Previews

Our hero dons his Crimson Felt Hat and goes out onto the wide rolling plains of Nagrand. Coincidentally, Nagrand is virtually identical to the American Midwest, except with fewer endless miles of farmland and more crazy animals, beings from another plane of existence, gigantic diamonds, fire-bombing Wyvern raids, and a trio of big game hunters.

Okay, maybe it's not so like the Midwest.

As one can expect, there's a boatload of quests for yours truly, with objectives all over the massive zone of Nagrand. I can tell right away that this is going to be a blast. No, really, it's actually pretty cool. But what would I be without my sarcasm? Certainly not your loveable, humble, narrator!

I've got quests up the wazoo, which is a very uncomfortable place for quests. Apparently, the Mag'har had another village far to the West, which was then invaded by the Murkblood tribe of Broken, who slaughtered most of the inhabitants. But since the Greatmother is sick and dying, Garrosh Hellscream can't get off his emo ass and go do something. So, the orcs ask if a certain awesomely nifty Mage can go help them get revenge. Unfortunately, as revenge is against my code, I have to decline.

Just kidding. You know me better than that, people! I'm all over that revenge thing.

Click that little "Read More" to, well, read more of "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 8: Unadulterated Awesomeness."

Unlike other past installments, in this episode our gallant Hero In A Dress does not kill enemies and Take Their Stuff(TM). Oh no, not for lack of trying... but because they kill him. Thankfully, they're generous enough not to Take His Stuff, because that would just be annoying.

I join a group for the Mana-Tombs, believing it to be the first wing of the zone. To be fair, it's not too far out of my level-I'm 64, approaching 65, and the mobs are all around the same-but I think all of us are expecting something far easier than what we get.

While we wait for the rest of our group, I get some quests. Auchindoun, from what I've seen, has two primary quest centers. The first, outside the Auchenai Crypts, is a group of Draenei who are mourning for their dead kin inside the Crypts. The only quest I can get at the time is from a young Draenei child named Ha'lei, whose quest is titled "I See Dead Draenei."

Sigh. What's next, Brus Wil'lez?

(Incidentally, this starts a chain where you deal with an NPC named "Dirty Larry." Double sigh.)

The little link below will lead you to "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 7: Auchindoun or Auchindoun't?"

Don't forget - we have two image galleries that are constantly being updated with Burning Crusade screenshots so make sure you check them out!

Burning Crusade General Screenshots - This gallery is full of anything and everything from scenery to quests, to dialog, to whatever we happen across!

Burning Crusade Items - Want to know what some of those fabled Burning Crusade items are? We've been screnshotting every new item we come across so you can see the stats, right from the game (also, check out our Burning Crusade Database for all of your item and quest needs).

You've followed his journies to a dark and treacherous wasteland, read about his daring exploits battling demons and foul abominations that could only spawn from the darkest abyss (or the mind of a writer in Irvine, CA)... but this time, read and be amazed as the Mage They Call Jayne(z)... does absolutely nothing (much) of consequence whatsoever. And largely because people tell him to.

Oh, the suspense!

Anyway, I decide to go find another area for quests. To the south, I see what looks like a Horde settlement... but upon seeing lots of red names above the various Orcs, Trolls, and Gnomes there I decide that maybe I should look somewhere else. Heading farther south, I reach Stonebreaker Hold, the ACTUAL Horde place. Sweet. I receive a few quests there, as I am wont to do. I decide to start on the quest to kill some of the Royal Teromoths in the area. There's also another quest I work on at the same time regarding the Wolf Spirit of Draenor.

Apparently, once the Orcs started getting all big, mean, and red, they lost contact with the primal Wolf Spirit-and one of their shamans is trying to show the spirit that "Hey, we're cool again, man!" He decides that the best way to go about doing this is to dress in a wolf pelt outfit, so he asks me to go kill a bunch of Timber Wolves and get their pelts.

A-bwuh?

Gee, you ever think the reason the Wolf Spirit left was because you WERE KILLING WOLVES TO GET IN TOUCH WITH HIM? I mean, I've only got over 400 Intellect, so maybe I'm missing the intelligence in this act? (Although, going by D&D rules, I guess that'd be more of a Wisdom thing, wouldn't it...? Bah, I digress)

Click that little friendly link below to read "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 6: Fear and Loathing in Terokkar Forest"

where can i find the complete list of questions?

