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Liveblogging the BlizzCon WoW Class Panel
We're still live on the BlizzCon floor, and now we're liveblogging the WoW Class Panel after the break. Stay tuned for news about classes, talents, and everything you need to know about how Blizzard developed the class you chose for your character.
Wrath of the Lich King hands-on demo from BlizzCon
As you may already know if you've been following my Twitter updates from the BlizzCon floor, I've spent the last several hours standing in line to play the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. And while I want nothing more than to tell you just how incredible this expansion is going to be, this demo was very limited and didn't show off any of the exciting new stuff that I'm eager to get my hands on. My impression is that the demo is a very early draft of the coming expansion, and the interesting stuff just isn't ready for us to play with yet. Curious to see what I thought of the new demo content? Keep reading!
WoW Moviewatch: Wrath of the Lich King
Fresh from Blizzard today, here's the trailer for Wrath of the Lich King. My first impressions? It looks surprisingly similar to old-world Azeroth -- which shouldn't be surprising, I guess, because it is in the same world, after all. "So come then, you heroes" is the new "You are not prepared." I can't wait to make a Death Knight.
Wrath of the Lich King Demo panel: liveblogging from BlizzCon
We are live on the floor at BlizzCon, and in just a few minutes, the devs will sit down on stage and show us everything that the Wrath of the Lich King entails. Tom Chilton, Jeff Kaplan, and Lee Sparks will all be here right around 1pm (2 minutes by my clock), and updates are forthcoming.The liveblog starts right after the jump. Here we go!
World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King trailer & first screens
Unveiled at the BlizzCon opening ceremony (though leaked earlier this morning via a conference pamphlet), Blizzard's upcoming World of Warcraft expansion The Wrath of the Lich King is poised to feed your MMO addiction further. Check out the trailer yourself and enjoy this teaser. %Gallery-5511%
Official WotLK page live
Blizzard's official Wrath of the Lich King page has gone live, including the cinematic, story links, zone overviews, artwork, and the same feature rundown you've already seen:The Lich King Arthas has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life on Azeroth. With the armies of the undead and the necromantic power of the plague threatening to sweep across the land, only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King's will and end his reign of terror for all time. Blizzard Entertainment's latest expansion to World of Warcraft – Wrath of the Lich King – adds a host of epic content to the existing game world. Players will achieve soaring levels of power, explore a vast new continent, and battle other high-level heroes to determine the fate of Azeroth... There's not too much there on the game mechanics, Death Knights, Inscription, or anything, but it sure is pretty. By the way, it looks like the leaked FAQ was 100% legit.
Death Knight details
BlizzCon is in full swing, but sadly, I'm not there. However, holding down the fort back home does have one advantage: I'm free to scour the internet for things like this 1up article, which brings some interesting details to light about the Death Knight class. The DK is the most interesting feature of Wrath of the Lich King as far as I'm concerned and, according to them, here's how it'll work: Plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid Upon reaching level 80 and embarking on a quest "similar in difficulty to the Warlock epic mount quest," the ability to create a new Death Knight character will be unlocked. Starts around level 60 or 70, "intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only" The class mechanic seems very, very strange; I think I'll have to see a video or something before I really understand it:Rather than using rage, energy, or mana, Death Knights have a special "rune sword" displayed beneath their health bar, onto which the player can etch six different runes (choose between Frost, Blood, and Unholy). Different abilities require different mixes of runes, and using abilities consumes the requisite runes until a cooldown timer causes them to be available again.As far as I can understand, that sounds interesting. And difficult.Update: Mike Schramm, here from BlizzCon. 1up missed one thing: in the video we just saw, Death Knights summoned pets (yup, just like the Diablo Necromancers). More info coming-- we're planning on liveblogging the expansion demo in about an hour, so stay tuned!Update 2: More information from the live blog behind the cut.
BlizzCon 2007 Opening Ceremony Liveblog!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/BlizzCon_opening_keynote_live_coverage'; We're set up in the front here at the Opening Ceremony of BlizzCon, enjoying some precious free outlet space in the convention center. Soon we will be officially hearing more about what seems like old news already, the new The Wrath of the Lich King expansion.Join us for up-to-the-minute liveblogging of the Opening Ceremony after the break.
