Patch 2.4 without the expansion
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 27th 2008 at 2:30PM
Reader Sebastian wrote in to us with an interesting question: what good is patch 2.4 if you don't have the Burning Crusade expansion yet? He has a lower level character that hasn't hit 70 yet (he's on level 46), and wants to know exactly what 2.4 is doing for him. From what we can tell, not much.You'll still get some of the good interface updates -- so you'll get the buffs to Inspect, the combat log improvements, and all of the other additions Blizzard has made to the UI. All of the talents you have by 46 that got changes will change, too, and of course the improvements to Warsong Gulch are great for characters of almost any level (since almost everyone can go in there). And let's not forget the biggest change this patch: Old Blanchy's Feed Pouch is now an 8 slotter. That's huge.
But no, until you hit level 70, the new daily quests and the Sunwell Instances and the new badge loot won't matter much to you at all. But the good news is that the expansion is only $30, and sometimes even cheaper than that. The weather's getting nice outside, so go mow a few lawns this weekend, and then you'll be able to level up and join us all in the land of the Blood Elves where pretty much everyone has gone mad with magical power. Trust me -- it's more fun than it sounds.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dakira Mar 27th 2008 2:41PM
Once your hooked you gotta keep up with the expansions. Winning strategy on Blizzards part!
There will come a time... when you can chose to create alts at level 50 if you already have endgame toons... or maybe a quest line for your endgame main that allows you to pick an alter-ego at a level above new born... thus skipping the start zone and barrens completely.
fLUx Mar 27th 2008 2:54PM
I dream of that day!!
I wanna get a new character to play, but I wouldn't have enough time to roll from 1 unless I spent like 2hrs a week on my main.
Isn't it enough that when you ding 70, you are acctully still very far from partisipating in "end game" content?
I would love to be able to start a new toon at lvl 50 (or even 40), get him started with some adverage gear to get me started.
If the new "hero classes" can, why can't normal ones? xD
slayerboy Mar 27th 2008 4:29PM
The reason I would be against this is because if you're creating a new toon on the same server, it's most likely a different class. This is the same reason why I am opposed to doing run throughs and getting run throughs if I'm new on a toon to the instance.
Practice makes perfect. Just because you have a 70 hunter in T4 doesn't mean you know how to play that warrior you just rolled. Starting at 50 or so could make it utterly confusing if you don't understand how to play your class properly.
Lars Mar 27th 2008 5:56PM
There's already enough problems now that 1-60 is on easy mode. Never has there been such a flood of high level players that don't know what the hell they're doing.
David(Postal) Mar 27th 2008 2:50PM
Wow Old Blanchy's feed pouch is finally usable! there was no reason to keep it as a noob because you were making so much money you could easily buy your own better bags
John Mar 27th 2008 3:00PM
I didnt get the expansion till about level 40ish, just go get it,if you've made it 46 levels then face it, you're probably not going to quit before you hit 70, plus you'll be able to set your hearth in shat, and you have no idea how much time that will save you when you start doing quests in the 50s that take you all over the world.
Dakira Mar 27th 2008 3:04PM
Absolutely... If your bringing up an alt or a new player; as soon as you can get to Shatt. it saves so much time!
Find a friendly mage or a couple of friends and a warlock!
Milktub Mar 27th 2008 3:02PM
That's sort of the way of games with xpacs. My other gamer addiction is Civilization. Got Civ4. Had to get Warlords xpac. Then had to get Beyond the Sword xpac.
No reason or need for Blizzard to expand 3+ year-old content.
Dakira Mar 27th 2008 3:05PM
Should that ever consider phasing the old content out?
Dakira Mar 27th 2008 3:07PM
Hit the button too soon.. Damn it!
Continuing..
After all it is the training ground for new talent! (well it should be right?).
Milktub Mar 27th 2008 4:29PM
I would never support removing old content or allowing people to "reroll" a high-level toon. As you said, it's training.
