WOW expansion details leaked?

Vivendi has remained quiet on what are supposed to be the first details for rumoured expansion pack World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

But, if you want to disregard confirmed fact for a moment and indulge yourselves in what was supposedly posted on the European World of Warcraft community site last night, then read on.

The level cap will be raised from 70 to 80, and you will unlock new talents and abilities like you did in first expansion The Burning Crusade.

Hero classes are being introduced as career paths that can be unlocked when players meet certain required criteria. The first of these will be the Death Knight, which is modelled around Lich King Arthas and allows players to harness necromantic powers. Generally speaking you can refer to it as a class that combines damage dealing and tanking (soaking up lots of hits from enemies).

Siege weaponry is going to be added to player versus player combat for a new strategical layer, and opposing buildings will be destroyable. We expect all this will probably be contained within a new battleground rather than effect the entire world.

A massive new continent will be added in the shape of Northrend, which is roughly the same size as the Outland zone. This is the harsh and forbidding home of Arthas and will contain bundles of new quests to complete and dungeons to explore for those between level 70 and 80. You'll be able to face off against the Lich King himself in the final battle. And don't worry, raids are staying at a maximum of 25 people.

There will be a new Inscription profession to indulge in, which will let you permanently boost the power of your spells and abilities, or create magical items to use or sell. Plus thousands of new items are being added, like weapons and recipes, and Blizzard is apparently even planning to offer hairstyle changes and dance customisation.

That is if it's true, of course - we certainly wouldn't admit to you lot that it sounds very feasible to us.

Yesterday the German ratings board USK posted a listing for a World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King demo that is supposedly being shown at the Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig. Although Blizzard won't say a word, it did tell us last year that it planned to roll out a new expansion for its massively-multiplayer online game each year.