World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King | Wrath | Wotlk

On November 13, Blizzard released its much-awaited World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. As stores all over the U.S. opened their doors at midnight, longer than anticipated lines of gamers formed to get their hands on it, some say eclipsing the lines at both the iPhone and PS3 midnight sales.

It’s been a couple of weeks since then, and so far seven new servers have been added to handle the influx of new players and returnees. Most of the end-game enthusiasts have already reached the new max level by now and are on their way to conquering the WotLK raiding instances. We hope than in the process of speeding ahead of the pack, they did not miss too much of the new content because as with all Blizzard offerings, this one is chockfull of that.

When WoW was first released in 2004, the sheer volume of engaging original content captivated not just the regular MMORPG gamer crowd, but their spouses and offspring and non-gamer friends as well, blowing the MMO market wide open in a totally unexpected way. In the succeeding years, as everyone else struggled to find new and meaningful ways to entertain these gamers, the Blizzard devs have apparently been going quietly about their business, actually creating those things. The stomping grounds being introduced in WotLK recapture much of that old WoW feeling of wonder at seeing new places and discovering things, and serve to prove that unique content – and plenty of it - is king.

One thing worth mentioning up front is that WotLK is an expansion aimed at those who have been playing the game for a while now. Whereas Burning Crusade, the first expansion released early last year, offered new starting races for beginning players or those who were willing to start over, this one offers WoW’s first hero class, the Death Knight, which can only be unlocked by players who have reached at least level 55.

This new expansion also raises the level cap to 80, allowing end-game players to enjoy ten more levels of questing in the new area, Northrend.

From Outland to Northrend

Unlike Burning Crusade’s Outland which was in another dimension totally off the map, Northrend is physically located north and center of the Azeroth map.

Players can get to it by taking the boat out of Menethil Harbor or Stormwind, or a zeppelin from Undercity or Orgrimmar. Anyone, regardless of level, can do this provided that they have WotLK installed and their accounts upgraded. But take heed - the mobs in the area are all in the high 60s and upwards, and quests are only available to level 68 characters and above. Players are given a choice to start adventuring from the westernmost zone (Borean Tundra) or the easternmost one (Howling Fjord).

Much of Northrend is icy and cold but both starting areas are thawed out hives of activity. Valgarde Keep in particular, is a scenic spot and the boat ride into the harbor is very reminiscent of a theme park ride. The fact that your initial encounter with the new world is a pleasant visual experience definitely helps make a good first impression. And it doesn’t end there either. The rest of the continent is a wintry mix of snow and ice with pockets of autumnal forests that make you wonder why everyone else scoffs at this game’s graphics. A pretty picture, no matter what brush or style it’s drawn in, is still a pretty picture.

Scenic ride into Valgarde Keep.
As any continent deserves a capital city, so does Northrend. In the lore, the domed city of Dalaran, previously resting impregnable except by the most desperate (or bored) exploiters in Alterac, has now been transported by the Kirin Tor mages dome and all, and is floating high above the Crystalsong Forest. Unlike the Outland capital of Shattrath, Dalaran is not so easily accessible. Players will need to complete an attunement quest to get in through the front door, available only at level 74 (71 if you’re a mage). Of course, others have found backdoor entrances and got in way before they were eligible for attunement.The city itself is a sight to behold - purple and blue domes and minarets jutting out into the sky with snow-capped mountains in the background. It’s like a page out of A Thousand and One Nights. Up close it’s more like Disneyland’s main street, with cobblestone-paved streets and vendors plying their merchandise.

Travel within Northrend has been spiced up with the introduction of new modes of transportation. It’s still pretty much travel by air and sea but you get to ride on an airplane, on a dragon’s back, and on a boat that’s powered by a turtle going after a bunch of carrots on a stick. Do turtles even eat carrots? Well they do in Azeroth.
Death Knight: The Lich King’s Minion Redeemed

The Death Knight starts his journey as a level 55 soldier in the lich king’s army. It’s pretty amazing how the developers managed to accomplish several things through his starting experience – introducing him to the rune system that governs his abilities, helping him allocate his talent points and acquire his fast steed, all the while weaving the story of how he came to be in that position and what it meant.

