WoW: The Burning Crusade

[ShibbOleth]

There must be a thread on this somewhere, but I didn't find it, so apologies if this is a duplicate. Just want to see who is getting the Burning Crusade upgrade for WoW, what your expectations are for it, if you'll roll new characters, etc.

I've not pre-ordered, but will probably see if I can find a copy at lunch tomorrow. I'll probably create some sort of Dranaei (sp?) character just because, but am more interested to see how my 60 mage can advance.

[AmericanMaid]

My brother pre-ordered the game for me. I'm planning on making 2 Blood Elves and 1 Dranai (probably a Shaman). I might delete some of my other low level alts. Has anyone else noticed the new world visible through the portal on the log-on screen?

[Biggirl]

I've got a name picked out for my Blood Elf-- Nakidndancin. I do not, however, have it on pre-order. I'm afraid it'll be months before I'll be able to buy it in the store.

[Abe Babe]

I'll probably make a Blood Elf Pally. I usually get stuck healing the party, and it'd be nice to do so in heavy armor.

"Longest fight I ever seen, was a quick duel between Paladins." -- Me

[Jayn_Newell]

I pre-ordered mine a few months ago, and I'm starting to get a bit paranoid because I know a few people in game who've had their orders confirmed already and mine hasn't been yet. I'm looking forward to the expansion though, I think Blizzard has a far better idea of what players like and don't like now than they did at launch, and I expect to enjoy the new zones. I'm also looking forward to maybe being on the top end of the levelling curve, as I didn't have the playtime to rush to 60 after the initial launch.

I'm already happy though, my server was one of the ones was was just offered free transfers and my guild pretty much jumped at the chance. We had been on one of the launch servers before--the event Tuesday must've been horrid there, and I'm sure the BC launch will be terrible as well. But here we have no queues, no continent-wide lag thanks to the world event, and less inane chatter in the general channels. Did I mention I'm really enjoying the new server?

I will be rolling a Draenei warrior when I get my copy--sorry but the BE aren't pretty, just pansy. I also have a mage and a druid (both raid toons) that I'll need to get to 70 as well. I think I'll be a bit busy next week.

[DeadlyAccurate]

My husband and I re-installed the game Saturday night and bought two-month game cards in preparation for the xpack.

[Demo]

I'll probably go pick it up at lunch tomorrow as well and start the install at least. I played the Beta a bit(leveled a BELF 'lock to 20 and took my tauren hunter from 60 to 62) and I really enjoyed the new areas and quests. I'm just really, really looking forward to some level 60 spells on my mains like mass dispel for my priest and distracting shot for my hunter. I also have a 60 mage I stopped playing a year or so ago that I might pick back up.

[Basandre]

Well, I have a 60 resto druid that will need to get to 70 (I *love* healing as a druid - I healed in a Baron group the other day and the fight ended with everyone above 70% health). I've also got a paladin and a warlock in their early 40s that I enjoy playing. But I will have to give in and make a Dranei. Maybe a mage - I've started several and haven't really stuck with them as I mostly like characters that can heal. But I definitely want to make a jewelcrafter, and I might as well get a racial bonus for it, right? Plus, Dranei do get that racial ability to heal. Even if it isn't much, it's something.

[ShibbOleth]

Stopped by Game Stop at lunch today and ask about availability. The guy reco'd I preorder, since what they had available was going quickly. I went ahead and prepaid and will pick up tomorrow at lunch. They already have them in stock, but can't officially sell/disperse until midnight. No way I am going out at midnight just to bring it back and install and stay up all night. Tomorrow after work is fine for me. I'll probably roll up a Dranei shaman to see what that's like. Any name suggestions? My three main characters right now are Magestic, a mage, Leif, a druid, and Shibboleth, a rogue. What kinds of punny names can you think of?

As a side question, are Dranei and Blood Elves purely a Blizzard creation or is the some fantasy back story to these that I am missing?

