Broken Isles
The events of Legion will center around the Broken Isles, a small fragment of the former region of Suramar. Home of the Pillars of Creation and the Tomb of Sargeras. Starting on the Broken Shore, you’ll make your way through Stormheim, Highmountain, Val’sharah, Azsuna and end up in Suramar - the max level zone for Legion.
The Broken Shore, located off the southern coast of the rest of the Broken Isles is where players will first arrive. Players will play through a 40 person scenario, with 20 Alliance and 20 Horde which picks up right where the Legion cinematic trailer left off, in order to launch an all-out assault on the Tomb of Sargeras to stop the invasion of the Burning Legion at its source.
Once players have arrived at the Broken Shore, they will play through a number of different Scenario stages as a group, where they will destroy Legion fortifications, slay major Burning Legion Lieutenants and Generals before you reach the Tomb of Sargeras, where a number of events will take place that have not yet been revealed.
While the Scenario will inevitably remain at a 20 Alliance to 20 Horde ratio for a while after launch, the Scenario has been designed to be completely flexible in terms of numbers, even to the point where it could be one player with additional NPCs a number of months after launch in order to keep the Scenario feeling epic.
The pre-Legion patch that will launch a few weeks before the full Legion release will allow players to access the Scenario.
Stormheim
Located on the eastern end of the Broken Isles, Stormheim is a zone of treacherous, rugged highlands and deep ravines, as well as the home of the Vyrkul and Valkyr - two races that many players will be familiar with from the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.
Similar to the Broken Shore, there is an introduction Scenario that both factions take part in that introduce them to the zone before letting players freely quest throughout. Players will learn about the story of these Vyrkul who came to Stormheim in order to find their true Gods, and fight against the God King, and discover the origins of the Valkyr and Kvaldir.
As the home and stronghold of the Vyrkul, Blizzard wanted this zone to feel “edgy, bold and larger than life”. Unlike the smaller camps and temporary structures that players will know from Northrend, the Vyrkul of Stormheim have large, intimidating structures - complete with both permanent structures and ancient ruins.
Stormheim is also home to two of Blizzard’s self-proclaimed “best dungeons” that they’ve created - The Halls of Valor and Hellheim.
There is a larger range of Vyrkul here when compared to Northrend, such as the Mystic Vyrkul who are masters of rune magic and religious zealots. Skovald, the Vyrkul God King is a brutal warrior King who has befriended the Legion, leading to his corruption.
The Stormdragons are a fledgling new dragonflight that are also present who’s homes can be found in the high mountain peaks of both Stormheim and Suramar.
Val’sharah
On the opposite end of the map to Stormheim, Val’sharah was a Druidic paradise located on the western end of the Broken Isles - a densely forested zone that was the birthplace of Druidism, where Malfurion became the first Druid under Cenarius. However, the Emerald Nightmare has begun to consume large portions of the zone, with Satyrs sent by Xavius roaming these once revered grounds.
Shaladrassil, a World Tree was once the gateway to the Emerald Dream which has become a twisted and corrupted shadow of its former glory. Nightmare dragons - former members of the Green dragonflight which have been corrupted by the Emerald Nightmare are also present in the zone.
Despite this, players will run into and meet many of the native Druids of Val’sharah, as well as three of the most ancient Arch Druids of Azeroth.
As a zone with such a strong background in Druidism, Blizzard wanted to create Val’sharah with a heavy fantasy forest theme. As such, almost all of the structures present in the zone are inspired, or part of the surrounding trees.
There are two noticeable exceptions to this. The first is Black Rook Hold - an ancient Night Elven fortress that played a pivotal role in the defeat of the Burning Legion during the first invasion of Azeroth. Black Rook Hold was carved out of rock, presenting a more citadel-like structure which strongly contrasts with the organic elements of the zone.
The second exception is the Emerald Nightmare. Blizzard had the vision of the Nightmare corrupting everything it touches. It had to look evil, dangerous and twisted.
Azsuna
The south-western zone of Azsuna was one of the first zones that went through the concepting phase, with the aim to capture the utter devastation that the Broken Isles went through as a result of the Great Sundering. For Azsuna in particular, Blizzard wanted to portray that overall it may look like a serene island paradise, but once you start exploring and looking closely, players will notice it’s a cursed and haunted land. For Azsuna, it wasn’t only the Sundering that brought about its destruction, but Queen Azshara herself, in a colossal display of her power.
Azsuna is home to the dying remnants of a group of the Blue Dragonflight, where they have found a refuge among the raw arcane and lay energies that are rich throughout the zone. It is also home to the Warden’s Isle, an area that players experiencing the Demon Hunter’s starting experience will be familiar with.
The former inhabitants of Azsuna still suffer from Queen Azshara’s curse such as the Banshee, an enemy that is present throughout Elven Ruins in Kalimdor, and their new male counterpart - the Spectre. Though that’s not all - Azshara has sent forth Naga, including some new variants, and her allies from a local Sea Giant kingdom in order to retrieve an important artifact from the zone.
