World of Warcraft: Legion,Extended Full Game Review and Reflection - Bringing the world back to World of Warcraft.

With the final content patch of Legion being released a few weeks ago, I thought, it's a good time to review Legion before we start getting hyped for Battle For Azeroth, the new expansion expected to release sometime next year, but Legion has been a huge expansion, one that players aren't ready to leave yet, which has parted ways with the usual opinion at the end of an expansion "Oh please god make it stop already" so why has Legion roped back in the lost fans they had from previous expansion? well we're going to take a look at that, along with the story,gameplay and direction of Legion in this review.

So ragequit at rolling a token for AP, and try and make a demon hunter with Illidan in the name, as we review World Of Warcraft: Legion.

Also, keep in mind this will be a long review as we nearly 2 years of content to review.

Please note there will be spoilers

Setting and Story.

Beginning at the end of Warlords of Draenor, Gul'dan escaped his fate in Hellfire Citadel, he managed to return to Azeroth and commune with the dark titan, Sargeras, and insisted now was the perfect time to strike as he had found a mortal vessel capable of containing his godly essence, in Illidan Stormrage, the now dead leader of the Illidari and mortal enemy of Sargeras and the Burning Legion, wasting no time, Gul'dan heads to the Tomb of Sargeras and rips open a portal to Azeroth through which the Legion may pass through, bringing destruction and endless hordes of demons onto our shores.

The heroes of The Alliance and The Horde head to the Broken Shore, intent on meeting Gul'dan with justice and closing the portal, in a gigantic battle the horde and alliance manage to reach the foot of the Tomb of Sargeras, as The Alliance prepares to face gul'dan and his legion of demons, The horde retreat and leave the Alliance completely surrounded on all sides, the Horde Warchief Vol'Jin is stabbed and incapacitated by a demon before Sylvannas Windrunner orders the retreat, The Alliance is left alone and attempts to flee aboard an airship when a colossal felbeast grabs their ship, realizing there's only one way to get the Alliance to safety, High King Varian Wrynn instead remains behind to buy them time to escape.

Before long Varian is captured by Gul'Dan and executed, much to the dismay and anger of Genn Greymane, the King of Gilneas who swears vengeance against Sylvannas for abandoning the alliance, once the dust has settled, Vol'Jin now on the brink of death names Sylvannas as Warchief of the Horde, likewise as they put King Varian to rest his son, Anduin takes the crown of High King of the Alliance, he asks for peace with the horde to unite and fight back the legion as the threat continues, Greymane however takes his fleets and heads to Stormheim and wages a proxy war with Sylvannas.

As the heroes of Azeroth battle their way through the broken isles, they come across Val'Sharrah, the mystical land of the druids, where they are informed the Emerald Nightmare is beginning to consume the land around them, they must enter the Emerald Dream, now completely controlled by the dread terror Xavius and face him to put an end to the nightmare once and for all, after fighting their way through the nightmare, they meet Xavius in the rift of Aln and finally end the curse that has plagued the dream for decades now.

Before they can continue their search for Gul'dan, the armies of Azeroth are alerted by Odyn, the ruler of the halls of valor, that after Helya's defeat in the Maw of Souls, she has released her army and is planning to assault the Halls of Valor, coupled with the betrayal of Sylvannas Windrunner she now seeks to destroy the Halls of Valor and assault all of Azeroth, after meeting and facing Odyn, the heroes of Azeroth are sent into Helheim to face her, after defeating her pet, garm, they come face to face with Helya and eventually defeat her, freeing the souls of all the Valajar she had stolen over the years and returning peace to the Halls of Valor.

As the horde and alliance begin to take control of the broken isles, they meet the nightborne, the magically addicted elves who have been in hiding since the war of the ancients, who have made a pact with Gul'Dan to serve the Burning Legion, at the center of Suramar, the home of the nightborne, Azeroth's heroes must work with their fallen brothers who have been cut off from the nightwell, to restore them and lead an insurgency before they can assault the Nighthold in full and finally bring Gul'dan to justice.

After many weeks of planning they finally manage to infiltrate the Nighthold, however their leader, Grand Magistrix Elisande, commands the power of time has seen their coming for weeks now and has placed her most powerful warriors in their way, after an extremely hard fought battle, they find themselves toe to toe with Elisande, after a battle where she refuses to lose and keeps resetting the timeline, she finally succumbs and remarks she never saw a timeline where she lost and eventually helps the heroes of Azeroth.

