World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

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World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Vivendi Universal
Designer(s)	Rob Pardo Jeff Kaplan Tom Chilton
Release date(s)	January 16, 2007^[1] February 2, 2007 April 3, 2007
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Online
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen)^[2] OFLC: E (Exempt) PEGI: 12+
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X
Media	CD, DVD, Online Patch
System requirements	See System requirements
Input	Keyboard, Mouse

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the first expansion pack for the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft. It was released on January 16, 2007 at midnight in Europe, United States and Canada, and sold nearly 2.4 million copies that day, making it the fastest-selling PC game in those countries.^[3] It was available by January 17, 2007 in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Singapore as well; in total, approximately 3.5 million copies were sold across these territories in the first month of release, including 1.9 million in North America and nearly 1.6 million in Europe.^[4] It was available by February 2, 2007 in South Korea, and it was available by April 3, 2007 in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.^[5]^[6] Availability for mainland China will be announced in the near future.

1 Information
2 New playable races
- 2.1 Blood Elves
- 2.2 Draenei
3 New instances
- 3.1 Future instances
4 Player vs. Player
5 Distribution errors
6 System requirements
7 Notes and references
8 External links

[edit] Information

New content is accessible to players without the expansion, such as items crafted with the Jewelcrafting profession and any tradeable items found in Outland.^[7]
On July 21, 2006, it was announced that Blood Elves would be able to play as Paladins, which were previously unavailable to the Horde. Similarly, the Draenei would be able to play as Shaman, previously unavailable to the Alliance.^[8]
New endgame instance raids are capped at 25 members (previous instances had a limit of 40 players).
New dungeons will have two difficulty levels: Normal and Heroic. Once a player reaches level 70, they may choose to run a lower-level instance at the Heroic difficulty. While the harder difficulty will present a much greater challenge to the group, it will also yield better rewards. Blizzard is considering adding this feature to currently existing dungeons but has no plans to implement them yet.
On December 13, 2006, the opening cinematic of The Burning Crusade was shown on Spike TV's Video Game Awards^[9] and subsequently made available on the official World of Warcraft web site.^[10]
A midnight release and signing was held at the Fry's Electronics in Anaheim, CA. Doors opened at midnight on January 16, 2007; the programmers, artists, and other Blizzard employees were there giving their autographs.^[11]

[edit] New playable races

Both the Alliance and the Horde have received a new race. These new races changed faction dynamics by providing each faction access to all player classes in the game.

[edit] Blood Elves

Main article: Blood Elf

The Blood Elves and their starting area.

The Blood Elves are the remnants of the High Elves who survived the destruction of Quel'Thalas by the Undead Scourge. They renamed themselves in remembrance of their slaughtered brethren. At first they remained loyal to the human forces in Lordaeron and their racist human commander, Grand Marshal Garithos, but it became increasingly clear that they were no longer welcome in the Alliance.

They join the Horde alongside the Orcs, Trolls, Undead and Tauren.
Their racial traits center on their addiction to magic and result in increased resistance from magic used against them. Blood elves can drain mana from their enemies and prevent others from using magic by using a racial silence ability.
Their starting zone is Sunstrider Isle, located in Eversong Woods in Quel'Thalas.
Classes available to Blood Elves are: Priest, Mage, Warlock, Hunter, Rogue, and Paladin. It was announced that the Blood Elves would be the only race not to have warriors to keep the number of playable classes fair compared to other races. This move proved to be controversial among many players, many who thought that it did not make sense to have a High Elves as a Hunter class but not a Warrior. With the exception of the rogue, all of the available classes use mana to symbolize their racial addiction to magic.
The Blood Elf mount is the Hawkstrider. [1]
The voice of the male blood elf is provided by Cam Clarke.
The male Blood Elf dance is a collection of moves taken from the dance scene in Napoleon Dynamite.

[edit] Draenei

Main article: Draenei

Draenei as seen in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Their "Dimensional Ship" is in the background, still smoking from the recent crash landing.

The Eredar of Argus were an extremely intelligent race that attracted the attention of Sargeras, the Destroyer of Worlds, with their vast accomplishments. Sargeras approached the leaders of the Eredar, Velen, Kil'jaeden and Archimonde, and offered untold power and knowledge in exchange for the loyalty of the Eredar race. While Kil'jaeden and Archimonde agreed to pledge their loyalty to Sargeras, Velen saw a vision of the future, in which the Eredar were transformed into demons by Sargeras.

Velen and the as yet uncorrupted Eredar fled Argus and named themselves Draenei, or "exiled ones." Aided by the Naaru, enigmatic beings that blessed the Draenei with light-given knowledge and power, they settled on a peaceful world which they named Draenor, meaning "Exile's Refuge" in the Eredun tongue.

The surviving and uncorrupted Draenei fled to relative safety in their interdimensional ship, the Exodar. They crash-landed on the Azuremyst Isles of Azeroth, and pledged their support to the Alliance to fight the Burning Legion and the Orcs. Their capital city is named after their ship that crash-landed in Azeroth, and is built out of the largest husk of the remains of the ship.

They join the Alliance along with Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes and Night Elves.
The male Draenei dance is from the Tunak Tunak Tun music video, by Daler Mehndi.
Their starting zone is located in the Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles which are off the western coast of Kalimdor.
The following are available classes for Draenei: Warrior, Priest, Paladin, Mage, Shaman, and Hunter.

[edit] New instances

The Dark Portal as it will be seen after players travel back through time to aid Medivh as he opens it.