[Ethilrist]

Anybody know if you have to install this in order to play, or do the patches released in the last few weeks allow people to play without it, like the pre-release patches in Battlefield 1942?

[Jayn_Newell]

You're going to have to install it.

[Anamorphic]

Originally Posted by Jayn_Newell

You're going to have to install it.

Just to be clear, you won't need the expansion installed to continue to play the old content, but you won't have access to the new Burning Crusade content without it.

[Ethilrist]

Originally Posted by Anamorphic

Just to be clear, you won't need the expansion installed to continue to play the old content, but you won't have access to the new Burning Crusade content without it.

That's what I meant--without installing, I will be able to play on Wednesday the same way I played last night, except, of course, for long waits, server crashes due to overloading, bugs in the new content, and draeni & blood elves running everywhere.

Time to start a dwarven hunter, methinks.

Aw, who am I kidding? I'm buying it.

[Taters]

My husband plans on picking up two copies tomorrow.

I'd like to transfer our 59 lvl pally and 'lock over, but we'll probably create new characters. I'm not sure what yet.

I doubt that my husband will actually find two copies tomorrow, but he told me he'll even drive to Tacoma to get find them. We'll see.

[Darwin's Finch]

My copy shipped today, so I should have it by Wednesday. I probably won't roll up a new character immediately (the starting areas for the new races are going to be pretty crowded at first); instead, I'll work on levelling my druid (60), rogue (60) and maybe warlock (44).

If I do make a new toon, it'll be a Blood Elf of undetermed class. I don't care to play Alliance-side.

[Taters]

Not to hijack this thread, but why is there such hate for the Alliance side?

I've played both sides now, and frankly, each can be annoying. For instance, Hillsbrad area has become practically unplayable due to high level alliance ganking Horde trying to quest there. Some nights, you can't even leave Tarren Mills. As an undead toon on that server, I get highly annoyed.

However, that being said, I've been ganked by Horde as an Alliance player. So, it cuts both ways.

Okay, end of hijack. Sorry about that.

All the same, I'm looking forward to the expansion.

[Biggirl]

Just guessing from talking to everyone I know who WoWs, there are gonna be more Blood Elves than you can shake Wirt's Third Leg at. That would make it harder for a player like me who likes to do everything alone. Every mob will be dead and all resources depleted. Maybe it will be good that I won't get my copy right away.


Ha! Who'm I kidding. My son just now walked out the door to see if he can still pre-order it from Gamestop.

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

Originally Posted by Taters

I'd like to transfer our 59 lvl pally and 'lock over, but we'll probably create new characters.

No need to transfer anything. The expansion just adds new capabilities and zones to the existing realms. Those with the expansion and those without the expansion will still be able to visit Stormwind/Undercity together, do raids and dungeons together, and so forth. It's just that the ones without the expansion can't go to Outland, create a Blood Elf, and so on.

The expansions shouldn't be too hard to find. My store sells them, and I was able to up my order just a few days ago. Any store that plans ahead adequately should have plenty.

I'm pretty ticked at Blizzard, though. My store is primarily a bookstore, and I was planning a midnight release party, much as we did for Harry Potter. Unfortunately, Blizzard is only making the BC expansions available today for a select few chains (Gamestop, Best Buy, Fry's Electronics) to put out at midnight. I get mine sometime tomorrow when FedEx arrives. Twits.

My son-in-law has a 60 mage and he was planning on selling ports to the new main city starting as soon after midnight as he could get there. He's bummed that he either has to wait until I get my FedEx shipment or drive an hour to the nearest Best Buy at midnight.

[ShibbOleth]

Originally Posted by InvisibleWombat

My son-in-law has a 60 mage and he was planning on selling ports to the new main city starting as soon after midnight as he could get there. He's bummed that he either has to wait until I get my FedEx shipment or drive an hour to the nearest Best Buy at midnight.

My main is a 60 mage, and I've not taken the last port training, assuming I could get it at 60 for the new city. I'd frankly forgotten about that by now, and hadn't thought of going mercenary and making a lot of money off of it. Hmm.

