For all you waiting for World of Warcraft Classic to be presented at Blizzcon this year 2018. I take a walk back to a time before World of Warcraft was only in Alpha. This will be Part 4 in a 6 Part Walk through time of World of Warcraft. With a Final impressions of WOW Classic as presented at Blizzcon.
Part 1 (WOW Preview)
Part 2 (Beta Duldrums)
Part 3 (Beta Journal)
Part 4 (Legion Preview)
Part 5 (Battle for Azeroth Review)
Part 6 (WoW Classic Info)

The next expansion for World of Warcraft may be the biggest and most thorough expansion to date. The developers Blizzard Entertainment have left no stone un-turned and the story leading into the Legion Expansion is epic to say the least. With The Treacherous Guldan working to open the Portal for the Burning Legion the heroes of Azeroth will be forced to battle the Legion to keep their world from being destroyed. The New Expansion comes with a heap of new features that will allow players to enjoy the game that much more. This Preview will not present every detail of the new expansion I suggest going to sites like wowhead.com or other fan sites that have much more detail. I am strictly going over the basics and how I feel about what they are doing.

Demon Invasions
As I type away on my computer the Burning Legion demons have begun the invasion. I started battling the demons last night and these are well thought out and make for an exciting addition to the pre-expansion legacy that we have seen with World of Warcraft throughout the years. In line with the Scourge invasions, after you run through the story of how the invasions came to pass. You are dispatched to fight against the next invasion. Currently the invasions happen in 2 locations randomly throughout Azeroth and you can find these by simply looking at your map.

When you descend on the invasion you are given the side quest which has four parts. Part one is defending a main area from the demon’s attack. Once you have defended the area you usually have to defeat 2 Lieutenants and a Commander demon. After you have defended the main area then The invasion spreads to the whole zone. This is great because it allows everyone to disperse throughout the zone and not be drawn to one central location. After the zone is cleared then the Demon Lord will emerge which will require the whole of the forces to come together to dispatch the Lord. For defeating the Invasion, you will gain Nethershards a currency used to purchase toys, pets, and armor. You get a loot box that has various goodies from the invasions. There is still more to come over the next three weeks until the Expansion drops on August 30th. Invasions will increase and the move of Dalaran should be happening at some point.

Demon Hunters
The newest Hero class is the much anticipated Demon Hunter. For those that have pre-ordered the game the Demon Hunter is now playable. The Demon Hunter is only playable currently as a Night Elf for the Alliance or a Blood Elf for the Horde sides. I have to say I am loving the Demon Hunter so far. They are a Melee class that allows you to choose either DPS (Havoc) or Tank (Vengeance). Each role will give your Demon Hunter a different look and feel. The Vengeance Tank will gain spikes and the Havoc DPS class will gain the feel of a Demon. Each of these are used by the Metamorphosis skill. What I really like about the Demon Hunter is that they gain their skills through taking them from the demons they kill.

The Demon Hunter is king when it comes to mobility with the double jump as well as the Glide features the Demon Hunter can easily get to places you previously needed a mount to get too. Many of their talent tree are yet to be unlocked but any of them are all about speed and being killing demon machines. Not to mention they look amazing! They have really put an emphasis on the Tattoo’s and the Horns making the Demon Hunter one of the coolest looking classes in the game.

Class Halls
Class Halls are a new feature to Azeroth as well. These will not be out until the release of the expansion. The class hall will be the location where all the members of each class will go to work together to fight the Burning Legion. Each class hall will be in locations throughout the world. You will gain champions for the hall that will help fight with you. This will not be like the garrison missions but instead you will be receiving World Quests that will allow you to travel to locations and complete the missions to improve your skills and gain great Loot. These areas will not be the main hub however you will spend a lot of time building your Class Hall and interacting with it as well as advancing the overall Class order.

Improved Transmogrification and Dressing Room
Another aspect of the new expansion that has already been released is the new Dressing Room as well as the new Improved Transmogrification system. With this new interface you are able to change the look of your character to any of the looks that you have unlocked. The interface now allows you to look at what each of the items in each slot look like so you can build the ultimate look for your character. This is one of the features that I have been waiting to see for so long. Now I don’t have to store all those items I can create a new Style and save it to each of my specializations and voila I have a cool looking outfit to match the play style.

Broken Isles
What would any expansion be without an added continent to the world? In the Legion expansion this is the Broken Isles. The Broken Isles contains six new zones. High Mountain, Stormheim, Valsharah, Suramar, Azsuna, and the Broken Shore. Each of these will be detailed to match the lore that inhabits the land. They have adjusted the way that quests will be done in these zones. The quests and creatures will now scale to the level that you are at. This will allow you to dive into the quest lines of each zone at your own pace and with friends even if they are a different level in their progression. This removes the linear feel that have plagued many of the expansions and zones of the past. This should allow for a more widely dispersed population which means fewer people to fight for tagging that one important mob.

Along with the new continent there will be all new dungeons, raids, and world bosses. Some of the names will be Eye of Azshara, Halls of Valor, The Nighthold, The Arcway, Maw of Souls, Darkheart Thicket, Court of Stars, Vault of the Wardens, Assault on Violet Hold, Black Rook Hold, The Emerald Nightmare, and Neltharion’s Lair. They have continued to develop a very diverse dungeon system and with Legion they have a plethora of new content and lore to explore.

Artifact Weapons
Seeing as how legendary a figure you have become it only makes sense that you would now be able to wield the finest of weapons. Blizzard has exceeded that and created the Artifact weapons. These weapons will be customizable in the various skins as well as the enhancements that you add to them. These enhancements will add skills to your character. The Artifact weapons will allow you to customize your character’s weapons while maintaining the coolest look and feel of the class type.

Revamped PVP System
Let’s start with what they took out of the PvP system. They have removed honor and conquest and still maintain Marks of Honor which can be used to buy old honor items. They will no longer be selling new gear instead you will have a chance with each victory in the treasure box that you receive. They have revamped the award system as well to avoid awarding the same item every time. They have removed many of the stats that made PvP and PvE gear so necessary. Now you can use gear for PvP and PvE the only buff you get will be a minimal increase in stats based off the higher ilevel that you have. This will even the playing field while still awarding the players who play more with better gear. Now you can focus on the skill verse the domination of certain gear.

They have added a new PvP Progression system. This system will allow you to choose skills and talents as you raise your PvP level. They added a prestige system So after you reach the highest rank you can choose the prestige and it resets your PvP talents. You then have to re-rank through the pvp progression system. You gain different rewards for going through the Prestige system. Overall I think the changes will add a great deal of fun and customization and purpose to PvP and should allow for a much larger crowd of PvP players.

Final Thoughts
As my six-part preview has shown that World of Warcraft has and is the most elite MMORPG game ever. But Blizzard was not happy with sitting on their hands instead they have worked diligently listening to the screaming masses to come up with more features more content all while making the lore and fun of the game all that much better. Demon Hunters are a great addition to the class levels. From What I have seen the Demon invasions are working as one of the best pre-expansion events to date. The Broken Isles will be beautiful and all the other changes from PvP, Transmogrification, Artifact Weapons, and Class Halls look like I will be staying up late for many nights to come. See you all in Azeroth.

Originally Written August 10th, 2016