WoW Insider

Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. In a sign that Wrath of the Lich King is quickly moving toward release, Eyonix officially announced today that we will see a new content patch "in the coming weeks."

This patch will introduce a good portion of the old world Wrath-related content and UI improvements, and will probably start the pre-Wrath opening event (If you don't mind spoilers, you can get some info on what that event may entail from us). Check out Eyonix's list of what is being implemented and what it may mean after the break.

• New class spells and talents
• Stormwind Harbor
• Barbershops in capital cities
• Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
• Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
• Guild calendar
• Hunter pet skill revamp
• New profession: Inscription

It's actually rather interesting to me that inscription was included in this list. Jewelcrafting has been solidly restricted to owners of the Burning Crusade expansion, with the only trainers for the profession in expansion-only cities. It seems that Blizzard is not taking that same tack with inscription but instead allowing all subscribers to learn it. This may be simply because it provides some long needed support to enchanting, or it may be we'll see jewelcrafting trainers show up in Stormwind and Undercity as well.

Two things that haven't shown up: Death Knights and Dance Studios.

There were rumors a while back that Blizzard would add Death Knights before Wrath to give people a chance to get familiar with the character and to hit 70 so they could level with their friends through Northrend. If that's still in the cards, Blizzard's keeping that hand close to the chest.

Dance studios, which would allow you to change your character's /dance emote, have been a promised feature of Wrath for some time. However, we're deep into the Beta process and there's not a single mention of them, nor has Blizzard indicated that they are delaying or canceling the feature. My guess is that they're holding off for a BlizzCon unveiling. By guess, I mean hope, because Saturday Night Fever just doesn't seem very Death Knightish to me, you know?

Other than that, this seems to follow the pattern of the pre-BC content patch to a tee, and it should be nice to play around with all the new class talents (and use them to farm up that last bit of gold) before the expansion hits. Stay tuned to WoW Insider, as we'll be sure to tell you everything there is to know about this patch as soon as more news drops.

Gallery: Wrath of the Lich King

Gallery: New Death Knight skins

Hungry for Wrath of the Lich King news? WoW insider has you covered. Check out our constantly updated Wrath of the Lich King directory page, or browse all of our articles in the Wrath of the Lich King category. You might also be interested in our new Death Knight column, Lichborne, or our previews of the new class glyphs and other inscription goodies.

Tags: 3.0, barber-shop, barbershops, blizzcon-2008, calendar, content-patch, dance-studio, guild-calendar, hunter-pets, joystiqfeatures, Orgrimmar, patch-3.0, patch-3.0.2, skills, Stormwind, stormwind-harbor, talents, tweet-this, Undercity, world-event, wotlk, wrath, wrath-beta, wrath-of-the-lich-king, zeppelin, zeppelin-towers