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Goodbye DHKs, Hello big-time World PVP
Nethaera takes a fairly close look at one of my favorite features of Tuesday's patch: No more dishonorable kills! Yes, DHKs have been hated by players for a long time, and with the upcoming patch, they'll be gone-- Horde and Alliance alike will be able to lay waste to any town, village, or city they want without any honor penalties.Now, Neth says that the reason DHKs are out is because the devs tried leaving them out, and apparently it worked on the test realms. Some NPC levels have been raised, and some have been lowered, so there may be other incentive in game to keep people from mauling, say, Crossroads on a regular basis. Also, there are some new World PVP options in the works-- don't count those out. But Neth also says that things are constantly being monitored-- if city raids become an issue, the situation will be revisited. As a few players point out, however, (and I agree), the test realm players aren't the day-to-day players. People will do almost anything in this game, so I expect raids to show up on a pretty regular basis, even on PVE servers.Not that you need to get rid of DHKs to do a massive raid. MBAzeroth reports that the Penny Arcade Alliance (named after the comic, duh) on the Dark Iron server pulled off a big one. Alliance coordinated and invaded the capital cities while running distraction raids on Brill, Tarren Mill, and Crossroads. The casualty list is shocking: Cairne, Thrall, Vol'jin, Varimathas, and almost Sylvanas before the server got downed by the raid. Now that's some good World PVP. Are we looking at something like this every week when DHKs go bye-bye? One can only hope.
Doing Away With DKs (Or Not)
With the onset of World PVP with the next patch, there's been a lot of discussion on the forums lately about both DKs and civilians. One of the great joys of WoW in the early days, I thought, was the all out battles in world-- not just the nightly skirmishes in Southshore and Crossroads (although if I recall correctly, Crossroads was more like a nightly massacre), but the very real chance that Orgrimmar or Stormwind might be overrun at any minute by another rampage from the opposing side, hellbent on executing a leader. There were whispered rumors of one guild's having done away with Thrall. A friend of a friend knew a guy who lead a raid that actually finished off the boy-king Anduin.Of course, with the onset of dishonorable kills and in-game civilians, pretty much all of that finished. No self-respecting PVPer would dare to tarnish their record with DKs (with some exceptions, of course), and even high levels, met with resistance by NPCs, will often give up the ghost (literally) rather than continue the war where it's not supposed to go. But are we better off for it? Or should DKs be done away with?Not surprisingly, the majority of players (the really vocal ones on the forum, anyway) want them gone. There are a few benefits to keeping players from attacking certain NPCs-- a few players have suggested keeping DKs only in lowbie, 10-20 areas, which would probably leave Crossroads off the list. Other players say them's the breaks-- if a 60 undead mage decides to make things hard for people turning in quests in Goldshire, all fair in love and Warcraft. But the majority of players agrees that even on PVE servers, the DK system has to change. There's a war on, after all, and if you can't kill the other side in a war, well, what can you do? Those calling for getting rid of all DKs say the World PVP options Blizzard has announced (delivering dust in Siithilius and babysitting towers elsewhere) aren't enough, but when has Blizzard ever steered us wrong in gameplay? Before the BGs came out, players whined, but now, especially with cross realm battlegrounds coming next patch, BGs are humming daily.But worry not, anti-DKers: Blue has announced that the beta for the Burning Crusade will be DK-free. Could this be the beginning of in-world PVP awards, all-faction buffs for high-level kills, and temporary titles for those who take the lead in battle? Of course, Blue's not saying any more. They always do that, don't they?
