Wrath of the Lich King Hands On

With over nine million subscribers it hardly seems necessary to retain players by releasing an expansion but that hasn’t stopped Blizzard from developing Wrath of the Lich King, a high-level expansion that opens up new areas for veteran players, both in terms of the new geography of Northrend as well as the new level cap and a brand new hero class. We’ve already covered most of these details in our recent BlizzCon updates but there were a few new bits of information worth passing along.
First, we got a little more background on the land of the Lich King, Northrend. This frigid continent was created during the War of Ancients and the geography reflects its origins. We’d already heard about the Furbolg and Viking-esque Vraikul who make the land their home but they’re not the only ones who are there.

  Northrend is also home to the Nerubians, a race of underground spiders, and the walrus-men creatively named the Tuskar. Though you can guess how hostile the race of underground spiders are, the Tuskar are, by contrast, very pleasantly neutral, befriending characters of all races, creeds and orientations. We also learned that The Venture Company will be making an appearance in Northrend as they work to deforest the Furbolg home of Grizzly Hills.
After hearing about the new zone, we were anxious to give it a try so we logged in and jumped a ship to Daggercap Bay in the Howling Fjord. Boat travel to Northrend is exactly the same as anywhere else in Azeroth, but the view is definitely different. Rather than simply pulling up a relatively smooth coastline, the trip to Daggercap Bay sees your ship negotiating a narrow canyon that leads from the open sea to the large and relatively tranquil bay within.
But though the Bay is tranquil, the town of Valgarde is anything but. Like absolutely everywhere else in the World of Warcraft, this town is beset by wave after wave of annoying invaders. In this case, Valgarde is under attack from the evil Dragonflayers. (Why they’re here and not flaying dragons in Dragonblight is beyond us.) Whatever the case, the ridiculously large (and hungry) wolves and the club-toting giants who make up the Dragonflayer’s initial attack aren’t all that easy to take down. As you get more and more involved in protecting the town, you’ll find that the challenges only increase.
So far Wrath of the Lich King seems to have lots of new content to offer to veteran players. Newer players can still take advantage of some of the new content, like professions, but it’s unclear just how much they’ll benefit from the expansion before they start bumping their heads against the current level cap.