World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Preview

IGN's World of Warcraft Vault brings us the latest hands-on preview of the game's Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack.
After getting the beta installed, one of the first things I did was jump onto a Death Knight. I love melee classes and had been waiting for this class for a long time, so I was eager to give it a shot.

So how did it play?

Great. I loved the game mechanics of the Death Knight, but before I speak about how I clobbered the crap out of everything with it, let me discuss the Death Knight starting area first.

As everybody knows, the Death Knight starts at level 55. Your character "begins" in Ebon Hold which is a fortress that floats above the eastern part of the Eastern Plaguelands in a fortress similar to Naxxramas. Ebon Hold itself is the home of Arthas the Lich King at this point, and is composed of two levels that you can explore. When you get here, you speak to Arthas who starts you off on a series of quests in the area.

The quests start in Ebon Hold and have you doing a wide variety of different quest types that go far above and beyond what we are used too. For example, in one quest, you are ordered to sneak aboard a pirate ship and then use its guns to kill a few hundred "elite" enemies. This is a total blast. On another quest, you fly a bone dragon around and nuke enemy soldiers and catapults, all the while dodging catapult return fire. You can even "eat" an enemy soldier to restore your dragon's energy. This had a very cool animation, complete with enemy soldiers waving their arms while the dragon eats them. Pretty cool stuff. Another great little quest is where you have to steal a horse, which will become your Epic Mount that you use, so be sure to steal the correct color. The final quest in the series is a blast as well, and when you get to it, it takes you to Light Hope Chapel in Eastern Plaguelands where a battle commences and you are "freed" from the Lich Kings control to join the Horde or Alliance.