"since you might see a dearth of other classes in the WotLK instance groups" - might? might?! This is a horrible idea. For the first month after the expansion launches, Outland and Northrend will be approximately 90% Deathknight.

Reply

OLD STRATHOLME?!? Oh man... thats gonna be awesome..

Reply

What happened to the instance behind the Night Elf boat in the Caverns of Time?

Reply

Old Stratholme:

Yet another Cavern of Time instance whose historical outcome was a tragedy for the Alliance.

Yet another Cavern of Time instance wasted doing Lore we’ve already played through in other games instead of offering us something we hadn’t seen before.

Disappointing.

Reply

"Yet another Cavern of Time instance wasted doing Lore we’ve already played through in other games instead of offering us something we hadn’t seen before.

Disappointing."

Trust me, you're in the minority. Most WoW players aren't so familiar with the previous games, and most people prefer playing something they are aware of and understand how it fits into the lore than something that they invented lore for to make it work.

Reply

To Merus

I mean it's disappointing because were not getting to be part of other critical events which have never been playable before, like the fall of Doomhammer for example, which is a fair major event for both factions.

And I'm a bit squimish about mashing Alliance citizens in the face. Talk about blue on blue.

Reply

@6
You're not killing People, you're destroying demons. ;)

Reply

"You're not killing People, you're destroying demons."

Really? Cool!

I'll just /cheer, /lol when I tank them onto Prince Arthas. Improved wipe. Love it! Can't wait! :D

Reply

Well, technically they weren't demons - they were about to turn into Scourge. It would be cool if it was a race, the same way the WCIII level was - give you a count at the top of 100, give Mal'Ganis a count at the top of 100, first one to 100 wins - but even after you hit 100, you still have to fight off Mal'Ganis and his goons. Gotta have a boss in there somewhere for the loots!

Reply

I was WAS one of those people who had never played the other Warcraft series, but since I am unable to play WOW over here in Iraq I decided to order up the WarcraftIII battlechest. I just finished off the Human part of the game and am now starting the Undead saga. For those who have nver played the WarcraftIII games I will say that the "Old Stratholme" is not going to make much sense and be something really new. It will put WoW lore into the reaches of those who don't know how Arthas turns. Very good story line and I am very glad I am playing WarcraftIII now because I understand a LOT more about the game of WoW than I did before.

I understand Ian's side of it too, that was a bad time for the Alliance when Arthas basically wiped out his own people, but from the Lore side it shows us his turning point from the Alliance and how he becomes a Lich...

The towns folks were infected and Arthas was doing his fellow people a "favor" by saving them supposedly... Just enjoy! Let the Lore flow!

Reply

everyone's freaking out about Stratholme... but uh.. Death Knights are now going to absolutely be the most popular and dominant class for a while and this just makes things even more annoying with them to me.

I'm not sure I like the idea that you can just whip one up if you have a 70 already. This makes them even LESS special than they could have been. Now they really are a free alt that starts at a higher level for anyone who pays $40.

Reply

Even though I'm looking forward to the Deathknight, I'm disappointed to learn that all classes can have Deathknights. I mean, Deathknight should be Horde-only is my opinion. Imagine a Gnome Deathknight! Now that would really suck.

Reply

@12 - I'm not sure why people keep saying only Horde should have them; doesn't the Horde have just as much reason to hate Death Knights? Oh, sure, a bunch came from Alliance side, but the undead broke away from such things, and the Blood Elf city was razed by them. So why should they like them anymore than the Alliance does?

Reply

Eztonic. We don't know the full details but I think it's more accurate to say any race or class can *unlock* the Death Knight option but the actual Death Knight you get to play might be limited to a few races, Orcs or Humans for example.

Horde only Death Knights would spawn a wretched Favoritism moan of Epic scale. Lets dodge the head ache, even if it would be very out of Character for the Alliance.

Blood Elves get kicked out for Magic addiction ... but a souless undead spawning death Tanka?

Sure come on in!!!

Reply

WotLK screenshots from Leipzig: http://www.realmhistory.net/news/wrath-of-the-lich-king-first-screenshots-from-leipzig/527.html

Reply

I'm not too worried about the massive influx of Death Knights. It will be annoying at first, sure. But in the end class preference comes down to play style. And playing a DK will simply not jive with everyone.

I hope the next expansion or two will have a DPS class and a healer class, though.

Reply

bah, I'm still miffed about us not getting WC2 Death Knights, now THOSE were the real deal!

great new news othwerwise, can't wait for the xpack :)

Reply

I'm surprised people still think Death Knight should be Horde-only. I don't know if anyone remembers, but the most famous Death Knight, Prince Arthas Menethil? Yeah, he was Alliance. And this was way back in Warcraft III too. You'd think people would realize that.

Reply

@#16/FaithRaven

Yeah, they know about the new screenshots. They made a post about it over 12 hours ago:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/08/22/new-wotlk-screenshots-from-leipzig/

All the same screenshots are on the wowinsider screenshots page too.

Reply