Atop the Nighthold however, Gul'dan nears completion of his ritual to bring Sargeras back into the world, after an extended fight overlooking the Tomb of Sargeras, Gul'dan attempts to rip open a portal to the nether to bring Sargeras into the world of Azeroth, however being weakened from the battle, Illidan Stormrage's soul returns to his body, who grasps Gul'Dan by the throat completely destroying him and crushing his thrown, he then sets his sights on the Tomb of Sargeras, to close the rift between the worlds forever.

As the armies of Azeroth invade the broken shore once more, Kil'Jaeden, Sargeras right hand defies his masters orders and instead heads to the Tomb of Sargeras to directly face the armies of Azeroth who keep gaining ground in their fight, with help of Khadgar and the armies of azeroth, they eventually breach the tomb of Sargeras and battle all of Kil'Jaeden's lieutenants before finally facing him, Kil'Jaeden teleports the group to Argus, the home of the Burning Legion and they fight high above, Kil'Jaeden is finally brought down by the heroes of Azeroth, Illidan and his brother, Velen before they escape back to Azeroth, but before they can escape, Illidan now in control of the Sargerite keystone, rips the portal open even further connecting the two worlds and insists it's time to face Sargeras once and for all.

In the darkness however, the motives of Sargeras are revealed, and what was initially thought as a crusade to end all life, has actually been the opening shots in a war, Sargeras had killed the Pantheon, the council of the gods so that he could later resurrect them into the Dark Pantheon, it's revealed what turned Sargeras into the monstrothic evil he is today was an interaction with another plane of existence known as the void, that is ruled by the void lords who have attempted for eternity to reach our worlds.

However our reality physically kills the void lords who attempt to enter it, so they put in action a plan, thousands of years ago, they seeded our universe with the Old Gods, the parasitic race of the black empire, that was meant to corrupt the world soul of Azeroth who would also become a titan, their eventual goal was to create a void titan, a being of unimaginable power that could end the existence of our Universe forever, Sargeras having seen this vision embarked on a crusade to end all life in the universe except for those enthralled to his will in the Burning Legion, however to everyone but Sargeras, they don't know the truth, still believing he was driven insane by the old gods or the endless hordes of demons he encountered as the protector of the pantheon.

Regardless, the armies of Azeroth eventually link up with the Army of Light, that is headed by High Exarch Turalyon, a legendary figure in warcraft lore who has been missing for nearly 3 decades, along with his wife, Alleria Windrunner, they inform the armies of azeroth they have been fighting an eternal war on Argus to stop Sargeras, but keep falling short as they are running out of time and manpower, with the new additions to the army of the light, they take to Argus and begin the last battles with the Legion.

While on Argus they identify Antorus as the stronghold of the legion and of Sargeras, as they explore Argus however they realize two things, the planet has been ripped apart from chaotic fel magic and that the void is slowly creeping it's way in in the northern parts, after weeks of relentless fighting the Army of Light prepares to assault Antorus and bring an end to the legion once and for all.

Upon entering Antorus however they realize Sargeras has partially succeeded in bring the pantheon back to life and enslaving them, Aggramar the avenger, Sargeras' replacement as protector of the pantheon was killed by Sargeras and resurrected to be his second in command, likewise Eonar, the life binder had managed to evade Sargeras for generations but her soul is now held in Antorus and is being prepared to be converted to serve Sargeras, the highest ranking demons of the Burning Legion are found in Antorus in one of the hardest fights the heroes of Azeroth have ever faced.

Making their way to the burning throne expecting to find Sargeras, they are instead met with the realization of Sargeras' work on Argus, he has cultivated the world soul of Argus and twisted it into a powerful being capable of matching the Void Lords, he is also the reason for the never ending legion of demons who endlessly regenerate within the twisting nether, Argus has been tortured for thousands of years under Sargeras' rule and seeks only the destruction of all things living.

After a monumental battle Argus is finally released from his torment as the heroes of Azeroth and the echoes of the Pantheon look to the skies above Azeroth, Sargeras reveals himself in full, knowing his plan has failed, Sargeras takes his sword, Gorshallach, and plunges it into Azeroth itself piercing the world, before he can reach the planets core though, the pantheon, using the last shards of Argus' power trap him at the seat of the pantheon, where Illidan Stormrage will serve as the eternal jailer of Sargeras along with the pantheon.

