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Draenei Starting Area 2-Minute Review

Thanks to everyone who posted comments yesterday about their initial impressions of The Burning Crusade. I finished all of the quests in the Draenei starting area last night. It took my character to level 20 bypassing the usual Westfall route of the Alliance.

I can tell that the designers did a great job, because I am disappointed to leave that area. The quests were logical, well setup and most of all fun. I won't ruin it for anyone, but it suffices to tell you to read the conversations and quests carefully. There is a lot of very cool stuff relating to game lore that comes out as you progress.

The spawn rates seemed tuned to handle a large number of players and I rarely had to wait for anything to appear so that I could complete a quest.

The art is incredibly consistent througout the "islands" of the Draenei and the content flows in a logical, contiguous manner. Many game models are reused and slightly altered to create a feel that is new to the Warcraft universe. The Draenei models themselves are quite chunky with armour textures that even at low levels look tremendous. Make no mistake, these are not space Taurens.

There are a number of "Kill X baddies and report back" quests, but there are also some quests that involve escorts, covert missions and the like. Most of the quests are part of chains, so be sure to pick up every quest you see, even if you don't think you would want to complete it. I counted 115 quests in the "starting area". I never had to grind a single mob outside of quest requirements to get to level 20. Even the quest names may make you grin. "The Kessel Run" is one of the more enjoyable quests that you will complete. "Red Snapper - Very Tasty!" made it in there somehow as did "The Bear Necessities" .

Quest rewards are far superior to those in the original starting areas. You can be decked out in greens just from completing the quest chains.

Shaman, playable only by the Draenei (Alliance side), hunters and warriors seemed to be the most popular classes being played. To really keep your eye on server populations visit our WoW Census.

All in all, I give the Draenei starting area a 5/5 mark. It was an entertaining area to complete.

I cringe at the thought of playing a Blood Elf through that same 20 levels, but I may do it just so I can compare the two starting areas.

To celebrate the 500th edition of Loading... which will appear tomorrow we are giving away four (4) copies of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. To enter, just post a comment in this blog telling about one of your experiences (good or bad) while playing World of Warcraft. The only restrictions are that you are 18 years of age and live in North America. The copies that I have are NA copies.

We will have more goodies to give away tomorrow. Don't miss it.

Talk to me, either in the comments section of the blog or in our forums!
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