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The Burning Crusade F.A.Q.

Written by Robbie
Friday, 28 October 2005
Q: What does the title of the World of Warcraft expansion refer to? A: "The Burning Crusade" refers to the Burning Legion's ongoing efforts to destroy life on Azeroth. To date, the Burning Legion's exploits have been documented in Warcraft III and in our War of the Ancients novel trilogy. As part of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, players will now be able to travel through the Dark Portal to confront the Legion on otherworldly battlefields. Q: What are the new races? When will you reveal all of them? A: The first new race that we have announced for the expansion set is the Blood Elf race. No longer trusted by the Alliance, these former High Elves have joined the Horde to hunt down the demons that destroyed their homeland of Quel'Thalas. We plan to unveil details about possible additional races at a later date. Q: Will the level cap be raised? A: Yes, the level cap will be raised to 70 from the current maximum level of 60. In addition to the level increase, every class will gain access to additional talents and abilities or spells as they level up from level 60 to level 70. Q: Will there be new lands to explore in the expansion? A: The Outlands will be opened with the expansion. Players last visited the Outlands in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, alongside Illidan as he conquered the Pit Lord Magtheridon's domain. Players will also gain access to Quel'Thalas, the region to the northeast of the Forsaken lands, where the Blood Elves reside. Other areas that players will be able to explore in the expansion set will be revealed in the months ahead. Q: Will there be new dungeons and battlegrounds included in the expansion? A: We do have plans to add dungeons and battlegrounds with the expansion, though the exact number has not yet been determined. One upcoming dungeon that we're excited about is Karazhan, which is located within Medivh's tower. Because Medivh has played such a central role in Warcraft lore, we think that a lot of longtime players will be especially interested in seeing what Karazhan contains. As an example of a battleground that will be included in the expansion, we plan on making some of the battles from the past accessible through the Caverns of Time. We'll provide more details as we get closer to implementing this content. Q: What are some of the other features of the expansion? A: In addition to the new races, zones, dungeons, and battlegrounds, we have a number of new features planned for the Burning Crusade expansion. Some of those new features include: A complete new profession - Jewelcrafting Socketed Items Flying mounts We'll reveal additional expansion features in the months ahead. Q: Do you need to own the expansion to play with friends who have it? A: There will be many aspects of the expansion that are available to all players. However, in order to experience certain content, such as the Outlands, or be able to play as one of the new races, players will have to purchase the expansion. Q: Will there be a public beta test of the expansion? A: We have not yet determined whether we will hold a public beta test for the expansion. If we decide to conduct a beta test, we will post details on the official World of Warcraft website. Q: When will the expansion be released? How much will it cost? A: We have not yet announced a release date for the expansion set. However, we expect to announce further details, including the release date and price, on our community website in the months ahead. Please stay tuned to www.WorldofWarcraft.com for more information. Q: Can we download the expansion online, or must we purchase it in a store? A: We're still looking into how the expansion will be distributed in each region and will provide more info on that at a later date. Q: What are the system requirements? A: The system requirements remain the same as for the original World of Warcraft game. Windows® System 98/ME/2000/XP OS: 800 MHz or higher CPU 256 MB or more of RAM 32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware transform and lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better 4 GB or more of available hard drive space DirectX® 9.0c or above A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection 4x CD-ROM drive Mac® System OS X 10.3.5 OS or newer: 933 MHz or higher G4 or G5 processor 512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more 4 GB or more of available hard drive space 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection 4x CD-ROM drive Q: Will the expansion be released globally at the same time? A: We will make every effort to release the expansion simultaneously worldwide. More details on this will follow at a later date. Q: What is the ESRB rating for the expansion? A: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has not yet been rated by the ESRB. However, we expect that it will receive the same rating that the original World of Warcraft received - "Teen."

Crowd Control

Written by Robbie

Monday, 24 October 2005

Crowd Control can be described as the process of efficiently dealing with multiple monsters attacking you or your party at the same time. This is the case whether the attack is expected or unexpected. Essentially this means disabling extra monsters and fighting just one monster. Battles can be much safer because you're fighting a smaller number of monsters. For example, you can pull two monsters, disable one, and only fight one monster at a time. Also, you could pull four monsters and disable two.

Some packs of monsters are too numerous to use crowd control, but generally it is an important skill to utilize when fighting. Groups that are good at crowd control can typically accomplish much more in a shorter amount of time than those that have no crowd control ability.

