World Of Warcraft: Legion Beta - Baby Demon Hunter!
By: Lilou
So I am lucky enough to have a beta invite for the new World of Warcraft expansion, and since there is no NDA I thought I might share some thoughts and observations here for anyone who might be interested in what Blizzard has in store. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but don't read if you want it all to be a surprise!
(I should point out here that I have read nothing about this stuff prior to this, so I'm sure all of it could be gleaned from other sources. I learn by doing, so I just chose to jump in and poke around and then bore other people with my "discoveries".)
Of course, the first thing I did upon connecting was to create a Demon Hunter. Blizzard is only allowing two races to be Demon Hunters - night elves and blood elves - so I chose night elf because bouncing > slouching and they have a better dance. A girl has to have priorities.
The character creation options are more extensive than the usual, including tattoos, horns and ... um ... eyewear, so that was kind of fun. I thought I had chosen a very distinctive look but as soon as I logged in I found myself standing next to another toon that had exactly the same hair color, skin color, and tattoo color. So much for my creativity. Silly me. I knew white hair was a cliche.
The Demon Hunter begins life at level 98 (lucky devils) with three abilities: Fel Rush, which is basically a charge that does chaos damage (this is new!), Demon's Bite, a melee attack that does physical damage, and Chaos Strike, a melee attack that does chaos damage. Demon Hunters use "Fury"; you have to generate fury with Demon's Bite to allow you to use Chaos Strike which spends it. You also start out with "Spectral Sight", an ability that allows you to see through physical barriers and to see stealthed and hidden enemies. You begin with two twin-bladed weapons which would be really cool except for the 100 or so other Demon Hunters in your vicinity which have the same weapons which kind of lessens the cachet.
I haven't played much, but it feels kind of warrior-y so far. I have had no trouble dispatching enemies, although three-at-a-time was slightly scary before I figured out the Fury thing. After you kill something, a pink blob has a chance to appear which heals you, a pleasant surprise. And I just discovered a "Legion healthstone" in my bag. I'm curious how many uses I get out of it (the tooltip doesn't say, so I suspect one).
The landscape of this starting area is interesting and looks somehow richer and darker than other WoW landscapes, although I am not sure how to explain why it feels that way. Camera movement is distractingly different as well, smoother maybe?
In the first area where you complete the initial quest I was already able to find a "small treasure chest" with some "fel crystal fragments" in it which can be crushed to gain an effect that gives you a chance to deal increased fire damage and a movement speed increase for 10 minutes. I wonder what else I will find in other treasure chests that might be about?
Also, my reward for my first quest received an "epic upgrade", which will be familiar to those who have played the Warlords of Draenor expansion. It improved from a green to a purple. Huzzah! I was interested to see that they have kept this mechanic in the new expansion.
This seems long enough. More later!