With Wrath of the Lich King, the new expansion for WoW Classic will be released in 2022. While nothing is new about the content per se, many of you probably can hardly remember how different some things were back then.
The beta of WotLK Classic has been running for a few weeks and those who were invited can already get a glimpse of the content. Wrath of the Lich King was originally released in November 2008, which is almost 14 years ago, and is considered one of the best expansions of WoW.
Northrend opened as a new continent, and at level 80, players could face many new foes and finally confront Arthas, the super-villain from Warcraft 3. One of the biggest features was the Death Knight as a new class.
Death Knights (short “DK”) were not only the first new class in WoW overall, but also the first “hero class.” Back then, they started directly at level 55, significantly higher than most other heroes.
With a new blog post, Blizzard explains again what makes Death Knights special. And those who know the class today should be prepared to learn it from the ground up again. A lot has changed in the past 14 years.
As a small reminder: Everything you need to know about World of Warcraft – in 3 minutes:
Death Knights were much more complex in the past – but also stronger
Here are the differences: In the “good old days” of WotLK, many things were significantly more complicated. On one hand, there were the talents that will return similarly in Dragonflight. There were significantly more points to distribute than there are today in Shadowlands.
With the Death Knight, however, it was also the case that the trees were not clear. Each specialization could tank and deal damage – unlike today. In fact, Frost Tanks were sometimes more common than other specializations.
It was only important to have a defense rating to prevent critical hits from opponents and to use Frost Presence. Yes, back then Death Knights still had presences, similar to the auras of the Paladin:
- Blood Presence: Increases damage dealt by 15% and heals you by 4% of your direct damage dealt.
- Frost Presence: Increases your stamina by 8%, your armor bonus from items by 60%, reduces damage taken by 8%, and increases threat generated.
- Unholy Presence: Increases attack speed by 15%, movement speed by 15%, and reduces global cooldown for all abilities by 0.5 seconds.
Runes were similar. There were Frost, Blood, and Unholy runes. Many abilities required a specific combination. Through talents, you also received Death runes that could be used like today’s runes.
In addition, there was Rune Power, also like today, which serves as a resource for other abilities. All of this required significantly more planning and coordination of your abilities to keep all runes on cooldown while having the correct runes and enough Rune Power ready for emergencies.
Sounds unfair? Not really, because unlike in the current DPS list of WoW, Death Knights were almost always at the top. Even as a tank. Anyone who could play their DK was a top DPS – a hero class after all.
When can I play WotLK Classic? According to a leak, WotLK Classic is set to be released on September 26, but this has not yet been confirmed. In an interview with GameStar, Ion Hazzikostas at least revealed that WotLK will be released before Dragonflight. However, we cannot say exactly when that will be. Current estimates suggest October.
Anyone looking to prepare for WotLK Classic should definitely avoid playing a Death Knight in Retail. The two versions differ too much from each other.
Did you remember how differently the Death Knight played back then or did the information here remind you of suppressed details? In our quiz, you can test your WoW knowledge:
WoW Quiz: Are you an expert in World of Warcraft? Prove your knowledge
