What made Legion better?

[Pakheth]

To me Legion was a very fun expansion.
Sure it had its problems, like completely ruining the hunter class making me change my main to shaman for the first time ever, and some zones being rather subpar(Broken Shore), and the legiondaries being a grind for those who just wanted to raid. I was luckily not affected as heavily by that need as I was mostly playing casual in Legion. My guild died in WoD so I spent the majority of Legion just faffing about leveling alts and collecting transmogs and just having fun exploring the world, apart from a few raid pugs here and there.

I think if you were a casual player Legion was probably absolutely fantastic. If you were a raider then not so much due to the legiondaries problem.

Suramar, PvP dailies, secrets, mage tower, artifact skins, class mounts and class storylines offered me plenty to keep me busy and I enjoyed it a lot. I only unsubbed for a short period near the end due to burnout but returned to get most of the mage Tower skins before they went away for good.

I honestly miss the variety and amount of content we had in Legion over what we had in BfA and SL so far. We haven't had the variety in WQs Legion offered ever since for example. Variety is so important imo.

I'm still pissed that we can no longer experience the artifact weapons as they were when Legion was current. Never understood why the fresh weapons had to be depowered as well. Couldn't they have made them so they only worked in Legion zones? Leveling through Legion now is just a shadow of its former self.

[Falkeshall]

Missed all of Legion, didn't play between the release of Hellfire Citadel and Mechagon, but when I bought BFA I took my main all through Legion, as much as I could, opened up flying THEN decided I'd move on to BFA as I was far behind the raiding curve anyway, so may as well take it at my time and enjoy the story beats. The class halls were great, and the story all still felt tied-in to the great overarching Azeroth story. Not some bollocks on another planet, not sometimey-wimey does any of this matter nonsense, but names we knew, a great reveal of plot points, and a genuinely interesting trudge through Suramar. Would loved to have done it "at level" (being a rogue a level or two higher by this point, there wasn't much challenge), and never saw anything of the Mage Tower. Argus lost me storywise, that's the point I gave up and just got on with BFA. Not sure i'd have enjoyed the artifact grind at the time, seems that was the start of the real bloat and "additional systems".

[Kyriani]

What made Legion better for me:

* Demon Hunter class was awesome and new.
* Mythic+ was way better for me. Legion was the only time I took alts through mythic+. Ever since the changes in BfA and now SL, mythic+ isn't nearly as fun for me anymore.
* World quests were faster to complete and there seemed to be a wider variety of them compared to SL.
* PVP towers in Legion were awesome. They were the first and only time I've been incentivized to flag with any regularity.
* I didn't need to unlock a macguffin through raid quests just to craft the highest end gear.
* The borrowed power system (artifacts) wasn't perfect but it was far less intrusive/disruptive than what came in BfA and SL
* Legiondaries were awesome barring the rng necessary to get them. Had the currency to buy them been in from the get go, I'd have had no complaints about them.
* Dalaran. I loved Dalaran being the hub in WOTLK and still loved it in Legion. There's just something about that city that appeals to me.
* Transmog. Legion was the first expansion in a long time where I really liked a lot of transmog styles on offer.
* Mission table. While I know it was out of whack, the amount of gold I was making from the mission table was insane and I loved it!
* I had things to do, that I wanted to do, that felt worth doing. I didn't feel that nearly as much in BfA or now in SL.

[dewd]

every spec felt fun to play. some thanks to the artifact ability itself and almost all due to gameplay altering gold traits in the artifact that all were removed with bfa and replaced with nothing so every spec felt like literal shit. also very few cds were on the gcd so gameplay felt so smooth as opposed to having to set up 5 gcds in bfa to blast while the first is already running out

[LauraHydra1]

I don't think it was necessarily better.

But Legion introduced some new ideas and mechanics that were fresh at the time. The artefact weapons were cool. I liked the class halls, they felt a lot more meaningful as a hub than the covenant sanctums.

I liked the story in Legion. They way it started, with Varian dying in the intro cinematic, kind of made the whole thing feel very high-stakes. I love that Khadgar played a large role, he was one of my favourites in WoD.

At the time, I quite enjoyed the World Quests, they were a lot more convenient than the old dailies, especially once flying got unlocked.

And of course, a big factor of why Legion felt so cool in the beginning was just the long, long drought of content at the end of WoD. Running Hellfire Citadel over and over got old after a while, and there wasn't much to do in the game anymore.

