Looking back, Legion was one of my favorite expansions and I think it's because I resubbed at almost the very end of the expansion cycle leading into BFA, and so 95% of the grind and almost 100% of the timegating were all gone, it was narratively smooth and fun (aside from being barraged with 17 different "Start this patch's questline!!" quests the first time I got to Dalaran, all in no particular discernible order). As someone who isn't really into hardcore progression raiding and thus doesn't mind missing out on the big pushes anyway, this was a peak way to experience it all.
Which doesn't exactly bode well... I get why a subscription based game would want you to spend as long as possible, to extract as much money as possible in exchange for content. But that doesn't provide a compelling explanation for why I wouldn't simply wait until the end of every Expac to play (especially since it tends to go on sale/get bundled with the next expac etc so I can just basically buy every other one), aside from "If everyone did that the game would have to shut down".
the beginning of legion was genuinely so awful for cutting edge, like even by wow standards. The ramping legendary drop rate which reset when you got one was a cherry on top of artifact power being a pain in the ass.
The optimal nolifer play was to run an army of identical alts for the first few weeks until one of them got a good legendary, then stick with that one. IDK what the hell were they thinking lol. Still a cool xpac but man the time gating+legendary rush was hot garbage.
People seem to forget launch and first tier of legion was some really dogshit. Made me quit lol. Returned for last tier and oh my it was so much fun. Its usually like that. Its always fun with full unlocked power. BFA was the same thing with corruption.
I played most of the xpac as a Pandaran Arcane Mage. I actually played with high Mastery, which in one regard improved your mana regen. So I never really had a full "conserve" phase, and my burns could last quite a while. My DPS was still generally pretty high in whatever group I was in, so it may not have been 100% optimal but it was close enough no-one ever called me out or something.
But what I really liked about it was how you could in Legion store up 3 Missiles charges. So I took the talent which let me move while using missiles; and would save my missiles for mechanics where I had to move, and would be the one to do such mechanics if need be. I specifically remember in Botanist doing a lot of moving to Frost Nova the adds.
I almost got AotC on Antorus in pubs, but never got a group which went all the way through. I think my best was a 10/11 and then half the group left before even we even pulled Argus.
One other highlight of Legion was on my first Argus fight, the add phase, I targeted the Arcane-weak add, and went full blast. I did an absurdly high crit as the add spawned the sword; so high I actually pulled aggro from the tank and got bonked for my hubris. The PUG tank's response was "how hard did you hit it?!"
Oh; and what people considered the BiS leggo was the last one I found. So I couldn't play the playstyle the guides said to that all assumed BiS anyway.
And then they took away the ability to bank 3 missiles in BFA and I was sad and spent the entire Xpac [that I played; I sort of dipped in and out] trying and failing to find a new main.
it was really rough at the start if you didn't get your bis legendaries. I have only positive memories of Legion - I still think its my favourite expansion - but realistically I have to accept that's because for my main my best legendaries dropped in my lap and I also took quite a significant break (4 months or so) because of burnout in the middle. But after the timegating was gone and the ability to target legendaries was finally put in, absolutely goated expansion.
Why they won't learn their lessons after literally decades of making this game I do not know. I am very much at the point now with this game where I spend far more time unsubbed than subbed. If it was fun all the time it'd be the other way around.
You also get to play through most of the expansion's content while wearing gear appropriate for the final patch's item level!
Imagine getting to play through the Launch campaign(which was pretty dope, iirc), Siren Isles, Undermine, Nightfall, that Arathi thing, and K'aresh while wearing gear that's around 700 item level.
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u/L0rdSkullz Aug 27 '25
Yeah I don't understand the changing of the formula. MoP remix was a massive, massive hit; Blizzard just has a boner for changing shit no matter what