World of Warcraftplayers have been busy fighting Naga, N’Zoth’s forces, and even the other faction for just over 2 years inBattle for Azeroth. However, the upcomingShadowlandspre-patchfinally mixes things up with a familiar threat that heroes must fight back. Although the community has previously known that mindless undead will be rampaging through Azeroth, the PTR confirms there are other returning enemies from the past.
In the years leading up to the Third War, the Cult of the Damned was formed by Kel’Thuzad to serve the Lich King’s diabolical plans. This Scourge organization was responsible for unleashing the plague in Lordaeron duringWarcraft 3and would become major antagonists alongside the more powerful undead in vanillaWorld of WarcraftthroughWrath of the Lich King. Though the cult had become a non-factor after Arthas' defeat, it seems both they and other high-ranking Scourge have now returned under the Jailer’s command.
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Even though the main pre-patch event involves fighting off zombies, story quests will takes players back to Northrend to stem the endless tide. While adventuring through Icecrown,pre-patch rare elites occasionally spawnas announced in a zone-wide message. Each rare is an old boss from variousWotLKdungeons and raids such as Skadi the Ruthless, Patchwerk, and Blood Queen Lana’thel. These resurrected undead foes can put up a fight, but are nowhere as complex as the instanced versions and drop several pieces of their original gear upgraded to endgameBfAlevels.
With the return of many instance bosses, veteran players can relive past memories against certain encounters fromWotLK’srelease up to the final assault on Icecrown Citadel. On the other hand,World of Warcraftplayers who started in more recent expansions can finally fight these enemies in a group like they were originally intended instead of just soloing them nowadays due to level gaps. Every rare spawns with its original aggro quote and drops other lines throughout their fight, meaning all heroes will understand those that achieved meme status in the community like Professor Putricide’s “good news” and Falric’s “despair” soon enough.
Yet the resurgence of these familiar enemies reveals a massive lore revelation. Previously all these mighty undead were created by theLich Kingor directly served under him. Since they were killed in-universe years ago, their souls should have spent some time decaying in the afterlife, but are now being brought back with no visible consequences. Because these cultists and monsters are effectively pseudo-immortal while serving the Jailer, perhaps this truly is a losing battle that the Alliance and Horde are fighting.
In the end, players should understand what undead threats await them during week 2 of theShadowlandspre-patch event. While the update itself won’t be arriving soon,Shadowlandsis still scheduled for a 2020 release so a late September or early October pre-patch at the earliest is still possible. For now, there’s still plenty to do includingseveral things leaving inShadowlands.
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