The Burning Crusade
The Burning Crusade has been previewed by Gamespy. I have to say that the previews and advance news of this expansion are really making me enthused about World of Warcraft again in a way I haven't been in a while. My warlock main is starting the work on getting his dreadsteed mount, which, at the rate I achieve mechanical objectives, is likely to take him right up to the expansion, so he can ride into the Outlands in good style.
The highlights are: smaller raids, changes to PvP rewards, variable difficulty dungeons, arena combat with teams (including intra-faction competitions), and world PvP with real effects. This is aside, of course, from the two new races, ten more levels, a new tradeskill, flying mounts, and acres more space in new zones.
The largest raids in Burning Crusade are going to be 25-man, and some are going to be 10-man. This is something I approve of enormously; the sheer size of raid groups at present is one of the things that puts me off them. I'm not sure that the small alliance of guilds I play in can muster 25 people for a raid, but we've got a lot more chance of that than 40. And the 10-man ones can be put together with a minimum of effort.
The PvP reward system is changing for the better - no more competitive ladders, it's simply a matter of kill enemy players, get points, spend points on gear. That should take the pure obsessive nature of it down a bit. The competitive types are instead being given a new arena to play in, literally. The arenas will allow sport-style leagues of arena teams, 2v2, 4v4, and so on. Teams can be formed like guilds, have substitutes, etc. It's something that would actually interest me in PvP, and that's something that hasn't happened in WoW before.
Posted by Drew Shiel at August 13, 2006 11:38 AM
