At last weekend's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris Byron "Messiah" Mudry was able to sit down and get some hands on play time with the Death Knight in the latest test build of Wrath of the Lich King. While not yet complete, as they did not have a proper starting area, seemed to be missing the class starting quests, and did not start with talent points, it did allow some real playing with the class. While the class could still change a lot before release, this first look provides a feel of the class as it stands currently.
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The first thing you notice when you play a Death Knight is the health bar area. It's different. Next to your characters image there is a large sword blade that contains your health bar, runes, and runic power information. The default was 2 Blood runes, 2 Unholy runes, and 2 Frost runes. While it has been mentioned that you will be able to change your runes to suit your play style, it appears to not be an option yet (or I just couldn't find it).
Hmm from the way you described it, it seems to be excatly what I had predectied. Easy enough to play, hard to manage spells. Seems to be a good combination which will drive some casual players away because of the "Extra Work" and will probrably cause massive ammounts of QQ. But meh, It doesnt seem to be a problem after 4 or 5 levels. I bet that the talent points will be added in as you complete the starting quests. Seems to be a good idea. Good write up
I also got to goof around with the Death Knight recently via an industry connection who for all purposes will not be mentioned and had much the same experience.
I would like to say though, that when you mentioned "restoring class balance" I LOL'd so loud that the office next-door probably heard it.
The game has never had class balance at all.... it's been "World of Rogue-Craft" and "World of Lock-craft" and these days it's "World of Huntard" this is especially true for anyone playing Horde.
Blood Elf Hunters specifically outnumber...well...everything by margins. It's not because Hunters are specifically overpowered, necessary or needed either.
I think it's amusing to see people underestimate the "Cool Factor" and the ignorant determination of your average gamer.
After goofing around with the Death-Knight only briefly I can bet the farm on the fact that everyone and their mother will role this class and it will dominate most other classes for a long time in popularity and play.
It has all the features to do so really.
I do agree that the class will be stratified by player skill with the most skilled Death Knights performing substantially better than the lower ones, in many aspects of the game except maybe non-raid PvE as DPS.
However the same could be said for our current Hunters. They earned the name "Huntard" because the vast majority of Hunter players are uninspiringly bad at their class. This is a trend in both PvE and PvP.
I'm not even talking about that idiot you met at lvl 24 during an SFK run. I'm talking about level 70's usually in welfare epics (that includes you Vengeful Gladiator) or in the early raids (looking at you Gruuls and Mag). These people have seemingly "done something right" to get this far, or is it simply that it's incredibly easily to be carried through World of Warcraft?
I think the latter is true. Especially when this experienced raid hunter is producing some odd 300 sustained DPS during Lurker.
World of Warcraft: Wrath Of Death Knight Overpopulation.
Naah, most probably not. Maybe during the early release of WotLK we'll have thousands of DK running around going "Weeeee!!!" and flooding the server with nonsense. But I believe that soon only the really good players will stick with the DK and the rest will go away once they realize they can't (or don't know how) to play DK.
Hunters are quite the exception in WoW - using nothing but Hunter's Mark, Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot (along with a DPS pet) you can solo all the way to 70 if you wish. I don't think DK will be like that - managing runes, runic power and spell CD will seem too much work for a lazy player and they'll slink back to whatever toon they have before. Besides, let the QQ people have a taste of tanking as DK and watch as the official forum goes BOOM with nerfage comments and OMGWTFBBQ and what-nots.
IMHO it will be no worse than when BC came out and we get all these Draenei Shaman and Blood Elf Paladin running around - once the hype is gone and things go back to normal (whatever normal is) we'll see a lot less DK, and most of that DK that remains will be better played.
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The Death Knight starting area will probably be overpopulated for a month or so, then it will calm down, and the number of Death Knights at level 80 will be approximately the same as other classes. It's like the Blood Elves at the start of TBC, there were so many of them you couldn't get a single quest done, now I see the same amount of Belves as every other horde race.
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Tehbigone - 74 Night Elf Rogue - Jubei'Thos
Deathgnight - 59 Gnome Death Knight - Jubei'Thos
Humiedin - 14 Human Paladin - Jubei'Thos
I agree. Death Knights WILL be overpopulated for a little while... but probably not to 80. Most people who will quit because they either can't play it or don't want to.
I can say for myself, I'll most likely stay away from the Death Knight. I've really gotten into the Shadow Priest feel... which means I probably won't be able to adjust to the different style of the Death Knight.
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Abandon ship before it's too late!
As others have said people will try the Death Knight out and do the "new zone" quests involved, hit 60 and Hellfire Penninsula and grind to a screeching halt as they realize they have to do all the same old quests over again. It was the same with my shaman when TBC started out. Draenei starting area populated with toons and then when you hit 20 and had to go to Wetlands, Ashenvale or Duskwood people put their shamans on hold.
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Death Knight - First Play Impressions
Linear Mode
