WrathOfTheLichKing
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BlizzCon then and now
If you were one of the lucky few who happened to attend both this BlizzCon and the one in 2005, you would have noticed, as I did, the subtle changes that separated the two. Some of the changes were physical and others were harder to catch. In 2005 when we arrived at the arena, the sense of excitement was not only palpable, it was visible. For the first time since it's release, WoW fans were able to stand IRL and expound upon their favorite aspects of the game. I know personally, as someone who was at the time fairly new to the game, it was an amazing sight to see so many people who loved the game as I did. When I stood in line to get my tickets this year, however, it felt as if I were surrounded by a different crowd of gamers, a quieter one.
Ashbringer quest in Utgarde Keep
Our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion has gotten a nice tip on Ashbringer appearing in Northrend (warning: I don't think this is a huge spoiler, as it probably happens within your first hour or so of Wrath of the Lich King, but if you don't want to know anything about what happens to Ashbringer, skip this post).So apparently inside the Utgarde Catacombs (which is probably the lower section of Utgarde Keep-- I played the upper section), there is a cleric of the Silver Hand, the group led by Tirion Fordring that fought against the Scourge in Naxx, as well as other places. The cleric sends you on a timed quest inside the dungeon, to retrive a "Sacred Artifact." After you retrieve it, he sends you with his dying breath to someone back in town, who then tells you that the Artifact you just held in your hands is related to the Ashbringer, thanks you for grabbing it, and takes it away (as, Boubouille says, "the ret paladin of your party keeps crying"), promising to give it to Fordring in his fight against Arthas. How is it related to Ashbringer? Well, it could be the blade itself, except that the Corrupted Ashbringer was last seen in player hands, not at the bottom of a dungeon. Most likely, it's a mirror, or a copy, of the artifact seen in Old Hillsbrad-- a new holy artifact, meant to create a new, uncorrupted Ashbringer.So that's kind of cool. It definitely shows how Blizzard is going to make good on their promise of involving us in the lore right away when you enter Northrend-- at BlizzCon, they said a few times that most players worried they would never see Illidan, so the idea with WotLK is to bring the lore to you (we're supposed to meet Arthas early on in this way as well). I like the way this is done-- even though you don't get to wield it, you're still able to interact with it. Should be very exciting to see how Blizzard incorporates other parts of the lore in this way.Just so we don't take down MMO Champion's site with hotlinks, I've mirrored the three quest images after the jump.Update: MMO Champion got it from Cydel, who also has video.
Gnomes in GNorthrend
Bijez from Zul'Jin asks on the forums whether there will be Gnomes in GNorthrend or gnot (ok, I'll stop). Neth hints at a positive answer, but we know for sure: yes, there will be! Not only do we already know that flying machines are coming to Engineers in Northrend, but in an ingame video of the Borean Tundra, shown during the Wrath of the Lich King demo panel, we saw a Gnome city, with a gigantic tower of some kind, and airstrips (!).Unfortunately, that's all we got so far. WoW Wiki claims it's an Alliance town, which is a pretty good guess, but not necessarily guaranteed-- it could be a neutral town. Or it could even be an evil Gnome town; you never know. And we don't yet know what it's called, either.But yes, there will be Gnomes in GNorthrend. Fortunately, us Horde won't go completely hungry.
