This was posted on the wow Europe forums as one players opinion on the WoW expansion “The burning Crusade”. I have put it up here because a lot of people identify with this and what we see on game sites paints a very different (perhaps misleading) representation of the expansion. Something to read before you consider buying the expansion.

Here goes:

Uff .. TBC .. here we go

the entire TBC is about overcoming artificial mandatory party based barriers that basically have nothing to do with storyline. The whole point of this is to expand the lifetime of the expansion.

1 ) game is only about rep and collectable tokens
2 ) single play is dead due to the depenency on groups for the mandatory rep
3 ) game is filled with artificial barriers which can only be overcome with rep/grinding
4 ) the content is lamed due to heroics
5 ) stat type addition and talent nerfing to make the new gear desirable

for everything you need tokens or things similar to it.
armament
plant parts
dusts
signets
pvp marks
tusks
beads

all these tokens convert to a bit of rep.
rep is the only way to get into the endgame.
for nearly every larger dungeon there is a need for a certain rep.
items you want … rep
gear … rep
resistance gear … rep
crafting … rep // sure you can level tradeskills without rep, but you will have to make a retarded amount of kills, but hey that takes time. (about 16000 kills are needed to level from 350 - 375 LW skill.

There is a part of rep you can solo, but that will stop. They just made gamerules disallowing you to gain more rep from one source such as a dungeon or turnins to force you to do other dungeons or turnins at a higher level. Its not story related, its just a logistical choice to force extended gameplay.

The best part is that you cant solo the rep that you MUST do. You allways need parties for the instances you want to do. This forces you to group up. every time. This also means that you are fully dependent on groups since you cant gain the rep solo. /wave solo play. Sure its a multiplayer game, but in azeroth you at least had choices. Heck in azeroth rep was optional and not bloody mandatory. If you cant get groups you are screwed. No keys, no heroics, no reagents for craftin or tokens for resist gear, no endgame.

Then we come to heroics. how nice are those. After getting the mandatory rep up to revered you can buy a key to be able to enter a dungeon you allready did. The only thing that happens here is to change some mobstats and we are done.

mob A was hitting for 200 damage, now he hits for 2000 damage and is cc immune.

None the less. the instance is the same. This mechanic just doubles the time spent in a certain instance in order to prolong the lifespan of the expansion. And ofcourse again you need groups for this, what increases the total time in game alot while waiting for tanks and healers. Joy.

In these heroic instances you can get a chance to get a token. You will need 100 tokens for the resist set. Since there are no real alternatives it means that everyoen needs to farm heroics until their hands bleed. These tokens again guarantee a prolonged time spent in game.

Then we get to what you can get from those instance. Surely for many players this is the primary objective so that they too can moan to others with good arguments such as “my armory is larger than your armory” or whatever. Greed is the driving force behind this game. But that aside, the stuff you get from the instances is relatively the same as level 50 due to diminishing ratings and the overal increase of HP on players. But heck .. for hunters as an eg the T3 beats T4 and T5 on many accounts. Heck there are blues and greens better than the epic stuff.

And the best part about gear… for example the hunter gear. They first downgrade an ability or talent and then undo that nerf with stats on gear. Take traps for example. It used to be able to feign trap to artificially reduce the cooldown. Sure combat trapping is usefull but after the firt replant there is no option to plant traps faster than 30 seconds unless you spec into it or get the blue setgear.
Same deal with feign death.. they increase resistrate only to have it reduced with item stats again.

I feel that this game has lost alot of its “game” aspect. Everything MUST be done in order to get to endgame. Its no option, you MUST. Sure MC needed to be unlocked, but that was one run into BRD. BWL same deal where you had to do that orb thingy. But that has a storyline. Its not a mandatory 20 runs into instance A and then 20 runs in instance B in order to get rep in order for some database entry to flag that you have enough rep to buy a key to enter an instance you allready did in order to get the gear and unlocking for endgame. Its jsut all stacked. and its not an option.

outside the instances the game is a bore as well. In azeroth you could go around and farm a bit for fun hoping to get that rare drop of that resistance potion or whatever. in tbc you grind for marks and signets. period. All the crafting stuff is hidden behind rep thus instance runs thus group dependent actions thus no single play.
Same thing with crafting .. its stupid. At 350 you will need the same reagents everyone else needs. You have the option to grind literally 1000s of motes at 20% droprates and 1000s of kills to get the special craft related reagents (such as hides etc). The only way to level up ‘easy’ is by getting rep in order to buy recipies which require a fraction of the crap you need of you dont want to run instances. Hurrah … rep screwed over crafting as well. Ohh then the next thing.. the primal nethers. EVERYONE needs em. So first you need to get a heroic key which requires rep. Then you need to get a group. Then you need to run an instance you have allready seen pre - heroic and at heroic in order to have a chance for a drop that everyone needs. Oh and you need about 20 of these things.

The game is jsut farked up now since everything is dependent on rep. Its not optional, its mandatory.

And that is where playing stops and working starts.

this game has lost so many of its aspect that were present pre TBC and the sheer drive to artificially increase the lifespan has gone to far. It has ruined the game experience

rep -> instance access -> more rep
rep -> rep bound items, rep bound tradeskills, rep bound requirements (resistance gear etc)
rep only sensably accessable with parties

Just look at the amount of faction that have come to be and compare that to the total amount of factions pre TBC which applied to 60 levels and not 10.
Upper, Council of the oak, Earthen ring EU.