Hands on with WoW: The Burning Crusade

35 Comments by Jennie Lees May 10th 2006 3:46PM
Filed under: Mac, PC, Online, RPGs, E3, MMO

We've played the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion -- World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade -- exploring both Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas. Anticipation is running high at the show, with many gamers flocking to the Vivendi stand as soon as the show opened.

The expansion was running smoothly on a Mac, with no visual UI changes, though there is the new Outland area to explore.
Hellfire Peninsula:

Draenei dancing:

Azuremyst Isle (Draenei starting area):

Draenei racials:

The racials for the new Draenei race are:

Blessing of the Naaru - heals the target of 50 damage over 15 sec
Gemcutting - Jewelcrafting skill increased by 15
Inspiring Presence - Increases chance to hit with spells by 1% for all party members within 30 yards
Shadow Resistance - increased by 10

Blood Elf dancing:

Ghostlands:

Blood Elf racials:

The Blood Elf racials (as announced at Blizzcon) are:

Arcane Affinity - Enchanting increased by 15
Arcane Torrent - Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you gain 20 Energy, Mana or Rage for each Mana Tap charge currently affecting you.
Magic Resistance - All resistances increased by 5
Mana Tap - Drains 50 mana from your target and charges you with Arcane energy until cancelled. This effect stacks up to 3 times.

Tranquillien and Silvermoon City reputations:

Newly created Blood Elf on Sunstrider Isle:

Finally, a still from the teaser video, which describes "hundreds of epic quests", "uncharted dungeons", flying mounts, jewelcrafting, socketed items, a level cap of 70 and new spells and abilities:

Tags: blizzard, burning crusade, BurningCrusade, e32006, first looks, FirstLooks, handson, vivendi, warcraft, world of warcraft, WorldOfWarcraft, wow, wow expansion, WowExpansion

(Page 1) Reader Comments

Jappleng: May 10th 2006; 3:50PM

MMORPG's need innovation and something more then just leveling up these days. I'm waiting anxiously for that day to come.

RokSteady: May 10th 2006; 3:58PM

Looks good, all the speculation has finally ended and many Alliance players might be moaning, but the Draenei looks to have some good abilities and can't wait till it hits. Blizzard does it again...hopefully. No one wants to piss off 6 million people.

David: May 10th 2006; 4:00PM

You should try Guildwars, especially the new Factions, it's pretty much the opposite of that.

Mike: May 10th 2006; 4:06PM

@ Jappleng
You are 100% right. MMOG's need to expand beyond just leveling.
SWG had a good idea, making most of the game like a sandbox, but they screwed it up majorly.

To engadget: any chance we can get higher resolution pics?

devian: May 10th 2006; 4:06PM

Awesome!

Now you can level up to 70, get the tier X gear, and sit in Org for hours!

I'll pass..

Ahms: May 10th 2006; 4:07PM

"Heals the target of 50 damage over 15 seconds"

I really hope that's a typo. That's a terrible skill

Matt: May 10th 2006; 4:10PM

Anyone know what what classes the Night Elves and/or Draenei can be? I haven't been able to find that anywhere...

Michael: May 10th 2006; 4:22PM

Matt - http://www.worldofwarcraft.com has that information listed. You just need to poke around a bit.

JC: May 10th 2006; 4:25PM

#6

better question is will there be new classes with the expansion

i think they have to, to combat the influx of dranaei and blood elves, atleast if they have a dranaei "new class A" then you could possibly make a night elf "new class A" also

Kwipper: May 10th 2006; 4:50PM

Yes the MMORPG genre needs more innovation rather than just levelling up. However instead of stating this fact, what about coming up with some ideas?

jojo29: May 10th 2006; 4:56PM

@8 no, no new classes as blizzard has stated. they also stated the number on races is unlimited in that they will probably be bringing more races before they bring a new class, i mean come on they having a hell of time balancing out the current ones let alone another one?

Im so stoked for the expansion!!!

crono141: May 10th 2006; 5:14PM

Anyone notice these maps were full maps with lots of details (like where quest givers were, terrain detail, etc.) I hope this comes in the expansion.

Lock: May 10th 2006; 5:35PM

Crono: Those are raw maps taken directly from the same file the minimap uses, with a few markers to help show important positions because the raw maps aren't labelled in any way. All maps were like that during the early part of the beta. It takes time to make the hand drawn like final maps the game uses now, and they only do so once they know major changes won't be made to the geography of the zone.

weeee: May 10th 2006; 6:36PM

did anyone else notice that Undercity isn't shown on that bloodelf's reputation screen?... do they have a hate on for the scourge and thus the forsaken? ooo...spookey

Owen Waring: May 10th 2006; 7:55PM

hmmm, from the drawings of the blood elves, it's looking like classes are warrior, mage, warlock and hunter, I'd imagine they'll have priest as well, to round out the "magic race" thing, but I could be wrong

csokn: May 10th 2006; 8:18PM

One of the pictures clearly shows a blood elf rogue. And if you combine that mana tap with arcane torrent, it looks like people will be bitching about blood elf rogues instead of undead rogues.

