TheBurningCrusade
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Breakfast Topic: What Will You Play in the Burning Crusade?
For quite a while, I'd been planning to create a Blood Elf warrior when the expansion came out. Something about these fragile-looking elves being heavily armored warriors amused the heck out of me. However, with yesterday's announcement of official classes available to the two new races, this apparently won't be possible. Now, I'll probably end up rolling a paladin - with their access to plate armor, it will be the closest thing to the warrior of my dreams. And now that the classes are finalized, what are you going to be doing on the expansion's release date? Leveling your existing characters up to 70 immediately, or jumping into one of the new races?
Blood Elf and Draenei Classes Revealed
While there have been unofficial announcements on the classes that would be available to each of these new races, it's only today that we've gotten official word on what each race will be able to play. So, with the release of the Burning Crusade, new Draenei players will be able to choose from warrior, paladin, hunter, priest, shaman, and mage options, while new Blood Elves will be able to pick from paladin, hunter, rogue, priest, mage, and warlock. The biggest surprise here is that Blood Elves won't be able to be warriors - a surprise since the preliminary information on the subject suggested that they would. CM Eyonix tells us that they simply wanted an equal number of classes available to the Draenei and the Blood Elves, so one class had to be cut - and the class that made the most sense was warrior.
Alliance/Horde Ratio Over Time
PlayOn has some interesting data on the ratio of Alliance to Horde players on different server types over the course of about six months. The numbers are surprisingly stable over time, with PvP samples being close on 1-to-1 and PvE samples being nearer 2-to-1. However, this data only makes me more curious as to what the numbers will look like after the Burning Crusade is released, when shamans and paladins are available to both factions.
PvP in the Burning Crusade?
By now, I imagine everyone's aware that the Burning Crusade expansion will allow players (who have purchased the expansion) to level up to 70. However, what this will mean for the game's PvP system remains a bit vague. At present, a level 60 player receives more honor than a lower level player for kills. If the existing system is simply stretched out to level 70, then players at level 60 (who do not own the expansion) will find themselves at a detriment if attempting to compete in the PvP honor rankings. To me, at least, this implies that those players without the expansion won't have hope of keeping up with those who do own it - despite the fact that all will be able to play together on the same servers.
Draenei: Paladins and Shamans?
When the Draenei race was initially announced, a Blizzard poster said that, tentatively, Draenei could be warriors, priests, mages, hunters, and paladins. With the more recent announcement that Draenei would be able to become shamans, many (myself included) wondered if they would still be able to be paladins. However, Tseric recently confirmed that Draenei will still be able to play paladins - which seems fair, as it would leave the Alliance with three paladin races and the Horde with three shaman races. Lore-wise it seems somewhat murky territory - weren't the Draenei supposedly a shamanistic society before their integration into the Burning Crusade, when it was revealed that they were introduced to the Light? I was never much of a loremaster myself, so the changes that seem to be getting made to the history of Azeroth continue to baffle me...
Breakfast Topic: Fixing Faction Imbalance
Blizzard's announcement yesterday that the Horde would have access to paladins and the Alliance would have access to shaman has been getting mixed responses on the forums. Some seem to find this the most equitable solution to faction imbalances - now each side will have access to the same classes and abilities. Others, however, think that with this change there will be no longer be any defining difference between the Horde and the Alliance, and that you may well flip a coin to decide which to play. For myself, I remain undecided - and am adopting a wait-and-see approach to watch how Blizzard plans to run with this change.While this is one way to address the continued concerns of Horde players with regards to PvE imbalance, but it certainly wasn't the only way they may have gone about improving the situation. And so, readers, if left to your hands, how would you have addressed the issue? Is there another way to help bring a bit more PvP power to the Alliance and a bit more PvE power to the Horde, while maintaining their sense of uniqueness?
Alliance Shamans? Horde Paladins?
While previously Blizzard posters had announced an unsurprising list of classes available for the new Draenei and Blood Elf races, but now there appears to have been a change of plan. However, Gamespot is currently reporting that in the Burning Crusade expansion, Draenei will have the option to play as Shamans while Blood Elves will have the option to play as Paladins. While I initially wondered if this was merely wishful thinking, CM Eyonix has posted on the official forums confirming it. This rather changes the argument of faction imbalance and "easy mode" favoritism - and, while it may remove some of the unique flavor of each faction, it may be a good solution for overall game balance.[Thanks, Silvertusk]
Burning Crusade Update: Nether Drakes
The Burning Crusade site has been updated with further information on the flying mounts that may be found in the Outlands. Lore-wise these creatures are the offspring of the black dragon Deathwing, who traveled through the Dark Portal to Draenor, believing it to be a safe haven for some of his eggs. When Ner'zhul opened multiple portals on Draenor with the intent of invading foreign lands, the magical energies released tore the planet apart - and altered the eggs, causing the resulting creatures to have the ability to shift between the physical and astral planes. In use, a Nether Drake will have the speed of an epic mount and be able to run on the ground as well as fly through the air. How they may be obtained or what they might cost, however, remains a mystery!
All About Jewelcrafting
Blizzard has released some new information about the jewelcrafting profession that we'll be seeing in the Burning Crusade expansion. Jewelcrafters will be able to make jewelry, trinkets, and insert gems into socketed items - imbuing them with additional powers. Raw gems may be used by the jewelcrafter to create jewelry and trinkets, or they may be cut into gems suitable for use in socketed items (cut gems may be inserted into socketed items by any player). Interesting, to me, is the article's mention of how jewels are found:By processing the raw ore mined from the various deposits and mineral veins, jewelcrafters can extract gems from the ore which they can then use for their craft. Although miners sometimes find gems while gathering ore, jewelcrafters mostly rely on their prospecting skills to get more of the precious stones.Does this imply that jewelcrafting will be a natural match with mining for a supply of gems? Or that there will be a new "prospecting" profession for gathering gems? While we have a lot of new details, much is still unclear.
Burning Crusade Updates
There are several new tidbits of information regarding the Burning Crusade today. The bestiary and screenshots sections have both been updated with some new images, as well as official word on the racial abilities for the Draenei and Blood Elves (though they may still be tweaked in the future). Keep reading for the official racial abilities.
Breakfast Topic: New Races
As we all know, the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion will include two new races - the Blood Elves and the Draenei. For me, the thought of a new race to try out has reinvigorated interest in the game. After having played around with nearly every class and race combination at least a little, the thought of something new is exciting, and I'm already planning out what I'd like to play. Is everyone else equally eager to have a chance to play with the new races, or is there something else you're looking forward to seeing in the expansion?
Draenei Lore Update
There's a new post up by Chris Metzen that makes an attempt at explaining the interesting quandary of the new Draenei lore. It's a fairly long post, so I'll summarize... The change in the Eredar/Sargeras encounter was an accident, caused by not reviewing the older lore. Sometimes you need to be a bit flexible with the world's history in order to "broaden the scope and accessibility of your setting." They're going to run with the story as it currently is on the Burning Crusade site. They feel it's a stronger story and have already started to build around it. However, there's a lot more in the post and I highly suggest checking it out if you have the time.
The Holes in Draenei Lore
Some Warcraft purists question the recently released history of the new Draenei race - which is very different from the Draenei in existing Warcraft lore. How did the primitive, shamanistic Draenei of previous Warcraft games turn into the Burning Crusade's Draenei, whom we see are oriented towards arcane magic, and more interestingly, the Light. CM Tseric has chimed in on the discussion, saying that there will be additional clarification after E3. Considering the existing contradictions, I'm quite curious to see what we hear on the matter after E3 wraps up.[Thanks, Silvertusk]
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?
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!
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.