The zone went through many iterations and concepts before they finally settled on a “Greek Island” theme for the landscape, and an extension of the bare ruins and columns of the ancient Night Elf ruins scattered throughout former expansions.
Highmountain
Highmountain certainly lives up to its name. Residing in the north of the Broken Isles, Highmountain is a zone heavily inspired by the Swiss Alps and Yosemite, as well as being home to one of the single largest mountains in all of Azeroth, and the mountains that surround it is full of untamed wilds, fertile valleys, deep canyons and icy peaks.
The zone has been the home of three ancient Tauren clans for thousands of years, all of which are direct descendants of the Tauren who fought in the War of the Ancients. They sport antler-like horns which are inscribed to designate clan and rank affiliations. The Rivermane, the Skyhorn and the Bloodtotem lived in peace for many generations until recently, the Drogbar stole their most sacred artifact.
The Drogbar are a cave-dwelling, shamanistic race who were once slaves to Neltharion. Despite their brutish appearance, they are intelligent and highly attuned to the natural world, with large amounts of control over Earthern magics. Throughout the zone, players will meet a wide range of these Drogbar, as well as other races such as the Alpine Harpies and the Etten, which are significantly more threatening and larger than their cousins elsewhere on Azeroth.
Suramar
Suramar is the max level zone in Legion, located in the south of the Broken Isles. The Great Sundering inflicted significant damage to the zone as a whole, but the ancient city of Suramar itself remains a thriving Elven metropolis thanks to a defensive spell being held by the cities most powerful mages. By channeling the power of an arcane well that is now known as the Nightwell.
Thinking the outside was overrun by demons, the Elves of Suramar stayed within their protected city for ten thousand years - leading to nothing short of a dependence on the Nightwell to live.
Due to this isolation and the their dependance on the Nightwell, the once Night Elves have evolved into the Nightborne. Recently, the leader of the Nightborne has allied with the Legion, bringing down the shield and allowing them into their city.
Crimes are punished by exile within Nightborne society - causing significant issues when they are cut off from the arcane source on which they rely to survive. These Nightborne become the Nightfallen, a faction that exists outside of Suramar City. Those Nightfallen who can’t acquire any arcane sustenance will become the Withered.
Blizzard wanted everything about the zone of Suramar to be completely unique, even down to the flora and architecture of the zone. Unlike the Night Elves of Kalimdor that are Druidic, the ancient Night Elves, and by extension the Nightborne, are very arcane based in their nature.
Suramar City is one of the most ambitious projects that Blizzard has undertaken, as it is a completely playable Night Elf metropolis that is fully explorable and usable.
Leveling in Legion
For players leveling in Legion, they will get to experience a new system of questing that is based heavily off the lessons that Blizzard have learned throughout the development and feedback from Warlords of Draenor. Traditionally in expansions, players would level in a fairly set path, moving through zones with designated levels in a fairly rigid order. In Legion, players will be able to level in any zone, at any level.
Azsuna, Stormheim, Highmountain and Val’sharah all scale flexibly with a player's level. Players will play through each zone in whichever order they wish, or even swap between zones as they feel like it, with the end goal of retrieving the Pillars of Creation from each zone.
Because of this scaling content, players will have an easier time than ever before when playing with their friends, as the barrier of level is removed from the equation. Players of any level from 100 to 110 will be able to play together in these zones, as it is the world around them that is scaled, not the player’s character.
The items in the zones and from the quest rewards will follow this model - the drops and quest rewards will be scaled appropriately to the player's level. However, it does have an upper level cap so players don’t feel the need to do quests at level 110 to get max level items. There will, however, still be max level threats in each zone, similar to the Fel Reaver of Hellfire Peninsula.
Outdoor World Content
Once you’ve reached level 110, Blizzard wants to incorporate the best of both Warlords of Draenor, and Mists of Pandaria’s systems. The intention is to keep the player freedom of Warlords of Draenor in allowing players to pick where they want to go and how to complete it, but with the storytelling elements of Mists of Pandaria with story focused narrative throughout these events.
The idea is to deliver a sense of structure, without a sense of compulsion that was a recurring issue during Mists of Pandaria where players felt they would fall behind if they missed a day. In Legion, there will be a system of world quests that are constantly ongoing and changing throughout the entire continent with varied game play, rewards and times that they are available for. By moving away from a strict daily schedule to a more organic and evolving system, there will always be something to do when you want to play.
Blizzard intends for variety to be king in this new system, with the clear stated intent of overwhelming players with choices. It is similar in nature to the Garrison missions of Warlords of Draenor - players will be presented with a list of things they can do, what rewards they’ll get, and they can decide what they want to do. This can include reputation specific objectives, PvP objectives, world raid bosses, profession missions for specific professions, and minigames such as Gnomebliteration.
The entire Region (US, EU, KR, CN, TW) will have the same quests and objectives operating at the same times across all realms so players don’t feel forced to have to realm-hop to get the rewards they want.
What are your thoughts on the new questing and max level content system? Do you think these new zones bring anything unique to the table and are their designs/concepts appealing to you?
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