Gaming| World of Warcraft Legion Pre Expansion Patch Overview

It’s been about a week since the Legion pre-expansion patch was released to the public and so far I’m actually really enjoying it.

I usually get pretty aprehensive when it comes to pre-expansion content, mainly because it’s often either long and drawn out – which generally means the expansion is going to be worse than I expected – or too short and rushed. This time, however, Blizzard seem to have gone back to Burning Crusade pre-expansion event awesomeness… and the whole content isn’t even done rolling out yet.

To give those of you an idea of what has changed since server restart last Wednesday when the patch went live, I’ve compiled some of what you can expect if you’re thinking of logging on – and I definitely reccommend doing so!

Transmogrification Collections System

I’m yet to find a player who hasn’t transmogrified their armour set to make it look like one of the older tiers; let’s face it, the oldies still seem to be the best design wise.

However, it was always a pain trying to grind gear for each character – especially if you’d already picked up a piece on another of your characters. Although I haven’t played around with it much since launch (I’m still trying to get my Pandaren Mistweaver Monk to a high enough item level to take on Archimonde on heroic to get my Moose before release) there is a brand new appearance tab which shows you what armour you can transmogrify your equipped gear to.

Now, you do still have to visit the transmog merchant (I believe) to change your appearance, but as soon as you log on, Blizzard are saying that “When first logging into a character after Patch 7.0, the appearances of appropriate items in your bags, bank, and Void Storage are learned automatically. Additional appearances will be unlocked based on previously-completed quests”.

These appearances will then be available account wide, allowing your other characters to gain access to some of the transmog sets that you’ve been grinding for a while!

Specialization System Changes

Don’t panic when you log in and get confronted with that annoying little box which says “Your talents have been reset” – this is the perfect chance to understand the new character system – so pay attention and way too many people are too precious about their characters.

Most classes have had a huge shake up with regards to their gameplay. Your talents will need to be reset to ensure that you really are making the most of these changes – most of which I’ve seen people in game praising rather than shunning (go Blizz!).

You can easily switch between specialisations, too, with no backlash or having to use dust or pay over the odds at your trainer – it can all be done in a rested environment! This makes it much easier for those people who constantly switch between pure damage for levelling and healing/tanking their way through the main content and dungeons. I, for one, am really happy about this!

I’m also currently loving my time as a healer monk. At first, the changes seemed drastic – there was only two skills from my previous rotation that I could find, and that started to make me worry a little. However, after jumping into raid finder and giving raid healing another go, I found myself slipping seamlessly back into being one of the top three healers in the raid – despite my low gear level!

General User Interface Updates

Aside from many gameplay mechanics, there have also been some changes to the actual user interface – some which are pretty sweet, others which could have been done without.

Firstly, you will be able to adapt how far you can zoom out from your character by a drastic amount. For many of you who don’t play tank or healer, you may not have ever come accross a situation where being zoomed out super far is beneficial; this way you’d be able to see what’s going on all around you rather than simply what’s in front. With this new system, it’s possible to scroll out and see a whole raid group on the screen, which is definitely helping my healing when in raid.

The character sheet has also been cut down; only showing the most relevant information, with a whole section at the top dedicated to your item level. Although this is more of a minor change, it still makes it more simple and attractive to read – I approve!

What I don’t approve of, however, is that the option to display or hide your helm and cloak has been removed from the interface menu. In order to hide these, you have to head to a main city and find the Tranmog Ethereal NPC and choose to hide that specific piece of armour.

Now, I know many people enjoy seeing their character with a fancy helm, but I feel like without seeing my characters face once in a while, I may as well not have customised their face in the first place – and besides, some of those armour sets are just ugly and I’d rather keep my helm displayed as off.

There are plenty more updates within the 7.0.3 Patch Notes, but I feel like I’ve covered the main ones that people will be most interested in!

All in all, you should just log on and check it out for yourself. In the coming weeks, there are going to be Legion invasions, as well as the long awaited Demon Hunter early access, which I’m already planning on documenting… possibly by streaming on my Twitch channel!

What are you most looking forward to about the Legion launch? Have you found any updates a little too different or are you enjoying a new style of play? Get social with me!