The reason why I don't think Legion was better than other expansions is that about halfway through, it just started to feel like a long list of chores that had be done before I could actually do the fun stuff. I actually stopped playing a little bit before the third patch came out (the one that unlocked Argus) because I wasn't enjoying the game anymore.

[Doffen]

First 9 months of Legion was the best time for me in the game, ever. Proper character progression finally, cool end game progression in the artifact weapon, Legiondairies, Class Halls, class(spec) design was awesome, MM Hunter in Legion was the best spec I've played in the game. Demon Hunter was a class that I missed back in the day that we finally got, and that Illidan did a comeback was great. Got the chills watching the cinematic were Gul'dan found him.

We had Suramar with my favorite quest line in the game, it felt meaningful as we infiltrated the city and in the end we won it back. We got mythic+ which was fresh, new dailies design in World Quests, we had great raids with Nighthold being top 3 raids ever to me. Great dungeons, Court of Stars being my favorite dungeon in game. We had Mage Tower, we had lots of weapon skin to gather and playing alts were finally meaningful.

Fuck me Legion was great. Again, 9 first month in Legion was my best time in a certain timeframe in World of Warcraft. I miss it but its nice to think of how fun I had during those times and that I got to be part of it.

[Zigrifid]

My opinion of what made Legion good was that the enemies werent new they were known for years and things like m+ where also new and that made them exciting ^^ remember when we knew that mission tables are coming back? we werent happy for that.
Now its the same with almost everything cause nothing new was added 2 expansions later,we still have a mission table we still have the same m+ mechanics and the borrowed power that was introduced with artifacts remain the same with things like covenants
People in my opinion (im not saying im 100% correct) are bored cause nothing has changed for 4 years + now ........

[schwarzkopf]

Or maybe they are actually fucking up their game and things are actually getting worse?

Well - we know that isn't the case, the game is fine.

People are whinging about their $500k Lamborghini because the car radio is tuned to the wrong station.

[Tradu]

Well - we know that isn't the case, the game is fine.

People are whinging about their $500k Lamborghini because the car radio is tuned to the wrong station.

No, "we" don't know that. It's not fine. I think SL is better than the past 2 expansions and is a first step in the right direction, but WoD, Legion and BfA were all worse than the expansion immediately before.

[Gratlim]

See this is rose-tinted glasses made manifest. Legion wasn't even off-spec friendly, at all, for months. You were severely punished for spending a single AP token on an off-spec weapon and you were severely punished for missing any additional AP you could get your hands on. You were also severely punished if you were behind on AK by a single level.

The problem with discussing past expansions vs current ones is that everyone only remembers the best parts of old expansions, normally the final patch. For Legion, that's when everyone had automatic AK cap, you got your weapons all the way to everything except Concordance from like one WQ, there was a vendor that allowed you to choose whatever legendary you wanted, and the Order Hall missions arbitrary time-gating was substantially reduced.

It's still a fantastic expansion, it's just that if you're writing off SL right now then you absolutely have to compare it to 7.0 Legion, and that was at least as bad (probably worse).

I agree, we should compare first patch vs first patch. BUT Legion first patch did not last 7 months and catch-ups were implemented quickly. At least it felt like it, because the rest of the game was so much more engaging. Just my personal feeling about it. It's all about pacing. And it has never been worse.

Note: i actually think SL had so much potential. It could have been as good as Legion if devs were not so much focused on high-end number balancing for MDI / Mythic raiding / 2k2+ arena and focused instead on the whole gameplay experience and actual content (not numbers). Make it fun. Stop caring so much about the 1%.

[sunxsera]

I think the answer is pretty simple. Legion had a lot more interesting and rewarding content and also far better class balance.
Legion motivated a lot to play your alts - get xmogs / artifacts etc. You allways had sth. to do - and the path was allways different due to your class campaign.

Right now the only thing that is waiting for your alt is torghast - which is super boring even compared to 8.3 visions.

[Krakan]

I think a large part of it was how much content legion launched with as well as having successful new features. I may of hated ap but even I have to admit that a high quality weapon that gained new appearances through your actions was an amazing idea.

Add to that the success of mage tower and every was left with a positive impression.

Bfa felt like they kept the negatives of ap and threw out the positives of the system and mage tower was replaced with isles.

Sl covenants fucked the games balance and in some cases soft locked you into pve or pvp with choreghast being an unimaginative grind that had an even worse sting after it was nerfed from alpha were it was a more relaxed crazy build rogue like.

It feels like since legion they can't understand why what they make is successful.

