World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Preview, Part Two
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You know the drill kids: get quests, kill shit, collect stuff and dance naked. It's the same template we know and love, but Northrend still brings a gaggle of features to Azeroth's statistical cogs and gears.
For a start, there's a new profession: Inscription. With this, Blizzard are looking to buck the trend of adding stats or useable items, describing Inscription as "Enchanting for spells and abilities," reinventing the wheel in the process.
"The idea behind it is to give players even more specialisation options beyond the talent trees," explains Kaplan in a manner that would bamboozle the WOW-phobic to death." As a possible example, a mage could have their Frost Nova enhanced for either greater range or longer snare duration - our intention is to provide viable options rather than one 'best' Inscription for each modifiable spell or ability."
This, in less complex terms, means that there's potential to differentiate characters here way beyond the 10 extra talent points that players are already looking forward to.
Another change to the expansion format is the introduction of Hero Classes, the first of which is the Death Knight, examples of whom were the Lich King's work experience chaps in Warcraft III. In the spirit of balance, though, this character won't be immediately available, requiring legwork to unlock it fully.
