World of Warcraft: Legion Unveiled. ILLIDAN IS BACK!!

Ok, let's get serious now. After my over-hyped state yesterday with spamming "Illidan is back", I need to start writing about this wonderful expansion that we have all been waiting for. Before I start, I need to admit that I will possibly keep on spamming Illidan is back from time to time but I'll try to keep the fangirling in check as much as humanly possible.

World of Warcraft: Legion will be bringing tons of new content and some amazing features. Finally we get an expansion that really does feel like an EXPANSION rather than a pre-expansion like Warlords of Draenor.

Before we get deep into the details and the features of the upcoming Legion expansion, let's first take a look at the amazing World of Warcraft Legion Cinematic Teaser, which totally made me scream at the top of my lung the second I saw those horns!!!!!! I actually screamed so much that my dad had to check up on me to see if I am alive and well :P

Here is the World of Warcraft: Legion Announcement Trailer:

World of Warcraft: Legion Cinematic Trailer will be available at a later date. I'll be sure to share it as soon as it is released! Now, it's time to talk about these wonderful features that Legion expansion will be bringing forward.

DEMON HUNTERS

First and foremost (apart from ILLIDAN IS BACK), we finally get my highly coveted class DEMON HUNTERS! Demon Hunters have been unveiled as the new playable hero class at Gamescom 2015 and they are MOUTH WATERING (not as much as Illidan himself obviously)!

Demon Hunters will bring mobility to the game. I was honestly sick of standing still and attacking and only moving away when there is something to avoid on the ground. But Demon Hunters will be quite agile and mobile, moving around on the battlefield, jumping, diving, flying. Demon Hunters will also be the first class in WoW that can double jump! I can't wait to find how this will affect the gameplay (apart from finally successfully jumping over that huge green pool in Naxxramas Construct Quarter!)

Only the Night Elves and Blood Elves can pick the Demon Hunter class and I'm pretty happy they kept it this way. I hope they won't expand this in the future releases. Demon Hunter character creation also looks fantastic, we'll be able to choose our horns (or lack of them but why would anyone do that?), tattooes and even eye patches! It was also started by the Blizzard team that the way Demon Hunter armours are designed will allow us to showcase our muscles and tattooes at all times! So all these customization will not end up being hidden under some bulky armour!!!

Demon Hunters will have two specialisations. One is Havoc for DPS and the other one is Vengeance for Tanking. Metamorphosis forms will look different in both of these specs.

Demon Hunters have some pretty amazing abilities. We were shown a video showcasing some of the abilities of the Demon Hunter. We will basically be using Fel Rush and attack in order to generate Fury and then we will be able to use our other abilities, depleting the Fury we gained. So in terms of gameplay, Demon Hunter resembles the Warrior. Let's take a look at Demon Hunter abilities and gameplay video:

Unrivaled Mobility: Demon Hunters can double jump, vault in and out of combat, and even unfold their monstrous wings to perform gliding descents and surprise enemies from above.

Metamorphosis: Demon Hunters transform into hellish forms, enhancing their chosen role: damage-focused Illidari can teleport into combat, while those who prize defense can grant powerful supportive Auras.

Melee Damage: The chaotic energy that flows within Demon Hunters empowers their physical and magical strikes to devastating effect.

Spectral Sight: The Demon Hunters’ apparent blindness belies their true powers of perception. They rely on magically augmented sight to detect enemies, even those that hide behind obstacles.

The abilities and features of the Demon Hunters will make them especially powerful in a PvP environment and I'm sure they will be pretty annoying to deal with :) They will be a joy to play with both in PvE and PvP so I honestly can't wait!!

THE BROKEN ISLES

After introducing the new Demon Hunter class, let's take look at our new continent, The Broken Isles. The Broken Isles will introduce us with a totally new Elf race we haven't seen before. The continent will be filled with beautiful Elven and Kvaldir architecture and is particularly rich in Elven lore and it contains many zones we have read in Warcraft novels but yet to have seen. Thus Warcraft lore addicts, especially Elven lore, will be quite happy in The Broken Isles. The level cap is also raised to 110.

The latest past expansions like Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor were isolating the community with faction based cities or keeping us all by ourselves inside the comfort and warmth of our Garrisons. This will change with Legion because our beloved Dalaran as the neutral sanctuary is back!

