That's what the paladin Galahaad of Cenarion Circle is wondering. They look like zombies, they act like zombies, and they probably smell like zombies, so why are they classified as humanoids instead of undead?
CM Nethaera quickly responds that undead player characters were considered undead in the beta, but that was quickly changed after they found it created major gameplay issues. Undead are immune to fear, polymorph, and sap, but can be easily handled by paladins (Turn Undead) and priests (Shackle.) The Undercity would be full of paladins and priests, but elsewhere Undead would be destroying every Alliance player, free from crowd control.
If that doesn't satisfy you, Ninkasi comes up with a loreworthy explanation. The undead immunity to crowd control -- and their weakness to the Light -- are gifts of the Lich King. When the Forsaken broke free of the Lich King, they lost his gifts and his weaknesses. Some arguing about whether Forsaken are really evil in the eyes of the Light ensues, making me glad I'm not a paladin -- their forum talk about "an unnatural affront to the Light" reminds me strongly of televangelists.
Would Undead be willing to go back to being Undead if the choice were offered? A quick poll of my guild's undead on at midnight revealed one yes, one no, and one tossup. Priests, paladins, Forsaken: Would you rather the Undead be Undead, or are you happy with things the way they are?
Pictures are from the Madison Zombie Lurch 2005. Motto: "What do we want? BRAINS! When do we want it? BRAINS!"
Subscribe
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-22-2007 @ 11:18AM
Deusirae said...
My Paladin would love to see them classified as Undead. My Rogue would not...
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 11:23AM
John said...
I was thinking tha same as poster # 1.
Oh but my undead toons would love it.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 11:23AM
Falgorn said...
Blizzard have always done well out of having 3 playable factions (Warcraft III / Starcraft) and in my opinion I would have liked to have seen this formula continued in Blizzard with Alliance, Horde and Undead all being seperate from each other.
With that in mind, my main is a Warlock and I find WoTF alone to be completely unbalancing, but if Undead were actually undead it would be interesting as the game would require a lot of restructuring anyway.
Why are Forsaken part of the Horde? Have you seen any Orc or Tauren undead? Seems to be they are all Human and as such you would think they would have sided with their mates from the Dimwold and joined in with Aragorn and friends. (sorry for the cross genre there).
Regardless, WoTF is a pain as it is and for it to be made permanent would require a lot of re thinking. Would be nice if Undead were Undead and decidedly evil though with a complete rething of the game behind them. It would be nice if Horde, Alliance and Undead really were completely different in more ways than aesthetics, but maintaining balance would be a struggle.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 11:27AM
Sylythn said...
Being an undead warlock, it's bad enough that pallies can pwn my pets...I don't need them able to dish out that much retribution on me too. WotF is fear immunity lite - and I think that works just fine. Although I hate polymorph (for it's duration...nearly as long as a fear without DoTs!), it doesn't happen often to me. And sap isn't as much of an issue since my pet can still do stuff. I recall one jumping by a rogue...he sapped me, I seduced him...and we both just sat there for 20 seconds waiting for them to break.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 11:31AM
jaydlawii said...
I am not a fan of the Undead being part of the Horde either. The current Horde races are extremely pridefull whereas the undead are well in all essence zombies. why would these pridefull races create an alliance with such a race?
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 11:38AM
Twinny said...
"why would these pridefull races create an alliance with such a race?"
convenience.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 11:48AM
Pruflas said...
@4 i wish warlocks would lose control of their demons when they get CC'd... rogue demons on the Bg's would be great ;)
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 12:19PM
Kaylek said...
Just give us Undead Paladins and call it a day.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 12:29PM
Derbeste said...
Having the undead flagged as undead would make more balance issues then you've even mentioned.
Paladins would be able to:
1. Fear all undead players.
2. Exorcise them
3. Holy Wrath them
And most unbalanced of all...
4. Track them
That would make rogue stealth (and vanish) USELESS on a pally.
However, they would not be TOTALLY immune to crowd control. You'd just have to have a different class do it.
As already mentioned, priests could shackle and pallies could fear them. In addition, nets would still work as well as frost nova.
Lastly, giving paladins and priests this advantage would ONLY help the alliance because Belf pallies wouldn't get the same boost over any of our races (unless you flag Draenie as demons.....hmmmmmm). So I VERY much doubt the horde would go for it.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 12:40PM
NH2 said...
It was very annoying being the only non-undead character in a group back in beta. Basically if anything crowd controlled you were the target. My poor Tauren druid spent a bunch of time in beta sleeped. /sigh
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:03PM
multikast said...
as an undead mage, it would be great to be immune to fear, poly, charm, etc.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:21PM
Alarius said...
Make 'em undead, I want to show them what fear and a 1500 exorcism feels like.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:24PM
Alarius said...
@#9... QQ. Let Paladin's and Priest's retake Lordaeron, you guys lost it the moment you crapped it out and filled it with slime, seriously, wtf.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:28PM
kerni said...
Could you imagine the QQ'ing that'd go on in the Pally forums if this were to happen?
http://pallywithash.wordpress.com
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:42PM
Jp said...
One's thing for sure. If this change happened, Ally Pallys would never ever complain about PvP imbalances again.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:51PM
Derbeste said...
Hey, Allius...
Assume much?
I'm a human pally.
Try again.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:52PM
Finnicks said...
Finnicks Daerkhiv, Undead Warlock, writes in response:
"Any Forsaken fool who says he'd go back to being a part of the Scourge obviously never spent three years ceaselessly chopping wood.
I will laugh when they go back only to get put on lumber duty. And when I an finished laughing, I will walk away and NOT kill them. They will deserte the torture."
Hmm... >.>
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 1:52PM
Mats said...
For PVP, I'd like to stay the way it is.
For PVE, man, being undead would rock.
A tank that is immmune to all sorts of fear and CC, and a priest to boot. Horde would be EZmode.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 2:56PM
Lex said...
Won't somebody *please* think of the hunters? It's bad enough that I have to switch to track beasts to find druids and shamdogs in WSG. Now I have to track undead separately as well?!
No, really I don't care because it doesn't affect my CC or special abilities. It's just completely unfeasible for all the reasons mentioned above.
Reply
2-22-2007 @ 3:06PM
Zuuler said...
In response to everyone who posted asking why forsaken are part of the horde, read the lore. It was convenient for the horde to have an ally in the eastern kingdoms in case of another war against the alliance. Thrall had sympathy on the forsaken because they had also been enslaved and broke free of the burning legion.
And for those that don't want to read all of what I just wrote, here it is translated into stupid...
lrn2lore nub lawl
Reply