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WoW Radio runs CoT: Stratholme
Our good friends at WoW Radio have continued their beta instance-running ways -- previously, they've taken runs through Utgarde Keep and The Nexus, and after a short break (they're busy folks, pushing out great radio 24/7), they've done a run through CoT: Stratholme, viewable right there if you want to see it.We should warn you that there are spoilers, of course, and personally, I think I might not watch the whole thing -- I'd kind of rather experience the Culling of Stratholme on my own. But for those of you willing to take the plunge with the WoW Radio folks, enjoy. We hear there is some good lore commentary going on, and there's even a bug where, Totalbiscuit tells us, "all Gnome females are default naked." Shudder.Yeah I think I will pass, actually. But if you do choose to press play, enjoy the video.
Wrath in pictures for your weekend
If you tend to be a strictly weekend-centric WoW Insider reader, you may have missed some of the best stuff to come out of the Wrath beta thus far: the eye candy! Class updates, mechanics changes, pfft, who needs that stuff? No no my friends, me, I'm all about the shinies. Okay, and I like all of that other stuff, too. Luckily, we have a little bit of everything, and in case you did miss our eye candy, let's take a look back at some of it, shall we? Be warned, however, that most of these galleries contain some minor spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled, be careful! The Borean TundraThe Borean Tundra, accessed from either the Orgrimmar zeppelin tower or the Stormwind Harbor, is one of two starter zones in Northrend. The Tundra houses Valiance Keep, Warsong Hold, D.E.H.T.A. the Coldarra (home of the Blue Dragonflight) and much more. The Howling FjordThe Howling Fjord is the second of the two Northrend starter zones, accessed via Menethil Harbor or the Tirisfal zeppelin towers. The Howling Fjord is home to Valgarde, the Forsaken's Vengeance Landing, the Vrykul fortress Utgarde, and the Ember Clutch.
Learn the secrets of Utgarde Keep from WoW Insider
It's patch day for World of Warcraft, and our sister site WoW Insider is delivering some delicious Lich King beta news for fans just waiting for the servers to come back up. Today's gem is a lengthy, spoilerific walkthrough for the one of the expansion's first five-man dungeons: Utgarde Keep. From reading through the guide, it looks like Utgarde is a pretty standard dungeoncrawl. This Howling Fjord explorable area is, as the guide states, "great for teaching newer players the ropes." It's also filled to the brim with the barbarian Vrykul, the proto-human race that has allied with the Lich King across the continent of Northrend. You'll go up against the race's elite, and might even explore a bit of Northrend lore while you're at it. Check out the full guide for insights into that stuff, tips on how to deal with the dungeon's numerous trash pulls, and strats for each of the trio of boss fights. Gallery: Wrath of the Lich King: Utgarde Keep Walkthrough One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
WoW Insider's Utgarde Keep walkthrough
If you're dying to see the inside of some of Wrath's dungeons, you're in luck. We've put together a small walkthrough-in-pictures for Utgarde Keep for you to peruse. If you're in the Wrath beta and haven't run Utgarde yet, maybe you'll be able to put this to good use. If you're not in the Wrath beta, look through it anyway! It's a nice little preview of the dungeon and the types of mechanics you'll be running into when you first reach Northrend.If you don't know what Utgarde is, it's likely the first dungeon you'll run through in Wrath of the Lich King if you're the instancing type. It's set in the Howling Fjord, and is a vrykul fortress from which they plan their attacks on Alliance and Horde settlements. It's the first of two dungeons that will be taking place in Utgarde, the other being Utgarde Pinnacle.As always, if you want to see a larger version of the pictures, click the Hi Res button in the upper right of the gallery. I especially recommend that for our Northrend galleries, you simply can't see some of the detail in the low res versions. %Gallery-29459%
Spiritual Guidance: Utgarde Keep and the Nexus as Discipline
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Matt scored a beta key and busied himself speccing and respeccing his Priest multiple times and decided to test the new talents in a healing party environment. After getting a beta key, I was absolutely excited with all the Priest changes and additions made. Several of the other WoW Insider bloggers wanted to get into Utgarde Keep and the Nexus in order to experience both places. The objective was to try out our new toys, of course. The party composition determined the talents I picked up. All in all, it I had a blast tearing through both instances and learned more about the new Discipline talents intimately.
