But whats so great about this vendor trash 2-4 damage sword? Well, its really 2-178 damage and can be equipped by a level 1. This is AMAZING for a warrior because rend is based off weapon damage. At level 13 it was doing 140 damage a tick with rend. Remember that roaster oven on T.V. with the old dude that shouted “set it and forget it”? Well, now you can “rend it and forget it”. Simply rend everything in sight and walk away as the dot will kill it in 2-3 ticks. I picked this up, put a crusader enchant on it, and took my warrior from 13-20 in a couple hours. You have about a week to take advantage of this awesome item before they put a lvl 70 requirement on it next patch.

Here is a little video showing a level 5 using this.

With Arena Season 5 launching on December 16, we wanted to provide some helpful information. The method in which Arena or Honor items can be purchased will be slightly different then how it was before. For Arena items, there will be 3 tiers of purchasable set items that includes pieces for the Head, Shoulders, Chest, Gloves, and Legs as follows:

Tier 1 – Superior (blue) quality items:

* No rating requirements
* Costs Honor and Arena points
* Equivalent to heroic dungeon items

Tier 2- Epic (purple) quality items:

* Medium rating requirements
* Costs Arena points
* Equivalent to 10-person raid items

Tier 3 – Epic (purple) quality items:

* High rating requirements
* Costs Arena points
* Equivalent to 25-person raid items
* This tier will also contain Arena weapons

In addition, there will be two tiers of Honor items that includes pieces for the neck, ring, boots, belt, bracer, and trinket as follows:

Tier 1 – Epic (purple) quality items:

* Medium rating requirements
* Costs Honor points
* Equivalent to 10-person raid items

Tier 2 – Epic (purple) quality items:

* High rating requirements
* Costs Honor points
* Equivalent to 25-person raid items

We currently have no plans to add a 40-player dungeon into Wrath of the Lich King. We fully anticipate making the 10 and 25-player dungeons and raids challenging as a part of their progression.

You can say what you like about whether or not a 10-player dungeon is truly challenging if you wish, but they take coordination and require each player to play their role to their best ability to succeed.

When it comes to whether or not Arthas will be epic enough, we are working to maintain the epic feel of the encounter and have been discussing ways of doing this that should be appropriate. One idea that has been talked about was whether or not it would require a 25-player group to defeat Arthas before it ever opens up to 10-player groups.

What we end up with is yet to be decided.

I think it would suck to have to wait until a 25 raid beat the encounter before those of us who can only field 10 even get a chance to see it. But after being part of an uberguild I can see where they are coming from, having 10 people walk up and kill arthas doesn’t seem too epic. What do you think about limiting the 10 player raids in WOTLK?

WotLK Preview – Info Summary

The following is a compilation of information from Curse , Gamespy and Eurogamer using the patch notes layout, for a better readability.

General

• Players will unlock their flying mounts at level 77
• You can use your Outland flying mount, and Blizzard will have new flying mounts for players to get as well
• The Northrend in Wrath of the Lich King is considerably larger than Outland, the area explored by players in Burning Crusade. That means not only are there larger numbers of zones to explore, many of them are so large that they’ve been divided into “sub-zones,” much like Terrokar Forest and the Auchindon Waste in Outland.
• The new “vehicle” system will enable characters to “drive” an object around. One example Blizzard gave them: Players will fly over a human settlement being overrun with the Scourge, lowering a ladder down to pull up and rescue civilians. In one dungeon instance, players will be able to “liberate” some blue dragons that they can mount up and fly around, fighting their way up a massive tower.

Old Azeroth contents used in Northrend
• There are quests and content relating to the Worgen and the sons of Arugal (from Silverpine Forest) and everyone’s favorite religious fanatics, the Scarlet Crusade (called the Scarlet Onslaught in Northrend).
• They’re also advancing the Forsaken storyline, adding in uniquely Forsaken building architecture and giving the player more chances to help in their Wile E. Coyote-like quest to kill every living thing on Azeroth.

Factions

• The Argent Dawn faction returns in Zul’Drak.
• In Sholazar Basin, players will take part in a faction-reputation war between the Wolvar (sentient wolves) and Oracles (“the next evolution of the Murlocs”). A much lighter take on reputation gaming is promised here, with players actively encouraged to defect to the other side at will.

Professions

Inscription
• Inscribers will create glyphs that allow players to modify their spells and abilities.
• The first recipe is going to requires Peacebloom, thus they’ll rely on the herbalist gathering profession.
• Every player will get a new spell book page to which they can add six glyphs – currently, four major and two minor.
• Major glyphs will be effective in combat – adding damage over time or stun to a physical attack, for example – while minor glyphs will give convenient or cosmetic improvements, removing the need for some spell reagents.

