Forum post of the day: What makes a Death Knight heroic?
by Amanda Dean 
Jul 13th 2008 at 6:00AM
The Death Knight has been touted as the first heroic class in World of Warcraft. Hopefully there will be more to come in the future. We've heard some interesting tidbits about this class, and many people are chomping at the bit to play one. Aegulle of Cenarius wants to know what it is about Death Knights that makes them "heroic." To him they appear to be just another class.
Some suggested that the starting level of this class makes them heroic- that nothing more thank skipping 55 levels of grinding is enough to qualify for an elevated status. Unlike existing classes, a player must put some effort into WoW before it can even be rolled. Death Knights can only be created by those who "unlock" the class by leveling at least one character on the server to 55.
Rogun of Hydraxis believes that the lore of the Death Knight is behind the heroic classification. Arthas was a hero of the scourge. Death Knights draw from the spell book of Arthas. This, in turn makes the class heroic. Sascar of Aman'Thul believes the truth lies in previous Warcraft titles:
They're a "hero class" because they're based on lore heroes from the Warcraft RTS games. Technically, Paladins are a hero class as well, they were just in the game from launch.
This is something I've never truly pondered. I've simply accepted that this is what they are. We do not seem to have an existing definition of the adjective "heroic" in reference to modifying the word "class." A heroic instance has the difficulty level turned up and offers greater rewards, but the heroic class will be subject to the same class-balancing act as the rest of us once they become playable. Or will they?
What do you think would make a class heroic?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Death Knight, Forums, Forum Post of the Day
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ANeM Jul 13th 2008 7:21AM
Death Knights pull away from the conventions in a number of ways, this is what them heroic. They break the talent mold by having more talented abilities in a single tree than some classes have total, hopefully giving each spec an extremely unique feel, and play style. They scoff at the conventional ability resource systems, Gone are plain bars that simply go up and down, using 4 different resources to combat their foes.
They also break the conventions for talent trees, with no single tanking tree each tree is being designed to be able to hold its own (at least for 5mans)
Furthermore they're filling a niche that so far has been largely unfillable. Anti-magic tanking so-far hasn't been about actual tanks, but instead stacking the hell out of resistance gear.
With Death Knights hopefully we'll be able to say goodbye to the bane of raid tanks inventory space that is resist sets.
Oh, and they've got all that lore and the level 55 thing and they're just so damn cool.
Solidstate Jul 13th 2008 9:33AM
> "With Death Knights hopefully we'll be able to say goodbye to the bane of raid tanks inventory space that is resist sets."
Nope, there's very little to suggest that.
As others have noted in several places on the web (google it), Acclimation is more of a gimmick, as for a MT it cannot be depended on. Other talents might raise your frost or shadow resistance by a bit, or absorb magic damage for a while. But nothing will completely remove the need for resistance sets.
Nathan Jul 13th 2008 7:26PM
The heroic part of a Death Knight is the difficulty in playing them. You can't say that playing a Death Knight to its full potential will be as easy any other base class.
Just the system of self-applicated Runes only able to be applied out of Combat, Their consumption on a 10 second cooldown and their use generating runic power which can also be used to benefit abilities, shouts to me a higher difficulty than other classes.
The Death Knight isn't supposed to be better, it's supposed to be harder for a different kind of satisfaction.
Much like a heroic dungeon is a more difficult version of the original, a heroic class is a more difficult version of the original classes.
I thought people would have made that word association between the dungeons and the death knight already that it has nothing to do with being better or being heroic compared to the other classes. They've essentially added a new difficulty level to the whole game with its own unique benefits in the form of a different class.
Camaris Jul 13th 2008 7:27AM
A few ideas:
- Of course, it's mostly a holdover from the very early, mostly unpublicized plans of a "Hero Class" (as seen on the "Under Development" page for most of WoW 1.x's history), that many presumed to be a class you could 'turn into' at a sufficiently high level. From early comments on the DK (and them specifically saying the DK is a new character), I believe that those were the original ideas for the Hero Classes.
