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Rumor: Death Knights coming early
Though this is the merest shred of a rumor, it's a nice enough idea that I think it's worth a post anyway. DeathKnight.info is passing on the speculation that maybe, just maybe, this weekend's announcement (or one of them) is going to be that the Death Knight class will be playable before Wrath of the Lich King's release, to those who pre-order Wrath. It sounds a bit silly, given that the Death Knight is one of the banner features of Wrath, but there are a few points riding in its favor: You only need a level 55 to create a DK. It would assuage concerns of everybody and their dog rolling a DK on the day of the Wrath release, since if the class was released (say) next month, or even in a few months, many of us would have time to get a DK to 70 before Wrath's release, to see whether we liked the class and so forth. It would give those of us who have exhausted the current content something to do for the next few months. The eyes revealed in today's teaser image could easily be sinister Death Knight eyes. Allegedly, a post on this subject was nuked by the CMs in the official forums earlier today. However, even if this is what the post was about, speculating on unreleased content is explicitly forbidden by the forum terms of service, so the post would have been removed whether or not it was accurate. Thus this is still solidly speculative. But we can dream. Now I don't know which I'm hoping for: Diablo 3 or sooner Death Knights. Not that there's any reason they can't do both.
Tank Talk: Do you feel lucky, punk?
Tank Talk is WoW Insider's new raid-tanking column, promising you an exciting and educational look at the world of getting the stuffing thrashed out of you in a 10- or 25-man raid. The column will be rotated amongst Matthew Rossi (Warrior/Paladin), Adam Holisky (Warrior), Michael Gray (Paladin), and myself (Druid). Our aim is to use this column to debate and discuss class differences, raid-tanking strategies, tips, tricks, and news concerning all things meatshieldish. At least, that's what the others said they were doing. I intend to use it mostly as a soapbox to complain. Absolute power tends to......something something.Welcome to Tank Talk. I am your bear Druid hostess for this week, with a topic that occurred to me while reading a recent article here on the site. Eliah Hecht wrote that his guild is facing a not-uncommon tank shortage and that he has considered the possibility of leveling a tanking class to 70 before Wrath, or tanking on a Death Knight afterwards. A number of people on my server and in my guild have talked about doing the same thing, or switching mains once Wrath hits. With so many people playing Death Knights, I think it's very possible that more people will discover they enjoy -- or at least, don't mind -- tanking, and may seek to do so in a raid environment without necessarily knowing what they've really signed up for. From those of us who have tanked raid content in vanilla WoW or BC, here are the 10 questions you'll want to ask yourself if you're considering the possibility of tanking serious raid content:
Breakfast Topic: Choose a race for your Death Knight
I've been more ore less avoiding the Wrath of the Lich King news. Not because I'm afraid of spoilers, but because Blizzard has this annoying habit of teasing us and then taking things away. Take the bleed effect on Flametongue Weapon for example. Nothing is final until it goes live and even then it will most likely be tweaked. Although there are still many details to be hashed out, Blizzard will hold true to their promise of the Death Knight Class. We've heard all kinds of news about what this class can do, again, this is subject to change. I sincerely hope that the developers do not change their minds that any race can roll a Death Knight. If I do roll one, I will most likely roll an Undead. Maybe it's cliche, but its only fitting. On Alliance side I would most likely chose Draenei. I think that with all of their death and destruction, Death Knights would really benefit from Gift of the Naaru, and they will certainly have an Inspiring Presence. What race will your DK be?
Alpha: DK mount, starting gear?
More delicious rumors are starting to surface regarding what the Death Knight starts out with. Recall that he springs fully armed like Athena from Eastern Plaguelands (which when you think about it is kind of the forehead of Azeroth; it is, at least, a giant headache), and we were told earlier that he will come with the ability to summon a normal-speed mount. Well, rest easy: from what I'm seeing, it seems that mount does indeed greatly resemble the Baron's Deathcharger (Baron's mount pictured; to see the DK mount, look here). And there was much rejoicing.
Blizz updates Death Knight site
They may be slower than all the fan sites to release info, but when they do put up pages, my do they make them pretty. Blizzard has updated their official Wrath of the Lich King page with some more information on the Death Knight class, including discussion of their class role and some sketches of their capabilities. This is nothing we haven't already seen, from that time a week or so ago when every site except us got invited to Blizzard HQ a few weeks back, but if you missed that, here's the highlights: All you need to be able to create a DK is to have a character of level 55. This allows you to create one DK per realm, on any realm(s) you choose. If you're on a PvP realm, the DK must be the same faction that you're already playing. DKs start at level 55, and can be made in any race you want (subject to PvP realm faction restrictions). The DK can tank for 5-mans and raids; Blizz claims that "his or her damage output while tanking will be respectable." DKs can also spec for DPS, using both melee and magic.
