Terokkar Forest:
Terokkar forest is another zone that is intended for level 62 to 65 players. It is also connected to the south west part of Hellfire Peninsula, which is good because it could help split up people moving from Hellfire Peninsula after they reach level 62. The main feature here is that Shattrath City is on the far West side of the zone and the south side of the zone holds Auchindoun, which has four level 64-70 instances in it. World PVP seems to have players taking control of a few different towers in this area.
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Auchindoun:
Not much to say here so I am just showing a screenshot. If I can get in the instance, I will post more info about it at a later date:
Shadowmoon Vale:
Shadowmoon Vale is a dark, high level Instance that holds the final and toughest Raid Instance called The Black Temple. For those of you familiar with Warcraft lore, this is where Illidan is waiting to kick your ass. The zone is nice and has a spooky feeling to it that reminds me of Mount Doom from Lords of the Ring.
Blade’s Edge Mountains and Netherstorm:
The last two zones are Blade's Edge Mountains and Netherstorm. These two areas are currently closed in beta.
Leveling:
Burning Crusade will be increasing the level cap from 60 to level 70 and with this increase, players can obviously expect to spend a lot of time leveling their character to 70. There are also a few rumors I would like to dispel at this time as well.
First, as of the beta, there is no longer Rest XP after level 60 and Blizzard said this may change, but I hope it doesn’t. You can also level up by doing quests or killing monsters, just like in the retail version of WoW. Lastly, you can get XP by fighting outside of The Outlands.
XP required from 60 to 61 is 415500k and for 61 to 62 it is 473900.
The average same level mob gives you about ~500+xp per kill (it ramps up) and most level 60 quests give about 6000-7000xp from what I have noticed and of course, this ramps up.
It took me about 12 hours worth of questing and grinding to get to level 61, however I did spend some time gawking around.
Overall, I suspect an average gamer is looking at a good 150-200 hours to get to level 70 but keep in mind that is only an estimate based on MY leveling to 61 and conversations with other people and is subject to change with tweaking. Some people will level faster and some will go much slower. I’ve always felt that a MMORPG is as much about the ride to the level cap as it is about getting to the level cap itself, so I have no issue with a longer leveling curve and I don’t see why people are so fixated on it. Myself, I want a longer curve this time around.
Quests:
For all of you who love doing the Quests that WoW has to offer, the good news is that the expansion is full of them. I have done about 30 quests in Hellfire Peninsula so far and I still have a tone left to do, making me think there are about 50+ quests available in this zone. While most of the quests are similar to things you may have already done, I did stumble across some awesome quests like this one quest that has you flying on a Griffon and dropping bombs on monsters on the ground. The quest puts you on rails, but all you need to do is target and destroy a certain amount of mobs and it’s a blast.
People will also be happy to know that most of the quests return 2 gold or more, with many of the first few quests giving 4-6 gold.
Flightpaths:
Flight Paths are alive and well in Outlands and they are plentiful.
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Druid Tree Form:
For all you druids out there, here you go.
Trade Skills:
As far as Trade Skills in BC go, there are two main changes. The first change is that Grand Master trade skills are now available, raising the skill cap from 300 to 375. With this change a host of new crafting items, recipes, formulas and enchants for people to use. The second is the addition of jewelcrafting.
Faction and Reputation:
I have not really noticed any changes to Faction. You still grind your ass off…. However, if you go to Honor Hold, you can visit the Quartermaster near the front gates who has a few recipes and other items to sell you at varying reputation levels. I am not impressed with what the NPC was offering at all and I hope this gets tweaked better.
Difficulty:
The new level 60 Outland monsters seem to be a bit harder than existing level 60 monsters, mostly due to the increase in stamina that all mobs have gotten in Outlands. Do I feel they are too hard? Not at all and my rogue I was playing is in green loot for the most part. Obviously, those of you in blue or better armor will have an advantage but the level 60’s in green armor from retail WoW will quickly find that the green loot that is dropped in Outlands is vastly superior to their old green armor, so after a few upgrades, difficulty will start to balance out.
