14 DAY TRIAL // As the release date for the second World of Warcraft expansion is fast approaching, the people at Blizzard have released more information on the new class that the expansion will bring, the Death Knight. The class itself seems to be part tank, part spellcaster, which definitely makes it one of the more interesting ideas to come out from Blizzard in a while when it comes to their MMO.
If you want to create a Death Knight, you have to already have taken a character to above level 55. The reason for this is that the new class starts over from level 55, making it more of a fit for someone who already knows the ins and outs of the game. The interesting thing is that you can create the Death Knight on a new server and experience content and gameplay that might be different to the original zone in which you leveled up.
The new class is driven by two in-game "engines". On one side, we have blade etched runes that allow the player to cast spells. Six runes can be etched into any blade at any given time, each rune being one of the "presences" that are listed as Frost, specializing in dealing direct damage to enemies, Blood, which helps with tanking, and Unholy, which is more aimed towards increased buffs to attack power. Each player is likely to customize his rune set so that he can tackle a variety of challenges and quests.
The second concept is overall runic power which allows the character to perform some pretty tough damage-dealing moves. He also has an impressive array of skills he can bring into play: healing of the undead, converting damage to runic power and the summoning of Ghouls.
It seems that all races will get access to the Death Knight, the concept being that all races have within them the power to lose themselves into a frenzy of destruction, the kind the new class can unleash. So I'm expecting to see quite many Death Knights when Wrath of the Lich King goes live, sometime before the end of 2008.