World of Warcraft Legion Review

Posted on by Traitine

world of warcraft legion

Legion: A Questing Simulator For World of Warcraft

It may seem a little late for a review, but I personally find it hard to take a review seriously by someone that doesn’t have a level 110 character. How can you legitimately review a game, not knowing what the endgame is like? Well, I have two 110s now thanks to my little speed leveling experiments. I would personally say Legion is a return to the expansions of old. Warcraft’s greatest expansions. The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich king. You can see a lot of these two expansions in Legion. The environment, the music, and the meaningful storytelling.  Best of all though, Worgen have taken quite a prominent role in this expansion. Moreso than any race except humans. I think this is easily the second or third best expansion. Not without its flaws though, and man is there a big one.

Story

I think the story is what makes or breaks an expansion. A good, strong story gives the player a clear direction. Legion’s direction is a dark and serious one. So many of the characters we’ve come to know and love have been taken from us in the blink of an eye. The rivalry between the Alliance and Horde is instantly brought to the forefront in the initial assault on The Broken Shores. This, for me, is a necessity for any good expansion. Like an Imperial Star Destroyer at the beginning of every Star Wars movie, a good fanning of the flames of war is a necessity for a World of Warcraft expansion. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I think it’s safe to recommend you don’t get attached to any NPCs. The next time you see them may be the last. Even the quests begin to reflect the mood. The world is a very dark place right now. One of the rare spawn encounters has you rescue a baby bear cub who is sitting next to its slaughtered parent and siblings in their den. Surprisingly graphic. I think Blizzard has tuned this expansion towards an older audience, and I think they’ve tuned it well.

ashmaw cub den

Order Halls

I’m kinda meh on the Order Halls. I think they’re a good idea, but terrible in execution. You get to hang out with random strangers now instead of by yourself. So it’s almost exactly the same as Garrisons in other words. I think if it served as a quest hub instead of a gathering place it’d be better. I don’t really care about the lore for my Warrior’s Order Hall, but it’s better than most. Some of the Order Halls have atrocious stories and lore, and it’s really depressing to have to play one of those classes. It really feels like getting a participation trophy, instead of feeling even remotely special or important (Poor Hunters). Blizzard continues to miss the mark in the player-housing arena, which is really boggling to me. Garrisons looked amazing, but the solo experience was pretty awful. Order Halls are only slightly less awful.

Questing

As far as leveling up, the questing is superb. Fun quests, funny quests, and some story-driven quests. I never got bored with one particular quest type. Kill X mobs, gather Y goat bladders – there was very little of that. One particular questline has you dancing your little hind-parts off! CUKKAW! You’ll know what I mean when you get to it. Another let’s you assume the role of a Night Elf wisp. I liked the variety available in quests. Quests also scale to whatever level you are. You can quest in any zone, at any time. Got a higher level friend? No problem. Mobs and Quests scale to everyone’s level at the same time. It’s like magic.

fun legion quests

Unfortunately though, the questing never stops. Ever. Want to work on your professions skills? You do that by questing. Want to unlock all the relic slots in your artifact weapon? More questing. Ready to unlock World Quests? Cool, go do questing IN EVERY ZONE. And of course once you unlock World Quests, you’ll do more questing. Blizzard has shoved questing down everyone’s throat this expansion. The continual questing is overbearing, oppressive, and the worst part of this expansion. At no point do you ever get a hint that it might be over soon either. I have never had such a feeling of frustration after hitting max level in a game. All the questing robs you of any feeling of accomplishment. I love so much about Legion, but just cannot stand all the questing. It’s a roller coaster of emotion. While I stop short of not recommending this expansion, I would seriously consider your willingness to continually quest before you buy it. Once you get 110, you literally have to spend another several levels worth of time just getting ready for endgame. It’s probably more like 112 or 113. The worst part is that it is forced upon every character you level, and the class campaigns are identical so far. Enjoy doing the same thing over, and over, and over. And over.

World Quests

I know I ranted about questing above, but I have to admit that I love World Quests. I can get my World PvP fix, as well as upgrade my gear, farm gold, and generally goof off all at the same time. World Quests are scattered across the Broken Shore. They each have different timers, and when the timers run out, they are replaced by something else. You have 3 slots on your map to tell you which World Quests you need to do. Each slot is a different faction, and is replaced daily with a new faction. You have to do 4 quests for each faction to get the reward. Some factions are tied to a zone, so you can knock out two quests at once by doing a quest for one faction, in another faction’s assigned zone. None of them are too complex, and some of them are actually fun. I actually find myself enjoying moving zone to zone to complete them when I have a backlog. You can gear up through world quests too. Some quests will offer gear, and your gearscore affects what level the reward is. The higher you go, the higher the reward goes. This implementation of questing gets my seal of approval.

