Tagged News: northrend

The continuation of the introduction to the adventures of The Mage they call Jayne(z) and The Awesome Brigade.

An introduction to the Wrath of the Lich King by The Mage they call Jayne(z), part of the continuing adventures of The Awesome Brigade.

WarCry's own Whitney Butts sits down with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at the Worldwide Invitational 2008 and shares her thoughts!

The official bestiary guide for Wrath of the Lich King has been updated. The latest addition is the Iron Dwarf, denizen of Northrend:

The Explorers' League has scoured the far corners of the world, seeking to uncover the truth behind the origins of the dwarves. Now it seems they may be one step closer to unlocking the secrets of the past.

The latest clues come from ancient dig sites within the Howling Fjord, where the iron dwarves were first encountered. Etched with runes of power - and with lightning pulsing beneath their thick, metallic skin - they may represent the missing link between the dwarves and the legendary titans of myth. Unfortunately the malevolent iron dwarves have openly defied the Explorers' League and seem intent on destroying any and all artifacts connecting them to the shadowed recesses of history.

In an interview over at MMO Gamer, Jeffery 'Tigole' Kaplan lets drop a few interesting ideas and tidbits about the past and future of WoW's end-game. While the interview is a great look into how Tigole's past as a hardcore EQ raider plays into his development philosophy with WoW, the more interesting part has to do with Naxxramas:

So what I want to do in Northrend is to take Naxxramas in all of its glory, scale it down to the 25 man raid size, and then take the difficulty and retune it-obviously we'd tune for level 80, it would no longer be tuned for level 60, since that would be a little silly and it wouldn't be a lot of fun for people at that point-but I want to put rewards in there that are very exciting to level 80 players, but make it the entry-level raid, very accessible, tune the encounters so that there's something for everybody to do, and let the majority get a chance to see that content that they hadn't seen before.

For those who never got a chance to experience Naxxramas, it's no surprise the developers want to get it out there. Filled with unique and well tuned (at least, now) encounters, the whole place is a great example of Blizzard's unique sense of humor and art style. While many of the lower-level bosses in Outland mirror some of the encounters in the Dread Citadel, some (like Heigan) simply have to be seen to be believed. Even now some level 70 players organize raids simple to say they've killed Kel'thuzad or perhaps obtain the Corrupted Ashbringer.

With Blizzcon barreling down upon us like a rampaging kodo, there's only one thing we can really do before the excitement of the convention hall floor: speculate.

Rumors have been flying about lately that the next expansion to WoW is likely to be announced during a cryptically labeled hour long section on the Blizzcon schedule. While it could very well be the Emerald Dream, a few pieces of evidence seem to suggest that a frostier climate rests in our future, namely that of Northrend.

The rumors have mostly been circulating due to a recent patenting of the name "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King" and other random bits of internet sleuthing. While some seem to suggest that this makes the expansion a sure thing, the only official thing we have to go on is a long ago response by Drysc that informed us that we would have to be level 80 to fight Arthas, the assumed final boss of the Northrend expansion. Many of the specifics regarding the speculation can be found at the always useful WoWiki entry on "Wrath of the Lich King".

While the announcement of such an expansion would overall be great for us players, the potential for another level cap increase raises the question: "Is it too soon?" It took over a year for the Burning Crusade expansion to be released after it was announced and even then many players never got a chance to fully experience the pre-60 game, especially the incredibly well designed Naxxramas. Releasing yet another expansion, even if the development time mirrored that of BC, could potentially send the current raid content spiraling down into the purgatory that Ragnaros and Kel'thuzad currently inhabit. Unfortunately, all we can do is speculate, as Blizzard hasn't officially announced anything.

Until then, enjoy the murloc suit, the latest bit of Blizzcon swag.