Legion: The Setup & Features

So yesterday was the day we got to learn what comes next in World of Warcraft. Three of the developers, Tom Chilton, Ion Hazzikostas and Alex Afrasiabi took to the stage of Gamescom in Cologne in Germany to reveal the new expansion: Legion

The game takes place back on Azeroth, and they have utilised what is perhaps the last bit of free real estate on the known planet: The Broken Isles.

These are the islands just off the north-western coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, right between Northrend and Tirisfal Glades:

The story carries on directly from the end of Warlords of Draenor, where Gul'dan was banished to the Twisting Nether by Archimonde's dying actions.

It turns out that he was banished to present day Azeroth, whereupon he comes across the Vault of the Wardens, their prison for their captured prisoners. Guess whose corpse is there? Yep, Maiev Shadowsong brought Illidan's lifeless corpse back to the prison and entombed it here, just for Gul'dan to find it 10 years later...

Anyhow, the game switches tack to the Tomb of Sargeras, which is located on the Broken Isles, and it's from here that the largest ever Legion invasion of Azeroth, bigger even than the War of the Ancients, kicks off in earnest, and it's up to us to stop it...

So with the setup out of the way, what features can we look forward to?

• Level Cap is now 110
• No weapons drops AT ALL. This is because players will be expected to focus entirely on their new Artifact Weapons!
• New Class: Demon Hunter! Finally! However this class has only 2 specs, 1 a melee dps spec, Havok, the other takes away the dreams of warlocks everywhere: Metamorphosis Tank spec. The other cool thing about DH is it gets something I've been dying for in WoW since forever: double jumping! Plus, it's another Hero Class, which means it starts off between level 95-100, it hasn't been finalised just yet.
• New continent as mentioned, The Broken Isles, with 6 new zones
  • The Broken Shore
  • Azsuna
  • Stormheim
  • Suramar
  • Val'sharah
  • Highmountain
• New Raids & Dungeons (derp)
• Revamped PvP system that completely separates PvE & PvP finally! :D
• Transmog Wardrobe! \o/ SO MUCH BAG SPACE!
• Class specific Order Halls, location and style of which are specific to each class. Paladins get a hall underneath Light's Hope Chapel, Warlocks get a Legion portal world etc
• Another character boost,  this time to 100

So that's what's been revealed so far. And from the presentation yesterday, I get the strong impression that this is going to be another shorter expansion, similar to Warlords. How long yet Warlords has left before Legion releases, no-one knows just yet, but it can't be left too long, as given my last post regarding subscription numbers, the longer it takes, the less people will be there or even come back to enjoy it...