 Artifact Weapons

I love the implementation of artifact weapons. They are one of the shining stand-outs of this expansion. Essentially you get a skill tree specifically for combat. It does require you to know your class very well, but a little research and extra planning time is all that is required to catch up. What I love most about Artifact Weapons is the storylines that go with them! Even the mediocre stories so far have been great. The Ashbringer, Frostmourne, Alleria Windrunner’s bow! THE SCYTHE OF ELUNE! Legendary weapons that we’ve all read about and stared in awe over, now in our hands. I’ve recorded several of them and put them on my YouTube channel, with definitely more to come.

creation of worgen

More To Like About Legion Than Not

Overall, I am excited for what’s in store for Legion. There seems to be a fair bit more lore being provided throughout, which is World of Warcraft’s biggest draw for me. Hopefully in the future they address the abusive questing. Maybe with heirlooms, consumables, or something we haven’t seen yet. The universe of World of Warcraft is alive again for me. Some of my friends are even back to share the experience. The stage has been set, and Blizzard looks to be delivering some powerful stories in the future with this expansion. I’m glad to be here to see it.

Legions of Content Coming

Posted on by Traitine

blades of the fallen prince

Artifact Weapon Storylines in Legion

I just realized that I hadn’t posted the content I’ve been creating for Legion here. Probably my personal favorite has been the Artifact Weapon storylines. Blizzard has done an incredible job creating stories for each and every weapon, giving players the feeling that they are on they’re very own legendary weapon quest. The Ashbringer, the Scythe of Elune, and the rebirth of Frostmourne are just a few. Even the less well known ones are given pretty interesting quests. As someone who appreciates the lore of Warcraft, I haven’t been let down yet. Initially I had no idea just how unique and fun they would be. The quests all have some built-in mechanic that forces you to be in the appropriate spec for the weapon you are trying to obtain. They were pretty challenging too. I died more than once on some of them. One final note worth mentioning is that each quest takes you into the old world. Most of these places are in the original classic World of Warcraft zones! Some places are hidden in plain site, others are quite familiar, and hold a lot of nostalgia.

You get your first weapon as soon as you make it to new Dalaran, and you can grab both of the others at level 102. I cannot recommend doing these quests enough. They are some of the best quests Blizzard has created. I still haven’t finished them all yet. For those people that don’t have active subscriptions, or don’t play certain classes, or are just plain bored, I have recorded several of these storylines. I kick myself to this day for not recording the warrior arms artifact weapon quest story. It involves the very first King of the humans! They run from 20 to 40 minutes long each. There’s going to be a lot of Legion content available on my YouTube channel over the next several weeks!

Fast Leveling Tips In World of Warcraft Legion

Posted on by Traitine

speed leveling world of warcraft

Leveling From 100 to 110 Quickly

It’s that time again. The servers are blooming, the XP bars are empty, and your to-do list went from zero to full in literally a split second. The Legion expansion for World of Warcraft has arrived, and with it new stories and experiences. The story is REALLY good right now, but I hate leveling. I hit 110 on my Warrior in approximately 33 hours. That’s grouped with a friend, going at a moderate pace, and an hour or two of idling in there.With my Death Knight, I hit a pace of a level every two hours for the last several levels. Leveling involved a lot of PvP, a lot of solo questing, and a little group questing. So now, just like my guide for fast leveling 90-100 in Warlords of Draenor, I have a new leveling guide for Legion. I spent three days taking notes of all my mistakes, and put them into a new guide. Here are my tips for leveling 100 to 110 as fast as possible in Legion! Just in time for the weekend!

Roll With Your Tank

While this isn’t mandatory, it makes such a difference that it’s worth noting. If you’re stuck on which class to play first, I highly recommend a tank. Playing on my Death Knight as Frost, I was killing groups of mobs. Playing on my Death Knight as Blood, I was killing GROUPS of groups of mobs. I really struggled playing on my warrior, but whatever I couldn’t handle as Arms was almost always doable as Protection. Tanks enjoy a (more) comfortable leveling experience!

