I’ve spent the last month in the country with very limited access to internet so I missed most of the build-up to the release of Legion. No dread lord invasions of Ogrimmar for me.

Last night though, after attending a Legion launch party at Geekarna, a splendid local cafe, I hit the beaches of the Broken Islands and began to do my part in rolling back the demonic invasion of Azeroth.

Blizzard has done an excellent job in making this feel suitably epic. I was with Sylvanas during the doomed attempt to close the demon gates and witnessed Vol’jin’s last stand. My rogue’s Outlaw spec helped me keep a suitable distance from the big monsters and not die. Then it was back to Ogrimmar to see Sylvanas take up the position of warchief and swear to avenge her predecessor. Stirring stuff.

I watched Dalaran being teleported to its new location. This was a real nostalgia-fest for me. I have always loved the flying city though I shudder to think how much time I spent there back during Wrath of the Lich King. After that, it was down into the underbelly of the city to assume my new position in the Hall of Shadows.

I decided to level Legion as an outlaw, so I took up the quest for the Dreadblades. I died a lot on the beach before I got my brain out of easy mode and I started thinking about things again.

I can’t remember how long its been since I died while questing. I’m not saying this to show how leet I am. It’s just that all of my levelling over the past few years has been done with alts in artefact gear or with a main completely empurpled from the previous expansion. This levelling has usually been done in the company of my son Dan’s similarly well-geared characters. Getting killed is not easy under those circumstances.

Anyway, once I decided to swim to the boat and climb the cliffs rather than detecting mines on the beach path by standing on them, things started to swing my way, and I was soon the proud possessor of a pair of artefact weapons.

It feels suitably epic, all the more so as Dan wields the Doomhammer but I can’t help but feel its going to start to seem a little ridiculous when Dalaran is overflowing with Doomhammer-brandishing shaman and a hundred paladins waving the Ashbringer. We’ll see soon enough.

I like the class-based Order Halls. I like running into my fellow rogues as I stalk through the tunnels. It feels like a step-up from the instancing of garrisons which I’ve always thought atomised the world a little too much.

After being inducted as a new Shadow, it was off to Stormheim for some adventuring proper. The opening questline saw me at the throat of the Alliance, which does not bode well for any sort of united front being presented by the people of Azeroth to the threat of the Burning Legion.

It was fun though to ride bats and commit acts of airborn atrocity on flying ships. When landfall was finally made on the BrokenIsles, we were off to find Sylvanas, who rather irresponsibly for a warchief had taken herself off on some sort of solo quest.

Stormheim itself has a Northrend feel to it. Lots of giant wooden elevators leading to astonishing views, huge mountains and Vyrkhul. It made me quite nostalgic triggering the holograms for the assorted Test of quests. I was up past midnight exploring the zone and I feel like I am only scratching the surface.

It was nice to see lots of people out there as I quested but things never felt too overcrowded as the opening of many previous expansions have. It took me hours to get off the beach in Northrend because I was competing with hundreds of others for every kill. Kudos to Blizzard for letting players choose their starting zone in Legion. This helps contain the overcrowding problem.

So far then Legion has been great. The presence of the Legion and the deaths of some well-known NPCs has given it a suitably epic doomy feel. It reminds me of Lich King and in a good way. I’m keen to see more. Always a good sign.

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