Warcraft Bible

The biggest news at Blizzcon 2007 (Aug. 3-4 in Anaheim) was the announcement of the World of Warcraft Expansion II, which will be called Wrath of the Lich King. This was a real surprise, as Blizzard managed to keep the announcement under wraps, so tightly that there was little speculation or expectation of such an announcement. They even held the Blizzcon program out of the goody bags that were handed out to attendees during registration the day before the show opened - because it included a 2-page spread announcing the expansion and its key features (see photo below).

So far, Blizzard’s official Wrath of the Lich King Expansion mini-site has hardly any details, so here’s an overview of what we learned at Blizzcon:

• the expansion is set in Northrend, an area about the same size as the Burning Crusade expansion’s Outlands
• there will be two starting zones (Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra), to reduce overcrowding when the expansion launches
• the level cap will be raised to level 80
• the new Death Knight class will appear, the first new character class ever added to the game, and also the first WoW “Hero” class
• a new profession, will be available - called Inscription, it creates scrolls that permanently buff spells (such as adding Knock-Back to your Fireball spell)
• a new all-PvP zone, where everyone is flagged for PvP even on PvE servers
• new Battlegrounds, featuring siege weapons and buildings you can destroy
• new character customizations, including changeable hairstyles, new dances, and more skin-color variations

Blizzcon 2007 Program Announcement of WoW Expansion 2
Wrath of the Lich King
“The former death knight and now Lich King Arthas has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life in Azeroth, as his undead armies and the necromantic power of the plague threaten to sweep across the land. Only the mightiest heroes can survive the frozen northlands with any hope of disrupting the plans of Arthas - and perhaps even challenge the Lich King himself and end his reign of terror for all time.” Some other tidbits I gathered from playing the live demo of Expansion II on the show floor, and comments made by developers during various panel discussions and Q&A’s (consider the following to be conjecture and highly speculative):

• the new expansion will be released in summer or fall of 2008
• there will be 3 or 4 full content patches released before then (2.2, 2.3, 2.4, maybe 2.5)
• it will take about as long to level from 70 to 80 as it did to level from 60 to 70
• just as with the first expansion, Wrath of the Lich King will make pre-expansion gear obsolete, with items in the level 72-75 range easily equaling and even exceeding the quality of the best pre-expansion tier-set items
• likewise, the gold will flow ever more freely, with more daily cash quests, more gold as quest rewards, higher valued vendor trash etc.
• the expansion will have new levels of trade goods (such as the Frostweave Cloth I looted in the live demo), to go along with plenty of new crafting profession recipes and specializations
• new instances will be for 5-, 10- and 25-player groups … no more 40-man instances
• Blizzard does not intend to update or expand pre-expansion content, after each expansion is released: it’s there and viable for leveling up, but then it’s time to move on

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I’ve just arrived back home from Blizzcon 2007 in Anaheim (Aug. 3-4), and what a show it was. The panel presentations and demos were free-wheeling Q&A sessions that turned out to be packed with interesting info; the game-play areas were easy to get at, thanks to huge banks of computers provided by Intel; the live tournaments (Arena 2 vs 2 and 5 vs 5) were a exciting; and the evening entertainment events (contests, concerts) were a lot of fun.

By now you’ve heard the big news that Blizzard held back as a surprise announcement for Blizzcon: Expansion II for World of Warcraft, “Wrath of the Lich King” - set in frozen Northrend. We got quite a lot of detail about the features and scope of the expansion, as well as hands-on playtime with one of the Expansion II starting areas.

I’ll feed you as many of the interesting details and tidbits as I can recall, in a series of posts to follow.

Here’s a photo of the lobby area of the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday morning (day 1), as we waited to rush the doors and get started.

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