Hello everyone! Welcome to Face Pull, a weekly column dedicated to World of Warcraft, and sometimes Blizzard Entertainment in general. First and foremost, a little background on myself and Blizzard games.
I started playing World of Warcraft back in 2005 with a Human Retribution Paladin. He was my main character through the Burning Crusade expansion, where the guild I was in at the time was clearing Karazhan roughly every week. Shortly before new content started pumping out, I decided to take a break from the game, and would not be seen in Azeroth again until after Wrath of the Lich King launched.
Upon returning to the game, a fresh perspective was needed, so I started a Tauren Hunter. Playing the Horde side was a unique experience for me, but I missed the side I originally called my own, the Alliance. Once I hit max level, I started searching for a guild, and found one on the Alliance side, and my Tauren Hunter became a Dwarf Hunter. That character would serve me well until almost the end of the Mists of Pandaria expansion. That guild would also house some of my very best friends in and out of the game to this day.
While working through the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, we kept running in to tank problems. Our Monk tank was very consistent, showing up for every raid. But our second tank position was constantly rotating and changing since people kept leaving the game at an alarming rate. That’s when the Hunter was placed on the shelf, and my main character became a Night Elf Guardian Druid. Now with an extremely solid tanking duo, we haven’t ran in to many progression issues up through current content.
That’s my history with World of Warcraft. I occasionally can be found in Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Diablo, but not very often. I have not played any of Starcraft or Overwatch, which some would probably consider a sin!
The purpose behind today’s inaugural column is to discuss the upcoming Legion Invasion world event, and the introduction to Demon Hunters into the game. During yesterday’s Demon Hunter Q&A, Jonathan LeCraft announced that both will be coming to the game starting on August 9. Invasions will be accessible by everyone, but only those who have pre-purchased Legion will be able to start a Demon Hunter.
After reading through my history of main characters in the game, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to find out that I plan on switching to a Night Elf Vengeance Demon Hunter as soon as they are available to play for many reasons. One, I have always wanted to play a Demon Hunter within the Warcraft universe. The lore of the game is extremely exciting and important to me, and one of my favorite characters is Illidan Stormrage, the most famous Demon Hunter, and the first of his kind. After learning his back story and just how amazing Demon Hunters were, I have always been hopeful that they would eventually be added in to the game. Two, they can tank, and I plan to keep tanking for as long as the game continues to exist. Tanking on a Demon Hunter is extremely fun and exciting, as I have been messing around with them on the Beta. Three, new classes are always fun to play at the beginning. Remember how beloved the Death Knight class was in Wrath of the Lich King? Demon Hunter’s are going to be much of the same in Legion. And finally, they have the ability to double jump and glide. Yes, double jump and glide!
Our raid team now is taking shape for Legion and the Emerald Nightmare, which is the first raid set to release a few weeks after the game launches on August 30. We aren’t going through many changes based on how the team is structured now, but we will have at least two Demon Hunters in the raid, myself and another of our teammates plan on switching. It will be interesting to see how many Demon Hunter’s other teams decide to run with though, as they have the potential to either be very overpowered, or very underpowered.
Also coming on August 9 is the Demon Invasions world events, which will be happening all over the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. These are scenarios which will take several players to complete. After running around and fending off the demons, two Lieutenants and a Commander will appear that have to be dealt with. Once they have fallen, the Legion’s forces will start appearing all over the zone (Invasions can take place in Azshara, Dun Morogh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Northern Barrens, Tanaris, and Westfall). Finally, after that, a Boss NPC will appear at the original Invasion point, which is quite challenging. Doing all that though will reward players with Nethershards, which can be used to purchase a number of items that are only available during this time. A Small Legion Chest and Large Legion Chest can also be obtained from doing the scenario, and that has the chance to drop specific gear pieces exclusive to this event, which are ilevel 685.
Our team plans on running these for about a week together, getting everyone all of the transmog items and other pieces of loot that they want from this pre-launch event, since it is timed. It’s a welcome addition to the game at this stage, since Hellfire Citadel has been out for well over a year and is stale at this point. We’ve actually just been running normal HFC, getting everyone the achievements on a per boss basis to finish the Glory of the Hellfire Raider achievement and mount. Here’s to hoping Blizzard can actually release content on a better schedule for Legion, which is one of the things they have said they want to do.
Are you excited for Demon Hunters and the Legion Invasion pre-launch event? Let us know in the comments below if you are! For more on Blizzard Entertainment and especially World of Warcraft, stay tuned weekly to Face Pull. It’ll be posted every Saturday going forward. So until next time, stay out of the fire!
