The much-anticipated second expansion to
World of Warcraft, entitled
Wrath of the Lich King, launched on Thursday, introducing a new continent, raising the level cap to 80, and bringing a wealth of new items, spells, dungeons, and monsters to the popular MMO.
Crowds gathered and lines formed outside stores
around the world leading up to the release. Massively has put together a series of articles for players wishing to
familiarize themselves with the expansion, and CVG has a piece
discussing the basics as well. It didn't take long for the first person to reach level 80; a French player called "
Nymh" reached the level cap on his Warlock only
27 hours after the expansion went live. Not to be outdone, a guild named "TwentyFifthNovember" managed to get at least 25 raiders to 80 and then
cleared all of the current expansion raid content less than three days after the launch. Fortunately for them, the next three content patches are each expected to
contain new, more difficult raids.