Blizzard shares ‘World of Warcraft: Legion’ features and development details

“World of Warcraft: Legion,” the sixth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s popular fantasy MMORPG, is launching worldwide this August 30, 2016 and it’s bringing with it a number of new content—from the formidable Demon Hunter hero class to the focal point of the demon invasion itself, the Broken Isles.

GMA News Online recently got in touch with Blizzard to glean more insight into “Legion’s” new features and development process.

Demon Hunter class

First of “Legion’s” new features is the Demon Hunter class. The vengeful Demon Hunters wield demonic magic in their war against the hated Burning Legion. The class has two specializations: Havoc (damage) and Vengeance (tank).

The choice to develop the Demon Hunter class was largely dependent on the expansion’s story.

“We thought the Demon Hunter was a good fit in this expansion because it made the most sense for the fantasy and the lore,” said Adam Kugler, the lead class designer on the “World of Warcraft” development team.

“Telling the Illidan fantasy and story, it was very natural for you to be part of the Illidari army; it was a natural way to bring the Demon Hunter to players. At the end of the day, lore and story drive everything that we do. It’s more about making the world cohesive and intuitive.”

Developing the Demon Hunter came with its own set of challenges.

“(The challenges) had a lot to do with the technology that went into making the Demon Hunter happen,” said Kugler. “I was really geeking out about having the elves transform into demons as part of their kit… so it was mostly about getting the technology where you transition from one mode to another to work, and having all those effects. In addition, we wanted to make sure it all ran on every kind of system we support because we have such a broad player base.”

“We kind of used the Demon Hunter as a test kit for some of the new systems we’re working on,” said Travis M. Day, a “World of Warcraft” senior producer. “We had new armor that’s based on geometry as opposed to just being textures applied to the character.

"So things like the blindfold, horns, and other cool unique elements that make them Demon Hunters were new pieces of tech we had to work on… The other thing is the Demon Hunters are a super-high mobility class—the highest mobility in any class we’ve ever had in ‘World of Warcraft’—which comes with its own unique challenges.”

Developing the Demon Hunter was an enormous team effort.

“There are a bunch of teams simultaneously working on (the Demon Hunter),” stated Kugler. “So much has to go into it. Part of it just their design, and we have the armor sets for them too, so we had to work on the design of the armor sets and the bonuses they provide. You have to think of what the talent structures are going to be. All the things that every other class has also needed to be developed for (the Demon Hunter).”

The Broken Isles

“Legion” introduces an all-new location to Azeroth called the Broken Isles, an ancient chain of islands in the Great Sea. The Broken Isles is composed of several zones.

Travis Day explained that one of the things that sets Broken Isles apart from other locations is how it lets you play its zones in any order, as opposed to forcing you to go through a more traditional, linear quest. The zones also scale according to your level, allowing players of different levels to play together.

Additionally, each zone comes with its own distinct lore and appearance.

“Each zone has a very good, unique story and feel to it,” said Day. “Yes, the Legion is invading; yes, that’s a huge problem that Azeroth needs to deal with. But you also get a sense that here are these places and societies that have existed for tens of thousands of years, and a sense of what the invasion’s impact on their little region of the world is like. You get to deal with the Legion on the macro level, but then you also get these really cool vignette stories. Together they bring (the Broken Isles) a sense of depth and feeling.”

Kugler is particularly proud of the Suramar zone.

“It’s absolutely gorgeous,” he extolled. “It’s so awesome that we almost couldn’t make it because it’s got so much stuff in it. But we ended up solving all those problems, and now it’s the most beautiful city that we’ve ever made, and it’s huge.”

Artifact weapons

Players can now wield some of the most legendary weapons in “Warcraft” lore, thanks to the artifacts system. Artifact weapons grow in power alongside your character, and boast numerous customization options.

“Just as gear gives you more power, the artifact itself will grow with you, and will unlock things that you haven’t been able to do before,” explained Kugler.

“The artifacts feature unique slots,” said Day. “These will take traits that you’ve unlocked and amplify their impact… this adds another layer to the customization, especially when you get to the PvP environment. Depending on your playstyle, there are going to be different traits that you prefer, different things you like more than others. You can get into these layers of deep customization that are actually really cool and that will help you augment your playstyle.”

Class changes

Many of the existing classes were tweaked—some more drastically than others, such as the shadow priest, survival hunter, and outlaw/combat rogue.
The shadow priest was modified so the fantasy of their struggle with their source of power could be realized in gameplay terms.

“We wanted to play with this angle of wrestling with the power of the old gods,” said Kugler. “When you (as the shadow priest) get to maximum insanity, you transform into your void form, and you struggle to keep that power for as long as you can until it ultimately completes and then you go back to normal. Having that wrestling is such an amazing realization of that fantasy.”

They re-conceptualized the combat rogue as something beyond your generic fighter.

“Rogues already have the assassin type and the ninja type, so the next thing we needed to do was pirates,” said Kugler. “It was really the swashbuckler fantasy… that vibe is something we didn’t quite have represented in any of our classes.”

The combat rogue can fight with sword in one hand and pistol in the other, and attack using cannonballs and grappling hooks.

As for the survival hunter, they made the class more melee-oriented to differentiate it from the marksman.

“We want the players to feel like, ‘I’m not choosing this spec because it does the most damage, I’m choosing the spec because of the fantasy that I want to experience’,” said Kugler.

The invasion draws nigh

Kugler and Day are extremely happy with how “Legion” turned out and are excited to finally bring their product to fans.

“At this point, with the addition of Demon Hunters, we have 36 different specs, 36 different artifact weapons, and then with this focus on class fantasy, there are really 36 different ways to play the game,” said Day. “There are 12 classes, but each of these specs has a different role and a really strong fantasy behind them now. So I feel that there is a huge offering of different ways to play this game. It’ll be more appealing to a broader spectrum of people.”

There are many other new features this article didn’t touch on, such as the order halls and the enhanced transmogrification system. For more information about “World of Warcraft: Legion,” visit its official website or the Wowhead “Legion” page. — AT/BM, GMA News