Dungeons & Raids

• Similar to World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, all 5-person dungeons will have a Heroic mode, and the loot tables for the 2 modes will be totally separate. Heroic dungeons will have their own “Tier” of armor completely unique to that level dungeon.
• The regular five-man instances take around one hour or less to beat (this probably won’t be the case for the heroic versions)
• Zero raid bosses have been designed at this point

New “two-tier” raiding system
• All raid dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King will have both 25-person and 10-person versions
- 25-person raiding progression is not dependent on 10-person raiding; players will not have to obtain keys or attunements in 10-person raids to participate in 25-person raids
- 10- and 25-person raids both have their own, independent progression paths
• Players will receive more, higher level rewards for completing the 25-person raid dungeons over the 10-person version

Dragonblight
• Players will interact with Arthas for the first time at a relatively low level, around 71-74 in Dragonblight – the final encounter with him won’t be until the final patch of the Lich King cycle, some time after release.
• The Chamber of Aspects in Dragonblight will offer a series of different single-encounter short raids with dragon bosses.

Coldara
• Coldara (a sub-zone of Borean Tundra) is a three-wing dungeon for 70s, 80s and a short Onyxia-style raid against Malygos himself.
• Coldara is structurally a broken tower with rotating rings surrounding a column of blue energy.
• During some of the boss encounters, players will actually free drakes to fly around the ring. Using the game’s new vehicle technology, players will be able to engage in free flight around the dungeon and use some of the drake’s abilities to take on some of the dungeon’s challenges.

A quick description of some of the spells:
• Death Coil — Depletes all Runic Power, dealing 600 damage to a non-Undead target, or healing 900 damage on a friendly target.
• Death Grip — This is the Death Knight’s “taunt” ability. It also pulls the target to the Death Knight, forcing them to attack the Death Knight for a short amount of time. Yes, I said pulls the target; Blizzard is going to allow players to move mobs in the expansion both with Death Grip, and other knockback/pull abilities. This works on players too, so PvP balance ahoy!
• Chains of Ice — Roots the target in place. When the spell fades, it places a snare on the target that reduces in potency as the duration runs out.
• Raise Dead — Raises a nearby corpse to fight for the Death Knight for 2 minutes. If used on a player corpse, the player has the option to play as the ghoul for the duration — gaining access to the ghoul’s abilities.
- The ghoul has the ability to do the following:
– Leap to the target
– Rend for decent damage-over-time
– Stun target, and of course more
• Death Pact — Sacrifices the raised ghouls to heal the Death Knight.
• Death and Decay — Targeted, AoE Damage-over-time which pulses similar to the Paladin spell Consecration. Anyone affected by Death and Decay has a chance to be feared.
• Frost Presence — Increases Armor by 45% and allows the Death Knight to generate 25% more threat. Only one presence can be active at any time.
• Unholy Presence — Increases Attack Speed and Movement speed by 15%. Only one presence can be active at any time. This was described by Tom Chilton as the “PvP” presence.
• Anti-magic Shield — Reduces the damage of the next magical spell cast on the Death Knight by 75%. It also converts the damage reduced into Runic Power.
• Strangulate — Depletes all Runic Power, dealing minor damage and silencing the target for up to 5 seconds.
• Summon Deathcharger — Allows the Death Knight to summon a Deathcharger mount. This mount is acquired through quests, similar to the Paladin and Warlock land mounts.

A quick recap of the information they were told about the Death Knight:
• Death knights will be available to all players with level 55 characters
• Players can create one death knight per realm, per account
• Death knights can be any of the races
• Once created, death knights can undertake a series of quests to introduce the player to the new class and its associated lore
• Death knights utilize a rune system as their resource mechanic
- Three different rune types are available: Unholy, Frost, and Blood
- These runes allow death knights to cast spells and abilities; spells can cost any combination of these runes
- Spent runes automatically refresh after a set period of time, similar to a rogue’s energy bar
- The death knight will have the ability to customize which array of six runes is currently available
• As rune abilities are used, the death knight also generates another resource called Runic Power
- The death knight will have several abilities that cost all available Runic Power, with varying levels of effectiveness based on total Runic Power spent
- Runic Power decays over time if it’s not spent, similar to a warrior’s rage bar
• The death knight has three different presences to use: Blood, Frost, and Unholy; each presence grants the death knight a unique buff that will allow him or her to fulfill different roles in combat
• The death knight can serve either as a tank or as a melee-based damage-dealing class
• Death knights are designed to be highly viable tanking, magic-using characters
• Death knights will have the ability to summon undead guardians to fight by their side
• Death knights will have the ability to summon a Deathcharger mount.

