TEST of World of Warcraft Legion: Blizzard still has reserve?
Almost two years have passed since the launch of Warlords of Draenor , and Blizzard finally decides to offer us the sixth extension of World of Warcraft , called Legion . After spending more than a year without updating the boss in the heart of the Hellfire Citadel and in every conceivable difficulty mode, players can finally discover something new. After blowing this new extension since the beta and pending the official release of the raids, it's time for me to weigh the pros and cons!
It will be recalled first of all that it is always very difficult to award a score to an MMO (or here, an extension of MMO), simply because it is a persistent world that will evolve in the coming months, and it's impossible to know what World of Warcraft will look like : Legion in 1 or 2 years. So keep in mind that everything that will be said in this test is only a judgment whose relevance is limited to launching the extension. Note also that I did not participate in the raids on the beta, and the latter being inaccessible on the live servers before September 20, we will not talk about it.
Well, now there is still work to be done, because there is so much to tackle
You are not ready
So let's get right to the point, raising the negative point of this new extension, namely the new class "Demon Hunter". For those who do not follow the actuality of the game, WoW: Legion will allow the return of a very important character of the universe Warcraft , Illidan. In order to stick to the ambience of the expansion, Blizzard has decided to create a new heroic class (that is to say that this class starts at level 98) which has vowed allegiance to the Traitor, and who will therefore go face the Burning Legion back to Azeroth.
When discovered, it is undeniable that this new class releases something strong, both visually ( warglaives !) But also for its history. Unfortunately, I think it's the only real good points that can be attributed to the Hunter of Demons, which I find too much of a chili in novelties.
For starters, this is the only class in the game to have only two specializations (tank or dps), while all other classes have at least 3, and even 4 for the Druid. We could not blame the Demon Hunter if the class really brought something new to the game, and I think the whole problem of the Demon Hunter did not give me the impression at all. to be a new class. Yes, the class is the only one of the game to propose a double jump (and even the possibility of gliding), and it also has a very good mobility thanks to some techniques ... but overall, the difference with other classes melee stops here, since once in combat the gameplay is simply a cross between the Thief and the Warrior. I think that Blizzard could have pushed further the mechanics related to the transformation into Demon, for example by proposing new techniques usable in this form ... In the end, the gameplay of the Demon Hunter seemed to me rather poor, and I remains very disappointed with my experience on this new class, which is necessarily a bit subjective. Everyone will have to make their own opinion about it. which is necessarily a little subjective. Everyone will have to make their own opinion about it. which is necessarily a little subjective. Everyone will have to make their own opinion about it.
Fortunately, this is perhaps the only thing I have to say about the novelties of this extension, since the rest is much more interesting and can even sometimes completely forget this disappointment.
Classroom reshuffle
Let's talk about something that has been available for a few weeks on the official servers, since Blizzard has brought a lot of the new features of this extension via the 7.0 update. I want to talk about redesigning classes and specializations.
You should know that for WoW: Legion, Blizzard has decided to give an identity to its different classes, making changes to the gameplay but also the aesthetics and history of classes and their specializations. Thus, we now find greater diversity in certain classes, such as the Hunter who has a playable specialization in combat (Survival), or the Thief who sees his Combat specialization disappear in favor of a new branch "Pirate". Blizzard has decided to completely reshape his classes and, overall, the work done is very good, even if we can not deny certain disappointments (randomly, the Priest Discipline). It's important to note that class balancing is not finished yet,
This class work is all the more important because in WoW: Legion , classes are at the center of the expansion, both thanks to the new Artefact system, but also and especially with the Classroom that goes to become an essential place, allowing the players to find themselves between members of the same class, and which will also serve as a command center for many actions to be performed on the Broken Islands, the new playable zone proposed here.
Artifacts and Class Hall
The big news of this extension is the addition of artifacts. Just to make it simple, know that artifacts are legendary weapons (often well known to players as worn by iconic characters in the Warcraft universe) that we will be able to recover at the very beginning of the extension, even before going to the new areas to explore. There are as many weapons artifacts as there are specializations in the game, ie 36 in total. When you start the expansion, you will be able to select for which specialization you want to get your weapon, and then begin to ramp up it. Do not panic: if you want to change specialization at a given time, it is quite possible to recover the weapons of other specializations later (from level 102).
