WoW: changes for wrath of the lich king

i checked the forum and there was no other topic like this so i thought i'd create one, i will update this post with every new announcement or rumour. plz post all your WotLK posts here. here's a short ;D overview of the updates for WotLK

for daily updates check: http://www.wowwiki.com/World_of_Warcraft:_Wrath_of_the_Lich_King

1. a new class type; a hero class
you cant just create a hero class unit, you must do a series of quests to unlock it, and than at the character selection screen the new character will appear, the new character will start on a higher lvl than normal chars, blizzard has said that the Death knigth starts at lvl 60. blizzard has stated that future expansions will include hero classes.

the wrath of the lich king will include 1 hero class; the death knight; this will be a DPS unit, which can wear plate and use the new runeblades and runedaggers, blizzard has not yet stated if other classes can use these weapons. the deathknight will use a new spell system; a rune system, instead of mana, rage and energy, confirmed runes are blood, frost and unholy. players can equip up to six runes into their weapon, each of them changing the look and stats, runes have a cooldown but there are plans to include spells wich restore runes instanteniously. the death knight will have summoning spells simalair to the priests shadow minion and the mages water elemental, so the death knight is not considered a pet class. both factions will have access to this class, and blizzard is currently working on a storyline why deathknights were exepted into the alliance.


2. new continent: northrend
warcraft 3 players have already visited this continent. Northrend is a croissant-shaped continent in northern Azeroth. The continent is roughly half the size of the Eastern Kingdoms, but is expected to be sligtly bigger than Outland in length and width. Although Northrend is known for its snow and ice, developers stated that parts of the continent will not be frozen over. Northrend will feature approximately eleven zones with content for levels as low as 68, though players may travel to Northrend at any level.

A few new zones have already been announced:
the howling fjord: this zone is at the south east tip of the northrend continent, it is said that the vrykul lived here long ago, but they disappeared suddenly. this area is the landing site and base camp, called valgarde, of the alliance, but the coming of the alliance triggered an unforseen event; the return of the vrykul, they started attacking horde and alliance encampments, for no appearent reason, their base camp is a new instance called Utgarde Keep. the Dwarfes have found a strange new kind of dwarfes in nothrend who's skin is covered with runes, they probably came out of the third titan city, ulduar. these new dwarfes, called iron dwarfes

At the other end of the zone, the Forsaken have build a encampment called New Agamand, where they plan to unleash their new plague, which was created by the Undead in the Forsaken quests, upon Arthas.

The Borean Tundra:
The Horde arrived at this zone, which is located at the southwestern tip of the Northrend continent, upon arriving they met the Tuskarr, and they bonded with them. They also discovered the Taunka, an ancient offspring off the Tauren race, wich were believed to have been vanished.
Beyond the Westrift Valley, which separates the tundra from the mountainous region of Coldarra, explorers have recently witnessed increased activity at a magical site known as the Nexus. Nestled within the valley of Coldarra, the Nexus is a column of magical energy surrounded by levitating earth-covered rings. This ancient site was created by the blue dragonflight, and many adventurers attribute the increased activity here to the reemergence of the blue Dragon Aspect, Malygos. Inhabitants of the region have also noted an increased tension among members of the blue dragonflight, especially regarding the use of magic.
The Alliance also created a settlement here, and the Horde and the Alliance are battling to fight the Naga, wich are using massive generators, to melt the icecaps.

lake wintergrasp: this zone is a non-instanced battleground

azjol'nerub: this will be an underground zone, looking much like naxxramas. there will still be some nerubians down there, but mostly scourge, blizzard stated that the nerubians are maybe more evil than the scourge >

The magi of Dalaran have also relocated to Northrend to deal with the rising threat of the Dragonflight and Arthas. The city of Dalaran will function as the neutral sanctuary city for the continent, similar to Shattrath City in Outland. Dalaran is levitating at great heights but can be accessed by either foot or flying mount

3. new instances
Several new instances have been announced at BlizzCon 2007. Another instance will appear in the Caverns of Time, set during the human campaign of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, in which Prince Arthas massacred the townspeople of Stratholme because they were infected by the plague. Previously unimplemented instances from the original continents will also be included. Many new 5-man, 10-man, and 25-man dungeons will be located in Northrend, including:

