World of Warcraft: Legion arrived only three months ago, and already it has received enough new content to rival the entirety of Warlords of Draenor's post-launch updates. Things are going to become even more lopsided in the near future as Blizzard has announced a bunch of new features coming in with Patch 7.1.5.
While Patch 7.1 added Kharazan and Trials of Valor (which isn't live just yet) to bolster Legion's endgame, Patch 7.1.5 is instead focusing on expanding Legion's offering of day-to-day activities. What this means in gameplay terms is that Mists of Pandaria dungeons will soon become available as a part of the Timewalking system, the Brawler's Guild is being expanded with a whole bunch of new battles, some of the legendary items are being rebalanced, and there's even going to be mini-holidays to spice things up every once in a while!
For those of you that might not know, the Timewalking dungeons are essentially upscaled versions of classic dungeons with new rewards and skins for players to collect. They aren't meant as hardcore content, hence why even lower level players can attempt them, but rather as a way to experience some of WoW's finest dungeons in a relatively balanced and challenging state... with the emphasis being on relatively. So if you've never experienced the Mists of Pandaria dungeons in their prime, you'll soon have a chance to do just that, and hopefully pick up a couple of new cosmetics along the way!
The second big feature coming in with Patch 7.1.5 is an update to the rather neglected Brawler's Guild - a bizarre parody of Fight Club with a whole bunch silly rules and interesting boss fights. As you might expect, Patch 7.1.5 will add in even more challenging solo encounters for you to square off against, but also a couple of co-op bosses! While the details are currently a bit shaky, these bosses will apparently pull everyone into the arena and force them to play together as a team... or die trying. Should you succeed you'll be rewarded with a healthy dose of new currency which can be used to purchase cosmetics, battle pets, and most intriguingly of all, a new basilisk mount!
This is what a Basilisk looks like... not exactly prime mount material, but I've ridden worse!
As for the mini-holidays, these things won't be as spectacular as the Halloween or Christmas festivities, but they should still offer a small diversion from 'normal' gameplay. One such holiday will be the Ahn'Qiray Remembrance Day - a celebration of one of World of Warcraft's greatest moments that had the combined forces of both Alliance and Horde fight an epic, server-crashing battle to open the gates of Ahn'Quiray! I was among the privileged few that actually managed to remain on the server throughout the whole event, so I look forward to seeing what Blizzard is going to do in order to commemorate such an amazing, and sadly unique moment of WoW history.
And finally, some practical matters. If you're like me and you received an absolutely garbage legendary item (so bad that you replaced it with a simple epic!), you'll be glad to hear that Blizzard is looking to improve some of the more... questionable ones for Patch 7.1.5. Nothing has been confirmed so far, especially not the list of legendary items being changed, but at the very least its good to hear that Blizzard is aware of the problem. Getting a legendary, 0.001% item drop shouldn't compel my entire guild to go "oh no, I'm so sorry man"!
If you're wondering when exactly Patch 7.1.5 will be arriving, the answer is a lot sooner than you expect... unless you're expecting it to arrive next week, in which case you're most likely going to be correct because Blizzard is aiming to release it onto the PTR (Public Test Realm) as soon as possible. Whatever the case may be, I'm pretty damn happy with all of the content we've been getting so far, and here's to hoping there's never a drought as severe as it was back in Dreanor!
