The culmination of Wrath Classic is nearly upon us as the final phase of the expansion sees us delve into Icecrown Citadel to put the reign of the Lich King to an end once and for all.

Today, I’ll be running you through all the new big features to expect in the Fall of the Lich King patch, including the new Legendary raid, how best to catch up on gear and join the fight against the Lich King, new class changes, dungeons, the Ruby Sanctum, and loads more.

Icecrown Citadel

First up has to be the new raid, Icecrown Citadel, one of World of Warcraft’s most well-remembered instances, and for good reason. We finally do battle with Arthus, many years after his story first began in the Warcraft universe.

There are many amazing items that drop here, such as Deathbringer’s Will. Or maybe, this time, you just want a chance to get invincible during the current expansion.

However, if you did raid Icecrown Citadel on launch back in 2010, this time around, there will be a few changes to the pacing of the raid.

- First up, there will be no Timegating in place on the instance. All the bosses will be available from day one.

- On top of that, you will no longer need to have at least one player who has defeated the Lich King on Normal Mode before you can access Heroic Mode.

- You may also be wondering about the Scaling buff that was introduced to the raid a few months after it came out in 2010. These will not be available on the raid’s launch but are planned to be added in a good while afterwards. This will give players time to experience the raid on its intended difficulty and see how well they fare.

- You can’t talk about Icecrown Citadel and not want to mention Shadowmourne either, the iconic legendary that all your Warriors, Death Knights, and Paladins are dreaming of right now.

There is good news here too, because you will have a much easier time getting hold of one, and that will drop without requiring a player in the raid to have advanced onto the quest a Splintered Thrown. In short, this saves you a lot of farming and allows you to gradually work toward Shadowmourne at both an easier and more relaxed pace.

On top of that, each end-of-wing boss - so Deathbringer Saurfang, Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana’thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King will now always guarantee to drop one Shadowfrost Shard each.

What’s more, the drop rates of Shadowfrost Shards on Normal mode have been adjusted to match Heroic. So, even if you do need to drop a boss back down to Normal, it’s not hurting your chance at a Shard.

We estimate this over halves the acquisition time of a Shadowmourne to somewhere in the region of around eight to ten weeks. This should mean there are loads more players who get to enjoy using this weapon before the next major content patch.

This raid will also bring a new reputation into the game, the Ashen Verdict. Through defeating enemies and bosses within Icecrown Citadel, you will gradually rank up with them. As you do, you will unlock powerful new craftable boot and leg-slot items.

Also, as you advance the ranks, you will get a ring that steadily upgrades. Its Exalted version is just about one of the best rings in the game.

The way tier gear is acquired also changes once again. You can either get the base item Level 251 version of your tier by being lucky and seeing some of it drop from the Vault of Archavon. Or for the rest of us, using WOTLK Classic Gold to buy it for Emblems of Frost from your class vendor just inside Icecrown Citadel.

To upgrade it to its item Level 264 version, you’re going to need a Mark of Sanctification. These drop from the end-of-wing bosses on 10-player Heroic or 25-player Normal.

The final stage of your tier gear, which is item Level 277, will need a Heroic Mark of Sanctification. These are also from the end-of-wing bosses but on 25-player Heroic only.

All in all, Icecrown Citadel will be a chance for players to see how this raid was during its own expansion, and the changes made should provide a good experience on its rerelease. And if you’re making a return for Icecrown Citadel with hopes of taking on the Lich King, you’re going to need to gear up. But you'd better prepare enough WOTLK Classic Gold.

Gearing For ICC

Fortunately, with Phase 4, there are a whole host of different ways to get your character up to speed.

First up, is the reintroduction of the Looking For Dungeon tool. This will allow you to queue up for dungeon content remotely and be matched cross-server with four other players. This should be a great addition for leveling characters or alts, who will now be able to plan dungeons into their leveling journey much more efficiently. And at level cap, it will be a good gateway into end-game gearing.

Furthermore, you can also join Titan Rune Dungeons through the LFD as well.

Also Read: The Ultimate Gearing Guide For WOTLK Classic Phase 4 ICC Raid

Defense Protocol Gamma

Speaking of Titan Rune Dungeons, a brand-new setting is being planned for the patch, named Defense Protocol Gamma.

