Just because patch 7.1 is only a few weeks old doesn't mean that Blizzard doesn't have a ton of things to talk about with regards to Legion's future. During a presentation at Blizzcon, game director Ion Hazzikostas took the stage to spell out what's coming in patch 7.1.5, as well as spill all the nitty-gritty details of patch 7.2, which includes a Hearthstone-esque Brawl mode, a new raid, and class-specific mounts that are sure to have players crawling over one another to ride.
The Broken Shore questline and invasions
Without a doubt the biggest aspect of 7.2 will be the Broken Shore, which will come full circle on Legion by returning players to where the armies of Azeroth first failed to stop the Burning Legion's invasion. Things will hopefully go a little bit better this time around (probably not) now that players have had a chance to level up and increase the might of their artifact weapons.
Class order storylines will be continued, with the orders banding together to form a new faction called the Armies of Legionfall. With their combined strength, they will renew the assault on the Broken Shore by establishing a foothold, reclaiming elvish ruins with a new base-building system where players will choose to construct and fortify three different structures. Each structure provides different bonuses and rewards, which Hazzikostas hopes will give players a sense of agency in their quest to beat back the Legion. New world quests will also be appearing all over the Broken Shore and the rest of the Broken Isles.
But just as players launch an assault on the Broken Shore, the Legion will be launching their assault on the Broken Isles. Inspired by Legion's awesome and crazy pre-launch event, Burning Legion forces will periodically hammer one specific zone, and players will need to rally and complete objectives similar to world quests to push them back. Once enough objectives are completed, a "target of opportunity" will appear, letting players slay a Legion commander—all pretty similar to the pre-launch event. But there's one cool twist: After the Legion commander is dead, players can join up in groups of three and take the fight to the Legion spaceships orbiting overhead and take one down. Independence Day much?
One of the coolest parts about Legion has been all the hidden riddles and mysteries players have been solving, and its latest was solved incredibly fast.
After completing the Broken Shore questline and establishing a foothold, you'll be able to challenge the new Tomb of Sargeras raid, which features nine bosses including the corrupted avatar of Sargeras, leader of the Burning Legion, as well as a final showdown against Kil'Jaeden—a longtime enemy in Warcraft lore.
Patch 7.2 will also bring a new dungeon called Cathedral of the Eternal Night. It has four bosses and takes place above the Tomb of Sargeras. Along with this new dungeon, the difficulty settings like heroic and mythic will be rebalanced so that old dungeons remain challenging and don't become irrelevant as players continue to acquire new gear and power up.
Flying mounts, class-specific mounts, and more
As a status symbol, mounts are a pretty big deal in World of Warcraft. Patch 7.2 will only enhance that by allowing players to take to the skies with flying mounts as seen in previous expansion packs. To do so, players will need to complete a two-part achievement which involves exploring each zone in full, completing their storylines, earning revered status with each main faction, and lots more. It's a bit daunting, but being able to fly everywhere will absolutely be worth it and you only need to get the achievement once to unlock it for all characters on your account. That's great and all, but one really exciting addition to 7.2 is the introduction of epic mounts specific to each class. You'll need to beat the Broken Shore storyline in order to unlock them, however.
While you're working to obtain those new mounts and unlock the ability to fly, there's also going to be a ton of smaller rewards to work towards as well. New artifact traits and relics will be revealed, allowing you to power up your weapons even further. A new tier of artifact skins is also being added as the reward for a solo challenge—and my goodness are some of them amazing. Guardian druids continue to get spoiled by Blizzard, as their bear form skin is incredible looking and unlike anything else in the game.
While Hazzikostas wasn't able to give a date for the patch, it can probably be expected around late spring of 2017. The second raid tier, The Nighthold, hasn't even launched yet and won't be available until early 2017, meaning there's going to be several months before Blizzard rolls out the Tomb of Sargeras. Fortunately, 7.2 will hit the public test servers as soon as 7.1.5 launches, so if you're desperate to see what's in store you can hop into the beta in a few months time.
With 7.2 already spelled out for us, Legion is looking to be one of the strongest post-launch expansions Blizzard has ever made. The previous expansion, Warlords of Draenor, went through almost a year-long drought between its final patch and Legion, yet with Legion we're already looking at two sizeable patches within a year—that's quite exciting. I'm still struggling to keep up with the curve as it is, so it's good to know that Legion looks crammed full of dungeons and activities for the foreseeable future.
