Many of you may not have the luxury of being able to fire up a video player while at work, school or college so we took the liberty of transcribing all our new video interviews so you won't miss anything. If you can't watch them then go ahead and read them word for word :)

• Tom Chilton Interview
• Jeff kaplan Interview
• J.Allen Brack Interview

We're not done yet though, Maticus took a whopping 6 hours out to play WotLK earlier this week and her own personal report will be posted in the not too distant future giving impressions from a player's perspective. Stay tuned!
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Earlier in the week, worldofwar.net were invited to attend a Wrath of the Lich King presentation at Blizzard's offices in Irvine, California. Once there, we were shown Northrend in its current state of development, a Death Knight in action, given several hours to play the expansion for ourselves, and were also permitted interview sessions with three of Blizzard's top developers - J. Allen Brack, Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton.

Blizzard dished the dirt on a whole range of things about Wrath, and you can read all about the trip in our Wrath Presentation Article, as well as articles covering all we learned about Death Knights, filmed interviews with the game producer and designers, a tour of the Blizzard campus and museum and much much more. We've gone into great detail on all of this, but for now, here are the most exciting things we learned from Blizzard about the coming expansion:

General

• All 25 man raids in Wrath will also be available to complete with 10 players. This is so that more players will get to see end game content (Even the Arthas encounter will be available as a 10 man raid).
  
• There will be completely different loot tables for the two different raid types. They will also be on separate cool downs, so players could fight in both the 10 man and 25 man raid on the same day if they wish.
  
• The mounts available to buy in Wrath will probably be able to take passengers. These mounts will also work in the old world (Provided they are land mounts), so players can give low-level characters a ride! The new mounts will also be slightly faster, around the speed of the Armored Netherdrakes.
  
• 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.

Death Knights

• Death Knights will be available to players who have a character level 55+ on the same realm. There is no other requirement at this time.
  
• Players are allowed 1 Death Knight per realm that they have a level 55+ character on.
  
• Death Knights will be "born" in a floating Necropolis over the Eastern Plaguelands, similar to Naxxramas.
  
• Death Knights will start at level 55.
  
• A Death Knight's starting armor will be a mixture of green and blue quality items. The first few quests that they encounter will provide upgrades to these starting items, and these upgrades will be armor specific to Death Knights.
  
• Death Knights can dual wield.
  
• One Death Knight spell is Raise Dead, which converts a fallen unit into a ghoul for a time to serve the Death Knight, similar to a Hunter's pet. If the spell is used on a fallen friendly player, the player will be presented with an option box similar to a resurrection message, and if they accept, they will take control of the ghoul and will be able to use its abilities for the period of time that it is active. This can work as a sort-of battle res, and Chilton stated it may be available in Arenas.

Northrend

• Northrend is Huge. It is larger than Outland by a couple of zones, and some of the zones in Northrend are bigger than the largest zone in Outland.

This is just a small list of what we discovered. See the articles/movies below, which go into more detail on the following topics:

• Watch the new official WotLK Zones movie! (Hi-res Download for site supporters - PALS)
• Wrath of the Lich King Presentation Summary
• Death Knight - New Info, (including spells and abilities)
• New screenshots
• Tom Chilton Video Interview (Read Transcript)
• Jeff Kaplan Video Interview (Read Transcript)
• J.Allen Brack Video Interview (Read Transcript)
• Blizzard Museum Tour Video
• Blizzard office Tour Video

And the latest addition:

• Wrath Presentation - All the Facts, None of the Fluff

Plus Much More to come - Watch this space!
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SK Gaming has released (source) their M'uru kill video on their site, and it can be downloaded or streamed.

