In my brief piece on the "Vanilla" phase of WoW: Classic two months back, I wrote that I wasn't sure how far I'd make it into The Burning Crusade Classic. My expectation was that I'd play for a while, maybe level to 70, and then lose interest.
That didn't happen.
I've now crafted all my Best-in-Slot armor, cleared Karazhan twice, and, as of last night, defeated Gruul in his lair. Magtheridon still awaits, and I'm approximately 5200 gold away from my epic flying mount. It remains to be seen how far I’ll make it. Content is wearing thin.
Yet I still log on every day to make my Spellcloth and check auction house prices. The game continues to hold my attention. I'm more engaged than I ever have been.
The Burning Crusade is a much better game than World of Warcraft
This is my first WoW expansion at max level. What I expected, informed by social osmosis, was massive stat inflation, some new content, and the ability to fly. I suppose that's not an inaccurate assessment, but it is monstrously unfair. TBC works so well because it doesn’t just feel like 'more,’ but like a true extension of the endgame.
In other words: if you were already at 60, you haven't had anything taken away. But much more has been added. Leveling up to 70 feels very much like pursuing content at max level in Classic did, except it's been made much more interesting. The game has been expanded in exactly the right ways.
I've continued playing Fire spec exclusively on my Mage. Fire was already the most interesting caster in Classic, in that it had the most active abilities and the most engaging rotation, and in TBC it's the same. But there's so much more. The niche Fire fills has been expanded significantly. There's twice as much to do while DPSing and twice as much to keep track of. My spec has not lost its identity, but it has been made much more fun.
Every spec of every class has received this same rework. They now have more buttons to press—like two or three instead of just one—and specs that were jokes before, like Ret Paladins, are now seriously viable. Everything is competitive. Everyone has his place. The inept balance of the base game has been completely rectified.
(But Fire is still the best spec.)
Meanwhile flying is an ingenious addition to max level gameplay. It allows the player to experience content in a literal new dimension, and allows designers to do all sorts of interesting new things, like creating a multiplex floating dungeon.
The proliferation of spellpower, spellcrit, spellhit, and haste equipment has introduced a significant element of decision making into the gearing process. Is it worth trading that +20 crit for 40 intellect? Someone on Icy Veins will tell you the objective answer for your class, but in the meantime you can make your own decision, and the world will not end.
More than anything else, though, the pacing of the content is improved so much that the game is almost unrecognizable. By the time I gave up on raiding in Classic, after a year of regularly attending my guild's runs, I had received five purple items: a belt and set of robes from Molten Core, the cloak off Hakkar in Zul'Gurub, and the Tier 2 wrists from Blackwing Lair (which I replaced literally the following day with purple wrists from AQ20).
After only a month at max level in TBC Classic, I've crafted a purple robe, gloves, and belt. I've purchased a purple trinket, cloak, and off-hand using the currency from Heroic-difficulty dungeons. I've received my Tier 4 hat from Karazhan, and I've bought two purple rings and a purple Best-in-Slot sword from reputation vendors. All of this gear is as good as or better than anything raiders will get, with a few exceptions.
In Classic progression was yielded to RNG on a massive scale. If, like me, you were unlucky with rolls and drops, you would never get good purple gear. This has been rectified. Now the determining factor on gear received is time dedicated to the game, as well as the difficulty of content cleared. Luck is only a small part of it.
Raiding continues to not be especially interesting past the first clear. The reduction of raid sizes from 40 to 25 and 20 to 10 was brilliant on Blizzard's part, but the content itself grows stale quickly. Overall, as it was before, raiding remains a primarily social phenomenon. It's only fun if the people you play with every week are your friends and you enjoy spending time with them.
That, unfortunately, is the one experience I haven't yet had with World of Warcraft. I've passed through many guilds, and while they're always filled with nice people who have Southern accents, they take the game way more seriously than I do. In all my time in Classic so far I've made many acquaintances but few friends, and I doubt, at this point, I'll ever find people I truly enjoy playing with.
It demonstrates World of Warcraft's power that this is so minor an issue. Unlike Classic, TBC succeeds because of excellent design and not purely due to its social elements. That isn't to say the multiplayer mechanics aren't important, because they are, and in all the same ways they are in Vanilla WoW. But for the most part, the lone wolf can still have a great time, forging groups, tackling content, and making his way to max level. It's no surprise that this game has had such dazzling financial and critical success. It deserves it.