Being there the moment a new World of Warcraft expansion goes live is a gaming experience like no other, so of course, I found myself staring at my computer screen at around 5 a.m. today. I'm only partially regretting only getting three hours of sleep, as World of Warcraft: Legion's opening moments are great.
Spoilers for the opening moments of World of Warcraft: Legion below!
After a flashy cinematic in which Azeroth's most powerful mages teleport the magical city of Dalaran to the Broken Isles (the game's newest subcontinent for players to explore), Legion wastes no time putting players front and center.
Playing as a Blood Elf priest, I soon received a letter from a mysterious messenger, one that requested I attend a secret meeting back in the Eastern Kingdoms. Upon arriving, I found myself face-to-face with a number of priests from both the Horde and the Alliance. They requested I join their ranks, as only the united strength of all priests could turn back the tide of the invading armies of the Burning Legion. It was then I was presented with a choice: which powerful, legendary weapon did I want to pursue first in order to turn the tide? With the intent of healing my friends through Legion's high-level dungeons and raids, I selected T'uure, Beacon of the Naaru.
Almost immediately, I was swept away on an adventure to find the weapon. First, I tracked down a wounded soldier who remembered seeing the weapon being wielded in battle, and before long, I was in the middle of a Burning Legion stronghold, healing my allies, freeing prisoners and reclaiming T'uure from the cold, dead hands of a particularly nasty demon.
Once the weapon was in my hand, a new task was laid before me: cleansing an ancient and powerful Naaru of corruption. It's a task that takes the combined power of all of Azeroth's greatest priests, and the High Prophet Velen requested my aid. It wasn't much longer that I found myself in a massive hall with the shadow-filled Naaru, and within another five minutes, the hall was converted into my class hall. The room was filled with other priest players and NPCs. It was then that I was ready to begin my Legion adventure proper, artifact weapon in hand and class hall ready for action.
Then came more choices. I was only crippled by indecision for a moment. Unlike in previous expansions, players can choose any of the game's new zones to begin their adventure. There isn't a level 100-102 zone to start in. Rather, the game's enemies scale with you no matter where you go. It gives players yet another way to customize their adventure. I eventually settled on checking out the Viking-esque zone of Stormheim first, and soon, I was sent on a mission there by Sylvanas Windrunner, newly-minted Warchief of the Horde.
Arriving in the zone was far more exciting than in previous expansions. After a fairly lengthy quest line that saw me flying from warship to warship battling the Alliance, I eventually confronted Genn Greymane, leader of the Worgen and a man who is more than a little upset with Sylvanas. It was a pitched battle, but soon, the airship we were on was brought down, and the game's normal questing structure finally presented itself. You know the drill: talk to a few NPCs with exclamation marks, get their quests, go kill a few guys or collect a few things, then report back. So far, questing in Legion is more of the same, though it should be noted that the game has yet to beat me over the head with a huge number of quests at once, which I find refreshing.
The real draw of the new expansion are the artifacts and class halls, two aspects of Legion that will carry over into the expansion's end-game. As you can tell from the summary of my adventures above, the expansion gets straight to the point, in that regard. Within the first hour, you'll have your first legendary weapon for your specialization of choice as well as your order hall. However, upgrading them to their full potential will take much, much longer. I spent the next few hours questing in Stormheim, and along the way, I received a number of items to help improve my artifact weapon. Certain items can be converted into artifact power for your artifact weapon of choice, which is in turn used to unlock new passive and active abilities. Think of it kind of like World of Warcraft's old talent trees, and you have an idea of what it's like. You'll also acquire items called relics. These can be equipped into an artifact weapon to boost the item's overall power level as well as unlock certain abilities.
I'm only at level 101, but already, Legion feels refreshing in a way that World of Warcraft hasn't felt in a long time. The class order hall takes the best elements of the Garrison system from the game's previous expansion, while the artifact weapons bring back memories of fine-tuning your character via the old talent system that was present in World of Warcraft's early days. Blizzard is putting the spotlight on players in a way like never before, and at least one level in, it seems to work wonders.
