Legion: A Look Back

Now that we’re less than 10 days away from BfA launch I figured it would be a nice time to take a look back at Legion as expansion and highlight some of it’s highs and lows for me personally. I’d like to talk about my favourite, and least favourite, storylines. Which expansion mount looks the most amazing (hint, it’s a Class one!) and what I found most disappointing overall. So without further ado, here is my Legion in a nutshell!

Shadow Raven mount and end of the Rogue campaign.

Most awesome class campaign: Rogue
Yup. Kind of a shocker isn’t it? I’ve not played Rogue seriously since Wrath of the Lich King and as class it was the last one to see max level and probably my least favourite up untill that point. But holy hell Blizzard did such a masterful job with the storyline here. I have to admit that the class hall itself was a bit of a letdown (I didn’t particularly enjoy any of the Class Halls overall) but the story. Oh the story. And all the iconic characters. I loved the whole thing surrounding Matthias Shaw. I loved staging a pirate type coup. And I especially loved the Class Mount involving me assassinating targets in Horde (or Alliance, depending on the side you play) capitals. It was all very well done and 100% Rogue.

Least awesome class campaign: Death Knight
There. I said it. I know it will probably not sit well with many people because I’ve read nothing but praise about the Death Knight storyline but honestly I hated it from start to finish. Maybe because I was around in Wrath where the whole thing about being a Death Knight was being free of the Lich King and not following in his footsteps. Well here comes Legion and you are basically his puppet again. I hated killing and reanimating things. I hated having to bully my way to information and I sure as hell avoided any unnecessary killings when I could. I feel like Death Knights are set back by this story line and it probably is trying to make a point about how the Lich King is still evil. I just wish I had the choice to not go along with it.

Best looking Mount of the expansion: Shaman Class Mount!
Shaman takes the cake, I mean hello. You’re actually riding an elemental. Can’t really top that can you?

Liquid fire mount best mount

Most disappointing Mount of the expansion: The Riddle Worm/Paladin Class Mount.
This is actually a nice tie. I see people riding around on the Riddle Worms and honestly it’s just ugly. I don’t want to ride a gigantic eel out of water, if it was a water mount I guess I would have taken a bit more liking to it. But just seeing them soar the skies is a sore sight for me. I rate the Paladin Class Mount here because really, it’s just another horse. I would’ve loved to have something a bit more exotic than that. They are pretty horses in their respective four colour variations, but still rather disappointing.

Most creative encounter: Elisande, the Nighthold 
I’m guessing this one comes with a bit of nostalgia goggles because the Nighthold was the last serious raid I did with my guild in the expansion. I really liked the Elisande fight, even though for us it wasn’t a very steep learning curve. The fact that she resets herself while adding mechanics was a delight and I really loved dealing with all of the stuff that was going on there. Killing the right adds, dodging the spheres, it was an amazing fight overall and especially enjoyable on a high mobile class like Warrior.

Most disappointing encounter: Varimathras, Antorus the Broken Throne
This one is most likely caused by the fact that I’ve only done it on LFR but man, this fight is dull. All the mechanics can be neglected and it’s just a straight up tank and spank, making it uneventful to say the least and straight up boring on almost anything but a healer class. Please don’t make fights like these anymore Blizzard.

My biggest enjoyment and biggest frustration all in one!

Best content overall: Mage Towers
This should come as no surprise really. I’ve tackled all 36 Mage Towers, and the Holy Priest and Shadow Priest ones twice, and I can honestly say it’s some of the most fun I’ve had in an MMO in a very long time. Even though some of the Healer ones almost made me break my keyboard, as did Subtlety Rogue on a 1% wipe, I’ve never felt more proud of myself than when I got all of these done. It feels like it’s a testament to my perseverence but also to my adaptability and skill in this game in general. I may not be a Mythic raider but I know how to play everything and I enjoy playing everything.

Stuff I hoped would go away with BFA: AP Grind
The AP grind. Oh the AP grind. It was horrible. Before the whole catch up mechanics it grinded my gears so much. Alting was a nightmare because of this and even playing more than one specc was made so much less enjoyable because of the damned AP grind. I know it’s coming back in BfA in a bit more friendly form but in my opinion Blizzard should have done away with it alltogether.

What Blizzard needs to do more in future expansions: Storytelling like the Class Hall campaigns
I think one of the most outstanding things in Legion were the Class Hall campaigns. Even though some may have had better stories than others (I’m looking at you specifically Monk and beer related content) they all felt unique and fitting to the class in one way or another. I felt engaged in the stories for every class I did and, as cherry on top, it was excellent solo content with a splash of grouping up. It was well executed and really helped built the rest of the expansion with that base. I really hope that Blizzard will do something similar in BfA with tailor made content that you can do solo and gives fun and engaging storylines.

My beloved, and hated, Alchemy station

Most torn opinion: Professions
Ahh Professions. For some reason I get the feeling that Blizzard looked at FFXIV for this. We suddenly had a ton of profession quests in Legion. And even though I enjoyed doing them it also felt like a chore to do on every new alt I made. I’m not overly thrilled on the whole 1-2-3 star recipe thing either, especially for the gathering professions Mining, Herbalism and Skinning. I can honestly say I’ve Mined a LOT on my Warrior this expansion yet I’ve not obtained all three star skills and it’s pissing me off. I like that they added more depth to the professions and I can see why they did the “expansion split” with the pre-patch but I’m not a fan of the star system and the quests get really repetitive when you do them more than once. I guess I’ll have to see what BfA brings on this front.

So there you have it. I could go on and on for a very long time about all the things I liked and disliked about Legion but overall I enjoyed the expansion more than I thought I would, especially without a raiding guild. I can only hope BfA shapes up to be as good and hopefully even better.

What are your opinions on Legion?

5 thoughts on “Legion: A Look Back

  1. Have to agree, holy crap that AP grind was dull. It was like it rewarded the people with no lives and nothing else to do, while those with actual real life stuff to do got left behind in the dust.

    • Yeah the AP grind was horrendous. I’m so happy I’m not a Mythic raider where you were forced to spend so much time doing that. I was up to high AP levels on my Warrior quite fast, but only for Fury. I shudder to think having to have had all three of my speccs up high in a short period of time.

  2. I may be alone but I really loved doing the Suramar quest zone. I liked the world quests there the best, gathering mana to do the occasional (very occasional) withered training and I just really loved how the story progressed.

    • Suramar was amazingly done. I really loved every step of it, the first time I did it because it was gated and let up to the Nighthold raid. Doing it again on an alt now kinda takes away the charm of that first time to be honest.

  3. Suramar was fun doing it once, wasn’t a fan on doing it on one, let alone many alts.

    But man, I thought hard about which class stories I started/finished, and I can only say.. I guess it’s been too long. I kinda remember Rogue and it was kinda good, same for Warlock. But I’m drawing a complete blank on Warrior, Shaman, Priest, Demon Hunter and Paladin. Time to read up and jog my memory, I guess.

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