World of Warcraft : The Burning Crusade World of Warcraft : The Burning Crusade ( aka TBC ) , the first expansion for " World of Warcraft " , was announced on October 28th , 2005 and released on January 16th , 2007 in North America , Europe , and Australia , February 2nd , 2007 in Korea , April 3rd , 2007 in Taiwan and Hong Kong , and September 6th , 2007 in mainland China . The main features include an increase of the level cap , the introduction of the blood elves and the draenei as playable race s , and the addition of the world of Outland , along with many new zone s , dungeon s , item s , quest s , and monsters . " Burning Crusade " - related content on WoWWiki is categorized in . On June 28 - 29th , 2012 , this expansion was made available free for owners of the original " World of Warcraft " game . Release information . In preparation for " The Burning Crusade " , Blizzard released patch 2 . 0 . 1 in North America and Europe on December 5th , 2006 . The patch introduced some of " The Burning Crusade " ' s content prior to the expansion itself — including a revamp of the honor system , skirmish Arena matches , and a new Looking For Group interface . The expansion was released in standard as well as Collector ' s Edition packages . The Collector ' s Edition of " The Burning Crusade " includes a bonus Behind - The - Scenes DVD , an in - game Netherwhelp pet and many other exclusive extras . Installing the expansion does not break backwards compatibility — players are still able to log on to non - BC accounts using " The Burning Crusade " client . System requirements for both editions remained virtually unchanged compared to the original " World of Warcraft " , with the notable exception of the increase in the required network bandwidth ( from 56k dialup to a " broadband connection " ) . Blizzard has stated that the change was due to the size of the future patches , and that it will continue to offer tech support to players with dial - up , except for patching issues . Lore . The quests in " The Burning Crusade " are generally set in continuity with original lore quests , meaning that timeline speaking , BC is basically the direct sequel to the original WoW . Some quests set in Outland , especially those that are related to Illidan , do speak of a five - year hiatus in the storyline , which suggests a one - year long interval between BC and the original . This is however unconfirmed , since there never was any real statement that TFT takes place one year after RoC . But generally agreed , there was a four year break between " Warcraft III " and WoW . The expansion is primarily based in Outland , the former world of Draenor and the new continent in the game . Quests generally allow players to explore the world on their own . The main story centers on Illidan the Betrayer and what happened to him during the last years . Players can also go on quests that suggest helping Illidan in his time - being or slaying him for a special reward . Other than that , many links between the former world of Draenor and the current Outland are also made , such as the opening of the Dark Portal by Medivh , which is an instance quest located in Caverns of Time . Retelling of the old relationship between Orcish shamans and the Burning Legion is also told in quest - sequence storyline . " The Burning Crusade " also centers on the two new playable races and their affiliation to the gameline . Many plotholes are filled with quests that set the blood elves in with the Horde and the draenei with the Alliance . Players still have to be part of the old world quests in order to obtain lore related to Outland . New races . " The Burning Crusade " contains two new playable races : The expansion also allows previously faction - exclusive classes to be played on the opposing faction , with the inclusion of Horde blood elf paladin s and Alliance draenei shaman . New mounts . Each new race received its own new mount : New mounts are also available via drop from high - end instances such as Karazhan . Flying mounts . Flying mount s are only usable in Outland at level 70 . The Horde and Alliance have the wyvern and gryphon , respectively , as standard mounts . The epic mounts are the armored wyvern and armored gryphon . In addition there are rare mounts such as the netherdrake and the swift Nether Drake . An armored nether drake can be obtained by ranking in the top 0 . 5 % at the end of an Arena season , and the unarmored netherdrake can be obtained through a series of quests . There are also Nether Ray s . Normal flying mount training costs and the mount costs . Training for flying mounts requires a skill of 150 ( epic mount ) and brings it up to 225 . The epic version of the flying mount cost for the training and to buy . Training for epic flying mounts requires 225 riding skill and upgrades it to 300 . Faction reputation discounts apply to the prices . Druids receive Flight Form at level 68 ( reduced to level 58 with Mists of Pandaria ) that offers the ability to fly and has a speed equivalent to a normal flying mount . Druids may obtain a quest at level 70 to obtain an epic flight form or wait until level 71 to train it without doing the quest chain . Purchasing riding skill 300 is a requirement for the quest . Character changes . New spells and talents . In the expansion , Blizzard added five to six new spells for the 60 - 70 level range to each class in order to round out the classes better . The talent trees were also greatly expanded and revised . All classes have additional talents leading up to a 41 talent point ability . Players gain new spells at every level from 60 - 70 instead of every two levels . Since the Paladin and Shaman classes are no longer unique to either faction , Blizzard added new abilities to each class to make them what they truly feel they should be : Paladin s received a long - awaited spell , Righteous Defense ( a long - range , mass taunt - like ability , like the Death