Caverns of Time: 2007 A Look Into The Past Year

This year has been eventful for World of Warcraft and its playerbase. Starting off, Blizzard introduced The Burning Crusade in January 16, bringing forth lots of changes to the existing game. For one, the level cap was raised to 70 as opposed to 60, and a plethora of new quests and items were made available to the public. Going through the portal to Outland made everyone forgo most of their old epic items, and decide to take up the new blues and greens obtained in Outland, that better added to their character's potential.

In simple terms, everyone started off at zero again. With the expansion's new changes also came changes to the PvE system. No longer were 40-man raids needed for the expansion's endgame, infact, the first raiding zone for "Tier 4" epic gear was a mere 10-man, accessible by anyone who followed a simple quest line through the 5-mans that were available at 70. After obtaining a few of those pieces, players were invited to try and tackle Gruul's Lair, the first true raid dungeon, with a 25 person limit.

PvE Content

The Burning Crusade

Guilds were not only forced to adapt to having only 25 people raid with them to the "big raids" but also to the fact that they needed the new classes in their midst to maximize their potential performance within the encounters. Horde had to incorporate Blood Elf Paladins, and Alliance had to incorporate Draenei Shamans to their ranks in order to progress smoothly through the new content.

Available for 25-man raids were Gruul's Lair, having Gruul as the final boss, Magtheridon's Lair, only having Magtheridon as the only encounter, and finally Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye (Tempest Keep). While initially bosses weren't tweaked as they should and did way more damage, this is commonplace as they let content be conquered little by little.

Serpentshrine Caverns had the first real Warcraft Hero as the final boss of it. In the past, players were able to fight Kel'thuzad within Naxxramas, but never truly beat him or kill him, this time, Lady Vashj would indeed meet her demise at the hands of a band of noble adventurers at the end of Coilfang Reservoir's 25-man zone.

Following Vashj's defeat, players were able to challenge The Eye, which involved clearing a giant questline of increasing difficulty in order to get attuned for. Inside the Eye, Prince Kael'thas and his council awaited. Slowly but surely, people progressed and defeated Kael'thas, learning he narrowly escaped death and was indeed plotting with Kil'jaeden on Illidan's back.

Nagrand Arena

Finally, The Black Temple was released in a content patch, and allowed players to go face to face with Illidan and his minions in their latest 25-man. Before long, Illidan fell and players had defeated 3 times the amount of Warcraft heroes they had in the past before the Beta.

Another exciting new feature Blizzard began adding was the existence of the Caverns of Time. This place allowed players to experience lots of the lore and help out in the past against a new foe, the infinite dragonflight, which threatened to change the past and shape the way the world was constituted. First, they could help out Thrall by escaping Durnholde successfully and defending him from the dragons, then they were able to ensure Medivh opened the Black Portal for the first time in the Black Morass, allowing for the Orcs and Humans to wage war.

The third and final event available for some players is the Battle for Hyjal. While the Infinite Dragonflight is not involved in this event, players who have defeated both Kael'thas and Vashj are able to go back in time and experience the Battle of Hyjal with 25 others who have also completed this quest. Fighting from Rage Winterchill to the very Lord Archimonde, players were able to experience this piece of Warcraft history with their own characters and feel important to the world around them by saving it.

Not only were raids improved, however, as new challenges were given to players who had gotten revered or higher reputation with several factions. "Heroic" dungeons were also available. Heroic versions gave people greater challenges, and each time they defeated a boss in heroic mode, he would drop better loot, and a Badge of Justice. These Badges of Justice could be collected and turned in at Shattrath for better equipment. Up to this day, more and more heroic badge rewards keep being introduced to keep players visiting heroic dungeons and 10-man instances.

Down the road, Blizzard released a couple of content patches that went hand-in-hand, first, they added support for in-game voice-chat, letting many players be able to communicate with one another without the need to use third-party programs. With this new advent, they also released the Zul'Aman instance. Having Zul'jin as the final boss, this instance was set in the Ghostlands near the Blood Elf starting zone. Intended to be a short 10-man instance like Karazhan, this instance became popular for "side" upgrades for raiders, and alternate equipment for PvP fans.

Click here to go to part 2 of this article - PvP, Quests and Propaganda!