With Wrath of the Lich King, the most legendary of all WoW addons also arrives in Classic. Read here why the new WoW Classic addon is so good and why the return or even the new entry is really worthwhile.
What exactly is Wrath of the Lich King all about? World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) is the second expansion for World of Warcraft. It was released back then on November 13, 2008.
WotLK added tons of new content to the game world, including the new continent of Northrend, home to the Lich King Arthas and his undead minions.
To embark on adventures in Northrend, players had to be at least level 68, with the level cap being raised to 80 in the expansion. Also introduced was the first hero class, the death knight.
Click here for the WoW Classic page! 3 reasons why Wrath of the Lich King is so awesome
The Wrath of the Lich King is coming to WoW Classic on September 27, 2022. The addon is still considered one of the best expansions for World of Warcraft and the MMORPG also had its golden heyday back then.
We have summarized some of the top highlights of Wrath of the Lich King for you here.
WoW Classic: The trailer for Wrath of the Lich King
Reason 1 – The villain is legendary
Who is the person you are talking about? The Lich King is already in the name of the extension and is the great threat to Azeroth. Many fans of the Warcraft franchise have probably played the legendary strategy game Warcraft 3 and the addon The Frozen Throne.
In it, Prince Arthas was the protagonist of several campaigns and one could follow closely how the once brave and idealistic young paladin fell under the pressure of events to the whisperings of evil.
Eventually, Arthas became the ruler of the undead Scourge, becoming one with the previous Lich King, Ner’zhul.
Why should you rejoice? The story of the Lich King finally continued in Wrath of the Lich King. Players who still knew him from Warcraft 3 were enthusiastic, but new players soon became familiar with the villain and they quickly got to know him and his cruel plans directly.
Throughout the course of Wrath of the Lich King, players face the terrifying dangers of the Lich King and his bloodthirsty scourge, culminating in an epic showdown in Icecrown Citadel. The dramatic fight and its unexpected outcome is still considered one of the best story moments in World of Warcraft history.
So if you want to relive those great moments in World of Warcraft, you’ve got a great opportunity to do so.
Reason 2 – Quests tell a continuous story
What is it about? Prior to the Wrath of the Lich King addon, questlines in World of Warcraft were self-contained. You completed one or a handful of tasks, returned to the quest giver, picked up your reward and a few warm words – done! The various quests mostly didn’t have a big, coherent topic. You’ve just completed tasks.
In Wrath of the Lich King, on the other hand, the quests were heavily connected to the story. Each zone had a central storyline and associated quest hub. There you could receive your tasks and thus penetrate deeper and deeper into the respective action.
The stories were also different for each faction. On the Horde side, for example, new members were sought for the faction, while historical secrets were uncovered in the Alliance, for example.
Why should you rejoice? The storytelling of Wrath of the Lich King was rightly considered the next evolutionary step in the genre and shaped WoW and other MMORPGs. Because every local story also had a more or less subtle connection to the main story.
From the first teaser to the grand finale on Icecrown Citadel, WoTLK’s story has always centered around the war against the Lich King. Through the strong interlocking of the plot with the quests and the resulting narrative threads, an atmosphere was created here that has not been found in WoW in this form before.
Another reason the storytelling was so great is the phasing. The world was now dynamically changed by your actions. Gone are the days when your actions didn’t seem to affect the game world. In WoTLK, a village that was burned down in an attack during a quest would remain in that state for the affected players.
Now that you can finally replay those old quests and story lines in WoW Classic Remake, you’ll be able to enjoy these wonderful stories again or perhaps experience them in a completely new way.
Reason 3 – Raiding has been revolutionized
What is it about? Raiding was already scaled back in the previous addon “The Burning Crusade” from the mandatory 40 participants to a manageable number of 25 or even fewer players. This made raiding a lot more accessible and more players could participate in this endgame activity.
In WotLK, however, accessibility was further improved. Here it was no longer a question of only having the choice between 10 or 25 player raids: each raid could now be contested with the larger or smaller team strength. If there weren’t 25 people ready, you could just run the 10-person version.
But that’s not all. With the introduction of the achievement system, raiders were able to attempt a variety of tricky add-on challenges that made raiding even harder. If you made it, there were not only achievements, but often also titles and special mounts.
Why should you rejoice? WoTLK finally made raiding accessible to a large part of the player base. Anyone who didn’t get into raids in WoW vanilla and The Burning Crusade simply because of lack of time or a missing guild finally had the opportunity to take part in this fun and challenging endgame activity.
With Wrath of the Lich King, many players were just beginning to discover the joys of raiding. The entry into the world of raids with the innovations of WotLK was so far away from the classic, elite 40-man raids that every player had the chance to finally face the great dangers of the expansion. This made it possible for a whole new generation of players to jump into the world of raids and stay there.
So if you want to relive that epic moment of finally diving into the sacred realms of the raid endgame, then you should look forward to Wrath of the Lich King in WoW Classic.
So as you can see, Wrath of the Lich King will be a lot of fun and enjoyable in the Classic version as well. So mark September 27th in your calendars and look forward to new, old adventures in Northrend. More information about Wrath of the Lich King can be found here.