Happy new year! Don't forget to write 2007 on everything now.

New Beta Items: Highmountain Hammer ;  Khorium Boots ;  Headdress of Alacrity ;  Pattern: Stylin' Adventure Hat ;  Gladiator's Wyrmhide Tunic ;  Gladiator's Wyrmhide Legguards ;  Gladiator's Wyrmhide Helm ;  Gladiator's Wyrmhide Gloves ;  Wild Quillvine ;  Gladiator's Wyrmhide Spaulders ;  Gladiator's Kodohide Spaulders ;  Gladiator's Kodohide Tunic ;  Gladiator's Kodohide Legguards ;  Gladiator's Kodohide Helm ;  Gladiator's Kodohide Gloves ;  Gladiator's Dragonhide Spaulders ;  Gladiator's Dragonhide Legguards ;  Envenomed Fang ;  Liar's Cord ;  Spaulders of the Protectorate ;  Halaani Hammer ;  Pattern: Black Belt of Knowledge ;  The Night Blade

Also, as the first installment of what I hope to be a daily feature until The Burning Crusade comes out or I get too lazy to keep up with it, here is the first part of Azuarc's Burning Crusade journal...(contains pictures, so I'm gonna make you click the link to read.)
 


Azuarc's Burning Crusade journal, part 1 – before Outland

In the upcoming days before the release of the expansion, I want to give everyone a taste of things to come. Many of you have already been following the news on the Burning Crusade, so some of the information here may not be earth-shattering, but in the later installments, I hope to have some stuff you didn't know. For now, though, I'm just going to talk about some general info.

The Burning Crusade brings a lot of new features to the game that many people are looking forward to. In short, the expansion adds:

and then all the things that are directly associated with those items, such as new quests, class skills, etc.

While later issues of this guide will be focused on Outland and the rest of that list, I want to briefly mention the two new races today. (And I emphasize briefly, because I've been mostly focused on the Outland material.)

The Blood Elves

The Horde are finally getting a "pretty" race, which some players are excited about and some are actually disappointed with, but let's not go there. The lore behind the Blood Elves is, of course, that they thirst for magic ever since Arthas and the Scourge destroyed the Sunwell in their homeland of Quel'thalas. Since that time they have been persecuted by the Alliance, and rescued by Illidan and his nagas enough times to spurn them and now join the Horde, being led by the Regent Lord Lor'themar Theron in Silvermoon City. They give the Horde the potential to have paladins in their faction, as well as priest, hunter, mage, warlock and rogue being playable classes.

For you min/max types, Blood Elf racials include a +10 bonus to enchanting, resistance to all spell schools of 5, and the tandem abilities of Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent. Mana Tap is an instant cast mana drain on a 30 second cooldown. Each time you tap, you also gain a charge that lasts for 10 minutes and stacks up to 3 times. Arcane Torrent is a short-range silence (similar to War Stomp in range and duration, but instant casting,) that also generates mana – or energy for the rogues – for each Mana Tap charge you have. Some have speculated that the chance to regain 90 energy from 3 Mana Tap charges and have a silence to add in with Cheap Shot, Kidney Shot and Gouge may make Blood Elf rogues absolute terrors to casters.

The Blood Elf starting zone, Eversong Woods, is very pretty in that autumnal sort of way that Azshara is. One of the major themes of the zone is securing the lands that the Blood Elves have finally retaken from the remaining Scourge presence and from other outside invaders.

The secondary zone for the Blood Elves, by contrast, is a rather eerie marsh known as the Ghostlands. It has a sort of magical beauty to it, but it is still a marsh. The artistic theme of the zone seems very similar to the Outland's zone Zangarmarsh.

The capital of the Blood Elves, Silvermoon City, is thematically just like Eversong Woods. It continues the exact same style, combining it with a city that is laid out a little like Orgrimmar, but easier to navigate with square edges and being mostly flat. There is only one entrance to the city that I'm aware of, and it is nowhere near the racial leader, for you PvP types.

The Blood Elves begin friendly with the Forsaken and neutral with the rest of the Horde, and will need to travel to Forsaken lands to continue beyond the Ghostlands seeing as the next zone over is Eastern Plaguelands.

The Draenei

Some loremongers aren't thrilled with the addition of the Draenei, (pronounced drann-NYE according to their opening sequence,) because of the way it seems Blizzard is really stretching their storyline with their inclusion. The Draenei are a people of Outland, just as the Orcs and Ogres once were. Years before the first Warcraft game took place, the Draenei were beaten and bludgeoned in a genocide by the orcs, and later many of the Draenei also became corrupted by demonic energies, leading to the sub-species of Broken that are seen throughout northern Swamp of Sorrows. One tribe of Draenei fled Outland in a spaceship which eventually found its way to Azeroth, where it promptly exploded and crashed into a series of islands west of Kalimdor. The main bulk of the ship, known as The Exodar, still remains intact and serves as the Draenei capital.

The Draenei are natural jewelcrafters, starting with a +5 bonus to that profession. They are also resistant to shadow damage, and inspire their party members with an aura that adds 1% chance to hit with spells and attacks. Their final racial grants them a heal-over-time every 3 minutes, on a 1.5 sec cast. They also introduce the shaman class to the Alliance, while also being able to play as paladins. Further, they can be warriors, priests, mages or hunters.

The Draenei starting zone, Azuremyst Isle, has some of the same bleak look as Darkshore, although some of the trees look more like they are from Silverpine. The wildlife is similar to Darkshore's as well, with the exception of some of the things that came with the Draenei.

Bloodmyst Isle is the second zone for the spacemen, and it is generally pretty similar, but it looks rather different.

The Exodar has two entrances, and certainly does not look of-this-world. There are two entrances to the zone, both from Azuremyst.

The Draenei are probably best said to be led by Valon, although one could maybe make a case for this guy as well:

I haven't actually played a Draenei at all. Too much else to do! And to that effect, tomorrow I intend to write about jewelcrafting.