World of Warcraft's Latest Expansion, Legion, Announced

Seeing its lowest subscriber numbers since 2005 isn't stopping the behemoth that is World of Warcraft just yet. Today at gamescom, Blizzard announced the latest expansion, World of Warcraft: Legion, in which you go up against the Burning Legion. As is typical with these expansion things, Legion will feature a raised level cap of 110 and a new class, the Demon Hunter, among other content.

The melee-focused Demon Hunter looks to set itself apart by being a speedy assassin class that can become avatars of either Havoc or Vengeance, specializing as either a DPS role or tank, respectively. This class has an entirely new starting experience, as well, that looks to draw upon their background and the fel forces they draw upon for power.

This update is also adding a new class of weapon; Artifacts. These weapons are class-specific and grow with the user. They can be personalized with "perks, abilities, and appearance-altering characteristics that reflect the hero wielding [them]." These seem to be required to face the Legion and feel just a bit like an added grind of a different class. I suppose we will wait and see how they are implemented.

The new major zone being added to the game is called "The Broken Isles," a zone filled with remnants of night elf civilization where you must search for the "Pillars of Creation [...] said to have shaped Azeroth." In order to unite players under a common goal during the trying times awaiting you in The Broken Isles, each player will get their own class-specific "Order Hall," a base of operations in these foreign lands. From them, you can send out NPC followers to complete missions for you. I can't help but be reminded a bit of followers in Skyforge.

A new PvP progression system is also being added that allows players to unlock PvP-specific spells and abilities as they climb through the new PvP progression path. These will be awarded in addition to titles and other rewards.

As with each expansion before it, you will get a level booster, should you want to use it. Players can boost a character to level 100 in order to experience the new content, should they want to.

More information and signups for the upcoming beta test can be found on the official site. No release date has been announced yet.