DESCRIPTION

The battle to defend Azeroth continues in this second expansion pack to Blizzard's best-selling World of WarCraft. The Lich King Arthas, a former paladin, commands the undead armies of the Scourge with the singular purpose of plunging the world of the living into complete and utter chaos. High-level adventurers will explore a new continent, the arctic wasteland of Northrend, to battle Arthas and his lethal legion. Northrend is divided into ten themed zones, each home to unlikely allies, new races, and powerful creatures such as ice trolls, wendigos, flesh giants, proto-dragons, and plague eruptors. As in the Burning Crusade expansion, five-man parties will delve into instanced dungeons to complete quests and leave with new weapons, armor, and other treasures.

The level cap has increased an additional ten levels, with each class able to learn new spells or abilities during the climb to level 80. A new inscription profession allows well-trained individuals to augment spells and abilities with additional effects. While Wrath of the Lich King includes a 15-man instanced battleground, player-versus-player combat is reintroduced on a global scale in a free-for-all zone available to everyone regardless of server type. Player-controlled siege weapons are also found within this area, for opposing factions to raze entire buildings. For the first time in the series, existing characters can be customized with new hairstyles and even dances. Yet the most notable addition to Wrath of the Lich King is the online role-playing game's first hero class: the death knight.

To access the death knight class, players must first reach a specific level and complete an elaborate quest chain. The developers view the death knight as primarily a tanking class, one that serves as an alternative to warriors in the same vein as druids or paladins. While death knights do not have the benefit of carrying shields, they have the ability to cast spells based on specific rune types equipped on weapons. In addition to the new hero class, hundreds of new recipes per profession and thousands of new items find their way into the expansion, along with new 25-player raids, heroic dungeons, alternate mounts, and other surprises. Like the Burning Crusade before it, Wrath of the Lich King requires the original World of WarCraft for subscribers to access the new content. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide