Buffed.de interviewed Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan at the Games Convention in Leipzig, and here are the most interesting infos :
- There will be a new Caverns of Time instance: Stratholme, which one will be a level 80 instance 5-man.
- Death Knight requirements: According to Tigole, you won't need to be level 80 to unlock the Death Knight, it would rather be between level 55 and 60. Players can then create their Death Knights and have to go through a trial in order to be able to play their Death Knights.
- Death Knight's resourcing system (Runes): Runes are engraved by the Death Knight into his weapon (sword or axe). There will be three different kind of runes: Unholy, Blood and Frost. The Death Knight will obtain various abilities, depending on how the DK combines the runes, the number of runes than you can combine is limited to six (for example: 2 of every rune type or 4 Unholy and 2 Blood runes type), you can change your rune combination to change your playstyle/role (Tank, Dps or PvP combination mixing both with less power). Upon using his abilities, the DK consumes his runes. One DK skill example using runes: a DK skill called "Army of the Dead", which summons Ghouls, requires Blood and Unholy rune types, therefore you would not be able to use this ability with only Frost runes carved into your weapon.
- Future hero classes could be Demon Hunter, Arch Mage, and Blademaster.
Interview translated by Neko (the most relevant parts)
buffed: We already heard a lot of things about Wrath of the Lich King at BlizzCon. Any news since then?
Jeff: There are a couple of things we haven't talked about at BlizzCon, such as the new "Caverns of Time"-Instance Stratholme. We wanted to get back to the CoT-concept as it was one of the coolest things added to WoW recently. We also want to pursue what the Bronze Dragonflight is up to. We seek to show you the greatest moments of Warcraft history, and now we picked Stratholme. Many hardcore WoW players are fans of the old Stratholme-instance, while Warcraft 3 players know Stratholme from the single player mission, in which the player controls Arthas, burning buildings, killing the residents and fighting the Dreadlord Mal'Ganis. In WotLK you will have the opportunity to battle alongside Arthas before he turned into what he is now. You will "cleanse" Stratholme und burn it down!
[....]
Jeff: Stratholme is going to be designed for a group of 5 level 80 characters. We don't want players to visit CoT - Stratholme during leveling, but to return when they hit 80.
buffed: A question regarding the new hero class, the Death Knight: players will encounter Arthas during levelling more than once, for example in the Caverns of Time. Where else?
Jeff: CoT - Stratholme will not be part of unlocking the DK. The Death Knight is going to be a complete new gaming experience. They start with a level much higher than regular characters, supposedly level 55-60. This has yet to be determined. We are going to explain exactly how your Death Knight will be able to elude the influence of the Lich King, this development will be completely independent from the new Caverns of Time.
buffed: Did you already decide which race the playable Death Knight is going to be once a player unlocks it? For example, if your original character is a gnome, will the DK be one, too?
Jeff: Yes, we already have decided on that. But don't be surprised if we change our mind. You know, game designing is a very flexible matter. At the moment, any class can be a Death Knight, including gnomes. We reconsidered a couple of things since BlizzCon. Players probably don't have to be level 80 to unlock the Death Knight, the class will be accessible earlier. Powerleveling to level 80 in order to get to play the Death Knight as soon as possible is no fun and makes people rush through the game. We do have a lot of ideas regarding this topic. We haven't decided yet, but maybe the DK will be unlockable between level 55 and 60. Players can then create their Death Knights and have to go through a trial in order to be able to play their DKs.
buffed: But the newly created level 55 to 60 character will not become a Death Knight, or will it?
Jeff: The original character will not become a Death Knight. Many characters are named according to their class
buffed: Can you give us a bit of detail of the Death Knight's abilities?
Jeff: Of course. The Death Knight's resource is based on runes. We at Blizzard concentrate our efforts on making every single class as unique as possible. Best examples for this are the Rogue- and Warrior-classes. The Rogue uses energy and combo points while the Warrior generates rage - two things that differ greatly. When we designed the Death Knight we wanted it to be considerably different from the other classes. The DK will be able to carve runes into his weapon, which can either be a sword or an axe. There will be three different kind of runes: Unholy, Blood and Frost. Different combinations of a total of 6 runes yield different results. For example, you could use two of each type of rune, or you could use four unholy runes and two blood runes, because you want to tank with your Death Knight.. By using his abilities the Death Knight uses up the runes. For example, the Death Knight has a skill called "Army of the Dead", which summons Ghouls. This skill requires Blood and Unholy rune types. Thus, you would not be able to use this ability with only Frost runes carved into your weapon. We also designed a pretty cool system that makes the runes on your weapon flash up when changing your combination of runes.
buffed: The final question: The Death Knight is but the first of the new hero classes. Which other heroes would you like to see introduced to the game?
Jeff: My favorite? That's hard to say, I guess the Demon Hunter would be pretty cool, as would the Archmage be....
buffed: (whispering) Blademaster!
Jeff: (laughs) There's plenty of options, the fantastic Blademaster being one of them. We did a lot of brainstorming and also thought about classes that weren't present in Warcraft 3. However, we will go step by step and first of all introduce the Death Knight with Wrath of the Lich King. Then we'll see what's up next.
Teza
WoR reporter