Each artefact weapon has considerable potential including a unique talent tree to unlock during our adventures, which will provide access to new techniques and passive abilities, but also to the improvements of some other techniques already available to players. To improve your artefact and unleash all its power, you will need to collect artifact power, which you will get by completing quests or defeating powerful bosses in dungeons and raids ... It is important to note that the power harvested is specific to the artifact you are using. Thus, if you decide to retrieve a second artifact for your secondary specialization, you will need to upgrade it separately as well. In addition to the artifact power,
The improvement of the artifacts is long (count several weeks / month), but the rise in power is real, and one thus really has the impression of all the time evolve during our sessions of game, even if one is satisfied of not do only a few quests for an hour.
To recover and improve the artifacts, players will have to travel to a new, unmissable Legion venue: the Classroom Hall. It is, in fact, an evolution of the Fief of Warlords of Draenor, which erases many defects of the latter and brings beautiful novelties. For starters, each class will have its own Hall, which will, of course, be a very special place in connection with the history of the different World of Warcraft classes. Unlike the Fief where the players were isolated because of phasing, the Classroom will allow all players of the same class to be in the same area. This Hall will be the place where you will spend most of your time during your games. Legion, since you will be able to perform various tasks, such as improving your weapon, recovering global quests (we'll come back to that), or even sending your subjects on a mission. Rest assured once again: unlike the stronghold, you will only have to deal with a handful of subjects here, not dozens like during Warlords of Draenor. Finally, it will be possible to evolve this Hall and unlock benefits (odds bonus of finding objects in the Broken Islands, bonus missions success ...) for your character via a small tree of talent.
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New areas and new technology
The new continent accessible with Legion is called the Broken Islands and will allow players to discover no less than 5 new zones, one being accessible only at the maximum level. As usual with Blizzard, the artistic direction is at the top, and the diversity of decorations force respect. All areas are relatively different, and these are mostly very important places in the history of Warcraft . Of course, players can learn more about the arrival of the Legion in Azeroth, but it will also be an opportunity to perform many quests and scenarios with some big names in the game that we are pleased to find . For lovers of the Lore, you will be served because World of Warcraft: Legionis particularly rich at this level, offering excellent quests to perform to dive a little more in this fantastic universe.
But where Blizzard comes to offer us a real novelty, it is deploying a new technology that allows the monsters, quests and loot of the Broken Islands (and their dungeons), to adapt to the level of all players .. You will not have a predefined "road" to explore this new continent, and you will have to choose where to start your adventure ... You decide, and the game adapts. In addition to this, know that you can for example group with a friend of a different level, without you slow down the latter (if it is a higher level) by dragging in areas not interesting for him , experience and loot automatically adapting individually.
In the end, the experience on the Broken Isles is really excellent, and when we know that Blizzard is already thinking about the possibility of adapting this technology to all areas of World of Warcraft , we say that beautiful things happen to the world. future for cooperative play.
And at a high level?
Who says new extension obviously says new content for top players. With Legion , Blizzard takes again the classics while bringing to the passage some novelties very appreciable.
We start with global quests, which are probably the most recurrent content at high level. Concretely, it is about daily quests as we have been used for several years, except that it will not be mandatory to perform them every day. Indeed, you will sometimes see Emissaries in your Classroom, and these will send you on missions to the 4 corners of the Islands to perform various quests. While there will often be opportunities to perform these tasks alone, be aware that you will also need to find companions for some more challenging missions. World quests are very varied, so you can simply collect a few items or go face the Legion in the Broken Isles, and you'll even get quests related to your trade. You will sometimes be asked to go clean a dungeon in a certain mode of difficulty, in order to recover more and more loot. Blizzard promises hundreds of different quests, and in order to attract players to this content, keep in mind that the quest rewards will also adapt to the player, including those who have reached the maximum level and benefit from a very high level of skill. 'equipment. In the end, everyone should benefit from these quests, the player a very high level of equipment. In the end, everyone should benefit from these quests, the player a very high level of equipment. In the end, everyone should benefit from these quests, the playercasual to more hardcore .
Another essential content in an extension: dungeons. We're not going to go four ways, Blizzard decided to be very generous at this level by proposing no less than 10 different dungeons (including a redesign of the Wrath of the Lich King's Purple Fort ), and therefore several dozens of bosses and mechanical to discover. Clearly, the dungeons of WoW: Legionare very interesting, and some enjoy a breathtaking artistic direction. As usual, it will be possible to discover these dungeons during the leveling (note that some will only be accessible once you have reached level 110, having explored the last zone of the extension), but also in several modes. of different difficulty when you are at the maximum level. And it is precisely with all this in mind that Blizzard has decided to offer so many dungeons, since the studio still offers a nice novelty with the "mythical dungeons +" ... Explanations!
