It's four days to Blizzcon, and Boubouille, long-time source of quality information, thinks he knows what the next expansion is going to be called: Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously this supports previous information pointing to a Northrend-themed expansion, as Northrend is home to Arthas, the Lich King himself. The original post on the MMO-Champion forums claiming this to be the expansion name also asserts that there will be a new class: Death Knight! This seems to be less substantiated, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true. Rumors aside, we'll almost certainly know for sure in just a few days. Are you excited? I am.As far as the Death Knight rumor goes, the WoWWiki page lends a bit of support: apparently, Death Knight (as well as Necromancer) were originally planned to be classes in WoW, but didn't make it to release. Furthermore, there exists a green called Triumphant Shield of Shadow Wrath, which is confusing as no shield-using classes (Warrior, Paladin, Shaman) can use Shadow magic. This could just be an oversight in the random-enchant-generating code, but it could also be a hint at a Shadow-wielding, shield-using class...
Update: Over at MMO-Champion, they suggest that this is accurate because the link www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/ leads to a "forbidden" error, whereas accessing any other non-existent page on the site will give you a "not found" error. Continue to enjoy your rumormongering, everyone!
Update 2: Again from MMO-Champion, the title World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was found on the web site of Usk.de, which is apparently the German equivalent of our ESRB (i.e. the agency that assigns content ratings to games). It seems to have a "12" rating; although I don't speak German, I assume that means "suitable for 12 and up."
Update 3: It's official now -- check out all of the news on Wrath of the Lich King.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
7-31-2007 @ 2:53PM
Aesa said...
That shadow wrath shield is likely not a hint, unless we'll also see an arcane damage-dealing shield using class:
http://www.thottbott.com/?i=38167
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7-31-2007 @ 2:55PM
Brendan said...
It's probably gonna be northrend, but it's not gonna be called THAT.
Wrath of the Lich King?
Sounds like a bad Fan Fiction
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7-31-2007 @ 2:57PM
Rich said...
Could the death knight be the retnoob rework we were hearing? Reworking it in a new class?
I would much prefer to see a new class like a shadow wielding paly that can tank and dps, and leave the tanking and healing to the light wielding paly.
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7-31-2007 @ 2:57PM
Hank said...
I just want to know what the release date is going to be, so I can plan accordingly for the actual release two months later.
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1-26-2008 @ 1:53AM
Josias said...
Dude, this is Blizzard - if they set a release date, then they release on that date.
The only reason they're waiting so long to set a date is to make sure they can actually deliver on that date.
7-31-2007 @ 2:58PM
Eliah Hecht said...
Brendan: The name's no worse than "Burning Crusade," if you ask me...
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7-31-2007 @ 2:59PM
Angael said...
A death knight class would add major unbalance to an already unbalanced game... on a side note I can't wait to drop my Pally main :)
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7-31-2007 @ 3:02PM
darkicon said...
rerolling Death Knight in a heartbeat.
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7-31-2007 @ 3:03PM
Regis said...
And it would solve the whole issue with Paladins aswell. Make a new class that will be the "warrior that can heal" that Paladins want, and then the people that like to tank/heal can stay with the paladins.
Genius! If you can't fix it, make them reroll!
... seriously I hope that retribution 'fix' will come before next expansion.
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7-31-2007 @ 3:07PM
Steve said...
So horde gets a deathnight, what would alliance get? Certainly can’t be for both.
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7-31-2007 @ 3:12PM
Sleepyeyes said...
Seriously thought the only races that could do it would be Humans and Undead then perhaps MAYBE Dwarves and Blood elves...
And the name does kind of suck...but I doubt I could think of anything much better...
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7-31-2007 @ 3:12PM
Sleepyeyes said...
Seriously thought the only races that could do it would be Humans and Undead then perhaps MAYBE Dwarves and Blood elves...
And the name does kind of suck...but I doubt I could think of anything much better...
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7-31-2007 @ 3:15PM
Scruffy said...
OMG ret tree is going shadow!
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7-31-2007 @ 3:33PM
honkhonk said...
aaannnnddd how do you want to have a Death Knight make sense as anything but a Forsaken? Sure *could* happen. But with them just making shaman/paladin non faction exclusive, who is going to be the Alliance Death Knight class?
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3-18-2008 @ 12:50AM
Crownshield said...
its going to b a human. bliz already said so
7-31-2007 @ 3:33PM
Urthona said...
/agree Scruffy
/snicker
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7-31-2007 @ 3:39PM
ubergrendle said...
Death Knights make no sense from a lore perspective, a major reason why they were probably dropped from the original release. Either DKs are fallen paladins that have sworn themselves to the Lich King and thus aren't horde or alliance, OR they're left overs from the old horde and would be horde legacy only. Barring a significant plot twist (even cheesier than the explanation for Blood Knights, although I admit I play a Belf pally) it won't work. People complained necromancers wouldn't be viable since they're too close to Warlocks... Death Knights are even worse in contrast to Paladins. Oh finally... grinding another alt to 70 is a pain, I'd hate to have to do one from 1-80!
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7-31-2007 @ 3:44PM
Val said...
2 things: orcs/forsaken (maybe BElfs) could all easily be deathknights (dont bother saying orcs turned away from dark magic because they can be locks). For alliance: humans can easily be "dark" enough MAYBE dwarves (doubt it tho) I could see gnomes being death knights though, they can be warriors and warlocks (and DK sounds like a war/lock hybrid).
On a side note, are you people REALLY talking about deathknights being imba before the rumor is even confirmed? We have no idea what the class will be like even if it is implimented, so please save your whining till theyre released.
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7-31-2007 @ 3:48PM
nobbie said...
The title of the next WoW expansion has just been confirmed on the website of the German computer games control society as well:
http://wow.gamona.de/images/news/wow_wotlk_usk.png
"GC Demo" means that this is the playable xpac demo we will be seeing on the German Games Convention in Leipzig.
Do you feel how your feet are getting colder as you pass the BlizzCon entrance? ;)
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7-31-2007 @ 3:49PM
Lighttech said...
It's funny. IGN was reporting that the next expansion will involve the Maelstrom, not northrend. I don't care either way, as long as I can roll a Pandaren.
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