With the recent announcement that World of Warcraft subscriptions had fallen to their lowest point since 2005, it almost seemed like Gul’dan was up to his old tricks again, subverting Azeroth’s order and hoping to bring about its end. It turns out that instead he’s been trying to bring the Burning Legion back to the World of Warcraft. Judging by the latest trailers and details for Blizzard’s next expansion, Legion, he’s succeeded.
Along with a cinematic trailer that sets the scene for the tale to come, Blizzard has released a feature preview trailer of the new expansion. In it we can expect a new continent, called the Broken Isles, a new class of playable character called a Demon Hunter, new weapons, side-quests and of course an epic story to halt the progress of one of the greatest threats Azeroth has ever faced.
As a Demon Hunter, you begin the game at a much higher level than standard characters, letting you dive straight into some of the new content. They can be specialized in damage dealing or damage absorption, but all can transform into a powerful “fel form,” exhibiting speed, power and defensive abilities. The class is a direct callback to Illidan Stormrage, a night elf demon hunter who was introduced as a hero in Warcraft III before eventually becoming the big bad of WoW‘s first expansion, Burning Crusade.
They can even glide around on demonic wings for a short period of time.
However for those not rolling a new character, Legion offers a raised level cap of 110, with new artifact and legendary weapons to discover among the ancient ruins, forests and mountain ranges of the Broken Isles. Blizzard has also said it’s put a significant amount of work into dungeons, to which it feels it did a “bit of a disservice” in previous expansions, according to PCGamer.
And to top it all off, there’s a brand new PvP system with talents, rewards and progression specific to that mode of gameplay and there’s extra support for communities coming as well, making it easier than ever to organize fights and raids among one another.
Blizzard has opened up Beta opt-ins for those that want to register their interest to try out the new continent and its features before anyone else. We’ve been told it will start before the end of the year, which would suggest an early 2016 release for Legion.
