Results tagged “Death Knight” from From the Abbey to Outlands

Below you will find a gallery of a few of the more spectacular sights I saw in the month or so between the launch of Wrath and when my paladin Medros dinged 80. Enjoy.

If you are like me, you have noticed on those rare trips to Shattrath City that it seems to have been abandoned! Well, ok, the NPCs are all still there, the Naaru still protect the city, and Ezekiel still patrols the Terrace of the Light in a never ending journey. The heroes of the Alliance and Horde have abandoned the city to it's fate, though. Well, ok, not all members of the Horde and Alliance are gone. Those of the healing persuasions as well as these new death dealing plate wearers that have recently rejoined their respective factions.

I was wondering if anyone has thought of the potential ramifications of this center of Outlands being virtually abandoned? At least old world content still has the class trainers and auction houses in their favor. Do you think Burning Crusade content has anything going for it? Do you think there will always be lowbies and hero classes coming through that content in order and keeping it relevant? Or will it be relegated to the mothballs like so many old world dungeons? How must it feel to work at Blizzard and know years of work might be virtually mothballed by the next expansion?

I have asked before about preparation and plans surrounding Wrath before, but I thought it might be a good time to check in again, since when I asked before we were a long way off from Wrath's launch, coming in three days. So the first part was asking what you will be doing in the last 24 hours before Wrath launches? Will you be trying to get a few last items sold on the AH? Will you be grinding out some rep? Doing a few dailies whole they still return gold? Working to get your professions up to 350 in order to bring your skills up to where they start in Wrath? Respeccing or regemming to more leveling friendly specs or stats. Or maybe you just plan to farm for lowbies or your planned Death Knight? Me, I have plans to increase my xp gain right away on install.

Now to after the expansion hits. What are your plans for after the expansion goes live? Will you choose to be a servant of the Lich King? Will you hop a ride north and begin taking our fight to that very King? If so, will you be hitting up Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord? Going to Northrend to learn new levels of gathering skills, but going to Outlands to get skill ups? Working on Outlands or Azeroth to do old stuff to scour lag? Or are you pretty new to WoW, or too low, for Wrath to really matter to your game play? I also wonder how many just won't be getting the expansion, and instead will spend the day of and those after the expansion just reveling in how quickly Outlands cleared out? I will take all my 70s to Northrend for training but at least my Druid will keep farming Outlands for herbs to level alchemy and inscription.

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Within a few hours several members of the order are gathered, those who are willing to travel to Northrend at the same time as Connroe in order to plant the packages, even though they may die, and the final instructions are given to the gathered soldiers. A few minutes later, Medros and Connroe are given a few last minutes to talk before his return to Northrend. Medros takes out a small knife with the Isen family crest on it, and raises it.

Connroe looks on in horror as Med cuts off his long hair, hair he was always so proud of when he was growing up, hair grown in their father's image. Medros then follows this by cutting his own hand, and sprinkling a fair amount of blood onto the strands of hair he cut off. He then hands both the length of hair and the bloodied dagger to Connroe.

"These will be your proof to your 'master' that I am dead at your hand. You must be detailed in how I died and not show any concern if he mentions our relation. If this goes as planned we will soon be reunited once the Lich King is killed and the world freed of his terror. Perhaps..." Medros pauses, "perhaps we can even return to Westfall at some point, and look at reclaiming the old farm, Conn"

The brothers quickly embrace before Connroe is led to the upper floor of the structure, Medros following hesitantly in the wake of his escort. Lord Fordring offers Connroe the dais, where a similar stone to the one that Medros threw him in Northrend sits, except this one is much larger, almost as if the smaller was formed in the image of this, but more portable.

"This will return you to the place you came to us from. In the bundle at your feet is the body of one of our fallen soldiers who died valiantly. You should bury him in the ground of Northrend and take the Lich King the evidence of your brothers death. By the time anyone can check, the body will be merely a skeleton in the ground. You have been told where to go for the means to communicate with us. We only ask you tell us where we might intercept the Lich King's forces and beat them back where we can. Are you ready Connroe Isen?" Fordring asks

"I am, but I just need to ask one thing..." Connroe requests, receiving a nod from the leader of the Order. "What is in this place, the feeling here... it is as if it were pure light..."

"Yes, as if it were pure..." Fordring says, not finishing the thought. "Safe travels, and may the Light protect you when only darkness surrounds you, Connroe."

Those were the last friendly words Connroe heard before his first communications from Northrend. The Lich King was most pleased with his accomplishment, but he could feel his glowing orbs on him for weeks after, likely watching for signs of change after being order to kill his last remaining family. As the months go by, Connroe feels the watch of the Lich King wane, and eventually he feels it safe to report in. He gives reports as he is able, some are empty, some full of troop and vessel movements.

It is not until he hears of two significant changes that he knows something is planned. The first is that the vessel Acherus has been ordered to move to the sky above the Eastern Plaguelands, where a group called the Scarlets are forming for attacks on the Scourge. The second is the shocking news that the Death Knight Morgraine was freed from the service of the Lich King in Naxxramas by his last remaining son, Darion, who had now become a new Death Knight himself in the act of freeing his father.

As various servants of the Lich King vied for the valuable place as leader of the necropolis, Connroe gratefully accepts additional training aboard the vessel in order to take a leadership role over other Death Knights in time. On the day that Highlord Darion Morgraine is named the new commander of the Acherus, and the day before it departs for Azeroth, Connroe reports to the Order this news, and also that of the recall of the necropolis Naxxramas, taking with it notable figures of the Scourge.

Connroe is only relayed four words in response to his last communication with the order from Northrend, "See you soon. Med."

I was playing over on the Beta realms tonight, in preparation of a neat NaPodPoMo episode I am planning, and was working through the early part of the Death Knight Starting Experience. Some of the more notable quests, some that made me hate myself, and one that made me laugh, inspired this post.

