ON JANUARY 16, I got my hands on a copy of The Burning Crusade, the expansion to the world’s most popular online computer game, World of Warcraft, and I haven’t slept as much as I used to since.
The expansion treats subscribers of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game to an increase in the level cap of player characters to 70 from 60; new spells for each class; new races; a new profession; and a new continent with its own unique set of quests, dungeons, monsters, and items.
So for the eight million that pay about $15 a month to play WoW, is Burning Crusade going to be worth their while? Well, for the active gamers, racing to level 70 will be a wonderful exercise, while for the more casual gamers there will certainly be lots to do in terms of quests, although instances might be difficult to get to unless you have close friends or “guildies” that will go along with you. The looking for group system that Blizzard introduced in December is still a flop, and if you’re one of those leveling up either an Alliance Draenei or a Horde Blood Elf, then you’ll be more reliant on higher-level players to help you out.
For most of the players, they’ll find that a number of the quests are quite fun, although, as one review has pointed out, the quests are still going to be about killing characters/monsters or about gathering stuff. One of my favorite quest chains is the Ring of Blood, which has you and your party squaring off against elite champions in a mini-arena. Another chain will have you calling down a druid and using warp cannons while protecting them to destroy portals as fast as you can.
The gathering type of quest has become less of a chore than it used to be as it appears that Blizzard has become more generous concerning the drops. I must warn, however, that there are two quest item drops that may have you cursing the developer in frustration: bat spore eyes and aged clefthoof blubber. If you don’t want to have any strands of hair turning prematurely grey from killing a gazillion spore bats or aged clefthoofs (clefthooves?) then you might want to decline the quests for them.
If you love running dungeons, you’ll find the instances to be fairly easy for the level for which they have been designed. For example, killing the plagued hatchlings in Scholomance was probably more difficult for a lot of parties than killing the Avian Rippers in Sethekk Halls. Mostly, the bosses are a piece of cake, but in a few cases you’ll come across a few that will really test you, until you figure out the right strategy. For example, after deciding that the rogue should tank, my party easily downed one boss that had wiped us several times when the protection paladin had been the main tank.
Perhaps understanding that not everyone has three to four hours a day to devote to complete an instance, the people at Blizzard have cut short the time it takes to about one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours. Most of the instances have only three bosses, a few have two, but there will be a lot of tricky mobs that you’ll have to get through first, and it can get pretty exciting, especially when you have to run and down waves of them, like in Black Morass, probably the dungeon I like running at the moment. If you want to accumulate blues or rare items quickly, choose this dungeon.
Of course, once your character or characters have geared up and become more familiar with the dungeon drills, the challenge of doing an instance again and again will soon wane, but then there is always the heroic mode option, which may explain why the instances seemed so easy in the first place. In order to unlock the heroic level, though, players will need to be level 70 and achieve other objectives, such as gaining enough reputation from factions. I have only attempted the heroic difficulty once and my party was wiped out several times on one patrol because the adds could down the party members in just a few hits and they were immune to most crowd control measures. But then, while the risks of wiping are high, so are the rewards from succeeding. Supposedly, there will be purples or, as more formally called, epic items.
I’m not sure if Blizzard has done anything to the loot drops mechanism but it seems that there is a higher probability that loot appropriate to the class will drop, although I still often see enough non-class items. Still there has got to be a reason why since I’ve been running instances mainly with shadow priests — I’ve never seen so much cloth or wands in my WoW playing life.
I don’t do much player-versus-player so it’s hard for me to comment on what was introduced, but there are certainly more quests or scenarios that the more PVP-inclined can do. In each zone there are towers or beacons or what-not to capture and you can earn tokens that may be exchanged for very good items.
So, to those that may be on a break from WoW, if you don’t want to risk being accused of having no life, don’t buy The Burning Crusade. Otherwise, get prepared for nights not noticing that it’s already 3 a.m.
Editor’s Note: hackenslash contributor Elena Torrijos is a freelance writer based in Singapore.
For Jayvee Fernandez’s take on The Burning Crusade in the “Yay! or Boo! Reviews” segment, check out Episode 1 of hackenslash: the podcast.
The Burning Crusade
Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
ESRB Rating: Teen (T)
