Death Knight "interview" and lore on official site
by Eliah Hecht 
Oct 1st 2007 at 5:41PM
- Why did you pick Death Knight for the new class?
They have a connection to Arthas and Northrend, and we needed more tanks. The playable DKs will be allied with the Horde or Alliance, fighting against Arthas. - What will adding another tanking class do to the group/raid game?
We want all tank classes to be equally good in general, so you can use any of them for a 5-man, but we want them to have distinct raiding roles. (They also took this opportunity to reiterate for the nth time that "hero class" doesn't mean it's more powerful than other classes, just more different.) - How is the DK different from other tanks?
No shield, powerful melee abilities, magic attacks. The devs are making sure they have the core tanking abilities of keeping aggro and mitigating damage, while still making the DK feel like its own thing. - Will we see some classic DK spells and abilities?
Yes, we're taking a lot from previous Warcraft material. One thing that will set them apart as a new class, but still tie them into WC3 DKs, is the rune system.
Filed under: Expansions, Interviews, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dakota May 21st 2008 5:12PM
See I have a level 62 warrior and grinding slowly to 70 when the DK's come out will my warrior be a better tank,or a better DPS class to play will my warrior be underpowered im worried for my warrior that i have worked very hard on. I just want to know will my warrior decrease in value will he just be another DPSer and dosen't the DK sound kinda overpowered what will its presence effect on my warrior other warriors and other classes and players in genereal. Thank you write back fast. :^)
Rich Oct 1st 2007 5:48PM
Just more validation they jumped the shark on the hero class concept...
Caribbean Oct 1st 2007 6:04PM
Hope to see more hero classes available. This will impact the warrior/bear druids for sure, I smell jealousy coming.
Bat Oct 1st 2007 6:14PM
but, the hero class is unlocked by doing what?
Charlie Taylor Oct 1st 2007 6:16PM
@1 Um, what are you talking about?
Bat Oct 1st 2007 6:18PM
it will be nice to see some big tauren with a big log over his shoulder!
Melenor Oct 1st 2007 6:25PM
@1: I think you were looking for an excuse to use that phrase. Hero classes have been just begging to be implemented, and I still have my hopes up that the devs are keeping a couple others under their belts for announcement at a later time (some months before the expansion).
Blademaster, Demon Hunter, maybe even a Warmage (not a hero class) seem likely. I won't get my hopes up, though.
Runty Oct 1st 2007 6:39PM
One question I have is will Deathknights have one 'runeblade' weapon throughout the game or will they be able to pickup any 'of the eagle' sword and start etching runes into it. I thought lorewise they were attached to their weapon.
Eliah Hecht Oct 1st 2007 6:42PM
Runty: we had a post about that recently: http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/09/24/should-death-knights-get-one-runeblade-for-life/
The word from Blizzard is that yes, it makes sense lore-wise to bond them to their weapon, but it's probably not going to happen because that removes a lot of itemization options. Weapon upgrades are a big part of character advancement for any melee-focused class in this game, and if they removed that from DKs they'd have to find something to replace it with.
Basic Oct 1st 2007 6:49PM
The big question I have is how will DKs become uncrushable or will they have huge health and armor pools?
If DKs take the later route, then it will easily become flavor of the month just like Druid bears were when they could put out huge dps in addition to being difficult to kill.
If DKs take the former route it makes me wonder if there will be a disparity in their implementation in pvp vs pve.... OR Blizzard could cop-out and just make a cheezy "sword block" mechanic which turns out to be a "shield without a shield".
This will be very interesting if not humorous to see just how many hoops Blizz jumps thru to keep this class balanced and not overpowered.
Charlie Taylor Oct 1st 2007 6:55PM
@6 I'm thinking that they're going to take the last route, IE the sword block. Makes sense for itemization though, just have all the tank DK gear pile on massive +parry instead of block; if the block and parry were on a 1:1 ratio (or something close) for the itemization it would make balance extremely easy from a coding and implementation perspective.
Charlie Taylor Oct 1st 2007 6:57PM
whoops, that was meant for 9 not 6!
Fletch Oct 1st 2007 6:59PM
I really, really hope they end up restricting deathknights to humans, dwarves, undead, and blood elves. Maybe orcs and draenei too. But I never want to see the other races as DKs.
Runty Oct 1st 2007 7:00PM
Cheers Eliah for that.
Seems disappointing to finally get a hero class with such potential to be unique and to have them running around with 'broadsword of the eagle' or something.
I like the idea of having them apply certain aspects of other weapons to their weapon, another idea I had was to have them 'bound' to their weapon and it increases in level (dps/stats) as they do. Along the levelling route they can make choices that will affect how their weapon levels (magic choices through the runes which they unlock as they progress)
They could also have 'deathknight' quests which would seriously upgrade their weapon kinda like the epic mount quests.
Marcus Oct 1st 2007 7:01PM
My main is a prot warrior and I'm welcoming the addition of another tanking class. Right now within 5 minutes of me logging in I'll get some random tell asking me to tank an instance. Having another class to take the tanking duties will give all the other tanks time to do things outside of instances(Sadly the only thing a prot warrior is good at).
Caribbean mentioned jealousy coming from druids and warriors. I myself won't be jealous of DKs unless they have the ability to tank and grind with one spec like druids can.
Eliah Hecht Oct 1st 2007 7:02PM
@Charlie: This is why I use names instead of numbers to refer to comments. Numbers change around as people activate their comments, or if we have to delete one or something.
Basic Oct 1st 2007 7:04PM
@12 :( I have an elaborate RP backstory for my Gnomeregan Leper Knight possessed by the spirit of a blood elf who struggled to break free of the unholy alliance between Thermaplug and Kaelthas!
Scruffy Oct 1st 2007 7:24PM
Oh, /SNAP/
I just thought of something. Now that there's no immunity to disarm, won't that totally bone DKs? It's not like warriors or pallies who still have a shield to use....
Runty Oct 1st 2007 7:36PM
I'm sensing that since DK are born from Pallies they'll have some kind of aura to make up for the lack of a shield. Most of the images show a blueish aura around the DK, no doubt that'll add 'so much armor' or the like meaning they can tank with a 2h.
Charlie Taylor Oct 1st 2007 7:53PM
@scruffy: Wow, that's a really good point. The only way that's not going to completely hamper a DK's tanking ability is if the 'prot' spec has disarm-reducing talents in the tree, that or I don't know if disarm effects the offhand? If it's doesn't then it shouldn't be too much of a problem.