Death Knight restrictions lifted in WOW

World of Warcraft is patched today - yesterday in the US - with a raft of substantial changes including the lifting of restrictions on the creation of Death Knights, adjustments to the Wintergrasp player-versus-player zone, major class changes, 3D support and the introduction of a black President.

Death Knights can now be created on any server, regardless of whether the player has a character over level 55 on that particular server - as long as he or she has one somewhere. This was how the system was originally intended to work, but Blizzard wisely waited for the dust to settle on the new class first.

The Wintergrasp player-versus-player zone in the new continent of Northrend receives a wide range of tweaks intended to improve its pace, balance and reward. There are extensive class changes, with Death Knights, Druids and Hunters getting the most attention. Blizzard has also added a swanky new game launcher, and even support for Nvidia's new 3D imaging technology.

There's tons more, including the lifting of racial restrictions on which mounts you can use, very important but quite boring mechanical changes to bonus armour, reputation rewards and dispell resistance, and an easing off of death penalties - with more graveyards and faster travel, graveyard runs should be more painless than before.

You can read the full patch notes at the US WOW site, since the European one is down for maintenance.

The patch has been hit with problems in the US. Wintergrasp battles have been taken offline after crashing the world server and Death Knight restrictions haven't been lifted for everyone, according to WOW Insider.

Consequently we wouldn't be surprised if you have to wait a little longer than the scheduled server restart time of 10am GMT to see the effects of the patch in Europe.