BurningCrusade
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Hands on with baby Blood Elves
I played through the first few levels as a Blood Elf Mage at E3 today. As a veteran of every other newbie land, I have to say that starting from scratch as a Blood Elf has a similar feel to the other races -- there's only so much you can do as a newbie, after all.However, the newbie quests have an interesting twist. Thanks to the Blood Elves' Mana Tap racial, levelling downtime is reduced, and quests teach you how to use the racial effectively. It's going to be a really vital get-out-of-jail card -- when you Mana Tap enemies, their mana is reduced and you receive a buff with no immediate effect. You can stack this effect up to three times, and then unleash the Arcane Torrent racial to restore your much-needed mana at a time when it really counts. The cooldown means you can't use this all the time, but I can see it becoming really vital for healers, for instance.
WoW Moviewatch: Flying Mounts at E3
Again, from an anonymous, on-the-spot cameraman, some hazy, blurry, brief, yet extremely cool glimpses of flying mounts at E3. Take off, eh?
WoW Moviewatch: Burning Crusade at E3
Thanks to this stealthy cameraman, you can get an almost-realistic, slightly-lifelike, not-so-reasonable, low-rez facsimile of previewing the Burning Crusade expansion at E3. It's like being there, only with poor eyesight & without all the geeks! Enjoy...
Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan on the Burning Crusade
Today's New York Times has an interview with Blizzard designer Jeff Kaplan, where he speaks out for the first time since E3 & the announcement of the new Draenei playable race. The piece is a very informative Q&A where Kaplan fields questions regarding the selection of the Draenei and the dev's motivations behind this & other upcoming changes that will accompany the release of the new expansion.For all those following the latest expansion news from E3 & elsewhere, there are some great tidbits of information here, concerning a wealth of subjects related to the Burning Crusade. Kudos to the Times, also, for such an unapologetically gamer-centric article, with no pretense of trying to explain what the hell they're talking about to the non-gaming reader. Click here to read.
Burning Crusade Site Updated
The official Burning Crusade site has been updated with new concept art, new screenshots (primarily of the Draenei), and interesting lore information for both races. There's also a new gameplay trailer, so those of us who stayed home can see what everyone at E3 is seeing. (Well, almost.) There's a lot of other information out there, but Blizzard's site is still the official information, and it's the only place to find detailed lore. [Image above is official concept art]
Breakfast Topic: To Raid or Not to Raid
With the honor system's PvP rewards starting to look a little tired, and a new raid dungeon and tier 3 armor being released in patch 1.11, any player has to wonder what there is to do at level 60 other than raid. Of course there's more small dungeons coming in the Burning Crusade expansion, and the community managers have been vaguely suggesting future improvements to the PvP system, but for now the game seems to strongly push one towards raiding. What do you think of the existing raiding system - love it or hate it? Do you enjoy the raiding game or have you found other ways to enjoy Azeroth after level 60?
Nether Drake is first flying mount
We already knew that the Burning Crusade expansion will feature flying mounts, but at E3 we've seen firsthand the Flying Drake, one of these mounts. Zones like Outland are being designed with flying mounts -- which are available at level 70 -- in mind, so getting your new mount will unlock new content within these zones.The Flying Drake was demonstrated with a Draenei character, but we don't know which other mounts will be available, or to whom. Given the existing quest storylines, gryphons or hippogryphs may be a possibility, but it's likely that Blizzard will introduce some brand new mounts as well.
Burning Crusade: the lowdown
We sat down with J. Allen Brack, Senior Producer at Blizzard, to look inside the Burning Crusade expansion and find out more about what's in store. The expansion will be released at the end of 2006 (with no increase in the monthly fee), so here's some information to keep us all going until then. As we already know, two new races will be introduced -- the Blood Elves for Horde, and the Draenei for Alliance. Draenei players will be able to become priests, mages, hunters, paladins or warriors, with a racial that allows healing regardless of class. These spiritual creatures are large -- Tauren-sized -- and start out in Ammen Vale, on Azuremyst Isle, south of Teldrassil.
Hands on with the Burning Crusade expansion
We know pictures speak louder than words -- the image above is from the E3 teaser video --so we've the following screenshots from The Burning Crusade expansion for you to pore over. Gameplay-wise, the expansion demonstrated at E3 is identical to the current version of WoW; it ran smoothly on the demonstration Macs.We explored both the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas, but we'll have more impressions later when we speak to Blizzard -- any comments or questions you leave in the next two hours may be passed on. In the meantime, enjoy these shots.
New Alliance Race Revealed!
The new alliance race has finally been revealed in the New York Times. It's the Draenei - a race that's long been speculated as the most likely choice. Other than screenshots, there's not much solid news yet on the play abilities of the Draenei, so stay tuned for more news as it comes in.Update: There's also a New York Times interview with Jeff Kaplan (AKA Tigole) with additional details, including the possible classes: warrior, priest, paladin, mage, and hunter.[Thanks, Stephen, Shawn, and Geoffrey for all sending this in!]
Breakfast Topic: What do you want from E3?
