A Few Days to Legion

We are almost to Legion.  All we have to do is survive the weekend.

     There is always that time before the next expansion drops where we sit in frenzied excitement planning on this being the best expansion ever.  Normally, a couple months in a few flaws will appear and we will start to talk about how Wrath was the best expansion etc... but that beginning where everything is shiny and new is amazing to us.  And who knows, this could be the best expansion ever.  Until we sink our dirty little claws in who knows.

     I have been blows away a bit by the excitement of the pre-patch event.  For the most part it has been tons of fun.  People are still swarming over the Legion attacks, and you can level a alt quickly.  I can tell you going from 90-100 isn't hard.  Wearing full heirlooms and a 20% potion from your garrison you can get almost a level per invasion.  Even without you can get half a level or more. Now is the time to speed level alts.  The time is perfect for it.

    The story we have gotten each week with a new quest has been two hits and one miss for me.  The first week of course was the most amazing when we saw some major lore characters fall, and both the Horde and Alliance get shaken up a bit.  Some people went out like a bad A, (King Varian) and some died before we could see their potential fulfilled (Vol'jin) either way that week was amazing.  You had to play both sides of the scenerios, or watch them on youtube, to get the full story.  If you only had one half, specifically the Alliance half, you were ready to go murder the other faction.

    The second week and the return of Magni Bronzebeard was fantastic.  We got to trudge around Ulduar and Karazhan again.  There was a great bit of lore introduced, some that may have surprised some people.  Though, it came close to what Matt Rossi and Anne Stickney from Blizzardwatch have predicted. Titan Azeroth.....

     The third week I found disappointing.  It felt shoehorned in because Blizzard needed to add something.  Of course seeing Alodi is no small thing, but it felt more like five minutes in Dalaran than anything substantial. There was no real story to it, just a cool guest appearance to make you feel like it mattered.

    I am spending my last few days, getting a few alts to 100, and just getting a feel for a few classes.  I am still not locked onto one class for my main in Legion, but I have this weekend to decide what I want to do.  I love the feel of Demon Hunter, and have been asking for that class since Wrath, but I don't want to jump on the hot new thing because it's the hot new thing.  My paladin has been my main for so long I almost feel indebted to the idea of leveling him first.  But we will see.

    What are you doing in these last few days?  Leveling alts, trying out new classes, or just taking it easy?  Are you enjoying the pre-patch content?  How do you feel about the pre-patch quests?

Lag

Meanwhile, in the pre-patch....

I don't think I'm holding back spoilers on this one... so really
SPOILERS are here
Don't read this post if you don't like SPOILERS.

    So we are two days into the pre-patch event.  I have already rolled my first Demon Hunter, and played through the Alliance and Horde side quests.  It is a lot of fun, and a lot to take in right now.  So let us start with the Demon Hunter experience.

    Rhumor is my new demon hunter, and while I had played through the starting quests a couple of times in the Alpha and Beta, it still feels good to visit that starting zone.  The last time I played through he cut scenes we have been given with, Illidan, Maeve and Gul'dan did not exist.  It was pretty much play through and enjoy.  With the cut scenes it adds a great bit more importance and atmosphere to the game play.  I loved it the first time I played through, and I love it even more now.  If you don't plan on playing a Demon Hunter, I still suggest just playing on through the starting zone.  It is pretty awesome.

     The Class itself is fun to play.  It is very movement based, and you can't help but jump around, charge, and vault away from your enemies as needed.  They do have a bit of glass canon syndrome going on where if you start to take hits you drop quickly.  Well, at least in Havoc, I haven't tried the tanking spec yet, that is on my list for this week.

    Now we get to the quests.  Here is where we get spoilery.  So, once again, if you don't like spoilers don't read on.  I won't stop you, I'm not your mother.  But don't get mad at me later because you kept going despite my warnings.

    Both the Horde and Alliance Quests start out pretty much the same.  You get sent on a mission to stop the invasion.  You storm a beach, meet up with the forces (led by Vol'jin and Varian Wrynn) that had gone on before.  You then start to push the demons backs.

    The Horde and Alliance are on separate sides of the island but meet up when they go to rescue Tirion Fordring.  You know, the dude who stood in a block of ice while you killed the Lich King and then broke out in time to make sure he got some loot as well.  Anyway, we get there, but it's too late.  We get to witness the death of a major lore character.

     Of course there is then a bit of banter from Gul'dan, and the Alliance decides to take him and the Legion head on while the Horde climbs a cliff to watch the flank.  Seems like a good plan, right?

     Well, the story splits off here again.  I will just say, the Alliance is fighting and sees the Horde leave them to the Legion.  Without the support, the Alliance is overrun and has to retreat.  King Varian Wrynn, sacrifices himself to allow the Alliance to escape, and then charges into the demon's and goes out like the Bad A he is.  No we don't recover a body, but play the quest.  He's gone.