If Chaos Drives, Let Suffering Hold The Reins is a quest that has you going down into the human areas of the Enclave and killing some of the human inhabitants. While the Scarlet side does not require you kill and innocent bystanders, even though the helpless Scarlet Peasants are the easiest to slaughter, the Citizens of Havenshire part of it is pure evil. These citizens are fleeing the carnage and the Scarlet's behind them. The Lich King, evil bastard that he is, not only has you slaughter them, but even a moments hesitation has him telling you to finish them.

Abandoned Mail is on the funny side of things. First off, I love that there is a fully functioning mailbox in this place, so that if you mail your Death Knight stuff, like bags or the like, they can retrieve them in the starting experience. Also, the fact that you, as a Death Knight serving the Lich King, are so low a person that you have no qualms of searching from and potentially stealing the mail of your victims. Now I am sure this quest is there to make the Death Knights notice that there is something they need to look at, and thus find their mailbox, it is still a quest that made me laugh at the dispicable nature of the Death Knight pre Light.

Today we have 38 days until we can begin hopping on boats and zepplins to travel to Northrend and begin the much touted Death Knight Starting Experience. I thought I would go over a few things that you, me, or anyone can do to pass the next 38 rotations of our big blue marble.

Farm Herbs - With the new Inscription profession coming in the patch that is expected to go live in 9 days, there are a multitude of herbs that you can gather, even if you are a level 70 and fresh to herbalism. If you want to check out the numbers of herbs you may need to get a character up to 375, the level that you will be able to learn up to before the actual expansion.

Farm Ore - Once you have all the herbs you want, you may want to think a bit on the professions your Death Knight, if you choose to make one, will have. Mine will be going Incription/Weaponsmith, since the Death Knight's most noticeable piece of gear is his blade. I would look into the burn rate on materials for the profession, including the steps needed to become a Weaponsmith, then begin gathering those materials up to power to 375 Blacksmithing as early as possible into Wrath.

Prepare for Achievements - There are hundreds of achievements coming in Wrath, and while some will have to wait for the expansion to go live, there are plenty of Achievements you can begin working on now, like exploration, professional, and more. You can go to dungeons, go to NPCs, or just wait for 3.0.2 to be live and start /love'ing the critters in your life.

Grind Rep - There are a number of reputation Achievements in the expansion that rely on reputations, and some of those even award titles. If you are a druid, you might find the Guardian of Cenarius to be one destined for your To Do list, and with the huge leaps in rep for the Encrypted Twilight Texts, you can get the rare Exalted Cenarion Circle part done in no time, assuming you are 70.

Obtain the Impossible - When 3.0.2 hits, there are several raid based rewards that will no longer be available, so why not spend some time now shooting for them? Champion of the Naaru, Hand of Ad'al, and the Amani Warbear are all going bye bye, for those who do not have them, once the new patch goes live, so I encourage you to go for them with all you have, if that is your wish.

There you have it, folks, a short list among many things you can do to pass your time for the next 38 days, that is if you are not participating in one election or another, working your ass off to earn the time off to play Wrath, or just, ya know, taking a break and trying out the competition while they are still around. What are you doing for the next 38 days?

So we look to have a date for the upcoming 3.0.2 patch, which will bring in some of the features of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, so I thought I would give you the lowdown on the stuff that will make it into 3.0.2 based on the latest PTR builds, what you have to wait until the expansion for, and what won't be in until much later on.

The Patch - We know we will see the Barbershop feature in the patch, giving us the chance to finally change those hairstyles we've had for up to four years. Achievements will make it in, so while a few will wait for many of the Achievements that require Northrend to complete, we can get many of our desired achievements out of the way before we slag through the lengthy install process for the expansion. Inscription will be active, which is surprising a lot of people since Jewelcrafting was not available unless you had the expansion. A feature we will see that has many of my character's banks rejoicing is the Pets/Mounts tab, which will be in for the patch. Thousands of vanity pets will soon find a new home!

Hunters will get to customize their pets in a new talent style of ability system, with the old system of training points going the way of the Ghost Wolf. Hunters will also get Exotic pets, so expect to see Devilsaurs, Rhinos, Chimeras and Worms in your local bank. Stormwind Harbor will finally open up, and King Varian Wrynn will return to Stormwind, bringing a new era to the land of Azeroth. The patch will bring in new UI features like the Calendar system, built in threat meter, and many new emotes.

In the way of combat we will also be seeing several stat changes. Hit, Crit, and Haste will affect Melee and Spell attacks, while Spell Damage and Healing stats will be unified into a universal Spell Power, meaning more gear can be shared between the various casting classes. Lastly on this section, channeling and casting interrupts are changing, with any hits after the second no longer interrupting or stopping a cast bar, though I believe full spell interrupts like Kick and Counterspell will still work as usual. As you can tell, the patch will be bringing some big things for all players of the game.

The Expansion - As big as the patch is, the expansion is even bigger. Of course we get to travel to Northrend, which can be accessed from boats in either Stormwind Harbor or Menethil Harbor. There is also the leveling to 80 thing, which is a pretty important expansion-only feature to mention. From my travels in beta, this is going to be an area that is well worth the time to buy the expansion for. The mobs are interesting, and often unique. The zones are huge, and each has many quest hubs. Medros, one of my Paladins, has gone through all of Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, and part of Grizzly Hills before he hit 76.

I am in Sholazar Basin, have left a bunch of unfinished quests in Grizzly Hills, and I have yet to enter any Northrend instances. I haven't even touched quests in Zul'Drak, Crystalsong(quests Not Yet Implemented), Storm Peaks, or Icecrown. I feel it is quite possible Medros could ding 80 without even touching the top two zones, and on Live it would be even easier with guildies to run dungeons with. No need to worry, folks, there will be no lack of things to do when Wrath hits, even beyond the 80 Ding.

With reaching 80, you immediately have the chance to hop into the 10 man Naxxramas dungeon, which is followed by the 25 man, and the other three Raid dungeons, The Nexus, Eye of Eternity, and Ulduar. According to Blizzard's reps, you should be able to enter Naxx 10 man with just the quest and dungeon gear you have when you hit 80 or shortly thereafter, and the gear progresses naturally from there. While Icecrown Glacier the raid will not be in at launch, it should launch in 3.1, which can be expected a couple months into 2009.