Rested XP

Use and abuse your rested XP. It’s like getting double the XP reward for doing things. You get rested XP by being in taverns, capital cities, and your class hall. Always log off for the night in one of these playes. You will gain 5% of your level every 8 hours. Also, be sure to log in and out of all your characters to start the rested XP timer. The rested XP timer doesn’t start until your character’s first login after the Legion expansion starts. To maximize your efficiency, swap to other characters when all rested XP is consumed. I missed a days worth of rested XP because I didn’t know this. I randomly found out searching for something else.

Choose Talents Carefully

Some of classes get useful bonuses from talents. Specifically, look for movement speed and self healing talents. Movement speed just lets you walk and run around faster. Whether that’s to chase down a mob, or run from a mob, every second counts. If you’re not a class with healing capabilities, any little self-healing you can muster will be helpful. This may seem small but when you combine a lot of small changes, they aren’t so small anymore are they?

Read the Quest Stupid

Often I would just take a quest, then turn around and start killing whatever mobs nearby. Bad idea. Several minutes in I discovered I didn’t need to kill mobs at all. My leveling buddy made the same mistake. Take the time to read the quest so you know what you are doing. Pro tip: When taking a quest, read the section just above the reward. That generally tells you exactly what you are doing.

Guild Standard

Time to dig it out of your bank! The guild standard increases your XP gains by 15%! It has a huge 10 minute cooldown, but still, something is better than nothing. I dug it out while Isle of Conquest was giving crazy good XP. 6500 XP became 7150 XP. Yes please!

quickest way to 110 in WoW

Do Area Quests Last

First off, area quests are NOT as generous as they were when leveling in WoD. Still, they are a good amount of XP for something you’re mostly doing anyway. When you get to a quest hub, do all the quests first. THEN if you have anything left on your area quest, go back and finish it up. I made the mistake of finishing one area quest, only to learn there were more quests to do in the area. After finishing each quest hub, I generally needed ~15% more to finish the area quest, so you’re probably safe to leave it for last.

Order Hall Missions

Starting at level 102 you will start to get missions in your Order Hall. These are your new garrison missions. Unlike garrisons however, they appear to be brimming with XP quests. I was literally able to chain XP quests for several days. I’d recommend doing only these XP quests at first. Resources will run thin if you start doing other missions, and you will run out easily if you are blowing through missions. The Blizzard Legion app is GREAT for leveling when you’re on the go! It’s practically a non-stop stream of XP, and it’s free.

Loot all at once

If you’re killing several mobs in a nearby area, don’t stop to loot each one. Pull all the mobs to one place and kill them, then loot. You will save time by looting once. Make sure you have auto loot turned on in your game settings. Menu – Interface – Controls – Auto Loot

Kill Like The Energizer Bunny

Random trash mobs are your friend. Never let the XP stop flowing, even for a minute. If your partner goes AFK, find random trash mobs to kill. If you’re waiting for a queue, go find random trash mobs to kill. Just keep killing and killing and killing…

Gathering Professions

If you REALLY wanted to burn up the leveling, you could take two gathering professions. Gathering resources gives XP, so at least take one.  Blizzard is supposed to be remaking professions so they are relevant again, so it’s something you may eventually need too!

Do Dungeons Once

Another change from WoD, dungeons just aren’t what they used to be. In Legion, you will get a quest to do a dungeon at the very end of a zone questline. It’s worth doing the dungeon one time to finish that quest – but that’s it. Running dungeons alone for XP isn’t as efficient anymore.

For Variety, Just Add PvP

While PvP is definitely not as good as questing, Arena Skirmies are close. Even losing Arena skirmishes put me at a pace of 2 hours per level on my Death Knight. Who knows how good you could do if you were in a premade, winning consistently. I was moving slightly faster at 1 hour 50+ minutes per level while questing. As you can see the difference is negligible. Plus breaking up the monotony sometimes helps.

Final Notes For Leveling In Legion

It seems Blizzard is forcing players to quest as the best way to level from 100 to 100 in World of Warcraft: Legion. They hotfixed Isle of Conquest because it was giving too much XP compared to questing. As I mentioned above, there are significant XP nerfs to area quests and dungeons. Why they are doing this is anyone’s guess. Who cares HOW people get to 110. The whole point is to do what you love doing. That’s just my opinion though. Bottom line is, expect questing to be the fastest way to 110 in Legion right now. If you have any tips for getting to 110 quickly, leave them in the comments! I’ll add them above. Good luck with your leveling and God speed!

