World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release Date: January 16, 2007 (US)
Release Date: January 16, 2007 (UK)
Release Date: January 17, 2007 (AU)
T for Teen: Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade beta -- Hellfire Citadel
The second half of the Ramparts heads upstairs, where there's a cluster of groups to clear before the final few bosses. To the side is Omor the Unscarred, a giant level 62 demon with a few fun abilities that we won't spoil here, aside from summoning felhounds to fight at his side on a regular basis.
The final event of the Ramparts actually includes two bosses: Vazruden, who flies around the final area on his dragon mount, Nazan. When the final guards in this area are killed, Vazruden drops down to attack, while Nazan bombs the area until landing himself. If nothing else, it's an entertaining fight for the first dungeon in the expansion. Here's a look at the final bosses:
If the first dungeon was any indication, Blizzard clearly intends to make the quality of loot in the expansion vastly better than what's available in the "old world." Case in point: here are several of the drops we got off the various Ramparts bosses:
By comparison, most of this gear is far beyond anything players can get in 5-man instances in WoW today; in fact, much of it rivals loot you'd expect out of "tier 2" dungeons like Blackwing Lair. For players who have never been able to raid, even this first 5-man dungeon looks like it'll offer a simple, speedy way to gear up.
The Blood Furnace
After killing Vazruden at the end of the Ramparts, he drops "An Onimous Letter," which kicks off one of two quests we had for the Blood Furnace. It seemed this indoor wing was only slightly harder than the Ramparts; there were still plenty of humanoids that could be sheeped, making most the pulls relatively simple with a mage on hand.
One of the most interesting events of the Blood Furnace is the Broggok fight, the second of the wing's three bosses. Here, orcs are released in several waves, leading up to Broggok being released and attacking.
The final event of the instance is a fight against Keli'dan the Breaker, who has a small group of minions who fight for him. Reaching this area completes a quest to explore the entire Blood Furnace, and Keli'dan also drops the key to the Shattered Halls, although it'll be quite a few levels before we plan on heading in there.
And while we won't get too hung up on loot, here are two of the drops we saw in the Blood Furnace (the two quests for the instance also offer some Zul'Gurub-level quest rewards).
Perhaps the best thing about both these new wings were the length -- it's possible to run through either of them in 45 minutes, and since Hellfire Citadel is located so close to the Alliance and Horde cities, it shouldn't be too hard to round up groups and start running without much delay. With Hellfire Citadel out of the way, we'll be back soon with a report on the second major zone of the expansion: Zangarmarsh.
Expansion pack for: World of Warcraft (PC)
World of Warcraft Vault
World of Warcraft: The... at IGN
World of Warcraft: The... Cheats at IGN
World of Warcraft: The... Guide at IGN
World of Warcraft: The... at GameSpy
World of Warcraft: The... at GameStats