What We Know About WoW’s Burning Crusade Classic

With World of Warcraft’s overwhelming success, Classic, a remaster of the original 2004 release of World of Warcraft,Blizzard Entertainment has announced Burning Crusade Classic. During BlizzConline, Blizzard announced they would be recreating the beloved expansion for players to experience in 2021. For most players, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, is the holy grail of World of Warcraft expansions

• Rediscover The Broken World Of Outland. Flee the fel reavers who roam Hellfire Peninsula, dive deep beneath the swamps of Zangarmarsh to confront what lurks below and clash with the demonic agents of the Burning Legion in the shadow of the Black Temple.
• Join The Fight As A Blood Elf Or Draenei. The ranks of the Horde and the Alliance grow! Fight for the Horde as the blood elves, seeking a new source of the arcane power that once sustained them or join the Alliance as the Draenei, exiles from Outland in search of a new home.
• The Saga Unfolds Over Time. Content from the original game will roll out in phases at a cadence paced for the WoW Classic community. Prepare for the opening of the Black Temple, gear up to confront the gods of Zul’Aman and gather your allies to face the fury of the Sunwell.
• Burning Crusade Features Reborn. Prove your prowess in the Arena PvP system, enhance your gear with the Jewelcrafting profession, take to the skies over Outland on flying mounts, choose whether to seek the aid of the Aldor or the Scryers of Shattrath and much more.
• Choose Your Era. Before Burning Crusade Classic’s release, WoW Classic players can decide whether to advance each of their characters to the Burning Crusade era with the rest of their realm or to continue playing the original WoW Classic content on new Classic Era servers.
• Included With Existing World Of Warcraft Subscriptions. As with WoW Classic, anyone who subscribes to World of Warcraft can also play Burning Crusade Classic at no additional cost, giving players the freedom to enjoy multiple eras of Azeroth at their own pace. 

When Does It Release?

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic is set to release in 2021. Blizzard did not announce an exact release date but told players to expect a beta within the coming months. Visit World of Warcraft’s official website for more beta details.

Details and Changes Within Burning Crusade

World of Warcraft: Classic placed was a heavy emphasis on no changes. Players wanted to experience the original vanilla experience as it was intended back in 2004. There were too many factors for the Classic experience to be identical to World of Warcraft’s 2004 release. Blizzard has learned from its mistakes and vowed to release some changes in Burning Crusade. A lot has been learned in the 14 years since the original Burning Crusade release, and it would be shortsighted to throw all that experience aside. Blizzard is creating the code from the ground up, resolving long-time issues and focusing on a more refined and challenging experience. 

Details of Burning Crusade Classic

• Level cap increased to level 70
• Flying mounts will be introduced, adding a whole new dynamic to world PvP and questing. 
• Brand-new races, including Blood Elves and Draenei
• Classes will be completely rebalanced, changing up the meta and creating new viable raid compositions. 
• Raids will be reduced from 40-player to 10- and 25-player. This change will allow for tighter and more refined raiding experiences.
• The introduction of competitive PvP in the form of arenas

So, What Do Some Changes mean?  

• Alliance Paladins will gain access to Seal of Blood, and Horde Paladins will gain access to Seal of Vengeance. This is one of the biggest changes currently announced and shows a clear path for Blizzard’s Burning Crusade Classic. 
  • Seal of Blood was overpowered and oppressive, leading to faction imbalance due to the seal’s strength. Seal of vengeance was the balance for this back in 2007; however, its power level was far too low to compete with Seal of Blood.
• Blizzard will be closely monitoring raids and releasing the pre-nerfed versions. With World of Warcraft: Classic, it became apparent that players were more focused on min/maxing and quickly cleared all of Classic’s content with ease. Changes in movement should be heavily focused on raid health, giving bosses more health, greater damage and forces. New raid comps will be paramount to Burning Crusade Classic’s success. 
• Modernized matchmaking for arena and dungeon finder groups. We won’t see the same group finders found in the retail version of WoW; however, the group finder introduced in Burning Crusade will be improved upon. This is one of the many areas where Blizzard’s 16 years of WoW experience comes into play. 
• The pre-patch will include Draenei and Blood Elves.
  • Originally, players could not level up the new races before the release of the expansion. 
• One last major change Blizzard is bringing to the table is the option to purchase a level-58 boost.
  • Players returning to the game will be given a one-time option to purchase a level-58 character boost.
  • This boost is accessible one time only. 
  • More details on pricing will be announced closer to the release. 

So, what happens to players who do not want to play Burning Crusade? Blizzard is giving them the option to keep their existing character on a WoW Classic-only server. It’s not clear if these servers will revert to phase 1 at any point or if they will continue in phase 6 indefinitely. 

Announcing the #somechanges movement at BlizzConline shows that Blizzard is listening to the player base. The community quickly realized that making no changes wasn’t viable, and we’d never be able to recreate WoW’s original release faithfully. Players have access to in-depth guides, better computers and Internet connections and over 16 years of WoW experience, and Blizzard is set to combat this by releasing difficult raids, building the game from the ground up and updating it when they see fit. 

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic will be released in 2021 on PC/Mac.