Daelo and Ghostcrawler discuss the Lich King
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 3rd 2010 at 8:00PM
More interesting for WoW fans, though, is an interview with Scott Mercer (Daelo), WoW's lead encounter designer, and Greg Street (Ghostcrawler), a crab who needs no introduction. They discussed the arc of Arthas and the Lich King from Warcraft II through World of Warcraft (congratulations again to Blood Legion on their 10-man world-first).
Please note that here there be spoilers for some details about the Arthas fight, so stay away if you want it all to be a surprise.
The interview is fairly short, and a nice read if you have a few minutes. Here are my summary notes, though:
- In Warcraft III, a big part of Arthas's role (design-wise) was to be the bridge between the human and undead campaigns. However, they didn't always know how big a deal he was going to be in the ongoing story of the Warcraft universe.
- If you were around for the beginning of Wrath, you likely remember the developers talking about how they wanted Arthas to be a very real, direct presence for all players in this expansion, as opposed to Illidan's remoteness in Burning Crusade. Well, apparently they think it "worked very well," and "will likely adopt this approach for other villains in the future." I have mixed feelings about it myself -- I think it slightly cheapens the villian to have him running around in half the instances in the game. Overall I like it this way better than the BC way, but they could tone it down a bit.
- One of the interesting things about the Icecrown Citadel raid is that the bosses all have a reason to be there. They're not just standing around. "Putricide heads up R&D" for the lich king, and so on.
- I'm sure this information is out there for the finding right now, but apparently the Lich King fight takes place at the Frozen Throne at the very top of Icecrown, and falling off the tower is "a real danger." Also, Frostmourne is "a core mechanic of the fight itself."
- The story behind the Lich King's big sack o' weapons: "The main idea is that the Lich King has an inventory of weapons that he has stolen and corrupted throughout his reign. These weapons originally belonged to characters like King Terenas, Antonidas, Sylvanas, and Muradin Bronzebeard." Awesome.
Filed under: Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Rowan Feb 3rd 2010 8:07PM
ZOMG CATACLYSM.
Mike Feb 3rd 2010 8:08PM
I like seeing Arthas show up in the instances. It gives the people who can't raid a taste of what's going on.
It might seem a bit overdone now, post 3.3, when you can do chain heroics all day long so easily. But back when it took most of an evening to knock out a heroic, it was nice to see him every so often.
Reuben Feb 3rd 2010 8:27PM
I agree with you. It really made me feel a part of what was going on.
Luke Feb 3rd 2010 8:41PM
He also shows up in quests in almost every zone. I remember him making appearances in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Zul'drak, and Icecrown to name a few.
GrumblyStuff Feb 3rd 2010 9:06PM
Eh... there seemed to be too many inconsistent abilities the Lich King had at his disposal. He could port around and made more than a few personal appearances. ...then casually strolls after players in Halls of Reflection and gets stopped by a cave in. Ok, ok, he had his heart destroyed by Tirion Fordring and picked up the modified plague at Wrathgate but it just seems lame that there's a whole system of command despite the Lich King being all there is holding back the Scourge or whatever.
How many did he bribe with "power"? How many did he command to kill us?
Looking back at it all, it just seems... impotent. And with the focus on creating content much more accessible than before, it feels fairly weak that there's "easy mode" versions of the Lich King. No, I haven't taken part in killing him nor am I close. I didn't get very far in BC either but I guess I preferred it when the difficulty of games was due to how far you've gotten, not because you choose some setting or opted to play with your eyes closed.
Ah, well. Here comes the downrates.
Hollow Leviathan Feb 3rd 2010 9:26PM
Do you think you're going to get downrated because you're going against a so-called hivemind, or because you know you're whining and didn't bother to form possibly valid grievances into coherent arguments?
You might think that the content can be played 'with your eyes shut', but that clearly means you haven't tried to pug TotC. As far as I can see, this game still requires careful co-ordination, skillful play, and deep knowledge of your own class and the classes of your raid. That's asking a whole lot for just a video game in an era when God of War respawns you at checkpoints 15 feet back if you die, which you won't, for no penalty.
ryang Feb 3rd 2010 9:37PM
@ Grumbly
I always assumed that when Arthas was "porting" around, he was unable to use certain powers. I've seen him infuse/possess/etc, but never attack. The people he has exerted his power upon have mostly been those that would wish to have his power - are open to it. Correct me if I'm wrong, which is very likely.
Think of Arthas sitting on his throne, projecting his image where ever he wishes to be. His image can interact as if he was there, until it comes time to get physical. He's a ghost for all intents in that sense.
Makes sense to me thinking of it like that anyway.. YMMV.
jbodar Feb 3rd 2010 9:53PM
@Grumblystuff
Since when are hard modes new to video games? Players looking for additional challenge have been turning up the difficulty since the likes of Doom and Diablo 2 and even before that. It's just fairly new to MMOs. As long as those who put in the work for hard modes get suitably rewarded with better loot and prestige titles, who cares, really? Do people who only played through Diablo II: LoD on Normal (or even Nightmare) not deserve to fight Baal or see the fate of the Worldstone?
