World of Warcraft: Legion

For years, it was easy to point out the major shortcomings of World of Warcraft compared to its more modern counterparts, yet still recognized its remarkable longevity. Thus, it was not uncommon to hear: "of course, Blizzard does well with dungeons and there is a nice collection of ingame activities, but it's a shame that the social aspect is no longer so. put forward than it could be in the past. "

With the release of Legion, it is now much more difficult to support such claims. It launched a little over a week ago, and I've since had the opportunity to make new friends within this massive open-world. To be honest, I haven't felt this feeling since 2004. Over the past few days, I've been able to progress alongside a small group of players from other servers that I had met through Custom Group Finder. , galloping from world quests to world quests through the sprawling areas offered by this new expansion. Initially, we had banded together to defeat a boss that neither of us could have attacked on our own, but we enjoyed our team synergy so much that we chose to complete the other four World Quests available in this together. zone, even if it was quite possible to do them alone. Obviously, it's still possible to find groups using guilds or join pre-existing groups made up of "real" friends, but being able to make new friends while playing is a possibility of the original WoW that I had long missed. .

The timing couldn't be better. Despite a promising launch, Warlords of Draenor, the previous expansion, had quickly become one of Blizzard's most bitter failures, with patches giving us tasteless quests that invited us to slaughter orc (at best), and a full year without adding additional content (at worst). The number of subscribers had even reached a threshold so critical that Blizzard had stopped communicating it, and many players had discovered that it was possible to get the usual rewards offered by WoW without having to leave their Garrisons, which reinforced antisocial behaviors and play styles.

Fortunately, we now have Legion, an expansion that greatly refreshes the World of Warcraft experience. It's probably (and partially) accidental, but Legion tells us a tale that reflects some of the problems WoW has experienced and its apparent redemption. With the return of the threat materialized by the Burning Legion, central antagonist of the Warcraft universe, annihilation has never felt so near and inevitable. Demons swarm the world through portals, and some of the saga's greatest heroes die in utterly fantastic cutscenes. Relations between the Alliance and the Horde deteriorate after an abortive joint initiative, which has the merit of rekindling tensions between these factions, which have always been a source of additional dedication for players on both sides. Be reassured all the same, in general everyone joins forces to save the world when the situation demands it.

If things work this way, it's probably because Blizzard gives us some great arguments that remind us that it is worth it to come together to save the world. Every class (or almost) has been revamped using updated playstyles and (sometimes) new combat animations, giving you new choices, such as the ability to play as Specialist Demon Hunters. close combat, or even Thieves seemingly inspired by the theme of piracy. Most of the changes applied have turned out to be fantastic, and this is mostly due to the new Artifact abilities introduced by Legion. Others, however, are more questionable, and this is particularly the case with all the "Fire" specializations of the Mage class, which apparently no longer have their energy and power of yesteryear, but things should. logically change with the opening of the first raids in a few weeks.

No matter which class you choose, the feeling of belonging to the Warcraft universe has never been stronger and more meaningful. While previous expansions treated you in a similar way whether you own a magic staff or a poison dagger, Legion does a great job of giving each class its own identity. On this subject, we can for example cite Class Domains (a domain for available class) which closely resembles the Fiefs of the previous extension, but which differs from them by abandoning the solo approach to favor exchanges with other members of your class with a cleverly thought-out design. Each of these Domains is memorable, and sometimes even magnificent. In this regard, my dear Monks and I have the Wandering Island in its entirety (knowing that the latter is also the starting island of the Pandaren), the Warriors claim the Valhalla (place where the Vrykul warriors are return once dead and feast with Odyn), while the Thieves find themselves in an absolutely sordid lair located in the sewers of Dalaran. The Class Quests associated with them also enrich their respective strong identities, and can occasionally send you away from new areas belonging to the Broken Isles in order to revive older areas. For example, my monk had to fight an invasion of demons in the mythical Jade Forest that appeared with the Mists of Pandaria expansion.

Strangely enough, this strong sense of identity that surrounds Legion also affects Crafting and the various profession books associated with it. Let's be clear: for years, the latter basically just sent you to collect animal skins and asked you to pay for the upgrades specific to each set. Legion, meanwhile, does not hesitate to show you the country in order to learn new techniques dear to certain NPCs, such as the tauren of Highmountain or the legendary hunter Hemet Nesingwary. This therefore implies a certain abnegation and a lot of travel. You are rewarded for your effort, and at the same time it allows for a pleasant change and some variety, since the high-level Leatherworkers you come across don't necessarily have the same (and exact) skills. Some associated quests even invite certain professions (such as Leatherworkers) to return to the tanning workshops to unlock new things, which in the process allows to reinforce a "role-playing" aspect which had gradually faded over the past few years. years.

