World of Warcraft Dev Talks Legion at DragonCon

World of Warcraft senior game designer Jonathan LeCraft was on hand at an unofficial World of Warcraft: Legion panel today at DragonCon to discuss a few details of the upcoming expansion pack.

MMO Central Events and World of Warcraft live-streamer Elvine was on hand at the panel, livetweeting the details. We have gathered some of the more interesting tidbits below, but be sure to check out their Twitter feeds for all of the details.

• Demon hunters will be a magic/melee based class with their starting level currently set at 98. The starting experience for a new DH character was likened to the Death Knight starting experience from Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack. Source
• The comparison between Demon Hunters and Death Knights does not mean DKs will have their starting level changed. Source
• When asked why now was the time for another hero class (see: Demon Hunter), LeCraft responding by saying that it depends on the story and Legion’s storyline has much to do with demon hunters in general (see: return of Illidan Stormrage). But why make Demon Hunters a hero class, i.e. a high starting level, and not Monk? “Monk needed to start at [level one].” Source
• When asked why only Night Elves and Blood Elves will be able to be Demon Hunters, LeCraft responded, “Lore.” Source
• The transmogrification system, by which you can change armor and weapons to retained their stats but take on the look of another item, will be getting a user interface of its own, freeing up bag space, i.e. players won’t need to hold onto items just for transmog. purposes. Source
• There are no plans to add more void storage. The new transmogrification system, however, “will be freeing up a lot of space. Source
• There is an entire team at Blizzard dedicated to profession design in World of Warcraft. Profession questlines will be returning. Source
• Most class specializations are getting overhauled in Legion. This is referring to changes Blizzard is making to make classes and their specializations feel unique and distinct from one another. Some class specializations will be renamed. Source
• Some resources for classes/specializations are being renamed. Shadow Priests will have something called “Insanity” as a resource. Unsure if this will replace mana for Shadow Priests. Source
• Damage-only classes will not be getting healing or tanking specializations. Source
• There will be no weapon drops in Legion. Source. Nor will there be new weapons for blacksmiths or scribes to create. Source
• The multistrike stat is being removed from the game. Other stats are being changed. Source
• Survival Hunters being a melee-based specialization is definitely happening. “We knew some would be disappointed but diversity in gameplay is good.”  Source

World of Warcraft: Legion was announced at Gamescom last month. It does not currently have a release date, but there will be a beta taking place sometime this year.

The most recent patch to World of Warcraft, patch. 6.2.2, added the much-debated feature of being able to fly in Draenor, the main continent of the game’s current expansion pack, Warlords of Draenor.

Source: MMO Central Events and Elvine on Twitter (via Blizzard Watch)