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 ]
Know Your Lore: Death Knights
With all the hubbub about the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Know Your Lore is going to cover some of the lore behind our frozen neighbor to the north. (No, not Canada. They have no history. Also, I fully expect to get gkicked for that statement.) We already took care of Arthas and Sylvanas, but we still have Ner'zhul, Anub'arak, and others to cover. But for starters, let's check out the lore behind one of the new additions to World of Warcraft: the Death Knight class! There's already been quite a stir about them on the forums, with people complaining that they should only be humans and undead, should only come out of sacrificing your previous character, and shouldn't be in the Alliance because it would conflict with the wonderful art of roleplaying a talking paladin cat. But I've always believed that people should know what they're complaining about, so here's a guide to the current basis of the Death Knight hero class, as we know it. Name: Death Knights. Race: Undead orcs, humans, other things. History: The Death Knights actually have two separate histories: one from the Second War, and one from the Third. We'll start with the former, because doing things in chronological order is awesome. Once upon a time, a very bad demon named Kil'jaeden corrupted the native orcs of Draenor and convinced them to forsake their shamanistic culture for the power of black magic. The orcs invaded the world of Azeroth, led by Gul'dan and the warlocks of the demon-influenced Shadow Council. But when Gul'dan overstepped his power and fell into a coma, the orc Orgrim Doomhammer took advantage of the situation, launching a palace coup and killing as many warlocks as he could find. Doomhammer hated warlocks and intended to kill Gul'dan as well. When Gul'dan awoke, he begged for Doomhammer to spare his life, and promised him that he could use shadow magic to create a caste of powerful warriors loyal to the Horde. Doomhammer was suspicious, but agreed to hear Gul'dan out.
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.
Changeable hairstyles at last! Long live new dances!
I was talking with some friends of mine the other night about the new expansion and we were giggling to ourselves about how the expansion video presents us with the amazing new features to be revealed in Wrath of the Lich King. "New Continent: Northrend!" it announces, "Destructible Buildings! Siege Weapons! New Profession: Inscription! ....Changeable Hairstyles! New Dances!"It does seem rather incongruous that in a game called about warcraft, changeable hairstyles and new dances would be a big deal, but it's true! This is something we've been wanting for a long time, but I never for the life of me imagined it would be an expansion feature. I always thought it would be like voice chat and guild banks, added in with some patch or another just like so many other things.It begs some frightening questions: Are we going to have special hairstyles and dances only available to those who have bought the expansion? Will we have to quest for that really epic hairdo, or spend hours and hours grinding for the reputation to access that one faction haircut we want? After all, we do it for special mounts whose only claim to fame is looking cool, why not for hairdos too?I suspect there won't be such thing as an epic hairdo quest, nor rep-grind barber shops, but really any which way Blizzard manages it will be fine with me. I do hope there will be new skin colors, faces and other characteristics be available too, though one could argue that should those be set in stone. Also, one would wonder if it's just new hair and dances which they have in store for us, or are there going to be a whole slew of new social features? Dare we hope for a proper /hug animation?
Breakfast Topic: Character slots
Sure, it'll be nice to have a new class -- we've been stuck with the same nine since 2004. However, there are some downsides to the Death Knight as well. Some see it as a threat to their raid spots (mostly rogues and warriors), some don't think it fits in well with the lore, some are afraid it'll be overpowered. However, I have a different concern: how am I going to fit one in my character list?Some players with less severe altitis may not know it, but there are limits on how many characters you can have: ten per server, 50 per account. Ten is a good number for the per-server limit, at least right now; you get one of each class, plus one more for a bank/AH alt. But what are we supposed to do if we want to make a Death Knight? Delete one of our beloved alts? Pay to transfer a character? Start the DK on a different server (if that's even possible)? CM Nethaera tells us there are no plans to add more character slots, although she notes that people are unhappy with it and that she'll relay that to the devs. Are you going to run up against the character limit in WotLK?
Some Death Knight details from the EU forums
This isn't groundbreaking new information, but over on the European forums, CM Vaneras has provided a summery of information on the new Death Knight hero class. However, while not groundbreaking, it does clarify a few things and drop tiny fragments of new information. First up, the Death Knight's 6-rune resource system:Imagine it [the runes] being three different energy pools which you can change the size of before you get into combat. These runes, we know, will be etched on to the Death Knight's weapons and can be changed at any time out of combat. But it sounds like the details on weapons etching are still up in the air:There's no final decision or announcement on how multiple weapons would be etched, or how weapon switching may affect the etched runes. What has been discussed to some degree is that the main-hand weapon would be etched and that's it, but it's too early to say what would be allowed in the final game. What level the Death Knight will start at is still unknown but what races may play them is up in the air. Though during our liveblog of the WotLK demo, we were told that Blizzard's plan was to have the class available for all races (to cheers of "Gnome Death Knights ftw!" from the crowd), Vaneras expresses less certainty... more quotes and info after the jump!