However, I have a little more trouble with Prodigious Weapons, items that characters of each combat class / specialization collect within an hour of launching the expansion for the first time, and which will follow them throughout. of the Legion adventure. The idea is rather attractive on paper, knowing that most of these mythical weapons do justice to the world of Warcraft, such as the famous Ashbringer sword of Paladin Retribution or Thrall's weapon, the Hammer-of- Destiny, intended for Shamans Improvement. Each of them obviously has a devastating ability - my Monk has also often defeated entire groups of enemies with a single punch (Fists of the Heavens) - and you improve each weapon by the intermediary of a well-stocked talent tree by looting treasure chests and rare enemies.

Roughly speaking, this effectively means that each player who has adopted the same specialty necessarily has the same weapon. So sure, you can easily change their appearance through transmog if you want to, but when it comes to the Handgun Artifact belonging to my Windwalker Monk (my main character), I could only swap it with a other primary weapon. You can unlock additional skins though, but the excitement that comes with getting a new weapon is now a thing of the past.

Finally, and after 36 hours of playing at level 110, it bothers me less than I feared. Beyond the few criticisms that I was able to formulate previously, improving a Prodigious Weapon as much as possible will clearly take time. Blizzard has managed to make this process fun, however, by constantly rewarding you with items (or Relics) to improve these weapons when you complete a random world quest - an operation directly borrowed from a certain Diablo 3 - which will also increase the reputation of your faction when you complete four in a given area. Many of them are achievable solo, but the variety of objectives they offer is still really impressive. Some will require you to be accompanied by a few friends or to visit dark dungeons while others can be completed using your Crafting skills.

If you have already read this part and want to know our final judgment on the expansion, the second and last part of the review begins here!

With this sixth expansion of World of Warcraft, Blizzard is playing his best cards. And, as she likes to win easy, in this fluorescent green cocktail that is Legion she has put the right ingredients to rekindle the passion of her fans, many of whom had been strongly disappointed by the previous expansion. We therefore have Illidan, the Demon Hunters, a growing plot that will surely reserve us more than a surprise (perhaps bringing us in front of Sargeras), a fleeting appearance of Queen Azshara, iconic weapons, a gameplay that is varied in content, a visually spectacular setting. The elements are all there, the awareness on the part of the developers who cannot afford yet another misstep is tangible as well as the enormous work done to make Legion present itself at the debut in great shape.

And how did this debut go? I'll tell you about my experience when opening servers. While in Dalaran above Kharazan, ready to assist Khadgar who in a blink of an eye will transfer the floating city to the coasts of the Broken Isles, considering the seconds that separate me from midnight, not even if we were at New Year's Eve, I can't help thinking about these nine months of Beta and wondering if the tests carried out to simulate the launch, to avoid the most serious inconveniences, will have served.

Around me there is an air of excitement mixed with concern, but there is not that huge crowd that instead crowded outside the Dark Portal at the launch of WoD. The "new technology" fielded by Blizzard has, in fact, made it possible to redistribute the players, imperceptibly for us, in the less crowded servers, thus avoiding the most serious latency problems and the total collapse of FPS. At the stroke of midnight, while hysterically clicking on "accept" to the message of the quest that appeared suddenly, with shouts of joy as if I had won a gold medal at the Olympics, we were teleported to the other side smoothly. Impossible to avoid a minimum of latency, but it was one of the smoothest launches I have witnessed. A smooth launch should be the minimum union, but in reality, especially in online multyplayer titles, it is not always a guarantee. Evidently, as Garrosh said to Gul'dan, times change. Times change!

Already from the first moments on the scattered islands, in fact, you breathe a new air because the approach to these first phases that separates us from reaching level 110 is new. First of all we are not immediately catapulted into the starting area, we must first venture out in search of our Artifact, a weapon that will accompany us throughout the expansion (but we already know that it will not follow us in the next) and we are not talking about any weapons, for some classes it is some of the weapons more iconic and desirable in the entire Warcraft saga such as the Ashbringer or the Doomhammer. And this is already enough to increase the salivation of many players ... it is no coincidence, in fact, that the class enclave of the paladins was among the most crowded during the beta phase.