Overall Legion was swimming in lore, iv'e left a lot out simply because there's too much to cover, but fans of the series have been waiting up to 20 years for the conclusion of this story line, and most of us couldn't be happier, the end of the Burning Legion signifies the end of the biggest evil the warcraft universe has ever known, for now, unbeknownst to the heroes of Azeroth, the Void Lords linger on the edge of our universe, waiting for any opening to strike at us and snuff out existence in it's entirety.

But enough about the story, lets jump into the new additions of Legion.

Demon Hunters

The demon hunter hero class has been the most requested class in World of Warcraft since it first launched back in 2004, now with the burning Legion on our doorsteps, the wardens, the jailers of the Demon Hunters have set them free to help fight back to the tide of the legion, Demon hunters excel at, you guessed it, killing demons, they have 2 specializations unlock most classes that have 3, Vengeance and Havoc, Havoc demon hunters excel at dispatching multitudes of demons with sharp glaives, fel magic and an extra sense for finding demons, they can deal incredible amounts of damage in a short time to demons but are also extremely powerful against non demons.

Vengeance Demon Hunters excel at protecting their allies from powerful demons, using the gifts given to them by Illidan and the fel magic that runs through their veins to grow spikes, burn everything around them and place magic vigils on the ground that trap and kill demons who enter them, they use their glaives to ward off attacks while slicing through enemies vital essences and taking it for themselves to keep them alive, an extremely powerful addition to any party.

Artifact Weapons

Artifact weapons are weapons from warcraft's legends, being held by great heroes, great villians, or lost to time, every class and specialization has an artifact weapon to acquire, some more destructive than others, during the broken shore many order leaders either fell to the demons or lost their will to fight and gave their weapons to the heroes of Azeroth to continue the fight, some weapons are more legendary in stature like The Ashbringer or Doomhammer but all artifacts are extremely powerful in the right hands.

Your main weapon in Legion, Artifacts continue to level long after you hit max level, the weapons are tremendously powerful and require artifact power to unlock traits and make them even stronger and as you progress through the content of Legion they just keep getting stronger eventually unlocking powerful bonuses that did require you to grind a lot to unlock them and were required for mythic raiding, thankfully Blizzard realized just how much of a grind this was and decided to tone down how hard it was to get to the maximum levels.

Artifact weapons were a great addition to Legion, holding weapons of legend made your character feel powerful and the upgrading and progression system was a nice addition to what is usually a pretty stale loot mechanic, find weapon, use it for a few months, do new raid, replace weapon, some people however preferred the old style and blizzard has confirmed the artifact weapons will not be coming back in the new expansion.

World Quests

This has been long overdue for some time, the main complaint people had about world of warcraft in the modern area was that there was no longer a world, in previous expansions you pretty much did one of three things, logged in at night to raid then logged out, sat in a city and PvP'd while queued up or you did dungeons and instances which again, had you sitting in a city, the world at large felt very empty as there was no real reason to explore it after you had hit max level.

World Quests changed this, with the addition of the Artifact weapons, players needed to complete daily and weekly quests out in the world to acquire artifact power and for a chance of legendary items, this one addition made the world come back to life, people are now everywhere in Legion, in all corners of the zones, coupled with the legion invasions that occur sometimes and the new zones on Argus, the world is constantly alive, on PvP servers, World PvP has broken out for the first time in about 7 years in it's natural format and raiders now have something to do at the end of the week when they're finished.

While there were some negative voices about this, this was by and large the best addition to WoW in a long time and hopefully they're going to keep this system in place for Battle For Azeroth and expand on it since we are now back in our normal zones on Azeroth.

New Honor System.

Now i can't specifically speak to this as iv'e hated Warcraft PvP since Burning Crusade, but the new honor system was needed in a very very stale part of the game, now PvPers have the chance to unlock PvP-centric talents that are only used in PvP, the honor system has 50 levels that you need to participate in PvP to unlock, but as bragging rights in the name of the game for PvP, the prestige system was added as well, allowing hardcore PvP players to reset their honor ranks back to one to acquire new and different things such as PvP mounts, Transmog gear and different character portraits that displayed their rank and skill.