The Answer:
There is a complete list of all of our Burning Crusade coveraged located at: http://wow.warcry.com/content/info/burning_crusade/index.php

#36:

the flying mounts only available to buy in the Outlands (etc) or are they in the same areas where you would normally buy the land-mounts?

Ain't seen any vendors yet, and there aren't any down by the Troll mount guy in Sen'Jin, so I'd have to say that yes, they're only available in Outlands.

#37:

You mentioned that it takes 15,000 honor to purchase a GM weapon. Starting from scratch, this would take many many months to attain in today's system. Starting from scratch in the new system, it seems like a very easy task. 25 honor per kill would equate to 600 kills to be able to purchase a GM weapon. It only takes a few days to get that many kills. Is it really this easy? Is there a large honor difference when killing someone 1v1 vs killing someone in a battleground (i.e. do you still get 25 honor per kill in battlegrounds)?

I get anywhere from 20-30 Honor Points per kill 1v1, currently. While you might think "Hey, that's really simple to get the GM weapon then!" keep in mind that old Rank 14s got more than just one weapon upon hitting their rank--they could get ranged weaponry, a shield, different weapons depending on if they wanted to go 2H or Dual-Wield, as well as the Rank 12 and Rank 13 armor sets on the way to the top. Those will be all seperate purchases now.

#38:

I'm currently rank 8, and working towards 11 for the pvp mounts. If I don't make it before the expansion is released, are they still available and what do they cost (honor/marks/etc)?

They are still available. They require 30 Marks of Honor from each battleground (AB, AV, WSG)... though those only stack to 20 currently, that will be changed in Burning Crusade.

#39:

what are the new zones in the burning crusade(except outland and the new starting zones)?

Er, the new zones in the Burning Crusade ARE Outland and the new Starting Zones. To be more specific, there are seven zones in Outland: Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terokkar Forest, Nagrand, Blade's Edge Mountains, Netherstorm, and Shadowmoon Valley.

#40:

I just found this site, and i must say cool site indeed! A thing that has made me, to say the least, pretty mad is to see the new items. Can it be that they render all our efforts in MC/BWL/ONY/AQ/ZG utterly useless, by implementing far better items than is achievable now? Or do they change stats on current raid gear? This is something im very keen on discovering, as tbh i am gonna stop raíding BWL right now, if they dont change stats on the current tier sets.

My Netherwind gear is completely unchanged. You might want to stop raiding then, if that's the case. :/

#41:

How can you buy Alterac Manna Biscuits and other consumables with the current Honor Point system?

Not sure about Alterac Manna Biscuits, but I know that Combat Potions are 1 honor point apiece.

#42:

I have two questions. One, I doubt you'll be able to answer right now, but here goes... How long are the non-BC epic sets viable? The thought of doing MC and BWL for countless hours for nothing sickens me. Will my Tier 2 armor and Blackwing Lair gear be useful to me while raiding in my high sixties and perhaps even 70? Will there be any point to MC/BWL/Naxx once BC comes out?

Related to #40... it does help in levelling, I would assume, especially through Hellfire Peninsula. There, I was just blowing through content, and it definitely seemed like it was tuned more for people in blues than in raid epics. It's slowing down now, and I believe that Blizzard intends for people to gear up in comparable gear from the earlier dungeons and quests to match what raiders can do. As level 65, I've replaced 4 pieces of my raid gear thus far, but I'm starting to see some VERY nice rewards.

It'll help you level, yes... but it likely will be replaced, I'm afraid.

#43:

I have currently Rank 14 high warlord gear (and weapons) and I noticed I can buy the new set (with the same name) for honorpoints at lvl 70. My question
is: do you have to be "rank 14" (or former rank 14) to buy those for honor, or is honor alone enough (and not taking any ranking into account) ?

Honor alone will buy you it, but like I said--that's only one piece of gear or one weapon.

#44:

1. Does the rested-XP bonus system work the same at level 60 and beyond?

2. Will level 60 players start off with 150% rested bonus (assuming they have been level 60 for long enough :))?

3. Do you get XP from mobs in the "old world" and existing instances (assuming they are high-enough level ofc), e.g. MC?

To the first--yes, Rested XP does work. To the second... I'm afraid not. :/ I'm just as disappointed from you are. The third question... yep, you do. I haven't actually RUN any of the old instances, but you do get experience from them if they're appropriately levelled :P However, raid experience (in a 40 man) IS practically nothing.

