World of Warcraft Articles
WotLK Report May 2008
8th May 2008 07:50 PM GMT | Maticus | 2 comments
The next area showed the Vrykul [0:35], a new enemy race that are tall, strong and barbarian-like, and they borrow a lot of their looks and design from Norse mythology, this is seen in their buildings too [0:25]. The Vrykul are want-to-be Scourge bad guys, and are completing evil tasks to get in with Arthas.Utgarde Keep in this area [1:22], which was fully playable at BlizzCon, is a 2-wing dungeon. Players can enter the lower level dungeon as soon as they start adventuring in Northrend. The high level wing is for level 80 players, and both instances will feature Heroic modes.
All 5-man instances in Northrend will feature Heroic modes, and the loot tables for the 2 modes will be totally separate. Heroic dungeons will have their own "Tier" of armor completely unique to that level dungeon.
Another feature on Howling Fjord is a Vrykul structure, which is a gondola [1:48] that is lowered down to the Isle of Spears [1:57] (Kaplan joked that Britney is not present, but that the island was named after her). Down here is the new race called the Tuskarr [2:24]. They are a group that players can ally themselves to and gain reputation with to obtain new items. This is also the landing/pick up site for a boat that takes players over to Borean Tundra, should they wish to travel to the other starting area. Kaplan explained that because the size of this new continent was immense, they didn't want players to feel stranded, and so they have provided plenty of means to travel around.
If you take the boat from the Tuskarr village, the first sight that greets you when you arrive at Borean Tundra is another Tuskarr village, but you quickly see the landscape is different, and many different storylines are being played out here. The starting areas here are just as appealing as their equivalents back in Howling Fjord, and Kaplan explained that Blizzard wanted to make player's first experience in Northrend an epic one, whichever zone they decided to start in.
We were shown Valliance Keep [2:34], the Alliance starting area. The storyline playing out there is that reserves are being called out to help in the battle against Arthas. The Horde starting area is the impressive Warsong Hold [2:49], ruled over by Garosh Hellscream, son of Grom Hellscream from Warcraft III. The building uses dark iron and is more aggressive than Orgrimmar, and Kaplan referred to the "New Look" of the Horde. Horde players will get to interact with Garosh right away from the moment they disembark from the zeppelin.
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