How to Control a Crowd
First, identify party members with specific spells or abilities that can disable monsters. There are many of these immobilization abilities. We will identify a few of them for sample purposes.

Mage - Polymorph - The Mage polymorphs a monster, changing it to a sheep so that the party can fight the other monsters.
Rogue - Sap - Rogue disables a humanoid monster. You must sneak up and Sap the monster before it is attacked.
Druid - Entangling Roots - Druid entangles one monster while the party fights additional monsters.
Warlock - Fear - Sends a monster running away. This is sometimes not the best to use because they can bring back help.
Warlock - Banish - Disables a Demon or Elemental for a short amount of time.
Priest - Psychic Scream - Similar to Fear with restrictions.
Priest - Shackle Undead - Priest holds an undead in place while party fights other monsters.
Item - Engineers Make/Sell: Target Dummies.

Put the Abilities into Action
Inform everyone in your party that you'll be using your crowd control abilities. Then tell them what to do and when. You may have to be the person who pulls for the party, depending on which ability is used. The procedure is for you to cast your spell, or use your ability, on the monster you don't wish to fight. This may wake up an additional monster(s) near the disabled enemy. The other monster will typically come running when you disable its partner, if both monsters are aggressive.

Make sure your party members do not attack the disabled monster, which will "wake them up". This can be difficult to do if your party members are not experienced players. Thus it may require some training. Pay attention to which player "woke up the monster", point them out, and chastise them. Remind party members that 'area of effect' spells will wake up sleeping monsters, so they should be used with caution, if at all.

Remind party members not to cast a DoT (damage-over-time) on a monster. Otherwise you won't be able to sleep them.

When fighting higher level monsters you may have a much more difficult time disabling the monster due to spell resists.

Drag the Awake Monster
Once one of the monsters is disabled, drag the other attacking monster away from its sleeping counterpart. That way, it will be clear to everyone in the party which monster they should be attacking. It is also then clear to players that the other monster is disabled, and it will be easier to notice when the immobilized monster has woken up. To drag the attacking monster, have the person who has attracted its attention back away from the other disabled enemy. The monster will then follow the player away from its immobilized counterpart. You might have to explain this concept to players who have never seen this method used before.

Protect the Player doing Crowd Control
When a player disables a monster, they typically generate a lot of hate or aggression from the monster being disabled. Once the monster "wakes up", it typically runs after the person that disabled it. Tanks need to be aware of this and should taunt the offending monster off the person once it "wakes up". The player being attacked also needs to inform the party that a monster is on them, as is standard procedure for non-tank characters.

Keys to Good Crowd Control

Having and properly using abilities that disable monsters
Disabling the correct or best monster
Having a party that does not attack disabled monsters
Having tanks in the party that can taunt the monster once it wakes up
Communication with party members

Other Uses for Crowd Control

Traveling: Crowd control abilities are also useful for traveling. Simply disable the monster to allow you to travel without fighting.
Escape: If you run into unexpected monsters, disable them. This can allow you to escape a battle that might not be possible without a crowd control ability.
Duels: Disable the other player while you heal or regenerate mana.

