I have had a blast playing Wrath of the Lich King. I love this expansion. I have completed all quests in Howling Fjord, Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills. You get a achievement by completing 100 quests in Fjord, and 150 in Dragonblight. Same for each region. I am currently at 61/100 Achievement quests in Zul’Drak, but it seems Blizzard intentionally removed a mob from the polar bear god. Without this it seems you can’t unlock other quests. Level cap is 77 at the moment, so that makes sense. And Gun’drak dungeon is not yet open in the 8719 beta build, even when it does show up in the LFG Tool.
The new Primals in Northrend are named Eternal Water/Earth/Fire/Air. Instead of motes, you get crystallized air (for example). Once you gather 10 of them you can transform them into Eternal Air. New potions are named Runic Healing/Mana potions.
In Grizzly Hills, you find out that the Lich King sent four High Elf Princes to summon the Shade of Arugal at Silverpine Forest in a vision from a human female psychic. You see the loading screen and your spirit is sent to Pyrewood Village in Silverpine Forest where you can see these four princes casting on the shade of Arugal. Then you are sent to Bloodmoon Isle to kill the Shade of Arugal. The Lich King is showing big plans for you in this new Scourge invasion. He is involved in a lot of things that are going on throughout Northrend.
As I reported earlier, it was the Lich King who lured High General Abbendis to Northrend and probably has a lot to do with the creation of the Scarlet Crusade in the first place. What Abbendis thought to be the calling of the Light through visions, was really the Lich King whispering to her and other Scarlet Crusade high-ranking people.
His Cult of the Damned awakened the Vykrul from their hibernation, are stealing magic from the red and black dragonflights in Dragonblight, destroyed a pillar in Sholazar Basin to infiltrate it. A Drakkari Troll betrayed his people and his gods for power by serving the Lich King. This traitor was the doom of the Drakkari. And you helped him by doing his quests that weakened his people. It ends up with said troll being transformed by the Lich King into an immortal giant troll. You see the Lich King teleporting through a gateway into Drak’Tharon Keep to transform the troll and to talk to you—mocking that you would soon serve him.
In Zul’Drak, there aren’t food/water vendors for a very cool reason. One of the quests in Ebon Watch disguises you as a Scourge Undead Ghoul to infiltrate a Necropolis. The Death Knight at Ebon Watch asks you to continue doing quests for an Undead Troll that you helped in Grizzly Hills and Drak’Tharon Keep showing some lore progression going on here. The thing is that you keep the item that transforms you into a undead ghoul and you can go to a Abomination vendor to buy drinks and food from him.
Zul’Drak is a lot of fun. You can control an Abomination as a pet to attack the Drakkari trolls. You gather up 5-8 mobs and press a button to make the Abomination’s seams come apart for a cool explosion that kills all mobs in a blast. I really hope that becomes a daily quest. It is fun.
Zul’Drak mobs have almost a 100% drop rate of Drakkari offerings. You can redeem these offerings as a daily quest at the statues of certain temples. The statues grant you a special buff for 30 minutes such as attack power, 91 mana regeneration and other stuff. Only useable in Zul’Drak, and probably gonna be useful in the Gun’drak dungeon once it is opened.
Throughout the quests in Grizzly Hills, Dragonblight and Zul’Drak there are quests where the Lich King appears before you, and it is crystal clear Blizzard wants to show you how crazy Arthas the Lich King is. He is simply moving chess pieces to lure you into the destiny he wants for yourself … as his servant. You are led to betray, as he betrayed. To despair, as he did.
Sholazar Basin looks like a very good place for questing, specially the Avatar of Freya and Northrend Flying Mount quests. As for the loot, I think the developer team in charge of itemization needs to do a better job. At level 77 I have barely managed to get two items that can more or less be an upgrade, and I am not very convinced that more stamina/intellect is a trade off for the T6/T5 gear’s additional stats.
There is barely any loot for Holy Paladins. All loot is more about cloth, Mail, and retribution/protection plate classes. Dungeon bosses only drop blue items in normal mode. I haven’t tried heroic—if they are available at all.
Questing is a very entertaining experience in Wrath of the Lich King. I really hope they add more quest lines and solo content as time goes by. Specially from the dragons at the Wyrmrest Temple. Something I have noticed is that there haven’t been quests asking you to go to Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms or Outland. Really hope more quests send you outside Northrend.
In Burning Crusade, there were various quests sending you back to Thrall in Orgrimmar, or to Stormwind. Overall, I love this expansion. And plan to play it in retail.
