The Burning Crusade: What to do at 70?
by Paul Sherrard 
Jan 2nd 2007 at 2:58PM
Yeah, I realize this is a little way off for some, and a long long long (like maybe next year or the year after) way off for some other people, but when I think of the Burning Crusade I always tend to think, "What'll I do when I hit 70?"
I've had a level 60 since December of 2004 (yes, I'm one of those nerds), so I've always been wondering what's next in the endgame. In WoW 1.x, we had Molten Core, and then Blackwing Lair, and after a while we had ZG, AQ20 and AQ40. That's a fair bit of content in itself. Add Naxxramas to that, and there's been a lot to do.
Or at least, I thought I'd had a lot to do.
Attunements were pretty simple, the quest chains not unbearable, and progression a pretty solid and steady advance. Last week I talked about Mount Hyjal, and the attunement leading up to it. As it turns out, it's even a bit more complicated than I thought.
We can all assume that whatever 25-person raid content there is can consume as much time as you want to put into it. But what are those to do who don't want to raid all the time? Will there be anything worth completing? Well, I think that WoW will always be semi-focused on getting you to the big dungeons, but thankfully the Burning Crusade isn't *all* about the raiding.
There is a whole lot to do at 70:
- Gain reputation with one of the 20 or so factions in the Outlands
- Complete all of the 5-person group content on Heroic
- Access new quest lines that have been opened for completing Heroic dungeons
- Get a flying mount or two
Up to now, most of the endgame content has focused on 40-man raids. If you take a look at this handy diagram, posted over on World of Raids, you can see that the majority of quest lines and content at 70 are solo-oriented, with group content at strategic places, and finally raid content taking up the last bit of the experience.
I think we're going to have far more options on what to do with our game time at level 70 than we did at 60. If you're in the mood to be alone, do some quests or faction grinding; If you want to group, hit a 5-man instance (on Heroic difficulty if you want a challenge), and if you've got 24 friends along, you can hit some raid content.
So, what do you think you'll be doing the most at 70?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Instances, Expansions, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rogue Jan 2nd 2007 5:19PM
Personally I'm looking forward to the ranked Arena matches.
Vishiro Jan 2nd 2007 4:37PM
I definitely want to try to do a bit of everything on the expansion. its great that there are going to be lots of options on what to do when we log onto the game. also, since it is going to take us some time to even get to level 70, they are kinda forced to put in lots of leveling content. people may get bored of the game quickly if they did not have many options to choose from as far as grinding and leveling goes.
one thing that kind of sucks is the raid instances prior to TBC. it was great to have a group go in and do MC, BWL, ZG, and whatever other instances that are available in the game. i ponder what blizzard is planning on doing with those instance. will they make it easier so that people will get the gear from these places? i just dont want to see those instances go to waste because it was great content with many challenges.
paul Jan 2nd 2007 3:29PM
Save all your pvp honor for lvl 70 items.
Razhlok Jan 2nd 2007 3:34PM
Shouldn't take too long to get to 70. With a casual schedule I hit 64 in two weeks in beta. After 70 I'll probably go after my (epic) flying mount, do my attunement quests for Karazhan and Hyjal, do the heroic 5 mans, Karazhan and PvP. I'm currently loving the new (non-decaying) honor system. I'll see about 25 man raids, if I can latch on to a guild that raids on a night I'm available, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. I'll probably, also, finish leveling a few alts or maybe start some new alts (Dareani shaman and/or paladin?).
Elizabeth Jan 2nd 2007 7:49PM
@2
As Blizzard has mentioned repeatedly, the beta was intentionally modified to make sure the testers would be able to get to 70 quickly. The actual BC will have a much longer leveling time.
I for one will be looking forward to the 70 endgame. It seems Blue woke up and figured out that people don't like the stuck in a rut feeling of hitting the cap then having nothing to do except raid and pvp endlessly. Of course, with Blizzard intending to release expansions once a year(riiight) now, you probably won't see the 70's being bored for long before another instance, another goodie, etc.
Orcsbane Jan 2nd 2007 6:00PM
My question is, will you get better drops if you complete MC, BWL, Onyxia, AQ40, Naxx, with the instance difficulty set to Heroic?
If anyone knows, please share the info.
jbob Jan 2nd 2007 6:27PM
Existing instances (5,10,20,40 man) will not have alternative difficulty levels, at least not any time soon.
So...other than for the 'fun' of a 10-man MC run there will be very little point in going back to the old raid content.
GamerJunkie Jan 3rd 2007 12:52PM
What amazes me about most WOW gamers, is this "rush" to mindlessly grind quests so they can reach the cap level in x time.
I find it more enjoyeable taking the game easy and grinding the quests slowly and discover things.
Why do people must be the 1st to finish a game? Then you end up getting bored quicker..