While we have not seen any sign yet of the Dance studios, the Death Knight is definitely the biggest thing not yet listed, and it will require the expansion to create one. You too get to go through the Starting Experience, likely the first example of the implemented phasing technology Blizzard has made a huge deal of that most people will see. You will be able to Death Grip people from vast distances, summon ghouls from the bones of friends and enemies, and ride and walk on water using the Path of Frost ability given to our friends of the Ebon Blade.

Of course we have the little stuff, like new profession abilities, discovery for many crafters, and so on, not to mention the excitement of the culmination of 2 years of Blizzard's efforts. So while there is no doubt plenty to get excited about in patch 3.0.2 when it hits, expected to be on Octber 14th, there is yet more to get pumped about in Wrath of the Lich King, on store shelves, and online, November 13th.

Wrath is coming. We have 49 days until it arrives. I found out recently that there are many erroneous, outdated, or simply misinformed opinions about what Wrath will bring, and what will be required. I thought I would give you a Top 5 on what I have seen.

1. Death Knight - Death Knight will not require unlocking. They will start at 55. You can make one, with some limitations on new servers, if you have a level 55 on any realm in WoW. You can have one Death Knight per realm. If you are on a PvE, or normal RP server, you can make one of any faction. If you are on PvP, you can only make one on the same faction you have already, following the PvP realm guidelines. With the current state of the Death Knight, you should be at or nearly at 58 by the time you leave the Starting Experience. Lastly, you will need a free character slot on the account you want to make one on.
2. Inscription - Patch 3.0.2, currently on the Public Test Realms, will be debuting the Inscription profession from 1-375. This will not require a Wrath preorder, Wrath confirmation or anything. Anyone can level the profession from 1 to 375, dependent on the normal level per rank requirements of a primary profession. Inscription will require herbs and parchment for the most part, though vials and other sundry items may be needed. The most recent beta build brought in the need to use a Lexicon of Power, found near Inscription trainers, in order to apply glyphs.
3. Flight - You will not be able to fly as soon as you enter Northrend. I know, I know, you paid 1k-5k or more to fly your pretty birds, but Blizzard, as proven when Burning Crusade released, does not want to see all this content they are working their collective asses on to be flushed down the toilet as everyone flies over all the content they spent time crafting meticulously. Blizzard has alternated between a quest, or paying roughly 1,000 gold to enable Cold Weather Flying, but it does not seem finalized on what they will choose as of yet. You cannot fly until level 77.
4. Gear - Many are afraid of one, or both, of the following two things: Gear Reset, where all your old gear is wiped out within a level or two of entering expansion content, and Gear Appearance, where you end up going from looking like a well dressed agent of slaughter, to something more akin a rodeo clown gone bad. Blizzard has taken great pains to make sure these do not happen. Know what stats you want and you will be just fine. Medros, my first played toon in Beta, is currently halfway through 75 and still has most of his Kara level gear, only replacing most of it with awesome quest blues. I think only one piece was replaced by a green, and that was crafter at high level Blacksmithing.
5. Achievements - this is one of the neatest things in the expansion for me, who doesn't Raid or PvP much. There are hundreds of achievements, from the mundane of dinging 10, 20, 30, and so on, to killing 15 Fjord Turkey's in 3 minutes. The 'first on realm' leveling achievements are still there, but the rewards of titles are not in order to stop people bypassing content just to get them. Achievement points, like similar points on other gaming systems, have no value, though some achievements do come with rewards of titles or physical items. Examples are Leading the Calvary(currently 50 mounts and gets you an Albino Drake) and Shop Smart, Shop Pet... Smart(50 vanity pets, rewards a Reeking Pet Carrier). Look for a post or two in the near future about achievements.
   

There you have it. If you have any other Wrath rumors or features you want the facts on, feel free to post them in the comments. The beta is fun, the expansion will be more so. See you there!

I was working on my Inscription in the beta, and I thought to myself that leveling a gathering profession from 1 to 450 will be a horrible pain in my arse. This is the basis of this article. I feel that the lack of pre leveled professions for Death Knights will leave them as a default dual crafting profession class.

While the gathering from 1-300 will give a Death Knight a chance to explore the old world, a good thing due to the World Explorer achievement and title, I do not think that the majority of Death Knights will want to spend their valuable Wrath time going from Elwynn, to Westfall, to Darkshire, to Stranglethorn, all in search of the elusive dot on the mini map.

No, I think that those of us with at least a herbalist, or whatever gathering profession compliments our chosen crafting profession, will skip that grind and just pre gather, or gather for our Death Knights. I know I have pre gathered over 400 herbs for my Death Knight, who will be named Connroe. I am planning right now to make him a Scribe/Blacksmith combo, with potential leanings toward Weaponsmithing since so much of what a Death Knight is, lies in their runeforged weapon.

I am curious if I am the only one who plans to take this route? I was planning to take Traluun into Inscription when 3.0.2 came out, and I may still when I have a better idea of what the guildies are doing, but I know for sure that Connroe will be my go to character for long term inscription needs. I do not plan to have Connroe go into any gathering. I have learned how painful power leveling my herbalism will be if I decided to go that route. It has taken me 3 weeks to hit 300 and that is on a nearly barren realm. Trying to level herbalism within 3 months of Wrath will indeed be a painful thing to do.

What professions do you plan to take on your death dealer? Will you make your Death Knight a dual crafting toon? Are you already gathering in preparations? Let me know in the comments how you plan to proceed with your Death Knight when Wrath descends upon us all! 

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Suddenly, seemingly out of no where, Connroe begins to feel a tugging sensation, and suddenly finds the snow vanishing and the dirt beneath him turned into hard wooden floors. Connroe feels a warm fire nearby, and looks around him at a building that looks like a church in design, but a command center in that there are many people here in armor and carrying brutal weapons. Weapons which instantly get turned toward the Death Knight appearing in their midst.

