Originally released in 2007,The Burning CrusadewasWorld of Warcraft’s first major expansion. It introduced two new races (Blood Elves and Draenei), two new crafting professions (Jewelcrafting and Inscription), and an entirely new world, Outland, accessed through the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands.
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WithThe Burning Crusade Classicofficially announced,World of Warcraft Classicplayers are already getting ready for a major overhaulcoming to the vanilla experience. While Illidan Stormrage might say otherwise, players who take time to gear up and get ready for the expansionwill be prepared!
10Level An Alt
A few months remain untilThe Burning Crusade Classicis officially addedto the base subscription – that’s plenty of time to get another character to level 60. Having an alt isn’t necessary to fully experienceThe Burning Crusade, but it’s always nice to have more than one character option heading into a new expansion.
WhenThe Burning Crusadewas initially released, there was a huge faction imbalance. Hopefully Blizzard addresses this issue, but it might be handy to have a character in each faction (on different servers, of course) in case things go sour.
9Farm, Farm, Farm
Gold means a lot more inClassicthan it does in retailWorld of Warcraft. Mounts cost significantly more, training toridethose mounts costs significantly more, and even new abilities come at a heavy price above level 60.
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When the epic flying mount inThe Burning Crusade Classicwill be a staggering 5000g, spending time farming gold before the expansion releases is necessary for players who want to take to the skies early on.
8Complete Every Dungeon
World of Warcraft Classicboasts a swathe of dungeons each with unique aesthetics, fights, and rewards. While theyaren’t great for leveling a character, experiencing these original dungeons in their original form is something of a rite of passage forClassicfans.
From Ragefire Chasm to Dire Maul, every dungeon inWorld of Warcraft Classicimproves a player’s communication and knowledge of their class – necessary skills for the Heroic difficulty dungeons to come inThe Burning Crusade Classic.
7Complete End-Game Raids
Arguably the most iconic and memorable moments inWorld of Warcraft Classichappen in raids. There are seven raids inClassic– Zul’Gurub, Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Onyxia’s Lair, The Ruins of Ahn’Quiraj, the Temple of Ahn’Quiraj, and the infamous Naxxramas.
Completing these raids is not necessary to access any of the raids to come inThe Burning Crusade Classic, but the drops from each boss go a long way in getting aplayer ahead of the curvefor upcoming raids.
6Pick Up Mining For Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafting will be a new profession introduced inThe Burning Crusade Classic. In Outland, players will find gear with gem sockets, which improve the armor or weapon slightly when a gem is attached. Jewelcrafting is one of the most lucrative professions, but it also has a high cost of entry.
Similar to the Engineering profession, Jewelcrafting materials on the auction house go for a pretty penny. Prepare for this profession by leveling up Mining, which yields materials the player can sell for gold or keep for Jewelcrafting later down the line.
5Pick Up Skinning and Leatherworking
While Jewelcrafting will be the hot new profession everybody and their mother wants to try, Leatherworking is the true king ofThe Burning Crusadeprofessions. Leatherworking yields some of the best items in the expansion, including the largely broken item Drums of Battle.
Skinning is a very lucrative gathering profession for this reason, too. Basic materials and intermediate crafted materials sell for a lot on the auction house, and will yield significant gold on the auction house.
4Play Through Iconic Questlines
World of Warcraft Classicdoes not have the most interesting quest mechanics, to say the least, with a majority of quests being some form of “go here, kill this, come back”. However, that is not to sayClassiclacks narrative brilliance and intriguing reasons for the player to kill 10 monsters at a time.
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Quests like The Legend of Stalvan, In Dreams, Pamela’s Doll and Lost in Battle are just the tip of the iceberg of well-designed quests and well-told stories – just make sure you’re in the right faction for some of the more exclusive options.
3Grind for PvP Titles
The military hierarchy-style player vs player titles were eventually removed fromWorld of Warcraftin the retail version. InClassic, players can grind honor inbattlegrounds and world PvPto get titles such as Grand Marshall, Knight-Champion, and even Commander.
It’s much more fear-inducing to charge into battle as a Commander than as a lowly Private. Plus, there are some unique rewards, like epic PvP mounts, for the best of the best.
2Check Out The Dark Portal
TheClassicDark Portal in the Blasted Lands looks vastly different from the Dark Portal as it appears in retailWorld of Warcraft.The portal is blue, the entrance is small, and there is little to do around it, save for sit and gaze into the starry abyss of the Dark Portal’s center.
For long-time players, it’s atrip down memory lanethat might not be available ever again onceThe Burning Crusade Classiclaunches and characters move on to the new expansion.
1Consider Keeping A Classic Character
The Burning Crusade Classicwill allow players to transfer characters to dedicated Vanilla servers if they want to avoidanychanges to the original game.The Burning Crusadebrought a lot of changes toWorld of Warcraft, and while most of these changes were welcomed, it is still worth keeping a characteron a vanilla server for the nostalgia value.
Classicmight have been a once-in-a-lifetime reboot of theWorld of Warcraftfranchise, but that doesn’t mean the experience is limited to just two years. Keep a character on a vanilla server if having access to the game in its original form is important to you.
