DodoBird
11-06-2007, 07:06
THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Blizzard is proud to officially announce the next World of Warcraft expansion set, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King! With the opening of the Dark Portal, and the renewed war to stop the Burning Crusade's destruction of worlds, the heroes of Azeroth have given little thought to the frozen wastes of Northrend – and the terrible, ancient powers that wait there. Yet the brooding evils of the fallen Nerubian empire and their malevolent sovereign have not forgotten Azeroth...
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King™ will open the forbidding wasteland of Northrend to exploration by the hardiest adventurers. New levels of power, challenging new dungeons and encounters, an exciting new character profession, and the game's first hero class are just some of the new features awaiting players in Wrath of the Lich King.
For more information, make sure to read the official press release and then check out our new expansion site for screenshots, concept art, the new expansion's announcement trailer, and much, much more!
NEW CLASS: THE DEATH KNIGHT
Naturally, people are pretty worked up about the Death Knight being released. However, many don't seem to understand exactly how unlocking it is going to work. This is what Blizzard has said so far:
In order to unlock the Death Knight, you must perform a series of quests similar to the Onyxia key chain or the Warlock mount quest. This chain will begin somewhere between level 55 and level 70, as Blizzard doesn't want people rushing to level 80 purely so they can play as a Death Knight. When you have completed these quests, you will be able to create a Death Knight character that is pre-leveled to at least level 50 (exact value not confirmed). Your old character WILL NOT be consumed, or augmented, or anything like that.
The Death Knight is a tank hybrid, similar to Paladin in that it is a tanking caster, but different in that it focuses on dark damaging spells whereas the Paladin is focused more on holy and healing aspects. The Death Knight utilizes a new "Rune" system, different from Rage, Mana, and Energy. "When you are out of combat, you can switch your active runes around a few types; you have 6 rune slots. Abilities will put certain rune types on cooldowns or may even use multiple runes. Thus, what runes you choose affect how your deathknight plays in combat." There are three rune types: Blood, unholy, and frost.
Death Knights will not use shields, but can dual wield as well as use the standard two-handed weapons. They can wear plate armor.
Also, Death Knights ARE NOT superior to the classes already in place. They are different, but not better.
So far, all races will be able to be a Death Knight, though this is subject to change.
Rumor has it that you might not have to be level 80 to unlock the Death Knight... this is still up in the air.
NEW CONTINENT: NORTHREND
A continent supposedly about 10 zones large, Northrend can be found roughly midway between and to the north of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. A cold and , until recently, desolate place, Northrend is the place where the Lich King Arthas holds dominion. However, it won't all be a snow-dominated wasteland, there will be zones with other "themes". You will be able to access Northrend as early as level 68, similar to how Outland became available at 58.
The structure of the zones will look like this:
Howling Fjord (lvl 68-72)
Borean Tundra (lvl 68-72)
The Dragonblight (level 71-75)
Zul'Drak (level 73-76)
Grizzly Hills (level 74-76)
Azjol-Nerub (level 74-78)
Sholazar Basin (lvl 75-78)
The Storm Peaks (lvl 77-80)
Icecrown Glacier (level 77-80)
Lake Wintergrasp (Outdoor PvP)
Blizzard has released extensive information about two zones, which will both be to Northrend what Hellfire Peninsula was to Outland: the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord. Another zone mentioned but not given a page of its own is the Dragonblight, which will apparently be your stereotypical snow-covered wasteland. It will contain the entrance to Azjol-Nerub, where the arachnid Nerubians dwell.
The Howling Fjord will contain Utgarde Keep, a winged instance with two wings thus far. One is a level 70 instance, and the other, apparently titled "Utgarde Pinnacle" is for level 80s. Both of these will have Heroic versions.
The capital city of Northrend will be the Kirin Tor's home... the wizard city of Dalaran. Apparently they can make entire cities teleport and float. Who knew?
Also, expect your gear to be replaced fairly quickly. The progression will work similar to how Outland did, so your fancy new epics are likely going to find a spot in the bank before long.
Tom Chilton wrote:
"The guiding principle is that it should never feel like you're grinding. You should never run out of quest content. We don't expect to be drastically different from what 60 to 70 was like." And despite complaints from the early days of Burning Crusade, even the most epically geared players should be getting new gear from almost at the start. "The hardcore resent that at first, but it's only a matter of time before they start getting into the endgame again."
There are apparently plans to re-tool and re-release Naxxramas as a 25-man raid instance. It will be moved to Northrend. It will probably be released as the entry-level raid.
