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World of Warcraft Expansion Details Leaked

Posted by timothy on Tue May 20, 2008 08:56 AM
from the now-with-even-more-imaginary-stuff dept.
Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games
JavaLord writes "The new expansion to World of Warcraft titled "Wrath of the Lich King" recently went into friends and family alpha testing. Some of the first screenshots, along with notes on new spells have been leaked on the world of warcraft forums and other websites only to be pulled down. As usual, the internet routes around censorship, and the low down on Wrath of the Lich King can be found here."
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[+] World of Warcraft - Wrath Of the Lich King Is In Alpha 303 comments
simrook writes to tell us that World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has entered closed alpha testing, as reported by WoWInsider. Wrath of the Lich King, which we've discussed previously, will raise the level cap to 80 and introduce a new class: Death Knights. World of Warcraft remains the most popular MMORPG on the market with over 10 million subscribers. WoWInsider notes, "Various players are being invited to check it out, under a strict NDA."
Submission: World of Warcraft expansion details leaked. by JavaLord (680960)
[+] World of Warcraft Achievement System Rumored 86 comments
Kotaku has the merest hint of a rumor about a possible achievement system coming with Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King expansion. "You know what World of Warcraft players really need? Another reason not to get up out of their chair, and Blizzard might be giving that to them in the form of in-game achievements in the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. According to DeathKnight.info, players in the Wrath of the Lich King alpha can type /achievement to bring up a screen like the one above, which shows various achievements that can be performed for points, which will more than likely then go towards buying gear and such."
[+] Talent Build Examples for Blizzard's New Death Knight 130 comments
With Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King NDA out of the way, there has been the inevitable flood of information about the new expansion hitting the streets. One of the most sought-after pieces of information is anything about the new class being introduced, the Death Knight. Massively has a great summary, with video examples, of the three different avenues available to the Death Knight. From the AE strengths of unholy, to the life-stealing blood tree, to the control of the frost tree, it seems that this new juggernaut is certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with.
[+] Large Content Patch To Precede Upcoming WoW Expansion 159 comments
Blizzard has announced they will be releasing a sizable patch to prepare for the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft. The patch, similar to one they released prior to the first expansion, will include the new profession (Inscription), new talents for each class, and two new arenas. The patch will be up on the Public Test Realm "soon," according to a Blizzard rep, but it will require significant testing before reaching the live servers. Blizzard developers Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack gave a related interview recently to Videogamer in which they mentioned that a graphical reboot for World of Warcraft "may never be necessary." We've been following the development of Wrath of the Lich King for a while now.
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  • if that page is any indication of what will be coming with WotLK, there will be quite a few upset customers.

    them and that dreaded line 163!

  • damn you world of warcraft (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gigiya (1022729) on Tuesday May 20 2008, @09:04AM (#23474876)
    i want my fiancee back

  • Fakkkkkkeeeeeee (Score:5, Informative)

    by feyhunde (700477) on Tuesday May 20 2008, @09:08AM (#23474922)
    A few of the notes maybe real. Several are fake.

    The biggest issue is the maps are known fakes circulated for the last 6 months. Maps have been historically one of the last items finished. I beta tested the burning crusade, Maps were added in one of the last beta patches, especially the map for outlands.

    Not to mention they have melee talents for a magic class...

    • The warlocks talents seem to be a dead giveaway that those talents are fake. I don't think Blizzard would ever consider putting a "demon form" tanking talent in a magic dps class. It's just something the developers have explicitly said they will never, ever do because "that ruined Everquest".

      Blizzard's developers are terribly afraid of magic classes being able to dps and tank at the same time.
      • It's not a tanking talent though. A 360% buff on armor is much less than the druid's 450% increase, and they wear cloth which is generally 50% less armor than leather. It looks like a solo/pvp talent to me.
      • The dead give away is actually the Warrior Titan Grip talent rather than the Warlock ones. Titan Grip was a fake "leaked" talent for Burning Crusade. I don't see Blizzard taking something someone made up a year and a half ago, and saying "Hey, lets actually put that in the game, and give it the same name they did."
      • Titan Grip is also something leftover from the fake TBC Fury talent build.
    • Well considering Age of Conan is due to be released today I think (or tomorrow?) I would be expecting some well timed "leaks" from Blizzard.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by radarjd (931774)

        You start the game at level 55? Yea right.

