Blizzard has announced that franchise's most famous villain, the Lich King, is headed to Warcraft Rumble as a playable leader unit. A release date hasn't been confirmed yet, nor any of his talents or how exactly he plays. The trailer does state that he will arrive in the game next month, March 2025. Fans are hoping that such an iconic, beloved character will come alongside a new in-game raid, and perhaps that unlocking the Lich King would be a reward from clearing said raid. Especially because this move would have precedence - Ragnaros is a leader unit that is unlocked by clearing his raid, Molten Core.
I can't help but feel that bringing in the Lich King is Blizzard's "break glass in case of emergency" move for Warcraft Rumble. Thus far, they've plucked loads of deep cut characters from Warcraft lore which satisfied old lorehounds like myself. I praised the game profusely in my review, largely for its diverse and varied units and characters that they included in the roster. Unfortunately though, while that kind of fan-service satisfies folks like me, it probably doesn't do much to intrigue potential new players and fans.
It's basically an open secret at this point that Warcraft Rumble is languishing. There are reports that the development team is incredibly small and they seem to be roundly enlisting cost-cutting measures in their design choices recently. They haven't added any new notable content in a long time, beyond including new units, speaking of which, there is another new regular unit coming soon as well - the Priestess. New units are great for fresh players who now have an even deeper pool of characters to play through the campaign with, but for folks who have already beaten the game's story, there is very little reason to get excited about new units when we have no new zones or missions to work through. I don't think we'll see new content personally. I think Rumble will likely last another few months without any meaningful updates and then we'll see the game ultimately sunset. But, if you have yet to play it, don't miss your chance to work through the existing campaign and maybe try the Lich King out for yourself.
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