Outlands & Flying Mounts

Most everyone that's been playing World of Warcraft for more than a few months can't wait for the expansion level cap increase from level 60 to 70. When The Burning Crusade is launched, you'll be able to go through the Dark Portal and into the Outlands - a collection of seven ripped-apart zones (the result of the orcs building the Dark Portal once upon a time) and numerous instances for level 58-70 players. The first zone you'll come to is Hellfire Peninsula which, according to Kaplan, is one of the smallest Outlands zones, but is still larger than even Eastern Plaguelands. Other zones I picked up on include the neutral city of Shatrath, the hotly contested woodland paradise of Nagrand, and Zangor Marsh (I'm not sure of the exact spelling), and Nether Storm. The remaining two zones weren't named.

As far as dungeons / instances, we were shown Hellfire Citadel and Coilfang Resevoir. Several dungeons can only be accessed with a flying mount, like the Throne of Kil'Jaeden in Hellfire Peninsula and Tempest Keep in Nether Storm. The expansion will also offer plenty of the popular 5-man instances: 3 in Hellfire Citadel, 3 in Coilfang Resevoir, 4 in Aachendune (exact spelling unknown), 2 in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris Desert, and a special 10-man instance in Karazhan. Karazhan is part-and-parcel with the recently announced "raid save" system- a casual player-friendly mechanic that allows your group of players to resume a raid already in progress. This is key, since Kaplan told us that Karazhan will be bigger than Lower Black Rock Spire (LBRS) and Black Rock Depths (BRD) combined.

Kaplan stated that Blizzard has really embraced the concept of "winged" dungeons and that many of the expansion dungeons will be split into more manageable chunks as you might find in Dire Maul or Scarlet Monastary. Hellfire Citadel, for example, consists of three "level up" instances and one raid instance: Hellfire Ramparts is a level 60-62 outer area, then the "evil, demonic wing" of Blood Furnace (level 62-64), where Magtheridon's blood is drained to create fell orcs, then the fell orc military training wing of Shattered Hulls, and finally the level 70 raid area of Magtheridon's Lair.

Coilfang Resevoir will be segmented into wings like Hellfire Citadel, the principal area being Coilfang Resevoir itself - what Kaplan described as "equivalent to Molten Core in the number of bosses and size." Here, the Naga under Lady Vashj are draining the Zangor Marsh of water. The two other remaining "endtier" wings of Coilfang Resevoir, Hyjal Pass and Black Temple, will be "the hardest raid experiences that will ever be in the game, only with the 25 player raid cap."

Raid Changes & Epic Gear

It's true, 25 is the new 40. The largest raids in the expansion will be capped at 25 players. Kaplan explained the rationale: "We felt like we could preserve all the epic-ness and grandeur of the current raid game and difficulty. Our raids aren't going to become any easier, if anything they'll become more challenging, but will require fewer players. We find that once you get over 25, it's not making the game any more challenging, it's just making the logistics challenging." Kaplan promised that, with the raid limit decrease, Blizzard would address the real and perceived class imbalances that keep some players out of the raid game. "We don't end up in a raid of 25 with 20 warriors and 5 priests or something like that. We're reviewing all the classes to make sure everybody wants to be present in the raid game."

What does that mean to Shamans? Our totem toting friends are in for some improvements: "The shaman are going to get some of the coolest group and raid buffs... unfortunately I can't talk about that now, just mark my words, Shamans are going to get some cool buffs."

Also, for 5-man instances (not for the raid game), Blizzard will be introducing a difficulty system. The group leader can choose from two levels of difficulty with loot tables to match. Kaplan explained that Blizzard wants to give players lots of dungeons with the new expansion; they don't want more casual players to feel penned in as far as certain instances needing purple equipment, etc.. The effort helps to maintain the challenge for old level 60s fully kitted out with epics and new high-levelers who maybe haven't had time to accumulate all the gear, but still want to be in the new expansion zones with their friends.

Regarding old epic gear becoming "useless", I asked if there were any plans to allow players to upgrade their Tiered equipment - something like the Tier 0.5 arrangement where you could complete quests and "trade in" old equipment for something new and shinier. The answer was that old world purples will still be very useful in the Outlands and that the Tier 0.5 effort was done for very specific design reasons. Nothing like that is in the works for the expansion.

Level 70 players will be able to acquire flying mounts. While players are limited to the Outlands as far as actual flight, these mounts can touch down and walk along the ground too - a nice touch that will allow you to show off your lettness in the old world cities. Kaplan stated that flying mounts serve three design purposes: 1) fast travel, 2) prestige, and 3) progression. As the first is fairly self-explanatory (griffon speed!), let's go to prestige. All level 70 players will likely upgrade to the purchased level 70 flying mount just like you did at level 40, but the hardcore can also attain legendary flying mounts (Damron was sporting his "Nether Drake"). As far as the third purpose - progression - you'll need your flying mount to access certain lofty dungeons in Outlands.