Pulling

Written by Robbie
Monday, 24 October 2005
The concept of "pulling" has been perfected in other games and carries on to World of Warcraft. The idea is a player in a party, known as "the puller", scouts ahead, finds the next monster or monsters, and brings them back to the waiting group. The party fights and kills those monsters and then the process repeats. This is a much safer method than the whole party wandering around together in dangerous locations where they could wake up too many monsters. The existence of pulling in the game doesn't indicate that there is a lot of camping. Typically as a group is advancing in an area or dungeon they will stop and pull nearby monsters to a safe area. Once those monsters are cleared they will advance on. Players aren't typically sitting in one location waiting for monsters to respawn. The Puller Pullers are generally tanks such as a Warrior or Paladin. This is because they have the most hit points and armor and can take a real beating. This is required because they have to lead the monsters back to the party. A casting class could be used as a puller if the monsters are easy or are not able to hit them with ranged attacks. Another reason a squishy mage type class is often not a good puller is due to the hate/aggro balance you try to achieve in party pulls. If a Mage pulls with a long distance ability, the monster will come running in perhaps more easily than with a Warrior/Paladin running up and body-pulling or letting it aggro on them. On the other hand, once it reaches the party, its first target will be that soft squishy Mage type who will generally take a beating until the heavy tank class can taunt it off the puller. Not only does the squishy puller take a beating they are not designed to take, the healers in the group will have to waste more power by healing someone, and then have to switch targets to heal a different person each time a person pulls. Not to mention that the special heals and other abilities designed as 'group saves' will need to be used more often and won't be available when they are really needed. (For example, if you have pulled and are fighting monsters ok and then something else aggros into the party like a wandering monster). This is a main factor in why a tank often becomes the puller so that aggro/hate originates on the person who is going to 'tank' (poetic isn't it?) the monster while the party beats it to death. Camping Spot First you need to pick a camping spot. This will be the area where the party sits and the puller leads the monsters back to fight. It's best to pick a spot that is not patrolled by monsters. You also don't want to choose a spot that is in the middle of a monster camp. A monster camp may respawn (monsters spawn again) while you're already fighting monsters, which can shift the battle to the monsters' favor. Experienced pullers will know which spots are good to camp. After the camping spot has been determined, instruct the party to remain here: "/v stay." After the party has stopped, it's now the puller's turn to go fetch the monsters. Pulling It's very important to know about monster aggro radius. This knowledge can be gained through experience. Simply walk up to a monster inch-by-inch, tapping the forward key. Watch the monster for their "excited" movement and sound when they notice you. You will then know about how close you have to get to a monster to wake them up. You always want to wake up the monsters at the maximum possible range away from the monster. This will give you time to run back to the party. If you are stunned, rooted, or immobilized and doubt that you can return to your party, inform your party so that they can come save you. It's also important not to bring back too many monsters and kill the whole party. As you gain more experience at pulling you will learn what a safe "pull" is. After you have woken up the monsters, turn around and run back toward your party. You may have to run past your party's location to drag the monster to your party members. Make sure you tell your camping party members to stay where they are. After the monsters are killed, go out and grab some more monsters. Ranged Weapons The puller should have some sort of thrown weapon or ammunition they can use to "wake up" the monster at a distance. This will allow you to pull monsters much more easily than just walking up to them. Even Warriors can use Thrown Weapons of some type. Pulling Melee Monsters Pull Melee Monsters to the front of the party so that ranged party members can fire on them. If you pull a monster behind your party, your ranged members will get "failed" error messages. Pulling Ranged/Magic Monsters The monster will only be pulled when the puller is out of the monster's range. Since they are ranged, unlike melee monsters, the puller will need to run past the party to lead the monster into the middle of the party. Sometimes the puller will have to run a LONG way. Keep looking behind you to make sure the monster is in the right location. Then turn around and fight. Make sure you do not blindly run into additional monsters while running away. Pulling to a Location If you are traveling to a destination, such as to the end of a mine, you will have to continue to move your camping spot forward as the monsters are cleared. The puller should tell the group when to move up and where to stop. Leading Long Distances It can be very challenging to lead a monster a very long distance. Once you run a specific distance away from the monster's original location the monster will stop and return to it. What you have to do is damage them every so often while leading them back. This will make them angry enough to keep following you. Additional Instructions for Pullers Type "/v inc" to give your party a notice that monsters are coming. You can also just type "inc." Watch party members' health and mana bars. If they are low, don't pull. Wait until they are ready before going for another run. Otherwise they might not be able to handle the next group of monsters. Instructions for Camping Party Members Before the puller comes back, select the puller (F2-F5) and be ready to hit F for assist to target the right monster. If you get confused, hit V to show the monster hit point bars. Select the one that is the most damaged. Watch for the puller's notice that monsters are incoming and be ready to fight. While you're waiting sit down to regenerate mana/health or use food/drink. Heal the tank before they head back to pull another monster. You want to do this instead of healing them when they come back with monsters in tow (unless they are about to die). If you heal an incoming puller the monsters will pile on the healer and sometimes kill them. Don't move from the camping spot until the party puller says to move. If any monsters appear near the camping spot while the puller is away, make sure you inform them so they don't ALSO bring back monsters. You can do this by typing "1 here", "2 here", "respawn", or "pop." If you do not inform the puller, they will often bring back monsters and the combination of monsters will kill the party. Remain patient and don't try to follow the puller. Their job is to get the monsters, your job is to SIT THERE. =] Don't move forward until the puller tells you to or until you see them stopped and fighting a monster. Failed Pulls Your party may have abilities to deal with too many monsters, such as Sleep or Chains of Ice, and they should use them. Otherwise everyone in the party should run and the puller should inform them to run. Another option is for the puller to just suicide and die. The party can then bring them back to life (elite trick).

