It's here on the 13^th. Maybe one of the most anticipated games for the PC, and certainly for MMORPGs this year.

Wrath of the Lich King, any World of Warcraft fan, maybe even most of the newbies to the game will be able to tell you what's in store for WoW in the next expansion pack. Even so, I wan't to go through the points as it keeps my excitement going:

We've got the new hero class, Death Knight:
Now, even now some people are a bit confused as the rules for this new class, so here goes. Once your account has a character on it that has reached level 55 or above, the Death Knight class will be unlocked for you. Currently, blizz rules state that you may only have one DK per realm per account. That is to say that on one single account, you can only have a single Death Knight on any one realm. For example, I'm on the Turalyon realm, so I can only create a single DK there, if I want to make another one without deleting my original, he/she would have to be created on a different realm like Earthen Ring.

The term hero class does not mean that the death knight will be over powered in comparison to any other class that already exists. It simply means that the DK class' game mechanics are different to regular classes and in a lot of cases will be a bit more difficult.

The DK class will be a hybrid class of Tank/DPS, a DK will not be able to use shields of any kind, but they will be able to wear plate armour and even dual wield if required.

When you create your DK, he/she will start at level 55 and the starting area will be in the Eastern Plaguelands, with a variety of spells and abilities that will be available from creation. The DK will start with full uncommon gear, and supposedly once you finish your starting quests, you will have full rare gear.

DKs will not use mana, rage or energy. Instead, they will use a new system called runes. There are three rune types known as blood, frost and unholy that will be used up as you use abilities or spells. Naturally, blood abilities will use blood runes, frost use frost and unholy use unholy. But some later abilities will use a mixture of two or even all three. Runes will "recharge" themselves after 10 secs of inactive use.

Similar to rage, is the runic power that also plays a part in the DK class. When you use runes against a foe, you will generate a certain amount of runic power. Runic power is usually used in conjuction with another ability to increase it effectiveness, many abilities will say "... using all availiable runic power..." for example, if you have lots, expect to do lots of damage.

taken from wowwikki.com:
Death Knights will have a unique enchant-like system called Runeforging[12]. Death Knights will learn Runeforging in the start area, after a few quests. Runeforging is just like enchanting. When near a Runeforge you will be able to click a spell in your spell book, just like enchanting, and then choose an "enchant" to perform on the weapon. Runeforging will overwrite enchants.

Currently there are 8 different 'enchants' you can place on your weapon.

    * Rune of Cinderglacier: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that has a chance to increase the damage by 20% for your next 2 attacks that deal Frost or Shadow damage.
    * Rune of Lichbane: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that adds 2% extra weapon damage as Fire damage or 4% versus Undead targets.
    * Rune of Razorice: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that adds 2% extra weapon damage as Frost damage and has a chance to increase Frost vulnerability.
    * Rune of Spellbreaking: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that deflects 2% of all spell damage and reduces the duration of Silence effects by 50%.
    * Rune of Spellshattering: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that deflects 4% of all spell damage and reduces the duration of Silence effects by 50%.
    * Rune of Swordbreaking: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that increases Parry chance by 2% and reduces the duration of Disarm effects by 50%.
    * Rune of Swordshattering: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that increases Parry chance by 4% and reduces the duration of Disarm effects by 50%.
    * Rune of the Fallen Crusader: Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that has a chance to heal you for 3% and increase total strength by 30% for 15 sec.

Level cap will raised to 80

A predictable one, but none the less, interesting. Blizzard have had an incredibly arduous task of trying to keep the classes balanced, mainly focusing on the level 70s this proved to be a lot harder than they thought, and many would claim they're far from complete in this area, so raising the cap to 80 might cause more tears from the rogues/pallys.

An increase to 80 also means we get a lot of new abilities to learn, for example at 80:

Druids can learn Nourish - 1.5sec cast "Heals a friendly target for 1883. Heals for an additional 20% if you have a Rejuvenation, Regrowth, or Lifebloom effect active on the target."

Hunters can learn Freezing Arrow - "Fire a freezing arrow that places a Freezing Trap at the target location, freezing the first enemy that approaches, preventing all action for up to 20 sec.  Any damage caused will break the ice.  Trap will exist for 1 min.  Only one trap can be active at a time."

Mages get an interesting one, Mirror Image - Instant cast, 3 min cooldown - "Creates 3 copies of the caster nearby, which cast spells and attack the mage's enemies.  Lasts 30 sec." - Looking forward to see how this works in PvP.

Paladins can learn Sacred Shield - Instant Cast "Each time the target takes damage they gain a Sacred Shield, absorbing 500 damage and increasing the paladin's chance to critically hit with Flash of Light by 50% for up to 6 sec.  They cannot gain this effect more than once every 6 sec.  Lasts 30 sec"

Priests can learn Divine Hymn - 1.5 sec cast "You recite a Holy hymn, causing the closest 10 enemies within 15 yards to become incapacitated for 20 sec., and heals the closest 10 friendly targets within 15 yards for 348 every sec for 6 sec.  Incapacitated enemies take 40% less damage while incapacitated and for 3 sec after the incapacitation ends.  Damage caused may interrupt the effect on all incapacitated targets." - Maybe one of the best CC spells possible!

