On the shores of the continent of Northrend, distant, unholy cries shatter the frozen silence. The Lich King's undead army stirs, bent on nothing less than the extinction of all life on Azeroth....

But they have to get through you first.

Welcome to Wrath of the Lich King.

I'm sure if you haven't already landed on the Howling Fjord or the Borean Tundra, you're probably keen to spend some time stocking up on information to better prepare you for the difficult road ahead. Hence, we've put together this article with the basic and the not-so-basic need to know info on World of Warcraft's second expansion from Blizzard Entertainment.

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New System Specs/ Updated Graphics:

Are you taking a knife to a swordfight? This would be fine if you play a Rogue, but what I was actually referring to was the state of your computer and how updated it is.

It seems that Bliz is going to be revamping the graphics engine a little and adding stuff to keep the game reasonably fresh. Remember, this game's four years old now and it's starting to look its age with the release of stuff like Age of Conan.

The graphics updates will include: a new shader for certain areas in the game, improvement of the basic elemental effects to make them appear more realistic, and improvement of shadow detail and textures. The cost of the improvements in system requirements isn't too steep but it's a good idea to check first anyway:

I'm a PC

• Windows XP SP3 or Vista SP1 (Windows 2000 no longer supported)
• Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1.5 GHz (up from 800 MHz Intel/AMD). Dual-core recommended.
• RAM: 512 MB/1 GB for Vista, same as before. 1 GB/2 GB recommended.
• Video: GPU with hardware transform and lighting and 32 MB VRAM, same as before. Recommended 128 MB VRAM.

I'm a Mac

• Mac OS X 10.4.11 (10.3 no longer supported)
• PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo. G4s are no longer supported. Intel 1.8 GHz recommended.
• RAM: 1 GB, up from 512 MB. 2 GB recommended.
• Video: Hardware transform and lighting, 64 MB VRAM. 128 MB VRAM recommended.
  

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Long Road to 80

The level cap's been raised by 10. Great news (for some), but I'm sure a lot of people are still reeling from the 60-70 grind the last expansion gave us.

Who knew 10 levels made for so much work? On the bright side, the last ten levels will be soloable through quests  just as in the previous expansion.

To get you started on this long and difficult road, head over to either the Howling Fjord or the Borean Tundra. They're both accessible via an alliance ship or a goblin Zeppelin.

I'd recommend visiting the the Borean Tundra first as there are numerous quick and easy-to-complete quests there, but really, it's your decision.

Here's the breakdown of the Northrend zones and their recommended levels:

• Howling Fjord: 68-72 
• Borean Tundra: 68-72
• Dragonblight: 71-75
• Zul'Drak: 73-76
• Grizzly Hills: 74-76
• Sholazar Basin: 75-78
• The Storm Peaks: 77-80
• Icecrown Glacier: 77-80
  

If you'd like a more complete description of the zones, check out our previous WoWLK article.

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New/ Updated Instances

What's a new expansion if there are no new playgrounds to romp through? Several 5-, 10- and 25-man dungeons (God, but I miss those 40-man headaches...)

• Utgarde Keep - An instance in the Howling Fjord filled with the Vrykul, a Viking-like  race devoted to serving the Lich King. It has two wings - Utgarde Keep (lvl 70-72), and Utgarde Pinnacle (lvl 80).
  
• Azjol-Nerub - The contested capital of the Nerubian race of  spider-people. (lvl 72-74)
  
• Icecrown Citadel - Players will battle Arthas the Lich King, the ruler of the Undead Scourge. (lvl 80)
  
• Naxxramas - An updated version of the original Naxxramas, redesigned to cater for 10- and 25-man content. It has been stated that Naxxramas will be the entry level raid of WotLK at level 80. 
• Nexus - There will be at least three instances there, a lvl 70 one set in the Ice Caverns, a second, higher lvl one, and a final raid instance against the Blue Dragon Aspect Malygos.
  

In addition, a new instance in the Caverns of Time will appear letting you play through the scenario when Arthas butchered the people of Stratholme.

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DEATH KNIGHT

Yes, I meant to spell it in all caps. Rather appropriate, wouldn't you say? Stifle and lore-based complaints now. Death Knights, much like the Orcs and Tauren before them, are entirely too cool to *not* become playable characters.