"Stop!" Medros yells as he appears a second later, trying to pull his comrades back from the planned slaughter of their enemy. "He is no enemy, he is my brother."

Some of the soldiers lower their weapons, but not all of them as Medros is pulled into a heated discussion in the corner. Connroe is given meagre bits of food to eat and a bowl of warmed water to clean off his mud covered face, his eyes rarely leaving his brother other than to ensure the razor sharp blades have not gotten close enough to kill in one movement. As he begins to feel more human, if that was still possible, Connroe feels a warmth come over him that has nothing to do with the fire, the food, or the water.

"What is this..." the Death Knight mutters as the feeling extends over his body, a feeling he both knows and finds utterly unfamiliar.

"What did you say, death dealer?" a voice from across the room calls.

Connroe looks up and sees a heavily armored Paladin glaring at him, waiting for an answer. "I feel... something... I am not sure what, but it is something I have never felt before."

He looks up at Medros, a look of wonderment on his face as he realizes he has felt this before. "Durnholde..."

"What about that place? It is only rubble now after the Orcs brought it to the ground!" The older Paladin remarks.

"My brother was at that battle, Lord Fordring. I am told it was where he first met Prin.... the Lich King. Go on, Conn," Medros states.

Waiting for the older Paladin to give his authorization, Connroe begins to tell his story as the soldiers and Paladins look on intently. He tells of his orders to go to Stratholme, of finding Muradin in Northrend, of the battle with the undead, of the battle with Mal'Ganis and the fall of Arthas, and lastly of his fall into the service of the Lich King.

"I have become a trusted Death Knight, or had become until Med pulled me here, wherever I am, in service of the Lich King. I was about to be promoted into higher service," Connroe adds.

"Perhaps you can yet be of service, but to us instead. We have ways of travel and communication which your King cannot monitor or control. If you will tell us what you know, we can prepare more effective counter attacks to the invasions and attacks on our people by the scourge, assuming you are willing to betray your master to help your people, your true people that is," Fordring inquires.

Connroe ponders the offer for a short time, the people around him tensing for attack if he declines. He looks up into his brothers eyes, and begins to speak.

"I am horrified by what I did in service to that monster. He made me infect everything from elderly people to children with his plague, just so he would raise more abominations for his army. I need to begin paying for the crimes I have committed on my people, and the other people of this world. I will serve your..." he looks to Medros for help.

"Order, Connroe, the Order of the Silver Hand, reformed," Medros answers.

"Your Order, and I will tell you where I am sent, and of my missions in his service. Know, Lord Fordring, that if you do not counter the attacks I tell you about, more may die, more WILL die in the name of the Lich king. I may even have to land the killing blow in order to ensure I remain in his trust. Do you understand this?" Connroe demands.

"More than you know, son, more than you know. Many of my own men will die fighting that... Monster. We will one day bring down that king and his throne in Northrend. For now, we need to arrange for your return undetected and for the tools of your betrayal to be located within your reach. For now, my men can lower their blades, for your brother gives his word that you are still an honorable man." Lord Fordring states before giving orders quickly to several of the soldiers nearby. 

I have a few friends in the European region who were in late alpha and early beta, and they all had a chance to see more phases of the expansion than I have in it's testing, so they have a unique perspective on the coming content than I do. This is a benefit when I am trying to research for writing on this blog. They were also invaluable when I got my beta invite. They were the folks I took my 'where's Dalaran' type questions to in my early beta days.

So when I made my temp DK, Isen, I was first excited to start First Aid at 270, then angered when they told me that no other professions get that boost, likely for the worries about having power leveled profession skills that could be exploited. While I can see this point, begrudgingly, I am still as little aggravated that I have had to, and will need to in live realms when Wrath launches, level my herbalism and Inscription from point 1. It looks really silly, seen to the the left, a level 58 master of slaughter and mayhem Death Knight picking Peacebloom in Elwynn Forest.

Now that I have tried out the Blood tree a bit, I decided when the last build gave me a talent reset I would go Unholy with some influence from this post on DeathKnight.info that said that Death Knights can now be a full use pet class. I do like me a pet class, but I would like to request, officially, that Blizzard give me a way to pretty up my Ghoul, who looks like he's falling to pieces. Flesheater is nice and all, but I am a little worried that a bone or key muscle may drop to the ground at a key time in a fight. Oh, and Blizzard? If this is my perma-pet, can I get the same one every time? kthnxbai!

I thought I would bring you all a few of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath beta as of build 8905, which launched Friday, September 5th, 2008. Please remember that this is still beta level content and there is a lot more than can, and will be done in the beta before all is said and done.

Mount on, Mount off - Mounting in cities like Ironforge and Stormwind, currently fine to do on live realms, is back off on the beta realms. I am not sure the cause of this, but I did notice after leaving Dalaran that there is a debuff about flying in Dalaran that did remain, and this could well be the cause of this mounting issues in other cities. I am not sure how many, or which Horde cities currently allow riding, though I do recall an time when many Horde complained about a difference of classifications. If this is still limited in most Horde cities, this could also have an effect on city mounting.

Return to the end - So my little DK, Isen, who is just a testing, screenshot, and exploration toon, not the DK I plan to make on the beta realms for actual play testing, has been advised to return to the Ebon Hold by this post, virtual ! and all, to 'complete' the Death Knight starting experience. What happened when I did was interesting, even if all it truly showed me was that the Starting Experience will be a mess on launch and that the experience should bring most players to 58 when they complete the experience as it is in this build.

To the right you will see a sample of the treatment my Death Knight got in Stormwind upon being sent there at the end of the current experience. I did not, sadly, have the foresight to check in on the cities before hitting a Death Gate back to the hold. What I found when I got there, though, was quite an interesting site. First the lag issues. Holy crap! It was taking about 30-90 seconds for any action to be registered in the game. There was Death Grips going off all over the place, with mobs sometimes being lassoed around from one end of the area to the next. I saw mobs which did not show the tag for them until just before they got their killing blow.

