Death Knight starting zone impressions

WWI & BlizzCon Beta Codes
We have some information to share regarding the beta codes received by those who attended the 2008 Worldwide Invitational or the 2007 BlizzCon. These codes are going to be used for the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. If you do have a beta code from one of these events, we urge you to register it immediately and without delay. (src)

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Update 07/22 1:00am: Utgarde Pinnacle (Videos & Screenshots)

07/21
- New "Epic" additions
- CoT - Old Stratholme page up
- Quest Maps for WotLK zones
- The Oculus (dungeon)
- Caverns of Time: Culling of Stratholme (dungeon)
- Icecrown Glacier (zone)
- Halls of Lightning (dungeon), Ulduar Raid (dungeon)
- Halls of Stone (dungeon), Azure Dragonshrine (sub-zone), Altar of Har'Koa (sub-zone)
- Dalaran in Alterac Mountains & Stormwind Harbor

07/20
- Zul'Drak & Dragonblight Beta Screenshots
- Azjol-Nerub page up (boss kills), New green & blue items
- Sholazar Basin Beta Screenshots (npcs, mobs, etc..)
- Borean Tundra Beta Screenshots

*Warning Heavy Spoilers*

After completing the Death Knight start zone, I have to say bravo. I couldn't find any other 4-5 continuous hours of WoW this well done.

As you all know the Death Knights start on top of Archerus, a Necropolis floating close to Light's Hope Chapel. You can't exit the necropolis to the surface until you complete the training quests. From a lore point of view everything is explained really well. Previously known Death Knight bosses send you around the necropolis on quests that give you Runeforging, train you spells at dedicated trainers to each spell school of the Death Knight (oh by the way you start with 270/275 weapon skills, 270 first aid skill and 0 talent points). It was a bit weird for me, but there is no combat training inside the necropolis. At the end of the quests you are given control of an Eye, that you can use to discover the surface and gather some intel crucial for the Lich King's plans. Very cool new game mechanic.

50 images from the Archerus here. (chronological order: go from top left to bottom right)

After all that, you get teleported to the surface where Arthas plans an assault on the scarlet. This phase is full of very clever ideas. One of the quest involves defeating 5 Death Knights in duels and it was very nice to see the developers idea about what happens when there are no players around: you get to fight Death Knight initiates instead. After stealing a horse you can obtain your own 100% Deathcharger in the "shadowy realm" which looks really nice. You also get to experience the first bits of siege weapons, when you attack mobs with cannons mounted on the ships. It was also very nice when you are sent into a mine and using a device you convert these miners into ghouls who become your pets eventually making a small personal army. I also liked the part where you have to kill a bunch of low-level NPCs and the Lich King keeps whispering you "give in to the darkness", "no survivors", "do not hesitate", "end it". Evul >:] After all the quests are done you return to the necropolis for debriefing. Oh by the way, you are rewarded by 1-2-3 talent points throughtout the quests, which is also a very nice mechanic.

60 images about the first phase here. (chronological order: go from top left to bottom right)

When starting phase 2 there are many surprises. Where there was a fleet, now there are ships in flames, dead bodies are being converted into ghouls, the sky is full of mini "Plague Spreader" necropolises, and we bring chains and cauldrons, so Noth can build a cauldron like the ones in WPL. So phase 2 is about terrorizing the next village. There's a bit of sneaking to get some plans, and then one of the rooms in a building has a bunch of corpses and the next room has Death Knight bosses making plans to attack. That part is kinda creepy. Then there's this room with prisoners being tortured where you can talk to one of them of your own race, who talks to you but you are ordered to kill him eventually. Something's definitely afoot. Then we intercept a message that says reinforcement battlegroups are arriving from Hearthglen and Tirisfal to New Avalon and then in a disguise we deliver this to the scarlet, who basically want to reply "don't come, it's an ambush" but evil as we are, they never get this message and so walk into the Lich King's trap.

83 images of phase 2 in the gallery. (chronological order: go from top left to bottom right)

Phase 3 starts with visiting the Lich King who gives you a horn to summon a Frostwyrm that you can fight from. Cool! Another new mechanic. Your task is to destroy the hundreds of soldiers of that reinforcement battlegroup. Vehicle combat is awesome! The Frostwyrm has HP and mana and they both decrease as you fight and when the mana is out you land, grab a human and as the frostwyrm eats the human, the HP and mana bar recharges :) The fight is maybe a tad too long and mana runs out quickly (10-15 kills), I saw some evades too, but all in all, it's extremely epic!

12 images from phase 3. (chronological order: go from top left to bottom right)

For phase 4 the Lich King sends you to Light's Hope Chapel. Here you fight in an amazing battle with 10000 scourge reinforcements, some incredible buffs that give you 35k HP, 6k heal per tick and like 100x damage and behemoth flesh giants tank the 300 defenders. So it's all having fun. Maybe a bit weird that named bosses cannot really be killed, but random mobs die very easily with the huge damage. At the end of the fight Highlord Tirion Fordring appears who starts persuading Mograine to the "light side". Arthas arrives (with a very cool animation I must say) and shows off his brilliant plan that involved sending 10000 scourge and us to death JUST so he can lure Fordring out. Ouch. They start fighting and the Lich King almost wins, but then Mograine throws Fordring the Ashbringer, which turns from Corrupted Ashbringer to Cleansed Ashbringer. Then with the incredible power of the weapon Fordring hits 1 into Arthas who then quickly runs away. HAHA! A speech from Fordring how we were betrayed by our master and suddenly you have feelings about wanting to take revenge for this. Then your display turns to dark colors, you faint and when seconds later when you get up on your feet, you find yourself in the usual Light's Hope Chapel. WOW! So that's how you become horde/alliance from the ranks of the Scourge. WOW!

53 images in the gallery about phase 4. (chronological order: go from top left to bottom right)

To summarize I can only say that everyone absolutely MUST experience this, even if Death Knight is not planned as an alt or main. The whole 4-5 hours experience is simply amazing. WoW!

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