Flying mounts will work in Northrend... eventually. At first you will not be able to use them, because the dev's don't want you to be able to skip over the content by flying right on over. You probably won't be able to fly until level 75 or so.
NEW PROFESSION: INSCRIPTION
Inscription is being billed as being to spells what enchanting is to weapons and armor. You can add effects such as knockback, haste rating increase, increased spell range, and others. It is not yet known what materials will be used, or how they will be gathered.
OTHER STUFF NOT WORTHY OF AN ENTIRE SECTION
The level cap will be raised to level 80.
The skill cap will be raised to 450.
Talent trees will be expanded with the levels, and the Death Knight will have three unique trees of its own.
New hairstyles, dances, and skin tones will become available. Hairstyles will be made changeable, likely via a "stylist" NPC. The rest, not so likely to be as easily changed.
"Siege weapons" and "destructible" buildings will be introduced. At least one zone will feature these.
A new battleground will be added that makes use of said siege weapons and destructible buildings.
An area known as "Lake Wintergrasp" will be added, and will act as a PvP area even on a PvE server. Nothing else about it is known.
Background information and the story of the Lich King and why his wrath is so... Unfortunately, Blizzard appears to be too lazy to write the entire section out at the moment. You can piece together most of the story of Arthas and the Lich King from the old background lore from WC3 on the official site.
Some "changes" will be made to speed up leveling to 70, and new 1-60 content will be added. The required amount of experience from levels 20-60 will be reduced, and quests will reward around 30% more experience.
New Caverns of Time instances will be opened. One of which will be Stratholme, based on the Warcraft 3 mission where Arthas (when he used to be "good") travels through the whole thing and "cleanses" the scourge-infected citizens. The Stratholme CoT instance will require level 80, and will be meant for 5 players.
For the time being no new character slots are being added, so you may want to free up some room on your server of choice if you want to play a Death Knight.
More hero classes will be added at some point. It is highly unlikely that any will be released alongside the Death Knight. They will probably be added later on via content patches. Some likely candidates are Demon Hunter, Arch Mage, and Blademaster.
A release date has not been set as far as I know, but if I had to guess WotLK will be released somewhere between February and May of 2008, since that's where a bunch of pre-order sites and even a blue post fall. However, this is purely speculation, take anything with a grain of salt.
Blizzard is proud to officially announce the next World of Warcraft expansion set, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King! With the opening of the Dark Portal, and the renewed war to stop the Burning Crusade's destruction of worlds, the heroes of Azeroth have given little thought to the frozen wastes of Northrend – and the terrible, ancient powers that wait there. Yet the brooding evils of the fallen Nerubian empire and their malevolent sovereign have not forgotten Azeroth...
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King™ will open the forbidding wasteland of Northrend to exploration by the hardiest adventurers. New levels of power, challenging new dungeons and encounters, an exciting new character profession, and the game's first hero class are just some of the new features awaiting players in Wrath of the Lich King.
For more information, make sure to read the official press release and then check out our new expansion site for screenshots, concept art, the new expansion's announcement trailer, and much, much more!
NEW CLASS: THE DEATH KNIGHT
Naturally, people are pretty worked up about the Death Knight being released. However, many don't seem to understand exactly how unlocking it is going to work. This is what Blizzard has said so far:
In order to unlock the Death Knight, you must perform a series of quests similar to the Onyxia key chain or the Warlock mount quest. This chain will begin somewhere between level 55 and level 70, as Blizzard doesn't want people rushing to level 80 purely so they can play as a Death Knight. When you have completed these quests, you will be able to create a Death Knight character that is pre-leveled to at least level 50 (exact value not confirmed). Your old character WILL NOT be consumed, or augmented, or anything like that.
The Death Knight is a tank hybrid, similar to Paladin in that it is a tanking caster, but different in that it focuses on dark damaging spells whereas the Paladin is focused more on holy and healing aspects. The Death Knight utilizes a new "Rune" system, different from Rage, Mana, and Energy. "When you are out of combat, you can switch your active runes around a few types; you have 6 rune slots. Abilities will put certain rune types on cooldowns or may even use multiple runes. Thus, what runes you choose affect how your deathknight plays in combat." There are three rune types: Blood, unholy, and frost.
Death Knights will not use shields, but can dual wield as well as use the standard two-handed weapons. They can wear plate armor.
Also, Death Knights ARE NOT superior to the classes already in place. They are different, but not better.
So far, all races will be able to be a Death Knight, though this is subject to change.
