Death Knight = Uber-Retribution PaladinFollow

Oh also I wouldnt be surprised if they gave DKs the Skeleton summon effect that they had in WC3... sexy. Useless but sexy.

Oh hey I didnt even realize that's what he was doing until now XD

I think the OP is forgetting that versatility is one of the main points of any Hybrid. Yes, Death Knights will be quite close to the "Retribution Paladin" in that they wear plate and hit things painfully. Of course, that's like an Arms Warrior.
Oh, and they may or may not have a tree they can respec to with a more tanky weapon loadout. Like an Arms Warrior going Protection.
Also, they'll use a unique type of power to cast their attacks, different from Mana and Energy, being Runes. Like an Arms Warrior having Rage.
The only feasible argument to stay as a Retribution Paladin over an Arms Warrior is that if you wanted to be able to heal in a pinch or respec Holy you can. A bit like holding off from rerolling a Death Knight so you can still heal.

If a teensy little bit of the OP's point were true, that versatility is completely irrelevant, there would be no users of the Druid's class. Or the Shaman's. Indeed, all the Paladins would also have already ran off to make Holy Priests or Arms Warriors.

EDIT: another, major point has just become apparent in your post. What the duece do you intend to replace the Retribution tree with?!

Edited, Dec 31st 2007 7:06pm by ecirphsoj

>Auradin casts Aura of Uselessness(Rank 4)

Assuming they didn't change the entire structure of how auras work (namely, that each player is limited to one per pala- I mean "auradin") then the "auradin" you speak of would be nothing more than a badly spec'd version of some other form of well-established paladin. Unless the aura tree somehow made auras so much better than their non-auradin counterparts that you wanted to waste a raid slot on someone who had little purpose other than range-based auras...

I'm guessing most people would still spec Holy in that case, and go with standard auras + improved healing.


And a late lolol at the OP first posting some retardarion with overstatements and generalizations...only to try to sound smart and intentional with his 2nd post later. Welcome to the boards...you'll get eaten alive for that everytime. Most likely by the folks above who have already done so ;) If you have a point to make, try making it yourself...not stating something absurd then asking others to do the thinking.

We don't know what Bliz is going to do for DK tanking, we're just going to have to wait and see. The trees, like I said, are (most likely) going to be a spell damage tree, a tanking tree, and a melee DPS tree. They are probably just going to name the trees blood frost and unholy for the runes that are going to be associated with that tree. Blood for melee, frost for tanking and unholy for spell damage. (Blood and unholy might be switched, but I read somewhere that frost runes would probably be protection-based).

Someone mentioned Diablo 2...
Hypothetically speaking, could the lack of a sheild in tanking be compensated by something like the assassin's ability to block using their weapons? (assasins used to dual weild and block with their katanas or whatever)

The only thing I've seen so far in reference to Defense mechanics is they were looking to see if they can change how crushing blows work, probably nerfing them in some way shape or form.

As always, we'll just have to wait and see.

On a similar note, why can't they just take a page out of Nintendo's playbook and release some new information about the patch every day. Doesn't have to be big, but a little thing here or there. FEED MY CURIOSITY!

They know somethings. Sure they might be flip-flopping on some issues, but they have to know SOMEthing by now. At least way more than what they've presented us with.

Well just my experience with WC3/FT and other MMOs which all already have 'evil' Knights.

The funny thing is that so far in WOW, they have borrowed actually abilities MORE from older, rounded out MMOs than from their own WC3 (just look at how many skills have been moved around, forgotten, and made up) and have stuck to their WC3 roots more for Lore.

Death Knight seems to have already lent most of it's abilities to other classes, in one form or another, excluding of course the Animate Dead ability which is totally badass.

WC3's Death Coil ability does have the ability to heal undead, but it is quite simply a reverse "Holy Light" that the Paladin had, which now doesn't even do what the WC3 version did. And since Death Coil is already a Warlock Spell (and an important one at that), I doubt they'll be porting this over.

His Death Pact may actually be used just on his own Skeletons, as the ability is not portable from RTS (where it was a very good idea) to MMO (where it makes no sense.)

He does have an Aura, though. I'm curious to see where that goes, because this may be one way they bring out his 'DPS' side and his ability to change roles (much like Paladin.)

now that im more in the D2 mind set, i actaully remembered something about this.

that um . . talent if you will. was called parry, there was no parry component in D2 so they called it parry and gave it block mechanics.

WoW has both and they will more then likely buff DK parry to facilitate tanking. again to compensate for lost of block, much like they buffed Druids dodge to help with the loss of block, and i think they dont have parry either.

ok - so Death Knights are goign to be unlocked at level 55?
I thought it was going to be level 80 after you do a series of quests?

Cause they way it was explained to me that you hit level 80. Do a series of group quests. Unlock the Death Knight and start @ level 60 so you can go to Outlands.

and this was going to be the same for all the heroics classes they will be coming out with.

and i hope they have the unholy Aura like Baron has in Strat - would be some good aggro holding abilities.

Edited, Jan 8th 2008 1:33pm by MPDO

That was Blizzard's original announced plan. They later said during a press conferance or what have you that they were going in a different direction. Instead of requiring the player to level to 80 and complete a quest to unlock the Death Knight, they felt it would be more compelling to simply allow a Death Knight to be unlocked when you reach level 55, and then have you play through quests as your new Death Knight to immerse you in the new lore.

EDIT: That was last I heard, anyways. Unless they have changed it a third time or more, which I have not been aware of, then that is how it will stand.

Edited, Jan 10th 2008 3:37am by Gaudion

50's good. it forces people to look at at least some of the original content which is now largely ignored. allegedly.

and i am interested to see how the new class will work...might even bring me back into this world....maybe.