Burning Crusade Classic Phase 2 will be released on September 15 with new raids, new reputations, and more

All of the content in Burning Crusade Classic is spread out across five content Phases, and we’re finally ready to head to Phase 2, as Overlords of Outland launches on September 15.

This Phase includes two iconic Burning Crusade raids — like our memorable first encounter with Kael’thas — as well as two new factions (or faction grinds), easy-to-get PVP gear, and a nice quality of life improvement with an LFG tool. Let’s check out just what we’ll find when Phase 2 goes live.

Phase 2 adds Serpentshrine Cavern and The Eye raids, plus other PVE content

There are two new raids coming in Overlords of Outland, and we’ve known about them for a while:

• Serpentshrine Cavern, a six-boss raid in Coilfang Reservoir that culminates in a fight with Lady Vashj.
• The Eye, a short four-boss raid ending with the defeat of Kael’thas — but don’t worry, this defeat is merely a setback. He drops one of the best mounts in the game, Ashes of Al’ar.

All of these bosses will be in their pre-nerf state, and Lady Vashj especially will be tough when she mind controls players and instantly wipes the raid. When this launches, the previous tier raids will be moved into their post-nerf statuses, making them easier for any guilds struggling.

If you’re not raiding, there are lots of other changes in the world that may still affect you. Guild banks will be added. This is great for guilds to share resources, or more often, for players’ bank toons to have more storage space. Druids will have their Swift Flight Form added, an expensive upgrade, but worth it.

Ogri’la and Sha’tari Skyguard reputations will be added, giving you new content to grind and new rewards to show for it. Sha’tari Skyguard adds Nether Rays as new flying mounts. A little bit of work, and these new, unique mounts can be yours. And Ogri’la gives you — well, nothing very worthwhile. It’s all about doing dailies for both of these factions, which you’ll either love or hate.

Phase 2 tries to make PVP more accessible with easy-to-get gear

BCC is not skimping on PVP, and new gear options will make it easier for players to jump into Battlegrounds and Arenas. In the weeks leading up to Phase 2, the number of Arena Points earned will increase while the cost of Arena and Honor gear will decrease. This is a great catchup mechanic for anyone already PVPing.

But for players just starting to get into PVP, Phase 2 will add Outland faction gear, or Battlegear sets. These are PVP gear pieces, meant to help a newer level 70 character start on PVP. To purchase a piece, the character has to be Honored with the faction selling each piece, but by level 70, that isn’t too difficult. These sets weren’t added to the original Burning Crusade until patch 2.4, and adding them earlier will do a lot to make PVP more accessible.

Then there’s a grab bag of things we don’t know much about. There will be a new Arena Ladder to help teams determine how they’re doing and how close to the top they are, but there aren’t any details on this yet. And, of course, Season 2 of PVP will begin some time after Phase 2 launches, but we don’t know exactly when.

Phase 2 will add an LFG tool for easier grouping

Blizzard proved with WoW Classic that this isn’t “no changes” kind of game, but exactly how few (or how many) changes we’ll have throughout BCC remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure: if players wanted to join a pick-up group back in the original Burning Crusade, they did so through the Looking for Group — or Trade, or General — chat channels. There was no in-game interface to look for a group.

In BCC, it’s widely accepted that the LFG channel is a bit of a mess, and trying to find a group there is difficult. Instead, an addon has become quite popular: LFG Bulletin Board. This is not an auto-accept group coordinator, but rather a tool to help organize groups by titles, allows people to search and then whisper players for group invites.

Rather than force every player to download the same addon, Blizzard saw the need for such a tool and has built something similar in to the game. It’s not the LFG that exists in modern WoW, but it gives players a relatively straightforward way to find other players wanting to do the same sorts of activities. It’s a change to the game, certainly, but it’s not the automated Dungeon Finder change that came later at the end of Wrath of the Lich King.

You’ll be able to check out all of this content very soon when Burning Crusade Classic Phase 2 goes live on September 15.

Originally published 8/3/2021, updated 8/27/2021