World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

First look at Blizzard's expansion The Burning Crusade to World of Warcraft, right from BlizzCon.

Update: The Burning Crusade has been released, and we were at the launch with cameras. Check out the scenes from the midnight launch here.

It's safe to say after that Blizzard is on the right track with its first expansion to World of Warcraft, one of the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Attendees were shown a preview of the game at the inaugural BlizzCon, a celebration of Blizzard's games.

The Burning Crusade will add countless new features, the most significant being an increased level cap to 70; two new races, one of which being the magical Blood Elves for the Horde; a new area called the Outland; epic flying mounts; a new profession -- jewel crafting; and socketed items.

As part of the increase to level 70, players will gain access to new spells and abilities, as well as improved versions of existing abilities.

And that's just the beginning.

Unfortunately, there was no mention of hero classes, a feature Blizzard said would be included before in the original game. It's not clear at this time if they will be in the expansion.

Players will also find new dungeons, including the Caverns of Time in Tanaris where players will be able to venture back in time and take part in battles from previous Warcraft games, and Medivh's Tower in Deadwind Pass.

According to Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, the version of the expansion being previewed at BlizzCon is an early build, so it's not clear at this time what the expected release date is -- late next year is our guess.

Upcoming patches were also discussed, the biggest change announced as coming soon being linked auction houses in every city.

That's all for now! This article will be updated as we get more information!

BlizzCon: Sketches of Burning Crusade
BlizzCon: Artwork from expansion
BlizzCon: Blood Elf starting city Silvermoon
BlizzCon: Blood A warlock in costume
BlizzCon: Blood Druids do it best
BlizzCon: Blood 8000 people!
BlizzCon: Nerf shamans!

UPDATE 1: The Blood Elves will have two racials.

Mana Tap: This ability allows the Blood Elf to siphon mana (reportedly 50 points) from a spell-casting creature and turn it into a ball of energy.

Arcane Torrent: Release a blast of energy around the Blood Elf that silences creatures around him (reportedly for 8 seconds), and gives energy, mana or rage to his party members. Requires three energy balls.

As you can see, these are incredible racials. More info as we get it.

UPDATE 2:

Blizzard plans to add digital signature checking for mods, to prevent the use of mods like Decursive. Details are not known at this stage as to when this will be implemented but designer Rob Pardo said that 'they're close'.

UPDATE 3:

Here's some news about items and professions straight from Scott Mercer from Blizzard.

Firstly, there are no plans to implement scribing of scrolls as a profession. Blizzard believes it's too close to alchemy in function and one of the primary design goals is to make each profession as different as possible.

Next, news on patch 1.9. There are plans to improve fishing to make it function similar to mining and herbalism, in that schools of fish (ie. fishing nodes) will be placed around the world. So, you can see what your fishing will net you before you do it. Ship wrecks will also be included so players can fish for items.

Enchanters will be happy to hear about the inclusion of enchanting oils that can be sold on the auction house. These oils will grant temporary abilities on weapons and armour. These abilities will include +spell power, increased damage and the like.

High-end items will now disenchant into 'Nexus crystals' -- a powerful ingredient for epic enchantments. One such enchantment includes a +20 fire spell damage to gloves.

Beyond patch 1.9, Blizzard plans to add specialisations to tailoring and alchemy. These specialisations have yet to be set in stone.

As previously mentioned, the expansion will contain a new profession -- jewelry crafting. In addition to making necklaces, rings and crowns, players will be able to make special trinkets usable only by the jeweller, and mystic gems for use in socketable items.

Mercer also gave some insight into item budgets and point allocation. This is the system used by Blizzard that determines how many stats and powers an item will get. Although not all details were revealed, 14 points are equal to 1% crit and 12 points are equal to 1% dodge. If an item has one stat, then those stat points are of less value than the those on an item with multiple stats. For example, 12 stamina is equal to 8 stamina and 8 strength.

When asked about epic class items, Mercer admitted that the original implementation was 'a mistake' and that all classes will be receiving reworked epic items in the future. He also stated that Molten Core weapons would be getting reworked art.

As a teaser, Mercer showed off some of the new art for the tier 2 class sets. Here they are:

WoW items and professions: Item formulas
WoW items and professions: Tier 2 set, Druids and Hunters
WoW items and professions: Tier 2 set, Shamans and Paladins
WoW items and professions: Tier 2 set, Warriors, 3D render
WoW items and professions: Tier 2 set, Rogues
WoW items and professions: Tier 2 set, WoW's item guy, Scott Mercer
WoW items and professions: A typical day for items in World of Warcraft

UPDATE 4:

Just saw the developer panel on classes. Some (or maybe not) surprising revelations by WoW lead designer Tom Chilton:

* Paladins were designed to be the game's easiest class. This was done because the designers believed (correctly) that it would be a popular class (warrior and healer in one) and didn't want new gamers to be put off by a tricky class.

* Staying with Paladins, they will definitely be getting an upgrade in patch 1.9. Chilton has said that some blessing, seals and judgements will be combined so that they can be improved with less talent expenditure, and a group blessing spell that when cast on a character in a raid or group will cast that same blessing on all other characters of that class. There was also talk of extending the duration on all blessings to 10 minutes (or even 15).

* Ironically, one slide at the presentation said that druids are the only true hybrid class, going against common thought (rumour really).

* Rogues and warriors originally had no energy or rage bars. The rage bar was added by designers after observing fighting games (like Streetfighter) and adopting a modified 'Hyper' or 'Special' bar.

* As of the expansion, players will have new, 41-point talent trees in which to customise their characters.

UPDATE 5:

Sources tell me that the new race for alliance is the Pandaren. You heard it here first.



End of updates