We expect most players to battle through this dungeon at a brisk pace. You will find that you will probably be able to play through Utgarde Keep much more quickly than its high-level counterparts, similar to Burning Crusade equivalents such as Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace. Accessibility is a high priority, especially with the early dungeons, both in terms of location — the entrance portal is extremely close to the outskirts of the town — and in terms of how much time players need to invest in the dungeon. Along these lines, the overall difficulty of the dungeon is comparable to a first attempt at Ramparts in
Outland.

A bit on what they learned from The burning Crusade:

We learned some important lessons from The Burning Crusade’s starting area and dungeons, in terms of both what worked and what didn’t, and these lessons are reflected in Northrend. For example, there are two starting areas, each with its own dungeon, as opposed to The Burning Crusade’s single Hellfire Peninsula / Hellfire Citadel combo. The reasoning behind this is to provide a choice to the player — the area you decide to start in is where you will spend your early levels in Northrend. You can also decide to travel to the other starting area at any time, thanks to a free travel system between the zones of Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord, but most players will likely gravitate toward one area in order to complete the various quests there. Having two starting areas also adds to Wrath of the Lich King’s replayability — when it’s time to pick a starting area for an alt, you can pick the one that you didn’t play through the first time around.

It’s a very interesting preview of the dungeon and some of the new art looks amazing. Be sure to check it out here!

• The new battleground in the expansion will be 15 man running along the same time frame as AB. This will introduce the ability to use siege weapons and destroy your enemies buildings.
• There is a non-instanced PvP zone by the name of Lake Wintergrasp, which will be similar to Eastern Plaguelands and Hellfire Peninsula.
• The inscription tradeskill will allow you to alter spells, possibly resulting in fireballs with knockback or stun.
• Dalaran has moved from Hillsbrad to an area just north of Dragonblight, it has also become Northrends new capital city. Dalaran will float in the air but you still can get to it via ground, flying mount, and flight paths.
• Two starting zones so you have a choice of where to level as soon as you step foot in northrend

The Death Knight

• There will be some kind of quest line at level 80 which will unlock the Death Knight hero class
• When created you will start at a higher level, between 55-70
• Designed to be a hybrid class, with the ability to tank or DPS
• Able to use plate armor
• They do not use shields! you have to tank with a 2 hander or dual wield.
• Different from a warrior because their skills also include magic
• Get a summoning spell called “army of the dead”

Runes

• Death Knight is the only class that can use the new rune system
• Three types of runes, blood, frost, and holy. Players can carve these into their weapons in order to gain new abilities.
• The runes you are using will appear on your UI, similar to buffs
• Runes have a cooldown which can be modified by talents and attributes

Trailer

Blizzcon Northrend Panel
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – Part 6

Pre-Wrath of the Lich King

• There is another 25 man coming that will be harder than Black Temple
• Naxx may be revamped and set as an intro raid instance for Northrend
• Possibly a new 5 man dungeon

Be sure to check out the the post we made yesterday Lich King announced!. It includes a map and the list of zones in Northrend.

Also, we have edited our FAQ post with the official one here. Which you can find, along with the trailer, wallpaper, and concept art over at the main Wrath of the Lich King site.

• The dark, necromatic Death Knight, the first new character class added to World of Warcraft since its launch.
• Northrend, the harsh, icy continent where the Lich King holds rule, complete with new zones, quests, items and monsters.
• New level cap of 80 providing access to mighty new powers and talents
• New battlegrounds featuring siege engine warfare and destructable buildings
• Expanding character customisation options including new hairstyles & dances, the ability to change the hairstyles of existing characters, and new skin color variants.
• New trade skill “inscription” which allows the player to permanently enhance their spells and abilities and to create mysterious items of power to use, trade, and sell. The new cap for tradeskills will be 450

Map and zones

• Coldarra
• Crystalsong Forest
• Grizzly Hills
• Howling Fjord
• Icecrown Glacier
• Sholazar Basin
• The Borean Tundra
• The Dragonblight
• The Stormpeaks
• Zul’Drak

Check out the latest details in our newest post Wrath of the Lich King details

worldofwarcraft.com/wrath is now active and contains the trailers that were shown at Blizzcon this morning.

As always we will continue to post more information as it becomes available so keep checking back today and tomorrow for all the latest news.