Why aren't undead undead?
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Feb 22nd 2007 at 11:11AM
That's what the paladin Galahaad of Cenarion Circle is wondering. They look like zombies, they act like zombies, and they probably smell like zombies, so why are they classified as humanoids instead of undead?
CM Nethaera quickly responds that undead player characters were considered undead in the beta, but that was quickly changed after they found it created major gameplay issues. Undead are immune to fear, polymorph, and sap, but can be easily handled by paladins (Turn Undead) and priests (Shackle.) The Undercity would be full of paladins and priests, but elsewhere Undead would be destroying every Alliance player, free from crowd control.
If that doesn't satisfy you, Ninkasi comes up with a loreworthy explanation. The undead immunity to crowd control -- and their weakness to the Light -- are gifts of the Lich King. When the Forsaken broke free of the Lich King, they lost his gifts and his weaknesses. Some arguing about whether Forsaken are really evil in the eyes of the Light ensues, making me glad I'm not a paladin -- their forum talk about "an unnatural affront to the Light" reminds me strongly of televangelists.
Would Undead be willing to go back to being Undead if the choice were offered? A quick poll of my guild's undead on at midnight revealed one yes, one no, and one tossup. Priests, paladins, Forsaken: Would you rather the Undead be Undead, or are you happy with things the way they are?
Pictures are from the Madison Zombie Lurch 2005. Motto: "What do we want? BRAINS! When do we want it? BRAINS!"
Filed under: Undead, Paladin, Priest, Analysis / Opinion, Lore
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Deusirae Feb 22nd 2007 11:18AM
My Paladin would love to see them classified as Undead. My Rogue would not...
Sylythn Feb 22nd 2007 11:27AM
Being an undead warlock, it's bad enough that pallies can pwn my pets...I don't need them able to dish out that much retribution on me too. WotF is fear immunity lite - and I think that works just fine. Although I hate polymorph (for it's duration...nearly as long as a fear without DoTs!), it doesn't happen often to me. And sap isn't as much of an issue since my pet can still do stuff. I recall one jumping by a rogue...he sapped me, I seduced him...and we both just sat there for 20 seconds waiting for them to break.
John Feb 22nd 2007 11:23AM
I was thinking tha same as poster # 1.
Oh but my undead toons would love it.
Falgorn Feb 22nd 2007 11:23AM
Blizzard have always done well out of having 3 playable factions (Warcraft III / Starcraft) and in my opinion I would have liked to have seen this formula continued in Blizzard with Alliance, Horde and Undead all being seperate from each other.
With that in mind, my main is a Warlock and I find WoTF alone to be completely unbalancing, but if Undead were actually undead it would be interesting as the game would require a lot of restructuring anyway.
Why are Forsaken part of the Horde? Have you seen any Orc or Tauren undead? Seems to be they are all Human and as such you would think they would have sided with their mates from the Dimwold and joined in with Aragorn and friends. (sorry for the cross genre there).
Regardless, WoTF is a pain as it is and for it to be made permanent would require a lot of re thinking. Would be nice if Undead were Undead and decidedly evil though with a complete rething of the game behind them. It would be nice if Horde, Alliance and Undead really were completely different in more ways than aesthetics, but maintaining balance would be a struggle.
jaydlawii Feb 22nd 2007 11:31AM
I am not a fan of the Undead being part of the Horde either. The current Horde races are extremely pridefull whereas the undead are well in all essence zombies. why would these pridefull races create an alliance with such a race?
Twinny Feb 22nd 2007 11:38AM
"why would these pridefull races create an alliance with such a race?"
convenience.
Pruflas Feb 22nd 2007 11:48AM
@4 i wish warlocks would lose control of their demons when they get CC'd... rogue demons on the Bg's would be great ;)
kerni Feb 22nd 2007 1:28PM
Could you imagine the QQ'ing that'd go on in the Pally forums if this were to happen?
http://pallywithash.wordpress.com
Kaylek Feb 22nd 2007 12:19PM
Just give us Undead Paladins and call it a day.
Derbeste Feb 22nd 2007 12:29PM
Having the undead flagged as undead would make more balance issues then you've even mentioned.
Paladins would be able to:
1. Fear all undead players.
2. Exorcise them
3. Holy Wrath them
And most unbalanced of all...
4. Track them
That would make rogue stealth (and vanish) USELESS on a pally.
However, they would not be TOTALLY immune to crowd control. You'd just have to have a different class do it.
As already mentioned, priests could shackle and pallies could fear them. In addition, nets would still work as well as frost nova.
Lastly, giving paladins and priests this advantage would ONLY help the alliance because Belf pallies wouldn't get the same boost over any of our races (unless you flag Draenie as demons.....hmmmmmm). So I VERY much doubt the horde would go for it.
NH2 Feb 22nd 2007 12:40PM
It was very annoying being the only non-undead character in a group back in beta. Basically if anything crowd controlled you were the target. My poor Tauren druid spent a bunch of time in beta sleeped. /sigh
multikast Feb 22nd 2007 1:03PM
as an undead mage, it would be great to be immune to fear, poly, charm, etc.
Alarius Feb 22nd 2007 1:21PM
Make 'em undead, I want to show them what fear and a 1500 exorcism feels like.
Alarius Feb 22nd 2007 1:24PM
@#9... QQ. Let Paladin's and Priest's retake Lordaeron, you guys lost it the moment you crapped it out and filled it with slime, seriously, wtf.
Jp Feb 22nd 2007 1:42PM
One's thing for sure. If this change happened, Ally Pallys would never ever complain about PvP imbalances again.
Derbeste Feb 22nd 2007 1:51PM
Hey, Allius...
Assume much?
I'm a human pally.
Try again.
Finnicks Feb 22nd 2007 1:52PM
Finnicks Daerkhiv, Undead Warlock, writes in response:
"Any Forsaken fool who says he'd go back to being a part of the Scourge obviously never spent three years ceaselessly chopping wood.
I will laugh when they go back only to get put on lumber duty. And when I an finished laughing, I will walk away and NOT kill them. They will deserte the torture."
Hmm... >.>
Mats Feb 22nd 2007 1:52PM
For PVP, I'd like to stay the way it is.
For PVE, man, being undead would rock.
A tank that is immmune to all sorts of fear and CC, and a priest to boot. Horde would be EZmode.
Lex Feb 22nd 2007 2:56PM
Won't somebody *please* think of the hunters? It's bad enough that I have to switch to track beasts to find druids and shamdogs in WSG. Now I have to track undead separately as well?!
No, really I don't care because it doesn't affect my CC or special abilities. It's just completely unfeasible for all the reasons mentioned above.
Calaf Feb 22nd 2007 3:15PM
I knda wish race played a more important role in WoW. I think all racials should be bumped up with advantages and disadvatages (as you describe for undead). Moreover I think each race should have a town that ONLY charecters of those races have access to. Sure this would cause more balance headaches for Blizzard but being as they claim to have "fixed" the class balance issues.. they need more challenges.