The new endgame

With the new level cap of 70, the majority of Burning Crusade's new lands are designed to provide things to do while leveling from level 60 onwards. Seven new zones provide quests and instanced dungeons with plenty to do - in fact, there are so many new quests that it's easy to reach level 70 with most of the quests of Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley incomplete - especially if you spend some time gathering items from the numerous five-man dungeons designed for level 60-69 characters. Progression from 60 onwards is smooth and if you insist, you can play alone all the way to 70. You will miss some good quests and all the dungeons, but grouping is not mandatory while leveling if you so choose.

The new five-man dungeons are also much more accessible. While the old level 60 dungeons required many hours of uninterrupted gameplay to complete, the instances in the Outland are generally doable in less than two hours once you figure out the necessary tactics to defeat the bosses.

New quests with slightly more impressive things to kill.

Battling in Tempest Keep - Mechanar.

And once you reach the maximum level the game transforms again. Thankfully Blizzard has fixed the raid gap problem with Burning Crusade. The first real raid dungeon, Karazhan, is designed for 10 players, and more importantly, once you have collected the required keys, all of the 15 different five-man dungeons of Outland can also be played again at 70 in "Heroic" mode for additional challenge and better rewards.

This "Heroic" mode is harsh but functional way to learn the skills needed for raiding. Effectively, once you can take on these Heroic versions, it's only a small hop to Karazhan. And while Karazhan doesn't need a large team, the encounters there are already on par with the hardest raid encounters of the old raid instances, and anyone who can manage Karazhan is definitely skilled enough for larger raids, and then the real endgame starts - Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshrine Cavern, The Eye, Battle for Mount Hyjal, Zul'Aman and The Black Temple all lay ahead for 25-man raid groups. Even if you take into account the fact that both Zul'Aman and The Black Temple are not yet actually in the game, and will be added in later as free content patches, the amount of new content Burning Crusade brings is just staggering, and it easily replaces what is lost as the old dungeons become obsolete.

Karazhan - the first raid instance of the expansion.

The Opera Hall event - one of the fun boss fights in Karazhan.

Yes, you still need friends to play the endgame, but finding just 5 or 10 people to play together is much simpler task than trying to organize 40-man raids, so while Burning Crusade doesn't dish out free epic items for everyone, the transition to endgame playing is much more accessible than it used to be.

One problem currently present is the poorly done itemization at the new raid dungeons. It seems that Blizzard ran out of time with them, and the final balancing touch is missing. While the five-man dungeons have a good progression in the gear upgrades, and many different character playstyles are supported by suitable items, once you move to the new raid zones, most new items are, at best, very slight upgrades to the existing "blue" items available from the five-man dungeons.

I must admit that the problem is very minor - it only affects those players already at level 70 and done with big portion of the expansion's content, and it's highly likely that this problem will be fixed in future updates - it's just that it stands out like a sore thumb in otherwise highly polished expansion.