Another year and another E3 is upon us. Of course E3 is a source for gaming news across the spectrum, but Blizzard and World of Warcraft will certainly have a presence. We've already been told to expect more information on upcoming raid dungeon Naxxramas and the new tier 3 armor set contained within, but I've no doubt that Blizzard is keeping some surprises up its sleeves. More news on the Burning Crusade expansion? New Alliance race information, perhaps? Hero classes? What do you hope for from Blizzard at E3 this year? Tell us about it!
Dungeon Content Updates
Tigole has made a post updating us all on the current status of future dungeon development. Thus far, announced dungeons for the expansion have been smaller-scale, which will hopefully serve to balance out the game when we've been seeing a lot of 40-player raid content released recently. Karazhan: A max-level (70), ten player raid dungeon, to be released in the expansion. Tigole describes it as "non-linear," and I wonder if that implies a winged dungeon (similar to what we've seen in Scarlet Monastery) or if it simply means you can approach the bosses in whatever order you wish (similar to what we've seen in Zul'Gurub). Additionally, there will be shortcuts to allow players to return to their previous location in the dungeon and continue play from where they've left off, if they've had to leave mid-run. Hellfire Citadel: Another expansion dungeon. This one is confirmed as a 4-wing dungeon, with two wings appropriate for level 60-70 players and two wings for level 70 players. One of the max-level wings will be limited to 5 players, and the other will be an Onyxia-like "quick" raid, with a single boss (Magtheridon). Naxxramas: To be released with patch 1.11. This will be a level 60 raid instance that will feature tier 3 gear. We should expect more news on Naxxramas at E3 in a couple of weeks as well as seeing it live on the public test realms in "a few more weeks."
Burning Crusade Bestiary
The official Burning Crusade site has been updated with a small bestiary, with promises of more additions in the coming months. Included is some interesting lore and nice concept art for Ethereals, Fleshbeasts, Forest Trolls, and Gronn. It is only a small update, true, but with so little substantial news about the expansion, you take what you can get.
Time-line for Burning Crusade Release?
There's been a lot of speculation as to when The Burning Crusade expansion will be released - different retailers list different release dates, and Blizzard has not made anything public yet. However, CM Eyonix dropped a little tidbit in the forums today which may provide a clue as to when we can expect to see the expansion hit store shelves, telling us that they plan to do a talent review for all classes before the release. With three un-reviewed classes, and predicting six to eight weeks between patches, this pushes the expansion out four and a half to six months. September or October, anyone?
What Would You Do with 61 Talent Points?
You may have heard that the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion will raise the level cap of the game from 60 to 70. But what doesn't seem to be such common knowledge is the fact that you will receive ten additional talent points to spend, and that all of the talent trees will be expanded to accommodate these extra points (likely providing each talent tree with a 41-point talent). So, the question remains - what do you plan to do when you have ten extra talent points to throw around?
The Final Word on Wisps
I've been very anxious since the initial Wisp announcement - worried that April Fool's might just be a cover for quietly distributing the news of a crazy concept race. Thankfully, my fears were unwarrented - on Monday Blizzard let us know that they were only kidding. Now we can get back to the hard work of speculating about what the new race might actually be!
Remember the Pandaren?
Perhaps some of you recall the rumor about Pandaren as the new Alliance race, which started circulating around the forums around October. It was accompanied by a rather believable screenshot, which fanned the flames of speculation. Well, this April 1st, instead of the usual jokes, Ian of Mac Hall admitted (scroll down to see Ian's news post on the subject) that he'd spent some eight hours modeling work to accomplish the effect. Seems like a lot of work for a prank, but the final product fit the World of Warcraft look quite nicely. Only time will tell whether the murloc rumors will have a similar fate!
Wisps: Really the New Alliance Race?
Initially, I brushed off the "wisp" announcement as an obvious April Fool's prank, but Blizzard has thus far been sticking to the assertion, with numerous forum posts asserting that wisps are the real deal. This evening, Drysc noted that it was unfortunate the change was announced so close to April Fool's. And Eyonix points out that he's stated multiple times that wisps aren't a joke. So now I have to wonder - is this the real thing, or is it just an elaborate prank?
Burning Crusade Q & A with Jeffrey Kaplan
Jeffery Kaplan, known to readers of the official forums as Tigole, has talked briefly with Gamespot about new races, jewelcrafting, flying mounts, and all things expansion. No, he hasn't dropped any solid hints about the new Alliance race, though, much to my relief, he has said nothing of wisps. However, despite the lack of solid news, the interview is interesting and provides several interesting tidbits to keep us speculating about what exactly we're going to see in the Burning Crusade.[Via MMORPG Blog]
April Fool's with Blizzard
While I could be wrong, I'm guessing this announcement of the new Alliance race is an early April Fool's joke. Not just because the idea of a "wisp" race came completely out of the blue, but because their racial abilities seem downright odd. My personal favorite has to be treeform, which turns the wisp into a tree for 30 seconds. During this time, spirit is increased by 300 but the wisp's chance to dodge or parry axes is reduced by 50%.Edit: Eyonix claims this is "no joke" but I still think he's joking.