        The Death Knight is a Hero Class -- available to anyone with a character over level 55, starting at level 55. See also Gamespot's preview [gamespot.com]

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Kenoli (934612)
        Funny how you wouldn't believe the only real piece of information.

  • Take all this info with a grain of salt... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Necroman (61604) on Tuesday May 20 2008, @09:10AM (#23474948)
    Almost all this info is coming from MMOwned Forum [mmowned.com] from what I've seen. Almost all of it is from data mining the data files, so it is no real indication of what is really active in the game. Many times, spells and items are in the data files that are never really included, this is even more true for WotLK.

    The screenshots and models are probably near final versions, but spells and the like are questionable.
  • now that activision has a say, will it get better or worse as it goes along?

  • WoWWiki - Wrath of the Lich King (Score:4, Informative)

    by WuphonsReach (684551) on Tuesday May 20 2008, @09:11AM (#23474978)
    Probably one of the easiest places to get info about the upcoming expansion is WoWWiki's Wrath of the Lich King page [wowwiki.com].

    Since I'm not in the alpha testing, I can't comment to the veracity of what is on WoWWiki's site, but the editors over there seem to be fairly good.
  • Great. Another expansion that adds "more of the same" to an already tired genre.

    The nature of MMOs is that an expansion can't REALLY add anything that's very different than everything else in the game. This is because of that magical word "Balance"

    Power gamers play these games and figure out what is the "best" of everything, and exploit that knowledge to be the "best" in the game. This means that everything new added to the game cannot deviate to far from the existing paradigms, such as damage-ove
    • Not totally true. One of the nicest thing about FFXI's expansions is that on top of a number of hours of more storyline, almost every one of them has added totally new things that where never in the game before ToAU added instance battles, chocobo breeding and racing, a Pokemon type game to play between players, and city attacks. WotG added a whole new battlesystem in the past that involves campaigns against enemy armys without the need to be in a massive alliance. This also changed the whole nature of XP
        • Never did, but there is no need. They just lowered the port level for outposts in those regions, but even at that it was totally unneeded. Of course these days you a idiot if your leveling there in a party as there are so many better and faster solo ways to go.
        • Boy thats just a pack ton full of lies.

          1) Still 500,000-600,000 and actually going up a bit since there are talks for another server rebalancing.

          2) your deluding yourself if you think any of the Aht Urgahn areas looks like Gustaburg, or the Dunes. IF there is one thing SE got really good at its in making zones look gorgeous, much more than I ever though Blizzard with its cartoony as hell looking areas did.

          3)There hasnt been a small number of armor or enemy models in 3 years. And last I looked Colibri

          • There are two reasons that make WoW better than FFXI, even if everything else is worse (which I would dispute):

            1) Mobs don't follow you all the way to the edge of the zone.

            2) You don't lose XP, or even worse, level down. The people who put XP loss and levelling down in games need to be beaten with a stick until they agree to stop making games for the rest of their lives.

            Either one of those would be bad alone. Together, they're horrible. I'm sorry, but a game where I can't run away from a bad situation e

            • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

              by Xner (96363)
              Actually, it's a programming thing. The computer science thing is the same as the math thing, the little corner thingy. Computer science and programming are not quite the same thing.

    • Great. Another expansion that adds "more of the same" to an already tired genre.
      10 million subscribers are a tired genre? Sure.

      The nature of MMOs is that an expansion can't REALLY add anything that's very different than everything else in the game. This is because of that magical word "Balance"
      You obviously haven't played pre Burning Crusade WoW. Plenty of changes were introduced from vanilla WoW to TBC that weren't just more of the same, for example, gear progression was made way more diverse instead of the old raid or STFU paradigm.

      TBC introduced:
      - Gear progression for solo play (crafting, PvP). You can finally craft powerful items.
      - Competitive PvP that doesn't require you to stop living and play 28h a day and it's based mostly on skill (I am perfectly aware that is not perfect). Arena system.
      - Heroic dungeons with their own gear progression.
      - Completely eliminated the trinity of warrior + priest + mage. It's not perfect but all classes have various abilities that are wanted in the game, it's no more let's wait for the protection warrior to log on so we can do something.
      - Socket system.

