Blizzard has launched World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic, a re-creation of the classic 2008 expansion that centered on the eponymous lord of the Scourge and introduced the MMORPG’s first hero class, the Death Knight. All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription automatically receive access to Wrath of the Lich King Classic, while those who are looking to further enhance the experience can choose from two upgrades available for purchase on Battle.net, both of which include character boosts.
- Northrend Heroic Upgrade: a level-70 character boost complete with appropriate gear, mount, starting gold, and expert riding skill, Pebble the penguin pet, and Fishspeaker’s Lucky Lure, a toy to summon your very own tuskarr fishing companion.
- Northrend Epic Upgrade: all items included in the Heroic upgrade, plus the flying Kalu’ak Whalebone Glider mount for your Classic characters, the flying Tuskarr Shoreglider mount for your non-Classic Characters, and 30 days of game time.
“Wrath of the Lich King Classic contains an iconic adventure from a momentous time in the history of Azeroth—we love this expansion, and we’ve carefully balanced both the nostalgia for veteran players and the modernization needed for players discovering it for the first time,” said World of Warcraft vice president and executive producer Holly Longdale. “By giving extra care to the way players group for raids, as well as their end-game journeys, we’ve worked hard to ensure all players can experience everything that the massive continent of Northrend has to offer.”
From a Blizzard press release:
The icy winds of Northrend are wailing once more, heralding news that Blizzard Entertainment’s Wrath of the Lich King Classic is now live. All players with an active subscription automatically receive access to the re-creation of WoW’s acclaimed second expansion at no additional cost and can log in to begin their adventures into the frozen wilds of Azeroth’s northern continent today. The legendary story can be experienced on all realms previously dedicated to World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic content.
Players will embark on a treacherous adventure through lush locales, battling foes unlike those found anywhere else in Azeroth, and will fulfil numerous quests before confronting the iconic Lich King in Icecrown Citadel and putting an end to his heartless destruction. This journey includes the rise of the fearsome Death Knight hero class, available to all players (even new ones!) and starting at level 55, the original iteration of the World of Warcraft achievement system to recognize various accomplishments in the game, and the Inscription profession, which enables players to scribe ability-enhancing glyphs that alter the appearance and modify the properties of spells and abilities.
Originally released in 2008, the core experience of this beloved expansion has been carefully maintained, while some social and gameplay functionality has been modernized for the present day and Classic community. The current grouping tools have evolved while preserving the experience of forming groups organically. Players will also see other quality-of-life updates that have been crafted to maintain the soul of Classic and to ensure players’ journeys through Northrend are as gratifying as they are challenging.
Community is at the heart of Classic, and there is plenty of group content for players to explore with friends: from today, 12 dungeons are available as part of the player leveling and maximum-level experience, with 16 total to become available across the expansion. On October 6, those seeking even more formidable thrills can take on the first three of the seven raids—Eye of Eternity, Obsidian Sanctum, and Naxxramas—before continuing their adventures in Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, Icecrown Citadel, and Ruby Sanctum in future updates.
Discussion (8 replies)
Join Discussion →World of Warcraft: never played it, never will.
Yea at this point they are trying to revitalize the IP and it's just not going to go anywhere. There are TONS of free servers that have been running LOCKED at the Litch King expansion because that has been considered the best one over all.
True, but back when I used to play on them there were always bugs, not to mention low populations. WoW private servers might be more “complete” these days but I’d be shocked if they don’t come with some form of malware.
The end of BC / start of WoTLK was my WoW heyday, I did a lot of semi-hard core raiding during that time, but ended up burning out before we got to the end of WoTLK - something about jousting over and over on dailies was rough, and the content could not come fast enough for us. But ultimately, every time I go try WoW again, the community very rapidly reminds me why I don't want to stay. The community, in general, there is among the most toxic I've ever seen.
I have no desire to go back. I still play MMOs primarily, and in fact, the one I play now may as well be a WoW clone. But the community in my current game is the polar opposite of what I recall from every time I've tried WoW.
WoW had it's time and place, but I'm over it.
Yeah, I wouldn't touch it today. It was a late '00's thing, and if you didn't play it then, you just missed the boat.
The funny thing about MMOs, which makes them unique from most other video games: The game is only part of the experience. It's the community that makes up a very large part of the experience, and you can't recreate that. You can never go back to an MMO and have it be the same -- even if it's the exact same content and patches and gameplay, because the community will never be the same.
There is always something special when a new, good (which is extremely rare today) MMO launches. The game is always full of bugs, things are always laggy and broken all over the place, and the content always ends up hitting a wall early on -- but it's the community there during the start that makes it a special experience. You can usually tell if a game will succeed or not just based on how the community comes together (or doesn't) during those first few weeks.
Yea the community for WOW has turned into drug addict trash panda quality for the RP servers at least. It's all about trashing this person or that.
I'm still having fun with WoW, been playing with the same people for the better part of a decade, tough I have to admit some of the magic from the start is gone.
I stopped playing WoW just a short while ago. Been playing it since Vanilla, and the main reason for getting out now, is the community. Toxic is putting it mildly.