WoW Moviewatch: Muffins WotLK Exploration Part 70-77
(Viewers be warned that this video contains spoilers for the Wrath of the Lich King beta.)Muffins did a great job with her most recent exploration video. If you're looking for another artistic take on the new locations available in WotLK, this is the movie for you. The areas that she visits include Howling Fjord, Borelean Tundra, The Nexus (Instance), Utgarde Keep (Instance), Crystalsong Forest, Dragonblight, Stone Halls (Instance), Drak'tharon Keep (Instance), Zul'Drak, Dalaran, Sholazar Basin, and Grizzly Hills.The other day, I mentioned that Razzik may have had his exploration video removed from Vimeo. While I have yet to confirm it with him, there is a comment on Muffins' WCM page saying that they removed hers. I'll be weighing in on this shortly with some additional news from other sites, as well as recommendations for where to keep your machinima safe.[Via Warcraftmovies.com]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Utgarde Keep beta impressions
I've run Utgarde Keep a few times on the Wrath beta using a couple of different characters now, and it's... not bad. I like the atmosphere, the mobs, the visuals and the bosses had decent flavor, but it was hard to take it seriously. It was really, really easy.I guess that aspect of things is to be expected, it's an entry level dungeon that needs to be balanced for people in full green gear. Still, I wish it was a little more challenging. Even in level 70 blues you can completely brute force your way through the dungeon, slamming your face on your keyboard willy nilly while the bad guys fall over. I don't really want the trash mobs to be terribly difficult, but even in pulls of four and five giant hulking vrykul there's not much reason to use all of that brand new CC some classes are getting.
WoW Radio runs Utgarde Keep
Our good friends at WoW Radio have somehow boonswaggled their way into the beta, and they're letting you all reap the rewards: Totalbiscuit and his buddies all ran Utgarde Keep, the first instance of Northrend, and you can see the results above. This is the same instance we played way back at BlizzCon of last year, and it looks about the same -- you can see the hulking Vrykul, the big flame forge with its walls that come down when you pull mobs, and later on you can check out the other boss battles, including a dual boss battle (two bosses, and both have to die, or else the one that dies first spawns a shade of himself), and Ingvar the Plunderer, who has a pretty mean AoE and some cheating help. There's also a few glimpses of other beta features, including Illidan form way at the end.Unfortunately, they don't run the next instance, Sar Chasm, which features a boss who says things to you he doesn't actually mean (spoiler: that's a joke, watch the video). But it's awesome to get a first look at Utgarde, bugs and all (the dragons who walk through the air are pretty fun), and the WoW Radio guys are pretty entertaining the whole time.
Wrath boss names revealed in Achievements
Wowhead recently went live with their database of all the Achievements currently in the Wrath beta. Among those Achievements is one for clearing each dungeon and raid currently in Wrath. Each Achievement lists its requirements for completion, so what does that mean? We now know the names of all the dungeon bosses (as well as a little from the raids)! Everything placed after the cut for those who want to avoid spoilers.
WotLK videos from MMO-Champion
Boubouille over at MMO-Champion has a bunch of great videos that he put together of some Wrath content. Some of them are data mined, while others show in-game content. All in all, they're quite an interesting thing to watch for those of you who want to see Wrath content right now.The videos that are available are hosted on Vimeo, and we've embedded them after the break for easy viewing. You can take a look at footage form Utgarde Keep, Drak'tharon Keep, and The Nexus.I know that some people are concerned with spoilers, so don't watch these if you don't want to see everything. They're taken from the alpha and the videos give a clear view of everything in the dungeons.Enjoy!
WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha Patch Notes leaked
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_Alpha_patch_notes_leaked'; MMO-Champion has just posted what appears to be the patch notes for the WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha. This is an unconfirmed leak, but everything on them would appear to check out as legitimate. They're pretty barebones, but there's some intriguing information to be found: Death Knights are playable, although the starting quests and talents are not complete. Spells and Talents past 70 are available for the Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior classes You can head to Northrend via Menethil Harbor and Theramore for the Alliance, or Undercity and Ogrimmar for the Horde The Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Grizzly Hills, and Dragonblight are the zones currently open for testing. Utgarde Keep, Utgarde Pinnacle, The Nexus, and Drak'tharon Keep are currently available for testing. If they already have talents for quite a few classes past 70, it would seem to suggest that they are further along on the expansion then we think. Hopefully, if these patch notes ring true, we'll hear about those talents soon. You can read the full Patch notes behind the jump.
