* The area is apparently much bigger than Outland
* There is an aerial gondola, a huge sea battle, and apparently an archeological expedition where you'll be able to fly planes
* All five Dragonflights appear in Dragonblight, a huge graveyard for dragons
* There's "a sister area to Un'goro," which means tropical rainforests. There are also lots of different areas within larger zones.
* Worgen and the sons of Arugal are back, and the Scarlet Crusade is now called the Scarlet Onslaught. And one quest is based on a mission from Warcraft III.
* Death Knight can turn dead teammates into ghouls -- "plenty of fun in the Arenas"
* There are "vehicle" quests, where players drive a vehicle (planes, trucks, or even dragons) around to accomplish tasks
* Apparently Kaplan says Blizzard has designed "zero" raid bosses for the next expansion yet, so he isn't sure where they'll fit among Pallies, Druids, and Warriors as tanks.
* DKs will have a disease-based DoT, as well as the creature and ghoul summons we've posted about previously
* As we heard before, Death Knights will serve as a "Fury Warrior" type of tank -- damage based rather than protection based.
* Blizzard hasn't determined exactly whether there will be faction differences in the epic class quests, but they won't be too different for races or factions, just because the stories, he says, should be the same
* Finally, Kaplan clarifies again that Death Knights will be available to all races, and that Arthas himself became not Undead, but Scourge
* All 5-man dungeons will have a Heroic mode
* Heroic dungeons will have a separate loot table than non-Heroics
* A new token system will be used, similar to the Badge of Justice one used now
* The 5-man instances are designed to not take more than an hour
The 5-man news really was expected, but the raid info is much more exciting:
* All raid dungeons will have both 10-man and 25-man versions
* The 10 and 25-man progressions will not depend on each other
* There will be no attunements or keys necessary for any raid
* The 25-man loot will be a tier higher than the 10-man loot
* The 10 and 25-man versions of the same raid will be on different timers so that each can be attempted on the same day by the same people
* Both Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton presented, with Kaplan showing off the Death Knight class and Chilton showing off the work they've done on Northrend.
* The Forsaken-designed starting town Vengeance Landing was shown off -- this was the same area we got to play back at Blizzcon, as well as Utgarde Keep
* They also got to see Valliance Keep (the other Alliance starting area), and Warsong Hold, a huge gothic iron structure run by Garosh Hellscream that Kaplan apparently called the "new look " of the Horde
* Horde players will be taking a Zepplin up to Northrend
* The Nexus, in the Coldarra part of the Borean Tundra, is the first instance on the western side of Northrend from Utgarde Keep, and it's a three wing instance with a raid dungeon where players will meet Malygos.
* The Badge of Justice system will continue in Northrend, but there will be new tokens to act as Badges and be returned for loot.
Lots more after the break.
* In Dragonblight, the five dragonflights are represented by different Dragonshrines -- the red shrine, for example, is under attack by the Scourge. There's also Wyrmrest Temple in the middle -- a "UN" of dragons, where the Scarlet Onslaught will have a nice storyline
* Dragonblight also has the Wrathgate, the gateway to Icecrown Citadel. Here, players will actually interact with Arthas, starting around level 71.
* Grizzly Hills has tons of fun stuff: the return of both Worgen and the Venture Company, as well as Furbolgs who have been corrupted by (spoiler) an Old God of some kind. There will also be "Iron Dwarves" (not "Dark Iron Dwarves"), and a continuation of the Titans storyline.
* Lake Wintergrasp has lots of varieties on the bombing runs, including vehicles and different tasks to do while riding in vehicles
* Also in Grizzly Hills: Zul'Drak, an instance of Ice Trolls, where we'll fight a lich, lots of bats, and even a T-Rex. Scourge is also here big time as well -- there's a Necropolis fighting right over the place.
* Borean Tundra also has a new group called "DEHTA" (Druids for the Ethical and Human Treatment of Animals) going up against Hemet Nesingwary and his crew, as well as two new factions: Oracles (Murlocs!) and Wolvar ("Wolverine dudes," whatever that means). Not only do these two factions have an Aldor-Scryer relationship, but they also mean we're one step closer to what many players dream about: a playable race of Murlocs. Oh Lordy.
