wow Wrath of the Lich King Launched 12 Years Ago Today

[Stan 5,240]

Wrath of the Lich King turns 12 today!

On November 13, 2008, Blizzard released World of Warcraft's third expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Many players still consider it the best expansion to date. The new expansion introduced Death Knights, the first Hero class ever introduced in WoW to the game, and the level cap was raised to 80.

Wrath Cinematic

The first major content patch of the expansion Secrets of Ulduar was released on April 14, 2009. Storm Peaks have been updated with Ulduar, a new raid where players had to confront Yogg-Saron. Notable loot includes Mimiron's Head. Blizzard also added the Argent Tournament to Icecrown in Patch 3.1. Icecrown has also been updated for max-level content for the Shadowlands pre-patch event.

Call of the Crusade went live on August 4, 2009, and the patch added the Isle of Conquest, the Crusaders' Coliseum dungeon, and Trial of the Crusader. The story of the Argent Crusade continued, and only the boldest of adventurers could prove they were worthy of fighting against the Lich King.

At the Wrathgate, both the Alliance and the Horde confronted the Lich King, but Varimathras' betrayal caused Grand Apothecary Putress to unleash the plague on both armies, resulting in massive casualties for both factions. Bolvar Fordragon and Dranosh Saurfang were killed and recovered by the Lich King.

The final major content patch of the expansion went live on December 8, 2009. On that day, it was finally time to put the Lich King to rest, and Blizzard added the Icecrown Citadel raid, along with three dungeons (Halls of Reflection, Pit of Saron, the Forge of Souls ) to the game. Notable loot includes Invincible's Reins. 

Do you miss Wrath of the Lich King? Let us know in the comments!

[Elarin 3]

Unpopular opinion, but No.  I do not miss this expansion, just was not for me with the way the game shifted.  This was actually the era of the game that made me step away for a few years.  I understand to many it is "the best", and I'm glad that so many enjoyed it.  

If people are curious as to why I disliked wrath I will answer it, as long as it remains civil.  People are allowed to have different opinions.

[Slam 40]

7 hours ago, Elarin said:

Unpopular opinion, but No.  I do not miss this expansion, just was not for me with the way the game shifted.  This was actually the era of the game that made me step away for a few years.  I understand to many it is "the best", and I'm glad that so many enjoyed it.  

If people are curious as to why I disliked wrath I will answer it, as long as it remains civil.  People are allowed to have different opinions.

Tel me ?

[Elarin 3]

Okay, there was a combination of things, but I am speaking as someone who hardcore raided throughout vanilla and TBC.

WOTLK content was just too damn easy at launch with the reworked Naxxramas.  It took 66 hours after launch of the wotlk for all its raid content to be cleared. (Not by me, but by those big world first guilds) it took my guildmates about a week or so for all of us to reach 80.  Then it took maybe four hours to get through Naxxramas the first clear.

The content was puggable pretty much at the start, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  However, for myself and the guild I was with the content was just effortless for its first tier (tier 7).

5 mans: At the start they were just so easily ran over that we just all together stopped running them when we realized how easy Naxx was to get through.

The ICC 5 mans were cool, especially the encounter of running away from The Lich King.

After leveling for the 6 months it was log in for a couple hours clear Naxx then wait until next week.

Class Design:  It just felt like loss of class identity was starting here.  I felt it especially as a spriest player in tbc, losing my support roll to the replenishment system.  My valuable raid debuffs being changed to just self buffs or shared debuffs with other classes.  I no longer felt unique and useful, instead I was just another damage dealer.

PVP:  It just didn't feel nearly as good as TBC, and I think part of that was the introducing of brand new abilities for everyone, but mostly I think it was because of the Death Knight, and how insanely overpowered they were for a long time, with Icebound Fortitude having a 1 min cd, 50% damage reduction, usable while stunned to remove the stun and make them immune to stun.  Anti magic shell which was pretty much another cloak of shadows.  Dealing spell damage and physical damage with self healing and plate armor all at their arsenal.

And who can forget Fan of Knives rogue spam when it interrupted.

Ulduar: I will give credit where credit is due, this was the shining beacon of WOTLK, and I was on the verge of quitting, but decided to keep going mostly due to the group of people I had been playing with for the last 3 years.  It did renew my passion for the game that I had lost over the last 6 months.

Trial of the Crusader: Ugh time gated content.

Icecrown Citadel: More time gated content, also it felt really like another remake of Naxxramas with its layout and design.  Clear 4 quarters to reach the frozen throne.   It had some cool bosses, but I didn't find it incredible, but it wasn't bad either.  It was okay.

At this point Ulduar was a lost memory, and I was burnt out.  I only kept going due to the social group, which was shrinking. 

The Lich King: I found this encounter to be incredibly Disappointing, and I was so underwhelmed.

I found him so underwhelming because it was just 6 different phases of add control and not standing in something.  I get it he is the Lich King, he should assault you with endless waves of Scourge, but it just seemed like that was it.  An add control fight with just high dps requirements that made him artificially "hard".  Infest was definitely an on paper scary mechanic, but with a disc priest it was never a factor.

Yes, I did attempt him a few times on heroic just to see, but it was more of the same for me just more numbers and some extra black stuff not to stand in.

Overall to me WOTLK, just felt it was catered to the more casual crowd, and in NO way is that bad.  Just for myself and the guild I was in, we felt it was just too easy to progress through, and in the end the guild disbanded. 

I think I would have left a lot sooner if the guild I was with for several years didn't continue just because we enjoyed hanging out together.

So, that is why I just don't really have fond memories of WOTLK gameplay (except Ulduar), but I do think it opened the door for the majority of the WOW community. 

I guess I'm just kind of one of those old school players, but no I do not think Vanilla was the best.  I think The Burning Crusade is.

I came back for Legion, so I was pretty much in the dark from cataclysm-warlords of draenor.