The idea by what I understood was that all of this occurs after the now legendary fight at Light's Hope Chapel. This is the former end of the experience where Tirion Fordring not only kicks the ass of the entire scourge forces, but redeems Darion Morgraine and wounds the Lich King enough to send his tail between his legs. Well, there was always one issue that could never be accounted for. While Darion and all the Player Death Knights are redeemed and brought to the realization of their horrific actions, there was a lot of Lich King loyalists back on Acherus. This step, where you get to fight Patchwerk, the boss from Naxx, and take out the last remnants of the Lich King's forces on Acherus, is the second to last step for your Death Knight.

The last is the utter humiliation of your Death Knight. You are sent through a portal with a letter for your respective faction's leader, Thrall if you are Horde or King Variann Wrynn if you are Alliance. Thrall makes mention of Tirion and his actions written about in 'Of Blood and Honor, where he saves Eitrigg from the hands of the Alliance. Wrynn... well, I guess he's still out of it a bit, cause he just hollers about the salvation of the Death Knights and your banana, spit, and apple attacks, not to mention the verbal abuse cease. The funniest part? The boy, Anduinn Wrynn <King of Stormwind> also spits on you. Yes, there are two kings of Stormwind.

Of Core Hounds and exotic pets - Corehounds, as found in Molton core, Shadowmoon Valley, and other places, look awesome, intimidating, and deadly in their own surroundings, but not so much in the service of a hunter. Also, I am pretty sure the Devilsaur look noticeably smaller this patch. Not having done much with Ameland on beta realms, though, and with the talent reset throwing me for a ride, I am not sure for myself. Anyone with photographic evidence, please email it in!

Unholy Blight Crash: Rank 2 - It seems that not only is Storm Peaks still causing the servers to be as stable as beta patch notes, Icecrown, opened in this patch, is also causing crashing issues. In addition, though, the Death Knight spell Unholy Blight Rank 2 is also said to be causing issues with the servers crashing and has been hotfixed out until the next patch right alongside the Storm Peaks and Icecrown. This makes for interesting flying into or out of Dalaran, as the flight path from any connected point traverses either Storm Peaks or Icecrown, giving you the No Man's Land debuff and sending you back to a Northrend starting area. Fun!

Ch-ch-changes! - Blizzard feels like they are still doing major class balancing with the last patch addressing long lists of changes for Rogues and Warriors, and Ret Paladins and Death Knights both getting a lot of tweaking. As Ghostcrawler put it, they are trying hard to get all of the classes right in their spreadsheets and in game, but it takes time. They are working on it, and this is beta, and in no way is this final.

Is that ice on the mailbox? - Medros was one of my alts lucky enough to receive a Penguin Egg in their mail, which is used to learn the spell to summon this cute little guy you see at left. He is absolutely adorable, and I am sure would look even more so with some of the pet tweaks seen from Breani in Dalaran, like the new pet grooming kit that WoW Insider mentioned over the weekend. I will definitely be heading into the beta realms to see how cute my Chilly looks waddling after the ball chase item from Breani.

Moving on up - Lastly, but related to the Death Knight stuff, I wanted to note how awesome the Stormwind Keep is looking. We now have the return of Variann Wrynn, who is the long lost, and forgetful King of Stormwind, though I am sure his son will one day get his own tag of King removed, perhaps replaced with Prince. I would also love to see Anduinn get a new model, maybe of a slightly older boy. Would be nice world progression. I am curious of what part the Argent Healer NPCs I see all over the place will play in patch 3.0.2 and beyond, but I can assume they have a role in the pre Wrath world events we saw, similar to the pre Burning Crusade events. I can't wait!

There you go, some of my thoughts of the current state of the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Have something different? Something you want me to check out? Let me know in the comments and I will do my best for the mid week screenshot gallery!

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Calling himself the Lich King, Arthas was drawing his loyal captain to him. Connroe tried to ignore the words, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw him there, beckoning. Arthas taunted Connroe with words of despair and pain. Lordaeron fallen. Demons running rampant. The Elves in disarray. Connroe tried all he could to ignore or avoid the words, but found not sleeping to be his only recourse. After days of not sleeping, though, Connroe was near exhaustion, and began to see things.

First it was hearing soldier's voices who had died long months before, then it was seeing Arthas in his base. One night, shortly after the changing of the guard, Arthas again appeared before Connroe, telling him again to come to him. Taking up his blade, which was rusted, dented, and worn, he advanced on the figure that he knew was merely a vision with murder in his heart.

Ignoring the calls of his soldiers who were worried that their barely clothed commander was running off into the frozen wastes, Connroe kept chasing the taunting figure of this Lich King. He chased him through peaks and valleys, never quite able to get within the grasp of the figure, but never far enough away to give up either. Rounding the corner of a mountain, Connroe found the figure kneeling there, sword stuck in the ground, set in a clear figure of surrender.

Connroe advanced, wary of a trap, but as he got closer he saw that Arthas was alone, at his mercy. Arthas taunted him, as his blood began to boil inside him and a great fire burning in his stomach. As the figure before him began to talk of how easy he was to play with, how easily manipulated he was, Connroe's rage bubbled over, and he charged at his fallen leader. Just before he reached him, he raised his sword to land a killing blow, but found the ground falling beneath him.

The captain screamed in rage as he fell, his humanity left behind in his descent into this twisted world, leading him to be a perfect servant for the Lich King. In his time in service, he was shown that where he failed to harness the light, he was perfect for wielding the twisted powers of a Death Knight and quickly excelled at his role. Arthas's old Captain quickly became a favorite amongst his Death Knights.

One day, as the legions of the Lich King prepared for the coming heroes of the Alliance and the Horde, his king called Connroe to his throne. He had a mission for him, an order to take out a group of adventurers who had come to Northrend to wage war against his master, to dethrone the King. Connroe took this up with zeal, taking out the adventurers one at a time, until only their Paladin remained.