Death Knight Info:
Creation and initial play:
* Death Knights will start in a floating citadel similar to Naxxramas at level 55, and go through a series of quests that will establish their story and background in the Eastern Plaguelands.
* All Indications are that Blizzard still plans to allow all races to be Death Knights, as Worldofwar.net's reporter saw Tauren, Dwarf, Gnome, and Orc Death Knights.
* You must have an existing level 55 character to create a Death Knight.
* You can create one Death Knight per realm per account. It is not clarified if that means you can create the Death Knight on a different realm from your level 55 character or not.
* You will not need to do any unlocking quests or sacrifice a character before you can create a Death Knight.
* The Death Knight will start with a wide range of abilities, as it is assumed that someone with a level 55 character has the experience to handle them right off the bat.
* They will start with a 60% speed summoned Death Charger as a land mount, which be upgradable via quest much like Warlock and Paladin mounts.
The Rune system:
* The Death Knights' Rune meter will appear below the Health Bar.
* You will be able to place up to 6 runes in any combination of Unholy, Blood, and Frost on the meter.
* The Runes will be consumed by use of abilities, but will refresh like a Rogue's energy Meter.
* There will be a secondary bar called Runic Power, which will be filled on the use of Runic abilities, but will decay over time much like Warrior rage.
* Runic Power will be used with moves that drain all Runic power and have powers and effects that are stronger depending on how much Runic Power was used. In this way it will be much like the Warrior's Execute ability or the Rogue's finishing moves.
* According to Gamespy, Blood runes will mostly cover the tank abilities (which clashes with previous information saying Blood runes were DPS, as well as with the function of the Blood Presence blow), while Frost will deal with Crowd Control.
Death Knight Abilities:
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Presences: Much like Paladin Auras or Warrior stances, Presences will be powerful one-at-a-time self-buffs that will probably determine whether the Death Knight is taking on a Tank or DPS role in the group. Worldofwar.net reported on 3 presences, as follows:
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Blood Presence will increase the Death Knight's DPS and provide a small healing effect when the Death Knight is hit.
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Frost Presence will increase the Armor and Threat of the Death Knight.
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Unholy Presence will provide increased attack speed and decreased global cooldown, and is being billed as the PvP presence.
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Death Coil: It will not fear like the Warlock version, but will act like the WC3 version also used by Death Knights in that game, damaging enemies or healing friendly undead targets.
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Army of the Dead: This ability will temporarily summon a small army of Undead that will fight for you. It will apparently be channeled, which makes me think it will be closer to an AE attack like a Druid's Hurricane than an actual pet ability.
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Raise Dead: This will raise an actual nearby corpse, including one of a fallen ally (even in Arenas) to fight for you as a Ghoul. An ally so resurrected will have the option to control their character as a Ghoul. Ghouls will get abilities to cause diseases, stun, and fear among other things, but it seems like they will be temporary pets all the same - at least, I assume PCs will eventually be allowed to resurrect rather than stay slaves of the Death Knight.
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Grip of Death: Pulls the enemy toward you and forces it to attack you (Probably a taunt effect, though It'd be great if the pulling effect works in PvP).
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Blade Strike: Attacks the target and applies a disease.
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Blood Strike: Deals Damage based on how many diseases are on the target.
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Chains of Ice: Roots a target, then applies a snare that lifts gradually until the target regains full mobility
Death Knight Role:
As expected, Death Knights will be DPS/Tank Hybrids. As previously known, they will not use shields, but will rely on a high parry rating and the proper presence (likely the Frost one from worldofwar.net's report) to mitigate damage. As DPS, they will not do as much damage as a pure DPS class, but will bring extra flavor and utility to the table in the form of some minor crowd control, ghoul pets, and the use of diseases to deal extra damage and cause debuffs. Worldofwar.net also mentions that Tom Chilton, in his Death Knight presentation, told them that they are leaning toward letting all tank types do more DPS while tanking.
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