Breakfast Topic: Future Death Knights in the audience?

by Elizabeth Harper Aug 11th 2007 at 8:00AM

So we've heard all about the new hero class, the Death Knight. They're going to be plate-wearing tanks (but without shields) wielding heavy weaponry to dish out the melee DPS while throwing around shadow & frost damage and summoning their own army of the dead. What's not to love about this class?! While we still don't have specifics on how the Death Knight will function in the game, today I'm asking how many of you are already planning on rolling one. (By which, of course, I mean rolling one as soon as the expansion is released, you level to 80, and complete an epic quest line.) Planning on being the first Death Knight on your realm? The first Death Knight in the world? Let us know!

Tags: death knight, DeathKnight, world of warcraft, WorldOfWarcraft, wotlk, wow, wrath of the lich king, WrathOfTheLichKing

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Death Knight

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Shadowwolfer Aug 11th 2007 8:13AM

yea, i really want to be death knight, looks like it would be really fun to roll as. As soon as i get 80 and unlock it i will be playing as one :)

dekulink Aug 11th 2007 8:21AM

Of course I'll be making a Death Knight; who wouldn't?

That is, I'll roll one. I won't play one as my main, though. I'm hoping that Death Knights won't be the superior Tank, as I'm hoping I can still tank end game with my Pally. I love Pally tanking and would hate for them to lose that role (again.)

CaffeineRage Aug 11th 2007 8:21AM

I have been thinking about making a tank myself, but I plan to focus on my shaman first. I want to see what they are, and are not before I set my heart on playing as one.

dekulink Aug 11th 2007 8:24AM

By the way, I'm not the only one who's worried about losing their tanking role. Having a tank with a two hander would not only save one slot by adding DPS, but throw in threat management and... ugh.

Sharkdog Aug 11th 2007 8:32AM

I'm definitely going to try out a Death Knight. I've been dabbling a Gnome Warrior for a while, because I'd like to try a tanking aspect, he's only level twenty but I'm thinking of dropping him and waiting for the expansion.
Of course, it will probably not be my main.

Gaelric Aug 11th 2007 2:03PM

I'll be a deathknight, but just not right away.
I imagine that withing the first 2 weeks there will be tons of new deathknights, and eventually it will die down. That's when I'll do it.

Varus Aug 11th 2007 8:55AM

I suppose that french guy and his guild will ding 80, just 24 hours after release, so I don't think I'll be running for any firsts (this time either).
By the time I ding 80, they've probably released 2 more hero classes :-)

But yeah.. eventually..

Dave Aug 11th 2007 8:56AM

I think it's a little too early to be super excited about a Death Knight.

Blizzard has said they're going to have to balanced within the context of the other classes. This means a few things in general:

Their DPS will be good but sub-Rogue and Mage levels. Probably sub MS Warrior. They're not going to make a class that's all of a sudden better than every DPS class as well as tankable.

We haven't seen that you can DPS -and- tank with the character with the same spec. Remember that Paladins and Warriors can tank and DPS, but neither of them can do it without almost entirely sacrificing the other side of what they do. For all anyone knows, you're not even going to get your undead summoning and/or frost/shadow damaging attacks if you're tank spec. Maybe we'll get lucky like with Druids and they'll blend at least a little... but who knows.

Item Budgets are something else to think about. Tanking gear, not to useful for DPS... and now you'll be finding tanking gear with +shadow/frost, or dps gear with the same? Those +extras subtract from one part of the item budget, whether it's less stam, less damage, or whatever. It may end up spreading the points per item a bit too thin at the expense of really cool hybridized abilities.

That said, I think everyone's going to TRY one. The questline won't require raids so it's easy to assume everyone's gonna try and unlock it and most will be successful. Whether or not a lot of people in raiding guilds will have the blessing of their guild to level another character as their new "main" after leveling their main character...

I think the real question is will anyone actually stick around playing one, will anyone stop using their old main for a new Death Knight if they weren't already used to playing a tanking class? I will I guess because I have a Warrior, but I'm not sure without finding out what else it can do. I imagine the biggest appeal would be that you can keep a tank character and a PVP character in the same style around.. but it'd be twice as difficult to gear up one of them since you can't just grab leftover gear on raids that nobody wants to gear up your 'weekend spec'.

Sohanstag Aug 11th 2007 9:04AM

Wow, Dave....you should blog on this site. :)

Nice insights.

And yes, by the way - of course.