2h Axes and Maces might be free for Shamans
While we were at BlizzCon, Eliah did a great job of catching something even I missed (and I played-- and respecced-- my Shaman on the event server, although I don't have any points in Enhancement, so that's probably why I missed it). Shaman are very likely picking up some serious buffs in an upcoming patch. And now, Drysc has confirmed that if one of those buffs, Shamanistic Focus, goes through, then Shaman will get 2h Axes and Maces as a baseline ability, no talent points needed.Pretty darn sweet-- now, I can use my healing mace to heal, my spell damage dagger to DPS, and my 2h mace (haven't found one yet, but I will) to melee. And think of the itemization in the future-- a 2h mace with uber spell damage and Windfury on it? Hawt!The original thread that brought about Drysc's comment was asking for Shaman swords, and I do agree that even if 2h talent doesn't get made free, Shaman should be able to pick up 1h swords-- we're already at enough of a disadvantage with our low mana efficiency to have to pass on those swords to Mages and Warlocks (sure, the lore doesn't really fit, but this is Shamans we're talking about!). But I'm more than willing to trade those away for free 2h Axes and Maces (and the promise of itemization for us in WotLK). Because what I really want to wield as a Shaman is one of those gigantic 2h totems, and Maces are just a step away from that.
The races of Northrend
As we look toward the release of Wrath of the Lich King, there is so much we don't know, largely because the developers themselves aren't yet sure of things themselves. We do have a few tidbits of information, however, that can give us an idea of what it will be like to venture into Northrend. At Saturday's lore panel BlizzCon attendees got some information about the races we will be encountering in the frozen north. I took some notes as I listened intently, and this is what I came away with:
The Light and How to Swing it: The BlizzCon 2007 edition
The first bit of good news from BlizzCon is that Paladins are currently not the most hated class. Warlocks definitely got more boos at every mention. Pallies are second, however, and some of the questions asked in the Q&A sessions of the panels didn't help matters. Though most of us realize this isn't a good idea, someone complained about his Pally Bubble in PvP situations -- and got soundly booed and laughed at by the general population. We obviously need to work on our public relations. On to the info after the jump:
A distinct lack of murlocs
Micromachine drops a question that I can't believe we forgot to ask at BlizzCon: Will there be murlocs in the next expansion? There definitely was a distinct lack of murlocs in Outland-- but for the few packs in Serpentshrine Cavern and the Dancing Murloc quest, we didn't hear that throaty gurgle almost at all. And as much as I hate it, I... kind of miss it.It's not like they wouldn't fit, either-- Northrend has a coast that we'll be visiting, and while it's a little colder up there, Murlocs are pretty adaptable creatures. Plus, the Tuskarr are a race of fishermen-- errr, fisherwalruses-- and they'd probably love to have the Murlocs around, for dinner if for northing else. I'm not sure exactly what an Arctic Murloc would look like, but I'd definitely like to find out.Then again, as someone mentions in the thread, we'll probably get our fill of Murlocs whenever Blizzard gets around to making the Maelstrom expansion and tells us what all the Murlocs are doing on land in the first place. But until then, while it's OK to leave Murlocs out of Outlands (because how are they going to get there in the first place), it's unacceptable to completely leave Murlocs off the northern continent of Azeroth. Bring on the gurgle!
