The REAL expansion - gaming article

[Alrin]

http://www.wowcentral.com/modules.php?name...order=0&thold=0

Enjoy

[TalAB]

Illidan, meet BUTT KICKING!!! :w00t:

[savaughn]

Well, that answers that, then. It's definitely Blood Elves for Horde and Draenai for Alliance.

And if you don't have the expansion pack... no burned out husk of a planet for you!

[Tal]

Well, that answers that, then.  It's definitely Blood Elves for Horde and Draenai for Alliance.

And if you don't have the expansion pack... no burned out husk of a planet for you!
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The open pvp in outland kind of surprises me truthfully.

[Drasca]

The open pvp in outland kind of surprises me truthfully.
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Same here, although its a good change.

Every horde without epics rerolling Blood elf? Damn straight. 2 second silence and manatap is too valueable not to have. Combination of racial power and beauty will shift the population equilibrium. Let's hope it isn't overkill.

Even if the extra 10 levels doesn't add an insane 10 extra talent points, certain level based spells and talents will be changed greatly.

Just 1 more talent point is overkill. Time will tell what will happen. Keep up the hype machine.

[Tal]

Same here, although its a good change.
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I dunno there are quite a few people on PvE servers who dislike PvP with a passion. I can't see them looking at purchasing the expansion knowing they would have to put up with PvP in the outlands. I look for that to be the first thing revamped in Beta.

I like the idea of more levels and love the idea of visiting Warcraft's history and at the risk of receiving another slap I'll even go so far as to say that adding Blood Elves to Horde will go along ways towards helping alleviate the population imbalances. Yes I like looking at "pretty" characters. Whats more is I like my characters to have good posture. :P

Does it mean I'll jump hardcore on the horde side? Dunno.

Edit: The site for Burning Crusade is up: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/

[Drasca]

I dunno there are quite a few people on PvE servers who dislike PvP with a passion. [right][snapback]93421[/snapback][/right]

They benefit from AV goodies. Directly or indirectly (other players with improved items), they've been getting cake and eating it too. Now they'll simply have to learn to bake.

Flight-capable mounts also adds a new wrinkle. Will flighted mounts be attackable? Who knows.

Honestly, even leveling one of the most pvp gimped classes on large PvP server, I didn't experience too much trouble. I was inconvenienced at times, mad at times, but moreso rewarded, and it wasn't all that much. Most PvP action was with post-60 life (blues and epic hunting time) centering around instances that had hot-potato temporary holding between horde and alliance. I'm glad wild west "outlands" is wild with open pvp between factions. Most of the PvP action will move there, and levelers aren't really bothered either way.

The biggest action always centered around the biggest raiding parties, and even they weren't always keen on PvP--wanting to get on with the instance. I've waded through entire guilds of the other faction because they had orders to not engage in PvP, and just 'get to the instance'

Honestly, a corpse run from this "close to instance graveyard" policy Blizzard has is minor time offset best. It used to be worse, but GY's are so close to hotspots there's little to complain about.

Anywhoo. Nothing's set in stone, but I think both Blood Elf faction and Open PvP changes are perceived to help negate population imbalances favoring alliance.

Any guesses on the Alliance Race?

[Lissa]

Honestly, even leveling one of the most pvp gimped classes on large PvP server, I didn't experience too much trouble. I was inconvenienced at times, mad at times, but moreso rewarded, and it wasn't all that much. Most PvP action was with post-60 life (blues and epic hunting time) centering around instances that had hot-potato temporary holding between horde and alliance. I'm glad wild west "outlands" is wild with open pvp between factions. Most of the PvP action will move there, and levelers aren't really bothered either way.

This is what I'm afraid of. I do not like having to look over my shoulder when I'm trying to enjoy a game. To me, this is a really bad idea.

Likewise, most of the leveling from 60 to 70 is going to be IN outlands. Sure, there will be quests in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, but will that really be enough to get you to 70? I don't think it will.

The biggest action always centered around the biggest raiding parties, and even they weren't always keen on PvP--wanting to get on with the instance. I've waded through entire guilds of the other faction because they had orders to not engage in PvP, and just 'get to the instance'

Maybe, but all it takes is one jerk and that can collapse.

Honestly, a corpse run from this "close to instance graveyard" policy Blizzard has is minor time offset best. It used to be worse, but GY's are so close to hotspots there's little to complain about.

It's still time wasted that could have been better used because not only is it travel from the graveyard, it's also buffing.

Anywhoo. Nothing's set in stone, but I think both Blood Elf faction and Open PvP changes are perceived to help negate population imbalances favoring alliance.

Any guesses on the Alliance Race?
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The Blood Elf, yes, but open PvP, no. I don't think Open PvP will help balance the two factions at all. All it does is let the jerks on the PvE servers get to be even bigger jerks.

As to the Alliance race, I'm sticking with the Dranei.

[Rinnhart]

Any guesses on the Alliance Race?
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Nope, but I can say it will have a #$%&ty racial ability.

[nobbie]

Can someone please host the game trailer? The official download isn't working here ...

EDIT:

Found one already: http://files.filefront.com/WoW+The+Burning...;/fileinfo.html

[choppedliver]

I read the article, and I see how it could be read to say that there's open PvP in the Outlands. On the other hand, it seems to me that it also could just be that the backstory in the Outlands is more confrontational between Horde and Alliance. Did I miss a part where it explicitly states that players are always going to be flagged?

[Concillian]

Honestly, even leveling one of the most pvp gimped classes on large PvP server, I didn't experience too much trouble. I was inconvenienced at times, mad at times, but moreso rewarded, and it wasn't all that much. Most PvP action was with post-60 life (blues and epic hunting time) centering around instances that had hot-potato temporary holding between horde and alliance. I'm glad wild west "outlands" is wild with open pvp between factions. Most of the PvP action will move there, and levelers aren't really bothered either way.

