They may be slower than all the fan sites to release info, but when they do put up pages, my do they make them pretty. Blizzard has updated their official
Wrath of the Lich King page with some
more information on the Death Knight class, including discussion of their class role and some sketches of their capabilities. This is nothing we haven't already seen, from that time
a week or so ago when every site except us got invited to Blizzard HQ a few weeks back, but if you missed that, here's the highlights:
- All you need to be able to create a DK is to have a character of level 55. This allows you to create one DK per realm, on any realm(s) you choose. If you're on a PvP realm, the DK must be the same faction that you're already playing.
- DKs start at level 55, and can be made in any race you want (subject to PvP realm faction restrictions).
- The DK can tank for 5-mans and raids; Blizz claims that "his or her damage output while tanking will be respectable."
- DKs can also spec for DPS, using both melee and magic.
- Like every other class, they have three talent trees. Each tree has an associated presence -- presences are like auras that only affect the DK; they give a buff, and you can only have one on at a time, but they don't limit ability choice like warrior stances.
- Blood: the DPS tree. Blood Presence increases DPS by a percentage.
- Frost: the tanking tree. Frost Presence increases threat and raises damage mitigation by a percentage.
- Unholy: the grab-bag/PvP tree. Covers diseases and summons, like the DK's ability to raise ghouls. Unholy Presence increases attack speed and, allegedly, lowers GCD.
- The DK runs on a unique ability system. He has six runes that he can inscribe into his weapon, in any chosen combination of Blood, Frost, and Unholy. Many abilities have a rune cost, which deactives the given runes. They refresh after a cooldown period.
- Using runes builds Runic Power, which is similar to a warrior's rage, and decays over time. Many abilities draw on Runic Power to function, or are enhanced by the amount of Runic Power available.
- The DK can summon various creatures. Ghouls can be raised from the corpses of mobs and players, and if you make a friendly player into a ghoul, that player can choose to control the ghoul and use its skills. The DK can also raise an Army of the Dead, which sounds like a swarm of weak, uncontrollable creatures. Finally, DKs come with the ability to summon a regular-speed deathcharger, with a quest for the epic version available later.
The only information there that I don't remember from before is that Unholy Presence lowers the GCD, and that the summoned mount is a deathcharger. Hopefully, it looks something like
the deathcharger, or else many frustrated DKs are going to be running Strat a lot. Also, although we've seen the armor set pictured on leak sites, this is the first official confirmation we have of it. I like the style, no question about it, even if he does look like a walrus man.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
5-20-2008 @ 6:38PM
Bison said...
Always looking foward to new death knight updates, keep it coming! Their mounts are gonna look amazing.
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5-20-2008 @ 11:58PM
C.A. said...
Be sure to click on the icon under "Summoned Creatures" for a little easter egg!
5-20-2008 @ 6:40PM
Saelorn said...
They didn't mention anything about tradeskills, and I don't know whether that's because they haven't decided or they just don't want us to know yet.
I'm still of the opinion that death knights won't have access to mining/engineering/enchanting etc, but I can see them starting out at 225 since they're limited to one per account per realm.
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5-20-2008 @ 6:57PM
Oyy said...
Wish I could just start a DK at level 1 and say screw the 55.
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5-21-2008 @ 8:06PM
Sparx_Shammy said...
Why would you want to start at level one (Unless you want to Twink?)
5-20-2008 @ 10:14PM
PeeWee said...
OMG yes! Holy cow! People keep crying about how boring it is to level an alt, I just find it more awesome every day! I would at least love the *option* to start at 1.
5-20-2008 @ 6:58PM
kr3wman said...
The gear the DK has in the picture is probably the starting gear, right?
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5-21-2008 @ 8:06PM
Sparx_Shammy said...
Guessing Teir 7... to meake them look cooler!
5-20-2008 @ 7:10PM
Urthona said...
If that's the starting gear, I'm keeping it forever.
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5-20-2008 @ 8:04PM
Scottyy said...
*drools* Starting gear is so....evil-y looking
5-20-2008 @ 7:21PM
Kiros said...
Awesome, keep the news coming on DeathKnights.
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5-20-2008 @ 7:23PM
Verified Insanity said...
Heh, I was about to email you guys asking what was taking so long to get this up =P
Good article though, glad to see more confirmed info!
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5-20-2008 @ 7:37PM
Nathan said...
One thing about Death Knights that I haven't seen, and I think people are misunderstanding. Is that the Death Knight isn't like any other class. It may be able to Tank and DPS, but the level 55 requirement is deliberate.
For some, I may be stating the obvious here, but it seems to me as though the Death Knight class is intended to be quite a difficult class to play. That it requires a lot of thought and multi-tasking to master. That, being a "hero"-class, it is not going to be easy, or use any existing systems that are currently in place.
I mean, the runes and runic power system seems like before every fight you need to plan what you will do, much like re-speccing your talent tree, and then on top of this, you need to use your abilities wisely not to use up the wrong runes at the wrong time, and then use the right runes when you have the right amount of runic power.
Given that some single abilities will require runes from more than one tree, makes that ability quite complex. Add to this, that runes have a longer cooldown until they are refreshed, means that the usage of abilities cannot be spammed "willy-nilly".
All of the Death Knight stuff so far, point to a class that requires more skill, coordination and thought than any other current class. That you will not be able to create a death knight and start whooping ass.
Anyways, I've waffled on for too long, and for most i have probably stated the obvious. But for many I think they are taking for granted how incredibly complex this class will be.
I predict an overwhelming surge of people creating DKs on launch, with only the most dedicated keeping them past level 60.
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5-20-2008 @ 8:33PM
jbodar said...
You make some good points. I can only imagine the craziness that's going to happen in EPL on PvP servers, as starting DK's try to learn how to massacre each other, while 70s arrive to grief them. *shudder*
5-20-2008 @ 9:26PM
G said...
I hope so. I'm tired of running into dummies who roll warriors because they "kick-ass" and then I have to explain what taunting is after our priest dies and I shift out of cat form to battle-rez, then tank the rest of the fight (and often, the rest of the run, with the "kick-ass" warrior doing half-ass DPS).
5-20-2008 @ 9:36PM
Timothy W said...
I like the idea of what your saying, however, here's my problem with how Deathknights are supposed to work... Say I have a level 70 DK on Deathwing *I don't play there.* And then one day Blizzard opens a new server, let's call it Deathmarch. So, knowing how hard it is to start on a new server, I roll a DK, and immediately, I'm ahead of everyone else on the realm with a less experienced gameplay. That's instead of rolling a hunter, taking tailoring, making bags and money to be able to support your other characters. Immediately, you can begin farming higher level content right from the outset. You know what you need to do, and you can even run most instances that a low level character will be able to use items from. At level 55, I can run Gnomeregan easily with my hunter. How much better could I with a DK?
5-20-2008 @ 8:30PM
dogmaticdiscordian said...
One thing I want to know is if it will be possible to do 5-mans with 5 Death Knights? Because it seems to me that every man and his dog is going to have one.
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5-20-2008 @ 8:35PM
Eliah Hecht said...
Nope: DKs can't heal (well, they can heal their summoned minions with Death Coil, but not beyond that, that I know of).
5-21-2008 @ 10:44AM
Doffencrag said...
Scary... lvl 55 Death Knights farming low-level instances and zones for linen to level up their First Aid...
5-20-2008 @ 8:33PM
Baluki said...
"presences are like auras that only affect the DK"
More like Stances if they're permanent, or Seals if they're not.
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