The story progression is quite seamless, too. As he starts out, the lich king is calling the shots from his floating fortress Ebon Hold, high above the town of Havenshire in Eastern Plaguelands. The town is controlled by the Scarlet Crusade and there are citizens fleeing in panic. After completing several quests, the scene changes and we find Havenshire in flames, the battleground having shifted to the next town, New Avalon. Finally, Arthas himself descends from his fortress and the Death Knight takes to the skies to mount an overhead attack on the crusaders. Eventually, he breaks free from the lich king’s command and joins the Alliance/Horde in their fight against Arthas. The switch from one scenario to the next is so smooth that it takes you by surprise the first time you experience it.


The Lich King commands his armies from Ebon Hold.
Although the story is conveyed rather well through this starting experience, I always felt that the Death Knight’s role in this is more of an observer than a participant, watching himself do all those evil things without really having a choice. While this is somewhat fitting since his mind is being controlled by the lich king throughout the scenario, his redemption in the end also comes as a result of someone else’s choice and not his own.As a class, Death Knights are meant to fill a damage-dealing or tanking role. Playing one effectively can take a bit of strategic thinking. Some of his abilities consume specific types of runes that have a cooldown period, while others consume runic power that’s built up as the rune-consuming abilities are used. This means that the Death Knight has to constantly balance his moves to make them more effective.

He also has very interesting abilities, some of which are dependent on talent point allocation. All Death Knights can summon ghouls to fight alongside them, but some can actually command these ghouls much like a hunter commands a pet. Others can freeze the water they tread on so their whole party can virtually walk on water – and even ride their mounts. It might be an understatement to say that the Death Knight is all-in-all, a rather interesting new class.

Kill Quests With A Twist

Perhaps the best feature being offered in WotLK – more than the pretty new areas to explore and the exciting new hero class – is the twist on most quests that makes them a tad more interesting to do than the mundane kill, collect or deliver quests.

For example, instead of telling you to kill 5 magmoth crushers, you are asked to test a special gun on them. Using the gun can have…well… sometimes unexpected results. In the end it’s still the same old kill quest, but the twist livens it up.

Other than the usual, several quests require you to use items or perform other actions to complete them. You get to control a robot construct, wear various disguises, dive for fish, set buildings on fire, surf on a flaming harpoon and much more.

Of course not all innovations are created equal. There are some, like the painstakingly slow bombardment from a zeppelin quest, that only those who like to suffer would ever want to do twice. And then there are the ubiquitous excrement collection quests. Yes it’s funny in a brown kind of way, but why must we collect so much dung in this game?

For the most part though, the new quests are fun and quite different from the same old formulas. Because of this, the story behind the quests become more meaningful as the player gets more involved in the plot, like actually collapsing a mine shaft to close down operations instead of just killing some baddies inside for example.


Quests are fun and innovative.
Another amazing thing that I can’t quite get over is how they made use of seamless instancing (or phasing) to change the environment. After the player completes certain major quests, a whole area changes for him. While this sort of multi-person instancing isn’t really new – I’ve seen it in both Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings Online – the way it’s implemented in WotLK is smoother. There are no loading screens and no warps – nothing to indicate that you have moved from the multi-person instance to the rest of the world or vice versa so the immersion factor is much higher.Flexible Raids For the Win

For those who enjoy beating down bosses in group and raid dungeons, WotLK introduces a number of these. What’s unique about them is that all raiding instances will be playable with either a 10-man or 25-man group. The encounters will play out similarly for both, but 25-man groups will get loot that’s one tier above that of the 10-man group. This allows those who do not have the time or means to join a large raiding guild to experience the content with a smaller group while at the same time rewarding the larger raiding group with better loot because of the greater difficulty.

While this has drawn the usual gripes about unfairness from both sides, we think it’s a step in the right direction towards making raiding content more accessible to the majority of players.

So What’s The Score?

When Burning Crusade came out last year, I was quite honestly disappointed by the high level content because it seemed to be more of the same stuff that WoW players had already been doing for two years. Sure there were new zones and new races, but the whole package tasted much like the same candy in a different wrapper, so to speak.

Wrath of the Lich King is different. Hard as it may seem, I think that in this second expansion, the WoW developers have managed to surpass themselves in creating MMO content that’s unique, innovative and very addictive.

My score: 9.5