Many players have mixed feelings when dealing with the thought of the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion. One such player is Niltsiar, a level 60 warlock on the Emerald Dream server. He’s a raid leader for his guild and has been playing WoW for quite a while now, trying to experience the full range of options available for this game. He sat down with us to talk about his World of Warcraft experience and what he thinks of the Burning Crusade.

Aurael: How long have you been playing WoW?

Niltsiar: Since about six months after it came out.

Aurael: What other games have you played?

Niltsiar: Probably every other MMORPG that has come out: Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Final Fantasy 11, and others. EQ was my big one, but FF11 was a close second.

Aurael: What made you stay with WoW?

Niltsiar: The way the game was created, engineered. It has sound mythological bases, I love the graphics. The game itself made me want to play. It’s a great game.

Aurael: What is your favorite part of WoW?

Niltsiar: Definitely the leveling. I have four level 60s.

Aurael: What is your favorite class currently?

Niltsiar: Warlock, with mage running a close second. I like warlocks because I like pets and I like casters. The potential to DoT and do damage—plus you have a pet that can do damage. It’s also one of the harder classes to master. I like the challenge of it.

Aurael: How do you feel about the upcoming expansion?

Niltsiar: I have two levels of feelings: apprehension about them breaking the game and high expectations about the things that are coming in.

Aurael: How do you think the game might get broken?

Niltsiar: They’re changing the classes around. For instance, priests are going to be a completely different class. Warlocks are going to go from a majority of affliction population to a demonology population. In EQ, when the new expansions came out, the old areas were completely empty; I’m afraid the same is going to happen.

Aurael: And your expectations?

Niltsiar: I’m excited about the DoTs and HoTs stacking, the mage pets, and the new demonology tree.

Aurael: What is the first thing you plan on doing in the Burning Crusade?

Niltsiar: I’m going to log on my warlock and my druid, and start leveling them up. I also want to see what will sell well on the auction house and start farming it.

Aurael: Do you plan on rolling one of the new races?

Niltsiar: Yeah, probably a draenei paladin. I don’t like playing horde at all. For the record, I think they should give the alliance tauren and send the gnomes to the horde, because gnomes are just evil.

Aurael: Do you plan on trying jewelcrafting?

Niltsiar: Yeah, but probably not until it’s broken in. I want to see what all I’m going to need for the profession and start saving those items up before I actually start pick it up.

Aurael: Do you PvP much? Does the arena system interest you?

Niltsiar: I hate PvP. I think the idea of having a whole area for that reason is cool though.

Aurael: As one of your guild’s raid leaders, how do you think the Burning Crusade will affect raiding?

Niltsiar: It will completely remake what the idea of raiding is. Raising the level to 70 will open up whole new possibilities for raiding guilds and raids.

Aurael: What would you add to the expansion if you could?

Niltsiar: Cupholders. There is currently no place in game to put your beer. Maybe they could put an area down by the keyring for it.

Thank you Niltsiar, for taking the time out of your busy raiding schedule to participate in our interview.

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