The Death Knight is the first hero class available in WoW. They won't be accessible until a player has at least one other lvl 55 character on the same server. Death Knights start at level 55, which thankfully means no hordes of naked lvl1 DK mules dancing atop the town mailbox (just the occasional lvl 55 one).

They appear to be another hybrid class, albeit  a very powerful one. They can melee dps, magic dps, use pets, and tank (though how well without a shield is debatable). They will have "sigils" which work in the same way as a Paladin's librams or a Druid's idols.

Their pets, ghouls in this case, are to work in much the same way as a Mage's Water Elemental. They have a set duration and limited controllability. With the right talent points, the pet could eventually become fully controllable in the same way a hunter's would be.

A new mechanic will be implemented for DKs. Rather than mana, energy or rage, they'll be using "runes." The runes or combinations thereof are used to trigger abilities. Each rune has a cooldown of around ten seconds before it can be used again. Using runes also builds "runic power" that fuels the strength of certain other abilities. Runic power decays over time much like a warrior's "rage."

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World PVP/ Siege Warfare:

Strand of the Ancients

This is the new Battleground available for the Wrath of the Lich King. From the way Strand of the Ancients plays, it seems someone in Bliz has been watching "Saving Private Ryan" again.

SotA will be a Titan-themed sea-to-land invasion, with land-based defenders heavily fortified. "Demolisher" vehicles will occasionally spawn in for attacking players to use to break into the defender's fortifications. The goal of the game is for attackers to capture the Titan Portal by knocking through a series of fortified gates. The defender's job is obviously to stop them.

Wintergrasp

This is an open PVP zone located in Northrend. There is a fortress in the northern portion of the map that may be occupied by a faction. If you're not one of the players holding the fortress then your job should be obvious: break in and take the fortress for yourself.

Many buildings and walls in Wintergrasp are destructible via siege vehicles produced through factories accessible to both offense and defense. Obviously the key to victory will be through good use of these vehicles.

Victory in Wintergrasp means a damage debuff to the opposing faction characters in the zone making it easier for controlling faction members to collect the high level elemental materials located there. "Stone keeper's shards" will also be collectible from Northrend dungeon bosses, which may later be traded for weapons and equipment. Blizzard also hints at an "ancient titan vault" under the fortress. Intriguing...

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Professions:

Inscription
I'm sure if you've been active in World of Warcraft recently, you're already familiar with the Inscription Profession.

To those that aren't, Inscription is basically the creation of Glyphs, which are enchantments that increase an aspect of a player's abilities (such as cooldown, duration, etc.) Each player can have up to six Glyphs; three major and three minor. Glyphs may be sold or traded.

General
The skill cap is up again from 375 to 450. Blizzard promised to make lvling from 300 to 375 a bit easier but *whew* it's gonna be tedious.

In the upside though, we've been given some additional incentive for having a particular profession. These come in the form of Passive Bonuses. See the list below it's not yet complete but more will follow soon:

• Alchemists get roughly a 20 percent bonus to the effects and duration of their own potions when they use them.
• Miners get a bonus +500hp.
• Skinners get a +25 to their critical strike rating bonus
  
• Herbalists will get an instant cast HOT for 2000 hp over 5 seconds. (self only, 3 min cooldown).
  
• Scribes (Inscription) will have an additional unlockable major glyph slot.
• Enchanters may now sell or trade enchantments over the Auction House (sold as armor scrolls)
• Jewlcrafters have a chance of creating "Perfect" gems when cutting uncommon Northend gems
• Tailors can find additional cloth on Northrend humaniods.

Numerous new recipes for all the professions have also been added... but I suppose that's to be expected.

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Miscellaneous Changes/ Additions:

Barbershop
After four years of bitter, pitched battle from the hellish depths of the Molten Core to the swirling chaos of Netherstorm, my warrior's hairdo could probably use a touch-up. Hairdos, hair color, and piercings may now be changed for a small fee. Sorry, plastic surgery is still not available.


The Achievements window
It's now easier than ever to keep track of your achievements with the new Achievements window.

The top of the window displays the total number of points you've received for completing achievements. Below, each achievement appears with its name, description, point value, the completion date and a progress bar. New achievements to WoWLK have been added so you can put this new feature through its paces.

Also included in the window are "Feats of Strength." Feats record your character's past glories such as old pvp rankings, rare items found, etc. They're worth no points but are nice to get all nostalgic about.

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Related Wrath of the Lich King Articles:

• Wrath of the Lich King: Everything you need to know, part 1