- But now that isn't true anymore, so the term is probably a bit superfluous. But you could still claim that starting at a higher level is the defining feature of a "hero class".
- Furthermore, the whole runes/runic power system could be a bit more involved than just mana/rage/energy. Blizzard being Blizzard however, I don't expect the DK to be significantly harder to play, although the "easy to play, hard to master" may be more true for this class, and may be a feature of future Hero Classes too.
Procris Jul 13th 2008 7:36AM
I think Blizzards first idea of "hero" classes were very different but what we are getting now is just a new class. Which is by no means a bad thing. Death Knights seem to break the mold with their talent trees not really pigeon holing them into any one role, as well as bringing a new resource system (runes) and some interesting abilities. Does that make them a "hero" class? Not in my opinion.
The 55 starting level, just suggests to me they want to give Death knights an easier start with getting to lvl 80. That and ... if you consider lore, there is no starting area that makes sense for them other than the plaguelands. If they've only just broken control from the Lichking, they aren't suddenly going to travel to Elwynn Forest and start killing young wolfs.
kunukia Jul 13th 2008 7:50AM
You say:
" Death Knights can only be created by those who "unlock" the class by leveling at least one character on the server to 55."
Not so. One Char on ANY server and you can create a Death Knight on ANY server.
dan Jul 13th 2008 2:29PM
Link please. Everything I've read suggests you have to have a toon to 55 and that it is server dependent. Like the op said.
kunukia Jul 13th 2008 4:13PM
Right here on Wowinsider, there is this:
http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/05/09/more-death-knight-news-and-clarifications-via-the-cms-and-ten-to/
Then there is Wowikki:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Starting_a_death_knight
I trust you can find the lined yourself.
Crannon Jul 14th 2008 12:10PM
In the WoWInsider article you link to, the claim for "account-wide unlock" refers to a Blizzard CM who explicitly did *not* answer the question about whether one can level to 55 on one server and reroll DK on another. The CM merely answers the first of the two questions by rephrasing that the same "you can only have 1 faction on a PvP realm" policy applies.
The WoWwiki page you refer to has a claim that DKs, once unlocked, can be rolled on any realm, but this claim comes without any source from an official Blizzard statement, so it strictly speaking cannot be trusted.
The official webpage is ambiguous as well unfortunately. It is suggestive that they say you just need a level 55 on your account before you can roll a DK of "any race", but they fail to state outright that it also can be on "any server".
So, I still would love to see an official Blizzard statement on this. If any reader knows of such a statement, could they please provide a link to it?
Dan, you demand a link from Kunukia, yet you do not provide a link to any of all the things you read that claim the opposite. If you in fact have an official Blizzard statement saying DKs require a level 55 on the same server, could you provide a link to that please?
kunukia Jul 14th 2008 3:33PM
From Blizz, on this page:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/deathknight/gameplay.xml
This quote:
:Unlocking and Creating the Death Knight
Simply have a character of at least level 55 on the World of Warcraft account you play, and you will be able to create a new level-55 death knight of any race (if on a PvP realm, the death knight must be the same faction as your existing character). Upon entering the world, your neophyte death knight will undertake a series of quests designed to teach you your new abilities. You will be able to create one death knight per realm, per account."
I read this that you need one 55 to open up the death knights, but you don't need a 55 for every server on which you create a DK. How do you read it?
Kennit Jul 13th 2008 7:58AM
Perhaps the difference (if it isn't from previous titles or the postulated "turn a character into one" theory) is more of a lore related one. I don't specifically mean the lore of Arthas; rather, each individual deathknight has his own lore. When you roll a new toon, they are defined by what they do, in the present tense. A shaman IS in communication with the elements, a hunter IS a master of wilderness lore, etc. They have no definable history, no deeds behind them.
