No WOW Lich King fight until April?

By Robert Purchese Published 10 December, 2009

New Icecrown Citadel opening staggered.

The question of what Blizzard will do to tide over World of Warcraft content between now (patch 3.3, Fall of the Lich King) and next expansion Cataclysm appears to have been answered: stagger Icecrown Citadel's opening.

Released earlier this week, new raid Icecrown Citadel invites players to assault Arthas' - the Lich King's - home. But it now appears the game will not let you fight him until some time around April.

Blizzard has programmed the raid dungeon so that new wings open at intervals, and the first won't open until January 5th. Players can, at the moment, only fight their way up to the entrance where Arthas' most loyal Death Knight Deathbringer awaits.

After crushing his bones, a friendly faction hero will inform you there is a 28-day wait until the door to the next wing is battered down. If this pace is kept up, two further wings will open in February and March, and the Frozen Throne containing Arthas himself at the start of April.

Judging by the World of Warcraft websites the wings will open in this order: Frostwing Halls, The Plagueworks and The Crimson Hall.

Once all three are cleared, raiders will finally be granted access to The Frozen Throne, where Lich King Arthas and his closest aids await.

Icecrown Citadel may be the focus of the Fall of the Lich King patch, but it is by no means the only content within. The World of Warcraft website addresses each aspect in full.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (14) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Shadman #1 2 years ago

    The order is Plaguewerks, Crimson Halls and then Frostwing Halls. I know, I'm a nerd and a pedant.

  • bezuk #2 2 years ago

    The blues have already come out and said that while it's 28 days before the next wing opens, that's because of the holidays and the lock on the wing after that won't be as long.

    http://fo rums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread...

  • Dissociative #3 2 years ago

    Like Bez said this is due to the holidays and a lot of raiders take breaks this time of year. I'm pretty sure the other wings will open much quicker. Will probably be seeing Arthas sometime in Feb tbh.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #4 2 years ago

    Lets also not forget that fighting the Lich King doesn't happen before Deathwing makes an apprence, it's either happening during or just after, mainly because the opening line to the Cataclysm trailer states 'As the War in Northrend continues'

    So just because we're not seeing the final wings open until April/March doesn't mean the exspantion isn't going to happen until the Summer or late Q2, I'm still thinking it's going to hit Feb/March so it's a smooth transition between the two
    Edited by 1 at 10/12/09 @ 12:43

  • Eraysor #5 2 years ago

    For me (being only a puny level 78 on my new adopted main) I'm enjoying the new cross-server pug feature massively. Surely the best feature of the patch - the wait for an instance is cut down to mere seconds.

  • Benno #6 2 years ago

    yeah its brill

    /hugs 80 eot

  • dsmx #7 2 years ago

    Still the new dungeon system is brilliant.

  • Sar #8 2 years ago

    Usually it's 2 weeks between wings opening. Same happened in BT in BC iirc.

  • GoldLightan #9 2 years ago

    It would be nice if Arthas was way too powerful to ever be defeated.

  • otto #10 2 years ago

    Closest aides. Closest aids is the other thing. ;)

  • a8a #11 2 years ago

    Really, this is old news. It was announced weeks ago, way before 3.3 came out. It's not like everyone is shocked by this 'new development'. Anyone who plays enough to be concerned about raiding Icecrown during the next month or so will already know - and no one else will care.

    This news piece kind of stinks of tabloid stories on slow news days - trying to pound some news, and with a little luck, a minor furore, over nothing.

    (And yes, I'm really liking the rest of 3.3 so far)

  • Wyrm #12 2 years ago

    'It would be nice if Arthas was way too powerful to ever be defeated.'

    The in-game lore is so far saying that 'The Lich King' can't be defeated and that someone will merely take the place of Arthas in the entity that is The Lich King.

  • TitusCrow #13 2 years ago

    I miss truly hardcore wow. take the sunwell, there was no need to artificially prolong the life of that dungeon by staggering the opening you had to gear up to get there and gear up and learn up to get to the next encounter.

  • dylman #14 2 years ago

    Umm, the Sunwell was initially staggered in exactly the same way. Sorry to burst your elitist bubble there.
    Edited by 1 at 11/12/09 @ 00:45