Rogues can learn Fan of Knives - 10 sec cooldown "Instantly throw both weapons at all targets within 8 yards, causing 100% weapon damage."

Shamans can learn Hex - 1.5 sec cast time, 45 sec cooldown "Transforms the enemy into a frog. While hexed, the target cannot attack or cast spells. Damage caused may interrupt the effect. Lasts 30 sec. Only one target can be hexed at a time.  Only works on Humanoids and Beasts."

Warlocks get a stange one, it's basically two spells:
Demonic Circle (Summon) - 0.5 cast time "You summon a Demonic Circle at your feet, lasting 6 min. You can only have one Demonic Circle active at a time."

Then, Demonic Circle (Teleport) - Instant cast "You teleport to your demonic circle

Finally, Warriors can learn Heroic Throw - Costs 0 rage, 60 sec cooldown "Throws your weapon at the enemy causing damage based on attack power.  This ability causes high threat." - This damage is calculated as 12+AP*.50.

Profession level cap increased to 450
This one speaks for itself, higher level cap, means more powerful abilities, pretty much an after effect of the level cap increase. I think this means you can become a "Grand Master" of your selected profession.

New Dungeons and Arthas himself!
The most important aspect (probably), the new dungeons we have are:
*  Utgarde Keep
A five man instance, for levels 70-80. Utgarde will be inhabited by the vrykul (led by King Ymiron), a Viking-like race bent on proving their strength to the Lich King, who will raise the most worthy of their warriors to serve him beyond the grave. Therefore, it can be expected that this instance will feature at least some undead.

* Azjol-Nerub
A five man instance, for levels 72-74. Azjol-Nerub, also known as the Spider Kingdom (pronounced "ah-ZHOL nuh-ROOB"), is the vast underground empire of the arachnid Nerubians. This instance will involve Many undead, the Nerubians and Dwarves.

* Ahn'kahet
A five man instance for levels 73-75. One of the sections of Azjol-Nerub, the others being the Inner Kingdom and the Upper Kingdom. Controlled by "neutral" Nerubians and Faceless Ones.

The area known as the Old Kingdom lies deep below the surface of Northrend; and is the original location of Azjol-Nerub. The nerubians preferred to stay well below surface level. This area had not been well maintained because the Scourge never descended this far. By the same token, that meant they hadn't looted as much either. It was easier to avoid the Scourge by staying to these lower levels. Most of the nerubian rebels live down here.

* Ulduar
A 5-25 man instance for levels 77-80. Ulduar is located at The Storm Peaks of Northrend. It is controlled by storm giants, and their minions the crystal golems.

It is expected that Ulduar is where Brann Bronzebeard will unravel the truth about the creation of the dwarven race. Unlike Uldaman, which is an excavated ruin, Ulduar is completely intact - and thus players will be able to venture deep inside and reveal this ancient mystery.

* Naxxramas II
Naxxramas is an entry-level raid instance floating above the Dragonblight, and is available in both 10-man and 25-man versions. It has the shape of a necropolis and has the questionable honor to serve as the seat of one of the Lich King's most powerful officers, the dreaded lich Kel'Thuzad.

* The Nexus
To enter the instance before level 77 players must first do a quest line for a Red Dragon who then flies you to the entrance. There will be two five man instances, The Nexus (Ice Caverns) for level 71-73 players and The Oculus (Magical Rings) which will be for level 80 players. A raid wing called The Eye of Eternity, featuring Malygos as the final boss will also be present.

* Icecrown Citadel
Player limit is 25 for level 80s. The Icecrown Citadel in Northrend sits atop the largest glacier in Azeroth, the Icecrown Glacier. It is here that Ner'zhul was cast into the world of Azeroth. Recently, the Scourge has created this massive fortress, surrounding the Frozen Throne that lies hidden underneath. In a later patch, this will be the pinacle of Wrath of the Lich King raid instances.

* Drak'Tharon Keep
A five man instance for levels 75-77. Drak'Tharon Keep is a strange place filled with dinosaurs and lizards, and teeming with undead. Its final boss fight takes place on raised terraces, where the wizard will bounce players from platform to platform. You're sent in to discover just why the Trolls are leaving their home zone of Zul'Drak

* Chamber of Aspects
The Chamber of Aspects instance will be the location of a single boss raid encounter, with the ability to add more encounters, similar to Onyxia's Lair.

* The Violet Hold
A five man instance for levels 75-77. The Violet Hold is a prison complex located in eastern Dalaran. It is the third instance to be located within the bounds of a capital city (after the Stormwind Stockade and Orgrimmar's Ragefire Chasm).

^{"for levels" are based upon advised levels only - nearly all this information is taken from official Blizzard posts/WoWwikki as I unfortunately didn't get a beta key.}

Siege Weapons and destructible buildings!
A brand new and very interesting new feature of PvP (and in some cases even PvE), siege weapons. These are pilot able vehicles that can be used in certain areas to raze buildings (in PvP) and some weapons that can be used to attack foes (in PvE).

Different races have different siege weapons,  and as of yet, siege weapons are going to available for Lake Wintergrasp and the new Northrend battleground, Strand of the Ancients.

We will see catapults, flying machines, several transport vehicles of varying attack and defensive power and even a goblin shredder!




... So, what are you going to do first?