Hands-On: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
In the long run, of course, the big draw is the Outlands, and I strongly recommend waiting until level 60 before tackling it. You'll also want an elite mount, the type that increases your speed by 100%. There's a lot of ground to cover, and lots of hungry beasties roaming the lands. If you start at 60, you'll really be able to hit the ground running and will obtain some surprisingly nice gear before you've leveled to 61. All gear has gotten some major boosts, and quest rewards for some seemingly mundane tasks can be very awesome, not to mention dungeon loot. I obtained a polearm called the Hellreaver that does about 69 DPS, whereas my most powerful weapon at that point, the Ice Barbed Spear, does about 54.
There's some nice gear out there.
This is a huge jump, and it also has some nice stats. It's an all-around superior weapon, and all it cost me was a dungeon run. The run itself also earned me some shoulder armor that puts Conqueror's to the test and Bloodsoaked Pauldrons to shame. By the time I hit 61, I'd gained about 1000 more health points, 200 more attack power, and several hundred more points of armor, and I didn't have to buy any of it. If you have Tier 1 gear and are worried that there won't be much for you outside the dungeons -- fear not. Of course, this situation may change between now and the retail release (and none of the stuff you see in the screenshots is guaranteed to be final), so don't bum rush your local Gamestop just yet. All I can tell you is that I'm quite pleased with the expansion pack's loot. The properties of most new expansion items are generally quite powerful for their level and accessibility.
Also, it's very easy to get lots of gold now. Gray vendor trash and replaced gear will give you a nice chunk of change; by the end of my first day, I'd racked up about 80 gold, just from getting rid of some out-moded items and selling off gray junk -- and some new green items that don't have popular stats but are worth good coin to the vendor. Of course, this will raise prices at the auction house across the board, but your post-expansion buying power will increase significantly. Buying mounts for your other characters won't be the hassle that it can be now.
Behold the gate. Oooooh!
Next, new recipes and a new profession. The Outland vendors have new tiers of food and drink, and you can cook your own meals from scavenged meat like before. For right now, at least, none of the new cooking items require spices or any other secondary ingredients, so it's easy to skill up. There's a new First Aid tier as well, going up to Heavy Netherweave Bandage, which does 3400 health over 8 seconds. Not too shabby!
WoW players may also be concerned that Burning Crusade is more of the same; different-looking land with the same style of play. Well, from what I've seen, Blizzard has made an impressive effort to create new habitats and creature types. Hellfire Peninsula doesn't feel much different from the Blasted Lands at first, but it shows its true colors, and there's some interesting stuff just beyond it. It's fun to explore the new areas and come across cool-looking monsters, so I don't want to spoil much of that. There also seems to be a higher preponderance of flight paths, so you're not as likely to find yourself wandering into a dead end. But you'll want to look out for the occasional roaming elite monster whose level is much higher than the creatures around him. The Fel Reaver is quite a sight.
We haven't tried any PvP yet, mostly because there are quite a few level 67 players who've been around since beta and would probably pound me into the pavement. We'll give that a go a little later. Until then, we'll be exploring new lands, discovering new creatures, and killing them. Stay tuned!
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