The Druids. Nobody knows who they were, or what they were doing. In World of Warcraft: Legion what they’re doing is spending a lot of time in their lush and vibrant Order Hall, the latest expansion’s answer to one of Warlords of Draenor’s more contentious features.
I loved Warlords of Draenor’s Garrison feature, which gave players their own personal fortress to develop, filled with questgivers, resource buildings, followers and other special stuff. Others felt that the Garrison structure killed some of the game’s social structure and screwed majorly with the economy.
Legion takes the Garrison idea and expands upon it with Order Halls, which are basically expansive areas dedicated and themed around a single character class. Rogues get an underground lair, sort of like a dungeon. Hunters get a mountaintop hunting lodge. And Druids? Druids get this:
The Order Hall is the hub for Legion questing, with extensive missions themed to their respective character class. The extensive class-specific content means that Legion finally gives players a compelling reason to play through it with every class. This is a dangerous thing and will surely end my marriage.
The Druid-specific content begins with my character being crowned (I guess it’s some branches and twigs) an Archdruid, leader of Azeroth’s anti-demon, tree-hugging contingent. Gerbil amasses followers and sends them on timed resource-gathering missions, goes on Druidic quests to save famous Druidic characters from Druid-themed doom—basically she runs the place.
Unlike the solitary Garrisons, Order Halls are filled with other player characters, each a member of that specific class. The Dreamgrove, as it is called, is flush with Druids, running about as cats or bears or stupid owl-things or deer, making the whole place reek of patchouli. They’re harvesting resources, upgrading their artifact weapons, flirting with the Laughing Sisters and otherwise Druiding all over the place. It’s pretty great.
It’s still early days for Legion, but the class-focused structure of the expansion has already changed how I play. Specifically how I play Druids, more specifically that I play them at all. I used my level 100 boost for Gerbil because I could never get into the class, but as I took each of my level 100 characters through the opening Legion content, the Druid’s storyline took hold, and now my focus has completely shifted from human Rogue to Worgen Druid.
And it’s always nice to have a clubhouse, even if it always smells like cat pee and patchouli oil.