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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPaladins and Death Knights
by Amanda Rivera 
Aug 7th 2007 at 10:55AM
Now that Wrath of the Lich King and its first hero class is in the works, I've been thinking on the shifts the paladin has made in Warcraft of late. I'm not so much talking about how the class plays, but more what the class is about, its roots and changing story. Originally paladins are the holy warriors of Azeroth, wielding the power of the light of some divine entity, able to heal and to harm with its touch.
When The Burning Crusade was released, the paladin class was added to the Horde faction, and we learned that this type of Paladin was a very different breed. The Blood Elf pally was a warrior who drew on the light as well, but funneled from a holy being. This parasitic nature of the paladin was definitely a dark twist on what was considered a decidedly good-goody class. Now the paladin was sucking the power they used from a captive Naaru.
Darker still is the Death Knight, who despite being a separate class still maintains several similarities to the paladin. The Death Knight is a caster warrior as well, although their energy is derived through necromancy. With the specific source of their power still unclear (Metzen is still working on that one), but they are definitely drawing upon the darker forces of Azeroth to perform their spells.
Many questions are raised when you think about the dramatic changes to the paladin and his/her belief system that have been set in motion. You personally might not see any connection between the paladin and the Death Knight. But from what I saw from the video we were shown at BlizzCon, it appears to me as if the Death Knight is a paladin corrupted by darkness and evil; in essence, the anti-paladin. Is it strange, therefore, that the hero class for a holy warrior be dealing in the powers that control death itself?
Filed under: Paladin, BlizzCon, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
PyroAmos Aug 7th 2007 3:12PM
@28 Blizz said it will be balanced with other classes, but have an 'epic' feel. You've been reading the forums to much instead of the interviews if you think its gonna be a playable epic char.... its basically gonna be a ret pally that can't heal and does a little more dmg. In fact, just from seeing what is out there now, i'll take a stab at their talent trees - one caster dps spec, one melee dps and one tank spec, much like shamman 'cept replace resto with tank spec. But we'll have to wait and see. They will be massivly overpopulated though, just on the basis that they're new, and blizz has given a firm no to any other classes being released next expantion.
Sylythn Aug 8th 2007 9:54AM
I doubt it'll be all that different from Alliance Shamans and Horde Paladins, or the Blood Elf/Draenei thing. You'll have lots of folks clamoring for it, but once they get it and try it out, I doubt many will stick with it. The mere fact that it requires a lvl 80 character and an epic questline will keep numbers down...it's not like the former examples where you just had to roll a new lvl 1.
Jason Aug 7th 2007 3:47PM
They should have a twisted Divine Intervention, where you sacrifice someone else so the DK can live :D
JrSlacker Aug 7th 2007 5:05PM
Well, if the lore is right when Guldan was found out by Doomhammer that Guldan killed his own men and turned them into Deathknights, so in all honesty it's not "holy" warriors that are corrupt, it's just a person that turns corrupt and only cares about two things, power and death.
Urthona Aug 7th 2007 6:07PM
"Death Knight" is a term to refer to two different classes in the history of the game.
The first is of Teron Gorefiend fame, an orc warlock spirit in the body of an undead knight of Stormwind.
The second is like Arthas, Rivendare, Barov, Darkreaver... old Silver Handers clouded by Lich King and subsequenty went corrupt. These guys are undead, but haven't "died".
My guess is the Death Knight classs will be a bit like the former, only you summon the spirit of an Alliance or Horde hero into the body of a dead body of your choice.
CelestialDK Aug 9th 2007 2:44AM
I Agree on Comments 19 and 20
But then again, Why so conserned about what they have maked, and talk about what they are about to make? Seeing as Warlock got Death Coil... If im not wrong, thats a Very well known abillity from Death knights... are they gonna replace the spell with somthing, to give Death knights, or what?
Think about it, What abillities are they gonna have, if some of them are already spread out on mobs and other classes? I Hope they'll soon announce the abillity soon, becourse im confused with this Matter...
bloodknigget Aug 9th 2007 5:10AM
Time to realize alliance is not good and horde is not evil. They are simply 2 opposite factions. This world is not black and white, and the world of warcraft even less. Some of those oh-so-holy-goody-good alliance paladins usually have behind the keyboard quite a mean and evil person who just enjoys griefing the hell out of your poor horde low level alt.
Some races may seem more good or evil than the others, but they all have their motivations behind their actions, and some sense of righteousness about it too.
I personally enjoy reading the lore but don't care that much about it, as I see it, they will continue changing it with every future expansion, and I like that. I also like to have many alts, try things out. I can't be stuck playing on a single server, or a single faction. I just love blood knights and draenei shammys and I will also enjoy playing a tauren death knight. All the whining about who should get what is really useless and pointless as long as you don't try to play at least one high level alt on both factions, and I do mean different pvp servers, different guilds, different friends, etc.
This game has and will have a lot to offer on both sides. That has nothing to do with good or evil. And that is fun. You can be good or bad to other players no matter what faction or race you play.
Sephina Aug 9th 2007 7:05PM
OKAY... people .. take this in Death Knights are Corrupted Paladins either thru death or some malevent force or for whatever reason have forsaken the light live or undead.
Death Knight does not mean that you are dead it means you reville in death and darkness bring pain to others out of joy that bieng said LORE plays a huge part in the game . As for it being a Heroic /Epic Class it should be limited to certain classes. Paladin/warlock givin the basis for the Death Knight Warrior would also maybe work as for race Human/ Undead and maybe Blood Elf .. is a stretch. Since it is Epic or heroic it should Convert the player doing the quest. So that there arnt 1000 of em running around instead of any class being 1 but similarily giving other classes/races different Heroic/Epic classes so that there is a Game balance
Sephina Aug 9th 2007 7:19PM
Also i forgot to mention that according to Warcraft lore. Currently Death Knights now Serve Arthas 1st new line Death Knight that becaume the Lich King. That being said Death Knights serve the Lich King and he controls the Scourge so i can see the Chain starting out with Argent dawn to go to Northrend but as you get closer you hear the lich king in your head see him in your dreams feel the dark ebnegrgies surrounding this land and possibly have a Scourge quest chain to finish. including the possibility that you swear fealty to Arthas in exchange for the power of Death Knight supporting my belief that it should Convert whatever class/ race is allowed to do the quest either all can do it or not.