Enma Aug 11th 2007 9:23AM

Death Knights will make a nice counterpart to my Paladin tank.
Hoping
to have the first one after release on Steamwheedle Cartel.

cxy Aug 11th 2007 9:36AM

I'm certainly not going along the Death Knight lines. I have my MS-warrior ever since WoW was released and never leveled any alts past 45 and have always been pretty happy with it. I just wish we could get a little more tanking viability.
What I'm absolutely not looking forward to is a WS random Grp with 4 Warriors and 5 death knights...but i think it will be the case.

Scalin Aug 11th 2007 9:38AM

I agree with #7. Everyone will eventually unlock them, and play one. I don't think -planning- to be a world/server first is a good thing unless you have a devout flock of followers that want nothing more than for YOU to flourish. Some of that was seen (big Horde guilds being "zomg we need holy pally!" and having a 70 BE pally within a week), but I don't think the mechanics will be the same in WotLK, so it won't be as important to be the world-first or whathaveyou.

As for myself, iunno. I'm currently fury with my warrior, and trying to find a group as a dps warrior is a lot like pulling teeth. Might have nearly equal dps with a rogue, but lack of CC means I'll never be taken along instead of one. If DK's get roughly the same DPS, but can switch from dps to tank without having to swap gear (sword and board doesn't often help when in the bigger instances), like a druid, I think warriors and paladins will see a lesser roll of tanking in leveling instances. Not so sure about high-end raiding, due to not having enough information about them.

Gralcene Aug 11th 2007 9:46AM

I Made the mistake of leveling 2 healers, so im gonna get me some of this DPS/tanking goodness! Plus summoning lots of undead etc is pretty attractive as well.

Only problem now is trying to complete the quest as a healer :/

jlpknights82 Aug 11th 2007 10:19AM

Well, since I'm a grad student, I'm not planning any firsts, but I do indeed plan to make a Death Knight. I imagine a LOT of people will be wanting to, so it won't be that hard to find a group for whatever the quest entails. *crosses fingers*

I'm currently deciding between Tauren and Blood Elf. Hmm. (If all races can indeed be DKs.)

Baluki Aug 11th 2007 10:29AM

Looks fun, and I only have 9 alts right now. Time to make that an even 10.

Reygar Aug 11th 2007 11:05AM

i will definitely roll one, i see it as an evolution for a warlock. I always seem to find myself tanking alot anyways lol

Squishy Tank FTW!!!!

Thedon Aug 11th 2007 11:20AM

@ 11 - " If DK's get roughly the same DPS, but can switch from dps to tank without having to swap gear (sword and board doesn't often help when in the bigger instances), like a druid, I think warriors and paladins will see a lesser roll of tanking in leveling instances. "

Druids need to swap their entire gear to be effective at DPS or Tanking. A Cat lacks the mitigation and crit immunity required to tank. A Bear set lacks the high Strength and Agility to have effective DPS. Learn about a class before making general statements.

Luciferasi Aug 12th 2007 12:38AM

To be honest I don't give a damn about DPS, items, specs and stats. I'll unlock a Death Knight because it's a Death Knight.

blkmasta Aug 11th 2007 1:13PM

Feh. A DK will never replace my trusty ol' human mage. Maybe my first 70 alt, but....

Gurei Aug 11th 2007 1:41PM

I am probably gonna roll one as soon as theres a chance,sure the other herors that might come later are gona be cool but....
DK is the first
I sill love the idea of tank/dps hybrid,like a hybrid but w/o the healing ,and still able to fight meelee AND with spell.
Darn if shammys didnt suck,and pallys could dps,id roll one too.
Plus Shadow>Light

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Breaking news Feed

WoW Insider Show

Subscribe via iTunes for our latest show.

Hot Topics

WoW Insider Social Links

Put WoW Insider headlines on your site
Follow WoW Insider on Twitter
Find us on Facebook

Upcoming Events

Event	Date
Darkmoon Faire	5/6 - 5/12
Call to Arms: Twin Peaks	5/11 - 5/14
Call to Arms: Arathi Basin	5/18 - 5/21
Call to Arms: Eye of the Storm	5/25 - 5/28
Call to Arms: Alterac Valley	6/1 - 6/4
Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch	6/8 - 6/11
Call to Arms: Strand of the Ancients	6/15 - 6/18
Midsummer Fire Festival	6/21 - 7/4
Call to Arms: Isle of Conquest	6/22 - 6/25
Call to Arms: The Battle for Gilneas	6/29 - 7/2