TenTonHammer looks at early loot in The Burning Crusade

The big question on everyone’s mind over the last few weeks, is exactly how good is the loot from the Burning Crusade?  For many players the question is even more specific than that, How good is the loot right away.  By this we mean how good is it in the first few instances.

Well I can tell you it is DAMN GOOD.  In fact many players will replace quite a few pieces in a very short time. Even the greens are amazing, as shown by the axe to the right! Some of the bluse will quickly be replacing epics that took significant time and effort to collect.

For me, right away means the first two instances in the Burning Crusade, which are both located in the Hellfire Citadel found between the two factions first cities in the Outlands.  However as time goes by you will adventure through more of the instances in the Bunring Crusade. The first two that you can explore are the Hellfire Ramparts and the Blood Furnace.  If you would like more information on the instances available we have complete previews for the following:

• Hellfire Ramparts
• Blood Furnace
• The Slave Pens
• The Underbog
• The Mana Tombs
• Auchenai Crypts

While the above articles cover the loot briefly, I want to give you a bit more of a walk through of all the Phat Loot options you have on day 1 of release in these instances.

So far in beta there in only 1 quest in each of the instances so don't expect much in the way of loot through the quests. However th bosses drop very good loot and since the instances are so fast to run you can do several runs in your first night. The hellfire Ramparts for example can be done in less than an hour by a competent group, while the blood furnace takes just a bit longer.

Each boss in both instances drops a single blue item that is of very high quality to the intended character type. Just one amazing example of loot is the second boss in the Hellfire Ramparts.  He is really 2 bosses, the rider (Vazruden) and then the dragon (Nazan) that make up the fight and the loot.

The rider, Vazruden drops three really nice items.  The first is the Ironsole Clompers which are an amazing set of plate tank boots that feature +24 str/+29 stam, 2 sockets and +19 Defense!  A must have for any tank. He also has a very nice polearm called the Hellreaver which has +30 str/+27 stam, and +25 to crit rating (a bit over 2% at level 60).  The last item he drops is the Band of Renewal which is a very nice healer ring featuring +13 stam/+14 int/ +12 spirit and +29 healing.  If you are still in healing gear from old 5 man instances this is a huge upgrade.  Many of the raid rings are better but it still is decent.

The dragon part of the second boss is Nazan the dragon, who drops one of 5 nice items.  A staff for druids that has a huge +160 to attack power in shape shifted form, a tanks cloak, healers pants, a casters ring and a tanks ring.  All in all the drops between the two make this fight a must for almost every class.

So, you want in all all this action right away don't you. No problem. To make it easier to find out where you should go, just check out this handy little chart.  The first grouping of bosses are in the Ramparts and the second are in the Furnace. As soon as you see the items you will realize they are worth the trip! While I don't have screenshots of all the available items I do have lots of them shown in the gallery: TenTonHammer's BC Item Preview Gallery.

Instance Loot Table

This table shows which bosses in which instances drop loot that you should be interested in based on a simple breakdown of your class type. Note however that healing gear could be cloth, leather or plate depending on you class, the same could go for DPS, Tanking, etc, so some further investigation may be required. This chart is simply a rough guide as to which bosses you should look closer at farming for gear.

As mentioned in many places previously, the biggest change that you will see when going to BC loot is the insane stamina bonuses. I have seen a +60 stamina green item, and +40ish isn't that rare either! There are several items that you will be trading in very quickly from your tier 1 and 2 sets. There are even many blues from the old 5 man instances that could be replaced quickly with greens!

My suspicion is that most people will be very happy with all the new loot. The only people that will be upset are all the raiders and hard core pvp'ers that put in a ton of time and effort to get loot that is quickly and easily replaced by everyone. On the up side, how good will the new rewards be for those willing to put in the time and effort?? Only time (and release day) will tell. Our intrepid community manager Xerin has been on the look out thought and has some information on the beta version of the tier 4 armor sets. You can read about it in our forums here: Tier 4 Armor Sneak Peak.

For even more images of some of the best loot ever from a 5 man instance head over to our BC item gallery! You can find a ton of additional screen shots showing loot here: TenTonHammer BC Item Preview Gallery.

Comments or questions? Email me ([email protected]) or post on our forums!