Between leaving their capital city at around level 20, and exploring the other new area, Outland, at level 55, the new races will have lots to do. Blizzard is going back through the entire world and adding Blood Elf and Draenei NPCs to keep you busy with quests relevant to your race, on top of the thousands already available.
The new profession, jewel crafting, will change WoW items forever. Those who learn it will be able to refine existing precious minerals into shinier versions with magical properties, but anyone can then fit these into their socketed items (another addition).
Almost any existing weapon or piece of armour can crop up in Burning Crusade with sockets, and the more it has the further you'll be able to pimp it. Basic gems add simple bonuses such as +4 spirit, but Blizzard has now revealed that the system goes a bit deeper than this.
Above: The Dark Portal is about to open again. 8am-6pm, Mon-Fri
WoW veteran says the MMO's devs had to make "ten times the amount of quests" as originally planned to sate playtesters, and now the game has 38,000 of them
World of Warcraft devs used to joke about the MMO making $1 million per month - just months before it smashed through $15 million in monthly revenue
