Legion Pre-Expansion Patch First Look

• Author: Jim Franklin
• Date: July 20, 2016
• Updated: January 4, 2021
• Expansion: World of Warcraft

So, the pre-patch for the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Legion hit the servers yesterday. Although some people, like those in the UK, have had to wait until this morning. Well, I was logged on at 05:00 this morning to dive in and see just what effects this pre-patch has had on my game. My first reaction was a big sigh, that I first have to wait for all the mods I’m using to be 7.0 compatible but that doesn’t usually take too long. The modders on Curse are pretty good.

Anyway, this is what I thought.

Wardrobe / Transmogriphier

The biggest thing included within this pre-expansion patch is the inclusion of the new wardrobe / transmog tool. Located in your collections folder with your pets, mounts and toys; the wardrobe is the place to store all the pieces of clothing, armour and weapons you have collected throughout your WoW Journey. On the whole the Wardrobe tool is well-ordered, and in combination with the transmogrifiers at any major city you can create that perfect outfit. Plus, you can save it so it can be easily selected in the future. It’s nice.

It’s not a game changer but as transmog has become a much bigger thing over the past expansion or so, it’s good that they’ve finally given us the tools to do it more easily. Plus a whole new thing to collect, who can be against that? It’s kinda fun really, but older characters you’ve played through many expansions with are going to have many more items to choose from initially than new characters.

Class Changes

Thankfully, Blizzard has given everyone a couple of weeks to get used to all the new class changes to playstyles and skills before the new expansion. I have only tried out my Beastmaster Hunter this morning, but even on one spec for one class there are a lot of changes. Aspect of the Cheetah now has a 3 minute cooldown, and lasts for 20 seconds. Traps are now only playable by survival hunters. Cobra shot is instant cast with a one second cool down. That’s not to mention the new skills, like Aspect of Turtle and the basic jigging around of talent trees and skills that has gone on.

I was a big fan of the Glaives skill until you had a high enough iLevel to deal with the extra pulls from Barrage but that’s not an option for Beastmasters. The Beastmaster Hunter is now, almost surplus to requirement as their pets now take up most of the style and force of the Beastmaster Hunter.

Garrison Changes

Until Legion is released you’ll still be gallantly defending your garrison from many invading forces inhabiting Draenor. However, you will no longer be using it as a quick gold source, as many of them have either been removed or reduced. It’s annoying for now, but I guess Blizzard don’t want everybody to continue to use their garrisons to make gold they’re spending in Legion.

Glyphs have Gone

Well ok, they haven’t but the tab has. This is due to the major update in how glyphs are to work in legion. In short, rather than having a number of major and minor glyphs you add to your character, you now purchase glyphs and they are applied directly to the spell instead. You can only add one glyph per spell, but you can glyph as many spells as you want. So, when this change hits (Apologies, if it already has, my main doesn’t inscribe so couldn’t check) I imagine everyone will be stocking up on inscription supplies and flooding the market with glyphs to benefit from the mad scramble to buy them.

Legion Looks Pretty

World of Warcraft’s graphics have been given a little life. The quality of graphics and the viewing distance has been increased, there are now more graphics settings, which doesn’t make great strides if you’re already on ultra but every improvement in graphics is good here. They just need to update some of the older models and I’ll be very happy.

So, lots of stuff going on in Patch 7.0 and plenty to get to grips with before the expansions release on the 31st August. In a couple of weeks I should get my hands on my pre-order Demon Hunter, so stay tuned for more World of Warcraft Legion info.