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A Map of Stratholme

The Caverns of Time (CoT) will be getting a new instance in the Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) expansion. It will be a new level 80 instance called "The Culling of Stratholme". Blizzard has said that this addition is in response to the tremendous feedback that they have received in favor of the existing CoT instances.

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A Block View of Stratholme

As with most CoT instances this will be a heavily scripted affair, much like the Old Hillsbrad instance. In it you will join Arthas and fight by his side as he attempts to purge the infected city. Arthas did this after he realized that the population was already infect by the grain sent by the Dreadlord Mal'Ganis, and if they were not purged they would come back as members of the scourge. It is a direct replay of "The Culling" mission from Warcraft 3 and was one of the last acts before he went insane and became the Lich King.

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The Poisoned Grain

Blizzard mentioned several key things about the instance at the 2008 Worldwide Invitation. They clarifies that it would be a level 80 instance as they far prefer scripting max level instances to level up instances as it is easier to have a sense about that a player will have by that point. If it was a level up instance it is far harder to tune. The confirmed that it will be the same Stratholme that we know in the game already, but have different textures and possible areas. For example it will have an outdoor area where plague wood now resides, instead of starting at the gates.

The instance will continue to involve the infinite dragonflight and fill characters in on even more of their storyline.

Lastly they discussed voice over actors and apparently all of the same voice actors will be back to do your favorite voices from Warcraft 3. This will include the same voices for Arthas, Uther and Jana Proudmoore.

The likely final boss will be Mal'ganis the dreadlord.

For more information: check out The Culling of Stratholme video from the Raids & Dungeons presentation at Blizzard Worldwide Invitational '08.