Beta Blog 7: Wrath of the Lich King

Uugh. Uh-uuuuhhhhh. *shamble* mnruuuuuuu. Braaaaiiiinnzzzzzz.

In the lead up to Wrath of the Lich King there's much afoot in the world of Azeroth. Not only has the last big patch before the expansion been released, there have also been a number of unique world-events to get people excited.

Players have been hungering for brains thanks to a deadly plague introduced in the last patch as part of the lead up to Wrath. Not long after the yearly Halloween event began, Scourge Ziggurats appeared in various locations around the world, including all the major cities in Azeroth, and scourge hotspots such as the Plaguelands. The world-event is similar to the original Scourge Invasion that was implemented in the release version of World of Warcraft prior to the Burning Crusade expansion.

NPC zombies have since been infecting other NPCs and player characters with a stacking disease debuff that turns the infected into a zombie if not cleansed within ten minutes. Well, it was ten minutes at the beginning of the plague – ongoing infections and resistance have meant that zombification is happening only two minutes after infection and nearly immediately if the character is swamped by ghouls.

One day, all these brains will be yours.

The original ten minute incubation period meant that players could take the disease long distances via flight paths, and low level players have increasingly found quest hubs overrun with zombies after every NPC in the area has been infected and turned making questing difficult. With most capital cities overrun by zombies, places like Shattrath have seen massive movements by player-controlled ghouls since the Sanctuary city doesn’t allow attacks against player characters.

As with all undead, both player and NPC ghouls are reasonably weak when alone, but become much more of a problem when acting as a horde. When turned players find they get access to leet zombie skills including a yell that summons other NPC zombies to your location, a disease-spewing area-effect attack to pass on the infection at range and to heal nearby zombies, a corpse explosion that has an area effect and, of course, a lurching spell that carries you and zombies around you from stately shamble to short burst run, they cannot help but get into the fun. A group of zombies that times the use of these cool-down spells can carry itself vast distances, causing carnage wherever they go.

The undead lurch into action.

But it’s not all bad news; players learned early in the world event that once players from opposing factions had both been turned communication and trade were possible. Players are effectively moved from their original faction to a third faction, the Scourge being friendly to other diseased zombie players, world event zombies and Scourge NPCs. So, if you’ve had a crush on that handsome undead rogue, but don’t think he’d accept your advances because you’re Alliance, try nomming on his brain and to try and talk him round.

Downtown Stormwind after a zombie surge.

We've heard rumours that this event is only going to last another 24 to 48 hours, so if you're at all curious - or just want to get down with your inner undead - you'll have to log on soon!