[Biggirl]

Update-- because I'm sure you are all waiting with bated breath. . . Gamestop told my son to come back at midnight. They believe there will be enough to go around for everyone.

[Geek Mecha]

I've preordered it, but I have no plans to start a new character right away. I've already played shaman and paladin, and there's no way in hell I'm throwing myself into any of the lowbie areas for the next month or two.

For now, I plan to take advantage of the impending demand for leather and jewelcrafting items, and enjoy the emptier higher-level zones.

[Revenant Threshold]

Preordered my copy.

I think i'll make up a Dranei, but i'm not sure what class. My main's a rogue, so i'm tempted by the lure of big shiny armour and big shiny weapons.

[Spidey]

I preordered BC months ago when I bought the game, but now Im finding it a bit too expensive to play, given that I have no income. Does anyone think it would be worth it for me to buy my pre-ordered copy and resell it, a la PS3? Heck if it would only make me a few extra bucks then I'd just sell it at retail to any toronto doper who couldnt find a copy.

[SenorBeef]

Originally Posted by Taters

Not to hijack this thread, but why is there such hate for the Alliance side?

As a whole, on average, the alliance side are much worse players in PVP. They win BGs maybe 20% of the time, tops, as a pub group.

Possibly dumber and less mature, although there is barrens chat as a counter-example.

Theories as to why this is is that the alliance are sort of like the default good guys that players associate themselves with, and new players will start there. But also because the alliance races are much more attractive.

The Blood Elves may have been designed to spread out the immaturity and stupidity. "OMG I CAN MAKE A FEMALE BLOOD ELF PALADIN AND DANCE NAKED ON MAILBOXES OMG THAT IS SO CREATIVE!!!"

[ShibbOleth]

Originally Posted by SenorBeef

Theories as to why this is is that the alliance are sort of like the default good guys that players associate themselves with, and new players will start there. But also because the alliance races are much more attractive.

My theory is that the Horde (also) draws a lot of the immature 13-25 crowd, that have nothing better to do than prove how totally awesome they are and have plenty of time to twink up characters. They're attracted to the more evil side. The alliance gets the more dimwitted side of that demographic.

[Jayn_Newell]

Originally Posted by SenorBeef

The Blood Elves may have been designed to spread out the immaturity and stupidity. "OMG I CAN MAKE A FEMALE BLOOD ELF PALADIN AND DANCE NAKED ON MAILBOXES OMG THAT IS SO CREATIVE!!!"

I'm fairly sure that is the reason they were added to the Horde side (well, actually to spread out the faction balances, which is pretty bad on some servers--the stupidity is already fairly even).

In my experience (I also play both sides of the fence), Horde players tend to have a superiority complex. They want to feel like they're better than someone else. So you get the 'pallies are gay' and 'Alliance are all 12-year-old nubs who rolled NE to watch them strip' jokes. Even in my own guild, which is dual-sided, I can see this division happening. Horde want to prove they're better than Alliance. Alliance pretty much ignore Horde, unless we're in the mood to abuse some goblins. I don't hear nearly as much bad-mouthing towards the Horde from the Alliance (hardly any at all, really) as I do going in the other direction. I just find the Horde is a bit coarser in all respects than Alliance.

[SenorBeef]

Ugh, I told myself I'd never be one of those geeks who were lining up at the release for anything, but I'm gonna be out in the middle of the night anyway, and if I wait till tomorrow, they might all be sold out, so I guess I'll do it. I won't wait in line, I'll just show up at midnight and hope they have some copies.

I called the closest gamestop and he said he couldn't guarantee that they'd have more than the pre-orders. So, if I can't get it there, would somewhere like a 24 hour walmart actually go out and stock it at midnight, or what?

