BlizzCon: The Death Knight
Basics: The Death Knight Hero Class will not be a new class to be rolled and leveled from Level One. Instead, players reaching level 80 and finishing a “challenging but doable” quest will be able to unlock the Death Knight class at “a higher level between 55 and 70 or so”.
The Death Knight will be a plate wearing, dual wielding or 2h wielding, class with a new magic/melee system allowing it to tank and DPS effectively. Tom Chilton mentions that “they will not wield no wussy shields”. Unlike other tanks or casters there will be no rage or mana required to perform the DKs abilities or skills, instead a system of three runes (Blood, Frost, Unholy) arranged into any combination onto six rune slots.
The DK will need to etch those runes onto a sword outside of combat, spent runes will slowly regenerate in combat however.
Sort of a shame you don’t “convert” your character to being a Death Knight, rather than unlocking creation of a new class, but I can see why they did it.
Roll on more Hero Classes…
I’d rather they fix Paladin and Druid itemizations and Paladin solo and PvP viability before giving us another tanking class. From all acts and appearances, the DK will draw most of the Ret Pallies into its grasp, so I have hope they’ll do something to make Ret more raid friendly.
If I could get a Hero class, Druid of the Claw would be my choice :)