New WotLK screenshots leaked [Updated]
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/New_WotLK_screenshots_leaked'; A poster on the mmo-champion forums has found several leaked screenshots from the alpha of Wrath of the Lich King. While not all screenshots the original poster produced are real, WoW Insider has learned from an inside source that a number of them are very similar to what the actual alpha looks like and appear to be legitimate. While this isn't an official confirmation from Blizzard, it is about as good as we'll get for any leaked screenshot for the time being.The images are of various places around what looks to be Utgarde Keep. Additionally, there is a very real looking screenshot of the alpha installation package. Sources tell me this is very close to what is on the docket at Blizzard, again lending credibility to these leaks.Stay tuned to WoW Insider for all the latest Wrath of the Lich King information. Click the gallery below to see the full leaked sets.Updated 12:53 a.m. EDT: Login screen was a fake. Removed. However, other screenshots still stand up with our sources. Thanks to Aichon, Kyraa, and our sources for helping clear up which images are real and which are fake.Updated 11:00 p.m. EDT April 21st: Most of these images came from Two Hammers over at Gamebunny from his Blizzcon 2007 trip. However, still good screenies for people to enjoy.%Gallery-21057% Check out more information on WoW's upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, including Blizzard's recent interview about Northrend and the new creatures that infest of Northrend. Plus, a visual guide to what we know about Death Knights so far.
Dungeon depth in the past, present and future
The other day, Kromzul of Burning Blade posted a thread in the official Wrath of the Lich King forum about dungeon design. He asks if instances will be deeper than those in the Burning Crusade, and I agree with most of what he says. Essentially, the epic, sprawling dungeon crawls of old have gone extinct with BC.Bornakk chimes in to say that The Burning Crusade dungeon design was heavily influenced by player feedback, wishing for more Scarlet Monastery-esque dungeons. I can see that, and to an extent, I agree with that, too. Scarlet Monastery, while shorter and more linear, was also pretty cool.Personally, I don't think that it really comes down to one or the other. Take Dire Maul, for instance. Each wing could be tackled in a straightforward, linear fashion. However, each of them also had alternative routes, and some of them even had alternative ways of defeating them. For example, Tribute Runs in Dire Maul: North. Plus, they were even connected via the library. If you really want to, you could go from one wing to the other without any loading screen.
Hidden Wrath site discovered in Blizzard newsletter
World of Raids found a hidden link in Blizzard's latest newsletter. That link has led them to a special page on the official Wrath of the Lich King site that you can't find on the expansion's main page.On this special page is an extensive exploration of how the Warcraft team designed the Northrend 5-man instance, Utgarde Keep in the Howling Fjord zone. First they delve into the story elements that ramp up to your introduction to the "impenetrable fortress in the side of a mountain." Upon arriving by boat to Daggercap Bay, you will see the damage wrought by the enormous, native Viking race and their proto-dragon mounts.Overland quests from there will tell the story of how these Vrykul have used Utgarde Keep as a staging area to wage a battle against what they see as an invading force of Alliance and Horde.The page goes on to explain other design decisions that will play out in Utgarde: as a "starter" dungeon, it's designed to be finished quickly; it will be more mission based due to the popularity of Old Hillsbrad and Black Morass in Burning Crusade; and you will get glimpses of the end boss before finally encountering him.
Map of Utgarde Keep, and what we know about it
Well this is exciting. MMO Champion points us to WoW Wiki, where some enterprising person has assembled a map of Utgarde Keep, the first instance in Wrath of the Lich King. The map is apparently based on one published in Games for Windows, but as it appears on WoW Wiki, it's a little empty. Let's see if we can't clear some things up-- I've added letters to the map above, and below, I've described what is probably there, based on my own impressions and what we've heard elsewhere.A. This is the main entrance, and as I said before, it consists of Vrykul metalworkers and forgemasters. The big firey graphic is the Forge, which has three "walls" that only open up after the mobs are defeated there. After you clear all three walls, you head around to the left, and find...B. Dragonhandlers and "Trained Proto-drakes," which appeared to be Blue Dragons. Draw your own conclusions there. This area is a stable type of place, which explains the stalls.