When this setting is locked in by your party, enemies gain a large amount of extra health and damage and a Silver Covenant Warden will appear and offer you and your allies a variety of buffs played in the dungeon.

Shatter Armor has a chance for melee attacks to apply a debuff to the targets that increase all damage taken by 20% for ten seconds.

Rallying Cry of the Tournament Champion makes it so spells and ranged attacks have a chance to grant your party 20% haste for ten seconds.

Confessor’s Wrath makes sure direct healing spells increase your spell damage by 20%, stacking up to five times. This effect also lasts five seconds after your next harmful spell cast.

And Shield of Thorns makes it so enemies take damage each time you block, dodge or parry.

In addition to these new buffs, Titan Rune Gamma Dungeons retain their previous extra mechanics, such as the enemies in Coldarra Dungeons spawning mirror images, or the healing pools in the Gundrak Dungeons.

For rewards, you will earn Defiler’s Scourgestones. These can be traded in at your faction vendor in Dalaran, a Trial of the Crusader 25-player Normal loot, Primordial Saronites, or they can be downgraded to Sidereal Essence.

As a side note, with the patch, your daily Heroic will now grant two Emblems of Frost, as expected, and your first Titan Rune Gamma Dungeon of the day will also drop a satchel from the last boss that will have a further three Emblems of Frost for all players.

New Dungeons

And don’t forget about the three new Icecrown Citadel dungeons either, those being the Forge of Souls, the Pit of Saron, and the Halls of Reflection.

These three dungeons give you some more story on the Lich King, as well as providing catch-up gear for players.

These three dungeons will not be available on the Titan Rune Gamma difficulty, so that players can experience them in their original form. However, they will still give rewards as if they were.

You will also have a rare chance to see a Battered Hilt when taking in these dungeons on Heroic difficulty. This tradable item starts a quest chain as well as eventually awarding an item Level 251 weapon.

There will, of course, be other additions to raiding worth mentioning, too. The Vault of Archavon will be getting a new boss. This time, it will be Toravon the Ice Watcher. He will drop Relentless Gladiator PvP gear as well as the Tier 10 gloves and the legs.

Ruby Sanctum

But there’s also one more raid to consider. Let’s not forget about the Ruby Sanctum.

This is a short one-boss raid that’s planned to release sometime after Icecrown Citadel has been out.

Ruby Sanctum will not be treated as its own phase, and it’s more of an extra source of gear to help you finish your Icecrown Citadel progression.

Gameplay Updates

There have also been several general gameplay updates made with this patch.

Your mounts, companion pets and heirlooms tabs have all been updated and consolidated under the new Collections tab. This new tab is a single place where nearly everything you have earned on your characters can be found.

And yes, “characters”, as alongside the new Collections tab is the news that nearly everything kept here will be account bound.

So, this now gives you more reason to chase certain mount drops on alts, cleans up your bank space currently being occupied by companion pets, and you’ll no longer lose track of your heirlooms across your various characters and alts.

Class Updates

There have also been a few class updates made, too.

Hunters have received a new ability, Explosive Trap Launcher. This allows you to fire off your explosive trap from range without having to worry about running in to drop a trap, as you currently do. This ability will not be available in PvP but should smooth out Hunter gameplay in PvE encounters by a large margin.

Druids, Priests, and Shamans, Wild Growth, Circle of Healing, Ancestral Healing, and Divine Hymn spells have all been adjusted to favor players over Guardians and Pets. This should definitely help out in some of the more healing-intensive encounters in Icecrown Citadel.

Warlocks have seen one or two changes, too. Demonic Pact will now update more frequently. This should smooth out gameplay and remove scenarios where you would otherwise not send your pet in to attack. Also, the Warlock’s Summon Infernal ability will reset upon encounter end, similar to other long-duration DPS cooldowns.

PvP Season 8

The final thing to mention is, of course, the new PvP season for Wrath Classic, Season 8.

This will feature the appropriately named Wrathful Gladiator’s gear as well as mounts and titles for the best players in each region come the season end.