After its initial announcement early last month Bethesda has slowly reveled more and more details about the upcoming, and apparently huge, Dawnguard dlc pack for Skyrim. More recent details however have come from a kind and unidentified beta-tester who recently posted not only gameplay screens but also pics of two new skill tree’s that will be included in the add-on. The first of these trees is that of the Vampire Lord, which will presumably be accessible to those who choose to side with the Vampire clan against the Dawnguard.

There are some pretty interesting abilities here, my picks though are probably the Mist Form and Vampiric Grip powers, force choke in Skyrim? Yes Please! Those who choose to walk the path of the Vampire will also have access to a new shout called Soul Tear, which allows players to steal a soul and raise the victim as an undead minion. Those who choose to side with the Dawnguard will get some new weapons for their trouble including a crossbow and the ability to recruit armored trolls as companions…I can have a cave Troll!

The next tree (shown below) is that of the Werewolf which will add some much-needed depth to the Lich trait players were able to attain by fully completing the Companions quest line. My level 52 Kahjit is still a Werewolf but it is a power I rarely use due to its limited combat options so this expansion is pretty good news.

With estimates of its length being as high as twenty hours, Dawnguard will potentially offer more game play time than many triple-A titles can offer and is definitely something fans of Skyrim will want, nay need to pick up. Dawnguard is due for its release on June 26th on Xbox Live (1600 points) though its release on PS3 and PC  are going to be at least an additional thirty days due to Microsoft throwing vast sums of money at Bethesda. This is pretty funny/ironic given that the screen shots above first appeared in a post over at official playstation magazine here, oh wait dis I say funny? I meant annoying!