Last night, Blizzard announced the release date for Wrath of the Lich King.  I hope you are ready, because it’s coming sooner than any of us expected here at DYS.  I know you’re itching to know the date, but you’re going to have to pardon me a little hype and buildup here.

While the Beta has been frustrating at times (you notice I didn’t have a picture up for the article about WotLK pets because the new pet classes in the Beta have been bugged for the last 5 days   )  it is also the most fun I’ve had with WoW.  Before tBC, everyone had pretty much capped out on the available adventuring, and once that happens the game sort of gets a bit dull because there is nowhere to go that’s new, and nothing really fun to do because you’ve done it all.

The Burning Crusade expansion fed a lot of new and neat things into the game.  You may be taking them all for granted now, but tBC was an awesome expansion to an already good game.  With tBC we got flying mounts, a really well planned continent, dozens of new factions, and cool new mini-games within the game like the daily bombing runs.  All of this added up to a much more interesting and fun experience, even for those people who had completely mastered the original content.

If you thought that tBC was a good expansion, just wait until you see WotLK.  We haven’t written a whole lot about it so far because so much of the new content is in a state of flux.  We just don’t like to post information that turns out to be bogus later on.  You guys expect a certain level of perfection with every single article we post, and (even if you don’t believe it all the time) we really want to deliver above and beyond your expectations.  We truly want everyone to be able to find something in everything we write about or recommend that will help you Dominate.  You may not always agree, but we simply can’t win them all.

Well, the WotLK is dominating.  The first thing that strikes me about the continent of Northrend is that the graphics seem to be better.  Not to sound girly, but it is pretty.  It has such an epic feel and look in every single zone.  It’s not ‘cartoony’ in any way.  Instead it looks like something from a Conan the Barbarian movie.  It’s really visually awesome.

Next, there are some nifty changes to the quest environment.  There is a good flow to everything, but yet still enough different things to do in so many places that it will take you quite a few run-throughs before you start getting bored with the quest chains.  It’s not just – go here, kill this and the odd escort thrown in.  You still have to kill a bazillion things, but you also get to blow up buildings, ride in tanks, borrow dragons – and that’s just in the first level or two.

There are a whole new slew of factions with great rewards, a new profession, glyphs, a whole zone dedicated to constant and total PvP action (think battleground just bigger and no queue), new pets, new talents, new instances, the achievement system, the whole thing is just incredible.

Then there are the class talent changes and additions.  Probably every warrior is going to at least try out Titans Grip, a skill that lets you use two handed weapons in each hand.  It is awesome to see those guys running around with a monster axe in both fists.  So there will be things that nearly everyone tries out in the new trees, and you can be sure that we will give you all the inside scoop on what really works and what is just fluff as we test through all the possibilities in the coming months.

So are you ready for it?  Well, you better get that way pretty quick, because the

WotLK goes live on November 13th!

Which means you need to pre-order pretty soon to ensure you get your copy on time.  If you want to be one of the first guys to hit 80, and have your inscription at 450 in the first few days, rest assured that our leveling guide will send you screaming through Northrend in record time – Dominating everyone else.  We’ll keep you ahead of the learning curve with all the information you need to continue your domination of PvE, PvP, professions, recipes, glyphs, inscription, faction rep, progression, raiding and much, much more in the coming days and weeks even before WotLK debuts on Nov 13th.  But all of that will do you no good at all if you don’t have it to play!

But before you run out and order a copy at the store or hit Amazon to do it online, just know that we are working feverishly to get a special offer for all of you from one of the top online game retailers.  So if you can wait a couple of days we’ll give you a way to pre-order the game that will give you your game key as soon as the WotLK goes live on midnight of the 13th.  You’ll also be able to download the new version without having to wait for your disks to arrive or even wait in line at the store, nothing could be easier.  It will also put you in a position to pop a couple of levels before most people even put their disks in the drive!

So you better get seriously busy whacking out the last few levels to 70 on those alts in the next few weeks, and be sure to check out our WotLK information as we leak it to you here.  We want to take your game to a whole new level in the expansion, and we’re going to help you beat everyone else to the punch.  Look for our special DYS pre-order deal in the next couple of days – and as always, Dominate!