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World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Review
After countless raids on Molten Core, Zul Gurub, and Ahn Qiraj,
it's no surprise that some folks were growing tired of playing
World of Warcraft at the level cap. Despite small content
additions made to the game through patches, many people have
several level 60 characters and there just wasn't much left to
explore, with the possible exception of the game's most
difficult instances. World of Warcraft has been nothing short of
a sensation for last two years, but it was evident that fans
were ready for a major expansion, and Blizzard has answered
their call with The Burning Crusade.
Outland Awaits
The Burning Crusade is a large expansion by any measure. The new
persistent continent, Outland, consists of 7 zones, some of
which are comparable in size to The Barrens. Hellfire Penninsula,
the first area you encounter on the other side of the Dark
Portal, is literally crawling with level 60 characters questing
and pummelling each other over the PvP objectives in the middle
of the map. Raid schedules have been abandoned, at least
temporarily, and people seem genuinely thrilled to have their
experience bars back as they anxiously pursue the increased
level cap of 70.
New dungeons in the Outland are being conquered, although they
do represent a significant challenge for characters in their
early 60s that don't have top tier equipment from the "old
world." The last boss in the 5-man Ramparts dungeon has
certainly inflicted serious damage on groups with low fire
resistance. No doubt these will get a lot more routine as people
accumulate experience and loot in the expansion, but they now
have difficulty settings which will make them more replayable,
and there are numerous more difficult dungeons further into
Outland, each of which deserves a review of its own.
When you first enter Hellfire Pennisula you witness a huge NPC
battle at The Stair of Destiny. You're quickly given a flight
further into the zone, where enormous level 70 elite Fel Reavers
roam about crushing unsuspecting players that get caught in
their path. While there are heaps of quests to tackle, only a
few have really stood out so far. The bombing runs, which have
you dropping explosives on mobs from the back of a Windrider,
are very memorable, and they do a wonderful job of forshadowing
things that could be done with the new flying mounts which can
be purchased at level 70.
These flying mounts don't come cheap, and they only work in the
Outland, so your trusty ground steed will still come in handy in
the old world. There are, however, certain areas in the new
zones that you can't reach on foot, so saving some gold is a
good idea.
Altogether the Outland is rather like launch day all over again,
except everyone is 60+, and there are far fewer server outages.
Server queues during peak hours have been quite common, but I
suspect that will gradually subside as the initial thrill wears
off. Overcrowding is a bit of an issue, as the mobs in first
couple zones have barely been able to spawn fast enough for the
rush of players.
There's a lot of new content I haven't explored yet, and being a
relatively casual player, I suspect it will take me quite a
while to see it all. A few of the highly dedicated types in our
guild pretty much gave up sleep and raced to level 70 in less
than a week. Of course, that's not possible for the average
person who actually has a life. If you're one the latter, expect
to spend weeks or even months reaching the new level cap.
At the end of the day, The Burning Crusade will be judged on how
much there is to keep level 70 characters busy. Raid content in
the expansion is 25-man rather than 40-man, probably due to
complaints about how difficult 40-man raids are to organize. As
you can imagine, there are a number of additional factions to
grind as well, but sooner or later players will likely end up
running the same instances over and over again. !
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