For this installment of MMO Co-Opportunities, I'm hijacking Tally's column to talk about World of Warcraft - Legion. Sorry about that! I haven't seriously played WoW since the Cataclysm days, though I did dip my toes into Mists of Pandaria. I also played around with the Warlords of Draenor content in the weeks leading up to Legion's launch, and a lot has changed. Considering many people who have lapsed on WoW seem to be interested in Legion, I'm going to briefly talk about some things that have changed in recent years before I get to what's completely new.
New For Me:
Cross-Realm Play
If you have friends on other servers, as long as you're on the same faction, you can play together. You can even join cross-realm guilds, provided your servers are "connected". Each server has one (or sometimes two) servers linked in this way.
Raid Finder (Looking For Raid)
Not in a raiding guild, or just want to see the raid content with little pressure? Hop into LFR and you'll be dropped into a low-difficulty 25-man version of your chosen raid. Mechanics are a lot more forgiving in this mode, which my friends tell me is about on par with queueing up for a Heroic dungeon. The loot isn't as good as "real" raiding, but that's to be expected.
Mythic-Difficulty Dungeons (And Raids)
Normally, you can run a dungeon as many times as you'd like. In past expansions, you could set the dungeon difficulty to Heroic and experience a more difficult (and rewarding) version with a daily lockout. Mythic ups the difficulty and loot rewards even further, but has a week-long lockout. Ouch!
Raids can now be run at Mythic difficulty as well, with 20-player groups. This is what your standard progression guild will aim to tackle.
Challenge Mode
These are timed versions of five-man dungeons that scale your gear down to a specific level to maintain the difficulty level. Aim for the best time! All dungeons from Warlords of Draenor and Legion can be run in this way.
Garrisons
Garrisons are one of the big features added in Warlords of Draenor, but the less said about them is probably for the best. The system allows you to build a base and send units out on missions, allowing you to earn gold, gear, and other types of high-level currency. Unfortunately, the mobile game-like structure never received any kind of mobile companion app, and the general dearth of content updates in WoD left a sour taste in players' mouths. In Legion, your Class Hall replaces your Garrison (though you can still use it if you like).