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Wrath of the Lich King
From wow.incgamers.com
The expansion: Wrath of the Lich King was announced at BlizzCon 2007. It will feature many new items and content, it will raise the level cap to 80, and will enable players to eventually face Arthas the Lich King in his home, Northrend. A new class - the Death Knight will be un-lockable once players have reached level 55. The Death Knight will be the first Hero Class available in the game.
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World Map
The world map has significantly changed for this expansion. The continent shapes for both Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor have both changed and there is now the addition of Northrend at the top centre of the map. The main city for Northrend is Dalaran.
Northrend
New Continent, made accessible with the expansion: Wrath of the Lich King, expected to be available sometime in 2008.
Northrend is the home of Arthas the Lich King, who featured in Warcraft III. Due to it's geographical position it is a cold land, parts covered with ice and snow.
Northrend will have two points of entry for people starting their exploration of the continent. This is different to Outland which only has one entry point, because there were several draw-backs to that approach - the area was extremely busy when The Burning Crusade was released, and quests were sometimes hard to complete because everyone needed to collect the same items or kill the same monsters. Also, if a player has more than one character to level past 70, they can have a completely new experience levelling their second character in a different area than their first.
Both starting areas will be equal in terms of quests and trainers, so neither one is "better".
Dalaran
The position of Dalaran is in the centre of Northrend, so it is accessible for everyone while adventuring in the new continent. Like Shattrath, it will house the various end game trainers and vendors.
The need to move Dalaran in it's position just north of Dragonblight from Hillsbrad Foothills was due to the Blue Dragonflight's recent objection to magic users. Dalaran is a protected city, where the races can practice their magic without any external interference.
The move was announced at BlizzCon 2007 and demonstrated on screen by simply dragging and dropping it to its new location.
Lore
Northrend: The Roof of the World
Long before the Great Sundering of the world, a malign insectoid race known as the aqir fought bitterly against the savage trolls. In time the troll armies split the aqir empire in half. The aqiri armies that fled to the northern wastes founded the kingdom of Azjol-Nerub, and eventually their race came to be known as nerubians. The nerubians discovered traces of another civilization in the north as well: the Vrykul, who were descended from giants. Yet the vrykul’s fortresses and villages lay silent and deserted while the barbaric race slumbered beneath the earth.
In the wake of the Sundering the frozen north split off into a separate continent called Northrend. Though isolated from the rest of the world, the nerubian empire thrived ... until the coming of the Lich King and the War of the Spider. Commanded by the demon lord Kil’jaeden to spread a plague of undeath among the mortal races, the Lich King was granted immense power, yet locked within an icy cask that came to be called the Frozen Throne.
Over the next several years the nerubians fell to the Lich King’s wrath. The events of the Third War played out, and in their aftermath, Prince Arthas shattered the Frozen Throne and merged with the Lich King.
As the Lich King sat once more in quiet reflection, an eerie stillness settled over his macabre fortress of Icecrown. Even so, life stubbornly pressed on across the primordial continent. Proto-dragons, the long-forgotten forbears of the dragon species, emerged from the mists of the north. Steadfast races such as the bovine taunka and the walrus-like tuskarr survived in the face of adversity. Even the Drakkari ice trolls continued to carve out an existence in the inhospitable realm.
Just as life on Northrend seemed to reach a tenuous equilibrium, the Lich King stirred from his Frozen Throne and sent his Scourge minions to swarm across the land, destroying everything and everyone in their path. The slumbering vrykul awakened soon after, pouring from the ancient fortress of Utgarde Keep, bent on conquest. The blue Dragon Aspect, Malygos, also emerged from his long seclusion, launching a merciless war against mortal practitioners of arcane magic. This conflict has raised the red dragonflight’s ire and sown widespread chaos. The Horde and Alliance have both responded to the threat of the Scourge, establishing bases in the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord. Both factions amass their armies even now, all too aware that the final confrontation with the Lich King is about to begin. And failure could mean the end of life for all of Azeroth.
Death Knight
A “Rune Resource System” will be implemented instead of Mana or Rage. A DK has runes onto his/her weapon; these runes are from the Unholy, Frost, or Blood trees. Instead of a mana bar, your runes appear beneath your character icon on the interface. This is really just a minor interface change. The real innovation is that the 6 runes that appear on the blade get used up when a Death Knight casts spells or uses abilities. They runes then recharge just like mana, rage, or energy. Use a minor spell, and only one rune is consumed. Use a major nuke and 3 or more runes will be used up. It's an interesting alternative to what Blizzard has done before.
Character Customisation
From patch 3.0.2, players ware now able to customise their character further with new hairstyles and facial features. New dances are being added to the game at a later date.
Professions
A new profession, called Inscription will become available. Inscription will allow spells to be modified, for example, applying a rune to increase the range of a frostbolt, or perhaps adding a rune to increase the healing done by a heal spell.
PvP
Siege weapons will be added. They affect both the game overall, as well as battlegrounds. These can be acquired and driven around but can also be destroyed by your opponents.
A new outdoor PvP zone will be added called Wintergrasp, and will contain Siege Weapons, destructible buildings and multiple objects with lasting effects. In this zone, players are auto-flagged for PvP the moment you enter, even if you're on a PvE (Normal/RP) server. There will be multiple objectives and a meaningful, persistent effect as your side wins. Blizzard intend to include as many of the well known siege weapons from earlier Warcraft games as possible, such as Steam Tanks and Meat Wagons. Siege weapons are intended not as a player owned item, but to be tied in to specific objectives or events. They will also be a slow way to travel, so there should be plenty of action around the siege engines as they move about the area.
A new battleground will be introduced. The goal is to blow up/destroy the enemy base with new Siege weaponry. There are 15 people per side, and the game will last 30 to 40 minutes each.
A new arena map will be introduced. As it is now, new arena “season rewarding” will constantly be introduced.
Bestiary
A list of beasts in Wrath of the Lich King:
- Darkfallen
- Flesh Giant
- Ice Troll
- Iron Dwarf
- Jormungar Wyrm
- Magnataur
- Nerubian Vizier
- Plague Eruptor
- Proto-Dragon
- Shovel Tusk
- Taunka
- Wendigo
Achievements
Blizzard have added an achievements system to WoW with patch 3.0.2. Players are rewarded for a range of deeds, from simple things like leveling a character to an early level, to hard things like getting one of every class to cap level.
Here's a short sample of some of the achievements players can complete:
- Reveal the entire Azeroth map
- Reveal the entire Kalimdor map
- Reveal the entire Outland Map
- Reveal the entire Northrend map
- Reveal Azeroth, Kalimdor, Outland and Northrend
- Complete a daily quest every day for five days
- Complete 2,000 quests
Factions
Known factions of the new Northrend continent include:
- The Kalu’ak (Tuskarr)
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World Events
- Zombie Invasion - Pre-Wrath of the Lich King world event