As Connroe waited in a clearing for the Paladin to come to him, he caught the voice making prayers and blessings on himself drifting to him on the wind. The voice sounded familiar, but Connroe knew the voice could be none of his men, for they had all been wiped out long ago or gone home at the orders of their new leaders. Looking up as the adventurer entered the clearing, a large hammer in his hands that almost dripped blood, Connroe looked up.

Looking into the battle hardened face of his younger brother, his resolve and dedication to the Lich King began to crumble, and Connroe let his blade fall to the ground. Unable to kill his brother, he simply collapsed to the ground; his only thought that of awaiting the killing blow of his Master. Medros, not foolish enough to let his guard down, advanced on the Death Knight, ready to strike if needed, for he did not know the man's identity.

"Stand, or I will use the Light and this mace to send you back to your master as Nerubian dinner" Medros says, his anger and fury coming out in his voice. Medros takes a step back when his threats are met with laughter from the fallen man.

"The Scourge always did doubt the power of those wielding the light!" Medros shouts angrily as he raises his hammer for a killing blow.

"No," the fallen Knight says, making Medros stop mid swing, "I just wonder which of us he will strike down first, my brother..."

With that Connroe turns on his back, and looks up with a muddied face at his brother, watching with a look of happiness that he did not change so much that his own blood cannot recognize him.

"Connroe?" Medros asks in disbelief. "How did you...? Northrend? They told us you fell in the attack on Lordaeron!"

"No, Med, I fell to the will of the prince who became King." Connroe says with bitterness in his voice. "He will come soon, or he will send others. He wants you dead, dear brother, which tells me you have truly become the Paladin you always dreamed of being."

"I have tried, Conn, but that is not something to discuss here and now. We need to get out of here, need to get back to tell the Order of the situation here. They will want to hear what you have to say," Medros states authoritatively.

"No, he will find us wherever we flee, Med, he can see everything," Connroe says in a  defeatist tone.

"There are ways, trust me on that. I have been fighting his minions for a long while now, and my friends and I have found ways to hide what we wish from him," Medros advises knowingly, tossing a rough stone to his brother, which instantly warms up.

I know, I know. Cheesy. But I am happy. This is the first time I have experienced a beta patch first hand in about 4 years. I am a little excited. Below you will find the thoughts I have as I work my way through reported and discovered changes.

-Death Knight's Frost Presence now gives an aura buff to everyone nearby for a walk on water buff. Blood Presence still gives nothing
-Death Knights now appear almost diseased in appearance. Eww.
-Can now check, read, and delete mail.
-Fishing trainer in Valiance now trains Grand Master. Cooking Trainer still blank. Same goes for Valgarde.
-Paladins cannot use Judgments. More properly put, they can cast them, but they have no effect. Still able to so decent damage.
-Warlocks now glow purple.
-Hunter's Kill Command has been changed, for the worse.
-IF guard still does not know what inscription is.
-Select bodies of water have schools of fish.
-Turkey killing achievement is still very hard to do in Valgarde proper
-The flight... master(?) at Amber Ledge now has the proper texture for her form.
-Apparently Titan's Grip, the long griped about dps nerf to the Fury Warriors, has been fixed to make those same Warriors machines of mass slaughter. Expect a slight tweak down of that talent in a later build.
-Even patches can be followed by downtime

And on that note, as the servers went down, I assume to fix the glow issues, the judgment issues, or just to randomly taunt beta testers, I will end this here. I would like to say that while I feel a Blizzcon release of Wrath would be awesome, I don't see it as feasible, but I feel the game will be released withing a short time after that. We now have level 80 and only one world zone left unreleased, as well as raid dungeons which need to see a few runs, likely the purpose of the mentioned premade realm. Look for more new soon!

[Update: 2:30 AM - After the lengthy shut down Paladins still cannot judge, and Death Knights still look diseased. Server is about to shut down again, and I am off to bed. Look for another update in the morning.]

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Upon arriving to the city, he was sent directly to the King's personal black smith and fitted for armor befitting a rank far higher than his lowly rank at Durnholde. Once he was measured for new armor, he was sent to the throne room of the king and greeted by one of the King's Generals, who presented him with orders from the prince of his promotion to Captain, and was ordered to proceed to rendezvous with the Prince at Stratholme.

As the regiment he was leading closed in on Stratholme, a scout reported seeing smoke on the horizon. The new Captain ordered all of the mounted troops to ride forward to the city at best speed while he remained with the footmen and pack animals as they too moved at best speed. About halfway to the city Connroe noticed a group of figures moving toward him, and ordered his men to make ready for an attack.

The attack did not happen, for Connroe recognized a familiar face in the head of the group of soldiers, and he rode out to inquire of his Prince. Arthas brusquely told him that Stratholme had fallen to a new threat to the Alliance, and that they had no time to discuss the matter. When he asked about the men he had sent to the city, Arthas informed him they had perished, but died valiantly. When Connroe tried to seek more information, Arthas ordered his silence, telling him the fallen would rise and make chase.

Arthas ordered the men to head north, where they took charge of some of the boats of the Alliance who sailed the flag of Kul'Tiras and sailed north to the land known as Northrend. Shortly after arriving they came upon the Dwarven troops of Muradin Bronzebeard, a friend of Arthas. They joined forces with the dwarves to battle the legions of undead that Arthas was on the heels of, and take back lost ground.

Orders came from the king after a few weeks of the building of their base, ordering them back to Lordaeron, but when they reached their boats they were met with the site of their Prince in heavy battle alongside Bronzebeard, fighting mercenaries who Arthas claimed had destroyed their only route home. Furious, the soldiers attacked the mercenaries with every bit of rage they had in their chilled bones. Once the dismal inventory was taken and it was discovered they didn't have even one sea worthy vessel, they returned to their base to wallow in their sadness.

Suddenly one day Arthas came to his loyal captain and ordered him to take command of the troops and proceeded to disappear while the troops were still under frequent and heavy attack. While the troops were seemingly about to be overrun, Arthas returned, without the Dwarven prince but carrying a deadly looking blade. He commanded that they mount an invasion of the undead base in order to slay their demon master.