Instance bosses DO have more “twists” to them though, but that is to be expected. After two years, people are very experienced and content needs to be ramped up to meet that demand.
Soloing/Casual/Grouping/Raiding:
Soloing is alive and well in The Burning Crusade and it will pose no difficulty for people to get to level 70 alone. Obviously, the best equipment is inside Instances so if you do not group a little bit, you may miss some of the loot. As in the first 60 levels, there are going to be some Elite Quests that you will need help with.
Raiding at level 70+ should be more diverse in Burning Crusade as there are many more instances to do. The lack of 40 man raids is a good and bad thing in my opinion. On one hand, it will be far easier for many more Guilds to get 20 and 25 man raids going and coordinated than it currently is for doing 40 mans. On the flip side, those that are 40 man based are going to need to put some work into making their members happy, but this should be doable for Guilds that care. I totally understand why Blizzard took this route but it will be interesting to see how it works out in the end.
Jewelcrafting:
The second big change is that Jewelcrafting has been added to the game, and it looks like it will be a blast for people who venture into this trade.
At its most general, Jewelcrafting works in that it has 3 main features:
-Jewel cutting:
This is the actual cutting of a gem, so that you can fit it into a socked item. Below are a screenshot of a Jewelcutting recipe and Jewel that is for sale.
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-Prospecting:
This is where you take base “ore” metals like Thorium or Iron and prospect for a gem. The ore is used up in the process. You can still find gems through regular mining as well.
-Jewelry Making:
This is where you make actual rings, trinkets, etc. The recipes can be bought off of vendors or found.
There are going to be dozens of different jewel cutting recipes out there and I can see a whole new economy opening up around Jewelcrafting alone. As for what gems and stuff to start hoarding, well those could change before BC is released and honestly, the best things will only be available in Outlands anyways. So should you horde Arcane Crystals and other gems? Perhaps, but with Rich Thorium Mines spawning all over the place, there will be easier to find and of course I don’t know what Arcane Crystals can be cut into so I cant offer any good advice.
First Aid:
First Aid gets a shot in the arm with Burning Crusade in the form of a skill bump to 375 and the introduction of two new bandage types:
Netherweave Bandage –330 Skill, 2800 Damage Healed over 8 seconds.
Heavy Netherweave Bandage -360 Skill, 3400 Damage Healed over 8 seconds.
As you can guess, these use Netherweave Cloth, which is commonly dropped by level 60+ monsters in Outlands.
To learn this new skill, one must first buy the Master First Aid book off a special NPC Vendor located in Hellfire Peninsula. This will allow you to raise your skill to 375. At this point, you need to make Heavy Runecloth Bandages until your skill is 330, then you can use the Netherweave Bandage book.
Alchemy:
My main character is an alchemist but sadly he is on a second account and not on the beta server so I do not have much to report. However, I did hear of people “discovering” new recipes by not actually using a recipe, just having certain herbs in their inventory, so if that is in the game, it could be a really cool feature. You can expect the usually stuff here, such as +35 Agility potions, new healing potions, etc. I am sure there will be a few twists.
Three new herb types I remember picking up so far are:
Felweed (300 Herbalism Skill)
Dreaming Glory (315 Herbalism Skill)
Terocone (325 Herbalism Skill)
There are a few more, but I forget the names.
Other Trade Skills:
There are awesome new recipes available for crafters but I will leave that for a future article. For the most part, expect to find the usual upgrades to existing items and I am sure there will be unique things as well.
Some new Ore types I found are:
Fel Iron Ore
Adamantium Ore
Bags:
There is a recipe in Shattrath for an 18 slot bag and I hear 20 slot bags have been found. I took a shot of the bag recipe and another recipe that makes some of the ingredients required for the bag recipe.
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