First Look: WoW – Wrath of the Lich King

Promising to build upon the existing foundation established in World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King has a lot to live up to. Can it live up to the hype and provide fans with the rich experience they are used to or will it fail faster than a PUG to the Black Temple.

Released last week on the 13th November, eager fans were queuing up outside game shops which decided to open at midnight for this epic launch. With over 11 million monthly subscribers, Blizzard’s main objective is to win these existing players over. Wrath of the Lich King introduces several new features to the existing World of Warcraft including the obvious level cap raise to 80 and the extension of the existing land into Northrend. With so much new content to explore it’s not surprising how eager people are to snatch up their copy and begin traversing the new lands.

The introduction of the new Death Knight hero class has been one of huge intrigue for World of Warcraft players since it’s original announcement. Any player with at least level 55 character on a server is eligable to create a level 55 Death Knight to level up and experience when they purchase the expansion. The Death Knight has been described by blizzard as a combination of “martial prowess with dark, necromantic energies.” Players who have followed the Warcraft series of games may remember their previous encounters with this class.

The new area of Northrend is roughly half the size of the current eastern kingdoms, with snow covered mountains and icy hills scattered across it’s surface. Northrend also includes the first totally PvP area in World of Warcraft where, regardless of server type, you can engage in free-for-all PvP action. To compliment this, Blizzard has developed the PvP system to allow players to engage in siege warfare with destroyable buildings and siege weapons at their disposal.

Catering to the more vain players amongst you, Blizzard has decided to extended character customisation options including new hairstyles and dances.

Players have already begun reaching level 80 (26 hours after release the first player reportedly reached level 80 and so it won’t be long before reports of the first raid dungeons being completed by eager guilds across the servers. Players currently with talent trees to compliment raiding should consider changing their builds for the long slog from 70 to 80. Apparently taking the same time as the grind from 60 to 70.