Party Tips

Written by Robbie
Monday, 24 October 2005
To be a good party member you should learn about the basics of good party play. Pick a leader and stay with your group! Pick someone to lead the party around. Make sure it's clear to the party that they should be following that specific player. Otherwise, people will wander around and it will become a mess. Wandering players might also wake up a bunch of monsters and cause the party to die. Things are much simpler if the party just picks one person to lead the group. People who are not leading should do what the leader says and make sure that they are always keeping up with the rest of the group. You can type "/f name" to follow a character in your group. This makes it easier to keep up. If you need to leave the keyboard, make sure you inform the group so you're not left behind. While you are lagging behind, monsters could spawn in between you and your group. When you try to return to the group, you could "train" the monsters to the group and end up killing them. Also the group might not notice that you haven't been keeping up and might expect your help during a difficult monster battle, only to die because you were not there! Remember that you can also use "/afk" (Away From Keyboard). Quests Make sure that everyone has the same quest. You can do this by asking them to confirm the name of the quests in their quest log. Otherwise you might get halfway into a quest before you discover that one of your party members hasn't got the quest. Stick around until everyone has completed the quest. Select your quests based on party size. If you can do the quest by yourself, don't waste time doing it in a party. Instead, spend time doing quests that you can't do without a party. You also might want to avoid quests that require each person in the party to collect a lot of parts. For example if the party has 5 members, and you need 20 items for each person, that ends up being 100 items you need to collect! You can complete that much faster by yourself or with a smaller group. Some quest items that are not marked as "Quest Items" can be traded with other members in the party. If you get extra, pass them around. If you're doing quests that require you to each collect "X" number of items, report to the party your status as you go. A good way to do it is to say "4/20". That means you have 4 out of 20 items. That lets people know how far you are and how far you have to go. Also, after a party member has completed their collection, it becomes easier for the rest of the party to collect those items; any items dropped for a person with the complete set will now be available to those in the party that still need them. If you are doing a multiple part quest and some players are behind, you could help them catch up by doing the earlier steps of the quest. That will allow everyone to be on the same step. Buffs Ask for a caster to "Buff" you again when the original wears off. If you're the person casting the Buffs, ask your party members to let you know when they need/want them again. When Buffing, be sure to Buff yourself first and then the other members of your Party. When your Buffs begin to drop, you will automatically know that your Party members' Buffs are about to drop soon as well. Party Roles Each class often has particular strengths in a Party; see Party Roles for more information. Assign each character roles which make best use of their strengths in the situations you are likely to encounter Don't Run! It is important not to run, even if you're about to die, unless the whole party is running. If you run you will likely wake up more monsters or travel to some place where it will be more difficult to resurrect you. Ask for help and stand still so that the tanks can come and taunt them off you or kill the monster. Don't run in circles either because the melee players won't be able to reach the monster. Stop attacking the monster so that you don't rack up points in their hate memory/list. You might even want to just die instead of getting the rest of the party killed. You can be resurrected once the battle is over. Communication Let your party know if you see a monster patrolling near that might attack unexpectedly. Let your party know if you have to leave your computer. Let your party know if you are low on Mana if you are required to have Mana for a battle. Let your party know if you spot anything they are looking for, such as specific monsters, landmarks, or even trade skill nodes (Mining/Herbalism). Let your party know if you're about to die and you need healing (if you're unsure if they will heal). If you are a caster, let your party know if monsters are attacking you so they can stop attackers if someone isn't already drawing them off of you. Be reasonable in your communication. You don't need to spam or repeat yourself, or otherwise annoy the players you're asking to help you. Pay Attention/Keep Up Don't spend time watching TV, reading, or diverting your attention away to some other distraction. The game usually requires your full attention. Don't Wake Up Slept/Disabled Monsters Players put monsters out of the battle to make the battle easier. Don't wake them up. Make sure you say sorry if you do and try to correct this in the future. Casters should also make sure they don't try to sleep monsters that are already being attacked. Pool Resources If you pool your money together you can often buy something good for a party member that will help the party. This should mainly be done only if you are playing with good friends or guild mates.

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