A WoWHead's Review of Wrath of the Lich King: The Story Line, New Area, New Class, & Profession

Well, the normal World of Warcraft story line has now been expanded to encompass Northrend, and the story of the Lich King that rules it and threatens to bring destruction to the whole of Azeroth. The new expansion's lore begins five years ago with the disappearance of the heir to the throne of Lordaeron into Northrend, with the unholy union between Arthas' and Ner'zhul, and one heck of an eerie silence and darkness that has swept the lands of Azeroth. Suddenly, the Lich King has risen and has assembled his forces to move on the armies of both the Alliance and the Horde, threatening to wipe all races from the map. As one of the heroes of Azeroth, you will now be fighting against this massive threat and struggling to bring down the mighty Lich King's minions and the king himself.

For those who love to read the lore behind the video games, World of Warcraft and Blizzard don't disappoint here. You'll find more than you ever really wanted to know about the Lich King and Northrend on the World of Warcraft web site, www.worldofwarcraft.com, and you can purchase books and other literature that will go even more in depth into the story line. So, in terms of the story line behind the game, I have to give it a 5 out of 5.

Longing for new areas to explore and kill new mobs in? Well, Wrath of the Lich King doesn't let players down here either. There are nine new areas to explore and quest in on your way to 80, and one new sanctuary city – Dalaran. From the cold barren wastes of the Icecrown Glacier to the lush tropics of the Sholazar Basin, there are several different types of climates and backgrounds that you can find on the new continent. While I haven't gotten to explore the level 80 areas just yet, what I have seen of the new areas is sweet. And, the new races that you'll encounter are what you would expect from Blizzard, in-depth, races that are believable in these new lands of Northrend. Overall, for the new areas, I have to give them a 5 out of 5.

(If you want to learn a bit more about each of the new areas and the new sanctuary city, Dalaran, you can see the articles posted here in the MMO channel that will give you a glimpse into each one, starting here.)

Oh yeah, who hasn't waited for a new class to play? This completely new and unique class is only available to those who have at least 1 level 55 toon. You can create 1 Death Knight per realm that you have a level 55+ toon on, and you start out with a series of quests that are meant to test your skills and abilities as a Death Knight. One of the best things about the Death Knight is that each of the beginning quests that you undertake offer you a complete set of epic armor as quest rewards that will make your Death Knight look wickedly cool. You also gain a sweet mount as a quest reward here, which in my opinion, tops any mount in the game so far – except for some of the new epic flying mounts that Death Knights can get. For a completely new class that starts out as servants of the Lich King and ends up friends with the heroes of Azeroth, Blizzard pulled off one awesome class here and one that I am completely in love with now. You can learn more about the Death Knight in the in-depth review that is posted here on Bright Hub. Overall, I'm going to give the Death Knight class a 5 out of 5 as well.

While this new profession came out before the expansion did – it is still technically part of the expansion. I personally switched one of my toons over to this profession to see how it was and what all it could do. With Inscription, you will learn to mill herbs (which have shot up in price on every server now and herbalists are banking big time), to create the ink needed to write glyphs and other parchments for use by players for a number of things. Remember those scrolls that you used to find throughout the game that gave you extra abilities, like strength or agility, you can now create them. Also, you'll be able to create scrolls that will transport you back certain places and those that can add to different classes, weapons, armor, and more. The profession overall is a bit hard to level right now, as herbs are expensive and it's hard to get rid of the scrolls that you create at lower levels. But, I'm sure that once the economies in the servers calm down a bit, it will get better. Overall, I give the new profession a 4 out of 5.

In the end, Blizzard did a superb job in this latest expansion, even overshadowing their last expansion, the Burning Crusade. After playing the areas in the latest World of Warcraft saga and learning the new profession that was put into play, I have to admit that I cannot wait for the next one to come out as well.