Originally released in 2007, The Burning Crusade was World of Warcraft's first major expansion. It introduced two new races (Blood Elves and Draenei), two new crafting professions (Jewelcrafting and Inscription), and an entirely new world, Outland, accessed through the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands.
With The Burning Crusade Classic officially announced, World of Warcraft Classic players are already getting ready for a major overhaul coming to the vanilla experience. While Illidan Stormrage might say otherwise, players who take time to gear up and get ready for the expansion will be prepared!
10 Level An Alt
A few months remain until The Burning Crusade Classic is officially added to the base subscription – that's plenty of time to get another character to level 60. Having an alt isn't necessary to fully experience The Burning Crusade, but it's always nice to have more than one character option heading into a new expansion.
When The Burning Crusade was initially released, there was a huge faction imbalance. Hopefully Blizzard addresses this issue, but it might be handy to have a character in each faction (on different servers, of course) in case things go sour.
9 Farm, Farm, Farm
Gold means a lot more in Classic than it does in retail World of Warcraft. Mounts cost significantly more, training to ride those mounts costs significantly more, and even new abilities come at a heavy price above level 60.
When the epic flying mount in The Burning Crusade Classic will be a staggering 5000g, spending time farming gold before the expansion releases is necessary for players who want to take to the skies early on.
8 Complete Every Dungeon
World of Warcraft Classic boasts a swathe of dungeons each with unique aesthetics, fights, and rewards. While they aren't great for leveling a character, experiencing these original dungeons in their original form is something of a rite of passage for Classic fans.
From Ragefire Chasm to Dire Maul, every dungeon in World of Warcraft Classic improves a player's communication and knowledge of their class – necessary skills for the Heroic difficulty dungeons to come in The Burning Crusade Classic.
7 Complete End-Game Raids
Arguably the most iconic and memorable moments in World of Warcraft Classic happen in raids. There are seven raids in Classic – Zul'Gurub, Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, Onyxia's Lair, The Ruins of Ahn'Quiraj, the Temple of Ahn'Quiraj, and the infamous Naxxramas.
Completing these raids is not necessary to access any of the raids to come in The Burning Crusade Classic, but the drops from each boss go a long way in getting a player ahead of the curve for upcoming raids.
6 Pick Up Mining For Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafting will be a new profession introduced in The Burning Crusade Classic. In Outland, players will find gear with gem sockets, which improve the armor or weapon slightly when a gem is attached. Jewelcrafting is one of the most lucrative professions, but it also has a high cost of entry.
Similar to the Engineering profession, Jewelcrafting materials on the auction house go for a pretty penny. Prepare for this profession by leveling up Mining, which yields materials the player can sell for gold or keep for Jewelcrafting later down the line.
5 Pick Up Skinning and Leatherworking
While Jewelcrafting will be the hot new profession everybody and their mother wants to try, Leatherworking is the true king of The Burning Crusade professions. Leatherworking yields some of the best items in the expansion, including the largely broken item Drums of Battle.
Skinning is a very lucrative gathering profession for this reason, too. Basic materials and intermediate crafted materials sell for a lot on the auction house, and will yield significant gold on the auction house.
4 Play Through Iconic Questlines
World of Warcraft Classic does not have the most interesting quest mechanics, to say the least, with a majority of quests being some form of "go here, kill this, come back". However, that is not to say Classic lacks narrative brilliance and intriguing reasons for the player to kill 10 monsters at a time.
Quests like The Legend of Stalvan, In Dreams, Pamela's Doll and Lost in Battle are just the tip of the iceberg of well-designed quests and well-told stories – just make sure you're in the right faction for some of the more exclusive options.
3 Grind for PvP Titles
The military hierarchy-style player vs player titles were eventually removed from World of Warcraft in the retail version. In Classic, players can grind honor in battlegrounds and world PvP to get titles such as Grand Marshall, Knight-Champion, and even Commander.
It's much more fear-inducing to charge into battle as a Commander than as a lowly Private. Plus, there are some unique rewards, like epic PvP mounts, for the best of the best.
2 Check Out The Dark Portal
The Classic Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands looks vastly different from the Dark Portal as it appears in retail World of Warcraft. The portal is blue, the entrance is small, and there is little to do around it, save for sit and gaze into the starry abyss of the Dark Portal's center.
For long-time players, it's a trip down memory lane that might not be available ever again once The Burning Crusade Classic launches and characters move on to the new expansion.
1 Consider Keeping A Classic Character
The Burning Crusade Classic will allow players to transfer characters to dedicated Vanilla servers if they want to avoid any changes to the original game. The Burning Crusade brought a lot of changes to World of Warcraft, and while most of these changes were welcomed, it is still worth keeping a character on a vanilla server for the nostalgia value.
Classic might have been a once-in-a-lifetime reboot of the World of Warcraft franchise, but that doesn't mean the experience is limited to just two years. Keep a character on a vanilla server if having access to the game in its original form is important to you.