Expansion packs are usually just a way to make more money off a popular game. The bargain tables at games shops are covered with packs that promise much but in reality deliver a few new levels and a gravity gun. There are exceptions to this rule, exceptions that are few and far between. For every Half-Life opposing forces there’s a Blood 2 mission pack lurking.
Blizzard has traditionally been one to shirk the cash-in nature of an expansion in favour of providing a compelling gaming experience. Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne both stand as landmarks in expansion land. Rather than just delivering new content, they both feature extensive tinkering with the very mechanics of the game, and provide experiences that have evolved from the original titles.
So Blizzard’s first foray into MMO expansion territory has generated a lot of buzz. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is set for release on January 17th here in Australia, and offers not only a new level cap of 70, but also an entire new world to explore, called Outlands. I’ve been spending time in the closed beta lately, getting a picture of where blizzard is taking WoW, and how Outland is shaping up as an adventuring destination.
Hellfire Peninsula
When you first arrive in outland you find yourself on Hellfire peninsula, a barren, war torn chunk of rock jutting out into nothingness. Around you a battle rages between the species of Azeroth and demons led by a giant Pit Lord. Soon you find yourself in your faction’s basecamp on the peninsula, Thrallmar for Horde and Honor Hold for alliance.
Here the extent of the changes to the way the game works start becoming apparent. For one, each quest hub appears to have its own faction. Those familiar with the game will know the pain of grinding reputation with factions, thankfully this new structure means the simple act of questing and killing things along the way really kicks your reputation along, and means you don’t need to focus on a handful of repeatable quests to get your levels up.
Hand in hand with this are reputation-based rewards from vendors, ranging from armor to patterns to consumable, there are a wider range of rewards than those seen in the game currently. A certain level of reputation is needed to get the key to enable ‘heroic mode’ in the areas dungeons (but more on them later).
Questing is by and large the same ‘go and kill X number of scarily named bad dudes’ interlaced with ‘go and get X piece of anatomy from monster Y’ mix you know and love, with some twists added for fun. The bombing run missions in particular add a new flavour to levelling.
One very noticeable by-product of the levelling process is the quest rewards. The first few quests give some excellent items for all classes, and even the immaculately geared will think long and hard about replacing some of their hard earned raiding gear with these rewards.
Besides being a zone for levelling and questing, Hellfire Peninsula also features several dungeons. These dungeons are contained within Hellfire Citadel, which forms the centrepiece of the zone.
Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace
Finding a group to do these 5 person dungeons with is made easier by a revamped looking-for-group interface. This is an area where WoW has always fallen short, and previous attempts to create a system for finding groups have been largely ignored by the player base. The new system is quick, simple, and has already found me some excellent groups.
As part of this revamp, Blizzard has changed ‘meeting stone’ from a place where you interface with the looking-for-a-group system to a summoning point. All you do is click on a group member, click the stone and have one other person click on the portal that appears. This reduces the frustrations of waiting 20 minutes for someone to get to the entrance of the dungeon and is a very worthwhile addition to the game.
Hellfire Ramparts is the introductory dungeon for The Burning Crusade, and I found myself learning a lot about the class changes. I play a warrior, with pretty high-end gear, yet still I found it incredibly hard to keep the mobs under control. Both Paladins and Druids are now well equipped for tanking roles, and damage classes are capable of so much raw damage that it involves a rethink of methods. This leads to a more dynamic experience in dungeons, where crowd control becomes much more important than before.
Trying to keep the nastier mobs under control while the others were feared, frost nova-ed and otherwise kept busy was a refreshingly different experience, and one that kept the entire group busy. In the few runs I’ve done through ramparts it’s never quite been the same experience twice, and while the bosses are of a difficulty level befitting an entry level dungeon, the items that have dropped from them have been exceptionally good quality, better than raid gear in some cases.
Of slightly higher difficulty is the next instance, Blood Furnace. This keeps the trend of fairly short, 3 boss dungeons that start with Ramparts. Featuring some very different kinds of enemies, blood furnace is full of a mix of orcs and demons, with some tricky trash mobs leading to interesting boss encounters.
The first boss, the maker, is eminently unforgettable in his present state, however the other two fights are fun. One is a giant floating eye thing called Broggok that has a few tricks up its sleeves, including a pre-fight endurance test where the group is attacked by waves of orcs. The final fight is against a pack of warlocks, and involves the group thinking and reacting rather than just killing.
One very interesting thing about the loot in blood furnace is that a lot of the items are rare quality but with sockets for jewels created with the new jewelcrafting profession. There also appear to be a much wider range of items around, with care given to include things suitable for all talent builds, and not just the clichéd roles most classes get forced into.
There are other dungeons in Hellfire Citadel, Shattered Halls and Magtheridons lair, however these are max level dungeons, so it’ll be a little while before I’m ready to partake.
Zangarmarsh
To the west of Hellfire peninsula lies Zangarmarsh, a zone that has already captivated me. Essentially an otherworldly swamp, Zangarmarsh is in an ecological crisis brought on by the effort of the Naga in Coilfang reservoir. It is a beautifully haunting zone, with huge mushrooms growing skyward over a blue-green tinged landscape.
There are loads of quests, largely revolving around investigating the death of areas of marshland. After spending two levels on and off questing in Zangarmarsh I still enjoy the feeling of purpose in the zone. I’m also a herbalist, and Zangarmarsh is loaded with strange plants to pick, and even some mobs whose bodies can be ‘herbed’ much like animals can be skinned.
The main faction in Zangarmarsh is Cenarion Refuge, and missions quickly start driving reputation levels up. The rewards are varied, and include access to buffs that work only in Zangarmarsh once you hit friendly. To the west are also the mysteriously Smurf-like Sporelings, with whom you can gain rep as well.
I’ve yet to venture into the instances at Coilfang Reservoir (beyond a very brief period where I wandered in to the level 70 instance there), but similar to Hellfire the quests are pushing me in that direction.
It’s what has impressed me most about the expansion so far - the zones all feel like they have a purpose to them beyond just levelling up. Much like the Alliance level 10-20 zone Westfall has a building storyline about the Defias brotherhood, both Hellfire Peninsular and Zangarmarsh are their own microcosms within the greater burning crusade story arc.
And now on to Terokar forest, beyond the city of Shattrath (which is already being abbreviated to ‘Shat’ by players - you’d assume Blizzard would think of these things when naming). Keep an eye out for the continuation of my adventures over coming weeks.