If you missed it the first time around, this was the raid roster:

Druid: None
Hunter: Munken, Valandu and Rua
Mage: Ekyu, Caelyn and Gazz
Paladin: Mackelina, Winternight, Fenira
Priest: Pmastah, Skanky and Tohrazer
Rogue: Zkygge and Ikku
Shaman: Mekon, Kableguy, Baotin, Sbe and Morphling
Warlock: Xelnag, Fafhrd and Khavi
Warrior: Thygore, Repins and Ronnie


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With the thrid world kill of M'uru by Premonition, we have a slight update to the M'uru Loot Table. There are two new items, and as they can be exchanged at the vendor, we can also see what the corresponding items are as well. Below is a list of the four new items added in total to the Sunwell Plateau info page. It is two plate chests for different specifications. This system helps further in the lines of upholding the "random" feeling of loot, as well as enabling raid parties to better distribute loot without sharding.

New Items:

• Warharness of the Reckless Fury (Plate Chest)
• Breastplate of Agony's Aversion (Plate Chest*)
• Shadowed Gauntlets of Paroxysm (Leather Gloves)
• Gloves of the Forest Drifter (Leather Gloves*)

* You get this item by exchanging a drop and a [item]Sunmote[/item] to the Shattered Sun Offensive merchant on the Sunwell Isle.

Premonition comments on the kill:

Raid Roster
Druid: Dartanius, Delia and Rokaz
Hunter: Kickz and Metus
Mage: Cheesycraft
Paladin: Redwhere, Scrubz and Valaquenta
Priest: Galianos and Wishez
Rogue: Surlybeve and Xenocloud
Shaman: Bps, Lightnyn, Kastr and Vallkor
Warlock: Maalakai, Naeb, Nukez, Padrote and Sanguyne
Warrior: Sadarie, Skarrzog and Xavastrasz

Premonition's Loot

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Blizzard is looking for good original artwork of Arthas wielding Frostmourne:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	We are looking for the best original artwork that depicts Arthas wielding the legendary Frostmourne™. You can choose any setting you like but the artwork must include Arthas and Frostmourne to be eligible. Bring out the power and evil of the leader of the Scourge with his sword in your artwork! Click here to see the full rules. The Grand Prize Winner will receive a Frostmourne replica by Epic Weapons that is second to none in detailed craftsmanship and technology: 47" Overall Length with 28" Stainless Steel Blade Genuine Leather Wrapped Grip Limited Edition Sword Embedded with Patented G2G Authenticity Microchip Also Included in the box with the Frostmourne replica: Collector's Display Mount Limited Edition Poster Certificate of Authenticity Game 2 Gear Handheld Authenticity Reader The Grand Prize winner will also receive guaranteed entry into the Wrath of the Lich King™ beta test. Two Runner Up winners will also be selected to receive guaranteed entry into the beta test of the upcoming World of Warcraft® expansion Wrath of the Lich King. You can also visit http://www.epicweapons.com/products/frostmourne/ for additional pictures, description, and information on the Frostmourne replica sword. The winners will be announced on our website and will be notified by email so that they can claim their prize(s).

See the awesome sword that you can win in the gallery. Here are a few samples:


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Comparing WoW to other MMOs, we all know WoW rules, but there has been speculations that WoW might have peaked, and that it's generally just filled with teh fail. Looking at the graphs, you'll see the trend curve seems to have a peak around April 2008, so perhaps things are starting to turn?

On the other hand, we have the Wrath of the Lich King expansion coming up, and the current game sales charts for PC clearly show that WoW is still on top. 3 out of 10 top-10 spots taken by WoW? Seeing how this has been a constant fact since at least late last year, it seems unlikely that WoW's popularity really is waning.

NPD's top-10 best selling PC games. US for April 20th-26th:

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack- Electronic Arts - $17
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts - $28
3. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $27
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Vivendi - $40
5. World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $20
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision - $49
7. Sins Of A Solar Empire - Stardock - $39
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi - $30
9. Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition - Ubisoft - $47
10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 - Ubisoft - $49

Thanks ve3d.
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In the light of the Blizzard/Glider dance, this seems more direct, and would only happen in China: Gold farmers were arrested and charged with "unfair revenue distribution". More info at PlayNoEvil:



While this is a more straight-forward approach to handling "unwanted" activities, I'm pretty glad that the US have a slightly more complex judicial system...
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