BlizzCon 2009: Icecrown Citadel
Posted by 
Heartbourne on Saturday, August 22, 2009 - 18 Comments Tags: blizzcon 2009, icecrown citadel, patch 3.3
Heartbourne on Saturday, August 22, 2009 - 18 Comments Tags: blizzcon 2009, icecrown citadel, patch 3.3
The dungeons and raids panel made a lot of big revelations. On top of the huge amount of Cataclysm information, we also got a glimpse of what to expect from patch 3.3 and Icecrown Citadel.
Icecrown Citadel will include the main raid instance, which will come in 10 and 25 man versions, and a series of 3 5-man dungeons. There will be an epic questline to unlock the dungeons; players who have not progressed through the story will be unable to enter the second and third dungeons. Once you complete the dungeon, you will be able to go back and farm purples until your heart is content. There will be about 8 bosses distributed across the dungeons Click on the map on the left to see a general layout of the dungeons.
The main raid enters on a first floor and progresses up the citadel. There about 12 bosses in this epic raid, and it certainly sounds epic. The first floor has a few bosses, and you see the base of the spire of the Frozen Throne.
The second floor has you taking an airships up the spire. Varian mans the Alliance one and Saurfang mans the Horde one. Each faction races to reach the top to defeat Arthas. Players will battle the other airship directly with cannons. Enemy NPCs will use jetpacks to land on your airship and try to sabotage it. Some of your players will have to do the same to the enemy's airship.
The third floor has three different wings, which seem to be accessed from different points on the second floor. It seems that Sindragosa will be somewhere in here. The fourth and final floor is the epic battle with Arthas. Parts of the floor will break off and if you fall, "its bad".
There will be waypoints, like in Ulduar, to teleport throughout the dungeon and not have long runs after wipes. Major characters will make an appearance in the raid, including Jaina and Sylvanas.
In addition, Frostmourne will have a "unique fate" and will not be a weapon that players can loot. There will be a new, legendary 2-handed axe called Shadowmourne which players can get from Arthas instead.
Check out the maps for a more visual idea of whats going on. Click them for a full view:
First floor
Second floor
Third floor
Fourth Floor
Icecrown Citadel will include the main raid instance, which will come in 10 and 25 man versions, and a series of 3 5-man dungeons. There will be an epic questline to unlock the dungeons; players who have not progressed through the story will be unable to enter the second and third dungeons. Once you complete the dungeon, you will be able to go back and farm purples until your heart is content. There will be about 8 bosses distributed across the dungeons Click on the map on the left to see a general layout of the dungeons.The main raid enters on a first floor and progresses up the citadel. There about 12 bosses in this epic raid, and it certainly sounds epic. The first floor has a few bosses, and you see the base of the spire of the Frozen Throne.
The second floor has you taking an airships up the spire. Varian mans the Alliance one and Saurfang mans the Horde one. Each faction races to reach the top to defeat Arthas. Players will battle the other airship directly with cannons. Enemy NPCs will use jetpacks to land on your airship and try to sabotage it. Some of your players will have to do the same to the enemy's airship.
The third floor has three different wings, which seem to be accessed from different points on the second floor. It seems that Sindragosa will be somewhere in here. The fourth and final floor is the epic battle with Arthas. Parts of the floor will break off and if you fall, "its bad".There will be waypoints, like in Ulduar, to teleport throughout the dungeon and not have long runs after wipes. Major characters will make an appearance in the raid, including Jaina and Sylvanas.
In addition, Frostmourne will have a "unique fate" and will not be a weapon that players can loot. There will be a new, legendary 2-handed axe called Shadowmourne which players can get from Arthas instead.
Check out the maps for a more visual idea of whats going on. Click them for a full view:
First floor Second floor Third floor Fourth Floor
Reader Comments (18)
First?
Yay I was first! :D Awesome can't wait for arthas!
Airship raids? SWEET! But wait? Varian mans the Alliance, and Saurfang the Horde? Hmm.... I wonder what that could imply...
Bolvar//Saurfang the Younger?
Sounds straight up badass!!! I feel like I would'nt have minded a few more bosses- I want Icecrown to be REALLY hard, but I doubt it, since blizz wants everyone to expierience it's awesomeness... maybe a "heroic" 10 and 25 man version where the really leet guilds would slowly go through, which drops slightly better gear? Idk i guess I'll leave it to blizz xD
Also we should totally find Bolvar and Saurfang being tortured and then we have to save the one affiliated with our faction? Ooo and the torturer could be an interesting boss
didnt bolvar get roflpwned by some undead?
Hmm. If they put Saurfang on the Horde ship, what do they need PCs for? Couldn't he just cleave the whole Citadel in twain, and then cleave the Lich King again as he falls down?
i think they should make the 10 man version on our level casual level and then 25 version incredibly hard for the hard core expert raiders slightly easier then yogg -3and the hrad mode slightly harder like maybe defeat him with sindragosa alive
I dont think most of you realize that there's both 10 man, 10 man heroic, 25 man, and a 25 man heroic. Hopefully blizz will play with that
Lol, arthas hard mode would go something like "you engage arthas without the help of tirion's holy protection.. leaving arthas at his full strength and his blight slowly burning your health and mana" then 5 minutes later without tirion near him he soft enrages and 2 minutes after that he does apocolypse... sounds about right
They should make it so you defeat Arthas and banish the Lich King (Ner'Zhul) from him and then you fight the Lich King. I think that would be pretty epic, redeem Arthas or something.
Hmm. If they put Saurfang on the Horde ship, what do they need PCs for? Couldn’t he just cleave the whole Citadel in twain, and then cleave the Lich King again as he falls down?
No. Saurfang's cleave at the alliance ship would extend to the citadel, and then continue on to all of northrend. =P
Hmm, from what i've been reading about this it seems to be very promising...
But I do have one concern, when Arthas is beaten the first time, is that it? Because I mean he's going to be dropping Frostmourne I assume and he can't be dropping it more then once because everyone will be marching round proclaiming they're the Lich King xD
make it a 000000.000000.00001 drop chance =P
I wonder what quests youll have to do to be able to do all of it...
@christian
Frostmourne won't drop from the Lich King. Blizzcon said Frostmourne will have a special ending "MEGA" I quoute. You will get Shadowmourne instead, a DK/hunter (damn you huntards) only legendary axe.
Read that from mmo-champion.
ya baron died but i bet hes in here cause some people at wrath gate were bugged and instead of being in draconic they understood it and it says somthing like, does he know what befell of the palidan and then alextraza says, he will learn in due time.
Arthas should drop Invincible, his Mount, just make it easier to drop than Barons though.
I'd like to see Jaina walk in and he's like wtf i haven't cleaned up the place, im sorry babes, i still love ya and everything, and she'll be like ultra mega firebolt PWNED!!!
So, is KT coming back? He does swear to return when u kill him.
The falling floor sounds like mario 64 in the final bowser fight...just comical to me.
If the lich king doesnt scourgify the people who die ill be shocked. And if he does, kind of like Yogg Sarrons insanity, I theorize we might get some NPC helper like Muradin, Darion Morgraine, and Tirion Fordring, rather than them just standing on the sidelines unless you tell them to.