Morningmare
09-16-2007, 07:30
First of all, let's clarify what the most recent information regarding death knights has been:
They are slated to be available to 'Everyone with a level 60-70' relatively easily, as stated by Tigole in his Leipzig interview video.
They are slated to start around level 50-58, as repeatedly stated in almost every post I've seen. "Over 50, under Outlands."
This presents an enormous problem- it greatly imbalances the choice of a new character. Let's not lie to ourselves, playing 1 class gets boring and people change. I've played a shaman, druid, 4 hunters, mage, priest and warrior to max level and played them as "my main." Everyone I know has multiple characters they play, and almost everyone has a past of 5~ max level characters they've "mained." The assertion that alts "Aren't a problem" is invalidated by the fact that alts become mains all the time. Look at the choice the current setup presents:
I can roll one of the classes I've no doubt leveled to 70 already if I wanted to, that have been in the game for 3 years
or
I can roll a death knight, for relatively no work and have 50 less levels of work to do
Anyone who thinks that isn't going to present a class balance problem has a grossly optimistic vision of what will happen. Remember rogue populations during the first year? When you had a UBRS group of 5 rogues, a tank, 2 healers and 2 other classes? Literally 50% of my server at the time (Arthas) was rogues, and the only rogues I knew that raided were either guild officers/leaders or their close friends. Everyone else was left out in the cold. And thus, rogue became a pvp alt class, raid on your main, pvp on your rogue, this still exists today to a certain extent, rogues still talk as if they don't expect to get into guilds because rogues are 'dime a dozen.'
Such effects are relatively easy to spot beforehand, and their effects are indisputable. Rogues during the early game leveled faster than the other classes, they did a ton of damage, looked cool and could avoid fights when wanted. This led to them being highly desirable to roll, and they overwhelmed the servers like fat guys on a pizza.
This is going to happen with death knights unless something major changes. The incentive to play a death knight is FAR too high, with nearly no work you save 50 levels of leveling and get to experience a new playstyle. Everyone is going to be all over that.
We do hope a lot of people try out the class, it should be a lot of fun. But we also know that people have their preferred style of play so we don't expect everybody to drop their current character(s) and play the Death Knight exclusively.
Side-stepping the issue. The issue isn't people who like their main characters quitting them and rerolling death knights, the issue is people who already don't like their characters and want to reroll will ALL reroll death knights. This is especially a problem during an expansion, because this is the most likely time for people to try something new. "All my gear is getting replaced by greens anyway, if I'm gonna change classes now is the time."
This is a simple issue of balance. The problem here is that you're promising higher than 1 level death knights, but not promising that it will take extra work to unlock them. Quite simply, if they are going to skip 50 levels of leveling, that work needs to be put before death knights get unlocked.
There are several sensible options-
1) Require a level 80 quest chain be completed before death knights are unlocked. This was the original plan, but it comes equipped with many problems-
a- People having to play a character they don't want to start the character they do
b- Rushing to 80 and skipping content to unlock DK
c- All the problems of having a DK start higher than level 1 (Problems with flight paths, gear, talents, class knowledge, mount, etc)
2) Allow everyone at level 60-70 to start a death knight, giving it an 'epic' feel due to having to know the game before you roll it, but start the death knight at level 1. The problems are much less taxing-
a- People cry about leveling 1-58.
You have to do that for any other alt, so it's balanced
The leveling 1-58 is being made easier for all classes, so it's easier AND balanced
b- Changing your mind about saying they'd start higher than level 1
c- I'd say lore, but the lore is easy, and makes tons more sense than space cows and blood elf paladins (You break away from the lich king, rejecting his powers, becoming weak and having to re-learn your arts)
And then there's a completely non-workable option, allowing everyone at 60-70 to have a 50-60 DK for free. Every alt will be a dk, every reroll will be a dk, their populations will surge like crazy and anyone who really wants to play the class gets screwed by no group/raid/arena spots. Except guild leaders and close friends of guild leaders. Like first-year rogues.
