World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Preview

WorthPlaying has cranked out the latest hands-on preview of Blizzard's World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack.
Another feature that has been live but bears mentioning is the Achievement system, which tracks a swath of your character's actions, from how many times you've died in PvP to minutiae such as your highest damage single hit or how many times you've killed Hogger. The purpose of this system is to give out Achievement points based on certain objectives. Think of them as a ton of mini-quests: Completing them gives no experience or money but can unlock character titles, tabards, and serve as bragging rights. Many of the Achievements are retroactive, such as completing a certain number of quests, though others, such as killing old world bosses, will have to be revisited (and probably soloed).

In addition to all professions getting their skill caps raised to 450, a new one has been added in the form of Inscription. Though Inscribers can create useful scrolls to help temporarily buff stats, their marquee function is the creation of major and minor glyphs. Glyphs are kind of like sockets for your character and can augment your abilities in significant ways. One glyph changes a hunter's immolation trap to deal twice the damage but only lasts for a little more than half of its usual duration, while another lets a rogue walk on water while under the effects of sprinting. Other changes, such as the ability to polymorph a target into a penguin instead of a sheep, are purely cosmetic, but to each their own.