Archive for the ‘Death Knight’ tag
5 Reasons I’m Looking Forward to WotLK… 4/5
I’d like to take this moment to apologise for the lack of awesome screenshots in my posts recently, I’ve been updating mainly from work in my lunch hour, so haven’t had my screenshots to hand to spread through my posts to bring joy to all the little boys and girls.
I will however make sure I update from home this weekend* so you get something pretty to look at instead of just walls of text. Either that or I start tossing in randomly googled images. I am actually tempted more by the latter.
Death Knights
This one had to crop up really, didn’t it? I couldn’t really look over WotLK without commenting on one of its biggest features.
The Death Knight concept in itself is quite interesting, runal power seems to be a good concept and seems simple enough to pick up, but I can see it becoming highly complex in terms of theorycrafting when it comes to level 80 and raiding, finding the optimal rotations for things could be very interesting to read into.
Their tanking method is interesting, and I can see them being the tank of choice on Malygos, which I can see being a highly magic damage intensive fight (at least it better be!) - and they will certainly have raid spots pushing forward in 25 mans.
Their DPS method doesn’t interest me quite as much… Physical Warlocks I guess…
I have a couple of issues, not exactly with the class itself, but issues none the less… The first is the kind of attraction DK will have, they’re dark, they’re emo, they have chunky armour and big fat swords. This is a recipe for disaster on the type of people the class will attract. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say 75% of DKs I have the displeasure of PUGing will be either 13, have the mental age of 13, or have the IQ rating of 13.
The other issue with DK, is the fact it’s the only hero class to be introduced. So not only are they dark and emo, but they’re the only fresh and new option being thrown into the mix.
I dread to think what the starting area will be like on release day…
* I blatently won’t update this weekend as I will be playing WotLK 
Death Knight First Impressions
Arguably the largest change that is coming in Wrath of the Lich King is the introduction of our first hero class, the Death Knight. Now, I personally went through varying emotions revolving around the Death Knight. The first was joy that they were adding a new class to the game, then there was disappointment when we found out they were only adding one new class to the game. Now I’ve tried it out, it’s somewhere in-between, Death Knight is most definitely cool. The armor, the attitude, the big massive sword. There is of course the doubt in the back of my mind that they should be adding two new classes, so people at least get some choice in the matter… Instead at current rate we’re going to have half the server running around the Death Knight starter area come the 5th of when it’s ready.
On with my first impressions. The character creation screen would be the obvious place to start. Unlike the other characters you get to start at level 55, and you don’t get kitted out in rags like the other classes, you get some very impressive looking armor.
Upon entering the game you don’t get the race-specific entry movie, you get a special one for Death Knights which gives you a little background and introduces you to the Death Knight starting area. I’ve included a video of this below, obviously the usual spoiler warnings apply.
You immediately come face to face with The Lich King himself, who following the usual spiel about death, doom and destruction he sets you off into Acherus to begin your training as a Death Knight. Your first quest earns you your Rune Blade, which is the basis of everything that a Death Knight is. The mechanics themselves are relatively simple, you have a set number of Runes, which you need to use abilities or cast spells, these runes replenish themselves over time. You also have a rage-like Runic Power which is also needed for some abilities.
The quests that you get within the first hour or so of playing your Death Knight are highly entertaining, and very rewarding, not only do you get a slew of blue quality armor, you are also awarded the talent points you would have gotten from levelling to 55 yourself. The quests range from controlling a floating eye to scout out the area below Acherus, hiding in a mine cart to be snuck behind enemy lines, through to stealing a horse. As you can probably tell, this is not your ordinary starting area, but what else would you expect for a Hero class?
The experience flows surprisingly fast while in the Death Knight area, I made it to 57 in just a few hours and I have still not completed the area, so I will get back to you once the area is complete and I have been turned out into the real world.
My main concern for Death Knight is the starting area come release day. I have painful visions of 400 Death Knights running around wreaking all kinds of havoc, but ultimately not getting a lot done. This was somewhat relieved when I saw the area on the beta servers, there were a lot of Death Knights around, and I mean a lot, however the quests were all still completable without too much hanging around waiting for re-spawns… So hopefully Blizzard will have planned for this effectively. Just be warned when you have to go and kill Mayor Quimby, I’d definitely advise getting in a group for that one, even if it’s just a group with the random others on that quest.
Overall, Death Knight is very fun to play, the Rune system is interesting, and I can see it becoming quite complex without being too restrictive to play. The starting area and quests are exceedingly fun, and even if you don’t have any intentions on levelling Death Knight seriously (is there anyone?) then you should at least take one through here just to experience the quests.
