Dual Specialization & Instant Mail Black Lotus Drop Adjustments
We've seen some minor and major adjustments in other versions of Classic as well, including Class Balance changes in Mists of Pandaria Classic. This raises the question - Will we see similar changes to The Burning Crusade as well?
A Brief History of Classic Changes
On Classic progression servers, we began to see Blizzard experiment with major additions to the game that were not present in their original versions. In Wrath of the Lich King Classic, we were introduced to modified Heroic dungeons, which added affixes and new challenges, offering gear from the previous Phase to assist alts and new players to catch up to the current phase. This feature would become incredibly popular and continue throughout Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria Classic, where we currently have "Celestial" Dungeons - a feature that is not unique to MoP Classic, but completely replaced the Looking for Raid feature!
Wrath of the Lich King would also introduce new currencies available from these dungeons, which players could use to purchase gear from previous raids (only in their lowest difficulty version). Again, this would be a very popular system that we still see today in Mists of Pandaria Classic with Celestial Dungeons and the August Stone Fragment Vendor.
The August Stone Fragment Vendor in Mists of Pandaria Classic
While there were plenty of adjustments made from Wrath to Mists, the most recent changes that will make their way to The Burning Crusade Anniversary are Dual Specialization and instant mail between account-shared characters. With both of these changes being welcomed by the player base, what other changes would players like to see once the Dark Portal opens?
A Class Trainer in Orgrimmar offering Dual Spec on the Anniversary Servers
Extended Pre-Patch
One major complaint players vocalized in The Burning Crusade Classic back in 2021 was the short length of The Burning Crusade Pre-patch. During this time before the official release, players would gain access to new abilities, talents, and race/class combinations, while still being capped at level 60 and experiencing Vanilla content.
When Will The Burning Crusade Pre-Patch Release?New TBC Bundles Datamined for Classic Anniversary
Players only had two weeks to level up their Blood Elf or Draenei characters and have fun with their new abilities and talents in endgame raids like Molten Core and Naxxramas. Players have even suggested getting a unique server dedicated to The Burning Crusade classes, abilities, and talents, but in the Vanilla setting, so there's no secret that a longer Pre-Patch would be very welcomed by many in the community.
Another adjustment we may see this time around is level boosts for Draenei and Blood Elves during the pre-patch. In 2021, players could buy boosts from bundle packs offered by Blizzard, which included toys and mounts as well, but these boosts excluded the two new races. However, in Mists of Pandaria Classic, players were surprised to learn that boosts could be used on the new race in that expansion, the Pandaren. Players could even boost a Pandaren Monk, the new class offered in that expansion as well.
Attunement Adjustments
One of The Burning Crusade's most well-known systems is its attunement processes. Whether for heroic dungeons or raids, they all require some form of attunement. If we are to assume that TBC Anniversary will be more accelerated than its predecessor, then adding some quality-of-life adjustments to attunements could be welcomed by players. A common request has been to make attunements account-bound, meaning once one character on your account has unlocked an attunement, any other character on that account will automatically unlock it as well, forgoing the process on all future characters on that Battle.net account.
A look at the attunement process in TBC
There is a caveat to this, however, as some players believe attunements are a core system in the expansion. Another adjustment, specifically for Heroic Dungeon attunements, could be to lower the Reputation requirement from Revered to Honored at launch. To unlock Heroic Dungeons, players need to obtain a key for that dungeon, which they can purchase from certain factions at Revered. This requirement was originally lowered to Honored with Patch 2.3 and the release of the Zul'Aman Raid, with both the raid and the attunement adjustment allowing players to catch up quicker. Should this be a feature Blizzard offers at launch?
Content Creators such as WillE have suggested borrowing a feature from Wrath of the Lich King Classic. In Wrath, we would see major lore quest chains that offered Badge currencies as rewards for completing quests in the quest chain. Perhaps we could see this feature added to raid attunements in The Burning Crusade, encouraging players to continue completing attunement chains.
Raid-Wide Shaman Buffs
Perhaps the most powerful class in the expansion, the Shaman provides many benefits to the raid, so much so that groups prefer at least five as the minimum in a 25-player raid. Along with the powerful raid cooldown buff, Bloodlust or Heroism, Shaman also provides totem buffs, with the most powerful being Windfury Totem for melee DPS.