Tigole: Naxx in Northrend
The MMO Gamer sat down for an interview with WoW lead developer Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan recently. You can hear the audio or read the transcript at their site, but for my money, here's the most interesting bit. In the middle of a rehashing of the debate over whether Blizzard should spend a lot of time developing raids that few people will see, he drops this great idea:So what I want to do in Northrend is to take Naxxramas in all of its glory, scale it down to the 25 man raid size, and then take the difficulty and retune it-obviously we'd tune for level 80, it would no longer be tuned for level 60, since that would be a little silly and it wouldn't be a lot of fun for people at that point-but I want to put rewards in there that are very exciting to level 80 players, but make it the entry-level raid, very accessible, tune the encounters so that there's something for everybody to do, and let the majority get a chance to see that content that they hadn't seen before.Naxx as the Karazhan of Northrend. I like it. I am one of the many who never got a chance to try Naxx the first time around, and I hear it's a well-designed raid. I also like that the entry-level raid is planned to be 25-man, not 10-man; the transition from KZ to Gruul and SSC has caused problems for a lot of guilds. Apparently it's also a bit of a misconception that raiding is unpopular; Tigole says out of all the instances in the live game right now, Karazhan is the one that gets done by the most people each week.The interview goes on to discuss the links between WoW raiding and EverQuest raiding (Tigole was a raid guild leader in EQ for some time before working on WoW), and what Tigole would have done differently if he could go back in time to when WoW was first being made. It's a good read, like most developer interviews, so go check it out. But Naxx in Northrend? Awesome!
WotLK official release date... maybe.
Over on the European forums, we seem to have a confirmation of an official WotLK release date. Forum poster Evlinn links to a pre-order page slating the game for a May 30th, 2008 release and CM Aeus replies: It's the 29th actually, they must be lagging..However, over on the US forums, CM Nethaera gives us the usual Blizzard line:It will be released (everyone say it with me now, you know how this one goes) when it's ready. ;)What does this conflicting information mean? It means you should get ready for a May release date... maybe![Thanks, David!]
GameStop offering WotLK pre-orders
No, Blizzard hasn't announced a release date or price yet, but Gamestop is already happy to take your money in exchange for a future copy of Wrath of the Lich King. And looking at the pre-order page text, I'm thinking there just might be some World of Warcraft fans with a sense of humor working on Gamestop's web page:Official price and release date have NOT been announced by Blizzard. In this case, the price and release date were determined by the GameStop e-commerce staff, (comprised of overpowered warlocks), using a combination of 6 and 20-sided die. Important: If the price decreases between the time you place your order and the release date, you will receive the lower price. Woot! If the price increases you will be given the option to either pay the higher price or cancel your order. However, if the price increases by more than $1,000, many of us here at the corporate office plan to retire and purchase a small Caribbean island. You are welcome to visit us at any time. Please bring pizza, chocolate and cold beverages. Note: We vehemently oppose "ninja looting" therefore your credit card will NOT be charged until your order is processed for shipping. Pre-order now. Power to the players.They're estimating a cost of $39.99 at a release date of 11/3/08. The price seems likely, since that's what The Burning Crusade sold for, but the release date is anyone's guess. And I don't know about you, but I'm waiting for news on a collector's edition before I do any pre-ordering![via Joystiq]
Blizzard's Hero class implementation 101
Toeo of Dragonmaw wrote in to ask about a clarification on Hero classes (of which the Death Knight will be the first). What are they, what will they require, and what does it mean to be a Hero class? We are nothing if not helpful, so here's what we know about Hero classes (mostly from BlizzCon).There were a number of ideas floating around about how Blizzard might implement Hero classes (mostly from D&D, in which Prestige classes are the precursor), but what they landed on was an "unlockable class," that's opened up to your account via a quest with a level 80 character-- that quest hasn't been created yet, so we're not sure what it will require*. So, to play as a Death Knight, you get a character of any class to level 80, do the Death Knight quest, and once your character has completed the quest, you can log on, and create a new character (of any race, we're told) that is of the Death Knight class.That new character then starts at a higher level (anywhere from 55-70, but Blizzard hasn't decided where yet), with starter equipment of the appropriate level (again, Blizzard hasn't decided exactly which equipment yet or how it will work), and then the Death Knight character can work their way up to level 80 as well as a completely different character. Death Knights will have their own Rune resource system, and they will have their own three talent trees, just like all the other classes. It is a completely separate character, unlocked and able to be created when one of your level 80 characters finishes the quest.*Update: Commenter Avalanche makes a good point: we don't know much about the quest, but we know it will be similar to the Warlock epic mount quest, and that it will not require raiding. Thanks, A.!
