{"id":1586,"date":"2016-08-27T16:50:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T16:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2016-08-27T16:50:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T16:50:07","slug":"expectations-for-legion-the-newest-world-of-warcraft-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/expectations-for-legion-the-newest-world-of-warcraft-expansion","title":{"rendered":"Expectations for Legion – The Newest World of Warcraft Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s face it. Warlords of Draenor<\/em> was a move away from the center of\u00a0World of Warcraft<\/em>. While each expansion has its own flavor and spices, WoD definitely broke the palate for the casual WoW player, at least in my experience.\u00a0And here’s why that wasn’t a bad thing.<\/p>\n

To begin, I’ve walked away from each of the last four\u00a0expansions. I took some time away from\u00a0Wrath of the Lich King<\/em> because my experience was saturated. Five years of WoW had given me a rich, engaged experience that I had never experienced before<\/a>. With friends leaving the game, and an increased work schedule, I walked away.<\/p>\n

Then came the\u00a0Cataclysm<\/em> trailer<\/a>. Remember that? It was everything\u00a0I thought I wanted<\/em> from the next expansion. But something happened in that translation: character classes were overly tweaked and the actual game play experience lessened. I wasn’t prepared for that. I struggled\u00a0really immersing myself in that experience, and had the daily quests not been truly enjoyable, I would have probably cut my play time in half. Again, I walked away.<\/p>\n

Then came the dancing pandas<\/a>.\u00a0Well, it’s been a fun ride, WoW. Thanks for all the memories.<\/em> If I didn’t like Cata, sure wasn’t going to enjoy playing against npc pandas. Funny thing though. A few friends that hadn’t played in a couple years started playing again, and they convinced me to download\u00a0Mists of Pandaria<\/em>.\u00a0I thought to myself, what’s the worst that could happen? I level a toon to max, raid a little bit, make jokes at friends’ expenses, and then retire. But then I fell in love with the new features: named rares planted throughout the maps, an improved LFR system that made raiding on the weekends fun again, and the Timeless Isle. Alas, switching careers and a quick promotion took my time. I walked away.<\/p>\n

Then came the promise of a revolutionary feature in\u00a0Warlords of Draenor<\/em>: garrisons<\/a>. The ability to build your own castle, customize its buildings and correlated outputs, and send npcs on quests for your benefit. The problem with the garrison, from my experience, wasn’t that it was too hard or not enjoyable. The problem was that the end result of maxing out your garrison just didn’t offer any rewards I wanted. Which made me feel like WoW was more about the journey than the destination, and while philosophically I understand that, I demand a destination worthy of the journey. I also cursed\u00a0to the WoW gods that I couldn’t use my flying mounts in the xpac. I still don’t know why the Blizzard brain trust thought that was a good idea. The only bad move that trumped that one was removing tier gear from the LFR system. No thanks for that move. I quickly walked away.<\/p>\n

Now we have\u00a0Legion<\/em><\/a>. I’m not\u00a0paying much attention to what people are writing about it. What I am paying attention to are the features that are going to affect my experience with it. Tier gear is returning to LFR. Class Orders and Class Halls in lieu of garrisons, and the Broken Isles (new zone). I don’t know what to expect – I’ve seen the range.\u00a0Burning Crusade<\/em> was my favorite.\u00a0WoD<\/em> was a buzzkill. I guess I am expecting the middle. And the middle is ok with me.<\/p>\n

But what I really want is to be able\u00a0to look forward to playing again<\/em>. That’s what I miss most about\u00a0WoW<\/em>. I miss being 50 miles from home at a work meeting and talking\u00a0WoW<\/em> with a colleague, and knowing in the back of my mind that when I get home, I can crack a beer or two, run through some dailies, and chat with friends. I miss the excitement of phone calls with friends talking about new features. I\u00a0even miss the loading screen music while I’m petting my dog.<\/p>\n

I want\u00a0that<\/em> back. I want\u00a0the want<\/em> back. Here’s to hoping\u00a0Legion<\/em> delivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s face it. Warlords of Draenor was a move away from the center of\u00a0World of Warcraft. While each expansion has its own flavor and spices, WoD definitely broke the palate for the casual WoW player, at least in my experience.\u00a0And here’s why that wasn’t a bad thing. To begin, I’ve walked away from each of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[319,9,15],"tags":[475,474,29,473,476,408,477],"amp_validity":null,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}