Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion of World of Warcraft, was released on November 13, 2008. It is considered one of the most successful addons, not least because of the popular boss Arthas Menethil aka the Lich King. On the occasion of the upcoming announcement of the new Classic Edition, we take a look back with an image gallery.

With around 12 million subscriptions, Wrath of the Lich King marks the peak of the World of Warcraft success story. This is partly due to the continuation of the story around the fallen paladin Arthas Menethil, which began in the Warcraft 3 RTS series, and partly due to the balance of the game systems and the legendary raids Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel. The “retro” entry with Naxxramas was also well placed and very successful.

You never had the feeling that – as is common today – content was artificially dragged out to save development costs and push online times – the game was a complete success. For example, if you wanted to catch the lost Proto-Draken in the Storm Peaks and wrest the mount from him, you had to farm for hours. It was equally time-consuming to camp as a hunter in Sholazar Basin, home to the first and so far most beautiful spirit animal, Loque’nahak. Loque’nahak, in its original version, could even cast moonfire as a special ability. Today, all that is passé – instead of super rare mounts, there are “cash for rares” (vignette mobs for everyone) and standardized hunter companions with no surprises worth mentioning.

Of course, not everything in Wrath of the Lich King was all sunshine. For example, after the terrific Ulduar raid, the Crusader raid disappointed as a dull battleground with bosses on an assembly line, and Icecrown Citadel dragged on far too long with a release date of December 9, 2009 until the Cataclysm launch on December 7, 2010. In contrast, Wrath of the Lich King offered plenty of content and variety with a total of 16 dungeons from Nexus to Saron Pit and 8 raids from Naxxramas to Ruby Sanctuary. For comparison, the current expansion Shadowlands has 8 dungeons and 3 raids with a duration of at least 2 years. The Wintergrasp battleground, with its heavy focus on vehicular combat, was also not well received – but vehicular combat and its crude mechanics are a point of contention in their own right.

On Tuesday, April 19, 2022, Blizzard plans to unveil the 10th expansion, Dragonflight. A release is definitely not expected before the end of the year, more likely in spring 2023. Stepping into the breach will probably be WotLK Classic, which could be announced at the same time as Dragonflight. To get in the mood for the upcoming alpha/beta for the third part of the classic trilogy, the author dug through his photo archive and selected a number of original screenshots, including the Death Knight, the first new WoW class that still enjoys great popularity today. Also included are the Kalu’ak with their epic Angel, the Ice Trolls of Zul’drak, Hemet Nesingwary, the new Druid forms, the spirit beast Loque’ nahak, and of course the time-forgetting Proto-Drake. Have fun!

What is WoW Classic?

World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.

Getting Started

All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.

1. Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
2. Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
3. Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
4. Click the Play button when the installation is complete.

You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!

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