Slaughtering innocent civilians seems like the perfect way to start a
Thursday morning. My newly created Troll Death Knight stood ominously
overlooking a not-so-peaceful town that had been inhabited by the
Scarlet Crusade, and it was my duty to go into this village and
massacre the people within its confines. Like a kid, an ant hill, and href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz2i03sShIU&feature=related"
target="_blank">a magnifying glass, my character
held his newly runeforged sword in his hands, and devastation was set
to ensue. I took a deep breath and prepared to smell blood in the air.

    

For many players, the beginning experiences in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/27065" target="_blank">World
of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will drive gamers down
this gruesome storyline. Whether it's a disheartening attitude with the
construction of the previous classes or a general urge to play
something new, thousands - if not millions - of players from around the
world jumped onto their WoW servers on Thursday to roll up the one new
hero class that has been  introduced to href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow" target="_blank">World
of Warcraft.

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My Troll
Death Knight is a man (troll?) to be reckoned with.

And if there's anything that Blizzard got right with this expansion
pack, the Death Knight is one of the top things on that list. From the
very outset, players are tossed into the role of an href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PA9TmBtcXM"
target="_blank">armored killing machine, and the
Lich King provides a striking figure to serve as an initial role model.
Rather than being forced to see players in rags and sackcloth for
dozens of levels, the Blizzard developers graciously opted to put
players at level fifty-five and created a starting scenario that would
not only feed them a cohesive and well thought out storyline, but would
also see the players gaining three levels, an elite mount and gobs of
starting talent points.



Whether crafted with the casual player in mind or not, the Death Knight
introduction is incredibly easy, and it should be that way. Rather than
forcing players to kill monsters over and over again to finally grind
to the desired NPC, most of the mobs in the zone seem grossly
underpowered compared to the Death Knight. The feeling of power in
these areas is almost overwhelming, especially when the villagers run
away, screaming like you were href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3mHxG4nn-w&feature=related"
target="_blank">Godzilla about to raze their city.
On top of that, the Blizzard developers provided an "insta-rez" for
players every ten minutes that they are online. With the time limit set
for auto-releasing at six minutes, a player should be able to go the
entire Death Knight mini-campaign without having to make an obnoxious
"corpse run."

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The Death
Knight takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

While most players are more than familiar with the initial areas for
the Death Knight, few publications have provided players with their
thoughts on the class outside of the initial starting zone. Thankfully,
the "feel" of the class does not diminish as players move out of the
Lich King starting area and into Outland where they will be doing the
first half of their leveling experience (with the second half occurring
in Northrend). As a "Blood" specced Death Knight, my Troll seemed
almost impossible to kill. Like an href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD_82kvQLkA"
target="_blank">army of undead zombies trying to attack
Bruce Campbell, I mowed into my enemies one after the other,
and only fell to my opponents in the very early going in my Death
Knight career.



Whatever specialization you choose for your Death Knight, it's
imperative that you find a way to use the "healing" abilities that are
integral to the Death Knight. In my Trollish arsenal, I use Death
Strike (an ability that is included in early leveling) and Rune Tap
(received through the Blood talents) with great regularity, and they
each provide me with substantial amounts of hit points. Who needs
health potions when I can heal myself for 25-50 percent a pop? Death
Knights that are played correctly are like href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxafIhYFOr0"
target="_blank">the Energizer Bunny, they just
keep going and going and going.



That said, there are a bevy of ways to play a Death Knight, and many of
them go beyond the three talent trees. While players can certainly do
well specializing in one tree or another, mixing and matching the
talents - especially into the 70s - is recommended for players that
want to min-max. Again, arguments about these techniques are raging
across the Internet, so do some quick research on your desired option
before taking the plunge into your talents.

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A whole
squad of Death Knights.

Unfortunately, the one downside to the Death Knight is the fact that
you'll be running through the majority of the Ouland areas that you ran
through the first time in order to achieve the appropriate level to
even earn the Death Knight. While Zangarmarsh and Nagrand may be
appealing places, most of the Death Knights have already seen these
zones for countless hours. Although some zones have received a few new
quests, the vast majority of your time will be trying to complete the
same quests. Another important observation is that reports have been
circulating that the final quest (and perhaps the most climatic of the
Death Knight experience) is bugged for some users, and they never get
to see the epic encounter between Arthas the Lich King and the forces
of the Scarlet Crusade. Though this experience would be truly
disheartening, I personally didn't have it occur to me, and it
shouldn't tarnish the entire experience for future Death Knights.



To be honest, few classes have really been as entertaining as what I
experienced with the initial levels of the Death Knight. Even when I
was in Outland and simply grinding through old quests, I loved the
look, feel, and way my Death Knight played. Compared to my mage, the
Death Knight seemed like a hulking mass of epic muscle and power.
Although it's a part of his name, death is a rare occurrence for my
troll and if this sense of power continues without unbalances the game
in later levels, I can't help but think that Blizzard created the
perfect fit for their first "hero" class.