My name is Legion: For we are many.
Couldn’t help but think back to that Mass Effect 2 quote. Where do I start here? A quick guild update is in order. Archimonde on normal is now cleared. On the heroic front, we bypassed Iskar and gunned straight to Socrethar and Xhul knocking both of them out this week and placing the guild at 8/13 heroic. Unfortunately, I lost a Resto Druid last week and our resident Mistweaver Monk has gone missing in action. Our auxiliary and off-spec healers have done an admirable job filling in the for them. It’s only going to get harder for them and I didn’t bring them on board to heal full time despite their insistence that they’re willing to do whatever’s needed. I brought them in to deal copious amounts of damage and we’ve invested the damage gear into their characters. Resto Druids continue to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for my guild, it seems.
Okay, let’s talk about Legion.
That was much more information than I expected from a non-BlizzCon presentation. I assume this means that Diablo 3 is going to headline BlizzCon this year.
The classes
Demon hunters. Straight up 2 specs: Damage and tank.
I’m mentally grimacing because it’s another tank class and another melee class. Is there any point to bring in rogues now (other than Smoke Bomb?). Yeah, too early to tell since there wasn’t much in the way of class information. From the few highlights and abilities, they certainly appear to be a fun and high-mobility class especially with their double jumps. Can’t imagine significant raid combat bonuses though other than being able to traverse slightly larger than normal void zones.
Conditions for raiding as a Demon Hunter
- Player must make a generous donation to the guild bank
- Player must find someone to replace their role (if they’re not melee)
- Player’s Demon Hunter performance must exceed their previous role
If those conditions are met, their request to go Demon Hunter will be considered.
Speaking of classes, Icy Veins with their fantastic interview out this morning, confirmed that Survival Hunters will be switching to a melee class. There was speculation since their artifact shows them wielding a spear instead of a traditional bow or a gun.
Great.
More melee.
I’m glad that hunters get more of a diversity among their 3 specs. But the GM in me is visibly annoyed at this, because this means yet more melee. More players that’ll get struck by cleaves or other close range boss attacks and so forth. Conquest has traditionally been a melee heavy raid and we’re trying to move away from that so we get a little more wiggle room. This doesn’t help us much. Unless Survival Hunters are clearly superior or offer an irresistable utility that’s needed, I don’t plan on actively snagging any for the roster. Could change though.
But ugh, another healer or a ranged class would’ve been nice.
Artifacts
Hey look at that, no weapon drops for this expansion. Once we receive our class weapon, we get to grow with it as we adventure onward. Paladins get to utilize Ashbringer, Death Knights get Frostmourne, Hunters get a random bow and a spear, and what about us Priests?
We have no idea yet. Blast. There’s some speculation that it would be Benediction or Anathema, and I confess, I thought similarly. After further thought, I realized it wouldn’t make sense. Veteran Priests already have those. While they’re certainly iconic Priest weapons, I can’t fathom from a lore or gameplay sense that they’d be “rebooted” and awarded to us.
Gathering the shards of Benediction somewhere in Stormwind Cathedral? Why not use the one that’s just sitting in my void storage?
Now, I were a betting man (which I am), I’d put my gold on Fearbreaker. Anduin is going to pass his iconic mace to us, the “leader” of the Priest class order as his prince duties tie him up elsewhere.
Speaking of Anduin, anyone else amazed at how much he’s aged?
Or maybe they just conjure up a new staff from out of no where and apply some lore magic to it. Maybe it was one of Alonsus Faol’s old staves that was buried with him in his grave somewhere that we need to retrieve.
Class Orders
It’s being billed as similar to garrisons but on a much smaller scale. Instead of raising an army, we’re building a smaller strike team. They should’ve sold it as the class version of the Avengers or something. Actually, if they gave our followers here a talent tree like the Diablo 3 followers, I’d be greatly interested. I suspect it’s a much more developed version of the level 3 Barracks where we can activate select followers to escort and assist us around the world.
Going to be odd though to be the leader of the class order when there’s going to be other priests in the same area with the same title.
Good thing we’re not paladins and watching everyone around us with Judgment gear.
More stuff coming down the pipeline, to be sure. Can’t wait for beta!
I was really hoping for a ranged spec, given that neither DKs nor Monks had one. With that being said though, as a hunter main I’m very intrigued by SV going melee. I enjoy playing melee (on my alts) but never had the opportunity to play it in a progression setting, and this change will make that a possibility without having to switch mains or give up on my favorite class, or gimping the guild on encounters where I am better off playing ranged.
On the other hand, something gives me the feeling that there will be a lot of first-time SV hunters dying to every melee mechanic imaginable for a while.
You commented how old Anduin is, I’m hoping there isn’t a plan to kill off Varian and have Anduin step up in his place, deciding whether to take vengeance against whoever did it, with the might of the alliance behind him, or to be the bigger man and strive for peace and all that.
After all, how many races have an heir ready to go?