World of Warcraft: Legion: release date, classes, beta – everything we know

WoW: Legion dungeon guide

What’s the WoW: Legion release date? What are the new areas? Classes? You people and your questions. Well, to answer all these and more: here is everything we know about World of Warcraft: Legion, the sixth WoW expansion and the return of the thoroughly unpleasant Burning Legion. They didn’t learn their lesson in Burning Crusade apparently, and are back for more punishment.

While you’re here, here’s what we thought of the final product in our Legion review.

Demons and the folk who hunt them, a brand new continent, a reworked Honor system, and of course dungeons and raids – if you want the skinny on them, we’ve got you covered.

WoW: Legion release date

Legion’s release date is now past – it’s out. It was released on August 30, 2016.

Both the standard digital and physical versions will set you back £34.99/$49.99.

WoW: Legion collector’s edition

Blizzard CEs come in two forms – a digital deluxe and the standard big box o’ stuff. The digital deluxe edition, sitting at £49.99/$69.99, comes with these things:

  • Reins of the Illidari Felstalker mount
  • Nibbles (a Felstalker mini-pet)
  • Felstalker mount for Heroes of the Storm
  • Illidan and Gul’dan Protoss portraits for StarCraft II
  • Wings of the Betrayer and Demon Hunter horn helm for Diablo III

Thephysical collector’s edition is a bit sexier and comes witha behind-the-scenes Blu Ray/DVD set, a 176 page art book, a CD soundtrack, and a Legion mouse mat. Oh, and the game. Obviously.

Getting it is a bit harder, with Blizzard not having a physical distribution arm themselves. Their official page will point you at local retailers who have copies, though as we get further from the launch window they might be all out.

WoW: Legion system requirements

While Legion won’t include a big graphics overhaul like Cataclysm, the draw distance has been increased substantially, so there are new system requirements.

Minimum

  • Operating System: Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 with latest service pack
  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 or AMD Phenom II X3 720
  • Video: NVIDIA® GeForce GT 440 or AMD Radeon HD 5670 or Intel HD Graphics 5000 NVIDIA
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Storage: 45 GB available hard drive space
  • Internet: Broadband internet connection
  • Media: DVD-ROM drive
  • Input: Keyboard and mouse required. Other input devices are not supported.
  • Resolution: 1024 x 768 minimum display resolution

Recommended

  • Windows 10
  • Intel Core i5-3330, AMD FX-6300, or better
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti or AMD Radeon R7 260X or better
  • 4 GB RAM

It’s worth noting that setting the game to max and expecting 60FPS will now require a fairly substantial rig, particularly in busier zones. Dropping the draw distance a tad might be the easiest solution if you’d prefer the silky smooths to seeing what’s going on in Duskwood from Stormwind. Can you run it? Compare your setup against the World of Warcraft system requirements.

WoW: Legion pre-patch

Legion’s pre-patch brought with it a lot of changes on its own. Here’s our guides to each one:

WoW: Legion Artifact Weapons

Legion shakes up the way loot works by only giving you one weapon for the entire expansion, then challenging you to upgrade it. Here’s how it works:

  • Each spec for each class has its own artifact. Many of them are bhyweapons from Warcraft’s lore.
  • All activities in the Broken Isles can award artifact power, which upgrades it.
  • These upgrades are represented by nodes on your artifact that provide bonuses. You choose your route through your artifact nodes, as seen above, and eventually get them all – this will take a couple of months.
  • Additional appearances for your artifact are unlocked yb doing quests and other content in the Broken Isles.
  • As for actually buffing your weapon’s base damage, Relics will drop in all the usual ways and are slotted in to give stat and item level boosts.

According to an interview with Polygon, Artifacts won’t be carrying over to the next expansion, similar to how garrisons didn’t. Whether that means we’ll be replacing them with greens at level 111, or they’ll be significantly altered in someway to avoid that lore issue, we’ll find out in a couple of years.

WoW: Legion Class Order Halls

The replacement for garrisons, and hopefully a vast improvement, these are large zones unique to each class. Everybody gets one, be it the Warrior Halls of Valor straight from the Vrykul afterlife, or the Priest Netherlight Temple – a spaceship housing a Na’ru.

This is where you upgrade your artifact, start class-specific quests and where you enter new zones. Everyone has a special teleport skill to return to theirs, so getting back and forth should be easy. You’ll become the master of your class hall (everybody’s the king) at the end of your artifact quest, hence why you get to boss people about.

Order Hall’s will also have Garrison-style missions to send people on, but these are now split into Champions – big important people from the lore, who there will be very few of – and Troops – expendable soldiers you’ll buy for resources.

