Blizzard has opened up the digital pre-purchase for the next expansion and with it comes the ability to boost a character to level 90. They’ve also provided us with an “idea” of when release will occur stating “Warlords of Draenor launches worldwide this fall” – for those in the Southern Hemisphere this means this Spring. For more info:
Along with the ‘get a free boost to 90 when you pre-purchase’ – players can also now purchase level 90 boosts from directly within game for $66.00. So now you can easily buy up all the healers! Official statement from Blizzard below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Source / Blue Posts)
Warlords of Draenor is available for pre-purchase digitally in standard and Digital Deluxe editions. The Digital Deluxe Edition comes with a cache of in-game goodies for your favorite Blizzard games, including a Dread Raven mount and Dread Hatchling pet to accompany you in World of Warcraft, Grommash Hellscream and Blackhand Battle.net portraits to intimidate your foes with in StarCraft II, and a battle-torn Warsong Pennant to fuel your demon-slaying rage in Diablo III. What’s more, like the instant character boost, these will be available to you immediately upon your pre-purchase of the expansion.*Warlords of Draenor will also be available as a retail-exclusive Collector’s Edition (in limited quantities), which comes with the in-game extras from the Digital Deluxe Edition along with an array of awesome artifacts from the physical realm, including a hardcover art book, behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD set, Warlords of Draenor mouse pad, and CD soundtrack featuring epic music from the expansion. Check with your local retailer for pre-ordering details. We’ll have more specifics to share on the Collector’s Edition closer to the game’s launch.
You can read more about the specifics at from the official blog post.
We’ve already taken a look at The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the level 90 instant boost, but now that the feature is officially live, we’ve decided to take another look at what this means.
What does this mean for the game itself?
Well I can tell you that I won’t be visiting Timeless isle anytime soon, considering it will be undoubtedly swampped with many new level 90s clambering for those easy-drop epics. Especially while the current spawn point of a newly boosted 90 is right on the isle.
I’ll be avoiding any LFR for a time while players learn how to play their new class.
I probably won’t be leveling a low-level toon, as I’m sure because of the level 90 boost, dungeon queues for lower levels will probably be longer while a lot of players will be playing their brand new 90s.
Do you like to go all out and purchase the Hard Copy Collector’s Editions for expansions? Well unfortunately you’ll have to wait to get your free level 90 boost until you enter that copy’s code, so you’ll have to wait till fall, when Warlords may be released.
So it looks like we’ll be stuck in the Siege of Orgrimmar until at least fall of this year. Blizzard is constantly telling us they’d like to release content more often, but it appears the last content patch before the next expansion, such as Siege of Orgrimmar or Dragon Soul, are always going to be too long. It was 273 days between the release of Dragon Soul and the Release of Mists of Pandaria. So far, we’re up to 182(ish) days since Siege of Orgrimmar went live. Even if Warlords of Draenor was due to go live on the 1st of September, that’s 356 days between major content patches. Do you think that fits the “more content, more often” model?
I can’t help but feel that this pre-order purchase with free level 90 boost is just a bit of incentive to try and get people in. And not only to get people in but also to make a purchase. This is not only going to boost the subscribers with some people coming back for the level 90 boost, but should also boost Blizzard’s revenue, which is going to help with their next quarterly earning calls.
A feature release like this is going to tide some people over as it makes it appear as though content is coming out – however, I have no need to boost any additional characters and I’m waiting for Collector’s Edition, so what’s new for people like me?
There are positives
I’ve put a bit of a negative spin on this article, which I didn’t intend on doing to begin with when I started this article, but there are positives to this feature, for some.
Leveling up from level 1 to level 90 can be an exhausting and long winded process, especially if you’ve done it multiple times and it will get even worse when there’s 10 extra levels on top of that once the expansion comes out. This option of boosting to level 90 should be relieving for many altoholics.
Got friends that have never played before or perhaps are returning from a long hiatus? This is the perfect opportunity to get them into the game and be close to on par with where your current progress.
The most positive thing to come out of this is that if you haven’t already, this is a great opportunity to roll your first, different or new healing class! Never tried healing before? Roll a Druid, Priest, Shaman, Monk or Paladin and get healing now!
So what do you think about this new feature? What do you think of it being released so early before the release of the next expansion? Have you rolled a healer yet? What do you think of the cost of purchasing a level 90 boost at $66.00?