With the Beta for Cataclysm just around the corner, the excitement is at an all time high. If you find some bit of information that is too exciting to hold in, please, please, please do not blast it out in Guild chat. Some folks are eager to see the new content when it is released as a brand new experience. Please respect that decision.

See you in Cata!

Look forward to another hunt next year!

Sorry for the inconvenience!
Zandra

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls
Looming over the stark wastes of Northrend, Icecrown Citadel awaits those who would see the Lich King and his Scourge brought low and the threat they pose wiped from the face of Azeroth. The heroes who venture within will face some of the greatest horrors yet seen. But before you burst into the front gate of the citadel, an alternate means of entry beckons. Journey through three separate wings of the new five-player dungeon, Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls, and follow Jaina Proudmoore or Sylvanas Windrunner into the Lich King’s domain.

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Throne
All across Northrend, many battles have been fought against the vile Scourge. Countless lives have been lost since the Alliance and the Horde first reached these frozen wastes, but the champions of Azeroth continue to march forward — and Icecrown Citadel, the cornerstone of the Scourge’s power and the home base of the Lich King, is their final target. Tirion Fordring and the Argent Crusade have forged an accord with Darion Mograine and the Knights of the Ebon Blade to form the Ashen Verdict. This coalition’s strongest combatants, along with the champions of the Alliance and the Horde, will lead the charge against the citadel. In the new Icecrown Citadel raid dungeon, Azeroth’s mightiest will face terrifying challenges before ascending to the Frozen Throne, where the Lich King and his runeblade, Frostmourne, await to deliver the heroes to their deaths….

Cross-Realm Dungeon Finder
The Dungeon Finder is now available, providing players with quick and easy access to five-player parties. This feature connects all realms within a battlegroup using an advanced matchmaking system, making it easier for players of all levels to find a dungeon group. In addition, players can reap additional rewards through the Dungeon Finder by choosing the Random option, which is available to both pick-up and pre-formed groups. Check out the User Interface section for more details.

Getting Started and Quest Tracking
A number of changes have been made to World of Warcraft’s introductory experience, including updated character and class information at the character-selection screen, more robust tooltips with images, improved health and mana regeneration at lower levels, and adjustments to various classes designed to make it easier for players to get started. In addition, all-new quest-tracking features have been added to assist players in finding objectives, including new interface functionality in the quest log, the map (“M” key), and the Objectives pane.

And much, MUCH more!

Icecrown is not far off! With the upcoming patch, there is so much new content I figured we could handle a post or three to ease us into all that info!

First: The background downloader has been enabled! This means the patch is just a few scant weeks away!

Second: Raid Gating in ICC!

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. We want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there.

As we’re now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, we wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point we can’t give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I’ll update the community so they can plan appropriately.

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana’thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty.

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana’thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week.

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana’thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana’thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell’s effect if they so wish.

Lastly: Tier 10 and how to get it!

When you want to buy tier 10, you have to use Emblems of Frost to purchase the item level 251 variants. This is the lowest version of tier 10 you can get. In order to get the next level which is item level 264, you’ll need to get a class specific token which presumably drops from Icecrown Citadel on 25. You then have to turn in your 10man piece of loot with the token for the item level 264 version. The same applies for the 25 Heroic tier. Currently, the 10man level gear, item level 251 costs 60 emblems for Shoulders and Gloves, while Helm, Chest, and Legs cost 95 each.

Look for more information as the patch draws near!

Devon lead a small band of intrepid adventurers deep into the dungeons of Northrend. Not only did this group defeat everything in their path, but they did it the hard way at every possible opportunity! (Hey, we’re intrepid, not intelligent ^_^) Congratulations to Devon, Gyson, Besha, Shylo, and Anshari on completing this difficult achievement!

With the launch of WotLK we have also launched a new site. Thanks to Zandra for all the hard work. The new site looks great and functions superbly.

Loch Modan residents awoke this morning to loud fire works and tiny gnomes as a celebration for the first annual Make-A-Wish Cookie Run was in full swing on the Stonewrought Dam. The usually quiet Loch was awash with the squeaks of tiny cookies being chomped on by local wildlife, a local dwarf mused smugly.

Cookies running through a Cave

This reporter was able to learn that a well-known gnomish warlock, Mustuv, also known as the huggable warlock, and his gal-pal Whimsey had set up the race from Coldridge Valley to celebrate the coming holiday season. “The race was also to help kids via Azeroth’s Make-A-Wish Cookie Foundation. We hope that we also brought joy all of the residents of the Loch,” noted a tiny gnome who was too busy eating cookies and setting off fire works to give her name.

Winners of the race are reported to be Starbar and Samoha, both gnomes declined to give any other identification.

Looks like this holiday season is going to be full of excitement!

((Night and Whims are also making a real life donation to the Make-A-Wish foundation in the League’s name. Thank you both for the great run!))