Yes, you could be given a lv70 toon that is fully trained. But to know what those skills are and why/when you'd use them, you'd have to read up on them somewhere. And, to me, that's gross -- you should learn about the game in the game, and only use outside sources to refine what you already know.
Pierre Mar 27th 2008 3:04PM
Mike, there's at least 3' of snow on the lawn... I don't see how he could go make some money ;-)
Zali Mar 27th 2008 3:30PM
Shovel a few driveways.
arcady0 Mar 27th 2008 3:36PM
Old Blanchey's feed pouch is now an 8-slotter???
Alliance needs to be nerfed! Nerfed I say, nerfed!
That's actually a serious buff for lowbie new players to the alliance. Bag space is possibly the number one thing that limits leveling speed and money gain in the first 10-20 levels, and that pouch is easy to get even before level 10 if you just walk around the low aggro spots. Are Horde still stuck with a 4-slotter for turning a couple of naughty BE student's into sheep?
:)
JohnC Mar 27th 2008 3:58PM
bit like me really, im 55 ive only been playing since late august and i dont have the expansion; dont see the point of getting it as no benefits at this level really, dont know if il keep playing past 60(sure i will just hard leveling) im in a rut; 55 for atleast a month now. theres so much hype surrounding this patch but for people like me its just another download, the only thing really im affected by is the nerf to viper sting which i like to tag on as many people in battlegrounds as possible (i know its not very useful but its good to know it helps out somewhere)
any tips to get some boost to start leveling again please?(i just do battlegrounds all the time now, ive leveld from 51-52 straight in av, and a bit past that)
thanks
Xeren Mar 27th 2008 4:35PM
need motivation? how about this one: Outland is WAY better than azeroth, for quests, for leveling, for gear, everything. I promise you, you'll see a night and day difference.
Aticus Mar 27th 2008 4:34PM
I just purchased the Xpak for my father as a christmas present (it wasn't the only present lol). His highest at the time was a level 38 dwarf Hunter. Once he installed the Xpak, he rolled a BE Hunter and she is now 50. However, even though he loves the new races, he still hasn't reached any content that the BC gives to him (excluding starting zones).
My point being that, unless you want to play one of the new races, the Xpak is really useless unless you are 58+. Sure, Shatt is nice to have but that alone isn't worth the money. I even laughed when he called me up Tuesday asked if there was any new areas he could go to. When I said, 'not really', we both just laughed. I think to keep the player base, Blizzard needs to start creating Xpaks with mid-level content and not just endgame.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
Xeren Mar 27th 2008 4:51PM
I don't see why people just don't buy it now, if they know they are going to eventually- it's $30- let's say you make 4% in your ING account, and you're not going to make it to outland until a year from now- you've lost out on like a dollar in interest, and then you can have it installed and ready to go for whenever you happen to hit outland.
That wait to install it is the longest wait of your life if you're as addicted as most people are :)
jbodar Mar 27th 2008 6:47PM
Maybe they know that not many would pay for mid-level content that they'll blow right through. Hell, we already got an updated Dustwallow Marsh for free.
Don't get me wrong. I love Azeroth 1-60 and I have the alts to prove it, but it doesn't make any sense. Most new players want to get to 70 to adventure with their friends, without forcing anyone to roll an alt.
Blackhorn Mar 27th 2008 4:40PM
Not to make this blog entry seem... silly... but didn't blizzard state in some official capacity or another that every content patch beyond (whatever date it was) will be Burning Crusade oriented and won't offer anything directly to non-BC players?
"What's in it for me?" -- Nothing. There's not supposed to be. Anything you do consider beneficial is merely a side-effect of measures put in place to help people reach the Burning Crusade content faster. Which is another way of saying 'People without the Expansion Pack are being given the heave-ho in a timely fashion'.
I mean, after all, if you're sans Expansion and plan to remain that way, it's game over all-the-sooner with the easy ride from 1-60 people now have.
If you do plan to get the expansion... then patience is your ally. Blizzard has done things with every patch since 2.0 to help you reach their Futuristic Techno-Goth world of Outland.