Wrath of the Lich King Features
General Information
- First Hero class: The DeathKnight
- Level Cap raised to 80
- New Profession:
Inscription
- New Continent: Northrend with 10 new zones.
- PvP siege weapons and
destructible buildings
- New Battlegrounds
- new character-customization options, including
new hairstyles and dances.
- New Dungeons.
Dungeons
- Caverns of Time: Stratholme
- Utgarde Keep(multiple instances)
- Ulduar
- Naxxramas(lvl 80)
- Grizzlemaw
- Nexus(multiple instances - 3 instances)
- 25 man raid(lvl 80) with end boss Malygos
- 5 man instance(lvl 70)
- 5 man instance(lvl 80)
Battlegrounds
- 15 vs 15 Battleground where u can use siege weapons.
- New Arena Map
- new non-instanced PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp where you can use siege weapons and destroy buildings
new non-instanced PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp, will contain 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 objectives will be spread out all over the map, so it will not just be capture the flag.
We are looking to include as many of the siege weapons from Warcraft III as possible.
Siege Weapons will be tied to specific objective or events rather than being items owned by the player.
Bestiary
Northrend Zone Information
Northrend is the icy northern most continent of Azeroth. Formed during the War of the Ancients, and initially introduced in Warcraft III, players will be returning to it in The World of Warcraft Expansion: The Wrath of the Lich King.
Geography:
Northrend will consist of the following zones:
Howling Fjord: 68-72
Borean Tundra: 68-72
The Dragonblight: 71-75
Zul'Drak: 73-76
Grizzly Hills: 74-76
Azjol-Nerub: 74-78
Sholazar Basin: 75-78
The Storm Peaks: 77-80
Icecrown Glacier: 77-80
Lake Wintergrasp(pvp zone)
Players can start from two different zones: Howling Fjord & Borean Tundra.
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.
Home of Malygos the Blue Dragon Aspect in the Nexus instance. 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.
Azjol-Nerub:
Underground Zone
Capital City:
The
Kirin Tor , led by
Rhonin , have moved
Dalaran to Northrend as a final front in their war against the Blue Dragon Flight. The Blue Dragon Flight, following a strengthened Malygos, are now attempting to purge all magic users from Azeroth.
It will act as the central neutral city floating above Northrend - a Shattrath of the North.
Races of Northrend:
Taunka – An ancient offshoot of the Tauren, who have a considerably different outlook on the world.
Tuskarr – The Nomadic Fisher Walrus men make a return from Warcraft III.
Iron Dwarves – There is a great deal to be discovered about the history of Azeroth through their story.
Naga – Pursuing their material interests further in Northrend.
Vrykul – The ancient giant vikings of the Howling Fjord.
Furbolgs – The Furbolgs live in the city of Grizzlemaw in Grizzly Hills.
Nerubians – The Nerubian spiderlords are related to the silithid of Silithus and are followers of the Old Gods in Northrend.
Famous Faces:
Players will interact with
Arthas right from the beginning in Northrend.
Arthas is the avatar of the
Lich King and is scheming to corrupt the players of the Horde and Alliance against their own people as he himself was corrupted against his own father by the
Lich King .
Every player, whether a raider or solo player, will have a hand in whether
Arthas is defeated or whether he ultimately dominates the entire world.
Garrosh Hellscream has moved to Northrend to lead the fight following in the steps of his father.
Lady Sylvanas is leading the Forsaken with their experimental plague against the scourge and Arthas
Highlord Bolvar Fordragon will be at the forefront of the campaign for the Alliance in a tumultuous storyline.
Brann Bronzebeard is the consummate explorer and finally makes an appearance in World of Warcraft helping the dwarves explore their origins in Northrend.
Tirion Fordring and
The Order of the Silver Hand make a return, bringing with them the legend of the
Ashbringer
Rhonin is now leading the
Kirin Tor in their war against the Blue Dragon Flight.
Anub'Arak will also be a primary character for player interaction.
Deathknight Hero Class
There are a lot of things still being worked out with the Death Knight class such as specific spell abilities. Unlike a traditional caster type however, a Death Knight's spell power comes from runes that are etched into their blade. Think Warcraft III when you think about the possibilities of abilities for the Death Knight. I say possibilities because things are still in process for the development of the class and there will be (of course) a lot of testing for balance done. Given that this is our first Hero class we're unveiling, you can be sure we're going for the coolest of the cool for this class.