Here’s all of the Class Halls:

  • Death Knight: Acherus
  • Demon Hunter: The Fel Hammer, Mardum
  • Druid: Dreamgrove, Val’sharah
  • Hunter: Trueshot Lodge in Highmountain
  • Mage: Hall of the Guardians in Dalaran
  • Monk: Hall of the Seasons on the Wandering Isle
  • Paladin: Sanctum of Light beneath Light’s Hope Chapel
  • Priest: Netherlight Temple
  • Rogue: Hall of Shadows in the Underbelly
  • Shaman: The Heart of Azeroth cave system overlooking the Maelstrom
  • Warlock: Dreadscar Rift
  • Warrior: Skyhold, Stormheim

WoW: Legion setting – The Broken Isles

WoW: Legion Broken Isles map

The Broken Isles region is made up of five main regions and smaller areas like the new-but-not-really hub city of Dalaran. Here’s the full list:

  • The Broken Shore:The initial invasion point for the Legion, and where the pre-patch event takes place.
  • Stormheim:Vrykul, Titans and a lot of Wrath of the Lich King-style architecture – plus a showdown with the God King.
  • Highmountain: A rough land for rough people, like Tauren and other cows. Deathwing used to chill here.
  • Val’Sharah:Malfurion’s home-zone and where you’ll get your first glimpses of the Emerald Dream – and Nightmare.
  • Azsuna: Dead Night Elves, Naga and their queen Azshara await you here.
  • Suramar: Once a Night Elf city, this is the endgame zone of the expansion and where the story – at least initially – will conclude.
  • Dalaran: Making the long trip from Northrend, Dalaran is our new capital city.

It’s worth noting that there’s no definitive order for these zones. Once you’ve acquired your artifact, you’re given the opportunity to choose between Stormheim, Highmountain, Val’Sharah and Azsuna. New technology means it will scale to your level – as will any dungeons there – giving you freedom. Once you’ve done the quests in all four of those zones, you’ll get to go to Suramar. Through that time, you’ll also be returning to Dalaran semi-regularly.

WoW: Legion dungeons

New continent, new dungeons. Here’s a run-down and videos:

  • Eye of Azshara – Azshara’s Wrath is here and so are all of her naga. The first four bosses can be handled in any order as it’s a very open zone. Here’s the list:
    • Warlord Parjesh – a naga with an angry temprement and deadly throwing spears.
    • Lady Hatecoil – another naga, with spells and mechanics that demand you dance between sea and land.
    • King Deepbeard – a giant who commands the seas.
    • Serpentrix – a poison serpent several stories tall who repeatedly burrows into the ground.
    • Wrath of Azshara – the final boss, a summoned elemental causing a huge storm.

  • Halls of Valor – Challenge the God King to prove you’re worthy of a Pillar of Creation. Here’s the boss list:
    • Hymdall – the gatekeeper of the halls, he summons dragons. Watch out for the dragons.
    • Hyrja – a champion of Eyir. Dance her between two buffs to stop her overpowering you.
    • Fenryr – a two-stage fight with a giant wolf. Likes to eat adventurers.
    • God-King Skovald – the Legion-empowered leader of the Vrykul. He wants your nice shield.
    • Odyn – challenging you for fun, he gives up at 80%.

  • The Arcway – The tunnels underneath the city of Suramar.
  • Maw of Souls – The hell to the Halls of Valor’s heaven, you fight a giant woman on a boat. It’s awesome.
    • Ymiron, the Fallen King – back from the Lich King days to become a Warrior class hall follower. Once you’ve killed him again. Obv.
    • Harbaron – casts scythes basically everywhere. Not a nice guy to be around. Get rid of him.
    • Helya – the finalé at the head of the boat, and the sort of boss fight everyone but the seasick loves.

  • Darkheart Thicket – You’re off to rescue Malfurion from the Emerald Nightmare.
    • Archdruid Glaidalis – a corrupted druid who really likes shifting forms to pounce on your allies.
    • Oakheart – a giant tree who likes to pick people up for hugs and massive damage.
    • Dresaron – dragon babies constantly attack you while you try to kill their mother (who is probably evil, don’t worry about it).
    • Shade of Xavius – the shadow of the big bad, summoning a DDR’s worth of dark energy.

  • Court of Stars – A party in Suramar. You’re probably going to ruin it.
  • Vault of the Wardens – Where the Wardens kept the Demon Hunters, now invaded
    • Tirathon Saltheril – angry demon hunter. Likes to fry people with eye lasers, as is their style.
    • Inquisitor Tormentorum – boss demon investigator who likes to summon friends, lots of them.
    • Glazer – master of all things eyebeam, weakness is mirrors.
    • Ash’golm – an incredibly angry fire golem encased in ice. Get him out so you can kill him (and take his stuff)
    • Cordana Felsong – traitor demon hunter and big fan of hiding in dark places. The light of Elune will help you find her out.

  • Assault on Violet Hold – A remake of Wrath of the Lich King’s Dalaran-based prison, with new beasts.
  • Black Rook Hold – An impenatrable fortress which, guess what, you’re going to penetrate.
    • The Amalgam of Souls – the melded together souls of much of the Ravencrest family. Get them out (by killing it).
    • Illysanna Ravencrest – a long-forgotten Demon Hunter from the Vault of the Wardens, returned to her family home full of madness.
    • Smashspite the Hateful – the Legion’s direct presence in Black Rook Hold, dodge his felbat friends and take him down.
    • Lord Kur’talos Ravencrest – the commander of the fortress and leader of the family. Spoilers, he’s fairly easy to kill and then his friend turns into an uber-powerful dreadlord.

