World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Review

The expansion allows players to progress to level 80, introduces a new profession, vehicles, a new player verus player (PvP) battleground, a new PvP zone, and the highly anticipated hero class, the Death Knight.

With the increase in maximum levels comes new talents, spells and abilities. Most are useful, but I'm sure everyone has differing opinions on which are good and which are not.

The newest profession in Wrath of the Lich King is called Inscribing. It is used to make Glyphs that players of all levels have access to. Glyphs stay with a character until they choose to remove them. Glyphs come in various types. Some increase the damage of certain abilities. Some increase healing. Some increase the duration of abilities. Some have trade offs like adding a stun component to the ability for an increased cool down time. Each class has many Glyphs available at lower levels with some more useful Glyphs available at the higher levels. At level 80 a character can have three major and three minor Glyphs.

Blizzard also added a new game play mechanic with vehicles. In Wrath of the Lich King these are not just motorcycles with sidecars (they do exist in WoW) and car type vehicles like tanks. They come in all shapes and sizes and play some interesting roles in quests. For example, one daily quest has you get on the back of a dragon and fight other dragons while you fly through the sky. Another quest has you travel back in time to take the role of a historical figure to change the outcome of a battle they had lost. It's a useful game mechanic and Blizzard uses it very well.

Strands of the Ancients is the new battleground in Wrath of the Lich King. It is a two part battle where the Horde defend some glowing orb from the Alliance first and then get to attack while the Alliance defend. Each part of the battle is timed. The side with the fastest time to reach the orb wins.

You defend the orb on foot (no flying mounts here) or get onto a cannon and rain death on your enemies one agonizingly slow shot at a time.

On offense you can get into a tank called a "Demolisher" and lob flaming rocks at the gates and opponents in your way. The Demolisher also comes equipped with a short range battering ram that is useful against gates and will send opponents flying. Up to three people can be in a Demolisher at one time. Only one person can drive and operate the weapons though. The other two are limited to using the ranged attacks their class may have.

You will also find explosives at certain points to be picked up and dropped in front of gates to help your team's Demolishers with their work.

Wrath of the Lich Kingalso adds another PvP zone called Windergrasp for the people who just have to get out and touch someone in the frozen wastes of Northrend.

This screenshot was taken outside the walls of Wintergrasp Fortress.

Whoever controls the fortress gains access to instanced dungeons and merchants within the fortress. They also get an experience bonus in surrounding areas. Each Battle for Wintergrasp Fortress takes place two and a half hours after the previous battle ends. Whichever faction won the previous battle gets to defend while the other attacks.

Attacking primarily involves controlling buildings in zone so you will have be able to bring out the combat vehicles your side will need to break through the walls of Wintergrasp Fortress. Playing defense mostly consists of using cannons and vehicles to beat back the attackers. The attackers win when they break into the central keep and click the giant orb there. The defenders win after 30 minutes or if they destroy three towers located in the southern part of the zone.

There are three types of vehicles in The Battle for Wintergrasp. One is a slow battering ram type where one player drives and controls the battering ram and another operates a top mounted turret. Another is a quick one man vehicle that uses a flame thrower and poison gas to fulfill an anti-personnel role. The third vehicle is the "Demolisher" from the Strands of the Ancients battleground.

Since Wrath of the Lich King came out, I have been part of a number of epic battles in Wintergrasp. Blizzard has put in a scaling buff that increases the health and damage dealt of the side that is at a numbers disadvantage. Watching 40 Horde take on 80 Alliance is a sight. Having 100,000 health and hitting for 5000 damage on normal attacks is FUN.

And now for what I am sure you have been waiting for... The Death Knight.

In Wrath of the Lich King people with a character over level 55 can now create a Death Knight on the same server as the level 55 character. Death Knights start at level 55 and get their own instanced starting zone so they can learn how to play the class in relative peace.

By the time you finish the starting zone, your Death Knight will be level 58 and more than ready to head to Outland. In case you have heard the rumor that Death Knights are over powered and playing one is like playing in EZ Mode. Well, that rumor is the truth. Putting the damage per second of a rogue and mage in the body and armor of a warrior with a touch of self healing was probably not the smartest move Blizzard could have made with Wrath of the Lich King, but Death Knights are incredibly fun to play. They can wade into fights where most classes would die in seconds and walk away at near full health. They are a hero class afterall and do not disappoint.

Death Knights get their own epic speed horse mount for free just for completing their tutorial. They do not get a free flying mount, but they do get to buy a flying mount whose speed is dependent on the Death Knight's riding skill. So, it gets faster as the Death Knights riding skill increases. Plus, flying around on a skeletal gryphon is just cool.

With Wrath of the Lich King Blizzard chose to mix up the game play of the Death Knight. It is kind of a cross between having a rogue's energy and a warrior's rage. One builds up over time, the other builds up based on what you do during combat. Death Knights use runes to power some of their attacks and runic power for others. Runes come in four flavors. Blood, Frost, Unholy and Death. Except for Death runes, runes refresh every 15 seconds one at a time. A Death Knight usually starts combat with 6 runes (2 Blood, 2 Frost, 2 Unholy) and 0 runic power. Death runes are "wild card" runes that are only available through talents. Runic power is gained, usually, through using abilities that require runes. So, if you do a Blood Strike that requires 1 Blood rune, the Death Knight would gain 10 runic power and lose the use of 1 Blood rune for 15 seconds. Runic power is lost at a rate of about 1 point per second when outside of combat.

Another one of the perks Death Knights get in Wrath of the Lich King is they get their own flying town. It's in the Eastern Plaguelands so you can't fly up to it with your own mount, but every Death Knight gets a personal gate spell they can use wherever and whenever they want to get to the town.

Inside the town are their trainers, vendors, Rune Forges for putting enchantments on their weapons and Flight Master.

Overall, being able to play a Death Knight is reason enough to get Wrath of the Lich King. If you left World of Warcraft after getting bored with The Burning Crusade content, I suggest you come back and give it another try. Blizzard has added a lot of new content and the free content updates are still to come. There are many hours of fun to be had in the world of Azeroth with Wrath of the Lich King. It's not like you had anything else to do. World of Warcraft ruined your life months, if not years ago, right?

--Gimpy Knee
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