After cleaning the dungeons in normal, heroic and mythical mode. You can if you want to get into the "mythical dungeons +" that actually correspond to the upper flaws of Diablo 3 , namely instances of increasing difficulty, with limited time to perform them. Basically, players will get special keys (mythical + 1, + 2, + 3 ... +15 ...) to access an improved version of a dungeon, in which the monsters will be more powerful and may even benefit from new abilities (enrage, bonus damage, new spells ...). These keys will benefit from randomly generated affixes, as can be seen on the monsters of Diablo ,
If a group can finish a dungeon in the allotted time, then the players will be able to get new keys to try dungeons of a higher level ... If at the beginning the difficulty is relatively acceptable, it will very quickly be necessary to to have an excellent level of play and quality allies to be able to overcome the most difficult dungeons. Of course, the more challenging you are, the higher the rewards, and the chance to get items of the same level as you might find in the most intense raids of the game ... Yes, there is still a significant interest in making mythical dungeons +, including for the best equipped players.
Clearly, this is undoubtedly the biggest strength of Legion , and we end up experiencing intense moments in a dungeon, as we have not seen in years. In my opinion, it is a total success at this level, and I found some sensations that I had when I played a lot in PvE, with the raid of Zul'Aman, to get the Amani War Bear.
Finally, in a few weeks (September 20th) the first raid will be available and the guilds will be able to go face 7 bosses in several modes of difficulties. At the beginning of next year, a new raid will open its doors, unlocking 10 new bosses including the powerful Gul'Dan, which can finally be destroyed. As I told you, I did not have the opportunity to do this content, but expect as usual weeks - and even months - of content if you want to meet all these challenges in the highest levels of difficulty.
And it's not over!
I have dwelt on the main points of this new expansion, but there is still so much to say that it is simply impossible to make the complete turn in a test. We will quickly talk about the new PvP system, which seems to be very interesting for players wanting to fight on the battlefield, including a standardization of the equipment and especially the possibility of unlocking unique talents in PvP. The more you play in PvP, the more you will be climbing in rank and unlocking powerful upgrades for your spells and talents.
We could also talk about the overhaul of World of Warcraft trades , and the care given to them. Now, you'll need to make (interesting!) Quests to get the best game bosses (with multiple ranks) to create the most powerful items. It will also be possible to recover valuable materials through crafts, to improve your items even more ... If Warlords of Draenor had in my opinion reduced to nothing the interest of the trades, Legion simply goes to the opposite.
In short, you have not finished discovering the new features brought by this extension, which is undoubtedly one of the most generous since the release of World of Warcraftin 2004. And all this without mentioning the other innovations already mentioned by Blizzard at Gamescom, with the announcement (already) of the 7.1 patch that will soon allow players to rediscover Karazhan in the form of dungeons with 5 players ... Blizzard announced that it will focus on the release of new content in a more regular way, to prevent players from having to wait a year with only one new raid to be put in their mouth while waiting for the next expansion. If we can doubt this good word, since this is not the first time the studio says such a thing, we can not deny that the proposed and future content is already consistent here, and we do not risk to be bored before (very) many months.
Some will say that World of Warcraft: Legion is the best expansion proposed by Blizzard since The Burning Crusade . If it is obviously too early to say, it is clear that we want to believe when we see all that the studio has decided to offer us in this new adventure. The whole community feels that this expansion is going to be a success, and we hope that Blizzard will continue this trend in the future. Of course, everything is not perfect, we would have liked to see a Demon Hunter more worked, but it is not necessary that this negative point to hide all the excellent work done next. World of Warcraft: Legionis a beautiful extension, rich and refreshing, which allows the passage to rediscover the Ardent Legion we had been missing for years. There is no doubt that World of Warcraft lovers will appreciate this new expansion, and will be back for at least a few months
| WE LIKE | WE DO NOT LIKE |
|---|---|
| * Artifacts | * The Demon Hunter. |
| * The mythical dungeons +. | |
| * The redesign of classes. | |
| * Zones that adapt to the players. | |
| * The return of the legion. | |
| * Artistic direction. |
1-6 IMAGECREDIT
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