Will adding another tanking class to an existing class lineup will affect the classes that are currently filling tanking spots in group and raids, or will the deathknight be a hybrid?


The existing nine classes can be described as healers, tanks, damage dealers, or a mix of these types, but each one with a unique twist that makes them feel clearly distinct, and sets them apart from one another. Where will the deathknight fit in, or where will its "speacility" be?


When the DeathK will eventually be unlocked by almost everyone, wont the population generally consist of deathknights or will there be some sort of a restriction?

Which level?


Which race?


What about weapons?

I know its too early to answer all of these but can I please have an idea?



Edit: Thanks for a blizz responce, if Tigole or someone can clarify on the population issue id be grateful.

Yeah, I sincerrely prefer that the GM anwser this question to wich they don't know the anwser rather than moderating the forum or anwsering tickets. Thank god.

And in fact, the DK will have his counterclass too, I'd be glad if I would be that class with 90% of the server population in DK.

Deathknights will be somewhere between a warrior and a shaman in terms of their defensive/magical offensive capabilities. A warrior-warlock might not be that far off, although their runes combo system tastes just a little bit like rogue combo points.

The reason there is a shortage of tank/dps classes is because you are expected to tank, and tanks cannot pvp well. Fixing that would absolve the need of a new class.

That answer is for the people who moan and groan about a tank shortage on their server.

Im more interested in the population part of his question

How hard will it be to unlock death knights.

Most players have alts, Everyone would level a DK to the cap since they will start at level 50-60ish

the entire world will be deathknights is sort of my concern

So a warrior is currently a class that can either tank or dps... but the death knight will be able to tank and dps?

Since this class is filling an additional role, I could only assume that it's either going to be unable to tank as well as a warrior (placing it at about the same place as the other hybrid tanks now) or dominate the warrior. I'm curious to see how the development team manages to make it a class that can substitute a warrior in endgame raiding without replacing it entirely.

I predict it'll probably end up as the prime off-tank, much like the dark knight in FFXI was, unless the death knight is given defensive abilities that allow it to shrug off what are the major weaknesses of the warrior class (with some sacrifices of course).

If players unlock the ability to create a DK, will the DK be of a particular pre-decided race, or will the DK take the race of the character that unlocked the ability?

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Q u o t e:
The death knight will be a tank/dps class. Currently there is an under-representation of tank classes, so the decision was made add a tank class to balance the class representation. A great quote that the dev team mentions is that the Death Knight is "epic but equal," meaning the experience is meant to be epic, but the death knight will be the equal of other classes. Otherwise there would be an over-representation of tanks and not enough healers and dps in the world.

I'm sure Kalgan or Tigole would explain that much more eloquently, but I hope that makes it clearer.

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Do you mean shortage of classes capable of being a tank or a shortage of those classes willing to fill the role of tank. There is a huge difference and right now I see shortage of people willing to fill the role but plenty of people capable if not discouraged by the draw backs that go along with it.

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Q u o t e:
The death knight will be a tank/dps class. Currently there is an under-representation of tank classes, so the decision was made add a tank class to balance the class representation. A great quote that the dev team mentions is that the Death Knight is "epic but equal," meaning the experience is meant to be epic, but the death knight will be the equal of other classes. Otherwise there would be an over-representation of tanks and not enough healers and dps in the world.

I'm sure Kalgan or Tigole would explain that much more eloquently, but I hope that makes it clearer.

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The thing is, if you look at the population of classes (I'm sure you have better access to the actual numbers than we do) you'll see there are plenty of paladins, warriors, and to a lesser extent, druids.

The problem with the "tank" shortage is that Arms Warriors are at the top of the PVP food chain, paladins are told to heal so the shadow priests can go DPS, and Resto druids are one of the best PVP healers atm.

If you make any aspect of the Deathknight class more powerful or more fun than their tanking ability, the same thing is going to happen. Focus on making their tanking spec equally viable in PVP and solo grinding or you'll see the same complaints you do now.

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Q u o t e:
The death knight will be a tank/dps class. Currently there is an under-representation of tank classes, so the decision was made add a tank class to balance the class representation. A great quote that the dev team mentions is that the Death Knight is "epic but equal," meaning the experience is meant to be epic, but the death knight will be the equal of other classes. Otherwise there would be an over-representation of tanks and not enough healers and dps in the world.

I'm sure Kalgan or Tigole would explain that much more eloquently, but I hope that makes it clearer.

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How do you make a class epic, worthy of something you'd have to "unlock", and keep it "equal"? Outside of maybe giving them outlandishly flashy animations and spell effects. o_O

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Q u o t e:
If players unlock the ability to create a DK, will the DK be of a particular pre-decided race, or will the DK take the race of the character that unlocked the ability?

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The latest info is that you can choose the race of the Death Knight Character.

As to what classes can be Death Knights?

/shrug

They haven't decided yet.

So the Death Knight isn't really a hero class, just another class that you have to be inconvenienced to play.

Did Blizzard ever sit back and think for a moment that the reason people don't like to tank is because Tanking isn't fun or rewarding? I mean in order to tank, a class must first grind new gear specifically devoted to tanking, and then that gear is absolutely USELESS in every other aspect of the game because tanking serves no purpose in PvP or in a damage scenario. You then make it even worse by making sure almost all talents related to tanking are of absolutely no value in any other aspect of the game.

Of course this whole scenario isn't even worth discussing anymore since you've already divided the game into 2 separate and completely different games.

Decrease rage cost of Shield Reflect and increase its duration by 3 seconds

Let devastate lower Resilience

Add a Prot PvP set with high SBV


Prot warriors can now PvP effectively

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Q u o t e:

The latest info is that you can choose the race of the Death Knight Character.

As to what classes can be Death Knights?

/shrug

They haven't decided yet.

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I think you mean what races. All classes will be able to unlock deathknights.

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Q u o t e:
The death knight will be a tank/dps class. Currently there is an under-representation of tank classes, so the decision was made add a tank class to balance the class representation. A great quote that the dev team mentions is that the Death Knight is "epic but equal," meaning the experience is meant to be epic, but the death knight will be the equal of other classes. Otherwise there would be an over-representation of tanks and not enough healers and dps in the world.

I'm sure Kalgan or Tigole would explain that much more eloquently, but I hope that makes it clearer.

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there already is a shortage of healers, and I suspect that much of the reason is respec costs