It’s official – WoW Legion is taking up all of my free time! I know I said something similar about WoD, and I still maintain that it had the same potential that simply wasn’t delivered upon. But Legion already features heaps upon heaps of content, with more being announced all the time. We already have 7.1 lined up and it looks to be a great addition to an already great experience. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The questing experience has been great. The flow through zones is near-perfect with few, if any, hiccups and stutters along the way. They feature so-far unprecedented amounts of voice acting that truly add to the overall questing experience in each zone. The variety! From Stormhem, to Highmountain, and Azsuna, and Val’Sharah… every zone is uniquely different and exudes in atmosphere. Every zone’s story line is gripping in a different way. And Suramar! The crown jewel, the max-level zone, it looks tremendous, as is the story in it. Slowly unlocking it, finding out rumors and piecing together information, while building your base of operations to oppose the Legion’s influence… It’s so rich and every return to the sprawling city will surely show you something new, if only you venture to explore.

The artifacts have been very fun to collect and level up. Artifact power is readily available from nearly all the content the game has to offer, so it’s not too big of a chore to collect. But to me, the best aspect are the various scenarios. From the initial scenarios to collect each artifact, but also including the ones connected to you Class Hall, the scenarios were like little single-player puzzles to freshen up your day and test your knowledge of the class. The Class campaigns themselves are fantastically characterful additions to that overall experience, if only you allow yourself to suspend your disbelief for a moment, and squint beyond throngs of players wielding the same weapon and bearing the same title.

The initial gearing up felt smooth and there always seemed to be avenues to improve. We entered Mythic dungeons in the first week, and cleared them over a few nights. They were a fun challenge, but became significantly easier the next reset. Over time, it became quite obvious to us that Mythics were just old Heroics in disguise, while Normals are “fluffy pillows” to help you finish up your zones during questing. The recently released Mythic+ Dungeons however are a whole different game, and were quite interesting to progress through. The Warforged/Titanforged systems don’t feel as out of place as I feared, although they still prevent linear progression we are so used to. It just takes more math to optimize your character now that a silly drop can proc a much higher item level.

All I know is that I just can’t wait to sink my teeth into raids and start progressing deep into Mythics! From what little previews I saw (didn’t want to spoil too much for myself), they look to be a continuation of excellent WoD raid design, so all the more reason to look forward to them.

Let’s go beyond the game itself. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we left the guild we were in half-way through the gearing up process. Not to be deterred however, we have started our own Guild, aptly named WolfDrake. We plan on building a solid progression-minded 20-man team to clear Mythic content with on a 2 day/week schedule. We raid Friday and Sunday evenings, 21-00 Server time. So if you’re looking for a new home yourself, and are an experienced raider who knows their class inside and out, give us a shout at our Guild’s website – we might just have a spot with your name on it! We’re situated on Silvermoon, the largest Alliance PvE server on the EU servers.

Being a Guild Master again might prove to be difficult to balance with work and everything else, but I like to see it as a new opportunity to grow and develop. As hectic as WoD was, it brought to the forefront ample opportunities to see what bad GMs do with their guilds and how good teams fall apart due to incompetence and, as anyone who’s ever led will tell you, only served to further fortify my resolve not to repeat their mistakes. Building a team and a community takes time and perseverance, but there is much evidence that it’s just as rewarding as it can be taxing when done right.

Hopefully that kick-starts me to do more regular streaming, as well as make some videos for our YouTube channel. Now onward, Legion ain’t gonna defeat itself!