World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Preview

Brand-new Info on the Game

As the release of the highly anticipated World of Warcraft expansion draws near, VU Games and Blizzard are starting a major PR push. First, they've released brand new info on the game - and we're not just talking your customary bits and pieces of facts, but key announcements in regards to the new features in The Burning Crusade. In addition, the beta testing of the expansion is due to start very soon, so we're all eagerly awaiting our invitation from Blizzard. For more details on the game, along with all the basic information, be sure to check out our previous coverage here and here.

Merry soldier on a gay dragon.

Do not come near my end zone!

So what are these key announcements?

Before we get into that, a few words about the general direction which The Burning Crusade development has taken. It seems that the expansion was designed from the ground up to suit the needs and time constraints of the more casual players. Granted, the hardcore content will still very much be a part of the game: Jeff Kaplan, lead designer for World of Warcraft probably put it best when he said, "Yes, we did focus on making it accessible to casual gamers, but we did provide a lot of hard core content. It all goes back to the Blizzard philosophy of easy to learn, hard to master. If you don't have the hard core content there, you're not going to keep the casual player."

Even with this attention to the hardcore content, however, it's clear that the changes in the game are aimed to keep the casual crowds from feeling completely frustrated about not having nearly enough time in the day to compete with the hardcore nutjobs (or Mom's little basement dwellers, if you will -Mo).

On the PVE front, this is reflected in the capping of the player limit in high-end raid dungeons from 40 to 25. Additionally, many of the dungeons will be focused on 10-man efforts, which will further enable a casual group of friends to enjoy the nominally high-end content without having to endure the almost military doctrine of today's top 40-man raiding guilds.

Continuing with the PVE changes, and in line with the expansion's design philosophy, you will actually be able to save a particular quest midway through the process and come back to it as much as a week later. Also, instance dungeons in the expansion (and in the expansion alone) will have varying degrees of difficulty. Yep, you've read that right. So, for instance, if you've completed a dungeon with a group of lvl 60-62 buddies, you'll be able to come back to it at lvl 70, only the bosses will be much harder now and the loot table will be adjusted according to your level. For the first time in the game, lower level dungeons will actually have replay value on higher levels, allowing the players to choose the instances they liked and still finish them with some sense of accomplishment at high levels.

Naturally, the casual gamer stuff will only get you so far. So in addition to the already announced Kharazan, a 10-man raid dungeon, the expansion will feature places like Callfang, a Naga stronghold, which is really a subterranean pumping station operated by the sinister Naga queen Lady Vasj. She will await you in the raid part of the dungeon. As you can see in one of the screenshots, Callfang will allow players to track through vast underground caverns specifically designed to reflect the aquatic nature of the Naga race.

The Outland is the much ballyhooed area beyond the Dark Portal, a massive gateway to the new continent, which resembles the one depicted in the WoW login screen, but is several times its size. Stepping through the Dark Portal, our brave level 60 players, fresh from clearing Naxx and AQ 40, will face the fell Orcs of Hellfire Peninsula. Hellfire citadel serves as one of the big instance dungeons in the area and is split into different wings. While you may live as a party of mid level 60s, the military wing of the Hellfire citadel will house the mighty Orc Captain on his flying mount - clearly a lvl 70 party encounter.

Finally, the most hardcore of players will get to invade the former center of Naaru power, Tempest Keep. In case you're not in the know, the Naaru are the beings that give Paladins their holy power. This is where the Blood Elf Paladins come into play story-wise, as the magic-hungry Blood Elves have managed to capture one of these ethereal beings and are holding it captive in their capital city of Silvermoon on the colorful Sunstrider Island. There, in the center of the city, Blood Elf sorcerers are leeching off of Naaru's power to allow their race to wield the power of Paladins. "We will leech your energy so that we can bubble and heal like crazy when surrounded by 10 enemies," shout the ecstatic descendants of the High Elf race.

Okay, they might not say that.

Anyway, back to Tempest Keep. First of all, you will need a flying mount just to get to it, so obviously, this implies that Tempest will be the premiere BC dungeon at launch time. The dungeon will consist of several wings. Two 5-man wings and a then a full 25-man raid wing where players will get to attack Prince Kael'Thas Sunstrider. In order to get to the 25-man part, players will need to complete quests in the lower wings, while still being able to replay those wings at a higher level of difficulty later on. Clearly, this is Blizzard's way of catering to the casual players, allowing them to get their epics even if they cannot find 24 other players to raid with.

The PVE changes are all good and well, but after finding out more about the gameplay in The Burning Crusade, it becomes apparent that the PVP segment is the one going through the most radical changes.

Rank 14 players brace yourselves; the honor system in its current form is being scrapped. Well, actually, the ranking system (the ladder system as it is now) is no more. Rank decay will become a thing of the past and with it, the entire approach to the game's PVP. Boy, I'd feel a little stupid if I were you right now (Umm, weren't YOU one of those people, 2Lions? Yeah, I thought so -Mo). Honor Points will remain a part of the game, but in a severely diminished form. With PVP kills and wins in World PVP or the Battlegrounds, you will be able to collect Honor Points as currency to be spent on decent PVP equipment and such. So the grinding system remains a part of PVP, only it now offers rewards that are inferior to the top PVP stuff you get from entering competitions in the Arenas.