Unsure of this plan when they were already down to so few, Connroe never the less made plans for an full scale attack on the base, even though he had many doubts of its potential for success. When the remaining troops were ready and a strategy was set in motion, they proceeded forth in a two pronged attack on the base. The frontal assault was led by Connroe and the latter by Arthas in a sneak attack, hoping to split the undead forces and leave them in disarray.

The number of troops that met Connroe's attack was many, but the human and dwarven fighters did not let the numbers get them down, instead fighting to the last. The remains of the undead piled up in front of them, but yet more advanced on them, and the soldiers who stood with Connroe began to feel the fight drain out of them as they could see no end to this risen army. It was then, when the battle seemed utterly lost that Connroe spotted his prince in battle with a large winged demon who he called Mal'Ganis. As Connroe watched with concern, Arthas drove the runeblade into the demon, slaying him in one easy strike.

While the soldiers cheered, thinking that their prince had helped them to finally kill the undead creatures with ease, Connroe saw a look cross his prince's face that made a chill run down his spine. It was then that Connroe began bellowing for the retreat of the troops, causing the prince to glare at him.  Then the undead forces began to swarm around the prince, not in attack, but in adoration. Arthas struck down many soldiers before they realized their prince was not with them anymore.

Connroe made it back to the base with barely a quarter of the forces he left with just hours before, and found that the undead forces had decimated the base, slaughtering even the wounded and near dead in the most horrific ways. Slaughtering the last few undead while he had the element of surprise, Connroe ordered his troops to begin rebuilding in expectation of an attack sent to finish them off, this time an attack ordered by Prince Arthas.

The attack never came however, though they could not return because their boats had been destroyed, likely at the order of their fallen prince, Connroe realized in hindsight. The base was rebuilt, expanded, and fortified as the days became weeks, and then months, and finally years. Connroe, being the highest ranking soldier, gave himself promotions at regular intervals as dictated by Lordaeron's military code, finally achieving the rank of General. Then one day the entire world seemed to shake, and the base was nearly brought to the ground before suddenly, as suddenly as it had begun, the shaking stopped. A few months after this, Connroe began hearing the call of an eerily familiar voice in his dreams.

The story you are about to read comes in five parts. The story is that of my upcoming Death Knight, Connroe Isen. You will see familiar people in this story, and I hope to see some of you in game to Role Play with my Death Knight when the expansion launches.

Name: Connroe Isen
Race: Human
Story: Older brother to Medros Isen, Connroe was not as devout or blessed as his younger brother Medros. After Medros was old enough to take care of himself, he tried to join the ranks of the Paladins, but his faith was weak and he quickly left training at the new Stormwind training grounds of the Silver Hand. This came after mere months of not being able to summon forth the healing power of the light to heal even a small injured rabbit. Proving adequate with a blade, Connroe joined the military of Stormwind, helping to protect the city during the rebuilding of the kingdom.

Finding that the glorified guard duty over an energized and rejoicing populace of hardworking people was too boring for him, and having missed the war his father died fighting in, Connroe traveled north to the kingdom of Lordaeron to seek a position with the internment camps, hoping that guarding the greatly feared orcs would give him some excitement.

Connroe was quickly pulled into the ranks of the soldiers going to Durnholde Keep to defend it against the now growing new horde, as its leader felt an attack against the center of the internment structure was imminent. The troops began the trek from the capital city of the Alliance, Lordaeron, and arrived to find Durnholde intact, but with a growing sense of fear amongst its defenders.

Soldiers spoke of recent attacks that had been anticipated against several camps, one of which had relative success. The master's aide had escaped the battle, telling of the loss of one of the orc's leaders, but the camp was still crushed by the orcs and the majority of the protectors killed or badly wounded. Whispers among the men told of an orc known to the master of the Keep named Thrall, who now led this new horde. Attack was assured now, they said.

No more than two days later the preparations were called to a halt by the sounding of loud drums echoing through the hills. The battle would go badly, which Connroe knew when he saw the mass of green skin advancing on Durnholde, but still he did not back down. This was the battle he had wanted for so long. Then the head sailed over the heads of the Alliance soldiers, landing at the feet of the orcish leader. The reaction of the lead orc, the one called Thrall who had been asking for negotiations and talks, told Connroe this had just gone from bad to horrendous.

When the ground began to shake, and the walls began to fall, Connroe knew he had picked the wrong battle, but surprisingly he survived the fight. The orc he faced with gave him chance after chance to give up before he was killed, and in the end he gave up, knowing if he killed this Orc, there would be more to come, and no matter how good he was with his sword, he would not be able to take them all. He was no Lothar.

When Uther and his Paladins, including Prince Arthas, heir to the throne of Lordaeron showed up, the young prince was tasked with healing the wounded, while Uther handled the more critical cases. It was then that Arthas and Connroe met for the first time as Arthas reached him after walking a long line of soldiers, who he offered his comfort and healing powers to in succession. When he reached Connroe, he began small talk by him asking how he got wounded while tending to his wounds.

Seeing the Prince as his way to advance, Connroe tried to be both brave and friendly with the Paladin Prince, succeeding at both. As Uther and his paladins left, Connroe saw Arthas talking heatedly with Uther while he tried to look like his attention was elsewhere. Connroe had to feign surprise and conceal his joy at being called over by the Paladin Lord Uther, who told him that when he was healed and able to travel, he was to make haste to the capital of the Alliance.

As we are beginning to see the news and blog posts of people making preparations for the upcoming expansion, I felt it time to begin working on this planned series of articles. When you look down the path and see change coming, it is natural for us to look back on what has been, and to look forward to what will come. That is the plan for this series of articles of indeterminate length.

Let me take you back, friends, to January 15th, 2007. About 10 pm server time on Argent Dawn people started congregating around the dark portal which was now clear of the demons that flooded from the portal in the weeks leading up to the opening of the big black wormhole to the heroes of Azeroth. If you recall the events, you will know that Kazzak, a troublesome relic of the Burning Legion on Azeroth, found an artifact that allowed him to open the portal again, flooding Azeroth with demons. You may also recall his reward was a promotion to Doom Lord Kazzak, and he was made larger and more powerful. his worldly possesions also gained a few levels.

