World Of Warcraft

Buh?

He's referring to Farahlon.

Also referring to cataclysm, which nuked more than a few islands.

We'll never get Kul Tiras, will be?

Kul Tiras is one of the things people are thinking is replacing Thal'Dranath.

I don't think we're going to see Kul Tiras this time around. It would be kinda weird to be leaving the Broken Isles when our job is sealing the Tomb.

My guess is the first raid tier patch (since that's usually when they do content release) will include something new related to the Isles, or maybe they'll adhere to tradition and we'll see another prison break open and we have an underwater adventure on our hands. Not as big or extensive as That Zone That Shall Not Be Named, probably.

The underwater areas in Suramar are already extensive.

I am really hoping that this isnt another 'forgotten content island' like Farahlon. The lack of Farahlon and a content patch is pretty much the biggest problem Wo D had.

After playing Legion for a while I'd argue Warlords also had the problem of kind of just trying to be 'more of the same?'

Like, outside of the new cutscenes, it played a lot like Mists of Pandaria, and I'm going to side with the Blizzard devs a little bit and say that Cata, Mists and Wo D together kind of diluted the identity of each of the classes a lot. Like, in terms of problem-solving tools, the developers had, over the years, just kind of approached the balance problem as 'right, what's this class weak at, and how can we give them a tool that makes them not-weak?'

Give Warlocks more movement, give Mages more direct survivability and damage mitigation, give Warriors more self-healing to make them more akin to Paladins, etc. A lot of tools were just kind of thrown into each class, which has kind of been highlighted by the call for each class/spec to have some kind of raid utility, because in the current game, almost everyone has some kind of massive raid utility, whereas it's more spread out in Legion.

Legion's class changes are controversial, and some of them really are dirt-basic (BM Hunter, MM Hunter) or kind of dull on the surface (Arms Warrior), but the fact that they've gone back and tried to give each spec a more unique toolkit honestly isn't a bad thing. Sure, we're gonna love some abilities that might have been beloved by the community, but I'd be more happy to see them having to account for less utility abilities per class and designing for them than watching people completely cheese a major mechanic by using some utility ability that Blizzard couldn't account for, unless that 'exploit' is really hard to pull off.

They stated that this trend started off in Wrath, with Demonic Portal playing a big part (warlocks became more mobile, mages had to become more durable in response). They want new abilities to add to a class's strength rather than fill in weaknesses. They've been giving specs more distinct playstyles (how they do things) while diluting counters (what they do).

I've been playing through the whole Vash'jir storyline, and I'm impressed at both the look and the atmosphere of the place. The three regions look very different, are recognisably seascapes, and Shimmering Depths is especially colourful. The questline feels like you are part of a broader fight and under constant menace. But finding and fighting mobs in three dimensions is horribly disorientating and it feels like a whole different game in both looks and mechanics. I guess that's why it's the only Cataclysm zone with no dailies and it was not revisited except for the Elemental Bonds quest.

The Spider Tank From Hell?

That's Mekkatorques personal ride isn't it?

Nope. Mekkatorque got his own personal Jaeger instead.

You should see the Horde one, they have the worlds largest bomb bot ready to go. The mechanic working on it says 'what could possibly go wrong?'.

Giving that its Goblin teach...

EVERYTHING?!

But it's MEANT TO explode! ITS FOOLPROOF I TELL YOU!

Isn't that what they detonated Theramore with?

Nah, that was a Supersized Mana Bomb.

Blizzard discusses the rules for random item upgrades in Legion.

In a nutshell:

• "Warforged" — the base chance for a dropped or created item to upgrade by 10 item levels — is gone.
• All raid and dungeon drops, and most quest drops, will have a chance to gain +5 item levels from their baseline value. If that chance succeeds, it is rolled again for another chance at +5 item levels. If that chance succeeds, it is rolled again, and so on, up to a potential global maximum determined by the active raid tier.
• Such opportunities can be identified in the UI. For example, it might specify that a quest awards "830+" gear; the "+" indicates that the gear has a chance to roll higher item levels.
• The global cap will be 850 at launch and 895 once the Emerald Nightmare raid opens. It will increase again when additional raid tiers open.
• Any item that rolls +15 or more (in other words, it wins three upgrade chances) will be labeled "Titanforged".
• Note that the probability of getting higher level drops decreases exponentially: if the base chance of an upgrade is 10%, the chance of rolling double upgrades is 1%, and the chance of rolling triple upgrades is 0.1%. (Note: We don't know the exact chance.)

The purpose of this system is to increase the potential value of lower tier content without "punishing" people who challenge higher tiers. You'll upgrade much faster if you're running the current raid tier, or the highest available Mythic+ tier, but you'll still have a chance to get some high quality gear even if you're running lower level content, and there will always be a potential benefit for players who are doing higher tiers to run some dungeons with their friends.

edited 28th Jun '16 6:28:23 AM by Fighteer

Are the socketed/tertiary stats are still possible upgrades beyond raw item levels?

The blog post does not say, and I haven't looked into it. I would assume so, otherwise JCs get screwed almost as badly as scribes.

It's always bothered me how sockets (and tertiary stats, but sockets especially) aren't figured into the item level; it makes comparing the power level of two items unnecessarily difficult.

It would almost be better if sockets were something that you could add to any item using an appropriate crafting profession, but the number of gems you could equip at any time were capped. I detest the game of numbers that is, "This item rolled a socket, but I have a warforged piece. Which is better?"

edited 28th Jun '16 6:54:54 AM by Fighteer

Well depending on what chance they set, it's going to range from "+5s are practically everywhere" to "+10s are practically nonexistent".

"You can get a useful piece even if you're running lowest tier dungeons" is bullcrap, the chances mount down so quickly you may as well buy actual lottery tickets if you feel that lucky.

Theoretically possible they'd adjust the chances based on difference between your current average ilvl and level of gear you're looting, so it would always stand a chance at approaching your level, but it's a very remote possibility.

It is, regardless, superior to fixed dungeon drops. I just did a quick spreadsheet to check my calculations, and if the base upgrade chance is 25%, you have about a 5% chance of any given drop being +10 item levels, and slightly over 1% to get "Titanforged" (+15). I suspect that Blizzard will make it a bit more frequent than that... 30% base tweaks the Titanforged chance to almost 2%.

Well there are ways to manipulate the odds in the beta like one of the higher tier Class Hall perks increases the odds IIRC. And the base increases as well on world quests and such, that 830+ is only that if you are appropriately geared, it starts out at 810+ and goes up.

Anyway really it is not any different than the Mythic warforging we have now in live.

edited 28th Jun '16 7:18:22 AM by Memers

Basically they took the Tanaan token warforging rules and applied it to the everything.

Legion #1 - Magni: Fault Lines