Burning Crusade is the first expansion to Blizzard’s insanely popular MMORPG World of Warcraft. While the expansion is packed with high-level content that should keep veteran characters plenty busy – including a new level cap set to 70 – Burning Crusade will also give players a chance to start new characters all over again with the inclusion of two new races. I had the opportunity to play the game during its beta testing and put new characters of both races through their paces to see what’s in store for gamers when the expansion ships in January 2007.

First things first. In case you haven’t heard yet the two new races are the Draenei and the Blood Elves. The Draenei are the new Alliance race, and the Blood Elves join the Horde. These races each bring something new to their respective faction – a character class that was previously only available to the other faction. With the Draenei Alliance players can try their hand at being a shaman while Horde players can become paladins for the first time. And now on to my experiences as a Draenei and as a Blood Elf…

I first started off as a Draenei because as a lifelong Alliance player I was anxious to try out a shaman character. The Draenei have come to Azeroth from their homeworld aboard a spaceship, The Exodar, but the journey did not end well. The ship was critically damaged over the skies of Kalimdor and came crashing down on the uncharted island of Azuremyst. The ship, many of its pieces, and the escape pods of the Draenei now litter the island, and the remains of the ship’s crystalline power source are causing rampant mutations on the local animal population. The ship’s main hull has been salvaged to form the Draenei capital of Exodar. This is the world into which I first stepped as a shaman.

First a bit about the Draenei themselves. They’re a blue-tinged race that resemble the satyrs of Greek and Roman mythology. In case your mythology is a little rusty, satyrs are half goat and half human, possessing the hind quarters of a goat and the head and torso of a human and walking upright. If you go by their accent, though, you’d peg them as Eastern Europeans.

The early quests have you trying to undo some of the environmental damage wrought by the crash. It seems that the Draenei are a very ecologically-minded race and the damage they have done is a source of great anguish to them. The starting area is home to mutated creatures such as walking flowers, which will have to be culled of course. The poisoned land has even given rise to mutated elementals and you’ll need to do your part to put these to rest too. The remaining early missions focus on helping the crash survivors and you’ll find numerous injured Draenei scattered about the starting area.

When you’re ready to move on to the main part of the isle you’ll cross a river to find a wooded landscape unmarked by the carnage of the ship’s wreckage. This is also where you’ll find Exodar and the first time you enter the city you’ll feel like a country rube on his first visit to New York. The city is completely contained within the hull of the downed spaceship and yet it is quite large, with huge open areas and tall gleaming walls and edifices – although it looks like the color scheme was selected by an eight year old girl. The city is fun to explore, but once you’ve seen it all the scale makes it a bit of a chore to get around.

When in town I made sure to learn the trade of jewel crafting, one of two new trades added to the game by the expansion. Jewel crafting will not only allow you to make rings and such, but you’ll also be able to create jewels that can be added to the game’s new socketed weapons to enhance their attributes. A Draenei racial bonus for jewel crafting made the trade a nice match for my character. I can see jewel crafting becoming a profitable trade, and added mining as a trade as well so that I could collect some of my own raw materials.

As you’ll explore the island you’ll find that other races of Azeroth have discovered it since the crash of The Exodar and have established fledgling ports and trading posts on the island. This leads to some quests to help build your rep with other races, but the island will soon begin to feel small and you’ll be itching to leave well before you hit level 15.