Kharon Feb 4th 2010 2:42AM
@ GrumblyStuff:
If you call the Lich King "impotent" and think we've been thwarting his plans everywhere, everytime, you clearly haven't listened to his speech during the last fight of ICC. It's in the sound files. Check it out.
Evelinda Feb 4th 2010 8:09AM
You know, i like seeing the lich king too... but he really DOES seem impotent. Every time you mess up his plans he's all "i'll get you next time, gadget! next time!" Cmon dude, man up and squash me like a bug already... i deserve it, and then i can be your undead slave for all eternity!
boyechko Feb 4th 2010 9:49AM
Did anyone else on alliance run up to him at the bottom of the stairs to Utgarde during the astral phase of the first few quests of Howling Fjord, get one shotted, and then be told by him that now is not the time and you aren't yet powerful enough? He wasn't very impotent then, and now it seems like some great foreshadowing on Blizz's part.
Hansbo Feb 3rd 2010 8:14PM
Related to the Lich King: Ensidia seems to have snagged the world first in 25-man (according to guildox).
Of course, by the time I post this, I'm sure I'm going to refresh the wow.com homepage, see that you reported this during my writing of this comment, and then feel really, really stupid :(
Sterdoker Feb 3rd 2010 8:17PM
Warmace of Menethil.
WANT.
Xevius Feb 3rd 2010 8:19PM
I too am looking forward to the event heralding the cataclysm,
epic or not I am excited to see possible event exclusive to the event
like the tabard I heard about in the pre-event for tbc the trinkets and tabard
from the zombie invasion, ought to be great.
Onuzim Feb 3rd 2010 8:25PM
The only thing I don't like about it is that i have never seen an elfish xbow before just bows
xoxotl Feb 3rd 2010 8:27PM
Oooh, are we going to get another chance at eating brains?
Tasty, tasty brains.
Ringo Flinthammer Feb 3rd 2010 8:27PM
"No boss in Icecrown Citadel is just standing around, waiting for players to kick in the door. Instead, they all have a reason to be there and a vital role to play in the Lich King's army. As the players progress through Icecrown, they are attacking the leaders in charge of the various day-to-day operations of the Scourge. There's the Soul Forge in charge of "recruitment" and Professor Putricide who heads up R&D...."
Um, what? Soul Forge has no obvious "recruitment" going on -- it's some catwalks suspended over a pit. (Check out Halls of Stone and Halls of Lightning to see what the zone should have looked like in terms of "they're preparing an army, omg.") And within ICC itself, most of the bosses after Saurfang are standing in big empty rooms that you get to through big empty corridors.
The fights are cool, but the setting has a lot more in common with Temple of Veeshan than it does Ulduar or even Naxxaramas.
Neirin Feb 3rd 2010 8:51PM
Forge of Souls is where they make the weapons, not where the army idles - that's right outside the citadel, and just Icecrown (zone) in general.
I personally feel that the gunship battle is the most nonsensical fight in ICC from a lore standpoint. I mean, can we really not stop fighting, even when we're within spitting distance of THE LICH KING!?!
As for ICC after Saurfang:
Plagueworks: Festergut and Rotface are kinda-sorta Prof. Putricide's kids/pets/guards/underlings and (presumably) his primary test subjects (you don't just make a plague to wipe out all life on Azeroth with no guarantee it'll work, now do you?). Putricide is R&D of course.
Crimson Halls: The Blood Princes (all of whom we've fought before btw) are the Lich King's regional commanders - his generals. Blood Queen is the leader of the San'layn and thus acts sort of as the Lich King's Secretary of Defense.
Frostwing Halls: Valithria Dreamwalker is an emerald dragon being held captive so that (presumably) the Lich King might exert some control over the emerald dream (or at least freak out druids). More than likely, he's also keeping Valithria there as some sort of potential replacement for Sindragosa, or even as a simple hostage to deter the Wyrmrest Accord from interfering. Sindragosa really shouldn't need much explanation -she's the Lich King's ace in the hole (aside from himself obviously).
Ringo Flinthammer Feb 3rd 2010 9:09PM
And all of them but Putricide are standing around empty rooms with their thumbs up their butts, not "having a reason to be there."
I assure you, if you swing by the Pentagon, there are not empty rooms with generals standing in the middle, slack-jawed, waiting for someone to go in. They are doing SOMETHING in a fully furnished room. In contrast, Arthas' generals are just standing around, as though they were waiting for the furniture movers to arrive with the furniture from Naxx.
"No boss in Icecrown Citadel is just standing around, waiting for players to kick in the door."
No, that's exactly what they're doing.
MusedMoose Feb 3rd 2010 9:16PM
Last time I checked, the Pentagon isn't the domain of a boss in a video game. :P
I think what the devs said is more that each boss has a reason to be in Icecrown, they're not just random loot pinatas. Besides, can you imagine the QQ that would ensue if they actually moved around? Entire raids would fall apart if a boss snuck up on them, people would bitch endlessly if the boss wasn't exactly where they expected it to be, and so on.
I understand your point, but I think you're taking things a bit too literally.