First look inside the BlizzCon Exhibition Hall
The hall opened up not an hour ago, and BlizzCon is on! Here's your first look at what's inside the Exhibition Hall, including booths from all the exhibitors and vendors, lots of game playing (Starcraft II and the Arena tourneys are underway), and what we've most been waiting for: Wrath of the Lich King art. Pretty! Sorry, Arthas fanboys and girls, but the post above says we're going to meet the LK himself.Browse through the hall (as I just did), and enjoy. The opening ceremony kicks off in a little over half an hour, and we should be liveblogging live from there as well. It's BlizzCon, baby!%Gallery-5496%
Breaking News: Wrath of the Lich King confirmed
The WoW Insider staff were standing in the lobby of the Anaheim Convention Center, and saw Paul Della Bitta, Senior CM walking up to the Press Badge pickup booths: On his very back is the confirmation we've all been waiting for, and two hours before the official announcement! Yes indeed, in the very near future we will be heading to Northrend, playing what they term in the schedule of events as "World of Warcraft Expansion II," also known as Wrath of the Lich King. You heard it here first-- our hunches were right. Now keep an eye out for our continuing coverage. We are hoping to have up to the minute blogging of the Opening Ceremony, but it looks as if the juicy stuff is coming even before 11 am. The revised schedule of events I was handed has a concept sketch Tuskarr hunter in the lower right hand corner. Does this mean new playable races? We will let you know as soon as we have more info to bring you!
Picture proof: 'Wrath of the Lich King' is new WoW expansion
[Update: WoW Insider's crack team of bloggers has further picture proof, a snap of a Wrath of the Lich King shirt on the back of a Blizzard employee ... that certainly sounds definitive to us (take that IGN!). We'll be liveblogging the Opening Ceremony, scheduled to start at 2pm EDT, so check back.] World of Raids has snagged a convincing slice of evidence that details the assumed World of Warcraft expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. The pamphlet, allegedly on display at BlizzCon, includes this tell-all features list: The dark, necromatic Death Knight, the first new character class added to World of Warcraft since its launch Northrend, the harsh, icy continent where the Lich King holds rule, complete with new zones, quests, items and monsters New level cap of 80 providing access to mighty new powers and talents New battlegrounds featuring siege engine warfare and destructible buildings Expanding character customization options including new hairstyles & dances, the ability to change the hairstyles of existing characters, and new skin color variants Watch this space for further developments at BlizzCon. [Via Evil Avatar]
"Leaked" FAQ for WotLK
Personally, I'm pretty convinced that the forthcoming expansion is going to be called Wrath of the Lich King, mostly because the title was listed by the USK, the German equivalent of the ESRB (see update 2 here). Now we have what purports to be a leaked FAQ for the expansion, allegedly briefly visible on wow-europe.com last night. I don't know whether this is real or not, but it's certainly interesting. Here's my favorite part (my emphasis): The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft; once certain criteria are met, players will unlock the ability to create a new death knight character, which will begin play at a high experience level. That answers the question about people having to grind the new class up through the levels. I only wish it was available for all classes. According to this FAQ, the DK will be available to both Alliance and Horde, and will "combine damage-dealing and tanking" as far as party role goes. A few other points of special interest (summarized): Level cap raised to 80 New profession: "Inscription allows the player to permanently enhance their spells and abilities and to create mysterious items of power to use, trade, and sell." New and existing characters will be able to customize dances (??) and hairstyle Northrend will be about as big as Outland and will take about as long to complete. Players will fight Arthas himself The full FAQ is after the cut, or you can read it at the source here (scroll down for English). Please do remember to take this with a grain of salt.
Next expansion "Wrath of the Lich King?"
It's four days to Blizzcon, and Boubouille, long-time source of quality information, thinks he knows what the next expansion is going to be called: Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously this supports previous information pointing to a Northrend-themed expansion, as Northrend is home to Arthas, the Lich King himself. The original post on the MMO-Champion forums claiming this to be the expansion name also asserts that there will be a new class: Death Knight! This seems to be less substantiated, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true. Rumors aside, we'll almost certainly know for sure in just a few days. Are you excited? I am.As far as the Death Knight rumor goes, the WoWWiki page lends a bit of support: apparently, Death Knight (as well as Necromancer) were originally planned to be classes in WoW, but didn't make it to release. Furthermore, there exists a green called Triumphant Shield of Shadow Wrath, which is confusing as no shield-using classes (Warrior, Paladin, Shaman) can use Shadow magic. This could just be an oversight in the random-enchant-generating code, but it could also be a hint at a Shadow-wielding, shield-using class...Update: Over at MMO-Champion, they suggest that this is accurate because the link www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/ leads to a "forbidden" error, whereas accessing any other non-existent page on the site will give you a "not found" error. Continue to enjoy your rumormongering, everyone!Update 2: Again from MMO-Champion, the title World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was found on the web site of Usk.de, which is apparently the German equivalent of our ESRB (i.e. the agency that assigns content ratings to games). It seems to have a "12" rating; although I don't speak German, I assume that means "suitable for 12 and up."Update 3: It's official now -- check out all of the news on Wrath of the Lich King.
