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Changes: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

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* [[Tseric]] said: "In all honesty, we want the expansion to come out earlier than it likely will."
 
* [[Tseric]] said: "In all honesty, we want the expansion to come out earlier than it likely will."
 
* [[Caydiem]] said: "We haven't announced an official release date of any kind -- not to the playerbase, and not to retailers. When a product is set for release and they're offering pre-orders as many PC game stores are wont to do, they need a date of some kind up there. Often times, if there is no official date, they will estimate a date."
  
* [[Caydiem]] said: "We haven't announced an official release date of any kind -- not to the playerbase, and not to retailers. When a product is set for release and they're offering pre-orders as many PC game stores are wont to do, they need a date of some kind up there. Often times, if there is no official date, they will estimate a date."
  +
−
* Rumors go that it could be 6th of October (unlikely) or the 1st of November.
  
 
* According to EBGames website, the game ships pre-order November 28th. [http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=646436]
  
* According to EBGames website, the game ships pre-order November 28th. [http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=646436]
   

Revision as of 22:44, 21 September 2006

File:BurningCrusadeLogo.gif

The Burning Crusade logo

The Burning Crusade is the first expansion for World of Warcraft. The main features include an increase of the level cap, the introduction of the blood elves and the draenei as playable races and the addition of the world of Outland, along with many new zones, dungeons, items, quests, and monsters.

Please DO NOT post any images obtained from the Burning Crusade alpha; Blizzard and the ESA are semi-actively going after sites that host those images. Please see Burning Crusade DMCA Takedown Notice.

Burning Crusade-related content on wowwiki is denoted by the following tagline:

Template:Bc


Confirmed Information

Increased level cap

  • Level cap increased to 70, with 10 more talent points, and expanded talent trees.
    • Gamespy, August 2006 (BC Review, Pg. 3): This guy's grind from 60-70 was probably twice as long as his one from 50-60. Truth. Picture caption. (source)
    • PC Gamer, August 2006 (p. 61): The amount of time it'll take to get from level 60 to level 70 is equivalent to the time it takes for a level 1 to reach level 60.
Note: Players that do not purchase the expansion will not be able to go higher than level 60. (Source)

Two New Playable Races

Faction-Class Crossovers

Recently confirmed: Blizzard Site

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


New Class Abilities

Possibly confirmed: GameSpy - Blizzard Interview

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 taunt ability and Shamans will receive the spell Spell nature bloodlust [Bloodlust] to complement their DPS and utility roles. Information about changes and additions for several of the other classes is available from the official site.

New Zones

New High-Level Dungeons

Azeroth

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
Located in the eastern part of Tanaris, 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)
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
A troll-controlled area, bordering Eversong Forest and Ghostlands.

Outland

Hellfire Citadel located on the Hellfire Peninsula
A nearly impenetrable bastion that 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 which involve movement!
It 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 that was an ancient draenei burial ground.
Tempest Keep in the 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 raid. Source
Black Temple in the Shadowmoon Valley
Following his defeat at the hands of Arthas, Illidan returned to the Temple where he resides to this day.

New Spells and Talents

All new Spells and Talents can be previewed at: Blizzard Burning Crusade Skills and Talents Calculator

  • 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." Source: Game Pro
    • They will be rounding out the existing classes better, by adding 4 or 5 completely new spells for the 50-60 level range for each character class. BlizzCon 2005
    • Blizzard stated that mages will be getting some form of Ability mage invisibility [Invisibility] back in the level 60 to level 70 spells. Source: BlizzCon 2005
  • The talent trees will be expanded. There will be a few more tiers in the talent trees, leading all the way up to 41 point talents. Source: BlizzCon 2005
  • They are looking to improve racial differentiation by carrying the concept they used in the Priest racial spells over to other classes. Source: BlizzCon 2005

New Profession and Socketable Items

  • Jewelcrafting to make fist weapons, rings, trinkets, necklaces and gems to enhance socketed items.
    • GameSpot 31st Mar 2006: The system will be fairly similar to that of Diablo II, along with some nuances that will make it unique to World of Warcraft. For example, we plan to introduce a new type of gem that grants bonuses that depend on the other types of gems your character is using. In addition, players will be able to overwrite gems, but at the cost of the gem they are replacing.
    • WoW.com's official page
  • Current profession levels increase by increments of 75, so the next level up from Artisan (300) may be 375. This can be maxed to 390 for gnomish engineers, draenei jewelcrafters, tauren herbalists and blood elf enchanters. This is not certain, however, and may instead follow the previous scheme of an increase of 5 every level.

