Whether you’re raiding, PVPing, or pet battling, Legion offers a lot to do. But is it too much? If you’ve been playing World of Warcraft for a long time, you’ve experienced the content ebbs and flows of Blizzard’s patches. With Legion’s most recent Patch 7.1.5 drop, it’s hard not to feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of content flowing in.
Warlords of Draenor was not a great expansion for content releases. Much of the content originally planned was either scrapped or drastically changed in order to meet ever condensed release schedules. It’s predecessor Mists of Pandaria however boasted a great start to the expansion, dropping content patches like hotcakes. Unfortunately for MoP, content stretched to a famine after the release of the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, a patch which left players wanting for over a year before Warlords finally dropped.
So far Legion appears to be following a similar release schedule to MoP. From the outset of Legion’s release, there has been a steady flow of content for players to indulge in… perhaps a little too much content. For hardcore players, at the release of the expansion, it was nearly impossible to even consider focusing on anything but your main character. Between world quests, reputation grinds, and professions, there was a near overwhelming amount of things to keep oneself occupied. As raids opened up, arena seasons started, and new storylines were released, Blizzard has kept the river flowing. While the content may not necessarily be up to your speed, the fact remains that there is a lot to do.
Might there just be a little too much going on? While Blizzard has made efforts to try and help alts and new players catch up to current content levels, it can at times feel like there’s too much to do. However, it might just be in how you look at things. In past expansions, at max level, you pretty much logged in just for raids, dailies, or even your daily dungeon and that was it. Now for many players there is a greater variety of things to do. World quests have given a breath of fresh air to the old daily structure, allowing the freedom to not log in every day with only a minor loss to progression, as emissaries last for up to three days. Weekly events and micro holidays help players interact with the world in new ways, and change up the face of the game. Even if you don’t like what’s going on this week, usually something will be coming along soon to carry you away.
In looking at how much Legion has to offer, it is hard not to draw parallels to MoP. We were fanned with content during Mists, and we were left with a drought in the end. Had Blizzard have paced their content releases a bit more steadily throughout Mists, the content drought would not have lasted nearly as long and might have left people feeling better about the expansion when transitioning into Warlords (which was effectively another drought). It is not surprising then that many fear that Blizzard’s content releases may run out of steam before the next expansion drops, leaving us caught in the content desert as we wait for new things to do.
While an inter-expansion lull is always expected, one would hope that Blizzard has learned a thing or two about helping ease the transition. While the time between expansions is often a good time to catch up on things you might have let slide (pet battles, Brawler’s Guild, or transmog collections), these are often not the things which keep people subscribed. Legion doesn’t appear to be singing its final swan song anytime soon, and it’s current content trajectory appears to be solid. While players may feel a little overwhelmed with what’s currently on their plates, and the impending menu Blizzard has in store, we can hope that our Warcraft overlords have learned proper content pacing techniques. Not too fast, not too slow, but just right: the Goldilocks schedule. Something we’ll hopefully get to see after our coming trip to Argus.
How do you feel about Blizzard’s content releases so far in Legion? Do you think things are happening too fast? Are you bored already? How did you handle past expansion droughts? Let us know below, or join in the conversation on social media!
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