The biggest action always centered around the biggest raiding parties, and even they weren't always keen on PvP--wanting to get on with the instance. I've waded through entire guilds of the other faction because they had orders to not engage in PvP, and just 'get to the instance'

Honestly, a corpse run from this "close to instance graveyard" policy Blizzard has is minor time offset best. It used to be worse, but GY's are so close to hotspots there's little to complain about. [right][snapback]93422[/snapback][/right]

There's another issue with 'Normal' servers you might be missing:
The most balanced of Normal servers hass about 2 alliance players to every horde player... the most balanced.

On these servers any open PvP areas will be a huge pain for horde. PvP servers are more balanced to begin with, so there is not as large an issue. But I remember playing my rogue in Eastern Plaguelands, It seemed more like a 3 or 4:1 ratio rather than the ~2:1 the census sites report for Terenas.

So will that drive to balance things further? I'm not sure, it seems people who prefer PvE... the kind of people who would roll a char on a Normal ruleset server... might go for alliance just so they don't have so much issue with PvP in the 60+ areas.

[Drasca]

PvP servers are more balanced

So will that drive to balance things further?[right][snapback]93454[/snapback][/right]

This is what I am looking at. The Expansion, being explicitly PvP, should drive more people toward balance (although, I am not sure why PvP servers seem more balanced. The one I am on has either a 3:2 to 3:1 A:H ratio)

Are you sure you aren't getting 'spot' short term overflow? In general, eastern plaguelands seems easier for Alliance to to access, and most players are either questing or farming individually or small packs, with the raid parties from both factions to Stratholme every so often.

Your spot ratios may change when open pvp element is introduced, in spite of initial overflow, you only have so many people actually out in the open stirring trouble at any given time. Your being outnumbered is also aritificially induced because of the PvE safety net. That is, the 4-1 outnumbered ratio is only possible because they don't feel threatened. When questers encounter the fight/flee reaction, they either have to work with others to gain a numberical advantage, or move on. When everyone does this, the isolated populations are a lot less likely to 'clump' due to jostling of fighting and fleeing.

Yes, my PvP server doesn't experience your being spot form of being outnumbered, but Normal Servers do play under different rules that enable your that kind of outnumbering.

Open PvP at end game, even while generally outnumbered overall, doesn't necessarily mean the alliance are in greater numbers everywhere at once, especially when travel generally takes a long time (even summoning is a hassle due to soul shards and warlock partying).

I've been completely outnumbered before, and yet... it wasn't that much of a problem, especially leveling when bigger guns can come in for spot defense. Even with a numbers disadvantage, most alliance are in the instances or in BG for their faction building.

Time spent leveling is miniscule compared to to time spent in instances. At worst, open PvP is a minor inconvenience... and we still don't know if Flighted mounts could almost completely bypass it. Again, 10-20 minutes spent spent in GY corpse runs is insignifigant compared to time actually inside the instance. I believe the gripes against open PvP are fairly unfounded. I think the isolationist attitude that hurts Lurkers most. Open PvP'ers eventually must reach out to others to fight.

I honestly don't know what will happen, but I don't think either of our rules of thumb necessarily apply. I don't believe you'll be as outnumbered on a regular basis as you currently feel. Open PvP does change behaviour and clumping patterns of players, so will presence of flighted mounts. Keep an open mind, your rules of engagement will change.

[Zarathustra]

I have no doubt it will be easy to get to 70 through questing alone. New characters will be able to get to 70 without even setting foot in the Outlands, given the enemies in high-level instances.

Unfortunately, that means those who've completed the various quest chains have easily missed out on a million exp that would have levelled them, but right now counts for squat. Not to keen about that.

[nobbie]

Does anyone know which classes will be playable with the Blood Elf race?

[TheDragoon]

Does anyone know which classes will be playable with the Blood Elf race?
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I forget where I saw it, but I think I read that it would Mages, Warlocks and Warriors along with one of either Rogues or Hunters (the designers hadn't made up their mind about that).

[Lissa]

Does anyone know which classes will be playable with the Blood Elf race?
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Article says Warrior, Priest, Mage, Warlock, and either Hunter or Rogue (betting Hunter moreso than Rogue since the Hunter is the closest thing to a Ranger that the High Elves would have had).

[fractaled]

IGN's article:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/662/662143p1.html

tidbits I haven't seen elsewhere:
- mum on hero classes (i.e. not happening in the expansion)
- no limit on number of races they can introduce (i.e. look forward to wood elves, water elves, dark elves, low elves, etc)...
- new spells for levels 60-70
- new talents as well, plus continued talent restructuring...
- some specifics on instances, some of which are interesting...
- patches will introduce auction house linking (pre expansion?), no enchanting support in the AH

stuff i haven't heard about that i would have expected to be officially mentioned:
- weather effects
- battlegrounds catapults, etc

[fractaled]

the good from the expansion:
- new "content" in the form of dungeons
- new races + starting area

the bad:
- level cap raised (+ the repurcussions from this)

the future is clear:

blizzard has committed to the treadmill: future expansions will keep raising the level cap, which will repeat the cycle of laying waste to items/skills/areas (fallout from raising the level cap)...

[Mirajj]

blizzard has committed to the treadmill: future expansions will keep raising the level cap, which will repeat the cycle of laying waste to items/skills/areas (fallout from raising the level cap)...
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And how is this different than the current state? Have you seen a 15 man crew decked in BWL epics tear apart UBRS? Or even 5man Scholo? It's not pretty. The arguement is that people of a higher level will blow through this stuff....they already do. The folks who need this to progress to the higher levels will continue to go through them as they reach higher.