Why the expansion isn't revolutionary (and why it shouldn't be)
Big announcements (at events like BlizzCon) about expansions (like Wrath of the Lich King) always bring up the question of whether the planned updates to the game are any good or not. If it were just a regular patch people might complain about a particular buff or nerf, or lament that they have no chance or desire to see a particular new dungeon, but no one would expect a mere patch to totally revolutionize the MMO genre. Expansions though, for some people, are supposed to be the thing that doesn't just expand the game, but changes the face of the entire gaming world. "More of the same" is just not good enough for them. But as much as I, too, would love to see more innovation in MMO gaming, and even World of Warcraft in particular, I have to tell you, folks, Blizzard is made of mere mortals and some of you may be setting your expectations a bit too high. No WoW expansion can ever totally revolutionize the MMO genre, because at this point the genre is mostly WoW. While there are, of course, other games out there, WoW is the current MMO superpower, with a population larger than some countries of the world -- it defines the standard upon which to improve. To "revolutionize" the genre, you'd need a different, better game, because for WoW to change too drastically would mean turning the game into something other than what it is: replacing the current game with entirely different mechanics, ways of playing, even reasons for playing altogether. Expecting WoW to become something other than what it is unfair, even if that were to be an improvement, because then it wouldn't be WoW anymore. It could also be a financial disaster to keep the name but change the game, as the fiasco with Star Wars Galaxies proved (read up here to find out how their "revolutionary" New Game Enhancements turned out).
Mike's final BlizzCon impressions
Well, these aren't really final, of course, as we're going to be discussing and responding to what we saw at BlizzCon all the way up until Wrath of the Lich King releases. But BlizzCon was definitely a crazy experience, so each of us WoW Insider staffers there are going to write up our own personal impressions for you, both about what we saw and what we didn't see there. And please share yours in the comments below.Most Enjoyable: I really enjoyed the L70ETC concert, actually-- I wasn't quite sure what they would be, but in terms of the live entertainment, Samwise and his band were the best thing going. Yelling "for the Horde" and booing Rogues (who "do it from behind," of course) was great fun. In terms of the events, all the Blizzard guys were entertaining, but Jeff Kaplan was my favorite-- every event he showed up at, he really proved he'd been reading the forums and knew what players were interested in. The Molten Core (as designed by you and 8,999,999 others) was terrific, and while Metzen definitely has a clue, too ("im the lich king lol" is an instant classic), Kaplan was on top of his game all weekend. Oh, and of course the WoW Insider meetup was a big highlight as well-- every single reader I met was awesome.Least Enjoyable: Waiting in line for passes on Thursday evening was really the only waiting I did all weekend. It was horribly designed-- there were about 30 lines split up by last name, but those lines all got mixed up, and you couldn't see where one started, so you had to cut across lines if you were in the wrong one. They were also mind-numbingly slow, so that definitely could have been done better. Also, we said Jay Mohr was a strange choice, and we were right-- while he did as good a job as he could (he was funnier than I expected), his time on stage alone was mostly just awkward, as the forum trolls ripped him apart. Next time, let's get a comedian who's at least played Warcraft, rather than just seen the South Park episode.What I was most excited about and most disappointed about at BlizzCon after the jump...
What should happen to Arthas?
Now that we know the Lich King will be waiting for us in the next expansion, lore junkies and raiders have begun to speculate exactly how his story will end -- or even if it will. Blizzard has shown no qualms about letting raid groups kill lore figures like Vashj and Kargath Bladefist, but they've also let some escape or resurrect (Kael'thas, Kel'thuzad) and arranged for Illidan's death to come at the hands of two lore characters as well as the raid. And Arthas is nearly a god right now. How can twenty-five adventurers hope to take him down? Lysergide of Ravenholdt asks the European WoW Forums how they think the Arthas fight should go -- assuming we actually fight him head-on. He got some interesting answers:
