It was inevitable. When Wrath of the Lich King arrived it came along with a shiny new toy that almost everyone wanted to try. For a period of time following the release it was difficult to take five steps in WoW without tripping over a Death Knight.
Now that a few months have passed, the novelty should have worn off, right? Alas, this does not seem to be the case. Whilst the number of Death Knights being created is undeniably far less these days, simply doing a “/who” command in any level 58+ area will most likely return a list of characters consisting mostly of them. This is especially noticeable in The Burning Crusade zones.
Whilst some may certainly find this annoying, does it actually have any effect on the game?
World of Warcraft is the type of game that is created with both soloing and group play in mind. The abundance of Death Knights logically does not affect soloing very much, but grouping, which is often difficult in itself, seems to have taken yet another knock that it has failed to recover from.
Where previously a sheer lack of players of the same level as you was the problem, this problem is now compounded by the fact that most similarly level characters are Death Knights. Filling the required roles in a group can prove to be quite the task indeed.
What about PvP, though? Here, too, Death Knights have made their presence known. It’s a common sight seeing Battleground class lists topped by them these days. Whilst that may not necessarily be game-breaking, it certainly doesn’t go down well with classes that are underpowered compared to the Death Knight.
Of course, Blizzard always has and will continue to balance the game to the best of their ability, with some significant balance changes due with Patch 3.2, but that doesn’t do much for those looking for a fair game here and now.
In due course, players will simply have to deal with the fact that despite Death Knights not being new anymore, they haven’t lost their appeal and will continue to be popular for quite some time.
The fact that Death Knights begin at level 55 is a huge incentive to those looking for alts without too much work involved, what with not having to mission through all the pre-The Burning Crusade content and being kitted out rather nicely from the start.
This toy will be the in-thing until a new model arrives, and it’s up to Blizzard to ensure that this isn’t a bad thing.
Discuss the Death Knight in the forums
Loading ...
