Is it worth spending money on Burning Crusade Classic? Unshockingly, it depends on you.

The next iteration of WoW Classic is almost here! May 18 saw the delivery of the first World of Warcraft Classic pre-patch, where the Blizzard team effectively cloned their whole environment over to give us what is now in the dropdown as a separate game: Burning Crusade Classic. But you have a decision to make! Do you want to go for one of the bundles available from Blizzard to “enhance your Burning Crusade Classic experience” or dive in headfirst? If you’re still figuring out the former, I’ve applied some serious dark magic math below to help!

First, let’s review the various options. I’ve included relevant (or equivalent to Retail) pricing details:

• Character Clone — $15, unlocks a copy of your current Classic character on both a Burning Crusade Classic realm and on a WoW Classic era realm (without this, you can decide to play your existing characters on a Classic server or a BCC server, but not both).
• BCC Dark Portal Pass — $39.99, includes a level 58 character boost for Classic races (retail boosts are $60.00) and the following benefits for the boosted character: Apprentice riding skill (20g in-game at level 40) and a mount (100g in-game); the appropriate gear and weapon skill for a level 58 character; and 25 gold. This package will get you rolling without struggles for gold and gear on this boosted character.
• BCC Deluxe Edition – $69.99 gets you the contents of the Dark Portal Pass ($39.99), in addition to:
  • 30 Days of Game Time ($14.99 for both retail and Classic)
  • The Viridian Phase Hunter mount for retail and Reawakened Phase Hunter mount for BCC (usually $25.00 apiece in the store)
  • A “Dark Portal-themed effect” for your Hearthstone, and the Path of Illidan, a cosmetic item that will make your footsteps glow with radiant fel energy” (in BCC realms only)

Yes, the Dark Portal Pass is worth the outlined cost compared to existing retail products from the math side — the $39.99 BCC boost is far less than $60 retail boost. The Deluxe Edition is a bit iffier: subtracting the game time and Dark Portal Pass values leaves us with a $15.01 delta for the cosmetics. That’s less than the cash price for store mounts, but that’s only comparable if you want those mounts in the first place.

So is it worth it paying for any of these? The extremely constructive answer is: it depends! Think about the following questions:

• Do you want to continue playing in Vanilla Classic and explore Outland with your current character? If yes, either shell out for the character clone or consider the next question.
• How do you value your time? Are you just starting your Classic experience and planning to create a new (non-Blood Elf or Draenei) character for BCC ? The Dark Portal Pass can get you through initial leveling pains so you can dive into enjoying Outland. The Pass is more beneficial for diving in fresh to BCC, as anyone with a level 60 could pay the $15 for the Clone option.
• Do you value/enjoy cosmetic items? I am not very interested in a themed effect for my hearthstone and steps. However, I enjoy collecting mounts, and the ones released as part of expansions never make it to the store. Are unique mounts enough to justify shelling out $70?
• Finally, are you immediately kicking off with a Blood Elf or Draenei? You can’t use the character boost for a newly-created Blood Elf or Draenei, which is both understandable and kind of a bummer. If you’re diving in for the first time on one of these two races, the value of either option drops significantly.

Ultimately, no one is twisting your arm to pay for these bundles. BCC is a part of your existing WoW subscription, and these are “quality of life” options based on how you are coming into BCC and do not impact your actual access to the game in the same way as a new expansion release for retail. Burning Crusade Classic goes live June 1, 2021, at 3:00 pm Pacific, so make your decision soon if you want to jump on the release excitement. See you in Outland!