New official Wrath of the Lich King information released
All information is a shameless copy/paste from the official Wrath of the Lich King page.
Death Knight Class Information
The fearsome death knight, World of Warcraft’s first Hero class, is not your average adventurer seeking to prove his or her worth on Azeroth’s fields of battle. No longer servants of the Lich King, they begin their new calling as experienced, formidable adversaries, heavily armed and armored and possessing an arsenal of deadly and forbidden magic learned in the Lich King’s thrall. Here is an introduction, subject to change, of some of the death knight’s core gameplay mechanics and abilities:
Unlocking and Creating the Death Knight
Simply have a character of at least level 55 on the World of Warcraft account you play, and you will be able to create a new level-55 death knight of any race (if on a PvP realm, the death knight must be the same faction as your existing character). Upon entering the world, your neophyte death knight will undertake a series of quests designed to teach you your new abilities. You will be able to create one death knight per realm, per account.
More after the jump.
Class Roles
- Tank: The plate-wearing death knight is a capable tank for small groups as well as raids. His or her damage output while tanking will be respectable.
- DPS: The death knight can also spec and gear for a melee DPS role, which will draw upon many debilitating disease effects as well as direct damage and instant attacks.
Talent Trees
Death knight talent trees are complemented by Presences — self-only auras that benefit the death knight. Selecting the matching Presence for each tree augments the class abilities for that school of magic.
- Blood: Talents in this tree focus on damage-dealing abilities. Blood Presence increases damage output by a percentage.
- Frost: Talents in this tree focus on tanking abilities. Frost Presence increases threat and lowers damage taken by a percentage.
- Unholy: Talents in this tree have a variety of functions including summons, diseases, and PvP-focused abilities. Unholy Presence increases attack speed and reduces the global cooldown on death knight abilities.
The Rune System
The resource mechanics for death knights are runes and runic power. A skilled death knight makes efficient, timely use of runes and runic power to maximize his or her damage-dealing or tanking abilities.
- Runes: Every death knight ability requires runes, which come in three varieties: blood, frost, and unholy. Depending on the ability, it may require runes of a single type or a combination of types. When a rune is used, it has a cooldown period before it can be used again. Death knights can customize which array of six runes to have available at a given time, which can aid their ability to perform certain roles. For example, a tanking death knight may wish to load his or her rune array with more Frost runes.
- Runic Power: As rune abilities are used, the death knight also generates another resource called runic power. The death knight will have certain abilities that consume all available runic power, with varying levels of effectiveness based on total runic power spent. Similar to a warrior’s rage, runic power decays over time if not spent.
Summoned Creatures
Creating minions from the ranks of the unliving is a core ability of the death knight.
- Raise Dead: The death knight can raise a ghoul companion from the corpses of fallen creatures, as well as those of both friendly and enemy players. If cast on a friendly player, that player will have the opportunity to actually play as the ghoul, controlling its movements and actions.
- Army of the Dead: This channeled spell raises a group of undead followers who will attack the death knight’s enemies but only exist very briefly before disintegrating.
- Summon Deathcharger: Every death knight can summon the level-40 version of a deathcharger land mount. At higher levels, they can complete a quest to learn the epic version.
New gameplay features
Like The Burning Crusade before it, Wrath of the Lich King will be an expansion in the truest sense of the word. Not happy with just adding a landmass bigger than Outland, new dungeons with fresh loot, and an army of new monsters, the design team is also introducing brand-new gameplay mechanics to make the game world more accessible, more alive, and even more fun. Read on to find out more about some of the many gameplay changes going into World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
Paradigm Shift: Dungeons and Raids in Wrath of the Lich King
Heroic dungeons were one of the most popular innovations of the previous expansion, so it’s no surprise Heroic mode will return in Wrath of the Lich King. Just as in The Burning Crusade, every five-person dungeon will have a Heroic variant that will present players with an added challenge and improved rewards.
One exciting new feature in Wrath of the Lich King is that all raid content will be available as either a 10– or 25-person dungeon with completely independent progression paths. Both the 10– and 25-person versions will be the same dungeon; the look, layout, and design of the dungeon will remain the same. However, each will be adjusted, tuned, and balanced for its respective player size.
In Wrath of the Lich King, players can expect both 10– and 25-person raid progression paths to get increasingly difficult as they adventure to their final battle with Arthas. This new gameplay mechanic will allow more players to enjoy the raid content of Wrath of the Lich King in their preferred play style. Because it takes more effort to get 25 people together than it does for 10, players who participate in the 25-person raid progression path will receive higher quality and more loot than those who play the 10-person versions.
In addition, players will never be required to attune in a 10-person raid to progress to a 25-person raid in the progression path. Raid lockouts are same-size as well, so joining a 25-person raid for a dungeon will not lock a player out from the 10-person version of the same dungeon. This freedom of choice between raid-progression paths will let personal preference play a much bigger role in how players experience the raid content of Wrath of the Lich King.
Dances with Wolvar
The Aldor and Scryer factions are an integral part of the high-level experience of The Burning Crusade, requiring players to make meaningful choices between opposing factions. But even though the Aldor and the Scryers oppose each other, the hostility between them stops short of all-out warfare. Wrath of the Lich King will introduce more opposing factions, but this time, faction rivalries might intensify a bit.…
For example, players traveling in Northrend will find themselves embroiled in a violent, ongoing struggle between a group of wolverine-like creatures known as the wolvar and a faction of highly-evolved murlocs. By allying themselves with one of these factions, players will inevitably be drawn further into the conflict, and each side offers its supporters a different experience.
New Quest Mechanics
The quest designers are hard at work to make sure that the road to level 80 will be paved with quests unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. The Burning Crusade innovated with bombing runs and daily quests, and Wrath of the Lich King will continue this trend with still more unique and varied adventures to undertake.
Just one example of the new mechanics you can expect from the expansion is the new vehicle-based content, which puts an interesting spin on some of the concepts originally developed for PvP siege gameplay. Certain types of vehicles and mounts can now carry passengers, making it possible for players to, for example, break a prisoner out of a tightly guarded compound by attempting a daring escape on horseback. While the NPC steers the horse, the player lobs explosives at a pack of pursuing worgen. In another quest, the roles are reversed as the player takes to the skies in a flying machine to track down and rescue survivors of a catastrophic event. Even beyond the ability for vehicles to hold passengers, Wrath of the Lich King introduces an aerial combat system that will add a new dimension to gameplay.
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