Early last week, Blizzard hosted a Legion preview event to give press and integral community members a chance to talk in small groups to members of the World of Warcraft development team. Given it began at 10:30 the morning after the Warcraft: The Beginning world premiere, all were a bit bleary-eyed. That’s not to say, however, that there weren’t some great nuggets of information to be had.
The day began with WoW Game Director Tom Chilton taking the floor to recap some of the biggest features and changes coming to World of Warcraft with Legion’s launch in September. For those who may never have seen the full, and rather impressive list, here’s a quick rundown:
- New Location - Broken Shore
- Demon Invasions
- New zones - Aszuna, Stormheim, Highmountain, Val’Sharah, Surimar, Dalaran
- New Class - Demon Hunter
- Artifact weapons
- New combat animations and soon new casting animations
- World Quests
- PvP Honor System
- Class halls
- Champion folllowers
- Dungeons - Arcway, Vault of the Wardens, Darkheart Thicket, Assault on Violet Hold, Neltharion’s Lair, Black Rook Hold, Halls of Valor, Eye of Azshara, Maw of Souls
- Raids: Emerald Nightmare, The Nighthold
The story will take on some of the most iconic World of Warcraft lore and will bring some pretty significant changes to the overall game landscape.
One of the central stories that will be clarified and extended is that of Ilidan. “We want players to experience his story.” said Chilton.
To so do, Blizzard will be releasing a new series of short videos to delve deeper into some of the stories being prepped for Legion. Called “Harbingers”, the stories will follow the Illidan storyline up to the commencement of Legion. They will be of a similar art style to that found in the videos leading up to Warlords of Draenor. From what was revealed, the series will be four videos and is said to be ready to get rolling in the very near future.
We were lucky to get to view the first in the Harbinger series and, as expected, the story kicks off with Illidan as he and his Demon Hunters are ready to take it to the Burning Legion.
Some signature “Illidan-isms”:
“You came to me with nothing left but rage. Now you see that there is no sacrifice to great if it means an end to the Burning Legion.”
“They will stop at nothing to destroy our world and we will stop at nothing to save it. Now you ARE prepared.”
Head on to Page 2 for the interview with Ion Hazzikostas and J. Allen Brack.
