Here are the 10 new World of Warcraft features that change the game: Blizzard first fixed this problem back with the Warlords of Draenor expansion when the first “stat squish” reduced item levels throughout the game. But that old problem of players accumulating ever-higher numbers over time never really went away and players are once again putting up some over-the-top numbers in the twilight of Legion. With the 8.0 patch, the game’s second “stat squish” is now live, once again restoring player power to a reasonable level. We can report that combat just feels better and it’s much easier to track how much damage you’re pumping out, thanks to the stat squish. Blizzard developers said repeatedly that the game’s phasing technology that they’ve been working on over the last several years would allow the expansion to launch worldwide without a hiccup. Things went mostly as planned.
War Mode
Blizzard has tried multiple times to bring back classic-era world PvP and nothing has really stuck in a way that fans of the old Southshore vs. Tarren Mill battles would like. Battle for Azeroth introduced the developer’s latest attempt, and we’re pretty optimistic about this one.
Warfronts
Warfronts are 20-player cooperative battles inspired by Warcraft 3. Players work together to build a base, research upgrades, and attack the opposing side, controlled by an AI. It’s like Blizzard sat down and figured out a way to bring a RTS mode to World of Warcraft. One of the first Warfronts will be fought in Arathi Highlands, a classic zone that’s gotten some nice visual upgrades for the expansion. Anyone who loved queuing up for Arathi Basin back in the day will probably appreciate the feel Blizzard is going for throughout the zone.
Island Expeditions
Players who were around during Mists of Pandaria might recall a dungeon mode called Scenarios, which involved teams of three players instead of the traditional five. Island Expeditions bring a similar feel, with groups being tasked with plundering treasure off various islands. Your team faces off against other players or AI-controlled characters from the opposing faction and whoever can collect the most treasure, or “Azerite,” wins. Blizzard has promised a wide variety of different islands to explore and it’s nice to see the return of another kind of group content to complement traditional dungeons. The idea seems to be that the islands are randomly generated to a certain degree just like Rifts are in Diablo III, so there should be no shortage of content to play through. But our absolute favorite part? The AI Blizzard designed for the opposing faction is pretty good at mimicking real players. They even jump in the air repeatedly as they move forward, just like players who repeatedly spam their space bar while moving in dungeons or raids.
Weapon Drops
If you’ve been away from WoW for some time, you may not know that the game’s Legion expansion focused on powering up an impressive “Artifact Weapon” throughout the duration of the expansion. In short, players have been using the same weapon for about two years now. Artifact weapons were pretty cool and bosses did drop Relics which were used to upgrade them. But after two years of using the same weapon, many players are looking forward to the thrill of having an actual weapon drop off of a raid boss again. The weapon slot is arguably the most powerful character slot in the game and we’ve missed the excitement that comes from finally getting that massive two-hander to drop after farming a boss for six weeks. That feeling will be restored by the end of the summer.
Legacy Loot
If you love running old content for transmog items, you’ll love the new legacy loot system. Whenever a player enters a dungeon or raid where they are 10 or more levels above the content, the dungeon or raid bosses drop an amount of loot equivalent to what would have dropped for a full group when the content was current. That means players could earn loot for five people in dungeons and loot for 20 people after soloing a raid. The legacy loot system also drops other gear types, like cloth dropping for a plate wearer. It’s now much easier to get the transmog gear you want, and you can also collect gear for your alts on the same run. Read the latest Den of GeekSpecial Edition Magazine here!
