Blizzard releases more details about second WoW expansion
Blizzard has revealed more information about the upcoming expansion of the mmorpg World of Warcraft during a presentation. The players can explore new areas and choose from a new player class.
Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion for WoW and follows in the footsteps of The Burning Crusade. The level cap that players can reach has increased from 70 to 80 and the world of Azeroth and Outland expands to include the new continent of Northrend, where the titular Lich King rules with his army of undead Scourge. This new continent is for players of level 68 and above.
In Northrend there are several dungeons for players to fight their way through. According to Jeffrey Kaplan, co-lead designer of WoW, all dungeons in the expansion will feature both regular and heroic game modes. The latter mode is much more difficult, but comes with a significantly greater reward. The raid instances have also been modified to accommodate 10 to 25 players, where previously there were instances that were only suitable for 10 or 25 people. For example, smaller guilds don’t need to attract more players to complete these raids, or larger guilds don’t have to go to war with only half their membership base, according to Kaplan.
Another big change is the arrival of the so-called hero class. The first class in this series is the Death Knight and is available for all races in the world of the game. Normally, when creating a character, a player chooses the corresponding class and builds it further, but making a Death Knight only becomes possible once a character has reached level 55. A new player of this class begins in a necropolis with special missions where the player learns to deal with the Death Knight’s unique abilities. The player also starts at level 55 and immediately has access to some spells and abilities. Furthermore, Death Knights do not use mana for their magical powers, but three different types of runes: blood, frost and unholy.
Blizzard has many other new ones possibilities stack up. For example, it is possible to change the hairstyle of your character, there are new daily quests, the user interface is improved and siege weapons can be used. Wrath of the Lich King is set for an undisclosed date sometime in 2008.