Blizzard Entertainment released the second expansion to their popular game World of Warcraft (WoW) in the fall of 2008. The Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) focused on the Scourge presence on the continent of Northrend, where players battled the Lich King's forces.
At the time of release, Icecrown Citadel, the lair of the Lich King Arthas, was not accessible to players. Further content patches opened up other areas of the game, such as the Ulduar raid zone, but players were not getting any closer to Arthas himself.
Announcement of WoW Patch 3.3
Blizzard recently released information on one of the major content updates of the upcoming Patch 3.3: the addition of the Icecrown Citadel instance complex. The instances, collectively titled The Frozen Halls, will guide the player into Icecrown Citadel and culminate with a battle against the Lich King himself.
The announcement of The Frozen Halls states that players will infiltrate the Citadel through an alternate entrance, and will be partnered with Lady Jaina Proudmoore of the Alliance, and Sylvanas Windrunner, leader of the Undead of the Horde faction.
The Frozen Halls Instances
The Frozen Halls complex will consist of three individual 5-man instances:
- The Forge of Souls - Players will join with Jaina (Alliance) or Sylvana (Horde) to stop the Soul Grinders. Bosses will include Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls and The Devourer of Souls.
- The Pit of Saron - This instance takes place in the mines and forges deep beneath Icecrown. Players will have to free allies captured by the Scourge before the final boss reveals himself. The bosses include Forgemaster Gorefrost, Krick and Ick, and Scourgelord Tyrannus.
- Halls of Reflection - The Lich King will finally be reachable. In this instance, players will battle Arthas' closest lieutenants before turning their weapons on the Lich King himself. The bosses include lieutentants Falric and Marwyn, and Arthas himself.
Players will have to run the instances in order to unlock the next instance in the series. Each individual instance will be available in normal heroic modes, and each will be on a separate lockout timer for heroic mode runs. All new loot drops will be available at level 219 for normal difficulty and level 232 for heroic difficulty.
Speculation About the Frozen Halls
The Frozen Halls are listed as 5-man instances. In the original World of Warcraft content, and again in the Burning Crusade expansion, all of the "end game" bosses were battled in raid settings, with as many as 40 players. It is possible that because Ulduar was added in the Wrath of the Lich King as a high-end raid, that Blizzard did not want to add another high-end raid into the game. It is also possible that Blizzard is giving casual gamers who do not participate in raids the chance to experience end game content, something that was not possible in previous end game raids.
Blizzard has yet to announce whether or not the Lich King will actually be killed at the end of the Halls of Reflection instance, or whether he will stick around for another encounter, potentially in another part of Icecrown Citadel. In any case, the title character of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion will finally confront the players who have been preparing for a year to battle him, perhaps with enough time for players to recover before the next expansion, Cataclysm, is released.
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