“Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”
James Thurber
Legion: Expansion and Collapse
I don’t know how Legion will play out. I only have my impressions from following bloggers and the data-mining sites. Players are planning by prepping their Alts for the move to the Broken Isles. Players are researching on Battle Pets in Legion. Players with the Beta Key are exploring and reporting their findings.
Warlords of Draenor was such a wonky expansion. I now have 13 characters at level 100; many of them with maxed professions, some with doubled-up professions for making bags, for example. WoD rewarded us big time for leveling up Alts, we got rich beyond imagination.
Legion is not Alt Friendly. The synergy between the characters on your account is broken via BoP signature crafting mats and, really, a monstrous Artifact leveling grind that will take months. Investing time (it is really simply time) in your Artifact is mandatory if you want to explore group content: the cornerstone to a MMO.
Today, it feels like I’ll collapse my empire down to one character! At first pass, I think it will be my Resto-Druid with the hope of welcome arms in many group adventures.
There are Alt-ernatives, bringing up my entire army until level 110; chasing profession quests and then World Quests. But, I fear that a set of “daily” world quests even on one character will take two hours due to travel time on the ground.
I’ve always loved my hunter. I imagine that he’ll do the Exploration and Loremaster stuff eventually with the assumption of getting flying after a year in Legion. I’m sad for him.
In WotLK, I had my hunter and healer with “matching professions” meaning a gathering profession to compliment a crafting one. In Cata, ease of leveling Alts led me to bringing up Profession Alts, dedicated to serving my Mains. In MoP and WoD, I had a factory and was filling the guild’s raid tab with flasks and pots.
What about professions. My mind-set in the past was assembly line industry. I don’t know any more what to do.
WoD was like a ice cube tray, filling up all the squares at the same time; easily and encouraged. Legion, at this stage, feels very Loner Against the World. Mini-games like pet battles, crafting toys, making profit in the AH will all have to be pushed back to much later in the expansion when things ease down (if they ever do).
Legion is designed to support the Main. Can Blizzard give me enough stuff to satisfy me as a Loner? How long before they can’t sustain my interest and I look to my Alt? How long before I dread entering the same Dungeon again, no matter the reward? Can they balance us in group flexible content?
If the patches release like MoP, then I’ll be scrambling to keep up on my sole Main. Getting that rep trinket, for example. This is THE test for Blizzard, do or die.
The design is friendly to support a second (up to fourth) spec with catch-up mechanics on the Artifacts on your Main. Imagine starting at ZERO with a brand new Artifact! It will be like molasses puddles, all up hill.
Filling my ice cube tray with attention to Alts, I fear will take way too much time. I may end up with gear having no enchants or buying flasks; that makes me sick.
So much to learn, so much to imagine; come on Legion, come on pre-expansion patch: let’s get it on.
Coffee Cakes and Crits 
I had 3 or 4 alts in MoP. But my alts became an army during the last 10 months of the expansion. In WoD it grew a bit more as well – I even had to start toons at another realm.
Basically you are very busy in the first months of the expansion and it seems you don’t have time for anything. There’s much to learn. You think that your alts stay behind because you don’t develop them fast enough simultaneously. Then you’re all set and done with your main (and my cap comes sooner because I don’t PvP and raid except LFR), and you switch to alts, especially by the end of an expansion.
Different classes have different class order halls and artifact chains, so it will be at least interesting to see that content. It’s not just about Alliance/Horde different quest chains now, it’s about 12 different ‘garrison’ campaigns and as many artifact chains as you have alts. I’m pretty confident about being able to manage my alts in Legion.
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Right on. I simply shiver when I see the path to a goal in Legion. Something simple like getting the Fishing artifact requires hours and hours to merely get the quest to start to obtain it: much less leveling it up. It looks like Legion is loaded; all up hill, in the snow!
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