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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Review

Bringing the battle back to Azeroth in Blizzard's second expansion

by Charles Onyett

November 26, 2008 - Four years ago Blizzard launched World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online RPG that abruptly snatched the spotlight from former genre heavyweight, Sony Online's EverQuest, and went on to enjoy a degree of success few could have predicted. With 11 million subscribers worldwide, the cultural impact of Blizzard's creation is difficult to accurately measure. It's spawned its own lexicon, countless Internet memes, appeared as the focus of an episode of South Park, and has dominated industry discussion about online games since its release.

Games like this like this aren't one-shot, linear run-throughs or exercises in melding gameplay with abstract artistic themes; they're services. You pay a subscription fee and in return you get stable servers to play on, constant bug fixes, updates to game systems, added content, and customer support lines.

It's a much different experience from other media, such as movies or books, particularly when trying to assess some kind of worth. You don't fault a movie for crashing, for instance, you fault the projector. A paragraph in a novel will never glitch out, requiring you to close and reopen the pages to reset it. A massively multiplayer online game has so many more moving pieces and potential complications that having a company like Blizzard working behind the scenes should inspire confidence. It's got the quality assurance staff and support to ensure its products are remarkably polished, perform well, and actually work across a range of desktops and laptops with wildly varying hardware configurations. Also, the fact that there's such a large player base means this virtual world isn't getting shut down anytime soon, a danger with this type of game as most recently demonstrated with NCsoft and Tabula Rasa.

Video Review - Watch or download the video here (HD available).
Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion to Blizzard's game, something the player base has already snatched up in great quantities. This kind of release schedule, with an expansion roughly every two years, differs from what Sony Online did with EverQuest, a game that just received its 15th expansion in just about 10 years. What you get with a Blizzard expansion is an incredible amount of content, some of the more prominent features being a new level cap, a new continent, the first added player class since the game's launch, and a general assurance it's all going to work correctly.

Simply having plenty of content and stability isn't enough to make the game worthy of your dollar however. You could, for instance, have a magazine subscription where the product is always on time, in good condition, and is full of pictures and text, but in the end it's still just another issue of Sawdust Quarterly. As most gamers out there know already, World of Warcraft is a remarkable product. From the entertaining, strongly defined classes with wildly diverse functionality and generally solid feel and timing of activating skills, to a gigantic, beautiful open world and myriad ways to spend your time leveling up professions, coordinating large-scale attacks against powerful dungeon bosses, or engaging in player versus player battles ensures you'll find something to like.

While the previous expansion, The Burning Crusade, offered quite a bit for new WoW players back in January 2007 with two new playable races and accompanying level 1 – 20 starting zones, Wrath of the Lich King is geared more for high level players. The level cap has been bumped up to 80, and the new continent of Northrend isn't accessible until you've got a higher level character, so if you're new you'll need to move through the original release content as well as territory from the first expansion, both of which are required to play Lich King. That being said, Blizzard made the leveling process up to 70 much more rapid through patches released before The Lich King's arrival, so those who activate now won't spend nearly as much time in the original release territory or Outland from The Burning Crusade as those who dove in when the content was still new.

With the majority of the player base at or very much on their way to the level 80 cap at this point, any green players won't really experience the full degree of the community and social strengths of the game until later on. Even longtime players will have to retread some old content since the new class, the Death Knight, starts at level 55.

Provided you've got a high enough level character you can roll one of these demonic melee fighters as Horde or Alliance and experience right away one of the expansion's major strengths; a stronger narrative cohesion. Unlike the other classes, Death Knights get their very own introductory quest lines that have you working temporarily for Arthas, also known as the Lich King. In all it's about 49 quests that start out with your character battling against the forces of light, killing citizens, infiltrating operations, assaulting strongholds, and flying frost wyrms over battlefields to reign death on those below. Through a few in-game, voiced character interactions alter you'll witness some dramatic events that provide a nice narrative context for the class within Blizzard's alternately self-serious and flippant fictional world.

