I've seen a bunch of rumors around for this. The FAQ reads like the early release patch notes, but I'm waiting till after Blizzcon to put any stock in this one.

According to the (possibly fake) FAQ, they're doing one this expansion and more in the future. There was one new class (factionally speaking) in BC, so this follows that example.

Not really. If only a certain combination of classes can be a deathknight that will piss off those who can't. If ALL classes can be a deathknight..uh..yay...

I always figured they'd save Arthas for a later expansion... because what other beings out there would be more challenging to face than him?

Id like to see a mentoring system like some of the other MMO's with one caveat. You can solo as a mentor. This is basically like temporarily lowering your level to redo low level quests at a reduced xp rate. If you level to 30 and then try the mentor solo with your character, you can redo the 1-20 areas to gain 10 real levels and be level 40.

I hope they don't screw up the hero system

Fed, it sounds like Fang is pulling his idea from City of Heroes. In that game when you were a lowbie and joined a friend who was higher level your attacks and things did the same damage as someone at that level, but you didn't gain any more abilities. If someone of a higher level joined you (the lowbie for this example) then their abilities scaled down in damage without losing any of the xp benefit stuff. It's a great system and it would help people catch up to friends who already play. I would love to see WoW implement it.

The first time I heard about the mentor concept was in Dark Ages(Game I use to play way back 2d overview mmo).

In this instance you would need to find a level X (Insert Class Here)

To acquire a Class of you own.

Ex: You would need to message a X lvl Monk or Mage etc.. to become part of that class , with some elite classes in the later levels of the game(you could upgrade your class to an elite version)

Therefore you'd find someone to accept to be your mentor(never had a problem finding one) he would bring you in a shrine where you would need to answer a series of questions to determine your class. ( Do you prefer blabla etc.. evil / good kinda questions)

Then you would obtain that class status.

Ideally the idea was he would then teach you how to play you class , help you lvl to a point ( level ) so that eventually you could mentor someone in turn.

Only had 1 guy show me the ropes of my class but it turned out to be my first char(rogue) so worked out pretty well for me.

Fun game in general, tried playing it later on but just didnt feel the same way it did the first time I tried it.

Was free with a level cap and then you would have to pay to continue * never payed to see further content

Good experience ,was one of the first if not , the first mmo I played

Ya Fed, its like the others have mentioned. I believe EQ2 calls it mentoring where a high level character can group with a low level character and gain xp. The high level character is temporarily lowered to the level of the lower character and his high level abilities are reduced in power to match the lower level characters.

And like the others have said it goes the other way too in CoH, at least. Your lower level character gets his stats and spell power increased to match a stock character of the level of a higher character to group for higher level content. Im not sure I really like it going from lower to higher. There are gear considerations, for one. Most lowbies are wielding green weps which will then scale up to higher level green weps and who would want a tank, for instance, with all green gear? Not too mention all the high level +spell damage or +healing gear that will be missing from low level green gear scaled to high level gear.

Also, do you really want a level 5 newb that's been playing the game for a few weeks to waltz into BRS or kill Onyxia with his friends who've been playing since launch? I think you'd exhaust the content far too quickly that way and as we all know, at that stage of the game, people who dont know what they are doing cause way more frustration and confusion than they'd like.

I agree that increasing the gap between level 1 and the endgame is generally bad, for a lot of reasons, but as GG points out there are no good alternatives so far.

I do like fang's description of being able to play with a lower level character and still gain XP, though. It doesn't make for a perfect system, but it's not bad. That way I could play my main with my wife's alt (which is now her main, it seems) without being overpowered, and with the ability to gain XP for my efforts. Sounds great, really! Now let's just get the DAoC system that let's you auto-level alts up to a higher level instead of making you grind out the whole game again if you want to try a new class.

yeah MMO Champion has the screenshots..

Name confirmed.. Death Knight confirmed.. level cap raised to 80 confirmed (btw dumb move).

All in all.. I'm dissapointed.. again another 10 levels will render all the BC content null and void.. WE just started into SSC.. and again the equipment jump from this expansion to what we have now will be insane (again).

I would have MUCH rather seen a more gradual increase in power through an AA system or Hero Classes.. or at most a 4 or 5 level cap raise...with perhaps just a single "tier" of equipment over Black Temple Gear.

I for one look forward to my new Death Knight Overlords.

LFG! 4 Deathknights need healer.

EDIT

ahh.. looks like the Death Knight is the first of "other" Hero Classes.. so in that case the 70 to 80 jump may not be as large as the 60 to 70 jump in terms of raw power.. so theres hope yet..

Honestly GG, I felt the same about TBC as you do about this new expansion. And if this new one is the same kind of crazy jump over TBC (instantly outdating all of the Outland content the way TBC did to Azeroth), I won't be happy about that.

I'll still play and enjoy WotLK for itself, the same way I did with TBC, but there'll be that bitter taste about the "loss" of the old content's relevancy.

[edit]
Though for myself, I must admit that gear being outdated isn't as big a concern to me as content being outdated. I do think that higher-end TBC instance content (not just raid content) should provide upgrades & such that are quite good through level 75, the same way that I thought the rewards from Azeroth high-end instance content (Strath, Scholo, etc) should've remained quite powerful and relevant through around level 65. If blue+ gear I earn at 65 can still be useful and decent to me at 70 without being replaced by greens, then the same should be true comparing 70 to 75.

I for one do not think a game has to have lots of levels or require grinding for gear to be fun. Blizzard could have capped levels at 40 and just relied on story and game design to keep players logging in and paying.

But, that's water on the bridge and Blizzard is following the "if we raise the cap, they will come" theory. And many probably will because there's a large established player base to potentially play with.

Where the rubber hits the road is when different realms, Horde V. Alliance and level stratification keep you playing largely solo for large periods of time.

Blizzard, if you're going to raise the cap, at least add that guest system I keep asking for!

DUDE!!! You know I wrote that like four days ago, right? Copyright infringement! DMCA! Call out Homeland Security!

BTW what's the AA system?

Have they said anything about the release date? As good as new content is, it is a bit silly that it instantly obsoletes all the BC raid dungeons. I'm under the impression that very few guilds have finished BC and downed Illidan - it's kind of like they made a great move by lowering the raid cap to 25, but aren't giving it enough time to pay off. From my reading it seems like most guilds are still doing Kara.

Where does the idea that "hero class" means "more powerful" come from? I thought it was just a class that you have to unlock.