Tigole speaks in Leipzig
by Eliah Hecht 
Aug 22nd 2007 at 9:42PM
- There will be a new "Old Stratholme" instance in the Caverns of Time, which will be a level 80 5-man: Warcraft 3 players however know Stratholme from a singleplayer mission, in which Arthas travels to the city and sets all buildings on fire, kills the citizens and fights Mal'Ganis. In Wrath of the Lich King you fight at Prince Arthas' side, by travelling through the Caverns of Time. We are giving you the opportunity of meeting Arthas at a time at which he was not a great villain yet. You are "cleaning" Stratholme and igniting buildings!
- Apparently you won't need level 80 after all to get a Death Knight, as this would just create an even more intense rush to 80, and people wouldn't be properly enjoying the content. Instead the required level might be 55–60. Additionally, Tigole said upon reaching the required level, "Then you create your Death Knight and face some challenges. If you have mastered them, you will get your Death Knight." This implies to me that the unlocking quests will not be done on your main, but on your new DK, and they need to be completed in order to take the new character any farther.
- Future hero classes could be Demon Hunter, Arch Mage, and Blademaster. However, they seem to be sticking with the "one hero class in WotLK, maybe more later" mentality.
Filed under: Events, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dan Aug 22nd 2007 10:00PM
"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.
dixonij Aug 22nd 2007 10:17PM
OLD STRATHOLME?!? Oh man... thats gonna be awesome..
RogueJedi86 Aug 22nd 2007 10:29PM
What happened to the instance behind the Night Elf boat in the Caverns of Time?
Ian Aug 22nd 2007 10:34PM
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.
Merus Aug 22nd 2007 10:54PM
"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.
Ian Aug 22nd 2007 11:17PM
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.
Alootrinn Aug 22nd 2007 11:38PM
@6
You're not killing People, you're destroying demons. ;)
Ian Aug 23rd 2007 12:15AM
"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
BenMS Aug 23rd 2007 12:32AM
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!
bwest0526 Aug 23rd 2007 12:33AM
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!
Dave Aug 23rd 2007 12:43AM
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.
Eztonic Aug 23rd 2007 1:41AM
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.
Zenevieva Aug 23rd 2007 2:45AM
@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?
Ian Aug 23rd 2007 2:52AM
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!!!
Eliah Hecht Aug 23rd 2007 2:54AM
Ian: The trend, actually, based on what I've seen various blues say, is that you will be able to make a DK of any race. They are of course quick to say that this is all subject to change.
FaithRaven Aug 23rd 2007 4:21AM
WotLK screenshots from Leipzig: http://www.realmhistory.net/news/wrath-of-the-lich-king-first-screenshots-from-leipzig/527.html
Ozzle Aug 23rd 2007 4:21AM
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.
tittapaFisken! Aug 23rd 2007 6:09AM
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 :)
RogueJedi86 Aug 23rd 2007 7:03AM
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.
RogueJedi86 Aug 23rd 2007 7:05AM
@#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.