Burning Crusade Goes Beta, NDA Lifted

[Signe]

NJ was so 3 months ago!

[Lantyssa]

It lingers.

[Xanthippe]

I've heard that about NJ.

[Signe]

Yes.  It's surrounded by NY, PA and CT.  All very, very strange places.  NJ has a whole magazine dedicated to how weird it is.  It even weirded ME out!

[jpark]

Factions and crafting.

1.  Is crafting more useful (e.g. weapons smith)?

2.  Is there any effort to offer new phat lewts for existing factions (e.g. Argent dawn, thorium brotherhood) or do they concentrate all new phat lewts purely on new factions we have yet to grind to advance?

3.  I hear a rumor it will take as much effort to level from 60 to 70 as from 1 to 60 - any information on this?

[Zetor]

Based on the experiences of a guildie in beta..

- Crafting seems very useful in BC. Plenty of accessible epic and blue patterns, easily on par with the top loots in game right now. Whether this'll keep up as new uber gear is introduced, remains to be seen.
- Not much to do with old factions, but there are a truckload of new factions, with a bit of EQ1ish bent... there are 2 new factions per zone, but you gain rep with them fairly quickly. Also, if you gain faction w ith say, the Cenarion Expedition, you'll also gain Cen Circle faction. There's only one Gelkis/Timbermaw-style 'faction grind' to speak of (that I know about) and it's about appeasing the mushroom people in Yangar Marsh in order to access the quests related to the Coilfang Reservoir.
- Levelling right now is very quick. Two days were enough to get from 60 to 63 with non-hardcore play, but that was with full rested xp [which they have since wiped]. However, Blizz is saying that the current rate of levelling is artificially sped up in order to better test stuff.


-- Z.

[Driakos]

Based on the experiences of a guildie in beta..
- Not much to do with old factions, but there are a truckload of new factions, with a bit of EQ1ish bent... there are 2 new factions per zone, but you gain rep with them fairly quickly. Also, if you gain faction w ith say, the Cenarion Expedition, you'll also gain Cen Circle faction. There's only one Gelkis/Timbermaw-style 'faction grind' to speak of (that I know about) and it's about appeasing the mushroom people in Yangar Marsh in order to access the quests related to the Coilfang Reservoir.

So far this is true for me.  By the time you are done with the quests for a particular faction, you are very high up in that faction.  Even in the newbie Blood Elf zone, I came out of there with Exalted in Tranquillian (Blood Elf version of the Crossroads, or Sepulcher) rep, once I finished the last of the quests.   There was BG style Faction loot to buy as I ranked up too.  Not as good as if I twinked my newbie, but as a new character on a new shard, it would be pretty respectable stuff.  Especially for how easy/cheap it was.

[Typhon]

Yes.  It's surrounded by NY, PA and CT.  All very, very strange places.  NJ has a whole magazine dedicated to how weird it is.  It even weirded ME out!

It's DE, not CT, ya silly.  No, I'm not a geography nazi, I commute from South-Central NJ to Newark DE everyday (so it would be hard for me not to know).

"Weird New Jersey" is alway surprisingly thick for a indy-type rag... I guess NJ is pretty weird.

[Edit: grammar fix]

[Xanthippe]

What about the Thorium Brotherhood, Argent Dawn, and Cenarion Circle, specifically?  Are those factions still relevent in the BC? 

I have 2 60s, a hunter-engineer-alchemist and a priest-tailor-enchanter (who also lacks faction with everyone practically), and a 45 warlock who I want to pvp with (no trade skills on her, just gathering skills).  Does it make more sense to grind faction now, wait until BC and meanwhile level up my warlock?

I'm at the point with my tailor that I need to turn in the expensive stuff to get rep with TB.  Is Blizz abandoning that faction line or adding nice stuff to it?

[Driakos]

What about the Thorium Brotherhood, Argent Dawn, and Cenarion Circle, specifically?  Are those factions still relevent in the BC? 

I have 2 60s, a hunter-engineer-alchemist and a priest-tailor-enchanter (who also lacks faction with everyone practically), and a 45 warlock who I want to pvp with (no trade skills on her, just gathering skills).  Does it make more sense to grind faction now, wait until BC and meanwhile level up my warlock?

I'm at the point with my tailor that I need to turn in the expensive stuff to get rep with TB.  Is Blizz abandoning that faction line or adding nice stuff to it?

I would wait for any faction grind.  There's a whole new slew of quests, and some might give faction for pre-BC factions.  I have earned Cenarion Circle faction in the Outlands, at a lesser rate than Cenarion Expedition.  I stopped with the runecloth turn-ins for Darkspear Troll faction (I want to ride a Raptor as an Undead), because I'll just wait for BC, to earn some more Troll rep through quests. 

I haven't seen any Thorium Brotherhood quests/rep opportunities, but I haven't been looking.  I've earned some AD rep, but I can't remember from what.  Probably killing the undead Nethergarde soldiers at the Armory.

I'm going to stockpile a lot of gold.  Buying the new 375 skillcap + recipes gets really expensive.  Master level skinning was 10g.  Then I dropped 60g easy on Master level leatherworking, plus the recipes the vendor initially trained.  The +8 Stam armor kits are kinda nice though :)

[Zetor]

Here is a comprehensive list of the smith plans discovered so far. Good stuff overall, I'd say... also, no mention of the Thorium Brotherhood to be found anywhere.


-- Z.

[Merusk]

More questions for the testers!!

1) Earlier or in another thread someone posted that you need 300 enchanting to DE a level 61 item.  Is this true for all levels & items, or just the BC stuff? 

2) Also in another thread someone posted that 1.13 was going to go live even though BC was delayed.  Anyone have a source/ link for this or is it wild internet rumor?  This is the first place I'd heard it.

3) They patch you guys to let you hit L70 yet?  Every time I try to hit the beta boards and read them they're down.  Yay blizzard forum servers.

[Calantus]

Here is a post where a blue talks about the content patch.

It's not his original post on the subject but if all you want is proof then that'll do it. He stated at one point what's in it (only saying essentially honor changes, new talents, and "more"). It should still be in there somewhere but a quick scan didn't find it. If you want to track it down just search for his posts in the general forums.

[Merusk]

Here is a post where a blue talks about the content patch.

It's not his original post on the subject but if all you want is proof then that'll do it. He stated at one point what's in it (only saying essentially honor changes, new talents, and "more"). It should still be in there somewhere but a quick scan didn't find it. If you want to track it down just search for his posts in the general forums.

Thanka =) Found it once I knew who posted it.  (Their 'search for posts by this user' feature is pretty nifty in that you can read the entire post on one  page, not just the preview like we've got.)

Of course, after that he backs off and only says "details coming soon."  Sneaky bastard.

[SurfD]

Weaponsmithing is supposedly REALLY sweet in expantion.  A lot of the warriors in my guild are re-speccing weaponsmith for some of the absolutely sick stuff you can craft.  Massively nasty 2 handed axes and the like.  The main reason so many are speccing however, is that some of the best items are BOP when crafted (sort of like the class specific Epic Craftable Robes that drop from BRS / Strath / Scholo in current game).