After the introductory sequence you take a bit of a detour though Outland as you'll need to level up to the requirement for entry into Northrend before rejoining the story of Arthas. At least Blizzard didn't make players restart at level 1. While it's difficult to say at this point what kind of role Death Knights will carve out in raiding groups and what kind of PvP strategies will be developed, they're certainly an entertaining class to play. Compared with the other nine alternatives in World of Warcraft, Death Knights have a distinct rhythm to their play styles, a result of two unique resource systems used to pull off moves. Death Knights start off fights by consuming different types of runes to activate skills, all of which have an accompanying cooldown sequence. Using these skills also builds runic power that makes available other skills, meaning the flow of fights with Death Knights alternates between managing rune cooldowns to trigger abilities and counterbalancing that with those that consume runic power.

Talent trees of course strengthen different aspects of the class. Depending on how you've allocated your points you can be more effective at generating and maintaining runic power, make yourself more resilient in battle, dramatically boost your damage output and unlock a number of interesting skills. The Death Knight can, for instance, briefly come back to life as a ghoul after being killed, project a stationary anti-magic zone to dampen incoming magical damage, call down a gargoyle to inflict damage on foes, blow up corpses like Diablo II's Necromancer, and even summon a ghoul companion. Considering the class wears plate armor it's certainly a force to be reckoned with, and is particularly noticeable in PvP because of its death grip ability, which yanks targets from a distance to the death knight. It's been a long wait for a new class to toy around with, and what Blizzard has delivered provides players with a fresh set of distinct, entertaining skills to put to usewhile playing solo and grouped.

One criticism that tends to get leveled at MMOs like WoW is that there's no strong central narrative. Something like BioWare's Mass Effect has a powerful story and characters, the endless nature of the MMO and the need for the developer to keep players engaged so they'll keep that subscription active means there can't really be a true termination, even if there are climactic events, though games like Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online try to address that. That being said, Blizzard has built in much more narrative across the zones of Northrend, anchored by frequent appearances by Arthas, which makes the leveling process a more interesting endeavor.

Like in the Death Knight opening sequences, players will get plenty of opportunity to interact with the Scourge's heavily armored leader. He tends to show up all over the place, after seemingly mundane quests in the Howling Fjord to the finale of a dungeon run through Drak'Tharon Keep on the borders of Grizzly Hills and Zul'Drak. He'll spout sinister lines with a Dr. Claw-like cadence and whether you take him seriously or smirk at his overwrought malevolence, you can't help but pay attention when he raises his sword, Frostmourne, to single out a victim or emphasize a point. One of the more involved questlines in a zone called Dragonblight fleshes out more of Arthas' history, his transformation from noble prince to embodiment of evil, and culminates in a lengthy cut-scene surrounding the Wrath Gate (Black Gate?) that gives players a better sense of what's going on in the world at large, and with a follow-up questline that spans the old world and provides a nice connection between the new and existing content.

What's perhaps more effective for narrative delivery is how Blizzard's implemented localized changes in the game world depending on your actions. This can be as subtle as a bed of flowers popping up around an NPC after you turn in a quest, to more large scale alternations. After the Wrath Gate event, for instance, the landscape in front of the entrance is encircled by fire and screaming citizens run every which way and it stays that way afterward. In the Death Knight opening scenario, you'll travel back and forth between the land and a floating necropolis, and between each journey to and fro there'll be no load times yet the landscape below will shift from idyllic human town to a roaring battlefield over which frost wyrms soar. These types of transitions, though sometimes subtle, really work to enhance the notion that you're affecting the game world in a meaningful way. Coupled with the in-game cut scenes and you've got a World of Warcraft with far more narrative direction that has been previously seen.


Yet you've still got to drop in the caveat that it's a good story…for an MMO. It's something that those ensconced in Azeroth will absolutely adore, but won't win over those who put the game to the side years ago or those who never took any interest in the genre in the first place.

Another step forward for Blizzard is their overall zone design. Northrend not only looks far more appealing than any of the old world content but also contains a wider variety of quests. It's an important development as many tend to complain about how getting quests to kill X number of mobs, pick Y bits of random crap off the ground, or collect Z collectibles off of corpses can make you want to tear your hair out, and rightfully so. Those types of quests are boring, and in Wrath of the Lich King Blizzard has not only strengthened storytelling, but it's greatly improved the quest structures.