  • Neltharion’s Lair – Deathwing’s old digs. He doesn’t live here any more, but other monsters do.
    • Rokmora – a really big rock. Likes to punch the ground, hates paper.
    • Ularogg Cragshaper – as you may have guessed from the name, a rockshaper. Tries to clap you in stone fists.
    • Naraxas – the humongous wurm whose belly leads to the grand finalé. Don’t let her eat you.
    • Dargrul the Underking – wielding one of the pillars of creation as a weapon, this guy will basically throw you about endlessly.

There’s also now four distinct types for each of these dungeons:

  • Normal – the levelling-up version of the dungeon. Will scale to players in the same way outside zones do.
  • Heroic – the initial max-level version of the dungeon. Good for some early gear.
  • Mythic – a harder version of the max-level version. Can’t be queued for with a group finder, forcing you to manually find players to party up with.
  • Mythic+ – not available on launch, Mythic+ is an infinitely scaling version of the dungeon that rewards raid-tier loot. The better you are, the harder the dungeon will be, based on the level of a keystone rewarded at the end. This is meant as a 5-man progression path to equal raids.

WoW: Legion raid release schedule

Of course, there’s also new raids. These aren’t available at launch, the first releasing on September 21, with Mythic difficulty coming September 28. That’s Emerald Nightmare, where you’re going in to fix the Emerald Dream and stop the corruption. It takes the Highmaul slot of the expansion’s first major raid.

The Nighthold will be next up, and finally see the death of Gul’dan. This is planned for release soon after the Emerald Nightmare, and will reward loot the next tier up. As always, Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic and Mythic difficulties will be available.

WoW: Legion world quests and endgame

World quests are arguably Legion’s biggest addition. They’re essentially Diablo III’s adventure mode, polished up and ported to World of Warcraft to serve as infinite content to players. Your map will be constantly filled with points of interest, from world bosses to particularly active fishing pools, letting you know where things need doing.

Special loot is given out for doing a certain number each day, and particularly rare ones will give particularly great loot. They’ll also hang around for a lot longer, so if you can’t log on every day, you’ll have a stack of them to do when you do.

This is all thanks to scaled zones, which allow all of the Broken Isles to operate as one massive endgame area. This, along with raids and Mythic+ dungeons will be the meat of life at level 110.

WoW: Legion Demon Hunter

The game’s sexiest new class, rippling pecs and tattoos and all. Simply, they’re a mixture of a Rogue and a Warlock, slicing enemies to pieces with signature warglaives while using dark magic to protect themselves, deal damage and hurt people. They also have a tanking spec, Vegeance, which sacrifices signature mobility for damage absorbtion.

Rather than give you the full spec of the Illidari down here, here’s where you can learn more:

WoW: Legion PvP

On the PvP side of things, Blizzard are completely overhauling Honor. It’s not about gear anymore; it’s about PvP talents. This is a new progression system specific to PvP, which allows players to work their way up through the ranks, unlocking new talents, just like in PvE.

The new system starts with 50 ranks, but once you reach the cap, you can start all over again, sacrificing your rank for cosmetic rewards like new mounts and PvP artifact variants.

While the importance of gear will be greatly diminished, it will impact your effectiveness in PvP by a tiny amount. Talents will be the majority of your power bump over newer players, however, and Blizzard have already begun rebalancing classes specifically in PvP by altering their base stats.

WoW: Legion professions

Professions on the Broken Isles are getting a bit of a facelift. Crafting is much as it ever was, grabbing reagents to make items and letting you get a little ahead of the game. However, acquiring new recipes now involves in-depth quests specific to that profession, giving more of a discovery feel, while reagents are harder to get due to Blood of Sargaras – the rare, vital crafting material used in every profession – being Bind on Pickup. You’ll have to gether it yourself.

Professions, and everything else involved in getting ready to raid, are covered in more detail in our World of Warcraft: Legion gear guide.

WoW: Legion Flying in The Broken Isles

Flying in Legion has been a massively contentious issue. After much back and forth between Blizzard and the community, it will be unlocked via an achievement at level 110, the first part of which is already in the game. Broken Isles Pathfinder, Part One requires you to explore the continent, finish the major quests, have every faction be happy with you, complete 100 World Quests and finish your Order Hall campaign. This lets your mount go faster, but won’t yet let you fly.

In a future patch – which should be sooner than Warlords of Draenors 6.2 – this will be needed to unlock flying. Exactly how that will work hasn’t yet been revealed.

Can you run it? Check the World of Warcraft system requirements on PCGameBenchmark.

And that’s everything we know! For now. Keep checking back as we update this big list.