Here is a second attempt to write this, due to an assault from a Google search of "Minecon" of which, someone who specifically knows who they are, should feel awful for this. Anyway, moving on to discuss World of Warcraft's lack of subscription numbers... there has been a recent downturn in WoW subscriber numbers and it appears that World of Warcraft: Legion is the medicine to cure the ailment. Previously on Respawn we discussed ideas Blizzard should implement, mainly bringing the world back to cohesion, but now we're going to look at what WoW: Legion is actually going to do to bring subscriber numbers back on par.

Hero Class: Demon Hunter

The Demon Hunter is similar to the Monk and the Death Knight in that they exist as a means to make players who already have reached their maximum alt status (the number of alts that they're willing to level up) interested in another character, to burn their time leveling up, and then proceeding to gear it up. For the Death Knight, this was very successful as the class was very satisfying to the playerbase, combining easy gameplay, cool aesthetics, and a new starting experience that enticed the player to just try it out to see what the new Death Knight area was like. The Monk was less successful, having to start not only at level one, but in general the class never resonated with players that well - not to say it didn't have its phases, but it wasn't the time sink that the DK was for many.

For the Demon Hunter it's going to be about how much fun the class is, how desirable it is to play the class, and how viable it is in endgame content. Most players roll alts that viable at the endgame, so that they have an alternative character to play when their main has reached the extent of its gear collection, and as a fallback if their main is nerfed in any way. For the Demon Hunter, it's going to be about how viable it is, how fun it is, and how much everyone wants to make one.

Artifact Weapons

This is a change that I honestly feel isn't a positive one and might make a lot of players upset. There will be no weapons that drop in Legion and the only weapon you're going to have is your artifact weapon. The biggest motivator in completing a raid is to get to the final boss who drops the best weapon in the game at the time. The feeling of having a weapon that either no one has or very few has is the reason why raids even occur. I know the feeling very well and it's the satisfaction of walking around with a prestige weapon like no other. As soon as another patch hits, the weapon isn't relevant anymore, but for a short duration you're pretty much the coolest person on the server, in terms of prestige gear.

With that said, it could work out, but only if raid bosses drop viable skins for the item to signify that you've completed the dungeon. Additionally, it's important to give some kind of damage boost via raids. They've already said you level them up by killing bosses, but if you run raid finder and get the same weapon power as someone who runs a heroic raid, then that's just eh. You need motivation and you need the ability for someone to get a strong reward from achieving strong things.

Additional Dungeons

This one is simple to break down. Quality over quantity. All dungeons become the same after you run them all enough times. Variety is a quality of life improvement. Dungeon design is if you're going to stick around and grind dungeons, or hide in your garrison farming plants all day. Wrath of the Lich King was a great example of dungeons that were fun to run, had good pathing from start to finish, and were generally a joy to grind, whereas Cataclysm for me was a lot less enjoyable for me. Panderia was cool, but Warlords wasn't that great.

You have to have fun rewarding dungeons that are of the right length for it to really engage the community.

Order Halls

If it's not a Garrison, easily managed, and not a game within itself - the expansion will probably be more successful. However, Farmville has a specific amount of time that you can play and then you reach peak Farmville, where you just really don't want to manage your farm anymore because the content doesn't ever change, you're just managing numbers. Hopefully the Order Halls won't be a return of the Garrison, but will provide some cool gameplay aspect.

New PvP Experience

I'm not sure, Realm Ranks worked great in Dark Age of Camelot, but grinding honor levels / realm ranks may or may not be successful. I don't know how to react to that. Grinding honor gear is a time honored tradition at this point, but at the same time, having a grind that you can grind multiple times may be good, it may be bad. We'll need to see more.

That brings me to the rest of the features, we'll need to wait and see how they flesh out. That ends this discussion about WoW: Legion, but we'll move on to more