Death Knight talents revealed
DeathKnight.info has posted, and our independent sources confirm, a first look at the current state of the Death Knight talents. These come covered in caveats, most especially that they're from the Friends & Family Alpha and will almost certainly change in the coming months, and that this is only the two deepest tiers of talents. However, if you're as desperate for this sort of information as I am, you won't mind. Let's get right into it.For some of you, this may be considered spoilers, so in case you don't want to see the talents, I've placed them after the jump. If you do want to see, click on!Update: Blizzard has asked us to remove the information.
Wrath bits: re-runing, mounted quests, factions
The Australian branch of CNET (CNET, by the way, just sold to CBS for $1.8 billion) is little late to release their notes from the Wrath of the Lich King preview party, but I forgive them, because they contain a few new nuggets of information that I don't remember seeing elsewhere. As I speculated last time, it seems a Death Knight will have to "go to a specific locale" in order to pick a new configuration of their six runes. I would still guess that it would be an inn, or stable master, or some other building/NPC found in every town. They saw an escort quest wherein the escorted NPC mounts the same horse as the player; the player was then able to use some attacks on enemies. Sounds like a sort of ground-based bombing run -- not quite mounted combat, but a step in that direction, anyway. The Oracle/Wolvar faction choice is meant to be less permanent than the current Aldor/Scryer divide; CNET reports "it appears that you'll be able to juggle favour between the two groups." This sounds good to me, since I'm currently regretting my choice on one of my characters (missing access to some recipes). On the other hand, it will contribute to further homogenization, and what's the point of splitting faction allegiance if it's easy enough to go back? "Second half of 2008" could theoretically mean July, right? Yeah, who am I kidding -- it'll probably be November or December.[via Blizzplanet]
Bornakk posts on Death Knight level and creation
Bornakk has clarified some information about the Death Knight class today. The two key pieces of information he tells us are: Death Knights will start at a level less than 70, but Blizzard wants them to be able to get into Northrend "a little faster". Converting a preexisting character to a Death Knight has been ruled out. This is interesting in that it has been previously thought that the starting level for Death Knights might be as low as 50 or 55. However with Bornakk saying that they want Death Knights to get into Northrend quickly, I would take this to mean that the Death Knight's starting level will be somewhere in the 60s instead. There's still something for Blizzard to clarify here, but this news is interesting nonetheless.Bornakk also waxes philosophical about the decision to not have a character convert into a Death Knight. He says that "Leveling a character just to throw it away doesn't really fit [fun game play] very well." He also expects that Death Knights will "find their way" into raid groups just as the Paladins and Shamans did on the Horde and Alliance with the release of Burning Crusade.While this news on the Death Knight is really just clarification of some previously released information, it does provide a good insight into what Blizzard is thinking about the class. WoW Insider will have all the latest on the Death Knight and Wrath of the Lich King, so stay tuned!
What we know about Death Knights
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/What_we_know_about_WoW_s_Death_Knights'; Winter is coming: reports have it that WoW's next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is in alpha. Wrath will feature a raise in the level cap from 70 to 80, access to the continent of Northrend with ten zones, the new profession of Inscription and, perhaps most exciting of all, WoW's first new class: the Death Knight.This early on, details are still scarce, and Blizzard has been reluctant to release any information about Wrath since Blizzcon 2007. More information will probably leak as the alpha progresses. However, I've put everything we have been able to find out about Death Knights in the gallery below, so come on in to learn what we know.%Gallery-20386%
Advertise the Game Boy to yourself every day
While the prospect of advertising the Game Boy to ourselves every day sounds pretty good, we're going to have to pass on this auction for one of the sweetest things you could put on your wall. As has always been our luck, we're sadly stuck in the unfortunate position of having no monies to spend on anything right now, so it's not like our opinion regarding this lenticular display matters. Oh well ...What do you all think? Would you find hanging this sign up on your wall is as badass as we imagine it to be, or could you care less?See also: Donkey Kong GBA SP is the rarest member of the DK crew[Via Gamesniped]
Dojo update: A double dose of spoiler goodness
You all know the drill by now. What's included after the break can be considered spoiler material, so continue at your own risk.