Utgarde Keep - An instance in the Howling Fjord filled with the Vrykul, a Viking-like race devoted to serving the Lich King.
Utgarde Peak - A high level instance also containing Vrykul.
Grizzlemaw - Located in the Grizzly Hills ' home of The furbolgs.
Icecrown - Players will battle Arthas the Lich King, the ruler of the Undead Scourge.
Naxxramas - An updated version of the original Naxxramas, redesigned to cater for 25 man content.
Blizzard has also confirmed a new instance hub called the Nexus, home of the Blue Dragonflight, which will contain at least three instances. The first, a low 70's instance set in Ice Caverns, the second a high level instance seeing the player and their group face enemies on floating rings, and a final raid instance against the great Blue Dragon Malygos which takes place in a rift in the sky.
Blizzard will be adding a new instance to the Caverns of Time, the dungeon in Tanaris that lets players actively participate in some famous (and infamous) moments in WarCraft history. The latest instance will let you follow in the footsteps of Arthas as he slaughters the town of Stratholme -- and, if other Caverns of Time instances are any indication, your goal won't be to stop him, but to make sure he finishes his task. Morally oogy, yes -- but how far is too far?


"It's the same kind of problem as in WarCraft III," says Metzen, who admits he hasn't figured out the exact mechanics of the encounter. "My first pitch for the [WC3] mission was that they weren't plagued yet -- so it's kind of a design dilemma. We don' t want to have players feel dirty....we don't want to put players in the situation where they' re hurting innocent people arbitrarily."

Arthas' appearance in the Caverns of Time won't be an isolated event. "We wish we [had] involved Illidan a bit more in the quest process from level 60 to 70," says lead game designer Tom Chilton. And so Arthas -- more than just a raid boss -- will check in on players repeatedly as they quest their way to level 80.

"When is a game more than a game?" says Metzen. "When it's making you feel creepy or elated or heroic -- it's not just a mechanical experience of clicking and looting and killing and raiding. We want to provide as much context and fiction and psychology as possible, at least the first time -- you'll probably roll this dungeon 80 times -- but the first time was a hoot!" A morally oogy hoot

4. inscription
The profession of Inscription is similar to the profession of Enchanting. However, Inscription permanently enhances the attributes of players’ spells and abilities. For example, an "Inscriber" could take the Fireball spell, and give it the ability to daze a target for 3 seconds, or give Shadowbolt a Nature damage bonus, for example 50 Shadow damage, then 60 Nature damage over 10 seconds.

5. profession level cap raised to 450

6.siege weapons and destructible buildings
most of these weapons and building will be located in lake winterspring. two siege weapons have been confirmed: the siege tank and the meat wagon. they will have sligthly different play styles

7. new dance moves and hair styles

8. all new items and quests
no new items have been announced yet, but it is safe to assume that death knight tier sets are added and that there will be a tier 7 and/or 8

9. blizzard has said that there will be some new grapical improvements such as a new shader


Edit: 7sep2007 10.50, added death knight starting lvl
9sep2007 11.34 added point 9

 

sounds sweet! death knights on the alliance, eh? cool. the new rune idea is also neat, and inscripiton sounds cool.

 

Not generally new, but new to the game system.

The Death Knight starts at level 60 by the way.

 

im seriously going to turn my main from an enchanter into an inscriber

 

Man, i've been waiting patiently for Northrend for such an insanely long time. I even began leveling up a new character solely to be ready for the new expansion.

 

Since there's not enough WoW discussions on these forums, I'm sticking this and making this the official WoW topic.

 

how would you start at 60? that doesnt make much sense to me

 

I don't like the death knight class at all, it would just be better if they added necromancer class to humans and undeads

And you have to do some kind of ultra hard and ultra long lvl 70 quest to unlock death knight class from what i heard

 

Lvl 80 quest actually.

Death Knight basically is a necromancer....He just has a sword.
It's essentially an evil Paladin. Instead of Holy Light, it has Death Coil. Instead of healing rezzes, it makes Zombies (The teaser for WotLK shows the summon....It looks like it summons those weird looking zombies with the big faces)

 

actually he wont get death coil, warlock already got that one, and he uses a total different casting sistem

 

Heh heh, he did in WCIII, I was just comparing.

 

w3 death knight is nothing like wow death knight

 

It was more the concept....Paladins=Healers, noble, Warriors of Light....Death Knight=GRAAAGH I KILL YOU ALL

 

ok, that tottaly ROFLed me

 

Will he be riding a dead goat again?

Is that thing a goat? Ive always wondered wth death knights rode....

 

btw i just thought of something, with inscription we will finally have lvl 19 twink mages

 

i already have a lvl 19 twink blood elf mage

 

not really, they still get one shooted by rouge twinks, with inscription a high lvl (incriptioneer) can make your spells way more powerful then they are supposed to be for you lvl = twink

 

yo people i edited the first post to match the new info.

 

i dont think it is a goat
the death knight isnt furion stormrage from the W3 FT campaign
it is an undead horse
an uber mount
tho the whole idea of an already leveled unit is awesome and the rune system sounds uber cool
does anyone know how much wrath of the lich king will cost in $AU?