Blizzard is great at selling their products, especially World of Warcraft. Over ten years later and they still have several million players logging into play. Every time an expansion rolls out, fans are chomping at the bit to play it. Just the sight of the cinematic is enough to have even players who have long sworn off the game considering diving back in again.

While Blizzard has mastered the art of selling their WoW expansions, it seems that this doesn’t guarantee they will be home runs. Warlords of Draenor, the most recent expansion, has been one of the least liked expansions in the series. Despite an attempt to return to the roots of the game; most players are looking forward to seeing the tail end of Warlords and all it entails.

That end will be coming soon, with the announcement of World of Warcraft: Legion, the next expansion in the series. While most fans seem optimistic about what we know so far, it is a cautious optimism. Here are some of the common fears about this new expansion that are common to most fans:

Demon Hunters Incoming

Every time a new class is introduced into WoW, players wonder where it will fit in. With Demon Hunters incoming in Legion; this has been a concern again. A melee class in an already melee heavy game; there is a very legitimate fear here. Will you lose your PvE and PvP spots as the initial wave of new Demon Hunters descends upon us?

 Players are pretty excited to have a new class this expansion, but not at the cost of having other classes (especially their own class) become less relevant. The last class addition, the Death Knight, came out of the box pretty overpowered. After some rearranging, fixes, and tweaking, the class finally found its place. Now, most of us couldn’t imagine the game without them. We can only hope for the same for the Demon Hunter.  

Shaking Up the Class Mix

Besides the addition of a new class, most of the old classes are getting massive overhauls. In an effort to make gameplay interesting involved, and more true to each class; almost no class will be left untouched in Legion. While these changes seem to be all for the better, there is a bit of fear involved. Will we log in and not recognize our beloved class? Will our favorite talent/skill/ability be gone? Will another class be better than ours and take our spot in raids or the arena? With so many changes incoming, we can only wait and hope for the best.

More Single-Player

I don’t know about any other World of Warcraft fan, but the reason I chose an MMO is because of the multiplayer experience. Back in the early days of WoW, it was nothing to meet and greet total strangers. The community was strong and player cooperation was essential to getting almost anything in game done. Azeroth was a scary and brutal world and you definitely needed help to get through it.

As more and more expansions have rolled out, much of that multiplayer experience has been stripped away. This cumulated in the release of Warlords, where you were made the ultimate hero and were sent off to your Garrison where you saw no one but your NPC drones. The need for groups, guilds, or much player interaction in general was virtually eliminated. Each player existed in his or her own special bubble.

While this gave us the super hero feel developers were going for, it was short lived. It is hard to keep up the idea of your character being the supreme hero when millions of other players are around you. Feeling “special” isn’t worth losing the feeling of community that built World of Warcraft. Legion needs to bring that back or risk everything.

Garrisons 2.0

I’ve written about this many times, but Garrisons are and always will be one of the worst features to be introduced into World of Warcraft. While these bastions of personal space were supposed to fulfill the fan outcry for player housing, Garrisons failed in every almost every avenue. In fact, most players would probably equate the Garrison to their own personal in-game prison cell.

It goes without saying, that a return to Garrisons in Legion is a huge concern. The announcement of Class Halls had everyone on edge. While Class Halls seem to be heading in the right direction, the fear of a Garrison repeat is hard to shake. Repeating any of the mistakes of the Garrison in Legion could be disastrous for this new WoW expansion.

Jack of All Trades

If one thing can be said about Legion is that it is bringing a little bit of everything to the table. Perhaps a little too much of everything. New class, new features, overhauls galore, beloved characters from the past, old foes, you name it; Legion has it. This doesn’t seem like a bad thing and it very well could be the most amazing experience we have had in game so far. With that being said, it could also spell disaster.

We can’t help but wonder if maybe Legion has its finger in one to many pies. With so much going on, will this expansion feel like more of a mess than a cohesive experience. Are developers trying too hard to appease all the fans? While we can hope that things are all under control, we can’t help but cross our fingers that this hodgepodge of ideas comes out nicely.