Deathknight abilities and short information.
- Can tank with 2H weapons or dual wield (no shields)
- Wears plate, likes bladed weapons (runeswords and runeaxes)
- Will use a Rune resource system rather than Mana, Rage, or Energy-- choose six Blood, Frost, or Unholy runes out of combat that can be consumed for spells, or refreshed by spells and abilities
- Will have their own mount and itemization
- Will be Alliance and Horde, "unlocked" via a long quest at level 80, and that quest will supposedly explain how players can become Death Knights . The Questline to unlock the DK will be like the Warlock mount quests. Once unlocked, starts off at a higher level (55, 60, 70, not sure yet)
Know Spells:
Unholy Embrace
Instant Cast. 5 min cooldown.
Target is embraced by a silhouette of darkness for 6 seconds, corrupting any healing spells and effects cast upon or currently affecting the target to cause damage for 50% of their healing potential instead of restoring health. Any damage shields cast upon or currently affecting the target will also be instantly consumed, dealing 50% of their absorption potential in damage. Once afflicted with Unholy Embrace, the target cannot be afflicted with Unholy Embrace again for 1 minute.
Runes and Mana pool
Q u o t e:
Is the Death Knight going to have a mana pool? The pictures from BlizzCon show spells using mana.
The runes they inscribe on their weapons are their mana pool (of a sort). As they use their abilities, the runes will be exhausted. After a period of time the runes will refresh. So, they don't have a traditional type of mana pool. You'll most likely see some screenshots of it, but the Death Knight (at current) has three different types of runes that they can inscribe on their weapon: Blood, Frost, and Unholy. Runes can only be inscribed out of combat ( all of this is subject to change as development continues.)
The rune types don't dictate a new damage type, they're simply a resource that spells and abilities will use when you activate them. The spells and abilities won't necessarily be "blood, unholy, or frost" damage.
Imagine it being three different energy pools which you can change the size of before you get into combat.
About weapons
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.
Which level?
Also, we haven't decided on what level you will start as your Death Knight, current thinking is that once your character reaches level 55-70 you will be able to create a Death Knight character that will start at a similar level. With this character you will complete a quest line before being able to continue to level 80.
How many?
We are not planning to limit players only to one Death Knight per realm. You are only limited by the amount of character slots you have (left).
Which race?
It's true that the current plan has been heavily discussed to go ahead with all races, but no final decision has been made. After talking to Chris he wasn't totally sold on the idea. Both are technically correct in that the current plan of some of the developers is to go ahead with all races, there's been no final decision made and no real work has progressed to force a decision just yet. The FAQ is more accurate at this time, in my opinion.
Lore-wise there's really no reason why a specific race couldn't become a Death Knight.
All races can be challenged mentally and physically, their will dulled, and be cast down into madness ... and darkness. Their souls drawn into the runeblade they wield.
Which classes?
You will not be transforming or converting one class into a Death Knight, you will instead be able to unlock the class for play. The current thinking behind this design decision is that it is important for players to feel like that they don't have to give up a long term character for the chance to play the new heroic class.
Many people had the perception that what you would be doing was to choose a class to specialize into the hero class that would then be an extension of your current class, but that's not how we're doing it. We felt that if we did that for all of the classes, we would be adding too many classes into the game at once and as a result making continuing efforts toward class balance very difficult.
Compared to other classes
They are not planned to be more powerful, them being a hero class simply means they're introduced at a higher level, and in general will reference the more powerful hero types of Warcraft history.
It's our intention to integrate them into the current classes, balance them appropriately, and have them provide an additional - but equal - role in groups and raids as compared to other classes.
Will there be other hero classes?
Yeah, well that kind figures in to the new definition of what a hero class is. It allows us to add new classes that start at higher levels, keeping players relatively kept up as we continue to release expansions and raise the level cap, and ultimately it really fits to use the heroes from past Warcraft games as inspiration. Some other hero classes could definitely be things like Demon Hunter, Blademaster, etc.
Profession: Inscription
Inscription allows the player to permanently enhance their spells and abilities and to create mysterious items of power to use, trade, and sell.
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