The Lich King Hero Classes That Might Have Been

Mike Fahey — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:40:00 MST

In the latest episode of Blizzard's Blizzcast, World of Warcraft lead game designer, Jeffrey Kaplan reveals that the Death Knight was one of three out of twenty-nine hero classes considered for the recent expansion.

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack flooded the World of Warcraft serves with Death Knights, but it might not have wound up that way had one of the other two hero classes that made the final cut had been chosen.

"We were talking for a while about a Necromancer. He would kind of be a range caster, do a lot of corpse explode, that sort of thing. Things we ended up incorporating into the Death Knight.
"We also had a cool idea for a Rune Master. That was going to be more of a melee type - think rogue or monk type character. But Death Knight ultimately fit."

While I would have personally killed someone with my bare hands for a monk class in World of Warcraft, I think they ultimately made a wise choice, even if no one knows how to play a Death Knight yet.

Blizzcast Episode 7 [Blizzard via Eurogamer]
image link

Blizzard Dishes On The Death Knight

Mike Fahey — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:20:24 MDT

Blizzard drops some Death Knight details in a Q&A with the design team for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The Q&A explores the role the new class plays in game lore as well as your adventuring party. The player character Death Knights have rebelled against Arthas, joining the Horde (yay!) or Alliance (boo!) to help take down the vile Lich King. Rather than being powered by rage or mana, the Knights will use a completely new Rune System to power their offensive magic and abilities. Unable to use shields, they'll rely on magic to help them mitigate damage and generate threat, culminating in what Blizzard hopes will be another fun tanking class that will make Warriors feel even more useless than they already do.

Death Knight Interview [World of Warcraft]

Kotaku: death knight

The Lich King Hero Classes That Might Have Been

Blizzard Dishes On The Death Knight