[Ninix]

A lot of new things after an expansion full of disappointment (M+, Artifacts,...)

Class sets and overall good artwork

Epilogue of a storyline we've been following since 13 years (Azeroth vs the Legion). Had some flows (Illidan arc, Star Wars Legion and its spaceships,... ) but I felt connected to this story, contrary to BFA (generic troll-land) or SL and its out of nowhere mystic Death Realm.

On a personal touch, the social aspects also played a role : I still had a bunch of old guild mates and friends playing back then and that slowly stopped after.

- - - Updated - - -

No, "we" don't know that. It's not fine. I think SL is better than the past 2 expansions and is a first step in the right direction, but WoD, Legion and BfA were all worse than the expansion immediately before.

Did you just write that Legion was worse than.. WoD??

[kamuimac]

Both BFA and now SL are very clearly less popular than Legion and this reflects my own personal opinion.

I was subbed for the entirety of Legion ~2years. BFA just a few months and SL I just resubbed but can't bring myself to log in or care, even with a new patch on the horizon.

A few things stand out to me, but curious what everyone else thinks:

- A new class, the iconic Demon Hunter
- A simple, but nostalgic story hook. Legion was a generic big bad and finally returned
- It took place on Azeroth (so did BFA, but SL feels... "out there")
- M+ and WQ were just introduced. Dungeons and the outdoor world were previously completely obsolete after reaching a certain ilevel. M+ and WQ now are considered boring and tedious, but is that because the quality has gone down or really just the novelty wore off?
- Heavy class focus made alts appealing. You basically had a uniquely flavored experience on each class with it's own mini-story and perspective on the larger conflict, as well as a chance to finally get some class specific mounts, titles and cosmetics.
- The entirety of the end game systems felt holistically intertwined: Class Hall + Class Campaign + Class Artifacts.
- Artifacts had a ton of cool challenge, hidden, PVP, etc looks to collect for 36 different specs over the course of the expansion

nothing - Legion was exackly as bad as SL. only illusion that was hiding it were mythic + - they were new and refreshing.

[Nerovar]

Rose tinted googles.

When legion was current it got endless flak just like every other current expan.

You're not honestly implying that the general sentiment in Legion was even close to expansions like BfA or Shadowlands.

[Tart]

Looks like the good bad good bad trend has finally been broken with a consecutive bad.

[Villager720]

There was definitely a lot of "New" in Legion.
Artifact weapons were alright but I didn't and still don't get the hype - besides the acquisition quests which could be fun and having skins/tints to go after, I never found relics to be particularly exciting compared to new weapon drops.
Mythic+ and Demon Hunters were fine. I didn't think they really added much "Depth" or "new-ness" to the game (harder dungeons(!) and flashy class that plays very simply(!)) but they certainly weren't bad.
I liked WQ and can't fathom how that system has got worse in each subsequent iteration.
I liked Order Halls.

But upon really thinking about it, for me, the best part of Legion was Suramar. I loved that zone: the pacing, the voice acting, the art, diving into giant, forgotten temples and ruins, grappling around the city and running from guards. It really felt like a whole new sort of questing experience - and it was end game stuff too! It even had the best raid of the expansion!
The leveling zones were a resounding 'meh' for me, and then they got followed up by fel green rocks x3 (!). Meanwhile, even simple stuff like the music of Shal'Aran was aces.
I remember being deeply skeptical of an entire endgame zone focusing on "Story" without player progression really tied to it but then they just nailed it.
7.2 and 7.3 were fairly paint by numbers to me and didn't really bring much newness or fun. Fel rocks+ Suramar Tower followed by more fel rocks+ fel tower.
I always felt like Legion petered out for me, and upon review, I get that it's cause the content following Suramar didn't come close to rising to its levels.

[Alkizon]

Here we go again.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

You're not honestly implying that the general sentiment in Legion was even close to expansions like BfA or Shadowlands.

Of course it was people complained none stop about.

Grinding ap.

Rng legendarys.

Ap not being account or even spec wide.

Pvp scaling killing pvp.

Mythic+ making raids pointless.

7.2 just being a reworked broken shore.

And on and on and on.

The only part of legion that wasn’t treated like the worse thing ever was the order hall storylines and the mage tower.

[Nephod]

The mage tower.

It gave healers soloable challenges (with cool rewards) where we didn't have to use a dps spec. Now we have systems and grinds that has us run around as dps more often than as healers.

Healers want to heal. We can't always do group content. Let us do stuff as healers, blizzard