Saturday, November 8, 2008

55. Death Knights, Oh My!

Text for the audio segment "Off the Beaten Path" on Epic Dolls Podcast # 55

So, with the new patch and impending WOLTK expansion this week, feral druids are really coming into their own… and that me refunded talent points –TWICE--. Fun times.


PLACES TO SEE

I spent an evening in the Death Knight starting grounds exploring. While nothing resided there between the patch 3.0 and the expansion, it made for a great way to see everything unencumbered. If you haven’t had a chance, take the flight up to Light’s Hope Chapel in Eastern Plaguelands and head into the area along the eastern coast behind Tyr’s hand in the region called Scarlet Enclave.

Above the towns of New Avalon and Havenshire is the looming floating Necropolis called Acherus: The Ebon Hold (ACK-err-us). It was once the stronghold for the Lich King until the battle of Light’s Hope Chapel. Now Ebon Hold belongs to the Knights of the Ebon Blade, Death Knights who are now renegade.


There are some interesting spots within the region of the Scarlet Enclave… including a light house and town areas that remind me of the ruins of Moonbrook in Westfall. Basically the area is the starting zone or newbie are for Death Knights. I always find it interesting that there is always a mine of some sort in newbie zones. Death Knights aren’t an exception. Haha.

QUESTS

Many of the old instances and dungeons may still be grey on your Achievement lists even if you know you have been through them a time or two already. It is worth gathering a group and dungeon-ing to attain the achievement associated with them. Also, while doing the heroic daily we encountered some frost lock boxes which until the expansion comes out can’t be opened yet. We are all curious about what could be in the box? Several other unusual items have been dropping as well, so for the next few days if you have time, I recommend visiting a few dungeons.


During the Scourge Invasion, Bishop Lazaril who stood near the Aldor wanted you to bring a Light-infused Artifact to Tyrande Whisperwind in Darnassus. Tyrande actually provided some rather interesting information about Northrend…it appears there is another World Tree being cultivated there. While she didn’t offer more information, that was enough to make sure to seek it out when Northrend is open.

Role Playing Tips

Death Knights

Rpmadesimple.org offered some great advice and tips for role playing the new Death Knight class. He writes that Death Knights have a similarity to what the Forsaken had to go through with being undead minions then being free. The difference is that your body ended up at Acherus, the idea is to get an understanding of who the character was prior to being dead and reborn as a Death Knight.


He recommends the following:
  • Listen carefully to the opening narration that accompanies the creation process of your character
  • Read through the quests and listen to the conversations of the surrounding NPS who offer a great way to understand the mood and plight of the Death Knights.
  • And Death Knights can be unique and not necessarily another Arthas
Some ideas to help the character be unique are adding in particular quirks such as perhaps your Knight can’t stand holy ground or perhaps her past victims are ghosts which haunt her. He also wrote that Death Knights are examples of what are called "Byronic Heroes", flawed, or dark heroes such as Batman, Xena, or even Sirius Black from Harry Potter. These sorts of heroes have troubled backgrounds and carry a lot of emotional baggage from their pasts.

RpMadeSimple also states that in a role play capacity, past friends and associates may still define Death Knights as evil and have trouble seeing them beyond their association with the scourge. Trust and friendships may need to be reearned or relearned as the Death Knights tries to assimilate back into their subsequent faction.


Ah, an here’s an interesting little spoiler…
One thing that’s crept up since the Scourge Attacks and in Northrend are the Darkfallen. These are a mix of Blood Elf, Death Knight and vampire.

Have fun everyone!
See you in Northrend...

Music:

All music from the Game