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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWhy there won't be a flood of death knights
by David Bowers 
Jan 12th 2008 at 11:01AM
Many people are predicting that "everyone" will make a new death knight character when the new expansion is going to come out -- so many that the world will seem full of them. While it is true that everyone may very well try out the first couple levels of the new death knight hero class, it's not true that every server will be overrun with them. Here's why:The addition of death knights to the game is in many ways like the addition of blood elves and draenei in The Burning Crusade. Many people made new characters just to see the new zones, but many others wanted to level their mains through Outland first. Many of those players who tried out the new races only played up to a certain point and then stopped to go back to their main characters. We never saw a flood of draenei and blood elves outnumbering all other races of Azeroth, and for the same reason we will not see a flood of new death knights. There are different things to do in the expansion, and different people make different choices about which to do first. There may be a contstant stream of new death knights, maybe even a river sometimes, but death knights will just feel like the newest kid in the WoW class, not a plague of locusts infesting the entire town.
There's also a huge difference between trying out a death knight, and choosing one as your new main character. Wherever death knights start out in the world may be a crowded area for a while, but most players won't ever level them out of that starting zone. Unlike the Jedi in Star Wars, death knights are only one of many types of characters in Warcraft. Besides, the death knight play style and thematic mood simply isn't going to appeal to everyone, in the same way that most WoW players today do not play warlocks, notwithstanding the fact that warlocks are undoubtedly a powerful class. Most players prefer to do healing, shapeshifting, stealthing, ranged shots, totems, or any number of other abilities that death knights will never have, and they will stay with their favorite classes and play styles. Some players, like myself, probably just won't like their armor decorated with skulls all the time.
Filed under: Expansions, Classes, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
censorman Jan 13th 2008 2:33PM
If they don't fix enhancement shaman, I know one class/tree combo which won't exist.
Kryptonls Jan 13th 2008 5:30PM
Most people will level their main's to 80 and raise their alts as DKs for sure. It will be a matter of time before the people that believe we will not see a DK spree, see the error in their predictions.
bonusfeat Jan 14th 2008 11:14AM
I agree with the OP
Im looking forward to my new Death Knight Banker... but thats just me. Ill try it, months after it finally settles down. New Death Knight mains are only going to appeal to a very specific group of people. How many level 80 characters are people anticipating right off the bat of the expansion? Not that many, again thats another very specific group of people. Multiple 80's are going to take at least a bit of time - so are people going to change up to a DK or keep on with their level 80 main (which as I understand it is a requirement for unlocking your DK)?
Yes it's an alt friendly game, yes the new races were mainly a cosmetic change, yes the DK is new content. But it's still a commitment, when you think about it, to uproot your freshly made level 80 main for a lvl 50ish DK. People have been reporting that the DK is going to not be as easy to learn/play as the other classes... if thats true then the OP is right.
Also it's going to be a tanking class, there isn't a tanking shortage because the current tanking classes are inferior. There is a tanking shortage because it's an aspect of a game that does not appeal to a majority who want to DPS. This could mean that this flood of Death Knights are going to have to learn how to tank if they're going to want groups... so that means DK tanking will have to be orgasmic in comparison to get a flood of people to stick with it. There isnt going to be room for Death Knights who want to DPS - we're already going to have level 80s who can DPS just fine. There isnt a DPS shortage. So guess what that means. There is going to be a flood of people abandoning their Death Knights after their trial period.
dacamper Jan 14th 2008 11:39AM
"Some players, like myself, probably just won't like their armor decorated with skulls all the time." whereas I'll roll one specifically for that.
I predict a healer shortage next ...
Good_Idea Jan 14th 2008 4:01PM
I agree, huge healer shortage. We're already feeling it on our realm, lots of people have re-rolled, very few dedicated healers left. A few months ago it was tanks, but it's mostly a healer shortage now. Will only get worse imo.
josh Jan 14th 2008 6:09PM
My server has a retarded amount of blood elves. I believe it is because this was the last "new" server right before the expansion came out last year...
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/census.php?serverid=744&factionid=-1&minlevel=70&maxlevel=70&servertypeid=2
Bitterhope Jan 22nd 2008 7:34PM
Glad I checked. On Ravenholdt, where I just quit playing for a while, our bloodelves were actually down. More than your server, but down.
Interestingly enough, if you compared Druids (9%) to total Night Elves/Taurens, it looks like about half of the characters who could be Druids, are Druids. Interesting.
AndyF Jan 14th 2008 6:25PM
"We never saw a flood of draenei and blood elves outnumbering all other races of Azeroth"
Note: This is a race, that can play a number of classes.
Death Knight is going to be a class, played by (any?) race.
This alone pretty much nulifies the assumption made. Death Knights -will- be everywhere, at least for a short a while. Their popularity purely depends on how Blizzard balance them to the rest of the classes.
Kamileon Jan 14th 2008 9:17PM
I think that the biggest impact Death Knights will have on the playerbase is where the people who would reroll DK as their main will come from. Will we have to worry about too many Death Knights AND too few of certain rerollers?
The first obvious group is the people who will see DK as something better than what they have now. Long disgruntled Ret Pallies, Warriors, and even rogues will be most willing to hop over to this new, sexier, more epic class that will be perceived as doing their job better than they can.
There will be some people that reroll something different because they are fed up with their current job. I think most of these people will come from the hybrid classes that have been healing; People who like the playstyle and feel of filling multiple rolls, but turn into healers by endgame because it's the only roll they can get spots with, or choose to heal because of a shortage. Anyone who isn't happy with that will end up being a DK because healing won't be an option.
Tanka Jan 23rd 2008 1:00AM
This whole rant is mostly BS because of a few reasons. Well to begin with, this thread is correct in the fact that there will NOT be a flood of Death Knights however the whole "people have a choice to create a new DN or level their mains" is 100% false. This statment is not true because in order to unlock the DN class your current main character must level to 80 and complete a quest that unlocks the class. The Dn class will start anywhere from level 50-60 (Blizzard has not made a conclusion)