World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is now available for pre-purchase in two separate tiers, each of which comes with a level-90 character boost.

The first tier costs $49.99 and includes new content and a level boost while the $69.99 deluxe tier includes new content, a level boost, and some in-game vanity items: the World of Warcraft Dread Raven Mount and Dread Hatchling Pet, a Diablo 3 Warsong Pennant, and two Starcraft 2 portraits.

According to a Battle.net blog post, prepurchasing the expansion will immediately net you the character boost, so you can jump to level 90 and get acclimated with a new class, new skills, and current end-game content before the Warlords of Draenor comes out.

Warlords of Draenor is the fifth expansion in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, which first launched in 2004. This new expansion will raise the level cap to 100 and offer the continent of Draenor to play through.

My Opinion

As someone who stopped playing World of Warcraft two expansions ago, it’s surreal to see it continue to move forward year after year. The game will be ten years old before 2014 is out, and it’s still a juggernaut in the MMORPG category. That’s absolutely impressive.

And as a veteran of Azeroth, I find it both off-putting and refreshing that Blizzard is now offering some kind of character boost. There’s something inherently slimy about paying to win, or paying to advance, yet leveling to a 100 will be a major undertaking and people play World of Warcraft differently. Not everyone has the time or patience to grind to the top, where the real game is supposed to begin.

It is, I think, a good thing.