We sat down with J. Allen Brack, Senior Producer at Blizzard, to look inside the Burning Crusade expansion and find out more about what's in store. The expansion will be released at the end of 2006 (with no increase in the monthly fee), so here's some information to keep us all going until then.

As we already know, two new races will be introduced -- the Blood Elves for Horde, and the Draenei for Alliance. Draenei players will be able to become priests, mages, hunters, paladins or warriors, with a racial that allows healing regardless of class. These spiritual creatures are large -- Tauren-sized -- and start out in Ammen Vale, on Azuremyst Isle, south of Teldrassil.



Ammen Vale is littered with remnants of a crashed ship -- the ship which the Draenei tried to use to leave Outland. These crystalline fragments are buried in the landscape, and the theme of rescue persists through several newbie quests.

The Blood Elves start out in Eversong Woods, a green and lush zone which visually embodies the elegance of the race. This is located in Quel'Thelas, northeast of the Eastern Plaguelands. The elves' addiction to magic is the theme running through quests here, with demonic powers being harnessed to feed this addiction. After Eversong Woods, players move on to Ghostlands, a spooky zone with an evil warlock problem.



With two new races, there are two new capital cities. Silvermoon City is the headquarters of the Blood Elves -- this city is the largest so far, and Blizzard are adding two auction houses and banks in response to this. Running through the city is the Dead Scar, still reflecting the devastation of Arthas' army -- one half of Silvermoon City is rebuilt, but on the other side of the scar it's abandoned.

In the Burning Crusade expansion, the Dark Portal will open. Players who purchase the expansion will walk through the portal to Hellfire Peninsula on the destroyed planet Outland, home to orc and Draenei outposts. Within this zone is Hellfire Citadel, a new instance with a raid wing and three smaller wings. Infested with fel orcs who love demonic energy, the instance features a new AI concept -- that of champions. The enemy repeatedly sends champions at you -- if you defeat them, it sends more. This is an interesting change from the current aggro-radius AI.

Nagrand is another Outland zone, but with a different look and feel -- ripe and green with waterfalls in the distance, it's a pleasant place. Another zone, Terokkar Forest is dark with a glowing crystal landscape theme.



In Deadwind Pass, you'll find Karazhan -- an instance also known as Medivh's Tower. Blizzard are returning to their roots with a giant chessboard of Warcraft units and ghosts from the past. Thanks to the Caverns of Time, bygone battles will make appearances as brand new battlegrounds.

As well as new content, there are new skills and abilities. The profession skill cap of 300 will be raised -- though the new cap hasn't been decided -- and jewelcrafting joins the range of primary professions. Jewelcrafters collect gems and socket them into items -- much like enchants currently work, except that items have three sockets for multiple effects. Certain metagems only give rewards if multiple gems of the same type are socketed.



There will also be more PvP content -- Blizzard haven't finalised whether the PvP brackets will become 60-69 and 70, or whether there will be a 60-only bracket still. The Blizzard employees at E3 are particularly excited about the upcoming dungeons and incorporation of more classic Warcraft concepts, and so are we -- this expansion will open up a lot of new options for players.

However, the expansion mainly focuses on the 0-20 and 60-70 brackets. Mid-level content from 20-60 is still at the ideas stage, so there may not be much new content for players once they leave the starting areas. With over 10 new zones, some of them may be relevant to this level range, but everything we saw at E3 shows Blizzard's focus on newbie and endgame zones, rather than players between the two.

Tags: blizzard, burning crusade, BurningCrusade, e3, e32006, expansion, wow

Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Items, Blizzard, Instances, Expansions