World of Warcraft Legion Invasion Event Impressions

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World of Warcraft Legion Pre Expansion EventPre-Legion Event Brings Lots of Nostalgia And Fun

Long ago in the twilight hours of classic WoW, The Burning Legion came to Azeroth to storm the gates of both the Horde and Alliance. Well now they’re back, in an almost 100% carbon copy event. Demons invade, gear sets drop as a reward. I am thoroughly enjoying the event. In fact, as I write this I am idling above Hillsbrad waiting for that sweet loot box. It is truly fun for your whole WoW alt family, and that includes starter accounts. I logged onto my ‘free’ status characters to lcheck out the event. I leveled up to 20 with several before finally subscribing with a WoW token.

How Invasions Worked

For those that aren’t familiar, the invasion events happen in three stages. Stage 1, a small force of demons spawns directly inside whatever city is being attacked. Sentinel Hill, Kharanos, Tarren Mill, Gadgetzan, Crossroads, and whatever the Horde city is in Azshara. Stage 2, a mini-boss and two mini-minions spawn inside the city. Stage 3, Burning Legion spires spread throughout the zone and spawn groups of demons to be dispatched. Stage 4, a big boss spawns inside the town. Characters from level 10 to 100 can participate as the damage done is scaled up accordingly. Appropriate level loot comes from the loot boxes that drop after waves 2 and 4. Blizzard makes it rain rewards from beginning to end.

Why I Liked The Invasion Event

Above all this event allows you to catch up.  Gold, XP, and gear were handed out like candy. The gear looked pretty good too for all classes, with the exception of head pieces which almost always look terrible. All graveyards had battleground-like rez timers – no corpse runs! It was all very convenient.

Everyone Catches Up

I haven’t touched some of my characters in probably 10 years (Mage), and some in 5 years (Druid). The stupid amounts of XP you get after each stage, as well as for each mob you killed, were enough to skyrocket any character to 100 in no time. I leveled multiple old characters up to 100. Dropping each boss gave you nearly 50k even at level 99. There were no corpses to loot, so you could literally run around tagging everything, and not miss a thing. In fact I spent quite a lot of time just flying into the zone and AFK-hovering to soak up all the XP. I parked myself in Westfall and walked the dog. Flew to Tanaris and took a shower. Rinse and repeat!

Loot Rewards Were Upgrades

It was like that feeling back in classic WoW when a loot dropped off some mob you killed while questing, and it was an upgrade! There was a full set of gear for each armor class, as well as weapons. While it was RNG, I really didn’t mind it. There were so many boxes that you never felt like you might not get what you want. Everything was ilevel 700, so you get a perfect starting set for Legion. Trinkets, rings, neck, and cape pieces are available on the event vendor for purchase using Nethershards. Said Nethershards drop from boxes as well as from named elites. I’ll never spend all the Nethershards I collected.

The Coffers Spilleth Over

I held the boxes until I was either level 100, or until my inventory was full. I vendored everything I didn’t use. Considering I had over 60 boxes on multiple characters, that’s thousands of gold on top of a full set of armor. This is great for someone who hasn’t played for a while, and needs a little boost to get back into the game. I probably farmed 700 gold per day. That’s without focusing on the game full time, and doing a lot of AFKing.

My character results (updated as I progress):
  • Worgen Warrior 100, full gear/weapons
  • Human Paladin 100, full gear/weapons
  • Worgen Death Knight 99-100, full gear/weapons.
  • Worgen Druid 85-100, full gear/weapons.
  • Human Rogue 85-100, full gear/weapons
  • Worgen Hunter 100, full gear
  • Human Mage 80-87
  • Worgen Priest 13-20
  • Worgen Paladin 10-20
  • Worgen Warlock 1-36

World of Warcraft Legion Pre Expansion EventMinor Hiccups

A few things did go awry during the event, though I want to point out it was through no fault of Blizzard’s. The event itself went by pretty flawlessly. First was the high level Horde ganking low level Alliance players. Of course with PvP servers comes world PvP, though I almost never saw an invasion that wasn’t Horde dominated. Poor Alliance. I did drop the occasional lowbie Horde, but probably single digits throughout the event to this point. I was mostly leveling up low level characters. Dying meant no XP from bosses, so death was an XP blocker occasionally. They would kill you just as the boss was about to drop so you’d miss the XP. Another mishap was when the mobs would occasionally use a cleave or AoE attack. My level 85 druid would eat a cleave meant for a level 100-something. And finally the event started to slow down in the early morning hours during the final week before Legion. I think a lot of the interest waned because I wasn’t seeing as many people as previously. Overall none of this was worth crying about considering the rewards I was getting in return.

