New Zones

There are nine new zones in Northrend: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Zul'drak, Storm Peaks, Wintergrasp, Sholazar Basin and home of the Lich King – Icecrown. Players can start their adventures in either Howling Fjord on the East or Borean Tundra on the west. The nearer to Icecrown players get, the harder the content becomes.

The new zones in Northrend vary greatly from each other in appearance and content. Contrary to expectation, Northrend isn't just a continent of ice. There are forests, lush jungles, cities, and plains amongst other things, as well as some snow here and there!

Wintergrasp is a completely new type of zone, which has never been seen before in WoW. The whole area will be PvP enabled, even for PvE servers. There will be destructible buildings, siege engines, and possibly a server-wide buff when either the Horde or Alliance take control of the zone.


Achievements

Blizzard is introducing the Achievements system to WoW with WotLK. This massive step means that players will be able to track their characters' achievements in the game, and see other people's. Some particularly tricky accomplishments will reward players with items such as non-combat pets, tabards and titles.


Levelling Speed Increased

To ensure new players aren't too daunted when they create their first character, the levelling speed from 60 to 70 will be increased. Currently, it takes players almost as long to get from level 60 to 70 as it does to get from 1 to 60. But after the expansion, that levelling band will be made easier, and the 70 to 80 band will become the most intensive, experience-point wise. This follows the recent similar change to the level 20 to 60 band.


10 and 25 Man Raids

Previously, the hardest dungeons in WoW needed a certain number of players to complete them. When WoW first came out, these “raid” dungeons required 40 players. With The Burning Crusade expansion, this figure was reduced to 25, and easier raids only required 10 players. In Wrath of the Lich King, all raids are designed for either 10 or 25 players.

The quality of loot and rewards in the 10 man raids will obviously be lower, and the 25 man version may even provide players with slightly more content, but this means that guilds don't have to be able to get 25 players together, a task that takes a huge amount of organisation, to be able to see all the content in the game, something only 5% of players currently see.

All in all, players are in for a real treat with Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard have taken everything from their previous expansion TBC, removed the bad stuff and multiplied the good. The beta is only a couple of weeks in, with new content and features being added constantly, but already it's clear that this game will be a smash hit, with current players and people who will be experiencing World of Warcraft for the first time.

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