A WoW burnout's guide to Wrath of the Lich King

Does Wrath of the Lich King, the second World of Warcraft expansion, have enough new, interesting and worthwhile content to give longtime burnout players a reason to come back again? What about players who've recently hung up their Azerothian hat? In this feature, we're taking a burnout player's perspective and looking into all of the interesting things about the soon-to-see-release title expansion.

Death Knights

First and foremost is the inclusion of a new class -- the first new class, actually -- into World of Warcraft. Anyone who's mucked around Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdom for a decent while should have a level 55+ character, which is the prerequisite for being able to make your Death Knight. Each account is allowed only one per server, so it's imperative that players are careful in picking which side they're going to dive into.

So why should anyone want to be a Knight who wields death -- especially a lapsed player? Well, not only do you get glowing blue eyes when you make your character, but you also get to pick from different types of dead blue skin and white hair. It's basically the first time anyone in WoW will get to feel like an evil S.O.B. Visuals aside, you also start out at level 55 and get to enjoy what many beta testers have called Blizzard's best starting zone ever -- the Scarlet Enclave. This means that you could come back to WoW with a brand new character and never have to play through the old content. And don't worry about equipment or mounts, because the Death Knight starting zone takes care of both.

As far as class mechanics go, the Death Knight is going to be very worthwhile to burnout players wanting more of a challenge with greater chance of reward from their class. You can think of them as a blend of tanking and damage dealing with a healthy dash of magic to make them sing. Blizzard has repeatedly stated -- and we've seen proof, too -- that hero classes are advanced experiences for similarly advanced players.

In the case of Death Knights, players will manage a rune system represented underneath their character portrait. There are four kinds of runes: blood, frost, unholy and death. Certain abilities use the first three types of runes, while the death rune is created via specific abilities and can be used as if it were any of the first three runes. There's also Runic Power, which builds up while attacking an enemy with rune powers. Only certain abilities actually use Runic Power and they drain all of your accumulated power. However, the more you've got stored the stronger the ability will become. If that's not involved enough to keep your mind busy, we're not sure what would be.

If there's only one reason to come back for a month or two, playing a Death Knight could just be it. We're certain that many players will come back just to see what kind of class Blizzard has made after all the experience gained since WoW's launch. It's just too tempting not to take a look.

Inscription

When it comes to professions, Inscription is easily one of the most interesting additions thus far. It also creates an additional layer of character customization to the game. Essentially, Inscription enhances spells and abilities through Glyphs made by harvesting herbs. Every class has its own unique set of Glyphs that can be used on them and these items can be sold or traded between players. So if you weren't happy with the level of class/character uniqueness, this is definitely a step towards advancing it.