Friday Video: LEGO Donkey Kong
Aside from all of the blogging we do here at Wii Fanboy, our lives are pretty much a vacuum, as we lack any real kind of incentive to keep breathing other than how hard our overlords at Joystiq will beat us if our post count drops. It's just the way life is.But, we do have a lot of LEGOs. And it's scientific fact that anything combined with LEGOs is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. In fact, we have so many LEGO pieces, we're certain we could do our own version of classic NES games with them. Just like in this video.[Via Go Nintendo]
Why there won't be a flood of death knights
Many people are predicting that "everyone" will make a new death knight character when the new expansion is going to come out -- so many that the world will seem full of them. While it is true that everyone may very well try out the first couple levels of the new death knight hero class, it's not true that every server will be overrun with them. Here's why:The addition of death knights to the game is in many ways like the addition of blood elves and draenei in The Burning Crusade. Many people made new characters just to see the new zones, but many others wanted to level their mains through Outland first. Many of those players who tried out the new races only played up to a certain point and then stopped to go back to their main characters. We never saw a flood of draenei and blood elves outnumbering all other races of Azeroth, and for the same reason we will not see a flood of new death knights. There are different things to do in the expansion, and different people make different choices about which to do first. There may be a contstant stream of new death knights, maybe even a river sometimes, but death knights will just feel like the newest kid in the WoW class, not a plague of locusts infesting the entire town.There's also a huge difference between trying out a death knight, and choosing one as your new main character. Wherever death knights start out in the world may be a crowded area for a while, but most players won't ever level them out of that starting zone. Unlike the Jedi in Star Wars, death knights are only one of many types of characters in Warcraft. Besides, the death knight play style and thematic mood simply isn't going to appeal to everyone, in the same way that most WoW players today do not play warlocks, notwithstanding the fact that warlocks are undoubtedly a powerful class. Most players prefer to do healing, shapeshifting, stealthing, ranged shots, totems, or any number of other abilities that death knights will never have, and they will stay with their favorite classes and play styles. Some players, like myself, probably just won't like their armor decorated with skulls all the time.
WRUP: Blasting barrels with DK edition
For Wii owners, there is likely one release that rests atop your list for games you want to pick up: Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast. A game that was to release on the GameCube, it's been updated for the Wii. And, we know how much you guys love Nintendo and their games, so are we correct in our assumption?What will you be playing? Some Barrel Blast, or are you trying to play something different, such as Mercury Meltdown or Looney Tunes: ACME Arsenal?
Wii releases for the week of October 8th
Much like last week, this week is chock full of new releases for our beloved Wii. There's even one release that was to already be released last week, but had to be bumped forward to this week. There's even a title that originated on the GameCube releasing this week (which we've had some mixed feelings about).. Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast Balls of Fury FIFA Soccer 08 Bleach: The Shattered Blade Thrillville: Off the Rails Looney Tunes: ACME Arsenal Mercury Meltdown: Revolution Rock and Roll Adventures
Death Knight "interview" and lore on official site
The official Wrath page is slowly accreting information, which is good, because it started out pretty dang empty. The latest addition to it is an "interview" about the Death Knight class with the developers, along with a page on lore. I put "interview" in quotes because it doesn't feel like a real interview; it reads like an excuse for the devs to give the same information we already have. Which is fine and all, I just think "interview" is the wrong term for it. Here's a summary in my own words: Why did you pick Death Knight for the new class? They have a connection to Arthas and Northrend, and we needed more tanks. The playable DKs will be allied with the Horde or Alliance, fighting against Arthas. What will adding another tanking class do to the group/raid game? We want all tank classes to be equally good in general, so you can use any of them for a 5-man, but we want them to have distinct raiding roles. (They also took this opportunity to reiterate for the nth time that "hero class" doesn't mean it's more powerful than other classes, just more different.) How is the DK different from other tanks? No shield, powerful melee abilities, magic attacks. The devs are making sure they have the core tanking abilities of keeping aggro and mitigating damage, while still making the DK feel like its own thing. Will we see some classic DK spells and abilities? Yes, we're taking a lot from previous Warcraft material. One thing that will set them apart as a new class, but still tie them into WC3 DKs, is the rune system. The lore page is less decipherable to me, since I don't actually know a lot of the background information of the Warcraft universe. It gives a relatively short overview of the evolution and status of Death Knights. Is it new information that "modern death knights consist mainly of paladins who lost their faith and pledged their souls to the Lich King in exchange for the promise of immortality?" If DKs come from paladins, why can we make them in non-Paladin races? So Blood Elves don't get even more popular, I guess.
