Wrath of the Lich King sold 2.8 Million copies in the first 24 hours of its release. My gnome is 77, Araan is 79, and rumor has it that there will be a major content patch right after the new year.
Full of Lichy Goodness November 14, 2008
Hello, Weiner fans. Sorry to have dropped off the map yesterday, but it was the first full day of Wrath of the Lich King. Araan and I logged in an 12:01am and are level 72 and 71 now, respectively.
So far, WotLK is everything Blizz promised it would be. Zones are beautiful and expansive. Quests are fun and closely grouped to avoid the annoyance of crossing several zones for no apparent reason. 5-man instances take anywhere from 30-50 minutes with good XP and quest rewards.
Green is not the new purple, as it was in The Burning Crusade. As a high-end raider in BC, I have replaced just one piece of gear, my shoulders, which actually came from heroic Magister’s Terrace. The new shoulders are a quest reward in Coldarra, the site of the Nexus instance. From what I have seen and heard from other players, the goal here seems to replace 1-2 pieces of gear per zone until about level 75, when you can expect to have mostly Northrend gear. That’s a lot nicer than the “sticker shock” we all experienced in Outland.
Blue is the order of the day, both in gear and in art design. If BC was red, LK is Blue. Does this mean the next expansion will be the Emerald Dream? I think so.
I need to get back in game, though – some of my guildies are going to tear through Azjol-Nerub and I want in. And don’t fret – if you’re not playing already, you will.
Preview: Wrath of the Lich King Content Patch Plans October 10, 2008
Blizz blue posters Tigole and Kalgan sat down with the legitimate WoW press on Thursday evening and let slip some details about what to expect — but not when — from content patches for Wrath of the Lich King.
Patch 3.1 will include the 10/25 man raid of Ulduar, which is set in the Storm Peaks of northern Northrend. I wouldn’t look for this patch to go Live under well into 2009 since there will be plenty keeping folks busy in the Naxxramas / Obsidian Sanctum / Malygos progression. Unless you’re Nihilum or Death & Taxes, you’ll probably have your hands full. I would expect the final boss to of the Ulduar raid to be Loken, a sort of “fallen” Titan or servant of the Titans.
Patch 3.2 will include a new raid instance that is currently a mystery. A mystery, eh Blizzard? Well, what area doesn’t feature a raid and can be tied into the lore of Northrend? Remember Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne, when Arthas had to harrow the lowest depths of the Azjol-Nerub to get to Icecrown? During his journey he was beset the the hideous Faceless Ones, servants of a vile creature who was unseen. I believe this entity is Yogg-Saron, an Old God alluded to in quests in the Grizzly Hills and Storm Peaks, and that this monstrosity will be the final encounter of this unannounced raid instance.
Patch 3.3 will reportedly bring Icecrown Citadel and “resolve” the Ashbringer storyline. Frankly, I really, really want to have an Ashbringer in my inventory. I’m a Retribution Paladin, and nothing could be more fitting. As to when you might expect to look forward to this patch, my guess would be sometime in the first half of 2010, judging by Blizzard’s past history in delivering content patches.
Also coming soon to a content patch near you: the dance studio, a feature announced at BlizzCon last year but presently missing from the beta. Blizzard’s goal with the dance studio is not just to add new dances, but rather to allow players to piece dance moves together to create their own unique dances. That sounds like a lot of work — don’t hold your breath for a release in 2008.
You know how I feel about Blizzard charging us 950g to learn how to fly all over again. Well, Blizzard claims they’ll have a way wherein players who don’t train (or re-train, if you will) flying at 77 when it’s available will be able to borrow a “temporary” mount to get from point A to point B. No idea how this works yet, since it’s not in Beta to my knowledge, but I guess it’ll be seen at Blizzcon this weekend.
WotLK: Howling Fjords September 11, 2008
[Note: This refers to Beta Build 8926, the current build as of this writing. Due to the pre-release nature of a beta, some or all of this is subject to change.]
For the Horde! Yes, that’s right, your Prime Gnome has gone to the dark side, at least to test out some of the Howling Fjords content. I took a 70 orc warrior into the fray in the Howling Fjords starting area. Alliance and Horde both have bases in both WotLK starting areas, but I wanted to try something new.
The Horde can access HF via a zeppelin tower just outside of the Undercity. This will bring you to Vengeance Landing, a city of the Kirin Tor (last seen in Netherstorm). There are over 140 quests in HF, so get busy.
Welcome to Vengeance Landing!
Vengeance Landing is run by the Forsaken, and has most of the amenities you expect in a WoW town – inn, repair guy, inscription trainer. Yes, WotLK wastes no time getting their latest profession underway. Stock up your Peaceblom and Silverleaf now, because they are the ingredients in your starting inks. You’ll begin by making silver and pearl ink and inscribing basic Scrolls of Stamina, Intellect, etc. It should be an easy skillup if you’ve stockpiled, but will be pricy in the Auction House if you haven’t.
In terms of battle, the order of the day in HF is Vikings, I mean, Vrykul. These larger-than-you bearded warriors are fighting the Alliance and the Horde tooth and nail for the HF.
Thorvald of the Vrykul.
The Vrykul questline will eventually take you into Utgarde Keep, a Hellfire-type structure with two instances packed within. Utgarde Keep itself, which is a level 70-72 5-man, and Utgarde Pinnacle, a level 80 5-man.
No welcome mat?
Just because there are new enemies doesn’t mean you won’t attack each other. The other starter questline for the Horde involves protecting the Forsaken fleet from Alliance marines, soldiers, medics, and scavengers. This questline involves all your favorite quest types – collection, kill 15 of X, and of course, escort! The escort quest is especially tough, as there are marksmen around who can take 1/4 of a plated warrior’s health at a shot. Make your way through this and you’ll get to New Agamand, the main Horde base in HF. New Agamand is a beautifully detailed area that comes as a bit of a relief after slogging through the dreariness of the starting area.
New Agamand
Loot is not spectacular so far. This is not Burning Crusade, where green was the new purple. Instead, quest rewards tend to be greens that are minor upgrades for a Karazhan-plus geared toon, and fodder for a T5 or T6 character. I’d like to see this tweaked a bit before release, as BC has been out for a while, and I think most people made it at least to Kara.
As far as talents go, I’ve only just played the warrior, but for the first time on ANY toon, I find myself dumping all of my points into one tree. For now that is Fury, for leveling purposes, though my warriors are ultimately for tanking. It makes for a powerful character, but I feel that I am missing the balance that I have in my regular game. I really dislike the new deep talent, Heroic Leap. It pulls you up, leaps you over your foes, usually makes you aggro other foes, and doesn’t do much damage. This might be nice as an alternative to Charge, but as an in-combat ability, it is terrible.
I would love to hear other comments on warrior builds or any other builds in Lich King. Look for more updates in the weeks to come.
Playing With My Weiner 