Also with the addition of World Quests, World PvP quests were added which ushered in more world PvP, allowing pvpers to upgrade their gear and artifacts much the same way PvE players could with world quests, like I said i'm not big on WoW PvP, but i'm told it was an extremely welcome addition that needed to be added to keep the war in world of warcraft going, now with the new expansion being aimed at PvP, we can expect this system to return better than ever.

Mythic Plus

One of the best additions to Warcraft in nearly 13 years, Mythic difficulty was introduced at the tail end of Warlords of Draenor for instances so that people could catch up in gear or have a more viable path towards gearing themselves up, Legion brought it back in a big way, Mythic Plus is now a staple of raiding and offers people who don't have a lot of time to raid a way to still gear their characters, as well as being brutally hard at the end stages.

From level 1-4, most mythic plus dungeons aren't too hard and offer a bit better loot, at higher difficulties you can affixes, that change the dungeon completely, on a week to week basis the affixes will change into different things, such as Tyrannical, Teeming, Explosive, Sanguine, the list goes on, while the highest Mythic plus dungeons offer loot that rivals the raids, they are extremely hard and players need to be geared and very good at their class to get through them, an entire community has sprung up around Mythic Plus and most people are very pleased with it.

I'm sure they will be adding it in Battle For Azeroth as this seems to be the one addition to PvE that everyone agrees on and also offers players who raid full time to acquire loot to compliment their raid gear when they haven't got lucky on their drops this week.

Critical review and Reception.

It would be easy to sit here and list all the things about Legion, but instead i wanted to reflect on what Legion brought to World Of Warcraft, anyone who has been a long time players of WoW knows that after the previous 3 expansions, WoW was dying a slow, painful and boring death, it seemed Blizzard was more interested in taking things out of the game than they were adding new things, this changed in Legion.

The amount of content in Legion was equal to Warlords of Draenor and Mists of Pandaria combined, the raids were a lot sharper and more pleasing to people and the game just felt fun again with an actual world to explore and progress through, the instanced zone of Suramar was a massive success as well, giving players something to work for between raid tiers, as usually we'd get to sit around after we finished the raids and do nothing, most people would unsub for the few months between raid tiers, not a great business practice.

But Legion was overflowing with content and people loved it, it's the first expansion iv'e been a part of since the start to the end since Wrath of The Lich King back in 2009, even now as the expansion's development cycle is technically over there's still so much to do for people who are playing it everyday and have played it since the initial release of Legion back in 2016 and with the new expansions patch only a few months away, people are gearing up for it already.

But storywise, Legion hit all the marks, as a very invested, long term fan it was great to finally see them return to the source material in such a big way, Chris Metzen, the original writer for Warcraft left the project a few years ago and it really suffered, an april fools joke(panda's) became a full expansion, and Warlords of Draenor had so much cut content and confusing as fuck storyline, it might as well of been a fanfiction patch instead of an official blizzard game.

Legion hasn't suffered through any of the previous problems, the game play is enjoyable again with heaps to do for every class and spec, the raids are more authentic as they're basing them off the source material and the developers seem to be actually listening to the players again, there were a few missed steps such as DPS Demon hunters being pretty underpowered at the start of the expansion, a reaction to when Death Knights were released and broke the game, Blizzard has done a great job of balancing the classes so they don't feel broken or under powered, on the other hand the addition of Mythic Plus has rewritten how the game is played for people.

Previously there was two things to do at end game, PvP or Raiding, raiding is a full time job and was the only way to achieve the best levels of gear, Blizzard, tightening their design managed to make Mythic Plus a great addition so that people who don't have enough time to do the hardest raids, still have a way to gear up their characters without spending hours every night in a raid.

The future looks bright for World Of Warcraft as it goes into it's 14th year, player confidence is high, subs are up and the design and development team seem to finally understand what the players want out of Warcraft, Legion has been the best expansion since, funnily enough, the last legion expansion in The Burning Crusade, with the horrible curse of terrible expansions finally over, World of Warcraft still has numerous years left and keeps bringing people back to the game.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review, if you enjoyed it, feel free to up-vote, resteem or follow me for more, how did you guys enjoy Legion? let me know in the comments below and i'll get back to you, thanks guys!