WoW dicusses the Death Knight

June 25, 3:59 PMOklahoma City MMORPG ExaminerPamela Blalock

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Visit the Death Knight's class page at the official site

In the next set of the World of Warcraft Q and A series, Ghostcrawler answers a few questions about the only hero class; the Death Knight.

The interview opens with how the DK is played in terms of its rune system and the skill required,

I think it’s fair to say that the class requires a good amount of skill to play really well. Between Death Runes and all the various cooldowns, there are a lot of opportunities to play less optimally and push the wrong button. We’ve asked ourselves several times if the death knight is overly complicated -- perhaps you could accomplish 90% of the design with a 3 rune system instead of a 6 rune system -- but we aren’t changing it to that large a degree soon.

Like the other Q and As, we're told of DKs are unique which is also attributed to runes.  They're also unique because they do exceptional melee damage with "better ranged damage than most melee classes."  They have a pet, interrupts, snares, they're a hero class that starts at 55.  Nothing surprising there.

Individual abilities are discussed in great length including talents.  The Frigid Deadplate talent isn't likely to be buffed since its placement in the talent tree is intentional and "avoidance is likely too high on all tanking classes."  One extremely unique ability to the DK is the runeforge enchanting.  When asked if a more convenient place to enchant would be available this was said, "Considering the huge benefits that the runeforge enchants already offer the death knight, it’s hard to argue that they need to be even more convenient."

Another special thing about DKs is their ability to heal.  Ghostcrawler has this to say on any changes to their healing ability,

The healing is one of the core mechanics of the class, and one of the things that helps them feel distinct from warriors. It’s the reason there is a Blood tree and Blood Runes. We have no immediate plans to change anything here.

The full Q and A has a lot more there about other talents like Will of the Necropolis and Dancing Rune Weapon.  Items for DKs will stay either mainly for tanking or damage even thought DKs have a lot of utilities.  DKs are a part of an MMORPG and that means they're constantly going to be tweaked and balanced like everything else.  This Q and A gives you an idea of where DKs are headed at the moment.