There are several new instances in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

Auchindoun was formerly a sacred burial site for the draenei. It then became the fortress of the Bleeding Hollow orc clan. It was nearly destroyed by Alliance forces during the invasion of Draenor. The Shadow Council almost destroyed the tomb and the surrounding areas when they summoned Murmur, who is said to be the primordial essence of sound.
Caverns of Time lie below the Tanaris desert in Azeroth. It is where Nozdormu the Timeless One, head of the Bronze Dragonflight and Dragon Aspect of time, makes his home. The Caverns of Time is actually comprised of three instances, in which players will be able to experience significant events of Azeroth's history and prevent them from being altered by a mysterious foe: Thrall's escape from Durnholde Keep, Medivh's opening of the Dark Portal, and the Battle of Mt. Hyjal.
Coilfang Reservoir is a subterranean pumping station operated by Illidan's naga forces. Lady Vashj herself personally oversees its operation.
Gruul's Lair is the lair of the massive ogre demigod, Gruul.
Hellfire Citadel was formerly an orc fortress, and housed the warriors of the Shattered Hand and Shadowmoon clans. More recently, Illidan has converted it to his own uses, and is breeding an army of fel orcs within its walls.
Karazhan was once the shining ivory tower of Medivh, the Guardian of Tirisfal. After Medivh's death, however, the tower and the land around it were blighted and cursed. The powerful nexus of ley energies beneath the tower still remains, however, as well as the myriad of treasures accrued by the powerful wizard.
Tempest Keep was created by the Naaru to serve as both a fortress and a means of transportation. However, after arriving in Outland and leaving the keep, Prince Kael'thas and his blood elves stormed in and took over. It now serves as the prince's base of operations in Outland.

[edit] Future instances

There are two instances that are seen in the world, but not accessible.

The Black Temple is located on the eastern edge of Shadowmoon Valley. It was formerly known as the Temple of Karabor and served as the inner sanctum of the draenei Prophet Velen. When the Horde began massacring the draenei, the Shadow Council under Gul'dan took possession of this as their citadel, named the Black Temple. After Gul'dan crossed into Azeroth, it became known as Fortress Shadowmoon and was ruled by Ner'zhul and his clan. Now it is the citadel of the Lord of Outland - first the Pit Lord Magtheridon, and then the half-demon night elf who deposed him...Illidan Stormrage.

The Black Temple will be opened in Patch 2.1.0.

Zul'Aman is the capital of the Amani forest trolls that reside in Quel'Thalas. Little is known of what the instance itself will be, other than the fact that it will be a raid instance (10 or 25 man, no one knows - it has yet to be announced). It will be the fourth instance with trolls as the primary opponent (along with Zul'Farrak in Tanaris, the Temple of Atal'Hakkar in Swamp of Sorrows, and Zul'Gurub in Stranglethorn Vale). It is located in the Ghostlands, the southernmost of the two areas controlled by the blood elves.

[edit] Player vs. Player

A new battleground, Eye of the Storm, is included with two brackets 61-69 and 70.^[12] Only players with the expansion pack may participate in this battleground.

In addition, a new PvP Arena System was introduced, a way for players to fight in 2 vs. 2, 3 vs, 3, or 5 vs. 5 battles. While the arena system allows people without Burning Crusade to participate in matches, people without the expansion would not be able to participate in Ladder matches which yield rewards.^[13]

Finally, there are several other "outdoor" PvP contests, most of which involve "capturing" key points to reward same-faction players in the area a statistic boost. This effect lasts as long as the key points are held. The most complex outdoor PvP activity is a town called Halaa, which can be conquered by either faction. The players who control the town get additional quests, items, and other services.^[14]

[edit] Distribution errors

Blizzard committed a number of errors during the distribution of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in Europe. One such error is the failure to register the Collector's Edition for in-game rewards. As such, players who purchased the Collector's Edition of the game would have to send numerous proofs of purchase to Blizzard by postal mail in order to redeem their in-game awards.^[15]

Only 1600 copies were delivered to Romania, which has more than ten thousand World of Warcraft subscribers.^[16]

[edit] System requirements

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade runs natively on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Boxed copies of the expansion use a hybrid CD to install the game, eliminating the need for separate Mac and Windows retail products.^[17]

[edit] Windows

OS: Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4); Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
Processor: Intel Pentium 3 or AMD Athlon 800MHz minimum.
Memory:
- 512 MB RAM,
- 1GB RAM is recommended
Video:
- Minimum: 32MB 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as an NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or above.
- Recommended: 64MB VRAM 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability, such as an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 class card or above. External links section below has a link to show other video chipsets Blizzard has marked as supported.
Sound: DirectX-compatible sound card

[edit] Macintosh

OS: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer required
Processor:
- 933MHz G4,G5 or Intel processor, 1.8GHz G5/Intel processor recommended
RAM:
- 512MB RAM,
- 1GB DDR RAM is recommended
Video:
- NVIDIA or ATI graphics processor with 32MB VRAM,
- 64MB VRAM recommended
A keyboard and mouse are required. Input devices other than a mouse and keyboard are not supported by Blizzard.

[edit] All platforms

Connectivity: Requires an active broadband internet connection to play. (Note: 56k will still work but is no longer supported)
Mouse: Multi-button mouse with scroll wheel recommended.
10GB available HD space is specified on package. Based on tests run, the pack actually requires about 2GB more than your current World of Warcraft installation (approximately 7GB after World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is installed). (Patches, however, may account for this lapse of space.)

Note: System Requirements are subject to change.

Blizzard has stated that, due to the size of the patches, broadband is now listed as required.^[18] Blizzard will still offer tech support to players with dialup, except for patching issues.