From WoW: IncGamers World of Warcraft Wiki

Introduction

Death is never a pleasant experience but it's inevitable at some point when playing.

When a player’s hp drops below 1, he or she will die. A dialogue box will pop up asking the player to "Release Spirit" and this comes with a 6 minutes countdown timer. While in this mode, you can still see and hear everything that is surrounding your corpse, but you will not be able to perform any action, not even open your inventory or quest log. You may still swivel your camera and talk in party chat and guild chat (private chats) but not by using zone chat or /say or /yell etc (public chats).

Where do I go when I die?

Once you click on the button to release spirit or your 6 minute timer is up, you will be transported automatically to the nearest graveyard that is designated to be usable by your faction and enter ghost form.

Graveyards are places where your spirit gets sent to when you die. All zones have at least one graveyard and many zones have multiple graveyards located in such a way that players do not have to travel too far (typically less than 5 minutes) in order to reach their corpse.

Most graveyards in the world are designated to be used by both factions while other graveyards are faction specific. Not all zones have graveyards for your faction either and this will bring about some interesting repercussions for dying in PvP as you might find yourself at a graveyard in the next zone instead.

How do I come back to Life?

When you are in ghost form, you will have 3 options to resurrect yourself with.

1. Corpse Run

The easiest way to resurrect yourself is simply to run from the graveyard to your corpse in ghost form. Players move 50% faster while in ghost form so this should not take too long, typically under 5 minutes.

Once you have reached a location within 30 yards radius of your corpse, a popup will appear, allowing players to resurrect at a safe spot within the 30 yards radius. Monsters and enemies will be visible to the player within a 50 yards or so radius from the corpse. Players will reincarnate with 50% health and mana, allowing them to further run away to safety if no safe spot is found.

The location of your corpse is clearly marked on the map and the mini-map will also have an arrow pointing in the direction of your corpse. This makes finding your corpse relatively easy, even if you appeared in a graveyard in an area previously unexplored by you.

If you died in an instance you will reincarnate once you step through the portal or gateway to that instance. You will not need to get within a 30 yard radius of your corpse.

Penalty Recap

• All equipped items will have lost 10% durability.
• 50% health and mana once reincarnated.

2. Spirit Healer

Reaching your body may not always be possible. For example, you may have been killed in a particularly hostile area of the game world and you know that as soon as you run back to your corpse and bring yourself back to life, you will die instantly as you are attacked by the same or more creatures. To get around this problem you can release your spirit and return to the graveyard and then speak to the Spirit Healer who will resurrect you there.

Using a Spirit Healer to resurrect, you will incur a 25% loss in durability of ALL items, both equipped and in the inventory. Ressurection via the Spirit Healer will also incur Ressurection Sickness of up to 10 minutes (scales with level). This sickness lowers all of your stats by 75%.

Spirit Healers are available at all graveyards and look like an archangel with wings. Spirit Healers are also ghosts, hence you cannot see them when you are alive.

Penalty Recap

• All items (equipped and in inventory) will have lost 25% durability.
• Stats lowered by 75% for up to 10 minutes (depending on your level) due to Resurrection Sickness

3. Player Resurrection

Another way to resurrect is to have one of your party members resurrect you when you die. Many classes such as the Priest have the ability to bring players back to life.

Some items in the world also allow any player to resurrect another. [Goblin Jumper Cables] are such an Engineering item and of course, the item is designed not to work all the time. Players will return to life next to the caster with a portion of their hp and mana depending on the spell or item used. If you are already in ghost form and running back to your corpse, you can still be resurrected by a player.

If you are able to self-ressurect (via talents, soulstone spell buff from Warlocks or otherwise), when you die and the popup up appears asking you to release spirit with the 6 minute countdown, an additional option appears for you to return to life.

Penalty Recap

• All equipped items will have lost 10% durability.

If you have died repeatedly over a short period of time, subsequent ressurections will incur an amount of waiting time of a few minutes before you can return to life. This waiting time will eventually reset to zero if you stay alive for an extended period of time after ressurection. Conversely, the waiting time will also increase if you keep dying repeatedly. This system is designed such that you cannot use death as an easy method to "hop" past areas that are too difficult for you.

What can and can't I do in ghost form?

• When you are in ghost form, the game world will appear very different to you and some game mechanics are changed.
• The game world is rendered in an surreal black and white greyscale, with an equally eerie looking spiralling cloud formation. Eerie audios complete the setting.
• Your character will be translucent and look ethereal to you.
• While in ghost form, you have 1 hp. You can levitate over water (run over it) as well as breathe underwater.
• While in ghost form, you cannot interact with objects in the game world. A door that is closed will remain closed until a living player actually opens it at the same time for you to go through.
• You cannot use any spells, items or abilities, but you can still manage your inventory.
• You can see other ghosts as you wander about, including the ghosts from the enemy faction.
• Ghosts can move 50% faster than their normal running speed while alive. This helps out in returning to your corpse.
• Ghosts cannot see any living enemy or player, unless the player is in your party. Players in your party can also see you in ghost form.
• When you are near your corpse, within about a 50 yard radius, all players and enemies will become visible to you so you can select a good spot to ressurect.
• Public chat (zone, say, yell, etc) is not available to the player but private chat (party, group, guild, etc) is.
• There are a few special creatures in the world that can see and kill ghosts. These are visible to the player. Dying in ghost form will return you to the same initial graveyard you appeared in when you died.
• Ghosts can take falling damage and die. However, the falling range before you start taking damage is extremely high. This is a safeguard to prevent players from accidentally falling into inaccessible place where they will remain stuck after ressurecting there.
• If you died outside of an instance and try to walk into an instance while in ghost mode, you will be teleported to the initial graveyard you appeared in when you died. If you died inside an instance and walk into a different instance, the same thing happens.
• You cannot explore an instance in ghost form. Once you enter the instance in which you died, you will resurrect with half your hp and mana at the entrance. It does not matter if your particular instance no longer exists.
• You can resurrect with any Spirit Healer at any graveyard, but you will be resurrected at the initial graveyard you appeared in when you died. This prevents using ghost mode to travel to far-off locations.
• If you are disconnected or log out in ghost form, you will log back into the game in ghost form.
• You can make use of ghost form to explore nearby terrain.

There are some quests in the game that are given by ghosts! This means you have to die before you can obtain these quests since you cannot see these ghosts until you are dead.

Night Elves have a racial trait such that when they die, they will turn into a wisp (a special ghost form for the Night Elves). Wisps move 50% faster than normal ghosts.