Rumor has it that you might not have to be level 80 to unlock the Death Knight... this is still up in the air.
NEW CONTINENT: NORTHREND
A continent supposedly about 10 zones large, Northrend can be found roughly midway between and to the north of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. A cold and , until recently, desolate place, Northrend is the place where the Lich King Arthas holds dominion. However, it won't all be a snow-dominated wasteland, there will be zones with other "themes". You will be able to access Northrend as early as level 68, similar to how Outland became available at 58.
The structure of the zones will look like this:
Howling Fjord (lvl 68-72)
Borean Tundra (lvl 68-72)
The Dragonblight (level 71-75)
Zul'Drak (level 73-76)
Grizzly Hills (level 74-76)
Azjol-Nerub (level 74-78)
Sholazar Basin (lvl 75-78)
The Storm Peaks (lvl 77-80)
Icecrown Glacier (level 77-80)
Lake Wintergrasp (Outdoor PvP)
Blizzard has released extensive information about two zones, which will both be to Northrend what Hellfire Peninsula was to Outland: the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord. Another zone mentioned but not given a page of its own is the Dragonblight, which will apparently be your stereotypical snow-covered wasteland. It will contain the entrance to Azjol-Nerub, where the arachnid Nerubians dwell.
The Howling Fjord will contain Utgarde Keep, a winged instance with two wings thus far. One is a level 70 instance, and the other, apparently titled "Utgarde Pinnacle" is for level 80s. Both of these will have Heroic versions.
The capital city of Northrend will be the Kirin Tor's home... the wizard city of Dalaran. Apparently they can make entire cities teleport and float. Who knew?
Also, expect your gear to be replaced fairly quickly. The progression will work similar to how Outland did, so your fancy new epics are likely going to find a spot in the bank before long.
Tom Chilton wrote:
"The guiding principle is that it should never feel like you're grinding. You should never run out of quest content. We don't expect to be drastically different from what 60 to 70 was like." And despite complaints from the early days of Burning Crusade, even the most epically geared players should be getting new gear from almost at the start. "The hardcore resent that at first, but it's only a matter of time before they start getting into the endgame again."
There are apparently plans to re-tool and re-release Naxxramas as a 25-man raid instance. It will be moved to Northrend. It will probably be released as the entry-level raid.
Flying mounts will work in Northrend... eventually. At first you will not be able to use them, because the dev's don't want you to be able to skip over the content by flying right on over. You probably won't be able to fly until level 75 or so.
NEW PROFESSION: INSCRIPTION
Inscription is being billed as being to spells what enchanting is to weapons and armor. You can add effects such as knockback, haste rating increase, increased spell range, and others. It is not yet known what materials will be used, or how they will be gathered.
OTHER STUFF NOT WORTHY OF AN ENTIRE SECTION
The level cap will be raised to level 80.
The skill cap will be raised to 450.
Talent trees will be expanded with the levels, and the Death Knight will have three unique trees of its own.
New hairstyles, dances, and skin tones will become available. Hairstyles will be made changeable, likely via a "stylist" NPC. The rest, not so likely to be as easily changed.
"Siege weapons" and "destructible" buildings will be introduced. At least one zone will feature these.
A new battleground will be added that makes use of said siege weapons and destructible buildings.
An area known as "Lake Wintergrasp" will be added, and will act as a PvP area even on a PvE server. Nothing else about it is known.
Background information and the story of the Lich King and why his wrath is so... Unfortunately, Blizzard appears to be too lazy to write the entire section out at the moment. You can piece together most of the story of Arthas and the Lich King from the old background lore from WC3 on the official site.
Some "changes" will be made to speed up leveling to 70, and new 1-60 content will be added. The required amount of experience from levels 20-60 will be reduced, and quests will reward around 30% more experience.
New Caverns of Time instances will be opened. One of which will be Stratholme, based on the Warcraft 3 mission where Arthas (when he used to be "good") travels through the whole thing and "cleanses" the scourge-infected citizens. The Stratholme CoT instance will require level 80, and will be meant for 5 players.
For the time being no new character slots are being added, so you may want to free up some room on your server of choice if you want to play a Death Knight.
More hero classes will be added at some point. It is highly unlikely that any will be released alongside the Death Knight. They will probably be added later on via content patches. Some likely candidates are Demon Hunter, Arch Mage, and Blademaster.
A release date has not been set as far as I know, but if I had to guess WotLK will be released somewhere between February and May of 2008, since that's where a bunch of pre-order sites and even a blue post fall. However, this is purely speculation, take anything with a grain of salt.