      Stuff TBC will introduce:
      - Death Knight class, with its own unique game mechanics: not mana, not rage, not energy. Something unique.
      - The 25 man raids will have a 10 man version. So you won't have to run the same Karhazan instance until your eyes bleed. Variety. Options. Something they started with TBC, to allow everyone to experience every facet and story of the game.
      - Brand new crafting profession. Again, different than the flock we have now.
      - Some other stuff we are unaware of.

      Power gamers play these games and figure out what is the "best" of everything, and exploit that knowledge to be the "best" in the game. This means that everything new added to the game cannot deviate to far from the existing paradigms, such as damage-over-time, healing-per-mana-point, etc etc
      I wonder why the FIFA doesn't sanction head butts a la Zidane since that would add 'diversity' and 'deviate' from current football rules. Oh wait ... maybe because football is about kicking a ball and not head butting your opponent in the chest? Same way WoW is about casting spells and using offensive melee abilities. If you want to play a sci-fi MMOG go play Eve Online. If you want to play an FPS go play Quake. WoW is a medieval fantasy setting game, you can't really deviate from its core rules. You can't add a B-52 bomber to the game because it would make no sense.

      When people buy these expansions they are really just paying for additional artwork of the new monsters.
      And when you buy the new music CD from your favorite band you are just buying 'additional' notes and artwork right? How about books? Just additional words?

      • You can't add a B-52 bomber to the game because it would make no sense.
        Tell that to the Draenei, I think they are still steamed over the Blood Elves stealing their precious space ship...
      • I harbor a deep and impenetrable sadness due to the fact that I realize I will most likely be playing WoW again once WotLK is released.

        Deep. And Impenetrable.
      • How can you even call autohit in pvp 'skill'? WoW pvp is immensely dependent on gear/class/level, with player skill only making up a fraction of the equation, and even then the only skill is knowing when to mana dump or time your skill uses / cooldowns.
        • Spoken like someone who's never played WoW PvP. A good player may not be able to compete in bad gear, but neither can a bad player compete in good gear.
    • If you already hate MMOs, why bother posting. Personally, I thought the Burning Crusade expansion actually improved a lot on the original game experience. Quests were more interesting, there was more to do, and they had some neat ideas.

      As far as the other garbage you spew, even if they change significantly (and they actually did past 60), people will just do the math and figure out how things have changed. So they are free to deviate as much as they want and balance in the future if necessary.

      When p
    • Dude, I have just 2 words for you on this: "Flying mounts". The addition of flying mounts has totally changed the dynamics of the game for me (well, in Outland at least :-) Being able to land behind a group of critters or drop straight down to pick flowers. Way cool. Not to mention the sightseeing (landing on top of the mushrooms in Zangermarsh is pretty fun).
      Anyway, I think Blizz has done a great job. There are plenty of quests (including daily ones now) that keep this little casual p
  • Will this new expansion have quests? Oh please say it will... I've only got another 80 or so to go from the last expansion before I run out!

    Come see me on Fenris, Alliance side!
  • You'd think in a game with such a dearth of content and so many subscribers, they'd release more expansions.
    • While I agree, I also understand why Blizzard did what they did. They worked on developing free content for their existing expansion instead of devoting 100% of their resources on a new one. If you look at what's been added since the TBC release, a pretty significant amount of content has been added.
      • Wait, there's MMO's that take paid for expansions?...
      • To be fair, all of that stuff was planning for the expansion, it just wasn't completed in time. IN FACT, it's very likely that the Bugs in the Lady Vashj encounter were in place specifically to make the encounter impossible, just to slow down the higher level guilds until Mount Hyjal and Black Temple were completed. The week Blizzard released MH/BT, they also fixed a massive bug in the Vashj encounter, which made it so a large number of the guilds who were stuck on her were able to kill her that week. Wh
        • Black Temple, yes, I agree it was supposed to be in the expansion. Sunwell Plateau and Magister's Terrace, I'm not so sure about.
    • You can't really say there's a lack of content in WoW. There's a crapload, and there's always more being added.
      Full blown expansions take a lot of work. How fast do you think they can make them?
  • You can't honestly tell me that this leak wasn't intentional (or made up by rabid, scared fanboys) seeing that it was released on the eve of the release of the biggest MMO release in the past year, Age of Conan. I believe the preorders for AoC have already toppled 750k and, being an action oriented game, it probably stands a good chance to do fairly well even with the casual crowd.
  • Is the truck from the TV commercial. I haven't found that in the Burning Crusade yet.

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