What Comes After Legion’s Success?

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With the success of World of Warcrat newest expansion, what should Blizzard do next?

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Demons, content galore, and the most class fantasy we’ve seen in ages. Whether you play WoW or know someone who does, you’ve certainly heard of the great success that has been the latest expansion: Legion. Winter’s Veil has started in-game and all of the kiddies are lining up to ask Greatfather Winter for piles of preserved holly and buying lots of gingerbread cookies and eggnog from the Smokywood Pastures vendors all across Azeroth. But what can we still ask of Blizzard, once they’ve given us so much that we’ve asked for for years? Where do we go from here?

Quality of Life Improvements

While things have gone a long way to help improve our quality of gaming life, a lot of things remain in game that could easily be improved upon by Blizzard. These minor tweaks are things which may not affect gameplay in terms of character balance or content release, but would certainly go a long way to making our daily lives more pleasurable. Things like the appearances wardrobe, dungeon finder, and transmogrification are all great examples of needs being answered over the years. What else could be improved upon?

Hairstyles

Barber

While a huge overhaul was done years ago to help improve some of the existing hairstyles and facial features when the barbershop was released, very little has been done since. There are a number of hairstyles available throughout the game which would look great on other models. Female Goblin hairstyles, for example, are rather unique and could bring a lot of flavor to some of the more lacking hairstyles given to other races. In addition to spreading the love of existing hairstyles, it would be nice to see them develop new ones. We got updated models with much higher quality–why not add some product to our ‘dos as well?

In addition to new and improved hairstyles, it would be great to be given the option to have something other than shown or completely-tied-up-inside-this-helmet-even-when-not-necessary that they use for every hairstyle which might clip the helmet mesh. Rather than have to worry about having things fit, it might be easier to add in a separate category for hairstyles exclusively for helmets vs. without helmets. They’ve allowed for turning off shoulders/capes/helms, certainly there’s room for improvement rather than having to hide your helmet simply to have a hairstyle show.

Group Finder

While it’s great to see mods like World Quest Group Finder fill out the gaps of the existing group finder, it would be nice to see some improvement done to the basic UI with regard to the group finder. A lot of people complain about having to find their own mythic/mythic + groups through the group finder, and I would wager that it is likely due to it’s punitive design. The group finder in its current form is not intuitive and does not allow for searching for multiple things, nor is it smart about showing what you may need the most (e.g. when questing in Suramar, sort by quests currently listed in your area). Additionally, there’s no clear place for things like world bosses to currently fall (does it go into Raids? Questing? Other?). A lot could be done to improve on the interface, but also to help alleviate some of the stresses people face when trying to find higher level group content. While a complete dungeon finder style is not necessary, general tweaks and improvements would go a long way.

Armour Tints

It may seem like small potatoes given the wide spectrum (pun intended) of transmogrification improvements we’ve seen since the system was implemented, however, the addition of armour tints would be a welcome addition to the interface. Much like how we have artifact colour variations now, how amazing would it be if we could have that for in-game items as well? Many sets have other colour variants which, while they exist in the code, have not found their way in game. Similarly, the pants vs. skirt component of some tier sets might also be addressed (but that’s a separate discussion). How often has it happened that you’ve found the perfect piece, but you just can’t seem to find things to match. While Blizzard has stated that they want the classes and gear to look a certain way (and be recognisable as such), there could certainly be something where they allow for a certain colour spectrum for each class. That way, even if you colour tint to match say, this one specific artifact colour, you are still within your class’ colour spectrum. It’s probably a wistful dream, but it would be great to have more to choose from with existing gear, than have to hope that Blizzard one day adds in a set to match every colour you want for your

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S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera / Screenshot Camera

As you’ve probably come across, there are countless ways to manipulate your character model (e.g. Coin of Many Faces). The setting up of a perfect screenshot or S.E.L.F.I.E. can be ruined by a misplaced camera, often caused by a disconnect between your actual model, and the one you’ve chosen to take on for that five minute period. The amount of times I’ve gone to a smaller form from my Draenei frame and caused an unusable camera shift is obnoxious. There is so much potential for great pictures taken in-game (especially given updated models, expressions, and environments) that a fixed camera just muddles up the work). While it makes taking awesome screenshots all the more skillful, it would be great if Blizzard offered us a movable camera angle. Maybe we just need a better S.E.L.F.I.E. stick?

Chat Interface

If you don’t already have it installed, I recommend grabbing WoW Instant Messenger; it’ll change your life. I have no idea how people function or remember to read whispers in-game without it. That being said, for such a beloved and nearly necessity of a mod, I’m surprised that Blizzard has not implemented its own version. Throughout the years, a number of successful mods have been integrated into the default UI, albeit not always as well done as their third party counterparts (like Outfitter and the equipment manager). In general, there is a lot of room for improvement in the chat interface of World of Warcraft. Perhaps so fundamental that it is easily overlooked, but something that requires attention in the near future all the same.

What about the story?

argus

At Blizzcon, we were told (in screenshot form only) that we would be headed to Argus. This was further clarified to say that this journey would happen within Legion, rather than an expansion unto itself. If you aren’t in the know about the history of the Draenei, Sargeras, or the Burning Legion, you likely won’t know that Argus is in fact the homeworld of the Draenei and the current stronghold of the Burning Legion, led by the fallen Titan Sargeras. When Argus draws closer, it’s kind of a big deal. Fans have been speculating for ages that Argus and the dethroning of Sargeras would be its own expansion, and to have it simply fall at the end of this one has a lot of players questioning what could be possibly left. The answer is a lot.

Throughout the expansion already and throughout previous encounters with the Old Gods, there’s something far more sinister that we ought to be worried even when the Burning Legion seems like the big bad. The very thing which caused Sargeras to fall and go on a fel-infused murder spree: the Void Lords. Beings unable to actually enter our realm, they act through agents like the Old Gods to infest and consume the universe. Sargeras has believed that his leading of the Burning Legion and the eradication of all worlds would be to save them from the Void Lords before they were corrupted by them. He saw what a corrupted world soul, like Azeroth or the rest of the Titans, could look like if brought down by these beings. Instead of trying to save it, he decided to go full destruction (before wiping out all the other Titans).

We know that we’ll be going to the Nighthold in the new year, and that we’ll eventually end up within the Tomb of Sargeras and off to Argus. However, there’s a lot we can still (or at least hope to) expect to see from Blizzard in the story:

What is Azshara up to? Why does she have the Naga searching for the Tidestone?

There’s just so much we don’t know about Azshara, and it would be a shame to not see it fleshed out further with all the teasing that’s happened this expansion.

Where’s Jaina? Will Kul Tiras make an appearance?

Has Jaina run off to her home city? Will we see naval reinforcements from Kul Tiras or the city itself? It’s certain Jaina hasn’t run off for good, but hopefully they don’t turn her evil as a result.

The Old Gods are waiting…

There are a lot of references to things being fortold in rings/circles these days in the dialogue of characters we meet. Both Medivh in New Karazhan and Il’gynoth in the Emerald Nightmare make mention of it. We already know that the Old Gods aren’t intimidated by the threat of the Burning Legion, and arguably seem quite happy with how we’ve gone about things lately. If we actually end up dealing with the Burning Legion in a final way this expansion, what other storylines could we see develop than the ultimate big bad (that we know of) in the Old Gods and the Void Lords? The Shadow Priest Dagger seems to agree.

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What are you hoping that Blizzard brings to World of Warcraft in the near future? What storylines would you like to see developed, or technical developments improved upon? Let us know in the comments or join in the conversation on Facebook/Discord/Our Forums!

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