A deathknight, on the other hand, is defined by his past history: when you click create character, in a lore sense you are immersing yourself into someone who was a being of power, who felt some sort of call to serve a dark power, who then found redemption. That built-in story feels more "heroic" or epic than a young adult of whatever species picking up a sword and shield for the first time, and gradually learning to use them.
Matt Jul 13th 2008 9:00AM
In essence it is the combination of all the things mentioned. We are looking at a class that does connect back to a "hero" from the RTS series. A class with spell and ability usage system entirely new and vastly different from what has existed before. For a player undertaking the role of Death Knight there will be many more intricacies involved in the successful and efficient dps'ing and or tanking of a target. Let's face it mastery of some of the current classes in existence is a job in itself and from the sounds of what's to come players of the new DK class are in for a substantial learning curve.
andrew Jul 13th 2008 9:57AM
what I would like to know is how are these death knights going to level a profession if they start at 55 are they going to gave to up to a starter place to level a gathering prof?
dAnixx Jul 13th 2008 10:24AM
I want to be able to unlock all classes so i can start them at lvl 55 :P
Cerebrate Jul 13th 2008 11:35AM
Personally, I find that a heroic class is defined as a class that is inherently more powerful than a conventional class. This is demonstrated so-far in one way only: starting level. A death knight, a man of great might, or a deceased orc of great might, placed in a dead paladin's body, has all the powers of necromancy at his finger tips the moment he picks up his runeblade, whereas a starting hunter must make do with a few bits of leather and must tame a pet, or a paladin must attain seals, or a shaman must attune himself to the elements. Deathknights are heroic in that they start out at a level fifty-five times stronger than anyone else.
Kaiva Jul 13th 2008 12:36PM
I think turpster put it well 2 weeks ago on the show, saying that the fact that you are managing 3 types of runes in addition to runic power isn't as simple as just managing one mana pool. He said it was a class that would be difficult for a new player to master if it was their first class. Hence, I think its appropriate that they be categorized as 'heroic'.
Thander Jul 13th 2008 1:11PM
Blizzard called them heroic classes because they were originally going to have them unlockable by doing an epic quest chain at the level cap and they would be more powerful than normal classes. After completion, the player would be able to convert their class to the new one or create a new char with that class. Blizzard never really revealed this at the time.
Since PvP was not a focus at launch, they didn't care if one class was more powerful than others. For PvE some people might be jealous but everyone would have access to it eventually.
Now that PvP is so big, they can't have a class stronger than the others. They got rid of their original idea to make it balanced.
Thander Jul 13th 2008 1:11PM
Blizzard called them heroic classes because they were originally going to have them unlockable by doing an epic quest chain at the level cap and they would be more powerful than normal classes. After completion, the player would be able to convert their class to the new one or create a new char with that class. Blizzard never really revealed this at the time.
Since PvP was not a focus at launch, they didn't care if one class was more powerful than others. For PvE some people might be jealous but everyone would have access to it eventually.
Now that PvP is so big, they can't have a class stronger than the others. They got rid of their original idea to make it balanced.
Nodja Jul 13th 2008 1:31PM
Blizzard never called them heroic, they called them hero classes. It's different in a way that instead of having a class named after a more common RPG class, instead we have a class named after the heroes of the Warcraft universe. Ex: everyone knows thrall was some type of shaman, but his class in the previous games was Far Seer, so there might be a playable class in the future that will be called Far Seer.
They already said why hero classes start at level 55, if the class is supposed to be a hero then it's ridiculous having some hero do some chores, so they start at some high level. And since they don't want new players to the game to pick up a lvl 55 from the start (everyone knows why that's bad) they added some prerequisite to it.
Azyriel Jul 13th 2008 1:57PM
I think that Death Knights are only "heroic" as far as starting level goes and to appease long time followers of the development that we are finally getting "hero" classes. Instead of just never doing it and pissing people off.
As far as the talents i don't think that is "heroic" at all in fact i think it just shows Blizzard has learned and unfortunately new classes benefit immensely where existing classes have to wait for new talents to even start seeing each tree fully capable yet still probably not.