More to come later!

So, while admiring the renovation of Castle Greyskull, I was quested to go inside. Apparently, the other Blood Elves used to control these ruins and now a bunch of badies infest them. Well, that's where Sephirothlol comes into play!

We return to Outland and everyone's favorite Troll Mage with a thrilling narrative in which our hero finally gets done with questing in Hellfire Peninsula, heads to the Mushroom Kingdom of Zangarmarsh, and finishes up in the wondrous Shattrath City--encountering a familiar face. He also has a valuable life's lesson reinforced: "There is no problem in this world that can't be solved by finding the right person or thing and setting it on fire."

One by one, the quests in my log dwindle until I find myself on the very last chain... fittingly enough for an introduction to Outland, it asks us to find the demonic Messenger who wanders around the north of the zone and take from him the orders from his boss, Arazzius the Cruel. Naturally, we're going to accomplish this goal by setting him on fire. While I'm on the subject, why the hell are villains always calling themselves stuff like "Doom Lord" or "the Cruel," huh? If I were a super evil villain, I think I'd call myself "Jayne(z) the Bunnyhugger." That way, when I revealed my SUPREMELY DASTARDLY PLAN, everybody would be taken off guard. I'd also take pains to not speak in a low ominous rumble or grow horns on my head and wear a jet black mask or whatever. Do these guys have no concept whatsoever of subtlety at all?

Oh, right, videogame. Nevermind.

Like the Defias Messenger, there's plenty of "/1 Hey, anybody seen the Messenger lately?" flying around the zone. Unlike the Defias Messenger, this guy is elite, fairly rough to kill, and surrounded by murderous demons. Westfall would be so much cooler with elite demons all over, IMHO.

Click the handy little link below to read:

"The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 5: Pyromania In Outland"

I was wondering the level 1 naked stats of each Blood elf class such as starting Strength, Stamina, Intellect, Spirit, etc.

The Answer:
I took Screenshots of each Blood Elf Class and each Draenei Class. Click the 'Read More' link below to see them

OK, we know players in Tier 2 can immediately start kicking butt in Hellfire Penninsula. How about your average player in DM-level blues, with maybe some ZG or Tier 1 gear? How hard is the first new zone going to be for them? What about leveling? How much XP does it take to get to 61, and how long does it look to take given the amounts given by kills and quests?

I'd say your average player will do just fine. It's no different than going into a zone that is a couple levels above you. The lowest level mobs that I saw were 58. I don't think a player in Blues, ZG Gear, and Tier 1 will have any problems and the quest rewards will be upgrades through the zone.

It takes 415,500xp to go from 60 to 61 and 473,900 to go from 61 to 62. The average level 60 mob is worth about 530xp and quests are about 6700xp. I was able to do about 4 bubbles in 2 hours or so, so I'd say around 10hours of play time per level (give or take and estimates based upon pvp servers/spawn rates, etc).

The Mage They Called Jayne(z) takes a break from writing his epic adventures of valor, brotherhood, and honor (points) to talk about the new World PvP objectives found in the Burning Crusade.

With two years of live WoW under their belt, having heard two years of suggestions, complaints, and angry rants... what does Blizzard have under their belt for the expansion? The Arena system has been talked about quite a bit, and there's been brief mention of the new "Eye of the Storm" Battleground... but what about that World PvP of old? Have they learned anything?

Sure looks like it.

In Outland, each zone has its own world PvP objective. Actually, I can't say that all of them do, because in the current Beta three zones are inaccessible (Blade's Edge Mountains, Netherstorm, and Shadowmoon Valley)... but the four that currently exist (Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Terokkar Forest and Nagrand) all do.

Players who preferred the EPL towers to the Silithus collecting will be happy to note that most, if not all, of the new PvP objectives seem to be designed around that concept. There are areas-usually towers-that have a bar with blue on one side, red on the other, and gray in the middle. Simply standing around this area will gradually shift the bar to your faction's respective side (blue for Alliance, red for Horde). Naturally, the more people of your faction there, the faster it moves... but one determined person can certainly capture an area by himself! That is, if nobody goes to oppose him...