[jayjay]

supervenusfreak pre-ordered from Amazon for me as part of my Christmas gifts. I expect it sometime this week, but I'm happy to be patient. Tomorrow and Wednesday are going to be a ZOO! Expect massive server lag and huge competition for starter area mobs and Outlands content. There are probably thousands of 60s sitting in the Blasted Lands right now resting up for midnight...

I pared my character lists on my 2 active servers (one server Horde, one server Alliance) down to 2 toons on each. I'm going to make one toon of each new race on their respective servers. Maybe a draenei shaman and a Belf paladin.

[SenorBeef]

About 90% of the Draeni you see will be shaman, and 90% of the Blood Elves will be Paladins. There will be an absolute flood of them - to the point where new servers will probably have a hard time getting a good class mix on groups.

[RickJay]

Sadly, my sister decided to get married this week, thereby delaying my BC fun.

And yeah, don't roll a Draenei or a Blood Elf this week, or this month, 'cause every l33t haxx0r teenager's gonna be doing the same thing. I've been trying to explain to my guild why rolling Draenei shamans is gonna be a supply-side catastrophe, but they seem determined to figure it out through hard experience.

[Koldanar]

Holy crap, there was one store by me in the HBG area doing the midnight opening...several hundreds showed up. HUNDREDS. I've never seen more than 20-30 for a game release (consoles yes, games??). Just, well, wow.

[Nava]

You bet I'm getting it, it should be in the mail as soon as Amazon UK gets the box with my name on it. I play in English, so the copy for BC had to be enEN as well.

I'm making a Draenei female priestess (jeweler) and a Draenei male warrior (weaponsmith). Between those two, the two engineers and the armorsmith I think I should be able to start causing a metal depletion any time now...

Yes, I suffer from altitis, how did you figure?

[SenorBeef]

Well, that sucked.

I went to gamestop, cause I called them and they said they'd be open at midnight. I asked about getting a copy without a preorder, and he said that he couldn't guarantee anything but pre-orders. So I go, and it turns out that they won't even take anyone who doesn't have a pre-order. It would be nice if the guy on the phone would've told me that.

But... there was a walmart right there, and I still had 15 minutes before midnight, so I head over. There are about 15 people in line. Cool - Walmart should get a ton of copies, right? Wait 15 minutes, they sell their *2* ... 2 copies, and everyone leaves.

Why the hell even bother to ship 2 copies? And it wasn't just leftovers from preorders, since Walmart doesn't take those.

So, I head home. I stop by the walmart near where I live, just in case, about 40 minutes after midnight, and the guy says he *just* sold out the last of his 7 copies. On the way out, I saw some kids with it. Sigh.

If that idiot at gamestop had told me, on the phone, that I wouldn't have been able to get one, I'd have gone to the Walmart right here, and I would've gotten a copy. Thanks, dude.

Oh well. The only reason I went is because I was going to be out anyway, and I figured if I waited, everywhere might be out of stock. Hopefully someone gets another shipment tomorrow. If I have to wait a day or two, no big deal. A week, that would be annoying. I guess I should've preordered, but I didn't expect them to be so scarce.

There were about 50 people with pre-orders at gamestop. That was weird to me. I went to try to get a copy before they sold out, but these people were guaranteed a copy... and just couldn't wait a few hours without their warcrack expansion, I guess. There were some kids in line saying "fucking gay this" and "you fag!" and stuff. And I said to the people next to me: "Check it out - real life Barrens chat."

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by ShibbOleth

My main is a 60 mage, and I've not taken the last port training, assuming I could get it at 60 for the new city. I'd frankly forgotten about that by now, and hadn't thought of going mercenary and making a lot of money off of it. Hmm.

Sorry, for blood elves, there is a port thingy in UC that goes right to the BE city. No need for cash

[Athena]

Well, I got up this morning to a "shipping notice" from Amazon dated yesterday, so it will be arriving today (oooh yes, I love me my Amazon Prime). That's pretty good for Amazon; previous pre-orders I've done through them had resulted in me canceling the order and buying it from Target because Amazon sat on it so long.

