The Warcraft e-universe has been buzzing today with new info about the upcoming WoW xpac.  Lots of info was released, but two points stand out for the casual player: 10 man raids and details on the death knight hero class.

Raids & Dungeons
All raid dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King will have both 10-person and 25-person versions. So at level 80, every major encounter and every big boss fight can be experienced with a group of 10. (Gamespy.com) (hat tip Vir's post)

I can't believe they're finally going to let casuals experience the content and lore created for the 3-5% of the playerbase that regularly raids.  After all, pre-TBC Naxx was such a smashing popular success with its < 3% use rate among the entire playerbase.  So basically every casual raider will at last participate in the Warcraft storyline - VERY refreshing.  But permit me a brief rant.

I'm going to guess right now Furor/Tigole are somewhere torturing kittens or beating up children in wheelchairs over this change. This given their obdurate and infinite hatred for "lazy" working professionals unable to commit 4+ hours/night, 5+ days a week to a game, the fools! Please understand I have nothing against raiding or raiders per se.  I do, however, detest segregationist game design and its concomitant elitism.  Sorry, Furor- looks like even bedraggled gutter proles will actually experience an Arthas kill firsthand.

Granted this probably won't help yours truly, because this week marked only my 3rd time in Karazhan.  I raided it once a year ago, killed 1 boss. I visited once again last month so my paladin could buy her recipes. And this week I joined a PUG on my priest so I could wipe repeatedly on Illihoof before going back to arena.  So odds are I still won't defeat Arthas in a PUG, but it's a great start.  I may actually start caring about PVE and find a "hardcore" 10 man (lolz) late night raiding guild if my schedule permits, just to experience the content at last. 

So major kudos to Blizzard on this one from a casual player.

Death Knights - Au Revoir, Paladins
Vir and others have posted all the details on the upcoming death knight class.  Ever since I played my shadowknight in EverQuest, a gorgeous dark elf hottie named "Britney Spears" (yes, just to piss off RPers and emos), I have been looking for my gorgeous, evil tank/dps plate wearing class.  I thought I had finally rediscovered her in WoW with a blonde female blood knight, but alas I was sadly mistaken. Frankly the reliance on holy abilities and the utter worthlessness of the class outside of BG's (a future post) has relegated my former femme fatale into a PL bot for my real characters.

But that's just terribad Roma, right?  What about real paladin players?  Well, imagine having a class that is better than a ret paladin in every possible way, with none of the drawbacks.  And imagine that same class able to tank without using mana and actually having anti-caster tanking abilities.  Holy has already been replaced in PVP and casual PVE by any other healer, so at best Prot pallies may hold a spot since people are perennially short on tanks.   But as for ret? Not a chance.

Assuming we don't leave for AoC, I had been trying to decide what two classes to play in Wrath.  I had assumed lock/rogue + priest, but now I think the choice is clear: DK + priest.  A macho PVP plate DPS class, a casual PVE tank (that tanks w/ DPS) and a real PVP/PVE healer.  The only remaining question for we once and future death knights is this:
- blood elf or undead?

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go reserve some variant of "Britney" on my server.