BlizzCon is in full swing, but sadly, I'm not there. However, holding down the fort back home does have one advantage: I'm free to scour the internet for things like this 1up article, which brings some interesting details to light about the Death Knight class. The DK is the most interesting feature of Wrath of the Lich King as far as I'm concerned and, according to them, here's how it'll work:- Plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid
- Upon reaching level 80 and embarking on a quest "similar in difficulty to the Warlock epic mount quest," the ability to create a new Death Knight character will be unlocked.
- Starts around level 60 or 70, "intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only"
Rather than using rage, energy, or mana, Death Knights have a special "rune sword" displayed beneath their health bar, onto which the player can etch six different runes (choose between Frost, Blood, and Unholy). Different abilities require different mixes of runes, and using abilities consumes the requisite runes until a cooldown timer causes them to be available again.
As far as I can understand, that sounds interesting. And difficult.
Update: Mike Schramm, here from BlizzCon. 1up missed one thing: in the video we just saw, Death Knights summoned pets (yup, just like the Diablo Necromancers). More info coming-- we're planning on liveblogging the expansion demo in about an hour, so stay tuned!
Update 2: More information from the live blog behind the cut.
1:32pm: Intro to the Death Knight class. Designed to fulfill both tanking and DPS roles. Can tank using 2h OR Dual wielding-- no shields here.
1:32pm: Death Knights like bladed weapons, showing off big axes and swords-- Runeswords and Runeaxes. Wears Plate armor, showing concept art-- looks like Rogue/Warrior/Warlock all had a baby.
1:33pm: Death Knight spells and abilities are a mix of both caster and melee. Not standing back and casting, but using non-melee spells and abilities. In your face, beating your head in, and using a spell called "Army of the Dead." OMG
1:34pm: Death Knight is a hero class-- can't roll as a level one character, wanted to make it more epic (no level one Death Knights). Character class with two distinguishing elements-- have to unlock the ability to play one. Don't have to be a raider. Quest chain at level 80, like the Warlock epic mount quest, to unlock Character class. Story elements-- explain interaction with Arthas. Second element: Once you've unlocked it, you start off at a relatively high level (55, 60, 70-- not sure yet), with preexisting set of spells and abilities.
1:36pm: Hero classes are Unlocked, allows us to release more in the future. Can't release them all at one time, because of game balance, but what it boils down to is your favorite WCIII heroes, playable.
1:37pm: Rune resource system. Three rune schools: Blood runes, frost, and unholy runes. All DK spells and abilities will use these different runes in some combo. DKs carve these runes into their weapon-- done anytime outside of combat.
1:38pm: Character portrait has six runes in place of the mana bar (and a special circle around the icon, probably for Hero class). These runes are consume as your spells use them-- they deactivate and then reactivate over time, so if you have two frost and four blood runes, you get that much to use as spells and abilities. We have plans for mechanics that allow you to change one resource type on the fly-- like Warlock's Life Tap (Health=mana).
1:39pm: Showing a DK with six Unholy runes chosen-- hopefully that won't happen, since players should want to use all the rune abilities. Runes are on cooldowns modified by talents and attributes-- "Death Strike" might be a spell that refreshes runes, or spells might consume more than one rune at a time. By the way, the graphic showed was an Orc Death Knight.
1:58pm: What races for DK? Our current plan is for all of them to be available. ("Gnome Death Knights ftw" from the audience)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
8-03-2007 @ 3:09PM
Five Warlocks said...
Zounds!
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8-03-2007 @ 3:11PM
kyle crane said...
this sounds very interesting. but i don't think i will be truly satisfied until blademaster is released.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:17PM
Scruffy said...
Eh...
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8-03-2007 @ 3:17PM
Talys said...
I agree, the battle system for the DK does seem odd and a bit difficult to understand. But then, I'd rather that it was difficult. It's a Hero Class for crying out loud!
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8-03-2007 @ 3:22PM
Smeed said...
what will this do to warriors?
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8-03-2007 @ 3:22PM
Pez said...
So, we should expect to see everybody rerolling a DK. Nice. Expect to see 100% more "LFM Healer PST" spam.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:23PM
Iazbel said...
Nerf DKs!
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8-03-2007 @ 3:23PM
Jeph said...
Sounds like this to me.
I have a rune sword with 6 runes on it, a, b, c, d, e , and f.
Casting spell 1 requires rune a and d with a 10 sec cooldown. so rune a and d gray out for the next 10 sec and till then I can only cast spells that only require runes b,c,e,f
thoughts?
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8-03-2007 @ 3:25PM
Burgdorn said...
Personally I don't like the idea of making a character that can't be truly utilized for all of the game as a bummer, I saw the idea of lvling a hero class as a way of going into the old content with that new class twist, plus it would have given them a great reason to upgrade the mid range content.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:28PM
Michael said...
It sounds like a MMO version of TCG mechanics
The Runes are your Lands and you need to have x number of specific runes in play to cast a spell or use a talent. Spent runes have a cooldown before they can be put back in play.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:34PM
Lovetrain said...
okay...will every class be able to unlock the death knight?
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8-03-2007 @ 3:34PM
Carl Q. said...
Here is how i see it.
You have a sword with runes on it.
You hack and slash thru the mobs, the swords becomes hot, the runes are unreadable.
You wait for it to ''cooldown''.
Rinse and repeat.
Seriously, i have no idea how this rune thing will play out. I guess we'll have to wait a couple more month to really see it in action.
So lets start speculating about dates... i say two years from now (they'll say they wanna stick to their 1 expension a year, then it is gonna get delayed) hehe
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8-03-2007 @ 3:39PM
Rich said...
So the hero class doesn't convert your character, but just opens up a new class selection at the character creation screen?
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8-03-2007 @ 3:40PM
DarkStar said...
Nerf DKs, buff ret.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:46PM
anthony said...
Awesome, I just hope the level 80 quest isn't ridculously hard, I don't want to grind years of rep, I don't care if I have to run six instances or w/e and buy some stuff that's fine I just don't want to waste my life to become a DK.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:47PM
Cosmic said...
I like it, and the end result of all these cooldown will be simple to apply. Its not like they will remove your action bar when you become a death knight. You will still have the abilities quick keyed and you will still see the cooldown counts for them.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:48PM
RJ said...
@13 Yes, thats how it works. It's supposed to start out at a higher level as well. They way I see it is they are asking people to drop their mains after putting in lots of hours into getting them where they are. All that to play a new class seems like too much work for me.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:51PM
bitbot.cc said...
It's pretty safe to assume that Death Knight won't be the only class that has that bizarre "quest to unlock" mechanic. We can probably assume that there will be new mage/rogue/priest-style classes that work that way, eventually.
It's nice that players that already have a level 80 can bypass most of the old content they've been playing for over 2 years.
I do fear for the population of 1-60 zones and instances, if this new character class mechanic begins to embrace all class roles. I do wish they had instead done some interesting alternative level systems for 20-60 instead, or as an additional method.
I realize it's unrealistic to expect them to create enough new content for 20-60 gameplay in an expansion, but they could theoretically do stuff like dynamic/random dungeons, xp-from-pvp things, etc..
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8-03-2007 @ 3:52PM
Rich said...
@17
Ok, that's how I read it, just wanted to make sure. It really makes the most sense to do that way. Hopefully, it unlocks the DK class for your account and not just the server you were on. That would suck.
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8-03-2007 @ 3:53PM
Tumples said...
I don't like the sound of it, and it kills the lore doesn't it?
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