In and Beyond Legion

So, looking forward here.

       I've been openly critical of some of the things coming in Legion, I have also been happily optimistic over others.  This here is what I'm hoping that Blizzard will focus on a bit in Legion, and beyond.  I know this won't be the last expansion, If you have read the book Illidan I would hazard a guess from the end on where we will be going next.  however, let's take a quick look at what I want.

     Story is a big thing for me.  The last couple of expansions have been amazing (mostly) on story.  Pandaria was probably the expansion that sticks in my mind the most as a great example of story telling.  There wasn't a raid from Mogu'shan vaults, to Siege of Ogrimmar that had us wondering why we where there.  Story was given over the course of the expansion in good doses.  This made the expansion feel constantly fresh and interesting.  Every major patch had a minor event or something you interacted with that made what you character felt like what they did mattered.  This is what we need more of in Wow, this is what made Warlords feel so flat.  There was nothing outside of your garrsion in Warlords to interact with after the first bit.  Well, there was Tanaan jungle, but it was more of run around than participate in a story.

      I want more meaningful story in Legion and here on out.  Use Pandaria as your template.  I've said this before, but from the slow opening of the Isle of Thunder to Krasarang Wilds and landing your army everything you did felt driven and purposeful.  They lost that magic this last expansion, and I hope they see that and figure out how to fix this.

     Speaking of storylines, I want to see the different factions move and evolve.  Blizzard has a tendency to introduce a race and then just leave them there... in limbo.  I mean, what has been the major change for the Worgen since the beginning of Cataclysm?  Nothing.  Goblins, Worgen, Blood Elves, most of the races stay static.  Even the old races.  Forsaken, Dwarves, most of them feel like there are little advance behind the lines but there isn't much progress.

      Every now and then we get to retake gnomergon, or some such, but those events are rare.  Personally as a Forsaken I would be really worried since if we ever defeat the Legion, and the new Lich King/Scourge, and the Old Gods in the world, what then becomes what is most likely to destroy and threaten life on Azeroth?  I'm looking at you undead.  Unless something changes to give your race a place in the world you are poised to be the next big bad.  Even to most of the horde races.  Good luck with that...

     I want to see leaders and heroes step down without being corrupted and dying.  I would love to see a grey haired Varian Wrynn living peacefully in retirement while Anduin rules Stormwind.  However, in Wow everyone has to have a heroic death.  (O.k. there are a few exceptions.  Looking at you Saurfang) If they don't have that they have a tendency to be corrupted and go mad.  I'm hoping that in Legion Illidan will get a good redemption story arc, because lets be honest.  The reason people worry about Jaina Proudmore becoming a villain is because when a character in Wow is faced with personal tragedy and they get mad, they tend to slip down the villain path.

      I want a cast of side characters that stay with us.  Seeing the members of SI:7 re-appear in Warlords was nice for me.  Even though it was only a glimpse here and there it was nice to see familiar faces from Pandaria.  I would love to continually see some NPCs that go everywhere with us.  Along with characters that don't just disappear after being majorly important in an expansion.  I will be giddy with joy if I take Lag to the Paladins Class hall and Yrell is there.  Yes, we should have left her back in old Dreanor, but I don't see us just closing the portals off and pretending it doesn't exist at this point.  (I'm still for Blizzard blowing it up slowly and having us absorb the refugees that make it to Azeroth before every things gone so we can use the important characters some more)

     Last but not least, I want some new enemies.  The Legion, Orcs, and Undead are fine but one of the things that made Pandaria stand out was the Sha.  (Yes it was Old God essence, but still) Having a new threat that didn't resemble what came before was awesome.   So many enemies in Pandaria felt new and fresh that I think part of the issue we are having is that a lot of bosses lose their uniqueness when it's all orcs and ogres, all the time.  Give me Klaxxi (still want them as a playable race by the way) give us Mogu and Sha and all sorts of things we haven't seen.  Don't retread ground.

These are the things I'm hoping for not just next expansion, but going forward.

What do you all want?

Lag

My Warcraft and Waning Passion.

This is something I think about a bit.

      What is the drive to run around in Azeroth swinging a big sword in a virtual environment?  I will be honest, I have tried other MMOs, but none have been able to pull me in like World of Warcraft has.

     Of course, I pushed myself to get into this at the beginning.  It was something my siblings where doing that looked interesting.  Many first toons where created and deleted as I leveled and played around.  As a matter of fact, if I hadn't been this way my first main character would have been a warlock.  Or a rogue.  Those where the two classes That interested me the most at first.