Paste Donkey Kong on photo, win a DS lite and DK Jungle Climber
Do people exist somewhere that don't own this system? If the Japanese sales charts are to be believed, then there have been enough Nintendo DS systems sold so that every man, woman, child, and dog on the planet could have one of these. And a spare.However, if you are DS-less and have a hankering to get onboard with the action, and you have some rudimentary photochopping skills, then try your hand at the Nintendo DS/DK contest at SmugMug. All you have to do is paste the little guy climbing to the top of pretty much anything, and then submit it. Keep in mind though, images must be under 12 mb in size (good gawd).It's a pretty easy contest to enter, and the swag is well worth the time, so why not whip something up and get in? We made one in just a few seconds (hint, it's the image for this post) so you should trump our skillz easily and submit it to them. Check out the rules on their site. Also, the comment on the first (and only) entry that's up so far is ... priceless. Ahh, the internets.
DK Jungle Climber celebrates release with photo contest
To celebrate the release of DK Jungle Climber, Nintendo is teaming up with photo-sharing site SmugMug.com to give away some DS Lites and copies of the newly-released title. A total of eight systems and eight copies of the game will be awarded to the creators of the five best images. But, photochopping experts don't have much time, as the contest will end October 1st.Any of you plan on entering the contest?
Death Knight tidbits from Neth
In a silly thread in the Druid forums asking whether the druids would get a "dark form" to go along with the Death Knight being a dark version of the Paladin (which it...sort of is, I guess), US CM Nethaera dropped a few interesting pieces of DK information.[when asked if DKs will start at level 55, instead of 60 or 70] That is the current thinking. It could still be subject to change though and is not concrete. We're still toying with ideas of how we want to make it all work. We want people to feel like they are learning not only the how's of becoming a Death Knight from the lore perspective, but also how to play one.[More character slots?] Undetermined as of yet. We'll let people know when we know more.[...the current feeling is that a player with any class over 55 (or whatever the level ends up being) will be able to unlock Death Knight? ] yes. That is our current thinking.[asked about balance] It is going to be balanced against other classes and will not be able to stomp everyone else just because it's a Death Knight. Yes, they will be powerful but in their own unique way. What makes it a Hero class is that it is from Warcraft lore as a Hero class and also you will get access to it at a higher level. Any race can be a Death Knight in our current thinking as well since the path to corruption can be founded with good intentions much like what happened to Arthas.[How many abilities will DKs start with?] Undetermined as of yet. We're still fleshing a lot of things out. This is another reason we caution people about the perception that the expansion is coming out 'too soon'. We have only shown people the tip of the iceberg and have a lot more that we are still working out and planning for. Once we have more details, we'll be sharing them so people can discuss it more and plan for the future.So there's a lot of "not sure yet" in that post, but there's also some good information, notably that they currently think DKs will start at level 55. That's a bit lower than I would have expected. 58 or 60 would make more sense, in my opinion, in order to be able to start out in Outland (but then again, does that make sense lore-wise?). So how excited are you about Death Knights? Are they your main reason to buy Wrath? The change that will kill WoW?[thanks, Natulcien]
Tigole speaks in Leipzig
The Leipzig Games Convention in Germany kicked off today, and of course Blizzard is there in force. Games mag buffed.de got a good interview in with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan, and MMO-Champion was good enough to get an English translation up in short order. As you might expect, topics covered were WotLK-centric. Here are some of my favorite tidbits: There will be a new "Old Stratholme" instance in the Caverns of Time, which will be a level 80 5-man: Warcraft 3 players however know Stratholme from a singleplayer mission, in which Arthas travels to the city and sets all buildings on fire, kills the citizens and fights Mal'Ganis. In Wrath of the Lich King you fight at Prince Arthas' side, by travelling through the Caverns of Time. We are giving you the opportunity of meeting Arthas at a time at which he was not a great villain yet. You are "cleaning" Stratholme and igniting buildings! Apparently you won't need level 80 after all to get a Death Knight, as this would just create an even more intense rush to 80, and people wouldn't be properly enjoying the content. Instead the required level might be 55–60. Additionally, Tigole said upon reaching the required level, "Then you create your Death Knight and face some challenges. If you have mastered them, you will get your Death Knight." This implies to me that the unlocking quests will not be done on your main, but on your new DK, and they need to be completed in order to take the new character any farther. Future hero classes could be Demon Hunter, Arch Mage, and Blademaster. However, they seem to be sticking with the "one hero class in WotLK, maybe more later" mentality. I'm especially pleased about 80 not being the required level for DKs; that opens the possibility of making your DK in order to experience the WotLK content. On the other hand, that might not be such a hot idea, since you might see a dearth of other classes in the WotLK instance groups. Head over to MMO-Champion for the full translation. If you speak German, the original is at buffed.de.
