World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Preview
New level of excitement
by Howie Howard
previewed on PC
More to explore
Most of us are aware of what the letters WoW stand for. I see these letters on television, in magazines and of course it has a large presence on the internet. WoW for those of us that might be living in isolation stands for World of Warcraft and it is the biggest Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) online and in the world. There certainly are other games of this type available but none that invoke the passion and wonderment that WoW does. WoW has everything that the budding or veteran adventurer needs in order to conquer strange and magical lands. It also provides for the player that simply wants to make a living as a tradesperson in the game’s highly detailed profession classes.
Come this November 13th 2008 our friends at Blizzard Entertainment plan to unveil the second expansion to World of Warcraft. The first expansion, The Burning Crusade, opened up new areas of exploration and added some new game features. The second expansion named Wrath of the Lich King promises to offer more of the same. This expansion pack, although not a revolutionary upgrade, should serve to keep veteran players adventuring for many more months if not years to come. The Lich King raises the level cap to 80 and the profession cap jumps to 450. This is good news for the player that may have run out of room to grow.
New additions
In addition to the rise in level cap, The Lich King adds a brand new player class called the Death Knight. Be aware that you need to have a level 55 character in order to start the Death Knight. Every character race in the game can convert to the new class and a special series of quests must be completed in order to get up to speed on the new talents, skills and abilities. When I first heard that all of the classes could switch to this new one I wondered how it would be handled in the game. Rest assured that the producers at Blizzard have this covered and they explain everything via a well-done lore explanation during the beginning of Death Knight quests.
One thing that I have always liked about World of Warcraft in addition to the player interactions is the fact that you aren’t required to be just a fighter or some other variation of that class. Players can chose to operate in a profession and instead of going on raids or quests they can set up shop in the city of their choice and concentrate on selling wares that they have developed themselves. There is a new profession called the Inscription which can go to level 450. The Inscription profession is a craft of spell augmentation. What this means is that players can develop their own spells and then sell them to other players out of their shop.
