Keep the Original DK introduction

Classes Death Knight
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The Scarlet Enclave questline, aka the death knight starting experience introduced in Wrath of the Lich King is one of the most iconic set of quests in World of Warcraft. Filled with powerful moments like the “End of all Things” quest, and the battle for Light’s Hope, or the Argent prisoner. Not only was it groundbreaking for its time, but the DK experience also has aged very well, especially compared to some older quests.

There are rumors that with the addition of allied race death knights, a new death knight introduction will be put into place. I’m not opposed to death knight vulpera or dark iron dwarves or even pandaren. I’m also not opposed with these allied races being given a new scenario to explain their current predicament. What I’m worried about is all this talk of an entirely new scenario for all death knights across the board.

It doesn’t sit right with me that this piece of important WoW history might be shunted to the side and then left to wiki articles or lore videos. I have no issue with either mind you, the problem lies in the fact that this is a video game, and it’s medium is meant to be played physically.

My first real main was a death knight on the realm, Scryers, way back in WotLK. It wasn’t until I saw the WotLK intro cinematic that I was really invested, and it wasn’t until that DK starting questline that I became interested in the story at large.

I think it’s fine if all these new races can be made into death knights or whatever, and for them to have their own starting experience to account for their exotic race. I am not fine with them removing one of the last parts of a grand history, one of the most iconic questlines, and one of the most important lore moments in the game’s history.

Do we think they’ll add an alternate quest for established death knights pre-reboot? Like, “Deathlord, come train these vulpera.”
What if they just make this new scenario and then just act like the mechagnome death knight who existed merely moments ago is the same person as the Deathlord who existed since WotLK? If they redo the intro, does that mean we miss out on any potential class as Blizzard just gets a pass to not release a class on grounds they’re simply redoing DKs? Story-wise all of these options feel hollow, if any were to be taken at all.

Like I said, right now we only have rumors that it is a revamp or an entirely new experience. But; my hope is that this issue gets enough attention that before any drastic decisions are reached, they leave the original experience for the current death knight races, and create a separate experience for the allied races.

I feel like this would be the best case scenario, the original experience for the older dks, and a new experience for the allied races and pandaren.

Thanks for taking the time to read, if anyone is.

8 Likes
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you realize the starting experience Now isnt even the same as it was at launch of wotlk right?

3 Likes
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It will probably just be for allied races. People are overreacting to this imo. It will likely just be a “accept this quest from bolvar and go talk to your faction leader”.

Just a way for them to explain AR dks in the lore.

They wouldnt add a whole starting experience on the same scale as the current intro, not in 8.3.

4 Likes
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Even that I think this post is a bit watery, I still totally agree with the author.

Let people learn who DKs are first hand.

Thanks for the post, sir.

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While I mostly agree with this post, I also am a heavy advocate for replacing old zones with new ones frequently to keep the story of the world going. World of Warcrafts world is HUGE even compared to other large MMOs. And the lore is deep and rich. But the world also feels like a time capsule, ever frozen in the past.

I first noticed this problem way back at the start of Wrath when I made my own DK, the ORIGINAL Zaela (screw you orc woman…), and finished the DK starting zone experience. I was hype and invested in the story and the RP of the class, and then I was disappointed. Instead of heading straight from that starting experience to taking the fight to the Lich King, I had to seemingly go back in time, redoing questing zones in an expansion I was about sick of by this point. BC was good, but I was ready for something new.

But my problem with that is just a personal issue, and it only recently got fixed with scaling outlands and northrend to the same levels. But it doesnt change the fact that the world does feel frozen in time. Why are we still hunting Illidan in outlands? Why are we still fighting to take down Arthas in northrend? Why is Deathwing still the focal point of the current 1-60 zones? (Thank god they didnt leave him flying in the sky burning people…) What about Garrosh and Varion, why are they still alive when they are actually dead?

As great as the worldbuilding for the story goes, the game doesnt execute this very well.