WotLK Beta: Death Knight - Reviewing the Class Quests - 2008-11-11 17:11:36
<<< Previous - WotLK Beta: Celebrity Sighting - Siouxsie the Banshee! | Next - 48 Hours and Counting Until Wrath >>>When we last left my reports from the Beta I had this long post from the husband on
the Death Knight quest series. Before I posted about the Death Knight myself I wanted to complete the full quest chain and really give the class a good long try. But then I didn't want to give away all the neat surprises...so here are some glimpses of what to expect. I've been sitting on this for a while because I didn't want to spoil anything - so you shouldn't read further if you want everything to be a complete surprise!
Warning! Major spoilers to follow! (After that "More" link! You can always come back and read this later, you know!)
Here is a glimpse of my gnome
Death Knight. As you've probably heard, you can have any race (both Horde and Alliance) as your Death Knight, as long as you've got a character at level 55 or higher on that server. I'm going with a gnome purely for humor - because there will be way too many people playing this class seriously. And because I like the idea of a
creepy gnome with glowing eyes. (I ended up liking the name
Ghidrah so much that I used it to rename my gnome warrior.)
More details on those character screenshots - on the left you see the Death Knight as I started her, already suited up in
blue/rare level gear. On the right is the Death Knight after completing all the starting zone quests - with even better blue gear and sword (other option was an ax) - all quest rewards. Those quests also gave me extra talent points and several trinkets. In other words, you will want to finish
all the quests. Plus you have to in order to leave the Ebon Hold. (Or at least I think so, but I didn't try very hard - there was too much to do in beta.) The different glows on the weapons in those shots has to do with which rune a Death Knight chooses to use - for more information read this wiki on
Runeforging.
Here's what a Runeforge looks like. Lots of skulls in Ebon Hold decor - which I enjoyed. (Another post on that later.)
Here are some shots of what it looks like to "Emblazon" your Death Knight weapon.
Happily my Death Knight had a full set of bags already equipped and when I finally made it to a gryphon master I found that she also already had all the flight paths. It will be interesting to see if this is true in the expansion. I hope so - these little details saved me a lot of time, and allowed me to dive into the questing right away.
One thing that I decided on when I started the quest series was that I would try not to hurt the innocent - I'd been disturbed by my husband's
report on what his Death Knight had to do. Well, I did end up having to harm obviously innocent civilians, and frankly I didn't enjoy that part of being evil. I also didn't really get punished for it, nor did I ever have to confess or renounce my evil deeds. I'll be interested to see if that changes because I wrote several paragraphs in the beta surveys about this not making much sense. Because after the quest series I really didn't find any motivation within my character's world which explained
why she suddenly joined back to the forces of light and the Alliance. She was just sent there as part of the quest chain - and it seemed very abrupt and unexpected.
Might be interesting if later in the game Death Knights are given a choice as to whether they remain allied with Alliance/Horde or if they go back to the Scourge. Or if the Scourge can mind control them in some way.
That's the summation - here are some details from the Death Knight quest series. I've focused on some examples of the "gritty" types of quests they're angling for here.
Pay attention to this area in the Ebon Hold. Here you'll see other Death Knight initates that are denounced as failures by Instructor Razuvious - they meet an unhappy end. (Which does look cool, in a delightfully gruesome way.) This isn't actually a quest you're active in - it's just something going on around you. (You'll spend some time just looking and listening to things in Ebon Hold - it's full of interesting details.)
For one quest you're sent to deal with an "Unworthy Initiate." This wasn't too hard for me, as I allowed the Initiate to attack me first and then everything seemed like self defense. Don't let this shot fool you - that green hair'd gnome is far from helpless!
Much later in the quest series my Death Knight is told to kill civilians. I was ok fighting the ones who'd run up to attack me - but I had to seek out certain ones that did nothing but stand there and cower. I found this depressing - like I was told to kick puppies or something.
Another really uncomfortable quest for me was one where I had to use these weapons to "persude" someone to give up information. They look like hot
pokers. Perhaps because world events have made me even more aware of the contents of the
Geneva convention - well, let's just say I don't like even the thought of torturing anyone, even if it is "just a game" as someone always says when they feel you're taking things too seriously.
Except my character would say things like this about "ending their suffering" - meaning of course I'd kill them and not continue to torture them. But at least the npcs that I was fighting here actually would fight back - so it seemed a bit more fair than when I was killing civilians.
Though I can say that through these quests Blizzard has really given us an idea of what types of characters become Death Knights, and what's expected of the class as a whole.
Then came a quest where there did seem hope for my character - I was sent to kill off a gnome prisoner.
He didn't attack me, and I really didn't want to kill him. But then, with the speech in that shot above, the quest changed its tone. Suddenly it seemed my Death Knight might have a different destiny.
I won't tell you how this quest ends. And I think what race of character you'll play this scene with depends on your own race.
But PLEASE don't read all that and think "wow, I'll never play this class" - because those quests are the only ones that gave me pause. I think that's intended - I think we're supposed to have some emotional reactions to the content, and think through our actions here. And there is so much
fun to be had in other parts of the quest series that I've actually been telling everyone that they really have to try a Death Knight, if only to see some of the areas like the Ebon Hold.
And of course have a great horse - after you do several quests. I'll have to document those quests after the expansion hits because there's a slightly tricky bit that everyone in the beta was having to discuss in chat and continually help each other to figure out. (The tip "hit 1 on your keyboard" was I think the key, no idea if that'll be true in expansion.) Humorous moment - when I realized I'd actually had the ability to call my horse for some time, but didn't look in the (then) new area for Mounts on my character to be able to summon it.
But here, let me show you one of the more amusing quests - and actually the moment when I said to myself "oh I MUST make a Death Knight in the expansion!" (There are several quests actually, but I'm trying to be light on the major spoilers!)
One quest is given to you by Gothik the Harvester. If you're like me and have never been to
Naxxramus, you won't recognize him - but he's the
second boss in the Miliarty Quarter.
And humorously Gothik starts to give his speech from Naxx - only to realize that nope, this is a Death Knight moment, he has the wrong lines. Meanwhile I have to note that I do love his outfit. Great hat.
I won't tell you exactly how the quest he gives you works - except to say that when I summoned a ghoul and it called me "Mama!" I was hooked. Yes, I did love my little ghoul children.
Here I am with my little family of ghoulettes. They might seem somewhat ...homely looking at first, but trust me, they'll grow on you. (Er, not literally, they're not funguslike.)
However Gothik did not appreciate my ghouls. You'll find out how that quest ends later.
Because you
really need to try a Death Knight and see all this for yourself. Even if you never play the class again - the stories are interesting and the graphics of the spells look wonderful. Despite my troubles with the torture aspect - for the most part I really enjoyed the quests.
In fact, I have more screenshots to share - but that's another post.
Don't miss checking out this area; with
Noth the Plaguebringer and the Plaguehounds.
Come to think of it, that would actually be a great name for band.
So enjoy the Death Knight, and look for signs of dark humor around the place.
Oh and don't call a gnome Death Knight "cupcake." Gets them all riled up.
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