comp that was new to arena at the time (RMD) and I managed to get my first rank 1 title. For me, it stands out as the one title I’ll never stop using. Vengeful Gladiator Venruki just fits too well.
Will Legion save WoW or are you waiting to pass judgement?
The only thing I am waiting to do is play Legion, I can’t wait. There’s so much that looks fantastic and I really can’t wait to experience it all. I’m seriously looking forward to the PvE/PvP gear meshing, since it means I can join my friends like Mes in PvE if they ever need a Mage.
Nostalgia is great and it’s nice to look back at how things were in the past expansions, but it’s time to look forward. Warlords of Draenor has received just as much crap as every other expansion at the time, but I enjoyed it. I played it, I still do play it and I 100% plan to continue playing WoW when Legion arrives.
There's a few points here that I'd like to go into, since they're fantastic really. The first is the discussion we had concerning bots in PvP; anyone that has taken part in arenas or battlegrounds will most likely have encountered bots at some point in their time playing. They are extremely infuriating, no matter what the player is using it for. They can borderline ruin the game completely, such as when your healer can't cast a spell without being interrupted immediately, or when you're capping points alone while a team of bots runs towards the middle of the battleground mindlessly.
Undoubtedly, one of the changes that needs to happen is the way Blizzard address the botters. Currently, banwaves simply don't work well enough. I really feel like a dedicated team would allow Blizzard to target the cheaters faster and more efficiently. I understand that resources are limited, but I really think returning to games of 10 players vs. 10 players in Warsong Gulch would benefit the game immensely, rather than 5 bots and 5 players vs. 2 sets of 5 premade players. This is an extreme example, but you get my point. Bots need to be dealt with.
The second point I want to touch on is the cosmetic system that Venruki mentioned based on the Burning Crusade system. Progression, as well as recognition of that progression, is what keeps MMOs going. Currently, the progression system around the rewards of PvP is extremely stale. You pass 2000 rating and are immediately rewarded with being able to buy the entire set of elite gear. I'd love to see a system implemented that allows for gradual progression, unlocking each piece of gear after every 100 rating or so.
This would give players more of an incentive to push for rating rather than just capping, since they are more likely to achieve the rating required. This doesn't make it any easier, it simply means that players that are, for example, 1780 rating might already have their elite shoulders and the next piece is only 20 rating away. In the current system, a 1780 team has a 220 rating climb ahead of them to get any of the gear. It's not a major climb by any means, but it definitely seems like to lower rated teams.
The last point I'd like to touch on is the prestige system. I think this is one of the best additions to the expansion for PvP. This system is going to help and damage the game so much, but I still think it's going to be amazing. The gradual progression of prestige through PvP is a new thing in WoW, only being visited briefly in the old-school rank system. It's a welcome addition, since it gives people some form of incentive to do battlegrounds. Battlegrounds became the 5-mans of PvP, with players rarely visiting them outside of the first weeks of a new season. This will hopefully get players back into them and participating.
The big problem, of course, is botting. We're going to see more bots than ever in battlegrounds because people will want the maximum prestige as fast as possible. We can only pray that Blizzard target bots more frequently, as well as more real players queuing into the battlegrounds.
TL;DR - According to Venruki, he's hopeful for Legion on the whole. The prestige system is a big plus, but we need proper policing of bots for PvP to really succeed. If they can maintain the same modicum of balancing that they had in WoD, we might be set for some fantastic PvP.
General Conclusion
It's that time when we consolidate and really take a look at the question being presented to us.
Is Legion going to save WoW?
This is a question that is filled with so many traps and so many problems that it becomes a true nightmare to answer. If I had been asked the same about WoD, I would have said it would be the most amazing expansion ever. There were some major problems that we didn't foresee and that we never could have. Instead, I will pose another question to you:
Do I think Legion will be enjoyable?
You bet I do. From what I have seen so far, I am so unbelievably excited for this expansion that I am struggling to put it into words. From the dungeons I have experienced on the Alpha to the new PvP realm, I simply can't wait. The look, the feel, the style, everything. I think Legion is going to be amazing, BUT Blizzard have to keep up the same quality throughout.
Warlords had a fantastic start, but the content and social drought was too much. They need to finish as they started, keeping content flowing and ensuring they keep the same quality. If the game continues as well as it is starting so far on the Alpha, I think this might be a return to the WoW we grew to love once upon a time.
Let us know what you think about Legion and what you think are the high points of the expansion so far. Are you as excited as this obviously ecstatic writer is?
Fingers crossed that Blizzard finishes this properly.