You'll still spend time killing and collecting but quest chains are mixed up with vehicle missions, like running dragon battle daily quests at Wyrmrest Temple where you blast fireballs at other winged reptiles. There's sequences where you swoop around battlefields to snatch up survivors as well as numerous instances where you put on disguises to infiltrate enemy installations and quest for monsters which all work to alleviate the drooling stupor you might fall into after doing the same type of quest for hours on end. Some of these sequences don't work all that well though, like a giant-riding section in Zul'Drak and a defense sequence on a mountainside in Icecrown, but the glitches hardly affect the overall experience.

The zone designs contribute to the sense of variety as well through complex geographic layouts like the sprawling canyons of the Howling Fjord to the jungles of Sholazar Basin. The highest level zones of Storm Peaks and Icecrown are even more impressive, as they cater to players with flying mounts. In Icecrown, for instance, a quest hub floats over the zone in the form of a battleship. Not only does it make for an interesting setup as you fly up to receive tasks and can explore the innards of the ship, but builds on the notion that this is an epic conflict and allows for some gorgeous vistas as you fly out over the railing and behold the frozen wastes and Tolkien-esque black barbs of Icecrown Citadel and its snaking gates.

Then there's of course the instanced dungeons in which players battle tougher content but are rewarded with better items for their character. From the starting 5-man endeavors into The Nexus and Utgarde Keep to higher level instances like Gundrak, Wrath of the Lich King's basic dungeons are all fairly accessible and brief, meaning there aren't droves of mobs to battle through to get to the loot yielding bosses. We were moving through with pick-up groups in roughly 45 minutes, and that was without anyone having previous knowledge of the layout or boss attack patterns. The more involved raid dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King can be entered in either 10 or 25 man groups, yet again lowering the bar for players who may be intimidated by the more organized, team-oriented styles of play.

Beating on AI controlled bosses and leveling your character isn't the only option in World of Warcraft; there's also quite a bit of player versus player combat to be had. On open PvP servers you can slap around anyone of the opposing faction, but Blizzard has gradually added a number of more ordered systems to its game over the years, something expanded upon in Wrath of the Lich King. Wintergrasp, a zone dedicated entirely to PvP, lies buried near Northrend's center. It's an attempt by Blizzard to give more structure to larger scale conflicts, as players can enter the zone and after a timer counts down attempt to assault or defend a fortress. It's not something that's going to elevate the game's open PvP element to the level of Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, but it's still a nice change of pace from leveling or bashing bosses since, in addition to engaging in large-scale team battles, you can commandeer siege equipment armed with rams and destructive projectiles to break apart pieces of the stronghold, adding another element to the PvP gameplay.

The culture surrounding this new zone hasn't really matured at this point, though there's certainly potential. Something that's a little more measurable is the Strand of the Ancients battleground arena, a new type of set player limit see-saw battle where teams take sides storming a series of gates with siege equipment. It fits in with the general philosophy of the expansion pack where Blizzard takes what their player base enjoys and adds to it, in this case socketing another cog in the overall PvP machinery.

Plenty of smaller scale changes have been implemented on top of this, not the least of which is another new profession, Inscription, that among its many functions allows players to power up existing skills. Other profession systems have been adjusted as well. With Enchanting, one of our main character's professions, it's possible toenchant rings, though only your own. An achievement system has also been built into the game, evidence that Blizzard took a note from systems whirring in something like Microsoft's Xbox 360, where simply by virtue of adding in a goal, let's say kill a number of turkeys within a time limit, the company can keep its player base busy sometimes even without a reward beyond a higher achievement point total.

Not to deny the player base a fancy new hangout, Wrath of the Lich King includes a new capital city. Called Dalaran, the metropolis floats over the sparkling forests of Crystalsong on Icecrown's border, and comes with portals to other major cities, access to battlegrounds and Wintergrasp, and even its own instance, the Violet Hold, where groups fend off wave after wave of powerful enemies and bosses.

