Now that Wrath of the Lich King and its first hero class is in the works, I've been thinking on the shifts the paladin has made in Warcraft of late. I'm not so much talking about how the class plays, but more what the class is about, its roots and changing story. Originally paladins are the holy warriors of Azeroth, wielding the power of the light of some divine entity, able to heal and to harm with its touch.
When The Burning Crusade was released, the paladin class was added to the Horde faction, and we learned that this type of Paladin was a very different breed. The Blood Elf pally was a warrior who drew on the light as well, but funneled from a holy being. This parasitic nature of the paladin was definitely a dark twist on what was considered a decidedly good-goody class. Now the paladin was sucking the power they used from a captive Naaru.
Darker still is the Death Knight, who despite being a separate class still maintains several similarities to the paladin. The Death Knight is a caster warrior as well, although their energy is derived through necromancy. With the specific source of their power still unclear (Metzen is still working on that one), but they are definitely drawing upon the darker forces of Azeroth to perform their spells.
Many questions are raised when you think about the dramatic changes to the paladin and his/her belief system that have been set in motion. You personally might not see any connection between the paladin and the Death Knight. But from what I saw from the video we were shown at BlizzCon, it appears to me as if the Death Knight is a paladin corrupted by darkness and evil; in essence, the anti-paladin. Is it strange, therefore, that the hero class for a holy warrior be dealing in the powers that control death itself?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-07-2007 @ 11:10AM
Pandoire said...
K
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8-07-2007 @ 11:11AM
michael said...
My theory:
To have a Death Knight you must "Sacrifice" your Pally. Isn't this being marketed as the FIRST hero class? I would think there is more to come.
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8-07-2007 @ 11:26AM
Matthew Rossi said...
The danger in moral certainty is always corruption. Some of the most awful men and women who have ever lived believed themselves to be good, moral people who were doing what had to be done. Arthas shines as an example of this in game: he fell when he began to countenance awful crimes in the name of a greater good, not realizing that you can't build a castle on sand, and you can't be good if you're constantly doing evil things, even if it's in the name of good.
Similarly, some of the Draenei freak me out a little. Even Velen is obviously getting a hard edge to him: his "Wipe them out" comment in the early starter zone quests is creepy.
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8-07-2007 @ 11:28AM
Skrilla said...
Blizz has already said that you do not have to get rid of any of your characters, plus anybody can make one. You may need to sacrifice a Paladin in the quest chain, but not yours.
I will never sacrifice my Paladin!
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8-07-2007 @ 11:34AM
Angael said...
I predict the Paladin vs Death Knight feud will be worst than the Alliance vs Horde Paladin feud. Since many "dps" wannabe Paladins may end up rolling a Death Knight as their main. It will certainly dramalicious.
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8-07-2007 @ 11:37AM
Sylythn said...
Where is this assumption coming from that the Death Knight is solely the Hero Class of the Paladin? I've had several people come to me with this idea that it'll only be available to Warriors and Paladins, or that it's the Paladin's Hero Class, and yet in all the info you guys reported on at Blizzcon, I saw nothing that suggested these limitations at all. It seemed that you'd be able to take ANY character to 80 and do the quest and then unlock a totally NEW class to play. Am I missing something here?
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8-07-2007 @ 11:41AM
E said...
I don't get too wrapped up lore when it conflicts with game mechanics. if it's Lore v. Game and something's got to give, Lore loses.
That said, I think Blizz is making a mistake here. I don't see how a Death Knight should ever be Alliance. Which means Alliance should have it's own hero class.
This is a mistake born of expedience ("Got to get it out before Warhammer!") and balance ("Both sides must be equal").
Yes, I am a Horde Shaman. And yes I feel that Paladins should have stayed Alliance-side and Shamans should have stayed Horde-side.
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8-07-2007 @ 11:49AM
Chadwick said...
@6 That is correct. Any class can do the quest that unlocks access to the Death Knight. They are still unsure what level and gear it will have, but you will have something similar/appropriate for the level.
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8-07-2007 @ 11:50AM
Chadwick said...
@7 /agree
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8-07-2007 @ 11:59AM
Markymark said...
@ 7. Your reasoning makes no sense seing how arthas was corrupted. The alliance aren't all that goody-good. On the surface it seems like that but many alliance figures have evil plots dwelling. when it comes to plaladins on the horde side and shamans on the alliance side it only makes sense seeing as orcs and the dranei lived on the same planet. as for Blood Elfs them capturing a naaru and using it to gain powers of the light fits perfectly due to their addiction to magic...they will go any lengths to gain magic.
I'm pretty sure Death Knight will fit in to both alliance and horde. I'm also pretty sure more hero classes will come. WOTLK won't be out for another year or so you guys have plety of time to quest and do what ya need to do.
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8-07-2007 @ 12:05PM
Urthona said...
@10
Night Elves live on Azeroth, as do Trolls and Tauren. Yet they do not practice Shamanism. Yet furbolgs, who live ALL OVER Teldrassil are frequent totem-droppers.
I want my Nelf Shammy. I'll let you have Undead Blood Knights. Cool?
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8-07-2007 @ 12:07PM
Don said...
Is this just a way to have another tank available to everyone with a maxed class toon without leveling a warrior or feral druid?
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8-07-2007 @ 12:13PM
DarkStar said...
NERF DK, Buff Ret..
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8-07-2007 @ 12:14PM
Sindral said...
I guess it's not too far fetched that the life-giving pally's ultimate achievement would be control over death. Think about it, if humans ever found out the secrets of life and were able to totally master it, what do you think it would ultimately be used for?
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8-07-2007 @ 12:22PM
William said...
Just so you know, in Warcraft III Death Knights are corrupted Paladins who succumbed to darkness. http://www.wowwiki.com/Death_Knight
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8-07-2007 @ 12:28PM
Shotgunbadger said...
Metzen is a hack, he'll give some crappy answer and expect to be praised like a brilliant mind.
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8-07-2007 @ 12:30PM
Rudi said...
From what I've read you will be able to have Gnome Death Knights. Since Gnomes don't/can't/won't use the Light I find it hard to reason that a Gnome Death Knight is a corrupted Gnome Paladin.
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8-07-2007 @ 12:36PM
Theadrick said...
Kind of off-topic, but for some reason the death knight in the drawing looks more like an evil clown to me.
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8-07-2007 @ 12:37PM
Erica Olson said...
Luke, I am your father.
Does it really matter about lore? It's a game and many of us don't know the lore from a hole in the ground (and we don't care). We just want to have fun.
One more class added that people will QQ about it being too good, too nerfed, too hard to achieve, too whatever. Then Blizz will fiddle with it and more people will QQ about that saying they wasted their time getting the Death Knight and then it was nerfed.
They should have Horde-only classes and Alliance-only classes. Otherwise where's the difference. Same stuff, just different scenery for a little while.
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8-07-2007 @ 1:08PM
g8rCody said...
since Blizz will no doubt be releasing other Hero classes somewhere in the future, they should make it so that each account can only have 1 type of Hero class per server. that way, we won't have a million DKs running around, if people have to choose which Hero class they want to have on their server.
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