My Legion Expansion Plans

So I think I have decided to use my 100 boost on a Priest. I’ve never really tried a healing class before. I’m also thinking of putting it on a PvP server with some friends. I’ve spent the majority of my WoW life on Horde dominated servers. My friends are on an Alliance dominated server, so it would definitely offer a new experience. I will also be adding World of Warcraft to my streaming lineup. Mostly leveling at first, then some battlegrounds and Arenas to gear up for PvP. Afterwards hopefully some sweet, sweet world PvP! If you want to join me for PvP, leave your name and realm in the comments. Alliance only! Sorry Horde, but I have standards.

General Tips For Evolve

Posted on by Traitine

How to Play Evolve game

Tips And Tricks For Hunters In Evolve

I have spent 82 hours in Evolve. That’s two entire work-weeks worth of time. Time to start sharing what I have learned going through the game. Some of this will apply to Monster players (Perks, Silver Keys, etc), but overall this is going to be heavily hunter-centric guide. I don’t have enough Monster-specific experience to talk about monsters yet.

Monsters OP

Right now the game is hugely imbalanced. Monsters are dominating play. Don’t worry if you lose a lot, moreso at first. I play strictly Hunters because I can’t quite manage Monsters apparently. For some reason I can’t figure out though, I am still enjoying the game. Maybe it’s the challenge? I dunno, but I look forward to playing for a few hours every day still. I -think- that monsters are being over-buffed because they have such a high skill cap. Most people don’t like to play them, and the few that are willing to try just get destroyed. I haven’t won a single monster game yet, but when I lose the coin-toss and get slotted for monster, I just give it my best shot. I’m slowly getting better. I think. If you can manage the monster, then you can seriously clean house right now. Just be prepared for balancing in the future. I’m hoping to master the art myself some day.

Don’t Buy Perks

I’ve bought 3 or 4 perks since starting, and that’s it. I definitely recommend that once you figure out the basic game that you have a perk in each tier. Something is better than nothing. After that though, you get free perks all the time. That includes perk upgrades too. I feel like it’s almost too generous, and will be balanced eventually. For now though, they’re given away like candy on Halloween. Save your Silver Keys for something else. And speaking of Silver Keys…

Silver Keys Come From Doing EVERYTHING

Play a game. Play 15 minutes. Play 10 games in a party. Defeat a monster at Stage 1. The number of things you get Silver Keys for feels endless. Aside from all the accolades/achievements, there have been events on almost every weekend since it went free to play.  You will get plenty of Silver Keys from playing this game, so don’t worry about grinding anything. Just play the game, and they’ll come naturally.
how to get evolve silver keys

Rocket Power Tips

There’s a natural arc and inertia to your jump, even without using your Rocket Pack. Don’t hold down the space bar while you jump. Release the space bar when you get to your highest point in mid-air. This will conserve a tiny bit of fuel that you’ll definitely need later. Also, there is no falling damage. Don’t waste rocket power trying to break a fall! Drop down and carry on! Keep your Rocket Pack recharging constantly. When it’s almost full, dash forward to travel at your most efficient speed! Finally, don’t go into a Dome on empty. I conserve one block of fuel, and just walk in on foot. Jumping into a locked room with a monster, and having no fuel to escape, is just as bad an idea as it sounds. A lot of this is min-maxing, but I have found it incredibly helpful.

Never Dome Alone

Even at stage 1 where hunters have the advantage, a monster can easily solo you. One pounce and you’re done. Learning when to Dome is going to be trial and error. Sometimes you will have to Dome to lock a monster down from running away. Your best bet is to see how close your teammates are before you dome (specifically your Medic), and then decide if it’s safe to Dome.

Getting Good In Evolve

The tips I listed here are the ones that made a big improvement in my gameplay. From my attitude towards losing all the time to managing my rocket power, this has all made for more enjoyable games overall. When I finally manage to learn a monster (Working on the Goliath now) I will do another round with more monster-specific tips. Until then though, feel free to leave Hunter and Monster tips for everyone in the comments! Especially monster tips. I really need all the help I can get.