User:Montagg/World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

A press release confirmed that the release date will be January 16th, 2007. In order to give players some of the content developed for the expansion, including the new honor system and the new LFG system, patch 2.0.1 will be released December 5th, 2006[2]

Just as with the original release, a Collector's Edition will also be available.

For more information, see the Pre-Expansion patch FAQ.

The Burning Crusade expansion will contain two new playable races:

• Blood elves -- A faction of former high elves that wield demonic magic join the Horde in the expansion. Their capital is Silvermoon City. Their racial mount is the bird-like hawkstrider.
• Draenei -- A faction of uncorrupted eredar led by Velen join the Alliance. Their capital city is The Exodar. Their racial mount is the elephant-like creature elekk.

The expansion will also allow previously faction-exclusive classes to be played on the opposing faction, with the inclusion of Horde blood elf paladins and Alliance draenei shamans.[3]

Each new race will receive its own new mount:

• Blood elf -- a hawkstrider (Originally called a cockatrice, but changed due to complaints). Blood elf paladin mounts are the same as alliance though they are red instead of the alliance blue.
• Draenei -- an elekk ("a creature with a resemblance to a caparisoned war elephant" - GameSpot)

Flying mounts

Main article: Flying Mounts

Flying mounts will be useable in Outland at level 70. The Horde can get an armored wyvern and the Alliance can have armored gryphons as standard mounts, along with rare mounts such as the Nether Drake.[4].

Tom Chilton stated in an interview that flying mounts will be required to reach some hard to get to places in a "Zelda-esque" way that draws lines based on your acquiring new abilities. Due to the graphical composition of Azeroth not being suited for viewing from all angles, the flying mounts will only be available in the Outland, which has been specifically designed to avoid graphical issues associated with multiple viewpoints. Blizzard has also stated that it will be impossible to summon a player to an area that requires a flying mount from outside of that area.

Druids will have hawk looking shapeshift form[5] that has the ability to fly. It can be obtained at level 68.

While the expansion will change many things, some of the strongest will be how individuals interact with their world through spells. The expansion also changes certain game mechanics for classes and adds new stats to more specifically describe actions such as critical chance, chance to hit, dodge, and resistance to critical hits.

Main article: Burning Crusade spells

The Burning Crusade expansion will contain many new spells, not only to levels 60 and up, but starting from the 40s:

"Currently we're not planning any new classes," says Jeff Kaplan. The company is focused to, "Develop existing classes post-40." In short, expect raid strategies to change - Kaplan says there will be "new gameplay mechanics for every class."[6]

Blizzard will add five to six new spells for the 50-60 level range to each class in order to round out the classes better. The talent trees will also be greatly expanded and revised. All classes will have talents leading up to a 41 talent point ability.[7] Blizzard also intends to improve racial differentiation by carrying the concept they used in the Priest racial spells over to other classes.[8]

Since the Paladin and Shaman classes are no longer unique to either faction, Blizzard intends to add abilities to each class to make them what they truly feel they should be: Paladins, a holy tank that heals, will receive a long-awaited spell Righteous Defense (a long range mass taunt like ability) and Shamans will receive the spell Bloodlust (a long-cooldown, powerful buff) to complement their DPS and utility roles. Information about changes and additions for several of the other classes is available from the official site.

Please see each class's respective page or Blizzard's Blizzard Burning Crusade Skills and Talents Preview for more specific information regarding new spells and talents.

Main article: Combat Rating System

With the upcoming release of the Burning Crusade, a new stat is introduced: Combat Ratings. Source

There will be no critical rate, defense, hit rate, spell critical rate etc. on items any more. They will all be replaced by various Combat Ratings. Similar to the way rogues need more and and more agility as they level to retain the same critical hit chance, combat rating will scale as the player gets higher in level, requiring higher stats to produce the same effect.[9]

The blood elves will have two new starting areas located in the Eastern Kingdom:

• Eversong Woods - Level 1-10
• Ghostlands - Level 10-20

Similarly, the draenei have two starting zones off the west coast of Kalimdor:

• Azuremyst Isle - Level 1-10
• Bloodmyst Isle - Level 10-20

Blizzard has emphasized that the blood elf and draenei experience isn't just slotted into the front of the game. The designers are going back through all the level 20-60 areas and making sure there are appropriate bridging quests, NPCs and lore for the new races. This is being done to ensure, as Pearce puts it, that "everything feels relevant to you and you don't feel like you're an outcast". [10]

