Gen Con: Wrath of the Lich King Update

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Blizzard had a busy booth this year with the announcement of Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft 2. I found some time to talk with Lee Sparks, Associate Producer for Blizzard, about Wrath of the Lich King , the new expansion for World of Warcraft, and its impact on the current game.

I asked Lee if this was a constant idea to release expansions every couple of years. Lee responded that there are no future expansion plans at this time, however they are always open to the possibility.

As for requirements, according to Lee while they haven’t nailed down exact specs yet, they are hoping to keep them very similar to the burning crusade specs to provide quality entertainment while maintaining the Blizzard ideal of allowing anyone to play World of Warcraft.

This time around the Death Knight is the new hero class which will be made playable through a series of quests which are set to open up at level 80, the new limit which will be set by WotLK. At that point you will be able to set aside your character and play a new death knight beginning around 53-60. They had decided at some point that people would not enjoy giving up their characters at level 80 so instead this will be a side option you can build in addition to your already level 80 character once you have completed the appropriate quests.

The Death Knight promises to combine the tanking aspect of Warriors with the DPS of Warlocks. Interestingly though, the Death Knight cannot use a shield, a main tanking item. This promises to be made up in the use of Runes which are inscribed on the blade carried by the Death Knight.

Another interesting feature which will be introduced is the siege weapons which will be introduced into the new PvP area. This will be zoned like the others, non-instance PvP only area. So if these siege weapons are vehicles, that is to say if they can move, then they will only be on this one battlefield. Lee insisted that this particular expansion focuses on the Death Knight and not on PvP so I wouldn’t expect to see anything monumental change with this release.

Blizzard has promised that Wrath of the Lich King will be done when it’s done, and thus avoided the dreaded release date so oft missed by Blizzards team. We shall continue to update on this as more develops.