Draenei: May 10th 2006; 8:19PM

http://www.lovethatfun.com/Burning_Crusade_E3_Trailer_With_Sound/243/

I'll go for Draenei indeed. Looks like lotsof fun. :)

Scott: May 10th 2006; 8:35PM

I thought we were paying $15 a month for continuous new content. So now we're gonna pay $15, plus ANOTHER $50 for this additional content on a CD instead of an update? That's quite lame. I already cancelled my WoW account, so I guess I can't complain too much.

greatslack: May 10th 2006; 9:46PM

wow blood elves are short

boneyard: May 11th 2006; 4:16AM

scott (#17), welcome to mmorpgs, that has simply be common practice for years, get used to it.

Strikerx: May 11th 2006; 10:07AM

Well the +15 to enchanting is useless also. Just cause u get a bonus at it doesn't mean u can learn a enchant thats +15 higher than your current skill lvl and enchanting has no chance of failure. Not like the gathering skills where u need a higher lvl to gather the item materials at times. ie. Skinning a lvl 62 beast/ Mining ore thats just at your skill lvl.

nonenone: May 11th 2006; 1:48PM

The 1% to hit aura is supposedly going to scale up to 5% to hit at lvl 60. This is just one more PVE imbalance for the Alliance. I'd say that PVP is pretty balanced (I hate the bubbladins, but they hate shamans), but totems do not in any way compare with blessings in raiding PVE. Giving the alliance another 5% to hit is insanely unbalanced.

Jappleng: May 12th 2006; 9:41PM

to #10
Because if you just gave your idea's away then you wouldn't make any money. I assume some companies would pay for the most brilliant ideas in terms of innovation. But in terms of giving out a good idea. How about having a method where the player doesn't need to pay as much to play (like guild wars in a sense). That my friend would be a good start =)

Friday_Knight: May 13th 2006; 8:13AM

Ahms: The Blessing racial for Draenei is supposed to scale up by level so that it stays a decent HoT as you go up in level.

Scott: you said, "That's lame. I already cancelled my WoW account, so I guess I can't complain too much."

Then don't. There are lots of people who are very happy playing WoW. I also don't mind paying more for the expansion because I know how Blizzard works and the huge infusion of content that will come with the expansion will be more than worth the price. Just look at Star Craft: Brood Wars.

Friday_Knight: May 13th 2006; 8:16AM

Nonenone: Totally agree with you. Alliance has a huge advantage over Horde in the PvE department. Its very frustrating.

Draenei: May 13th 2006; 10:52AM

http://www.lovethatfun.com/The_Draenei_Male_Dance/278/
The Draenei dance! :D

Foginator: May 13th 2006; 5:29PM

Guild wars may be a free MMORPG but the funny thing about it is, WoW is superior in all aspects. I've played both, and demos for the other MMO's but there are none that stand up to the great game play, controls, graphics, and otherwise enjoyment that is found in WoW. I applaud blizzard for producing yet another reason for me to be a diehard fan.

Mothr: May 13th 2006; 5:48PM

If you want to play guildwars or something please do so with out whineing about WoW. The expansion will bring new life into the game, and hopefully even out the ally/horde balance a bit. I know im makeing a Blood elf with my gf by my side. Will hopefully give us a fresh breath of air in the game.

Haveing lvl 3 chars so far to 60, done the MC/BWL 40 man stuff its gonna be nice with a new change of pace and to be able to quest again, for other reason than pure cash. That and the fact that no one will know nothing about who where and what the quests are and how they are solved will add suspence to the game imho.

krys: May 14th 2006; 3:36AM

I also noticed that undercity was missing from the rep screen, i can't see why unless blizard is going to make a signifigant change to both factions (which i can't see happening) any ideas?

dcarren: May 14th 2006; 7:35PM

Blood Elves are going to be nurfed soon after the expanison or until blizzard balances out there racial...20(x3) enegry/rage is huge for rouge and the they can silence at the same time making them one the best rouges. But then agian Alliance does has a mana free heal which scales with levels and +% to spell hit, will just have to see how people react when they are put in the hands of "hardcore" players

Democles: May 15th 2006; 11:12AM

The racials for the blood elves might not scale up as much as you think that is just the way it sarts out for their racial it may not work how you expect.
Alliance and Horde PVP is fine in BG's, it can go either way fore either side.It all depends on how many are skilled,number of players on each side, kind of classes/races. No need to complain.
It would be nice to have some new innovative ideas, but you may not realize the time it takes to implement these things, plus in the up comming expansions there are more new inovations different than anything in any online game today, you may be supprised.

Peter: May 16th 2006; 5:02AM

I have to say im very dissapointed that blizzard decided to place the blood elves on the horde side. The lore and story line for me has been destroyed and all there is now is the game. All i can do is hope blizzard is thinking of a new expansion that will give alliance the few high elves that remaind on the alliance as a playable race. Lets face it they have been apart of the alliance for games apon games and its ...a big let down that blizzard would change this simply to give the horde a "pretty race"

Khyren: May 16th 2006; 8:48AM

Notice, the map up top is labelled Hellfire Peninsula, but look closely... it's actually Quel'Thalas, the BE starting zone

NyaR: Jun 26th 2006; 9:41PM

to the guys talking about innovation, you should look into darkfallonline.com

Willy: Jul 1st 2006; 11:01AM

Ill buy the expansion, just like everyone else who is currently playing WOW will! I mean, why not purchase the expansion if your actively playing?

Now I can certainly see people possibly not coming back just because of this expansion. I have a friend who is not currently playing, but was planning on it when the expansion came out. Who know now if he will?

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