Getting Death Knights epic in only 25 levels
by Mike Schramm 
May 26th 2008 at 2:00PM
Boomslang has an interesting point of view on the fact that in the next expansion, Death Knights will start at level 55. We've heard his concerns that there'll be too many Death Knights floating around, but he says that starting them out at level 55 is, in his words, "cheap." Every other class, he says, had to roll up from one, so why should Death Knights be any different?The given answer is something that we heard at BlizzCon last year: Blizzard wants this Hero class to be epic in a way that no other class has before, so they don't want anyone who can literally command death running around as a level one noob. But does that justify cutting off more than half of the Death Knight's lifespan? Can a class that you started past the halfway point really be as epic as that Hunter or Warlock that you leveled to 80 all the way up from level 1?
Again, we don't yet know exactly how a Death Knight is created -- maybe there's something in the quest to get one that will explain what's going on here. And other people say that just letting the Death Knight start at 55 isn't enough -- if you get a character to level 80, you should be able to get a head start with any class, without having to go back and do all the lowbie quests again. We'll see in the expansion if Blizzard can make a class that you level only 25 levels feel as epic as they say it will.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Leveling, Classes, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Milktub May 26th 2008 2:04PM
I just know I'm not running any dungeons with DKs until at least 4 months after xpac release. Running with a DK on day 5, to me, would be like running with a hunter who doesn't understand how to use a freeze trap.
Phillip May 26th 2008 2:16PM
While i do feel your statement there, it is still important for them to learn how to use their abilite in PvE.
If noone took hunters in their raids simply because they might not know how to trap, they will never learn them how to trap.
You can might take this Death Knight, do him a favour, invite him to your group so he can actually learn it, rather than rejecting him. That will in the future help the Death Knight, and you will appaer to be a kind person, instead of having this cold elitist aura around yourself :)
Luckely for me, our guild has already leveled some characters to 60 which are rady to go ramparts etc with the ones who roll death knight, for the actual purpose of learning our skill. This will help our guild in raids in 80
Unagieater May 26th 2008 2:16PM
i play a huntr wutz ize tarp?
Chris May 26th 2008 2:57PM
The way to do it is to switch around lvling spells handed out. Rank 2's/3's/etc don't affect learning how to play, but new abilities do.
Preston May 26th 2008 3:07PM
The annoying thing about that thread on the WoW forums is all the Blizzard fanboys whose only justification for anything seems to be "ITS A HERO CLASS!!1"
Death Knights aren't be made more powerful than the other classes. The other classes should feel just as epic and heroic. Besides, paladins have just as much epic lore behind them, and they have to start at level 1.
There are so many things wrong with what they're doing with Death Knights that I don't want to write a novel here.
Enli May 26th 2008 3:18PM
Bringing a DK into an instance shortly after release won't be a problem for me. We were all noobs once, we all need to learn our class, and a regular instance is a great way to learn.
Now, doing an heroic or a raid with a death night in the first couple of months after release? No way. Not unless I *know* they know how to play their class properly. Then again, I don't PuG heroics anyway.
Enli May 26th 2008 3:20PM
Argh. Death night... That's Death Knight of course... I need caffeine...
vlad May 27th 2008 10:19AM
ha, 4 months!! not everyone is as scrub as you. i know several people that "borrow" characters they never played and get it mastered and kick major ass within a few days.
try the test realm premades. they take a few hours to get used to playing a new class.
theres really not a whole lot to it if you ever pay attention to guildies talking durring raids. just find the buttond to go with the actions and its all good.
sdornan May 26th 2008 5:33PM
The real reason is obvious: Blizzard doesn't want to have to go back and retune encounters and retrofit 1-55 quests with new items. Can't really blame them too much.
Nizari May 26th 2008 2:16PM
They should make certain key DK spells/abilites available only if you complete "epic" questlines that require you to have a decent understanding of the class (like the warlock minion quests, only harder). That way the class will actually feel like a hero class, and it'll be a good way to filter out those who just rolled the class because it was new and haven't put the time/effort into it.
Xioyn May 26th 2008 2:34PM
Here is how they get it so that in 25 levels it feels as awesome as 80 levels. DK experience is the same as 80 levels so in 25 levels you are killing enough to go from 1-80 or 1-55 gets another 50% break
Daryl May 27th 2008 2:09AM
You have to have a level 55 so you can't just buy the box and roll a DK.
kabshiel May 26th 2008 2:53PM
I think Blizzard is making a huge mistake by only letting DKs start at 55. Nevermind the huge crush of DKs that will be created when the expansion first hits; the bigger problem is that DKs will be the only class people roll as an alt just because they don't want to grind out those first 55 levels.
They need to make it so that if you have a 55 character, you can start any new character at 55 or just make DKs start at level 1. There's going to be major population imbalances if they don't.
Tim May 26th 2008 3:07PM
Kabshiel is right on the money on this one. Either they make it easier for everyone to level (starting at 55) or they bump DKs down to starting at level 1.
They won't do the former because that make it so that no one experiences Azerothian early content. That is, unless they make it that you can't start a new character at 55 until you have 1 (or maybe more) others at the same level.
But having DKs starting at 55 is a baaaaaad idea.
With players rolling more and more alts, Blizzard would do well to figure out a way to make managing alts an easier and less frustrating experience than it is currently.
Drago Dracini May 26th 2008 4:27PM
You're actually totally wrong. I for one still want to level my druid. I'm not alone I'm sure.
Hurode May 26th 2008 4:55PM
If you start all your characters at 55 after you already have a level 55 character, Old World Azeroth is going to be a ghost town. It will be populated only by people leveling their first characters, and since no one will be there to quest with them, instance with them, or teach them the game; they won't become good players, they won't learn their classes the way they should unless they use wowhead or wowwiki (but who will tell them about wowhead and wowwiki?), and they'll get bored from only leveling solo. Not to mention the already-difficult task of getting groups together for new Warlocks and Paladins to get their epic land mounts will become completely impossible, because everyone will go 55 -> 58 speed-style then go straight to Outland.
Verit May 27th 2008 11:44AM
I would actually agree with you that you should be able to start any class out at lvl 55 after reaching level 80.
I had argued on and off unsuccessfully for a while now that you should be able to keep a certain % of exp for your account. In other words - the more characters you've leveled the more levels you could start out with.
darian May 27th 2008 2:31PM
Hurode:
I don't know about you, but on my server 20-60 Azeroth is already a ghost town. In an entire day (say, 10 AM saturday to 10 PM) I'll meet maybe a half dozen people outside the confines of a city.
I don't think the "ghost town" argument is effective for this reason, but there are others.
bumble May 26th 2008 2:55PM
It might come as a shock, but: WoW isn't rocket science. Given that another character must already have been leveled to at least 55 the player will know the basics. The rest will easily be picked up on the way to 80.
Tim May 26th 2008 3:10PM
Why not start at level 1 as a "Knight" with regular abilities?
Then, at level 55, become eligible for a quest line that is dramatic, onerous and suitably heroic? I dunno, gather reagents by defeating enemies, then go hang out in a graveyard and raise the dead to defeat an impossible enemy?
It's not "heroic" to just start at 55. You need to go through hoops to earn your place as a hero class. That's why it's all the more important that you start at the beginning with the rest of us.