We will also learn lot more information about the Kirin Tor that is currrently led by Khadgar within Dalaran. To be perfectly honest; all of these features make me hope for a Kael'thas! :P Jaina's current whereabouts are unknown but I'm sure we'll find her somewhere! As upset as she was when she left Dalaran, she is a softie and will end up helping us defeat the demons once and for all! :P

I am pretty excited about The Broken Isles because we will finally get to see some very lore-rich zones that we heard so much about in the novels such as Tomb of Sargeras and Emerald Nightmare, a corruped area within the Emerald Dream. I'm particularly excited about Tomb of Sargeras. I am looking very forward to uncovering its mysterious secrets!

The Legion is at the peak of their strength so we will be seeking the help from some incredibly powerful characters such as Ysera, Cenarius and TITANS themselves. Yes, the Titans who created the world itself will be helping us in our quest to defeat The Burning Legion!

And ILLIDAN!!!. Even though it was said during the announcement that he would be up to no good, Chris Metzen's statement years ago about Illidan having a story that would redeem him and the wallpaper at Gamescom on which Illidan was fighting Gul'dan and the new class Illidari Demon Hunters' requiring their leader give very positive hints that Illidan will end up fighting by my side. Yea he will fight by MY side, not yours. He is mine!!!!! ILLIDAN IS BACK AND HE IS MINE!!!

ZONES

Apart from Dalaran, Broken Islands will give us some amazing zones with great lore.

Val'sharah is where Malfurion become druid under the guidance of Cenarius and is very rich in Night Elven lore.

Stormheim will let us uncover fate of Vry'kul that left Northrend many many years ago in search of Holy Land. We will fight Vry'kul's God King that became a pawn of Burning Legion.

Azsuna will most likely be one of the most exciting zones in The Broken Isles, giving us a chance to find the remnants of Blue Dragonflight and most importantly face QUEEN AZSHARA!!!!!

Highmountain is a home to a tribe of Tauren.

Suramar will involve a new race of elves who succumbed to the power of the Legion. We will have to defeat them in order to receive the last relic that is required for us to forge our Artifact!

Alleria Windrunner and Turalyon were also announced to make an appearance in the Legion expansion. This is pretty exciting as I really enjoyed reading about their crazy love story in the novels.

ARTIFACTS

World of Warcraft: Legion will make our beloved Legendary weapons "obtainable" by EVERYONE. Artifacts involve 35 weapons from Ashbringer to Doomhammer, from Kael'thas's Felo'melorn to Frostmourne. All of these weapons are shattered and at the beginning of the expansion our classes based on their specialisations will be prompted to find the shards and remains of these legendary weapons to forge them and wield them against the most powerful Burning Legion forces we have ever seen.

These Artifacts will earn new powers as you level up and advance through the game. You will be able to customize these powers according to your spec and the way you want to play the game. These talents will boost your abilities and spells.

UPDATE 1: These artifacts will have sockets. Bosses you kill in raids will drop relics that you will be able to use to socket your Artifact. These relics will increase the damage output as well as the stats of your Artifact. The relics dropped from Mythic bosses will of course increase your Artifact's power a lot more than relics that drop from LFR. In short, upgrading your Artifact's power seems to be unlimited.

UPDATE 2: You will be able to own more than 1 Artifact. Especially triple specced classes such as Druids, Paladins and Monks will be able to collect 3 Artifacts if they decide to go for it. Blizzard is trying to think of a way to shorten the upgrade time of the 2nd or 3rd Artifact after you progress with your very first one. However, you will still need to farm for relics from raid bosses in order to upgrade your multiple Artifacts. So it sounds like the Artifact Power and trait progress will also be transferred to your other artifact (with different traits of course due to different spec) but the relic bonusses won't be transferred. So if you decide to change specs, you will need to farm for those relics once again.

Artifacts will have different skins and colour variations that will be unlocked by earning achievements in the game. For example some incredible looking skins will be unlocked when you reach the highest rank in the new PvP system (I'll be talking about that as well). So each Artifact will have around 4-5 different skins, all of which having 4-5 different colour variations so players will be able to personalise their artifacts accordingly.

