World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Standard ‘green’ items now also pack special modifiers (such as spell damage and feral attack power) that were normally reserved for high-level rares and epics.

Two new races debut in TBC – the Blood Elves and the Draenei, for Horde and Alliance respectively. Blizzard has taken a lot of feedback from players regarding racials, and both races have perhaps the best in the game – a mana drain and silence for Blood Elves, and a heal over time for Draenei. Blood Elves can also train to be Paladins and Draenei as Shaman, allowing access to classes that were once only available to a single side.

The expansion introduces seven new zones and new dungeons, all with multiple tiers to increase their longevity and consumption. On top of this, all new dungeons have a ‘heroic’ mode, accessible with a key purchased from the appropriate faction vendor, effectively doubling the life of each instance. Heroic mode increases both the difficulty of obtaining and the quality of the gear that drops within the instance. As for the new zones, they’re exceedingly gorgeous. Of mention are Zangermarsh with its dank and mushroom-filled, but surprising surreal feel; and Terokkar, a luscious forest where the light breaks through the canopy in bright, green-tinted shafts.

All trade skills have had their maximum level increased to 375 and have a variety of new recipes available. The strength of the items available through trade skills should be equal to that available via raiding. For those looking for a new trade skill to learn, TBC includes ‘Jewelcrafting’, which allows players to craft circlets, rings and neck pieces, as well as cut gems for the array of ‘socketed’ level 60 to 70 gear.

Also part of the Burning Crusade is a revamped honour system. Introduced just before the expansion went live, the new honour system allows players to accrue honour at their own pace and use it as currency to buy PvP items. A new Arena system accessible at level 70 also allows players to earn powerful gear and promotes 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 battles.

While Blizzard has done an impressive job with the expansion – the amount of content cannot be faulted – there are a few problems that need to be addressed. Some areas, such as Terokkar Forest, lack quest polish and there’s more than a few that cannot be completed due to bugs. While Hellfire Peninsula is packed with impressive new gear, the gear is so good that many characters progressing through the zone will find themselves looking identical to their fellows. A lack of an Auction House in the Outland also means frequent travelling back to Azeroth.

The game continues to suffer from two design problems – insane reputation grinds and the gear-oriented end game. In order to access the most powerful items and trade skill recipes in the game – which, for level 70 players will be the only thing left to do – players are forced to repeat the one ‘turn-in’ quest hundreds, and sometimes thousands of times to earn ‘reputation’ with in-game factions. For those with no life, this isn’t so bad, but these grinds make these items off-limits to the busy and sane. A better system would be to have a universal turn-in as an uncommon drop off monsters the world over, usable to make purchases with any faction. This would allow players to pursue whatever quests or ‘grinds’ they wish to get their items instead of being forced to stay in the same zone killing the same monsters ad nauseum.

Despite these issues, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is a mandatory purchase for any WoW player. It opens up far too much for new and old players to go unbought. Hopefully the next expansion will address the problems we’ve mentioned here.