BurningCrusade
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New Alliance race: the latest rumour
It's all been a bit quiet on the new Alliance race front as of late. However, this image (courtesy of the forums) will help stir up some of the rumours again: it's a very good Photoshopping, in my opinion, but it may spark a few seeds of doubt. Of course, as several other people have said, if the race is Murlocs then I'm switching back to the Alliance.[Thanks, CapAmerica]
Casual Gamers and The Burning Crusade
The recent announcment of the Hellfire Citadel componant of the expansion (now up on the official site) has started me thinking about the casual, non-raiding gamer, and how they'll fit in to the new content. While some forum-goers are already calling out the expansion as bad for casuals (due to the fact that hard-core raiders will have a gear advantage in tackling new content), the two instance dungeons announced thus far make me wonder if it will be as bad as the early doomcallers predict. Previously announced Karazhan is designed for 10 players and Hellfire Citadel is a 4-wing dungeon - three wings are capped at 5 players, and the forth is designed for a full raid. While this both of these do require group play, they're small groups, which seems to leave an opening for more casual players who can't fit a 40-player raid into their schedule.
The Burning Crusade: Blood Elves
While information on the upcoming expansion is still fairly limited, community manager Tigole has recently given us a list of planned playable classes for the new Horde race, the Blood Elves. Included are mage, priest (I wonder what their racial abilities will be!), warrior, warlock, rogue, and hunter, though Tigole does note that this may change. I'm planning on starting a Blood Elf warlock when the option becomes avalible, what about you?
Upcoming Patch & Expansion FAQ
It's hard to keep track of all of the news that comes out about upcoming changes in the World of Warcraft. We know a good deal about patch 1.10, and a little about the expansion, but there are also plenty of little tidbits floating around regarding patches 1.11 and 1.12. To keep everything straight, Schwick of EU server Shadowsong has compiled a very detailed listing of all known information about future content, including links to the original sources, as well as a good amount of informed speculation. An excellent resource for anyone who wants to know what's going on!
Breakfast Topic: To test or not to test?
Now that we're familiar with the test realm contests, that Beta spot looks oh-so-inviting, but which contest to enter? If any? Having briefly popped on to the Honor Contest EU realm yesterday, it seems that many players are pinning their hopes on PvP, labelling the race to 50 as "only for gold farmers" and the level 25 alts competition as "a waste of time".Whether this attitude is fair is another matter, but there's certainly been a lot of confusion over the contests so far. Many players arrived on the Honor Contest realm looking for their level 60 characters, so often that players in Mulgore made macros to clear things up in chat. The feeling is definitely one of "every man for himself", with newbies who ask "which is the best class for pvp?" or "what's the fastest way to level?" often going unanswered.It strikes me what a tremendous amount of time these gamers are going to have to put in to win the contest--but it certainly looks achievable, and that time would probably be spent playing WoW anyway. Are you planning to enter a contest? If so, which one?
The Burning Crusade: Karazhan Preview!
Blizzard recently posted an official preview of the level 70 10-man Karazhan instance in Deadwind Pass, with screenshots and story information. The screenshots of this abandoned palace look fascinating, with a unique look and feel. I'm sure everyone can agree that you can only run Scholomance (an abandoned palace with a very different look and feel!) so many times before growing bored, so bored. If you feel this strange "Karazhan" thing has come out of the blue, current information about Karazhan is nicely summarized in this WoWWiki article.
Gamestop gives Burning Crusade a release date
The eagerly-awaited Burning Crusade expansion is now listed on Gamestop's website with a price of $39.99 and release date of the 3rd July 2006--excellent news for those waiting to get their hands on it. Such release dates are often spurious and subject to change, so we might see other guesses trickling through to various retailers.The price point is definitely interesting, being fairly close to the full WoW price. Buying both at once will burn a hole in your wallet, but so many people will be anxious to get access to all the new content that the price will probably prove no object.[Thanks, Picarucu]