If you want to read it (and I KNOW you do!) then click on the link below!

So, I decided since I was going to be playing in the BC beta, I should write about what all horde players will do once they buy the expansion. So, I started to think and came up with the following requirements...

1. Create a Blood Elf.
2. Make him a Paladin, because well, shield+hearth ftw.
3. Make him look like Sephiroth from the Final Fantasy series.
4. Name him Sephiroth.

Everybody loves questions!

#22:

1) In recent BC previews, blizzard reps have stated that reputation will feel like less of a 'grind' then currently is. can you confirm or elaborate on this? 2) Some internet previews have mentioned a 'save feature' for dungeons and quests. anything you can enlighten us on? 3) finally, does the winged instance design philosophy really reduce the amount of time required to run instances? ie. will casuals have it more casual? thank you

1.) Getting rep with the various factions seems incredibly easy. I haven't really gone out of my way to do anything and I'm Honored with Thrallmar and Cenarion Expedition and Friendly with the Sporeggar tribe. There are various repeatable quests to turn in fairly common items that award anywhere from 250 to 500 rep a piece, and killing in Hellfire Citadel and Coilfang Reservoir gives you +7 rep a piece with Thrallmar/Honor Hold and the Cenarion Expedition, respectively.

2.) There really isn't one, I'm afraid. What they meant in regards to Medivh's Tower was that it will be on a lockout timer like the current 20+ raids are. Bosses you kill will remain killed for a period of a week.

3.) All I can say is... if Coilfang were one instance, nobody would ever finish it. EVER. The current runs are about 1hr-1:30 with a good group. Is that casual enough? Probably, though maybe not in some cases.

#23:

f Orcs have Wolves, Night Elves have NightSabers, and Taurens have Kodos, then what do Bloodelves and Draeneis have??

Final, definitive answer. Blood Elves ride Hawkstriders, which are rainbow-colored Chocobo-chicken things. Draenei ride baby Elephants (or close to it!)

#24:

I have heard mention of the difficulty in the mobs in Outland. Does it seem at this point that the Downtime afflicted by the increased difficulty is longer than it currently is? (Should be easy to answer seeing you are a mage).

No, not really. It doesn't seem as though I have to drink more often than normal, unless I end up with adds and have to use some of my more mana-draining skills (but that's the same in the current game, anyway). Downtime isn't much of a problem at all.

#25:

I heard that in BC, you get to see the spell and the castbar of a targeted enemy caster, in the default UI, just like a "builtin enemy cast bar addon". Is that true? Can you screenshot it?

You can indeed. I'll get a screenshot or two later, but it's pretty small (which is nice, it's not too obtrusive) so it might be hard to see.

#26:

Can you clarify a bit how the "token system" (vs. the current "random drops") Blizzard talked about in regards to acquiring PVE armour set is implemented and works ?

Not... really. In Auchindoun (the third "dungeon hub," located in Terokkar Forest), if your faction controls the PvP objective--which resets every 40 hours--you can get Spirit Shards off of the bosses, which you can redeem for nice loot. The token system seems like it has more to do with defeating bosses in Hard Mode dungeons--but, since I'm not high level yet, I haven't done that!

Also, a correction to one of the very first questions answered--the new Blood Fury DOES affect Ranged AP as well as melee.

Keep your questions coming!

Here's a slightly larger video of my first real trip through the Dark Portal and into the Outlands. In which I wander aimlessly around the other side of the portal talking to everyone and checking out the new loots.

Video 2: Through the Dark Portal

EDIT: This is a repost with a link to Google Video. I apologize for the quality drop, but the old was was a bit too large for people to download easily, and wmv was doing mean things when I tried to break it up. New videos on the way soon!

I have two level 60s. An Undead Priest and an Orc Warlock. I was torn as to which to play in the beta. The priest is my primary character, but the warlock is much easter to level with. I decided upon the priest and transferred my priest to the beta pvp server (yes, pvp).

Now, my priest isn't horribly geared. She has the full tier 2 and a lot of the AQ40 healing/mp5 gear as well as an augur staff. So, I make it to the beta server and begin the long journey from an incredibly dead Orgrimmar (Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen Orgrimmar so empty. Not a soul to be found.) to Swamp of Sorrows and The Blasted Lands to journey through the Dark Portal.