A few days ago I addressed World PvP and have since received interest in the changes coming to PvE in Wrath of the Lich King. At the World Wide Invitation, this past weekend, Blizzard held a Dungeons and Raids panel and released a lot of good information. Along with that, I dug around the old blue posts to help illustrate the changes coming to PvE in Wrath of the Lich King.

Bornakk posted some questions and answers regarding the beta sign-up process (all questions + answers below). No dates were mentioned but some interesting information was revealed. Most notably, if you have multiple accounts, make sure you activate them all and opt-in with EACH ONE. Even if your second, third or fourth account is selected for the beta, you can use the key to activate your primary account. In my case, I will have a 4 opportunities to get Jizmo to Northrend before Wrath hits shelves!

The Wrath of the Lich King Beta sign-ups are now available via the account registration page, or visit the opt-in page directly. It appears you can opt-in with accounts that aren't active (although I'm not sure if you'll actually be able to activate them if you're accepted).

It's become apparent that Blizzard is shifting WoW's focus from PvE to PvP, regardless of their history of poor world PvP itemization and failure to address server imbalances. During the World Wide Invitational Blizzard unveiled details about Siege Vehicles and a dedicated PvP Zone (Lake Wintergrasp) and we've seen a dropping off of PvE involvement since the first PvP system was released.

Some interesting concerns were raised about Lake Wintergrasp. Blizzard Poster, Zarhym shares his enthusiasm about the zone and confirms that it is still under development and testing:

"There is still much testing to be done in this regard, Dominus. While we're not ready to delve into the more specific details about objectives and time lines for succeeding in Lake Wintergrasp, I can assure you this ambitious new world PvP zone has been given some serious thought and will undergo considerable testing to ensure it's not only successful, but enjoyable.

There are a few rumors going on about Wrath of the Lich King. First, the German WoW site: allvatar.com claims that at the World Wide Invitational, Blizzard's German community manager, (Gnorog) said the closed beta was starting July 3rd. It seems a bit early according to my Wrath Release Predictions, but the beginning of the beta may not immediately involve anyone outside of Blizzard.

I've done a comprehensive prediction for Wrath of the Lich King's release date. Below I have used The Burning Crusade's time line and associated milestones to show a pattern between the development of the two games. There are a lot of things to consider, I have tried o use all the information available. What I found was that Wrath is on track to release just before 2009, and the closed beta should start sometime in August. Here is how I figure:

Today, Blizzard hosted two panels at the World Wide Invitational, a PvP panel and a PvE panel. Revealing a new dungeons, new PvP Zone, a new Battleground, new Arenas and several Siege Vehicle details. I'll start with the PvE information and move on to the, obviously, more important PvP stuff:

Raids & Dungeons
It appears Blizzard is slowly phasing out PvE aspects of the game, as the 4 max level 5-man dungeons promise to provide means to acquire entry level PvP gear. They've also limited their efforts by allowing all raid dungeons to be played with either 25 or 10 man raids (different rewards for each). Sorry hardcore raiders, you'll be sharing the once elusive raid content with 10 man PUGs. Blizzard has also promised to make heroic dungeons easier, many casual players were complaining of wiping on heroic mode and not getting their badges. And finally, if less dungeons, easier dungeons, and handicap accessible dungeons aren't enough, Blizzard is saving casual players from the commitment of running instances by saying all 5-man dungeons should take 'no more than an hour.'

Blizzard unveiled Diablo III, full with gameplay videos and class descriptions. D3 promises to be the definitive action role-playing game. It will basically be Diablo II using new technology to make the characters actually visible, Sean Connery will be featured as Deckard Cain and Witch Doctors will take the stage along with Barbarians and 3 unannounced character classes.

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