The expansion heralds the addition of Outland, an entirely new continent/world, reachable through the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands and portals in several major cities. You may find an interactive map of Outland here. Blizzard has stated that the playable area of Outland will be about half the size of one of the existing continents.[11]

Outland will contain the following zones:

• Hellfire Peninsula - Level 58-63
• Zangarmarsh - Level 60-64
• Terokkar Forest - Level 62-65
• Nagrand - Level 64-67
• Blade's Edge Mountains - Level 65-68
• Netherstorm - Level 67-70
• Shadowmoon Valley - Level 67-70

Although Chris Metzen revealed in the Developer Panels that Illidan closed all the Dark Portals of Outland, MagusRogue, a World of Warcraft RPG Game Designer from White-Wolf, suggested that Outland will also offer portals to other worlds. Metzen has said, "This is something that's infinitely expandable for us in updates and expansions down the line. There can always be more portal worlds."

The expansion will add several dungeons, including many in Outland and Azeroth. The dungeons will contain a plethora of new equipment including Tier 4 armor pieces.

Karazhan in Deadwind Pass

Existing long before Medivh inhabited it, it is unknown who these original builders were. It is also unknown who now resides within its walls.

Caverns of Time in Tanaris

Located in eastern Tanaris, the caverns contain various portals to different key time periods and events in Warcraft history. The caverns act as a crossroads for the various timelines, and through them one can travel back and forth along the ebb and flow of time. The Caverns of Time are home to Nozdormu and the bronze dragonflight. It is their sacred charge to guard the caverns against the intrusion of mortals, whose interference would assuredly disrupt the flow of time. Opening each of these Portals will be World Events. (Source - PC Gamer Febuary 2006)

The login screen of the Burning Crusade.

• Thrall's Escape from Durnholde Keep -- In this wing of the instance you must assist Thrall in escaping from Durnholde Keep where he has been captured by Aedelas Blackmoore.
• Opening of the Dark Portal -- In this wing you must protect Medivh as he opens the Dark Portal in the Black Morass.
• The Battle of Mount Hyjal -- In this epic raid wing players must band together to defend the World tree. Battling out with the Demon Lord Archimonde and his Burning Legion Forces.
• The Battle of Hellfire Peninsula -- While still in planning stages this is said to be a PvP Battleground where Horde and Alliance battle it out on Draenor in the midst of the Second War.

Zul'Aman in Quel'Thalas

A Forest troll-controlled area, bordering Eversong Forest and Ghostlands. A level 70 raid zone (raid size unknown), similar to Zul'Gurub.

Hellfire Citadel, located on the Hellfire Peninsula

A nearly impenetrable bastion, the Hellfire Citadel served as the Horde's base of operations throughout the First and Second Wars. The citadel is now inhabited by Magtheridon.

Coilfang Reservoir in the Zangarmarsh

This instance is the home of the nagas and Lady Vashj. It'll be located underground and the main theme will be the water. There will be platforms surrounded by water that announce epic battles.

Coilfang Reservoir will be composed of 4 wings, 5 men wings each one should be doable in one hour, two at a maximum. The monsters will evolve with the player levels. If the group is composed of level 62 players, the monsters will most likely be around 62. But if the group is 65 then the monsters will be stronger!

Auchindoun in the Terokkar Forest

The main fortress of the Bleeding Hollow clan on Draenor. Auchindoun was an ancient draenei burial ground.

Tempest Keep outside Netherstorm

Part of Tempest Keep was the "Dimensional Ship" the naaru provided for draenei's flight from Argus. The Keep was imbued with powerful arcane energies which allowed it to move from world to world. When the orcs were corrupted by Kil'jaeden, many draenei hid away in the Keep for many decades, until Prince Kael'thas and the other blood elves and naga allied with Illidan Stormrage seized the Keep for themselves. Winged instance home to Prince Kael'thas.

Gruul's Lair in the Blade's Edge Mountains

Gruul's Lair is an "Onyxia sized" instance with two encounters in it -- the Ogre King and his council and Gruul (which possibly a Gronn). Fast 25-man raid instance. Source

Black Temple in the Shadowmoon Valley

Following his defeat at the hands of Arthas, Illidan returned to the Black Temple where he resides to this day.

