World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

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 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 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 World of Warcraft.

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 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 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."

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 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 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.

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.