New Hunter Pets

  • "Someone asked if there will be new tameable creatures in the Outlands, and they responded 'that's a good question... yes'." Source: BlizzCon Art Panel


Mounts

Blood Elf and Draenei Mounts

Source:World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Updated Impressions - PvP Details, Raid Details, and High-Level Zones By Andrew Park, GameSpot Posted Aug 11, 2006 6:00 pm PT

Flying Mounts Introduced

  • Flying mounts will be useable in the 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 .[1]
  • Official link [2]
  • Other known information:
    • Tom Chilton: "We'll put some high-level content in very hard to reach places - effectively places that you'll need a flying mount to reach. It's a dream for explorers, and you can draw lines to the Zelda-esque level construction where a new ability opens up aspects in a previously explored area."
    • 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 specificially designed to avoid graphical issues associated with multiple viewpoints. Blizzard reps have stated that it would be possible to "rebuild" the existing continents to accommodate for flying mounts, but this would take enormous amounts of time as Kalimdor and the Eastern Continents combined are more than 4 times the size of Outland. It is unlikely they will support flying mounts in the near future.
    • Flying mounts are needed because sections of Outland are floating remains of Draenor. Flying mounts will be needed to reach most floating areas.
    • It will not be possible to summon a player to a zone that requires flying mounts from outside of that zone.

Portals to Other Worlds

  • From Computer Gaming World Dec 2005: "Things will get even crazier once you open portals into other worlds—three [of these] zones are already planned for the expansion, with seven total that Blizzard knows about."
  • Chris Metzen revealed in the Developer Panels that Illidan closed all the Dark Portals of Outland. Nevertheless, MagusRogue, a World of Warcraft RPG Game Designer from White-Wolf revealed the following: "The portals were shut down by Illidan, actually. However, some of the quests in the Burning Crusade Expansion have you re-opening these and going to new dimensions, fighting the legion in new worlds. Should be awesome."
  • "One of the things we're most excited about," says Metzen, "is the chance to create environments unlike anything you've seen in previous games. We really want to ramp it up for the players now. We're saying, 'Hey, you've graduated, you're over level 60 now, so let's get crazy with some really alien worlds and creatures." Even better, this is something that's infinitely expandable for us in updates and expansions down the line. There can always be more portal worlds."


New Honor System

The current honor system is being scrapped. In its place will be a new system where players earn honor points (which won’t 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 affect everyone, including those who do not buy the expansion. See Burning Crusade Honor System for more information.

[3]

Team PvP Arena

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. [4]


Raid and Instance Changes

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 - standard and hard. This would turn a level 60-62 instance into a level 70 instance with level 70 rewards, just for that group. Currently there are no plans to give this feature to current instances but this may change.

[5]


Release Date

The target release date will be late 2006 in Europe, Korea, and North America (and those regions that play on North American realms), and we will work to ensure that the launches in mainland China and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau take place as quickly as possible after that.
  • Blizzard (always) says: "When it's done."
  • Nethaera said: "We do not have an official release date as of yet. We are still looking at Q4 2006 however for a target date. Ultimately it will be released when it's ready. " Source
  • Rob Pardo said: "Sometime in 2006."
  • Tseric said: "In all honesty, we want the expansion to come out earlier than it likely will."
  • Caydiem said: "We haven't announced an official release date of any kind -- not to the playerbase, and not to retailers. When a product is set for release and they're offering pre-orders as many PC game stores are wont to do, they need a date of some kind up there. Often times, if there is no official date, they will estimate a date."
  • According to EBGames website, the game ships pre-order November 28th. [6]

Name

Since the forces of the Burning Legion will once again rear their heads, the expansion was named for their muderous intention to exterminate all life and order in the universe; their Burning Crusade.

Debunked!

No New Classes (or Hero Classes)

  • Normal Classes:
    • Tom Chilton: "The primary reason not to do it is so we can focus more on developing the character classes we already have. As we go from 60 to 70 we can add abilities, extend all the talent trees and work on the concept of heroes. Even though things are going to evolve, it's still very important for us to dedicate enough time to do heroes that feels really good and captures the spirit of the heroes in Warcraft III, and we don't short-change it by focusing too much on new character classes."
    • "Currently we're not planning any new classes," says Kaplan. The company is focused to, "Develop existing classes post-40." In short, expect raid strategies to change--Kaplan says there will be "new game play mechanics for every class." Source: Game Pro
    • Debunked Class: Spellbreaker – A blood elf unit from Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard has stated that there will be no new classes in The Burning Crusade, nor do they intend to introduce any for the foreseeable future, because of the balancing headaches. Tyren: "I honestly don't know where the idea of a Spellbreaker came from, but I do want players to know that isn't going to be a feature of the expansion." Source: IGN
  • Hero Classes:
    • They are planning for hero classes in the future, but not for this expansion.
    • Jeux Online: "Development continues on Hero system, and we're very excited about the Hero system. We hope to shed more light on them before they are released, but it's still a bit early to discuss them at this time."
    • "We are still interested in alternate character advancement, but the term 'Hero Class' should probably be discarded. There is way too much expectation carried in the words. The theories and ideas that have been aimed towards alternate character advancement will not likely take the form of 'new classes' and player speculation on such things is fairly divergent from what design ideas have been discussed." [7][8]


No Player Housing

  • Player Housing will not be coming in the Burning Crusade, but it is still being discussed for possible addition to the game.


Debunked Zones

  • Debunked by Shane Dabiri: "The only new starting zones will be for the new races."


See Also

Sources

  • Movie of Blizzard's Burning Crusade presentation at E3


Schwick's info compilation!

A frequently updated list of known info, by Schwick of the EU forums

Game website articles

Magazine articles

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