The issue, however, is that all of these buffs in The Burning Crusade are only party-wide, not raid-wide. Along with this, the Sated debuff that prevents players from benefiting from Bloodlust or Heroism, wasn't introduced until Wrath of the Lich King, meaning one group could benefit from the haste buff an entire encounter by swapping shaman between groups. A huge adjustment to TBC Anniversary would be to make these buffs raid-wide, and include the Sated debuff.
A TBC raid comp with a Shaman in every group
Some players worry that this would reduce the demand for Shaman in raid teams. However, groups would still prefer at least three to benefit from totems such as the Grace of Air Totem and Windfury Totem. So, while five shamans wouldn't feel mandatory, it still shouldn't affect a shaman's raid spot.
Quality-of-Life Adjustments
Cost of Mounts
The Burning Crusade introduced flying mounts to the game, and these were a pretty hefty gold sink for players. Normal speed flying costs a total of 300 gold, whereas fast flying costs a total of 5,200 gold. This was a major gold farm that could dissuade alts and new players. Perhaps a reduction in price, or adding an account-bound tome would be favorable.
Mount QualitySkill RequiredRiding Skill CostMount Cost
Rare (150% speed)Expert Riding
Epic (280% speed)Artisan Riding
Gathering Professions
Another adjustment that could benefit players on the Anniversary servers is a continuation of herbing adjustments. Blizzard added both an increase in Black Lotus spawns and the potential to gather more than one per node. Black Lotus also has a chance to drop from other herb nodes, such as Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage, or Plaguebloom as well. A similar change in The Burning Crusade could help reduce the price of common consumables.
Current prices of Plaguebloom and Elixir of the Mongoose on the Nightslayer Server
Terocones
Going into the Burning Crusade, adding adjustments to herbs such as Terocone could be extremely beneficial to players. Not only increasing spawn rates, adding multiple in one node, or adding it to other herbs, but maybe adding it to Badge of Justice vendors as well, similar to how Season of Discovery would add items in their Tarnished Undermine Real vendor.
Many consumables that require Terocone to create
The Return of GDKPS?
Arguably the biggest and most controversial topic of discussion, the potential to unban GDKPs from Anniversary servers is something that a portion of players have been requesting. As the last topic discussed gold and consumable prices, GDKPs were a system that allowed players to acquire gold simply by participating in end-game raids.
Should Blizzard Allow GDKPs in The Burning Crusade?
The primary argument against GDKPs is that this loot system appears to encourage RMT. While Blizzard's official GDKP policy suggests that this system also erodes social structures within the game.
GDKP Policy
In line with our policy enacted on Season of Discovery realms in NA and EU, we will not allow gold dragon kill point (GDKP) runs in Anniversary realms in the NA and EU regions.
Note: This policy will not be implemented in regions outside of NA and EU at this time, though we reserve the right to change this.
While we understand that there are some benefits for those who find this a convenient way to gain gear, we also recognize that there are concerns surrounding GDKP eroding traditional guild and social structures that are a part of the spirit of the game. Player feedback in Season of Discovery realms in NA and EU has largely been positive about this change, and it aligns with our internal findings.
We will continue to monitor feedback about this topic closely, and we may make adjustments to this policy in the future.
GDKPs can be a great system in a perfect world, as it rewards players for actively participating and benefiting their raid team. However, with this system that encourages good play, it makes all other systems obsolete. Blizzard has stated that they reserve the right to make adjustments to this policy in the future; could this include The Burning Crusade Anniversary?
The Future of Anniversary Servers
With another official Burning Crusade progression server comes another chance for players to potentially get TBC Era servers; servers that won't progress into Wrath of the Lich King after the Sunwell Raid.
Could we finally see a TBC Era server?
While Blizzard has not officially confirmed what will happen after Anniversary servers progress into The Burning Crusade, many players have speculated that we will be heading to Northrend in Wrath of the Lich King afterwards. If this were to happen, how far would Anniversary servers progress?
What changes would you like to see in The Burning Crusade Anniversary? Let us know in the comments down below!