Knight ' s Dark Command ) ; and Shamans received the spell Bloodlust ( a long - cooldown , powerful buff ) to complement their DPS and utility roles . See each class ' s respective page for more specific information regarding new spells and talents . Combat rating system . With the release of " The Burning Crusade " , critical strike , defense , hit rate , spell critical , and dodge stats as well as a new stat , resilience , changed from being absolute percentages to ratings , with each player level requiring more rating points to achieve the same absolute percentage . New zones . New starting areas . The blood elves have two new starting areas located in the Eastern Kingdom : Similarly , the draenei have two starting zones off the west coast of Kalimdor : New continent . The expansion heralds the addition of Outland , an entirely new continent / world , reachable through the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands and portals in several major cities . Interactive maps and otherwise detailed maps are available for use . Outland contains the following zones : New high - level dungeons . The expansion has added several dungeons , most with separate wings to make runs faster , including some in both in Outland and Azeroth . The dungeons contain a plethora of new equipment including Tier 4 , Tier 5 and Tier 6 armor pieces . Raid and instance changes . All future raids will now have caps not exceeding 25 players ( older raids will remain at a 40 player cap , at least for now ) . This was done to allow a greater number of players to participate in epic raids , and to allow more flexibility in the design of encounters . In addition , high level instances have a feature allowing players to have the option to run the instances at two different difficulty levels : Normal and Heroic . This would turn normal level 60 - 70 instances into much harder level 70 instances with better loot . The final boss of every hard mode instance will drop epic items , and every boss in hard mode instances will drop tokens to get special gear available in Shattrath . These instances will be marked with a purple portal . Profession changes . Jewelcrafting and socketed items . Jewelcrafting allows the crafting of rings , trinkets , necklaces and special jewels that can be used in specific items , called Socketed Items . New specializations and profession abilities . For professions , the expansion adds a new level past Artisan ( 300 ) called Master ( 375 ) . This can be maxed to 390 for gnomish engineers , draenei jewelcrafters , tauren herbalists , and blood elf enchanters . Characters are also able to take advantage of new specializations within each profession as well as many new recipes , enchantments , patterns and schematics . New PvP features . Eye of the Storm . A new battleground called Eye of the Storm is based in Outland . The battleground features a mix of holding territory and capture the flag styles of gameplay . Each team has 15 members ranging from levels 61 - 69 , and 70 in it ' s own bracket . Team PvP Arena . Following the introduction of Arena PvP , level 70 players are able to win prizes in these matches . The rewards for the arena are on par with even the most powerful PvE rewards . There are currently three Arenas : The Ring of Trials in Nagrand , the Circle of Blood in Blade ' s Edge Mountains , and the Ruins of Lordaeron , above Undercity . Voice acting . Contrary to the popular belief that Blizz ard brought back none of the original voice actor s , actually almost half of them were brought back . In Battle for Mount Hyjal the voice actors of Thrall and Tyrande were the original voice actors ; Azgalor and Rage Winterchill didn ' t have speech in Warcraft III , so it can be told that their voice actors weren ' t changed ; Archimonde voice actor was the same although he sounds different , it ' s probable that Blizzard used different modulations for the voice . Anetheron voice actor was changed but probably because of his minor role in Warcraft III ( with just three quotes ) Blizzard wasn ' t able to find him . Illidan ' s original voice actor , Matthew Yang King , was changed due to guild union reasons . But his lieutenants Kael ' thas and Lady Vashj were kept with the original voice actors . Akama ' s voice actor was changed probably for his minor role in Warcraft III ( with just the gag quotes and two cinematic speeches ) . And Maiev ' s original voice actor was brought back . Kil ' jaeden ' s and Magtheridon ' s voice actors weren ' t brought back , probably for their minor roles in Warcraft III ( with Magtheridon just having two quotes and Kil ' jaeden appearing only in two interludes ) . The Alliance Expedition heroes ' voice actors weren ' t changed either , they were given the default human / dwarven voices , however Khadgar ' s voice actor was indeed changed in official video . The Horde of Draenor hero ' s voice actors were changed , Kargath ' s voice actor used to be Bill Roper but he left Blizzard years before the release of The Burning Crusade , while Teron ' s voice actor was changed for unknown reasons . Rexxar ' s and Nazgrel ' s voices are also the default voice of the orcs ( ironically the default voice of the orcs and Rexxar ' s voice actor in Warcraft III are both made by Chris Metzen ) . Zul ' jin ' s voice actor wasn ' t really changed because in Warcraft II he used the default troll voice and in The Burning Crusade he was given a unique voice . Medivh ' s voice actor was changed from Michael Bell to Cam Clarke for unknown reasons . Sylvanas ' s original voice actress didn ' t sing Lament of the Highborne but probably because Piera Coppola isn ' t a singer . Patches . " The Burning Crusade " received four major content patches . The patch release schedule is radically different from the original " World of Warcraft " - content is introduced in large chunks , and balancing fixes are often added as separate minor patches between the content patches .