They are slated to be available to 'Everyone with a level 60-70' relatively easily, as stated by Tigole in his Leipzig interview video.
They are slated to start around level 50-58, as repeatedly stated in almost every post I've seen. "Over 50, under Outlands."
This presents an enormous problem- it greatly imbalances the choice of a new character. Let's not lie to ourselves, playing 1 class gets boring and people change. I've played a shaman, druid, 4 hunters, mage, priest and warrior to max level and played them as "my main." Everyone I know has multiple characters they play, and almost everyone has a past of 5~ max level characters they've "mained." The assertion that alts "Aren't a problem" is invalidated by the fact that alts become mains all the time. Look at the choice the current setup presents:
I can roll one of the classes I've no doubt leveled to 70 already if I wanted to, that have been in the game for 3 years
or
I can roll a death knight, for relatively no work and have 50 less levels of work to do
Anyone who thinks that isn't going to present a class balance problem has a grossly optimistic vision of what will happen. Remember rogue populations during the first year? When you had a UBRS group of 5 rogues, a tank, 2 healers and 2 other classes? Literally 50% of my server at the time (Arthas) was rogues, and the only rogues I knew that raided were either guild officers/leaders or their close friends. Everyone else was left out in the cold. And thus, rogue became a pvp alt class, raid on your main, pvp on your rogue, this still exists today to a certain extent, rogues still talk as if they don't expect to get into guilds because rogues are 'dime a dozen.'
Such effects are relatively easy to spot beforehand, and their effects are indisputable. Rogues during the early game leveled faster than the other classes, they did a ton of damage, looked cool and could avoid fights when wanted. This led to them being highly desirable to roll, and they overwhelmed the servers like fat guys on a pizza.
This is going to happen with death knights unless something major changes. The incentive to play a death knight is FAR too high, with nearly no work you save 50 levels of leveling and get to experience a new playstyle. Everyone is going to be all over that.
We do hope a lot of people try out the class, it should be a lot of fun. But we also know that people have their preferred style of play so we don't expect everybody to drop their current character(s) and play the Death Knight exclusively.
Side-stepping the issue. The issue isn't people who like their main characters quitting them and rerolling death knights, the issue is people who already don't like their characters and want to reroll will ALL reroll death knights. This is especially a problem during an expansion, because this is the most likely time for people to try something new. "All my gear is getting replaced by greens anyway, if I'm gonna change classes now is the time."
This is a simple issue of balance. The problem here is that you're promising higher than 1 level death knights, but not promising that it will take extra work to unlock them. Quite simply, if they are going to skip 50 levels of leveling, that work needs to be put before death knights get unlocked.
There are several sensible options-
1) Require a level 80 quest chain be completed before death knights are unlocked. This was the original plan, but it comes equipped with many problems-
a- People having to play a character they don't want to start the character they do
b- Rushing to 80 and skipping content to unlock DK
c- All the problems of having a DK start higher than level 1 (Problems with flight paths, gear, talents, class knowledge, mount, etc)
2) Allow everyone at level 60-70 to start a death knight, giving it an 'epic' feel due to having to know the game before you roll it, but start the death knight at level 1. The problems are much less taxing-
a- People cry about leveling 1-58.
You have to do that for any other alt, so it's balanced
The leveling 1-58 is being made easier for all classes, so it's easier AND balanced
b- Changing your mind about saying they'd start higher than level 1
c- I'd say lore, but the lore is easy, and makes tons more sense than space cows and blood elf paladins (You break away from the lich king, rejecting his powers, becoming weak and having to re-learn your arts)
And then there's a completely non-workable option, allowing everyone at 60-70 to have a 50-60 DK for free. Every alt will be a dk, every reroll will be a dk, their populations will surge like crazy and anyone who really wants to play the class gets screwed by no group/raid/arena spots. Except guild leaders and close friends of guild leaders. Like first-year rogues.