Dalaran, like the rest of the zones, is quite pretty thanks to graphical effects recently added into the game including real-time shadows and more detailed models. Pairing those upgrades with the more interesting zone designs and a return to more realistic settings, a refreshing change after the alien zones in Outland, and you've got a game that still manages to impress with scenes of occasional beauty. And of course you get character animations practically unparalleled in the genre, and a diverse range of spell and ability effects that easily allow players to identify another's class as soon as something's cast. Many of Warcraft's sounds will be familiar to players, but the music and effects are still of the highest quality. While running around Northrend you'll be treated to a score that works to enhance the overall feeling of the zones, and it's always great to listen to the Lich King's spiteful verbal barbs.

IGN Ratings for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)

Rating	Description
out of 10	click here for ratings guide
9.0	Presentation An incredibly polished game at this point and the new zones feature a far more cohesive narrative structure. As for interface, it'd be nice if Blizzard didn't lean so heavily on community add-ons.
8.5	Graphics Updated for the expansion, the visuals are sharp, colorful, and easy on the eyes. Excellent zone design makes the continent of Northrend seem more alive, and the animations are silky smooth.
8.5	Sound Well, if you've played the game before a lot of it will sound the same. Music tracks in zones work to enhance the mood. Overall an excellent audio package.
9.0	Gameplay The gameplay's going to be familiar to most, but the new class, changes to old classes, and the way Blizzard integrated story here makes the leveling process a lot more interesting.
9.0	Lasting Appeal Blizzard has added a dizzying amount of content mostly for high level players. The greater variety of quests, new venues for PvP, and wealth of new goals to chase should keep players entertained.
9.0 Outstanding	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)

Table of Contents

• Offical World of Warcraft Links
• WoW Item/Quest Databases and Utilities
• Strategy Guides
• Leveling Guides
• Class Guides
• Professions Guides

Offical World of Warcraft Links

Wrath of the Lich King site: News and updates on WoW's second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King.
Offical World of Warcraft Forums: Enter at own risk! =)
World of Warcraft/Burning Crusade Client Downloads: Useful if you need to reinstall but don't have your CDs available. This is for existing accounts.
Combat Ratings System Explained: This Blue post explains how to translate all of the new "ratings" numbers into percentages. Very helpful when trying to evaluate gear upgrades.
The Armory:Offline character viewer. You can see your (and others')characters on this site, and you can also check out the top rated arena teams. (Which is handy when you're starting out in PVP and want to compare builds of the top players.)
Official Patch Notes: Great for keeping up with changes to the game.

The following two links aren't official Blizzard websites, but the first is an affiliate and the second points you to official info:

Figure Prints: This company will create a 3D figure of your character based on your WoW Armory information. A bit pricey, but pretty neat too.
Blue Tracker: Very cool site which tracks Blue (official Blizzard posters, usually Community Managers, and sometimes Developers) posts on the WoW Forums.

WoW Item/Quest Databases and Utilities

Thottbot: One of the first WoW databases. Useful for lower level quest info, as WoWHead is newer, and sometimes lacks comments for lower level stuff.
Allakhazam:Another oldie, listed here for the same reason Thottbot is.

Curse Gaming WoW Addons: Repository for many useful User Interface addons.
WoW Interface.com: Another good UI mod site. I find the layout a little easier to navigate than Curse.

WoWHead Talent Calculator: I like this one better than the official talent calculator.
Official WoW Talent Calculator: That said, here's the official talent calculator.

Warcrafter.net: This is a replacement for the old CTProfiles site, which imports your character's armory profile, and lets you preview different gear and its effects on your stats. It's very nice, and very slick. It's also very impressive for a one man show. (Keep that in mind if you come across any bugs... this is the work of ONE guy!)

MaxDPS.com: Great guide to getting the most DPS out of your character.

Warcraft Realms Character Search: Shows a history of characters and what guilds they've been in.

WOWJutsu: A WoW guild progress ranking site.