As the heroes of Azeroth began to collect by the portal, we eagerly waited and talked about what we would do first. I had to wait until the following morning to pass through the Dark Portal, but the first thing I did was look around and admire the sheer awesomeness of the zone in front of me, and even more so when I looked at the world map and found I had only discovered a small fragment of the entirety of Outlands, and there was more to do and alts to do it on as well as my main, Medros.

Some of the things people talked about was that they were going to check out the new Battle ground, some were going to start Draenei or Blood Elves, just to admire these new playable races and admire the look of them. Others just spent the first few weeks of the expansion leveling lower level alts, knowing that the opening zones of Outlands would be swamped with players. There were also the few, the insane, who were looking to race to be their realms first 70, first Horde Paladin/Alliance Shaman to 70, and so on. Then there were the ironic ones, who just wanted to go back to Ironforge and enjoy the lack of lag in the city.

We have a lot of stuff we can do first thing after upgrading to the Wrath of the Lich King. We could hurry to the opening zones of Northrend, Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. We can rush to the barbershop and get our first haircut in up to 4 years. We could create our very own Death Knight. We could go learn some new dances. Or we could just enjoy the pleasure of not having to compete for mobs, for gathering, or anything else that annoys. What will you do first when Wrath of the Lich King hits? 

As we are beginning to see the news and blog posts of people making preparations for the upcoming expansion, I felt it time to begin working on this planned series of articles. When you look down the path and see change coming, it is natural for us to look back on what has been, and to look forward to what will come. That is the plan for this series of articles of indeterminate length.

Wrath of the Lich King is being lauded as having a lot of new features, from the mundane to the long overdue. This post will look at some of the more popular ones and we will talk about a few of the leaked features that may or may not be coming in 3.0. Overall this expansion is aiming to be more feature rich and view changing than the Burning Crusade was, but in the end the launch day will tell us if Blizzard can hit the mark that their customers expect.

The first feature coming is something that is an idea a couple of years old. Originally the Alterac Valley was planned to be an open air PvP zone that players would be flagged for PvP with objectives that could be fought over. Lake Wintergrasp will be that and more, with not only an entire open PvP zone, but destructible buildings and siege weapon warfare. For the PvP set this is no doubt one of the coolest features coming in the expansion.

The next features I will sum up as instance changes. From the 5 man regular and heroic dungeons having different loot tables, to the sheer idea of raid dungeons having both 10 and 25 person versions, there is a lot more changes coming to this next expansion than we had come in Burning Crusade. I am sure the coming boss fights and raid mechanics that we do not know about will be huge as well and will only add to the excitement many of us feel as wrath approaches.

On the game play side of things we have a lot of changes and new stuff coming. We have 10 more levels and the accompanying addition to all of our 27 talent trees for the classes in the game now. We will have new gear and a whole new look to weapons and gear, moving from a sci fi look on to a raw and rough look to the new items. We know now that there will be new changes to current zones, no longer in the realm of leak and now more fully in the realm of changes, like the Stormwind Harbor addition to the human city.

As for the new stuff, the big news is that druids will now get a out of combat resurrection spell. Ok, all kidding aside, the really big stuff is the upcoming Death Knight hero class, which will be a massive change to the game. Add to that the forthcoming Inscription profession and all the new gathered materials in Skinning, Mining, and Herbalism, and you quickly see there is a lot of game play stuff that doesn't lie inside of an instance.

Beyond the changes coming to Stormwind, we of course have the expansive continent of Northrend, with almost a dozen zones and quests galore. The floating city of Dalaran on the newly accessible content in Wrath will also be a really cool addition, and the two chosen factions in that city are really intriguing to anyone used to the current Scryer and Aldor faction disputes.

Then we have the fluff features coming in the expansion. New hair styles will allow players to customize their characters in ways they haven't been able to before, even though the dreaded ugly faces will not be changing. We have new dances, so that your character will not /dance like every other character of the same race and gender combination. No doubt that will be a boon to the mailbox dancers everywhere. The last of the big fluff features is dozens of new emotes coming in the expansion including /facepalm and .


With all of these and more features coming in the expansion, I wonder what feature are you the most excited about? What feature are you just bright eyed and eagerly anticipating from Wrath? Are you a hardcore raider looking forward to standing over the corpse of the Lich King? Will you do it as a Death Knight? Or are you looking forward to progression of lore and the stories that are the foundation of World of Warcraft? 

We have received a lot of cool info and screenshots from Blizzard and other sources since the Death knight was announced at Blizzcon 2007. Part leaks, part official, but the information is pretty cool, from spells to history and the mechanics for creating them. Even after all of this, I am sure I am not the only one who has more questions to replace the few we have had answered. If you want to read over some of my other thoughts on the upcoming death knight, I direct you to my thoughts on race, name, and back story of my eventual Death Knight.

Now, that aside, here are just a few of the questions I still have and look forward to hearing about from Blizzard:

• How will they be welcomed by their home faction/cities?
• How will their reputations be worked?
• How will their professions work?
• Will they have special words from the scourge, like the rogue's do with the defias?
• Will they get the same racials as the race you choose?
• Would factions like the Naaru or Forsaken take back their connected races of Death Knight upon their regaining self control?
• Will the Knights of the Ebon Blade be in control of the necropolis? Did they commandeer it? Will it replace Naxx in the sky of Eastern Plaguelands?
• Will the Death Knight have a full 61 talent points to choose, or will it be limited?
• How long will the Death Knight spend int he Necropolis? Will it be measured in a planned amount of XP or time?
• How will the epic Death Charger quest compare in complexity and cost to the Paladin and Warlock ones?
• How will the cost of spells be worked for the Death Knight, as Eastern Plaguelands is not the most profitable place
• Will Death Knight DPS be spell or melee based?

Like I said, these are but a few of my questions surrounding the Death Knight hero class in Wrath of the Lich King.