WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha Patch Notes leaked
by Daniel Whitcomb 
May 17th 2008 at 5:50PM
MMO-Champion has just posted what appears to be the patch notes for the WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha. This is an unconfirmed leak, but everything on them would appear to check out as legitimate. They're pretty barebones, but there's some intriguing information to be found:
- Death Knights are playable, although the starting quests and talents are not complete.
- Spells and Talents past 70 are available for the Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior classes
- You can head to Northrend via Menethil Harbor and Theramore for the Alliance, or Undercity and Ogrimmar for the Horde
- The Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Grizzly Hills, and Dragonblight are the zones currently open for testing.
- Utgarde Keep, Utgarde Pinnacle, The Nexus, and Drak'tharon Keep are currently available for testing.
If they already have talents for quite a few classes past 70, it would seem to suggest that they are further along on the expansion then we think. Hopefully, if these patch notes ring true, we'll hear about those talents soon. You can read the full Patch notes behind the jump.
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- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King: Friends and Family Alpha
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Welcome to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Friends and Family Alpha. The list below contains information on the current available content available for testing and general information. This information is subject to change.
General
- The continent of Northrend is now available! To travel there, visit one of four transportation masters in either Orgrimmar, Undercity, Theramore,or Menethil Harbor.
- Transportation between Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra can be found at the Tuskarr villages in those zones.
- NPC Transportation Locations
Horde:
Undercity to Vengeance Landing (Howling Fjord)
Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra)
Alliance:
Menethil Harbor to Valgarde (Holwing Fjord)
Theramore Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra)
World Environment Zones
- The following zones are available for testing: Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Grizzly Hills
Dungeons
- The following dungeons are available for testing:
Howling Fjord: Utgarde Keep (70-72)
Howling Fjord: Utgarde Pinnacle (80)
Borean Tundra: The Nexus (70-72)
Grizzly Hills: Drak'Tharon Keep (74-76)
Classes
- All Classes are available for play. Spells and talents will be available for testing past 70 for the following classes: Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior
- The Death Knight Hero class is now available for play.
Creating a new Death Knight will start you at level 55 in Eastern Plaguelands.
No starting quests are implemented though Death Knight abilities will be available for testing.
Several Death Knight talents, although they will appear on the talent pane, are not yet implemented.
Professions
- The following tradeskills are available to train up to 450: First Aid, Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning.
Filed under: Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Patches, News items, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Ian Oh May 17th 2008 5:54PM
wonder what the new spell and talents are.. cant wait to find out more..
Jidery May 17th 2008 6:11PM
How do i get intot his alpha this is awsome
-first btw
Daniel Whitcomb May 17th 2008 5:56PM
Actually, you're second, Jidery. This Alpha, you'll have to be specifically invited, and probably have to specifically know someone who works directly on the game.
Gror May 17th 2008 6:00PM
Why do the Alliance have to fly two damn ports to travel to NR and the Horde can travel from TWO cities?
Unmei May 17th 2008 7:11PM
Because there are no ports in the main Cities for the Alliance. Horde have the Zepplin towers.
QQ a lil more over the logic.
Onawar May 17th 2008 6:39PM
Probably because we (the Horde) do not have any harbors whatsoever. If the above notes are true, we're probably getting docks added onto our two cities that are close to water (other than Silvermoon). These are also our travel hub cities, seeing as UC and Orgrimmar also have the zepplins.
jumb May 17th 2008 7:50PM
I reckon those ports will be changed before release.
I'm still adamant that the transport to the Northrend will have something to do with the IQD harbor.
Charlie May 17th 2008 8:33PM
I believe the idea (which is dissapointing but makes sense) is that they want you to be able to get to both zones from one area, but still at the same time add two entrances.
Meaning, that you can go from theramore->mentil etc, so if your in IF you can reach the other entrance. Same thing with org/uc.
What's disapointing is that this means that the IF Airport would not be used for northrend. =(
Elmo May 18th 2008 3:41AM
So say you're in Shattrath and you want to go to Borean Tundra you have to go: Ironforge-fly-Menethil-Boat-Theramore-boat- Valliance Keep.
or Ironforge-fly-Menethil-Boat-Valgarde-Tuskarr Turtle-Valliance Keep.
and the Horde can just go Orgrimmar/Undercity-Zeppelin- Arrival.
...
NICE
matt May 18th 2008 5:47AM
Or you could just pay a mage to portal you to Theramore. problem sloved no need for crying
jrb May 18th 2008 11:06AM
it takes about as long to get to menethil from IF than it does to get to the zeppelin from Org. So, no sweat.
Waneta May 19th 2008 10:18AM
Complaining about which side can get to Northrend faster is probably about as pointless as complaining about which side can get to the dark portal in Azeroth faster. After the first time you'll never do it again.
Dumi May 20th 2008 4:12PM
Actually all mages can train in the teleport/prtal for Theramore in Jaina's tower as of last patch, so it's not all that bad, though there's no Theramore port from Shat.
G May 17th 2008 6:01PM
I was discussing Death Knight tradeskills with another player the other day. One on hand, it makes sense for Death Knights to start with zero skill like anyone else, especially if they drop one profession and choose another. On the other hand, it will be kind of silly to see a flood of level 55+ Death Knights wandering around Elwynn Forest or Durotar collecting copper, linen, leather scraps and peace blossoms.
Meira May 17th 2008 6:23PM
I'm guessing that they start at 250 skill, because the mats used/ picked at that kind of skill matches the mats that DK can encounter at their starting lvl. (ex: Plaguebloom, Thorium ore, Runecloth, Thick Leather)
G May 17th 2008 6:29PM
We also guessed 200-250. But what if you drop Leatherworking for Smithing? Do you get to start all professions at 250, all the time? That would definitely be the toon on which to try out new skills. I wonder if too many people would QQ? Of course, they'd also be generally complaining that your Death Knight started at level 55 in the first place, and you've obviously played for a while to have your other 55+ character to qualify, so maybe that's ok.
Charlie May 17th 2008 8:40PM
I see the best solution is that your first two professions will start at 250. Then if you decide to respec, you have to go from 1-450 like everyone else.
its not like 0-250 costs very much anyways.
A bigger question would be if Fishing would start at 0 or 250. You can level fishing from 0-450 in SW, so the same argument for a profession like mining.
The biggest question is always exploiting. Is it unfair for people to start a DK just to pick up Mining and Skinning? and only level hi to 70?
I say no, but thats s decision for blizzard
Nick S May 18th 2008 3:17AM
on the other hand, it'd be kind of AWESOME to see a bunch of death knights picking flowers in the nubbin zones...
outforprophets May 20th 2008 10:32AM
No, even a level 70 that drops his trade skills starts at 0. IF the DKs do get any main professions started at 200-250, it'd probably be the first 2 that s/he chose.
Fauche May 17th 2008 6:27PM
World of Raids also has some pictures, one of which is the Northrend map, another Azjol'Nerub loading screen and the rest are weapons icons.
http://boards.worldofraids.com/topic-13393-2.html
Not sure whether they're real or not, but the loading screen seems legit enough.