     What the Alliance doesn't see is the Horde is being over run and is forced to retreat.  Vol'jin is severely wounded and Thrall is knocked out of the fight.  Despite the cries of hold this position no matter what, the Horde is forced to retreat.  They too get to see Varian Wrynn die as they make their escape.

     So on Alliance side, King Wrynn is dead and Anduin is now the king of Stormwind.  I am curious where this will go, because Wrynn has always been the war leader for the Alliance, and his son is not a warrior.  We of course get a bit of angry Jaina and Angry Genn Graymane, and half the alliance leadership is calling out for vengeance against the Horde for abandoning them.  They blame the Horde for Varian's death

    The Horde calls you in time to see Vol'jin's last moments.  Yes, the troll whom I love the most is no more.  In his last moments he tells Sylvanas what he thinks of her, and then makes her Warchief.  He then is taken to troll heaven, or to be one with the loa, or whatever their afterlife is.

    So now, we get to see two factions who have lost their main leaders have to interact.  Sylvanas has always been what one might consider evil and very aggressive.  I am curious how leading the Horde is going to effect this part of her now that she has to watch out for all the Horde races, and not just the undead.  This may be the redemption story we have been waiting for.  I mean, we have seen so many leaders killed and corrupted, it would be a nice change of pace.

   The one bone of contention I have with this pre-patch is a small one. When the Demon Hunters emerge, they meet up with Khadgar, who introduces himself as the leader of the Kirin Tor.  This is all well and good, but this takes place before some throne room shenanigans in which Jaina is labeled and calls herself the leader of the Kirin Tor.  Either Blizzard dropped the ball here somewhere, or Khadgar and Jaina may be causing a rift in the biggest mage society on Azeroth.  Because we need more leaders arguing and causing civil war.

    Either way, I am enjoying the crap out of this content.  Play it for yourselves, it's great.  The armor you can get for transmog and upgrades from the invasions looks good.  Well, except for the cloth helm.  And Azeroth feels populated again.  Hop in and see what I mean.

Lag.

Prepatch feelings.

So, by now most of you have jumped on to try out your characters.

     I have taken a couple weeks to post this, because I've been mulling over what to say.  I want to give some bright insights you haven't heard anywhere else along with infusing you with the fervor and excite which comes when we are looking a new expansion in the face.   I want to thrill you with words and make you want to log in this very moment to see what everyone else is experiencing.

     In my heart I can't.

     The state of the game is fine, don't get me wrong.  I have been moving from character to character trying out some of the specs.  Some like my Ret Paladin just doesn't feel right to me.  Which if funny because I would argue my Retadin got changed very little.  Survival hunter feels more fun that I would have though, my elemental shaman just feels under-powered to me.  And on and on it goes.

     I guess I was expecting more early on.  We got built up to this pre-patch event etc, and I got a little bit of bone with bits of meat on it.  The main coarse is still waiting.  The only opinion I can give right now is that things are not where they need to be yet. They have given us a taste of what is up and coming, but I am not comfortable giving any type of judgement yet.

     I was honestly hoping they would start the pre-patch shenanigans today, a week before we get demon hunters.  Alas as far as I know nothing happened.  I haven't seen any news of it in my feeds or on Blizzardwatch, and the DDoS attacks are keeping me from being able to log in to see for myself.  I guess I thought it would be nice if everyone could focus on the pre-patch event, and then on Demon Hunters rather than balancing time between the two.

     The other thing I can speak to is I am in the Facebook streaming beta from Blizzard.  I can stream any of the games I choose to play in Blizzard's list.  Be it Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, or World of Warcraft.  So far I'm underwhelmed with this product, but as it is, it is the beta.

     The problems I have seen is freezing while recording (to be honest that is more my computers fault then Blizzards) When you are no longer live on Facebook the recording seem clipped and short. Normally it stops after about five minutes, and half of that is video that is fast forwarded/sped up.   I also would love a way to link the recordings here at the bottom of my blog post, because that would be cool.  I would honestly love to record my blog live, verbally while playing so people could choose to click and listen while I am using this technology.  It has a long way to go.

     I still don't think the intention is to take on Twitch.  I just don't see the earning potential or the focus that would be needed towards a particular group of individuals.  I am not seeing anything in the interface that is comparable and I feel that if such things are implemented, they may not fit into Blizzard's vision of this product. Once again, it's Beta so we don't know what is going to happen down the line.

     So, am I being a wet blanket?  Is there something amazing that has come out that I have missed?  Or am I spot on, and are you gritting at the teeth for some real new content to play?  What is your opinion so far?

Lag