So the day *kind of* started at 2pm EDT, but there was a very strange 17 minute delay in the stream(that really made its presence known with the Opening Ceremony ending much later than the schedule said, and wouldn’t allow me to watch the other panels until then). Thankfully they seem to have fixed this issue by the time they talked about what’s next for Legion.
The show started with the CEO of Blizzard mentioning that soon it’ll be Blizzard’s 25th anniversary (with Diablo having its 20th anniversary). Then he went over the success of the WARCRAFT movie, and then mentioned “our next content update is already in the works” for WoW. Though I love how quiet the claps were of ‘enjoying Karazan’.
Then it moved on with the other games of Blizzard, starting with Overwatch. What started as them going over the launch of the game, turned into a pretty cool movie of a new character (named “Sombra”) to join the game (and the announcement of a new e-sport).
Starcraft II was next, with a guy from Google (part of ‘DeepMind’) who’s working on the future of AI and gaming, talking about Google’s self-driving cars and stuff. He’s co-oping with Blizzard to work with Starcraft 2 (of having actual AI play the game). The reason for this is testing purposes (of the advancements of AI programming).
This is pretty cool. I wonder how much Google paid Blizzard to do this.
Next, they went over the Heroes of The Storm, starting with a video about Varian’s memory, and eventually announcing that he and Ragnoros will be playable characters.
And finally, Hearthstone with their next expansion announcement. Once again, they go big. Big as in Gadgetzan’s alternate reality of greatly thriving and expanding since the cataclysm. But with it being so big, people with illegit tendencies also hide in the city’s mean streets, hence the newest expansion: “Mean Streets of Gadgetzan”.
Finally, we now go over the future of Legion (and the future of WoW). Ion is trying to defend the game the best he can from a mob of unhappy WoW players.
First, he speaks about the questionably delayed content of Legion. But to me he didn’t once say about “we’re sorry you feel forced to do Mythics”. He mentioned about the pacing of the game and “trying not to fall behind”. Which is probably why it feels so time gated.
He goes over what patches were in the past and why they did them like that.
…And then he says something stupid. Well, two stupid things;
“There’s something for everybody to engage with”. Yet left out the “…as long as you like time gates” part.
“Making you wait, it’s not fair! It’s not right!” Yet why do the fuck you do it by forcing casuals to do Mythics to complete a quest?! Huh, Ion? The thing he meant by “making you wait” is patch-related.
With that out of the way, he goes over Patch 7.1.5. He calls it “Legion’s first ‘small patch'”. This is what’s going to be in it;
-More Timewalking, but using MoP’s dungeons.
-More Brawler’s Guild, with a new “pull everyone in madness” mechanic.
-Micro-holidays (examples include Silithus effort day/’be a guard’ day/’go boating’ day/”take the servers down..LOL Trolled” day). Ion does state they won’t have any real rewards for completing these, but it’s “just something fun and different to do”.
-Blade’s Edge Arena update.
-Class updates. Restoring traps for BM Hunters.
–This patch is “SoonTM” (will be on the PTR after BlizzCon).
And now Patch 7.2 (titled “The Tomb of Sargeras”) is being talked about. The future of Legion is coming. Here. we. go.
-‘The Tomb of Sargeras’ raid (9 boss raid), altering the Broken Shore. This will come after the Nighthold raid. Kil’jaden makes a reappearance.
-Class Order Campaigns will continue (which will go to this raid).
-New World Quests. Ion says he’s “happy how World Quests have been so far” and “we want to do more with it”.
-Base building and planning an assault of the Broken Shore.
-The Legion will be assaulting current zones in the Broken Isles, and we must help our newly found allies. This will disable World Quests in a zone and change the skybox and add new types of quests to defeat the Legion forces.
…Flying? Yes. Part Two of the Broken Isles Pathfinder achievement can be done and completed (which will allow flying).