     Then I decided to try a gnome mage.  Pyreknight was born and leveled as fire.  He didn't level cap until Burning Crusade was live, but he was the first character that I kept pushing until he made that far.  When I got there I was able to learn to dungeon it was with the help of me brudderplaying his then warrior Llyria as a tank.  Gwen would heal on her druid, Me, my wife, and my brother-in-law would dps on rogue, mage, and hunter.  There was a lot of stumbling and figuring things out as we went.  But it was good times.

     About the end of Burning Crusade, beginning of Wrath is the first time I think the story actually started mattering to me.  Before that it was going in, lighting stuff on fire, and getting out was my game.  I was going into fights not caring about backstory or why this big dude in front of me deserved a fireball to the face, or an arrow as my hunter Lazyeye eventually started to take over being my main.  I just cared about the fun of the fight.

    Arthas changed that.  I knew his name, I'd played a little bit of Warcraft III and now I had a villain I was a little familiar with.  I started paying attention to what was going around me and the who and why of things.  I bought Warcraft III and played through to get a grasp on the "what happened before."  Then when our tank defected from the raid team I power leveled a DK to learn to tank on to keep us going.  (Quick note, the tank defecting was not my brother.)  The dose of story in the DK gave that character a little bit more meaning to me.  However, in Trial of the Champions I got sick of the fact my DK would just die in three hits with some bad RNG from the boss, and I started leveling Lag.  My mostly main ever since.

    Lag had started out as a joke.  He was a dwarf who would get into trade and complain about how nobody like "Lag" and all he ever wanted to be was loved.  It was fun to see people virtually roll their eyes at the bad joke my character was.  He would even get mad and say things like "lag has killed more players in this game then you ever will..."

     Not liking the animations of dwarfs (and lets be honest, they aren't that great to look at) I rerolled as a human.  This time leveling I payed attention to the dialog of the quests.  I made sure I understood what was going on around me.  The story was important.  I refused to leave areas until I finished their quests and I still managed to climb quickly to a point where I could take over for my DK as the tank.  Lag was geared and ready before we stepped into the bastion of ICC.

    Since that time the story had driven my passion as much as the game play itself.  While I love my guildies, I am mostly a solo player.  I enjoy a good raid, but I enjoy just leveling and poking at things on my own quite a bit too.  I have a bit of social anxiety in the game as I have a hard time getting to know new players, or trying new groups because it just makes me nervous.  This is why I have characters in AIE and Convert to raid, but I don't talk much.  I just listen to what people have to say and pay attention.  I haven't grouped much with either guild as well because I just haven't gotten that comfortable in there.

    Warlords has strained my passion a lot as well.  I feel the endgame story has been severely lacking compared to what we saw in Pandaria and it has effected my desire to play.  I felt there was not clear drive going into Highmaul.  We are going to fight ogres.  Cool, why?  Iron horde member is in there.  Well we killed him first, why not leave?  Story wise while the Ogres where a threat, they didn't feel like something we needed to completely focus on.  When we went to the Blackrock Foundry and decided to kill Blackhand that felt more like it.  We where fighting Iron horde and this felt important to the story.

     But we were not getting story outside of the raid.  The legendary quest involved us having to raid.  The dailies and garrison quests where all the stuff we where doing from the start of the raid cycle.  There was the weekly garrison quest, but once you finished that, then what?

      When the current raid Hellfire Citadel dropped I was looking forward to more.  Tanaan Jungle here we come!

       But all we got was a drop.

      There was a quick shipyard quest which soon became more dailies to manage that was just clicking a button, oh and this time you can be punished by not succeeding and you can lose that ship you worked so hard to level up.  Ha Ha.

     Tanaan Jungle had little story in it to me as well.  Cool, we are here.  We have a base, and now... now just sit there and hope something interesting happens.  Oh, you've explored everything.  Well at least you have the raid.  You wanted storyline?  Raid.

      No isle of thunder where different objectives unlocked things.  No Krasarang wilds where we where involved in an unfolding story line as we brought our armies to a new land.  Nothing to pull me in for more then a few hours of grinding.

      Needless to say my passion for this game has waned a bit.  Going back to school and having less time hasn't helped.  I am looking forward to Legion but if the story is left on the ground like this, I will continue to struggle.  I won't quit.  I have my guild and my friends.  Logging on to do extra things though, we will see.

     I have high hopes because Cataclysm which was largely complained about led us into Pandaria which is my second favorite expansion, after Wrath.

      There will be other challenges as well.  With my new job raid nights are going to shift to Monday, and Tuesday night.  The other nights I'm going to be working.  That means another shift and another hope that folks will be able to shift as well.  School is going to be a thing for me for at least another year.  That means my time is cut down significantly.

     Blizzard, I love your game.  Please draw me back in again.  Give me more than one or two NPCs I can care about, (Bye Yrell) and let me have the story outside the raid.  Feel important to me.

Lag.