I finally took the plunge and bought WoW this afternoon, if only to hang out with the SDMB guild, but I was a little hesitant to buy the Burning Crusade expansion before playing for a while and deciding whether or not I liked it. What I’m wondering is, will playing without the expansion seriously gimp me when it comes to low and mid-level adventuring with other people, or will I mainly be missing out at the higher levels?
I only ask because the store closes in about two hours, and I’d like to decide whether or not to go back before then.
You won’t be able to make a Blood Elf or Draeni character. You might not be able to visit their starting zones, either, but I’m not sure about that. Also, you won’t be able to learn Jewelcrafting. All the rest of the content is end-game stuff.
Bear in mind that you can get a free ten-day trial to get a taste of the game, but you will be limited in how much you can interact with other characters.
Without the expansion, you won’t have access to Outland, which includes the city of Shattrath. Many, if not most, low-level characters ask/pay a high-level mage to teleport them there so that they can set their home point there; Shattrath has permanent one-way portals to the other cities which make getting around somewhat easier. You won’t be able to visit or quest in the Ghostlands, either (that’s why there’s an instance-style gate between the Ghostlands and the Eastern Plaguelands, Miller).
I gather that the SDMB guild is on Horde side, and blood elves are the only Horde race that can be paladins (and dranei are the only alliance race that be shamans). Horde and alliance characters cannot communicate in any meaningful way, so paladin would be off-limits if you want to hang out with the other Dopers.
Otherwise, you won’t really notice a difference until you reach level 58 (well, 50 if you take up engineering).