[Nava]

I'm supposed to get it before the weekend. Would it look bad if I start dancing in the factory's hallways? I promise I won't go "squee!", I'll just jig.

[Ethilrist]

Originally Posted by Nava

I'm supposed to get it before the weekend. Would it look bad if I start dancing in the factory's hallways? I promise I won't go "squee!", I'll just jig.

A Spanish lady doing a jig in Switzerland... now there is something I have not seen...

[ArrMatey!]

So, a brief question about the new races... I don't recall where, but I was reading a brief description of the many-and-varied talents the new elven race will be receiving, and I'm concerned.
There's a point in many games where 'power-creep' rears up, and I'm worried this may be it. Undead can breathe underwater longer. Orcs have (IIRC) more damage from pets. The new elves get mana burn and a few other abilities? Seems a bit unbalanced.
What I'm concerned about is the thought that this may start a trend of a 'need' for one of the new races in groups just to keep 'on top of' things. I know, I know- most guilds are just fine with whatever they have, but... Really... Which would you rather have in your group? A guy that can hold his breath, or a guy that can mana burn?
Please re-assure me that, should I -not- run out and buy the expansion (I just can't afford to do so), I'm not going to feel like I've been second-class-citizened?

(Postscript- I single out the elves because I've heard nothing of the abilities of the new alliance race. In fact, I almost always play alliance...)

[Biggirl]

I'll tell you what-- either everybody on my server thinks it's update time or they're all making new characters because there is nobody on Stranglethorne Vale or Westfall or Ratchet. Even Orgimmar is deserted.

Since the boy did not go at midnight to get BC, I'll just mine.

[Biggirl]

Let me add that when I logged on my server was "Full".

[Darwin's Finch]

Originally Posted by ArrMatey!

What I'm concerned about is the thought that this may start a trend of a 'need' for one of the new races in groups just to keep 'on top of' things. I know, I know- most guilds are just fine with whatever they have, but... Really... Which would you rather have in your group? A guy that can hold his breath, or a guy that can mana burn?

I wouldn't worry about that. Each race has more abilities than those you listed. Undead also have Will of the Forsaken, which gives temporary immunity to fear, as well as Cannibalism which lets them "consume" fallen humanoids to regain health. Orcs have innate stun resistance (not a bad thing for your Main Tank to have...), Blood Fury, and bonuses with axes. Tauren have Warstomp, greater health (also not a bad thing for your Main Tank to have...) and +15 to Herbalism skill. Trolls have...well, not so much. Compared to the whole list, Blood Elf racial abilites aren't likely to be in greater demand than any others. Blood Elves will, however, be in demand because they are the only race that can be Paladins, Horde-side.

For the most part, though, racial abilities play a very minor role compared to class abilities. Many of Horde's racials are more useful in PvP than in PvE (whereas Alliance racials tend to be the opposite).

[mrklutz]

I just strolled over to Target and picked up a couple copies (one for me, one for my GF). The supply at the downtown store was pretty good.

Of course, I doubt I'll be able to play much tonight -- the login queue on Thunderhorn is going to be insane, I'm sure. It's been as many as 700 people leading up to the expansion, so I can only imagine what tonight's will be.

[Ethilrist]

I just picked one up at the Target across from work. They still had five copies left.

I wouldn't worry too much about creating a must-have race--Blizzard's been pretty good about not breaking existing games with overpowering add-ons (one reason why they never unlocked the Barbarian in Diablo I... not officially, anyway...). The extra classes in D2, the new units in Starcraft (Bloodwar), etc., didn't break the game, in my experience.

[SenorBeef]

Thanks for reminding me about target. They apparently had over 100 boxes.

So, Walmart 2 and 7.. target 100. Okay, whatever.

But had I known that, I'd have just gotten it today. I didn't have to get it right at the first possible moment, I just didn't want to hear "sorry, the next batch won't be due for a week"

[ShibbOleth]

Grabbed Chic-fil-a and the expansion pack at lunch. Will attempt to install and maybe log on later tonight. La Woot!