More Wrath info from Leipzig
It seems that WoW Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan has a new bit of expansion information for every journalist he talks to at this week's European Game Conference in Leipzig, Germany. This batch of news comes from Curse gaming, who has sent a couple of journalists over to get the scoop. We already know about the L70 instance called Utgarde Keep in the Howling Fjord zone. Now we learn that there will be a second wing of the instance for L80 players called Utgarde Pinnacle. Both dungeons will have Normal and Heroic modes. Yay for key grinding! Anybody? The new Inscription profession will do more than increases effectiveness of spells and abilities. Devs are playing with the concept of using Inscription to improve other elements like range, duration, etc. The "increased leveling curve" of levels 20-60 is going to be accomplished two ways: reduction of the amount of experience required per level and increasing the amount of experience a quest grants by 30%. To address Hunter concerns, Blizzard is considering a Woodworking profession as well as a Mortal Strike kind of ability that reduces healing effectiveness on the target in PvP. These are just ideas they are currently considering and have not been confirmed as going live. The full interview can be read on Curse's front page. Curse promises a video of the interview later tonight. I'll update this post with the link when it goes live.As for the pre-60 leveling increase, I've been toying with leveling an enhancement shaman, but have been weary about the grind. This may be the incentive to get me to accomplish that goal. Is this enough for you? Will you level an alt before the expansion?
New WotLK Screenshots from Leipzig
In conjunction with the opening of the Leipzig Game Conference in Germany, Blizzard has released new screenshots from their upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Of the ten new screens, some are new shots of areas we've seen before such as the outdoor Howling Fjord zone and the 5-man dungeon Utgarde Keep. Others are of areas we have yet to see: a ramshackle collection of buildings called Skorn, an Alliance looking town named Westguard Keep and a not so hospitable hamlet dubbed Wyrmskull Village.Check out the new shots in the gallery below. They have been added to the screenshots we posted for Blizzcon 2007.%Gallery-5525%
Utgarde Keep video
Blizzard strictly forbade any video or pictures of live gameplay during BlizzCon, so for fear of not being able to cover the whole thing for you guys, I stayed away from breaking that rule. But apparently Gameriot was not so rule-abiding, and they grabbed some shaky footage of the first dungeon we'll see in Northrend, Utgarde Keep.They played the same parts I did on my walkthrough, including the gigantic furnace walls, new Vrykul race, a few "proto-drakes," and the first boss, the Warlock who summons some big Vrykul skellys throughout the fight. There's not a lot new to hear about if you've been reading everything so far, but if you weren't able to make it to BlizzCon, it'll be your first chance to see everything from Northrend's first 5man on video.[ via Curse ]
Details on the zones of Northrend
Over on the EU forums, Blizzard poster Salthem gives us a few details on the new zones we'll be visiting in Northrend. Of course, all of this is subject to change per developer whim but this is what Northrend is shaping up to be, so far. Salthem lists six zones (with notes that there will be more, though the exact number hasn't been finalized yet) that will be comparable in size to Outland zones.Howling Fjord: Your first chance to go up against the ancient Vrykul in their instance Utgarde Keep. Borean Tundra: The home to the Tuskarr. Parts of Borean Tundra are being melted down for water by the Naga. Garrosh Hellscream has established a base of operations at Warsong Hold. Grizzly Hills: The home of Furbolgs and their city of Grizzlemaw. Also home to the ancient Dwarven City of Thor Modan. The land is largely covered in forests - an example of our desire to make sure that not all zones are just snow and ice. Dragonblight: The home of Wyrmrest Temple, the ancient meeting place where dragons go to die.Lake Wintergrasp: A new non-instanced PvP zone with Siege Weapons, destructible buildings and multiple objectives with lasting effects. Players on Normal realms will automatically be flagged for PvP when entering this zone. The Storm Peaks: Containing Ulduar, the ancient Titan city in the Far North. The capitol city of Northrend (the Shattrath of the north) will be Dalaran. Yes, you read me right, the same Dalaran that presently hides under a sparkly dome near Hillsbrad. The Kirin Tor have invoked powerful magic to relocate their city, and hopefully safeguard themselves from the dragon Malygos, who is concerned over magic running amok in Azeroth.
