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Death Knight will be fixed in WoW Patch 3.2 photo

Since the release of World of Warcraft expansion “Wrath of the Lich King,” disgruntled fans have criticized the Death Knight class. Some say its abilities are too powerful and others believe its name is too cool. Blizzard believes the former assessment. The studio is actively working on Patch 3.2. One of the things the patch will address is the Death Knight’s power. Blizzard plans to bring it down a notch by sapping some of its strength and upping its cooldown period.

Speaking with Video Gamer about the changes, game director Tom Chilton elaborated on why Blizzard decided to update the class. Apparently, it just needs to happen.

“More than anything else we're just trying to make sure we balance Death Knights relative to everybody else,” Chilton said. “Of course we want Death Knights to feel like an awesome powerful class, just like any other class. People mention the fact that they're a hero class, but to us what that means is, well, they have their own special starting experience – they start at level 55, which is very heroic compared to other characters,” he continued. “But that doesn't mean that at the end game they're supposed to be more powerful. We've found there were areas of the game we felt like they were just too strong, so we're trying to balance them just like we would any other character class.”

The patch will hit within the next few weeks and is currently being tested by me. I haven’t the slightest idea what I’m doing. I keep clicking the mouse button and tapping on the number keys. It appears to be doing something.

[image]


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18 comments | showing # 1 to 18

Magnalon's Avatar
Magnalon at 07/01/2009 19:05
All Roleplaying mediums pull this shit when new races/classes come out. They want to prolong the life of the game by making something so cool/dark/sinister that EVERYONE will want to play it. 40K had the Necrons, and WoW has the DK. It's pretty sleazy, especially when you just want to play the game as your favorite class, and something overpowered ruins it a bit (luckily in raids, only 2-4 DKs are used).

I think it's hilarious to hear Blizzard actually admit it though.
Jack Maverick's Avatar
Jack Maverick at 07/01/2009 19:21
I thought all these fancy MMO games are supposed to have that one class that pretty much breaks the game, so you have no urge to play any of the other classes. Now with this, they're going to ensure that the other classes are not worthless, making it more fair and balanced?

Blizzard must actually care about making this game a fun experience. That's a shocker to me.
Obolidk's Avatar
Obolidk at 07/01/2009 19:27
BREAKING NEWS: BLIZZARD BALANCING CLASS IN WOW

I really don't understand the point of this article. Blizzard is balancing a class in wow. They are making some aspects of it stronger, some weaker. Big fucking whoop. Seriously, why did you post this?
tigerfangred91's Avatar
tigerfangred91 at 07/01/2009 19:47
Hm, after playing them I feel it's not that they're too strong in any one area but that they can literally do everything reasonably well. Like, they're such a balanced class, more so than Shamans or druids. It's interesting. I wonder how they'll debuff them.
Exquisitor's Avatar
Exquisitor at 07/01/2009 19:49
Unfortunately, the constant balancing of the classes does more harm than good. Long gone is the utility you get from playing a class, now there is little that distinguishes one class from another. I come from a time when a healer was a healer, a tank was a tank, etc.

Now when I play WoW, the warriors throw a fit when you ask them to be tanks because they are all DPS, the priests don't want to heal because they are shadow spec, and doing 5-man dungeons is miserable because of it. But at least the classes are balanced in the atrocity that is PvP.

I like Warhammer Online's approach, there is obviously a balance issue with the game, when two classes meet on the battlefield one will always win against the other... however... both sides of the battle are evenly matched. This requires you to use actual teamwork when you battle in PvP.
tigerfangred91's Avatar
tigerfangred91 at 07/01/2009 19:53
@Exquisitor

I agree overbalancing is annoying. 5-mans are the best part of the game for me, and it's frustrating when people are specced as dps warriors(whatever happened to the holy trinity "Warrior-mage-priest")
bunnymud's Avatar
bunnymud at 07/01/2009 20:38
Non-AZN people still play WoW?
HiddenAHB's Avatar
HiddenAHB at 07/01/2009 20:41
I don't play WoW, but that name is far too bad-ass to any mere mortal wield.
Urashima's Avatar
Urashima at 07/01/2009 21:22
I play a Paladin. Nerf Shamans. Death Knights are Fine, L2P. Working as Intended.
Chronic Logic's Avatar
Chronic Logic at 07/01/2009 22:07
So when can people start farming the crap out of the Lich King for epic lootz?
AliasWyvernspur's Avatar
AliasWyvernspur at 07/01/2009 22:52
Blizz nerfing DK's isn't anything new. They've done it a few times.

One example: they took away the ability to come back as a ghoul when you die, that was uncalled for.

Hurray for becoming more and more generic. Fucking nerfs.
bluemeep's Avatar
bluemeep at 07/01/2009 22:56
Diminishing returns on Death Grip, plox. It's just isn't a Wintergrasp match without my ass being ping-pong balled around by a raid of fucking DKs.
CallMeRotten's Avatar
CallMeRotten at 07/02/2009 01:47
Nobody saw this coming? the ol'bait and switch. I'm not bashing Blizz for doing it either, it's worked for them beautifully.
togepi258's Avatar
togepi258 at 07/02/2009 02:31
So I rarely post on here, but totally had to nerd out for this. Any end game WoW player knows that Death Knights are not overpowered. Death Knights can tank just like any other class and they're not any better or worse than the others. They are all very well balanced. In the damage department, death knights will do the same damage as any other damage class in the same gear. It's a gear and knowledge based game. People always complain that some other class is better than them. But that's only because they're either a) not as geared and/or b) don't know their class as well as the other person knows their class. Blizzard is always changing abilities around. They did not nerf death knights. They just changed how some abilities work. THAT'S IT. People just QQ too much on forums.

P.S. Sorry for the wall of text. Drunken Rant.
Vrynix's Avatar
Vrynix at 07/02/2009 02:35
well a couple of classes should be thankful for this. Although I won't be returning to WoW unless the shaman overhaul comes soon.
Clbull's Avatar
Clbull at 07/02/2009 06:51
I'd say in PvP, they're still somewhat overpowered even in Patch 3.2. Look at how powerful a Death Grip/Chains of Ice combo can be to a ranged damage class.
Caster Tr0y 357's Avatar
Caster Tr0y 357 at 07/02/2009 09:20
i say, if they're going to nerf death knights.. then take paladins down a level too. paladins are the most broken class ever... one was able to break out of chains of ice twice in a row, then proceeded to bend me over and rape me by stunning me and letting everyone else wail on me...

dk's aren't called hero classes for nothing.. i'd like to keep it that way..
Vanilla Gorilla's Avatar
Vanilla Gorilla at 07/02/2009 12:01
I wish Blizzard vehemently defined the term "Hero Class" as "Starts at level 55" as much now as they did during beta. I bet they regret ever using the term now.

That said, DKs are not the most soul crushing overpowered class in the game. Retribution Paladins are. And I believe it was Nethaera who even said that it doesn't take skill to play a Ret Pally because you only use a few buttons to use.

It's sad about the Icebound Fortitude nerf because all of the content was designed with 1 minute boss burst phases in mind, and now that DKs will not be able to keep up with that, healers will need to blow their cooldowns in the intervals to keep the tank up. And requiring more people to do more work or wipe the raid always means a ratchet up in difficulty. And Ulduar is artificially difficult enough as it is.
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