[fluiddruid]

I'll probably make a new character later, but after work I'm heading through the Dark Portal right away. I stuck my character there last night, but was too lazy to stay up for the midnight sale, so I'm going to grab it today (it's reserved).

Anyone on Turalyon up for some Hellfire Citadel instance action? Alliance, of course.

[SenorBeef]

I was talking to a guy who played the beta, and he said the new instances (or raids? I didn't talk to him for too long) use some sort of token system. Instead of having random stuff drop (maybe it does in addition), tokens drop, that everyone can roll for, and then turn in for gear.

As it is, I've barely raided, because the idea of doing the same thing over and over and over again in the hopes that a few particular items might drop that particular time isn't my thing. So many times an item for a class we didn't have in our group would drop, or something we already had, and it was totally useless, so it got sharded. On many runs, no one gets any new gear, because it's all so random.

Tokens would make it so much better though - everyone would need them equally and benefit from them equally. You would no longer have useless gear just to be destroyed. You could systematically work towards a goal instead of running it over and over and over and hoping that you got lucky on the random chances. I'm really hoping they implemented something like this, and did it well.

[thursday next]

I peer pressured my sweetie into buying a copy. He starting playing at Christmas (he needed an accessory to go with his new toy). I don’t play, but I like talking to him about it and I’ll sometimes take a break from my games to watch him play.

Yesterday he went to GameStop and preordered a copy. The munchkins in the store waiting for the roll out were shocked when he said he’d pick up his copy later in the week, maybe Thursday. He wasn’t going there at midnight? He wasn’t going there as soon as he could on Tuesday? They were so cute in their disbelief. I’m peer pressuring him again to go pick it up today after work.

I hope that everyone is enjoying playing!

[Taters]

My hubby was going to pick up two copies today, but our nephew picked up two copies for us last night. We were sort of laughing at him for going to stand in line for the midnight thing, but then he called us and told us he had picked up two copies for us. Saved my husband a lot of running around, so it was much appreciated.

Hubby picked up the copies from nephew this morning, and I am sure, is installing as I type this. I, unfortunately, am at work, so I'll have to wait until tonight.

It will be interesting to see how it will really be.

[fluiddruid]

Originally Posted by SenorBeef

I was talking to a guy who played the beta, and he said the new instances (or raids? I didn't talk to him for too long) use some sort of token system. Instead of having random stuff drop (maybe it does in addition), tokens drop, that everyone can roll for, and then turn in for gear.

Yep, that's my understanding - not for basic instances (which will still drop blues - just much, much better blues) but for the Tier 4 and 5 sets. I am very happy about this - I never did see the Felheart bracers nor belt drop, and spent 250G for the damn belt. (I have 5 pieces of the set - at least the robes I had seen, just lost the roll on to an outside-of-guild PUGger.

As it is, I've barely raided, because the idea of doing the same thing over and over and over again in the hopes that a few particular items might drop that particular time isn't my thing. So many times an item for a class we didn't have in our group would drop, or something we already had, and it was totally useless, so it got sharded. On many runs, no one gets any new gear, because it's all so random.

That's supposed to improve. I really never intended to get into raiding, but out of curiousity, I joined a Molten Core PUG, then another, then another until finally they recruited me. It's great fun to play with a large group, chat on Vent, get drops for your friends... every time someone got a cherished item is fun when you're all one big family.

If I had to guess, there will still be limited random drops - for example, most sets don't cover all slots (like Neck, both rings, both trinkets, and Cloak slots). From what I understand, though, the best of the gems for socketables will be craftable and able to be traded along to others, so hopefully I'll get most of those from the guild. There is a certain thrill in seeing cool items drop so I doubt it'll be gone completely. Still, it was agonizing seeing Felheart Gloves and Giantstalker Belt drop again and again after all the warlocks/hunters had them, but yet other classes still had many people waiting.