-But what is even better than flying? How about a custom class mount?! This is the reward for *re*completing your Order Hall questline.
-New ‘patch dungeon’; “Cathedral of Eternal Light’ (4-boss dungeon, Heroic and Mythic only).
-Changes to PvP, called ‘PvP Brawls’. Something they’re trying out.(Bleh)
-Changes to Artifact Weapons. New traits, knowledge levels, relics that can modify two traits(instead of just one). Continuing of the artifact questline and a new appearance for the weapon. One that is -NOT- gated behind a Mythic, but the ability to learn your spec (in other words, your art of soloing content).
-Updates to current dungeons. Increases in difficulty for Heroic and Mythic. Buuuuutttt…. Suramar dungeons will be queueable in Heroic.
-Release date is unknown, but Ion claims it will pop up on the PTR after 7.1.5 goes live.
The future of WoW, it’s official. We’re going to Argus next expansion to finally defeat the Legion. It seems WoW’s not going to die anytime soon. Though by going by Ion’s voice, it seems Blizzard themselves too feel the game has been going on for long enough, and it might be time to work on a new game (maybe this ‘WoW 2’ that has been speculated).
The reason is, there would be really nothing left to fight. We would had killed a Titan; the cause of the Burning Legion. Deathwing’s dead(by Thrall). The Lich King is.. well, frozen. Garrosh got rekt by Thrall (because fuck being fair when you’re a Shaman). The only other thing we would possibly need to go after is the Old Gods.
…….
Right! That wraps up Day 1 of all WoW-related panels. Time for my thoughts. First off, Patch 7.1.5.
While most of what they’re bringing to the table isn’t interesting to me, the ‘Micro-holidays’ and the class changes are. The micro-holidays sound really promising, as these holidays aren’t focused on a time that WoW didn’t exist yet. The current holidays were fun back in Vanilla, but they’ve really lost their novelty. Having holidays that players were a part of, is awesome. I love it.
I would even go as far as to mark the first time I solo’d a dungeon as a holiday. Don’t remember what day it was, though. But I do remember what level I was and the class (and even what I was wearing).
It would be called “Dungeon Soloing Day”. Make the most money and win the respect of your fellow players. Oh! OH!! Or even better…. “Casual Appreciation Day”! A day where hardcore players must respect casuals. #CasualLivesMatter 😛
And the thing about class balancing is something I’m not holding my breath. I do like how he said “it was a mistake” that traps should only be for Survival Hunters. To acknowledge they were wrong, boosts confidence that they’re going to try to not make that mistake again. THIS… this is what I want to hear more of! THIS is going to win back my trust.
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But let’s be reasonable here, people. There’s got to be a catch. Look at their track record. They aren’t going to just give us back what they took from us, just like that. No. Not without stripping them of all of their good parts and giving us what’s left (which would likely be worse than what it was in the past).
Of course, I could be wrong here. But I wouldn’t jump for joy. Not yet.
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Now we move on my thoughts to Patch 7.2.
Tomb of Sargeras raid? Don’t care. The raiders will deal with it as they always do (and save Azeroth), and I won’t have to lift a finger.
Class Order Campaigns restarting? Don’t like hearing this. I liked the fact I was DONE with the fucking thing. I can feel even more ‘forced’ content with it. But when it comes out in the PTR sometime next year (I’m going to guess by February or March), I’ll check it out.
Base building? Ehhh.. I dunno. It feels (and even looked like(going by the picture)) the outposts from WoD. Then again it could also be like the Molten Front in Cata (which Suramar’s storyline is using). It’s neutral to me. I neither like nor dislike it.
Having the Legion finally showing their might by invading certain zones (and using our allies(hopefully the ones that actually helped us to secure some of the Pillars of Creation))? I like this. It’s about time that the ‘chore list’ feel of endgame content is mixed up and gets more interesting and chaotic.
