Previews of World of Warcraft's second expansion up until now have not had any hands-on time with the new class: the Death Knight (DK). Well that's changed now, as details were revealed at the Worldwide Invitational (WWI), and several sources have gotten access to it, too.
So, it works like this: if you have a character level 55 or higher, you will be able to create a Death Knight, but this is limited to one per account per server. The Death Knight isn't limited to race however; it can be of any one you wish (one speaker at the WWI dev panel stated "The Lich King doesn't discriminate").
The starting area for this class is the Northern Plaguelands, in Stratholme, home of the undead. Your knight starts at level 55 with some uncommon gear (greens) and a rare blue weapon. Spell selection is limited; you'll have one 'presence', blood, which ups damage by 15% and heals you based on 4% of the damage you inflict. You'll have no talent points to start with and a limited bed of skills, but when you reach Light's Hope Chapel and meet the DK trainer (the happily named Siouxsie the Banshee), you'll be given 45 points to use on three skill trees - Frost, Blood, and Unholy.
DKs are known to use runes for their abilities. Notably, they have a '10 second cooldown', which is meant to show how the Lich King commands armies of undead. One of the cooler sounding abilities is 'Death Grip', which acts as a lasoo on enemies, teleporting an enemy within 30 yards next to you where they're taunted into attacking you for three seconds.
Wrath of the Lich King is anticipated for the second half of 2008 and will include many new features, such as a raised level cap (80), a battle with the Lich King, a new contintent, new profession, hundreds of new items, quests, dungeons, creatures, an improved graphics engine, and lots more.
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