They started with the scourge, but got annoyed by the humans (scarlet crusader, hillsbrad, etc) and added them to this list. The plague has always been based on getting their revenge on Arthas though.

I'm really glad all that work I did at level ten is finally paying off.

If I remember correctly the Death Knight in warcraft two had Death Coil as one of it's staple spells, I can feel the warlock QQ now.
But in all honesty that class is by far the most interesting feature to me right now, I would love to rampage the countryside with my personal army of skellys and such. Death and Decay anyone?

The FAQ confirms that you can use Inscription to improve the abilities of other people.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/faq.xml#1_17

Whew!

My guess would be to add in more islands for a future expac (Maelstrom, Undermine, and the like).

It's not uncommon for Blizzard to sneak in content from VERY early releases into current versions of their game (look at how long some of the northrend stuff has been in the mpqs).

Ah, true... Makes me wonder if they're planning to redo Azeroth with this expansion. Seems like it might be plausible, but you never know.

And I won't bother finishing the HQ upload since Blizzard has made a slightly better-than-Giga quality version available already.

Thank god. That would have really sucked otherwise. Would hate to have to drop one of my professions just to be able to raid.

Yay the tauren chick that the apothecary poisoned will not have died in vain!

Not sure if that's an island, but there's definitely something sticking out there. That's right where the non-zone between Stormwind, Searing Gorge, and Dun Morogh is at the moment, too. Let the old world update conspiracy theories begin!

And all of this lore, including Tolkien's work, was looted from Medieval English (or, more accurately, British), French, German, Norse, and Asian sources, among various others.

Which is why the Tolkien estate was never successful in any monetary gains from suing DnD. They weren't his ideas, either. He just did a lot of research.

Sorry for further derailing us, but I hate when people act like the fantasy genre was born with Tolkien =D

That is all I could think of. Finally some resolution to the Royal Apothecary Society quest line!

With the addition of that 'aura' that you get when hitting unreleased content, I would not put it past them to be updating things in the background (ie doing it little by little, patch by patch, until it's done).

transcript of movie by me for those at work!



*music*

(paladin and priest are on a boat. They get off and look at a town. (camera pans))
(A dragon flies overhead.)

(voice)
Its begun

young heros, *I* was once like you.

(humans ride horses over a bridge and along a green tree area)
(shot of flaming forest with them running through it on foot)

you have come to this place, seeking to bring judgement upon the damned
(fighting a large ogre-like thing but not fat, new model)

you will venture deep into forgotten lands
(shot of a forest bridge, looks high up, very cool, then drawbridge-like bridge to enter a dungeon(?))

you will see wonders beyond imagining
(shot of a town?, looks like npc lich though so prob mobs only)

(furnace shooting fire, in a dungeon?)

But, be warned, the land itself will rise up against you
(walking up a desolate mountain with blizzard, priest pulls ahead and paladins stops and sighs)

long forgotten terrors will smother your courage
(she turns around and screams, a yeti is behind her and gets her! he runs up too late)

and sacrifice everything
(he backs away and runs off)

as the final darkness falls
(walking through a forest, blizzard, stops, looks around)
(monsters surround him, skeletons, crypt spider, abomination, etc)

in the end, all that awaits you.....is death
(screen black, text: introducing DEATH KNIGHT, hero class)

only THEN, will you understand
("DK" looks up, looking pissed)

you've been following in my footsteps all along!
(action of him doing spells on monsters that look like purplish meteors)

(troll ducks, something hits the building in front of him)

(text: new continent: northrend, destructable buildings, siege weapons, new profession: inscription,
changeable hairstyles, new dances, new quests, new dungeons, new monsters, new items, level cap raised to 80,

so come then you heroes, come in all your power and glory
for in the final hour, all must serve the one. true. king
(shot up a staircase of arthas and his eyes start glowing)

(logo: world of warcraft
wrath of the lich king)

Lovely to hear the Royal Apothecary Society is finally going to make use of all the work that's gone on since those far off days poisoning dwarves in the tavern in Brill and such.

Also interesting to note:

"The sprawling Borean Tundra lies at the far southwestern tip of Northrend, the icy continent also known as the roof of the world. In recent months the Horde has established a dominant presence here as the young and daringly aggressive Garrosh Hellscream has founded the rugged orc fortress of Warsong Hold."

It would appear young Garrosh has definitely got his groove back. Could this be the start of setting him up for greater things..?

Mostly true.

The problem with TBC has been the timing of zone releases. Top guilds weren't farming Karazhan (UBRS, etc) before SSC / TK (MC). Then, there was no farming of SSC / TK before BT / Hyjal. Granted, some Illidan killing guilds still do SSC / TK during their week, but it isn't necessary beyond the want to be raiding.

I don't believe any value would have been lost if we were killing Kael'thas for, at least, two months before Black Temple's release. I haven't enjoyed Blizzard's raiding model since AQ, to be honest. MC and BWL farming was very enjoyable to me. Then there was AQ and half the raid couldn't care less for the loot. Then Naxxramas is released within weeks of the first C'Thun kill. Naxxramas was a very enjoyable zone, but how the release timing worked out, Blizzard could have done better. Of course, everyone simply wanted out of AQ and back to a BWL model. If AQ were more enjoyable, Naxx would have felt more rushed, as TBC raiding feels.

Which brings me to my final qualm. Tuning. AQ tuning -- shit. C'Thun should have died much sooner, and the zone wouldn't have felt so close to the Naxx release. SSC / TK, horrid tuning, which simply stunted the progression these zones needed. With the proper tuning, guilds would have experienced the needed farming of Vashj / Kael'thas before Black Temple's opening. Instead, the zones were made "clearable" at the same instant Black Temple was available. Surprise, if you could kill Kael, you could forget about Kael and grind through Black Temple / Hyjal.

And this is without discussing the loot progression between raid zones.

I'm hoping content pacing will be changed in future expansions (if I choose to still be a raider), to allow for some of the lulls we experienced in MC / BWL raiding. Hell, selling loot was pretty fun and benefiting for future raid progression. We started selling Vortex crafted loot, but then we were in Black Temple and could take little advantage of that market.

My idea as to why WotLK is coming now is exactly that. They're tying up loose ends, and placing hooks for new content.

So the second expansion will add a viking-like race of giants, and more involvement from dragons, on a frozen continent... Where are the Coldain?

If WLK is half as good as Velious was, I'll level to 80 with a big honkin smile on my face, thats for damn sure. Not a bad place to go for inspiration at all.

But if the next expansion has us exploring the moon as a race of cat-people...

Setting Garrosh up for the successor to the Warchief is a pro move. His bloodline is just a wee bit more volatile than Thrall's, and you can bet they'd love to have an excuse to escalate things.

Katrana.

Thank you thank you. I've been dying at work.

Probably Kil'Jaeden as the final boss in Burning Crusade. We'll see in a few weeks.

Here you go...

Thanks so much for the pseudo subtitles!, I have no sound at work!

Also, I think "In the final hour, all must serve the one. true. King" beats the hell out of "You are not prepared!"

but then... what wouldn't?

Regarding Unholy Embrace - I doubt it's a Death Knight ability. It has a mana cost, and from 1up we have "Rather than using rage, energy, or mana, Death Knights have a special "rune sword" displayed beneath their health bar . . ."