I’m for this! More of this, Blizzard! Though I feel this is going to eventually get boring and dull as World Quests are after doing them for a week. Still, it’s new, and I want to see it! 🙂
Allowing flying in Legion. It’s about time, but it’s not really going to interest me to grind rep. I’ll just keep my feet on the ground.
And the new class mounts look pretty awesome. Find the Rogue one a bit odd (how is a Rogue attached to a crow? The crow should had been the Hunter mount). And the Hunter mount? I…don’t like it. Looks weird. Like some kind of wolf..bird thing. Do like how it’s red, though. But …HOLY FUCK, ‘dat Death Knight mount, though! Not only is it a dragon, but it actually breathed fel fire before the video cut out. 😮 EPIC much?
Moving on to the changes to Artifact Weapons. Hearing there’s going to be a solo questline for seeing how good of a soloer you are. Hearing what Ion said does have me a bit worried, though. Likely this thing I would face as a BM Hunter would require 850+ ilvl gear to survive, and I’m 825 currently. …Yeah, I got a lot of catching up to do. Thankfully, I like how it’s optional (just ignore the quest).
The BM Hunter weapon appearance does look pretty cool, though. Looks like a crossbow with a shark head that’s choking on a large dagger.
So dungeons now. The thing that I’m still debating if it’s worth staying with WoW (my decision will come later). Ion says that he…likes the way dungeons are. Ok. Dungeons, they’re fine. No problem. They look good. Yet again, no mention on forced Mythics to complete questlines (or even to make queuing for Mythic through LFG possible).
And then it feels like as if I’m Anger from Inside Out and fire just shot out of my head. Because that is exactly what it felt like when Ion mentioned that dungeons (Heroic AND Mythic)….will be harder in 7.2. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
He states “what’s the point of doing Heroics when we’re all in much better gear than that”. *cough* *cough* *choking on idiocy* Wow, Ion. Wow. I expected to hear this from a typical toxic player in General Discussion, thinking he speaks for everyone. But not from the lead dev of WoW! What about people who would be just starting in 7.2? You’re punishing them by making that content harder.
You cannot just…assume everyone will have high gear by then. There will always be late comers.
Maybe I’m overreacting as always, and this will be OK. Maybe they’ll work something out and base it from the leader’s ilvl or something to make it fair for people who are trying to catch up.. I dunno. All I do know is it’s bad enough that questlines require a Mythic to complete. And now he wants to make it harder on us.
Then again, maybe this is a GOOD thing. By making dungeons harder, they’ll drop better gear (or you’ll get better gear from World Quests). The thing I worry about is going to be the insane ilvl requirements for entering these harder dungeons.
Hmm. With that last thought, maybe it isn’t the end of the world. 😛
Just have to see how it plays out. Surely if it’s ridiculous, they’ll hopefully change it to be more reasonable.
So… I’m going to stay with WoW. I’m just curious what will be said at tomorrow’s Q&A.
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Anyhoo, that’s it for me. This is what I will be spam-updating about tomorrow;
2:30pm-3:30pm EDT: Blizzard’s look back of their 25th anniversary
4:00pm-5:00pm EDT: Legion’s Design Retrospective
–Will be eating dinner at this time. Spam posting may be delayed here–
5:30pm-6:30pm EDT: Legion’s Cutscenes and Cinematics
–Will be eating dinner at this time. Spam posting may be delayed here–
6:30pm-7:00pm EDT: ‘Building Worlds – Inside Blizzard Publishing’ recap(as both end at the same time)
7:00pm-8:00pm EDT: WoW Q&A (the big one)
–Spam posting may be delayed here due to being a part of the US launch for WP11 in ED–
9:30pm-12:30am(Sunday) EDT: Closing Ceremony
I hope you all come back for Day 2 for the other WoW panels, Blizzard’s 25 years as a company, and the wrap-up of BlizzCon 2016. Let me know your opinions of this post and what was said on the panels.
You know how to reach me. Just try to be constructive.