All future raids will now have caps not exceeding 25 players (current raids will remain at a 40 player cap, at least for now). This was done to allow for a greater number of players to participate in epic raids, and to allow more flexibility in the design of encounters.

In addition, future instances will have a feature allowing players to have the option to run the instances at two different difficulty levels: Normal and Heroic. This would turn a level 60-62 instance into a level 70 instance. The final boss of every hard mode instance will drop epic items, and every boss in hard mode instances will drop tokens to get special gear available in Shatrath.

Instances whose difficulty level can be changed are marked with a purple portal. Currently there are no plans to give this feature to current instances, but this may change. [12]

Meeting Stones will also be useable as summoning points, allowing two members of a group to summon a third.[13]

Burning Crusade will add a new profession as well as add new specializations and abilities to old ones.

Jewelcrafting is a new profession that allows the crafting of rings, trinkets, necklaces and special jewels called socketed items that can be used in specific weapons. See the main Jewelcrafting article for more details or you can check out the official page on the community site.

Profession levels will still increase by increments of 75, but the expansion will add a new level past Artisan (300) called Master (375). This can be maxed to 390 for gnomish engineers, draenei jewelcrafters, tauren herbalists and blood elf enchanters.

Characters will also be able to take advantage of new specializations within each profession. For example, Alchemists can specialize in potions, elixirs or transmution. Blizzard will also add many new recipes, enchantments, patterns and schematics to acquire. See the official preview of profession changes on the community site for more information.

A new battleground called Eye of the Storm will be based in Outland.

Eye of the Storm will feature four locations: Draenei Ruins, Mage Tower, Blood Elf Tower and Fel Reaver Ruins. Players will accumulate victory points for every location captured. A single flag will spawn in the center of the map. A player may take the flag to any location captured by their team to earn victory points. Instead of merely clicking on a flag to claim territory, Eye of the Storm will feature a system in which locations are captured by a team merely having players in the vicinity for a period of time; the more players in the immediate area around a tower, the less time it will take to capture.

The first team to gain 2,000 victory points will win the battleground.

Each team will have 15 members ranging from levels 60-69, or 70.

Main article: Burning Crusade Honor System

The current honor system is being scrapped. In its place will be a new system where players earn honor points that do not decay and spend them as currency on rewards. This will allow players to earn honor rewards at their own pace, and the need for massive 6 month long honor grinds will be eliminated.

These changes will be included in the upcoming 2.0 patch released before Burning Crusade and will also affect those who do not buy the expansion. See Burning Crusade Honor System for more information. [14]

Main article: Arenas

Players will be able to form teams to compete in an arena located in a neutral area. The arena allows for 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5. Teams function similar to guilds with their own chat channel. A team may be up to twice as large as the number of participants. So a 2v2 team can have up to 4 players. The rewards for the arena will be on par with even the most powerful PvE rewards. [15] Currently 2 Arenas are known, Ring of Trials in Nagrand, Circle of Blood in Blade's Edge Mountains.

The expansion will contain a new LFG system. Players will be able to use a new interface panel to place themselves on up to 3 different LFG lists. You can look for a group for quests, instances, raids, zones, or battlegrounds. Players forming groups can then browse the lists of players to find members for their group. The system also has an auto-join feature that essentially works like the current meeting stones, automatically grouping players who are looking for groups for the same thing. You can preview the new Looking for Group interface here.

• Burning Crusade Summary -- Post questions about BC here.
• Offical Burning Crusade site
• Burning Crusade Bestiary
• Definition of the word Crusade
• Screenshots of Burning Crusade closed beta
• Official Beta Test Forums
• Category:Burning Crusade
• Beta Patch 2.0.2 (Release Notes) Beta patch notes

Official videos

• Movie of Blizzard's Burning Crusade presentation at E3

Online previews

• TenTonHammer FAQ
• GameAmp.com FAQ (Burning Crusade FAQ, updated often)
• Gamespy E3 2006
• MMOsite E3 2006
• TenTonHammer 11, Aug 2006 (Interview with Jeff Kaplan)
• GameSpot 31st Mar 2006 (Interview with Jeff Kaplan)
• CVG 12 Dec 2005 (Interview with Shane Dabiri)
• IGN BlizzCon 2005
• GameSpot BlizzCon 2005
• GameSpy BlizzCon 2005
• GamePro BlizzCon 2005

Community information

• Schwick's: Info About Expansion

Magazine articles

• Computer Gaming World Dec 2005