**NEW** Warcraft Pets: Very nice site detailing all of the non-combat novelty pets in WoW, and how to get them.

**NEW** World of Warcraft Updating System: If you hate updating your mods manually every patch, this may be worth checking out. This is a handy utility that updates your UI mods automatically. It's an external program that fetches updates to mods and drops them into your /addons directory for you. It doesn't interact with your WoW.ex when the game is running, and appears to be completely legit.

I've had three family members using this program for about six months now with no problems, and it scans clean with my AV software, so I'm going to give it a try. If it causes me any problems, I'll remove this link. However, YOU are responsible for your computer's security, so you should use your own best judgment when loading any externals that interact with WoW.

**NEW!**Be Imba!: Character auditor. This site pulls character info from Armory profiles and gives an audit of gear, enchants and gems. This can be a helpful tool for checking a character's readiness for different levels of PVE content.

Strategy Guides 

WoWWiki:A wiki devoted to WoW, chock full of great information!

Bosskillers: This site has links to guides for killing raid bosses, including video links. Very handy when you're learning a new raid encounter.

Ten Ton Hammer's WoW Site: Another good general resource.

WoW Stratics: The Stratics site for World of Warcraft. A lot of useful info here, especially for pre-BC stuff.

World of Raids: You'll find strategy guides on the left side of the page, but this site has so much more! It could qualify for several sections here. The forums are one of the best, and the news on the front page is up to date and worth a regular visit in and of itself.

Elitist Jerks Forums: Tons of great info to be had here.

MMO Champion: Great site for news and previews. I always look here to see what's coming in the next patch.

PVP Scene: Great PVP resources and information.

Arena Junkies: Another good PVP resource, focused on Arenas.

Leveling Guides

(Paid)

I'll be posting a guide to basic power leveling principles soon, which explains how these quest stacking guides work, and why they work so well post patch 2.3.

You should be able to find some basic leveling info for each class in the class guides section.

Joana's Horde Leveling Guide
Brian Kopp's Alliance Leveling Guide

Update!

While cruising around WoWWiki, I found their article on Power Leveling, which has several links to leveling guides within the Wiki. As I said above, not as detailed at the above two guides, but free and perhaps useful.

WoWWiki Power Leveling Page

Class Guides

Class Guides and Dedicated Sites

Elitist Jerks Class Mechanics Forum: Excellent resource for the nitty gritty of class mechanics from a top guild's site.

WARRIOR

Warrior Guide Collection: Ciderhelm of Cenarius has collected a list of some of the best warrior guides available, covering tanking, dps and gearing.

Tankspot: Although this site also covers Druid and Paladin tanks, the focus of most of the material is around Warrior tanking.

Easy Pre-Karazhan and Pre-Heroic Warrior Tanking Gear Guide: This guide focuses on getting geared up quickly to begin tanking heroics and Karazhan for the fresh level 70 Warrior. It deemphasizes drops in favor of quested and crafted items.

MAGE

Fire Mage DPS Guide: Great guide for fire mages, also includes many links at the bottom of the page of interest to mages in general.

ROGUE

Osiris' Guide to Playing a Rogue v3.0: Very thorough Rogue guide.
Rogue Spot: The best dedicated Rogue website I've found.
Shadow Panther.net: Great gearing guide for Rogues.

HUNTER

Petopia: The ultimate resource for hunter pet info.

Pet Training Calculator:Very handy tool for figuring out your pet's build.

Big Red Kitty: Hunter Blog

Hunter Macros Thread:Some of the info here may be a little dated, but it's still a useful resource of hunter macros.

Good Intentions Hunter Pet Abilities Guide: A whomping huge chart of all Hunter pet abilities, and where to get them.

Steady /Auto Shot and Kill Command Macro: This thread details a macro to help you weave as close to 1:1 Auto/Steady shots, and execute Kill Command when it's up. Very, very nice macro for Beast Mastery hunters especially.

DRUID

Druid FAQ: Druid FAQ from the WoW forums. Good coverage of the basics.

