In short, count me in.

Replica23

If you want to give up characters as some sort of sacrificial offering to play something new, knock yourself out. I, on the other hand, will not be permanently offing a character to try something I might not like.

@chiablo: They've actually added quite a bit to the old content, the new starting zones, some new and re-tuned gear for old instances, they redid a bunch of areas to be more solo friendly, and they added a new quest-hub to Dustwallow Marsh with lots of new quests, giving players a new 40-ish leveling zone.

They also haven't shown any spiders in any of the new videos or screenshots for Wrath (except for the Nerubian spider-people that live in Northrend), and the buildings all have new architecture (orcs have a new style of dark iron, spikey buildings in black and red, much more brutal looking, the Forsaken have an entirely new gothic architecture they're building, as opposed to the Nerubian and Human style architecture they had previously captured, humans have norse-inspired buildings, gnomes have new steampunk stuff).

The reason Death Knights are starting at 55 is because it wouldn't make a single bit of sense for them to start at level 1. How is an unholy elite warrior of the Scourge gonna not even be able to kill level 15 coyotes in Westfall? They're a hero class, man.

Oh, and the disease effects thing, aren't a new type of spell damage. They're just new types of DoTs, and the DKs get abilities that deal extra damage on diseased targets, etc.

One of the more interesting things, I found, was the new mount features coming from the implementation of seige weapons and vehicles, namely passengers and mounted combat. There's a summary of a new quest where you ride on the back of an NPC's horse and fight off pursuers as you try to escape from an enemy stronghold.

Suzaku

So, 11 million expected Dark Knights running around.

Fyren

The content from levels 1 to 50 are tired and boring, but Blizzard doesn't want to do anything with it to improve the experience at lower levels.

Of course, I've been struggling trying to get my old pre-expansion hunter from fully geared 60 to 70. The more I play WoW, the more it feels like work rather than fun.

And the screenshots I've seen of the new expansion have the same cookie cutter buildings that exist in most of the game already, and more of the same spiders we've been killing since level 1.

To quote BB King... The thrill is gone.

chiablo

What is thy bidding my master?

Wingsoverglory

Katorok

PositivelyGreg

Wizzard

BigWeather

blueshoals

FigNewton

jesp3r

I've been a casual in WoW since the beta (between 10-20 hrs a week), but I think I'll drop the game for good once the expansion launches.

I'm just tired of the framework. Though that is hardly an indictment as WoW is the only game I've consistently played for 3 years!

Obiter

magnakaiser

@Final: There won't be any new races as far as I know, but they might change their minds about that. Not that I care.

Nirual

Metropolis

It's never really too late to start. A lot of the experience required for leveling has been dropped in 2.1 (or 2.2, I can't remember). I leveled a 70 in 7 weeks playing maybe a couple hours a day and some on weekends.

Wingsoverglory

As someone who just saved enough to buy their first flying mount, that news couldn't be better. There'd be nothing like working that hard only to have everyone else move onto the next zone where it's rendered obsolete.

futurebiblehero

excel_excel

personally i think existing player characters should be able to upgrade to a hero class, since its a fantasy game it would make sense that, after all the trails to get to say lvl60 that your character goes form your standard adventurer to a hero.

underground_slacker

Hardly. 2 hours a day tops. It doesn't take much time to get to 70, what with the xp patch and all.

Sure, you can take my comment about taking a month, and use it literally, or, you could use it loosely. I did the latter. =/

Coquiton

hopefully there's more then two new races and one hero class.

Final

Go Team Venture

Xerxes 8933A

belo

I'm right there with you man! I wasted 2 years on that game. Was some of it fun? Yes....was some of it boring? YES!

phunky420

So I'm going to be pigeonholed eventually into a role again, just like EVERY class I've tried to play? No. Fucking. Thanks. I'm off this game for good, I don't care how much they pretty it up, no more time or money will be spent on this (excepting the former spent on typing this response).

Enkur

The deathknight class will forever be pigeon holed into a tank class however since its "dps" is lower than the other dps classes. Obviously theres going to be a lot of DK's running around but honestly, smart people will stick with the characters they've already made and save DK for an alt. DK will probably be over populated, just like the rogue.

Tiberian

"No, shoosh!! We will not fall into the evil grasp of WoW again."

"But we needssss it!!!!"

"NO NOO NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

[*Hears sound of life getting sucked away*]

"Must Resist the temptation . . . must not play WoW again!!!!"

DugDawg

FUN!!

phunky420

It should be much faster now thou, as theyve made the 1-60 areas much more level-friendly (more exp awarded?) ive heard.

A word of advice thou; if you cant spare ~2h / day for Wow, you might not enjoy it as much. Atleast for me, a big part of the game was the community (and addiction).

ItsHammerTime

Aethyr

arcum

I loved WoW, but not the majority of people playing in it. As my life stand right now, there is no chance of me ever getting back to a MMORPG.

Growing up sucks!

Shiryu

Ethereal006

Some of us just don't have that sort of time.

Unknown-User

@Puck: lol, congrats on that age old pile of shit, mate.
Even thou Wow consumes your life, youll be saving money. And lots of it. Less bought games, less nights out drinking etc.
There are a good few reasons to bash MMORPGS. The montly fee aint one of em.

ItsHammerTime

Mustakrakish

It took me about a month to get my first level 70 (12 days played).

Coquiton

ItsHammerTime

Puck

:/

karasu is my homeboy

InfernoT

Although, for the first month or so, I'm expecting to see nothing but deathknights everywhere =/

Oh, and:
Anyone who has ever played with a recently eBayed character can tell you this is a complete falsehood, but it'll be amusing to watch at least.

Don't forget that the people who can make deathknights already leveled a character to 55+, so they know more than most ebayers who jump into the game completely on a level 70, with no prior experience.

Just thought I'd point that out!

Coquiton

clintonskneecap

10 mans we can make stuff happen out of the wierd class combinations (no ae tank etc) cause people pay attention =/

i got 3 pms today "omgz did you see that" still not psyched enough for my blizzcon beta key if its wotlk, i'd prefer to play sc2 beta.

Zaos

out of haiku: The stuff they were showing off at blizzcon was just the starting area. I'm actually really happy to get a scenery change in this game. The Fjord was a welcome sight.

Dorphat the Insomniac

First time I've ever seen someone get "first" on their own post.

Interesting stuff, this is, but I find it so hard to care about Death Knights. Bring on the Archmages or the Assassins or the Demon Hunters. Something cool.

Archaotic

Eurogamer has a nice Hands-on up aswell (about LichKing).

ItsHammerTime

Guild_Navigator

Ghede

Mike Fahey