The concept sounds amazing but I have questions and doubts... These artifacts are supposed to be the ultimate weapon in the game, so will the weapons that drop in this expansion from dungeons/raids be purely for cosmetic/transmografication purposes only? Also, I am still ambivalent about the Artifacts as I just don't want to see millions of Ashbringer on every single Paladin. I think the uniqeueness and the legendary status of these weapons will be lost. Frostmourne as well as any other legendary weapons will not be as special as they were before. But the notion of being able to wield these weapons is definitely exciting!

NEW PVP SYSTEM

I'm pretty hyped about this new PvP system. The system is designed to eradicate the balance issues between casual and hardcore PvPers while also rewarding both of them.

The new PvP system will involve Prestige Points. As you gain Honour Points, you will raise your prestige points to unlock new Talents. These talents will not have any impact on the PvE aspect of the game. When you unlock all talents, there will be two options: You either rank up and completely reset your talents to start from the beginning, or keep your talents and well, keep playing the game.

I love this system because the casual gamer won't have to grind endless and endless hours of farming to try and buy the latest PvP gears to be effective against the hardcore one who has the ultimate PvP equipment. With a moderate amount of time, you will be able to unlock your talents and keep playing if you aren't interested in ranking up which would reward you with cosmetic goodies. Casual PvPer will be happy,

Hardcore one will be happy as well because as you rank up and reset your talents, you will earn cosmetic rewards for every rank you achieve. These rewards involve portrait badges, pretty awesome looking mounts and the most ultimate cosmetic reward of them all, a fantastic skin for your Artifact!

CLASS ORDERS AND FOLLOWERS

Do not forget that you are wielding weapons with immense power. This time it will be YOU who will lead the charge against the Burning Legion forces. Each class will have specific order halls where they can recruit followers/champions/adepts/minions (depending on your class).

These order halls will be accessable by your class only and every class will have their halls at separate locations. In these halls you will be able to recruit followers. This will not be similar to Garrisons in any way.

Your followers will not passively do things for you as it was the case in Warlords of Draenor. But in the Legion expansion, your followers will "enable" YOU to do things instead of doing them for you!

You will be able to send out a follower to scout an area and when he/she reports you will find new places to discover for yourself. You will be able to earn bonuses while doing quests in a zone you sent your follower early on. Another great aspect with the followers is that having high number of followers won't necessarily mean victory. Small numbers can be affective too if your followers are particularly powerful and strong! Don't forget: Quality over quantity!

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

Dungeons

Dungeons in Legion expansion will have high replayability unlike the rest of the expansions as we need to achieve Artifact Points in order to make our Artifacts more powerful. Legion is set to boast a lot more dungeons than Warlords of Draenor! Let's take a brief look at some of them.

Halls of Valor

Black Rook Hold

Vault of the Wardens: This is where Gul'dan finds Illidan in the Cinematic Teaser, This will be the starting area for Demon Hunters.

Eye of Azshara: This is one of the dungeons I'm looking forward to as we will face Queen Azshara!

Darkheart Thicket: This is the base of the world tree and the heart of the Nightmare Corruption. We will be rescuing Malfurion from corruption.

Neltharion's Lair: This is the cavern where the Earthwarden lived long before he was known as Deathwing.

Violet Hold: Violet Hold is the dungeon that is within the city of Dalaran. This dungeon is supposed to shows origins of Dalaran and world itself.

Raids

Emerald Nightmare

We will seek out Ysera and Cenarius to help us remove the corruption within the Emerald Dream that we read so much about in the novels. Being able to glimpse into the Emerald Dream will be a "dream" coming true! Emerald Dream will contain 7 Bosses one of which being Xavius himself!

Suramar Palace

Suramar Palace will contain 10 bosses, the ultimate last boss being Gul'dan himself. So the hunt for Gul'dan ends with Suramar Palace.

Concept Art for Suramar Palace!

So this was my in-depth look at the upcoming expansion World of Warcraft: Legion. There are tons of features to be quite hyped about. I am positive that Blizzard will get back many of their subscribers (me being among them) who stopped playing due to lack of content or a number of other problems.

Blizzard is definitely bringing everything we wanted from them with the Legion expansion so I'm sold completely. I'll even wait to get a physical Collector's Edition this time as I usually prepurchase digital standard copies and end up with nothing concrete that I can touch :P But Legion is definitely worth it to get in Collector's Edition. Why? Hmm, I thought I already said this! ILLIDAN IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3<3<3<3

Black Temple was merely a setback....