**NEW**Druid Speed Chart: Handy chart to show you how fast you are in forms, including feral PVP set bonus and enchants.

Pre-Karazhan Bear Tanking Gear Guide: Guide aimed at getting your feral druid up to speed to tank heroics and/or start Karazhan as quickly as possible. The emphasis is on quested, crafted or rep items rather than drops or PVP items (though PVP items are great for ferals).

PALADIN

The Big List of Paladin Links: Another sticky post on the official WoW forums, Rill of Hellscream has compiled an impressive list of links to all things Paladin.

PRIEST

Lux et Umbra: a PvE Priest Handbook by Nightshroud of Alleria: Good PVE guide from the official WoW Priest forums.

Leveling a Priest: How To Do It Right by Covello of Cho'gall: I refer back to this one frequently while leveling my priest.

WARLOCK

In Depth Warlock FAQ by Maso of Kil'jaeden: Another sticky from the official WoW forums. Good info for any starting warlock.

SHAMAN

Guide to Shaman Guides: Perwira of Gorefiend has provided this list of links to Shaman guides, which is stickied on the official WoW Shaman forum.

DEATH KNIGHT

NEW! DeathKnight.info: It is what it says, a page with Death Knight info from WOTLK Beta! Nicely done compilation of beta DK info.

Death Knight FAQ on Curse Gaming: Curse presents the Death Knight FAQ from the WoW European forums.

Note: Death Knights will be available in the upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, and not much is known about them except what has been given out in some interviews or some developer posts.

I remember reading a very well-done page tracking all available Death Knight info, but cannot locate it now. If you know a good, comprehensive Death Knight page, please send me the URL via the e-mail link in the author section at the top of this page.

Professions Guides 

GENERAL

Guides (all) List on Ten Ton Hammer: The Professions guides are on the top right of the content section of the page. These are the most comprehensive guides I've found.

List of Professions Guides on Official WoW Forums: I haven't reviewed all the links here, but it's an impressive collection.

FISHING and COOKING

WoWWiki Fishing and Cooking Power Leveling Guide: Great guide, very detailed. I used this to go from 0-375 in both Cooking and Fishing on my Mage.

Jewel Crafting

WoW Gem Finder: Handy tool for looking up gems.

All World of Warcraft Guide Reviews

Gold Guides

• Hayden Hawke's Secret Gold Guide
• Massive Gold Blueprint
• Gold Secrets Cash Creating Guide
• Valkor Gold Making Guide
• Killer Guides Gold Guide
• Spugnort Gold Making Guide
• Warcraft Riches

Leveling Guides

• Zygor Horde & Alliance Leveling Guides
• Joana Horde Leveling Guide
• Spugnort Horde Leveling Guide
• Team iDemise Alliance Leveling Guide
• Penn Alliance Leveling Guide
• Killer Guides 1-80 Alliance Leveling Guide
• Killer Guides 1-80 Horde Leveling Guide 
• Spugnort Alliance Leveling Guide
• Brian Kopp Alliance Leveling Guide

Multi-purpose Guides

• The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide
• Dugi Dailies & Events Guide

PvP Guides

• Dugi Ultimate PvP Guide
• Spugnort PvP Strategy Guide
• Killer Guides PvP Guide

Class Guides

• Killer Guides Death Knight Guide
• Killer Guides Druid Guide
• Killer Guides Hunter Guide
• Killer Guides Mage Guide
• Killer Guides Paladin Guide
• Killer Guides Priest Guide
• Killer Guides Rogue Guide
• Killer Guides Shaman Guide
• Killer Guides Warlock Guide
• Killer Guides Warrior Guide

Profession Guides

• Penn Ultimate Profession Guide
• Killer Guides Profession Guide

Guild Guides

• Guild Helper Guild Creation Guide
• Killer Guides Guild Guide  

Instance Guides

• Spugnort Instance Guide
• Killer Guides Raiding Guide

Beginner Guides

• World Of Warcraft Mastery
• Killer Guides Strategy Guide

 Expansion Guides

• Killer Guides Complete Guide Package
• Killer Guides Burning Crusade Guide
• Killer Guides WotLK Guide
• WotLK Secrets
• Spugnort Reputation Guide

Guides to avoid

• Warcraft Ultimate