World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Hands-On - New Zones and Death Knights
We check out a plethora of new content in Blizzard's upcoming expansion pack for World of Warcraft
The last time we had a look at Blizzard's upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was at last year's Blizzcon. The expansion will offer players a new land to roam (the frosty Northrend), an intimidating big bad (Arthas, the surly antihero prominently featured in Warcraft III's Frozen Throne expansion), and a dense mound of new content. We recently had the chance to go down to Blizzard's Southern California office and spend a meaty chunk of time rolling through several of the new zones in the game. In addition, Blizzard offered up details on the Death Knight class, a fundamental change to the raiding system, and some new quest types.
The mysterious Death Knight will be a gimme for anyone who has a character at level 55 or higher. If you have a 55 or higher character on any server, you'll get the option to create a Death Knight with any race. Obviously, there are some caveats: Players will only be able to create one Death Knight per realm per account. Once created, your undead rebel will be level 55, be able to summon a regular mount, and have a set series of quests designed to fill you in on how to use their unique abilities, as well as bring you up to speed on their backstories.
While we weren't able to play as the new class, we were treated to a brief demo showcasing the knight's finer aspects. The standout element of the knight is its rune-powered spell system. A series of six rune slots will rest beneath a Death Knight's life bar and hold any combination of the three rune types needed to cast spells or power their unique abilities: unholy, frost, and blood. The exact configuration of runes is customizable by players, although doing so will require you to go to a specific locale. We reckon this will work something like talents, in that you'll have to visit a trainer of some kind to let you respec your rune setup. It also seems like a player's rune configuration will vary based on the spell and ability types he or she favors.
Once used, a rune will have a cooldown time so your rune configuration can enable you to use or cast several of the same spells and abilities in quick succession if you set them up properly. While the specifics of the spells and abilities are still being sorted, we were shown a sampling to give us an idea of what to expect. We saw the death-coil spell, an area-of-effect disease, an ice-based shackle, and a wicked snare that yanked a spellcaster into striking range (which we imagine is going to be a really bad thing for casters). A complementary by-product of these rune powered abilities is "runic power," which will be generated every time you use one. You'll be able to store the power, such as a warrior's rage, and unleash a powerful ability that will depend on the amount of power you have stored. The only catch is that, like rage, it will bleed away over time. On top of all that, the knight will have three different "presences"--blood, frost, and unholy. Like a paladin's aura, these presences will offer a unique buff, but we didn't manage to find out what these would entail. During the presentation, Blizzard reps noted that the knight is designed to be a viable tank or magic user.
As if all the above wasn't enough to ruin Christmas, he gets a pet too. The knight can summon a ghoul from the corpse of friend or foe. To be fair, the ghoul will only last for a short period of time, but it looks like its brief life will be a serious problem for enemies of the knight. In addition to the standard pet commands that will let you toggle among aggressive, defensive, and passive states, the ghoul will be able to apply disease to enemies, as well as perform other assorted spells. Summoning a ghoul will also be an option while in battle. If you summon ghouls out of friendly targets who've recently died, they'll get an onscreen prompt for revival, not unlike a standard res. If they accept the res, they will return to the action and play as the ghoul for a short period of time with full access to their various abilities. The team is well aware that that this may seem a bit overpowered and that balance is going to be key to the Death Knight fitting in to the game. Thankfully, aside from death coil, the Death Knight won't really be able to do much healing, so all Death Knight groups will likely not work out.
The other big news is the way raiding will change in the Lich King. Due to the positive response to the heroic dungeon setting introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion, all five main dungeons in the Lich King will have a heroic setting. The potentially unsettling news for more hardcore players is that all of the Lich King dungeons will have 10- and 25-man versions to allow more players to see endgame content. While you'll find separate progressions for both raid types, they are not dependent on each other, so you'll be able to go between both. Another interesting perk is that you won't have to get keys or attunements in 10-man raids to participate in the 25-man raids. While this may sound like madness, we're told that there will be higher level rewards for the 25-man runs.
The last bit of info we'll discuss before we dive into the zones are the new quest types. We saw a demo of a rescue mission that segued into a unique twist on your typical escort. The demo followed a Draenei paladin who rescues a human from captivity. In order to escape, the former captive hops on a horse and heads off to safety. As he does, the Draenei actually mounted the same horse, sitting behind him, and went along for the ride. While the ride was obviously on rails, it was possible for the Draenei to perform a small selection of attacks on the enemies swarming to stop the escape. This feature is tied to the new vehicle mechanic for siege weapons that will also add action functionality when you're on certain flying mounts as well. Another mission we saw was a rescue that had you piloting an airship and dropping a rope down to aid non-player characters. Even more insane is the fact that it appears miniature dogfights may be possible with some of the flying vehicles, a move which could definitely mix things up.
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