Sorry to update so long after my last post, but after the beta client finished downloading I had to download about 5 patches with some of them being in the 500 MB range. Anyway, I did finally get a chance to play and I dove right into the new Death Knight class. I was contemplating how Blizzard would handle the creation of a new Death Knight because they start at level 55. I had many questions about equipment, talents, and professions. I was pleasantly surprised by how Blizzard handle it.
New starting zone
Upon creation of your Death Knight you enter an all new zone filled with Death Knight specific quests. You initial start out with 0 talent points. However, each Death Knight specific quest that you complete will award you experience points, gold, a (useful) blue item, and 1 or more bonus talent points. The quests take you from 55 to level 58 and are actually quite fun. I’m glad Blizzard did this set of introductory quests because I was dreading trudging through old content to level up my new Death Knight. You also start with a high level of first aid which is very cool.
New Quest types
There are two quests in the new zone that really caught my eye. In one of them, you sneak aboard a ship in the harbor and then control the cannons on the ship and turn them against the Argent Dawn. In the other quest Arthas has you climb aboard a Frost Wyrm and slaughter Argent Dawn troops. This was similar to a bombing quest except you completely control the dragon and have to dodge flaming arrows from archers and ballistas on the ground.
Interface changes
One of the biggest interface changes I noticed is the addition of a calendar right next to the mini-map. It shows all the upcoming Blizzard events and I would imagine it would be integrated with your guild although I haven’t been able to confirm this since I don’t have a guild in the beta. The options menu has been completely revamped as well, which I think is a great improvement. I also noticed an additional panel called glyphs that is attached to the spell book, but I’m not sure what that is about yet.
Death Knight
In PvE the Death Knight feels very over powered to me. I haven’t been involved in any PvP yet, but in nearly all my PvE encounters I end the battle with full health and slaughter pretty much everything I come across. It is nice not having to worry about mana or rage. Play style feels a little bit like a warrior or pally. However, unlike a warrior who starts out with zero rage you have your runes to start so you can frontload quite a bit of damage.
I choose to go down the blood talent tree as it seemed to be the best for PvE leveling. It seems pretty good so far, but I haven’t played enough with it to know for sure. I also haven’t done any analyitics on talents or skill rotations to see what kind of DPS the DK is really putting out.
I’ll be sure to post more updates as I get some more play time in. I didn’t get much time to play last night because a new 600+ MB patch was released that took quite a while to download and then install.
I checked out the Talents and it doesn’t seem like a race I’d be interested in but I’m still gonna make one ^_^ So is the Death Knight both a race and class? Or can other races become DKs?