So is it pointless to ever hope for a Panda DK by now?

[YUPPIE]

This, lore wise it's extremely simple and reasonable to have Panda DKs.

so why don't more people riot over it to Blizzard? I mean from what I see, the race is played a lot and are a common sight.

[pmkaboo]

The story is written with the PC as the big hero. The story, like it or not, is not written where we're one of many. We're THE Garrison commander, we're THE artifact wielders, etc. You may not like the way its written but in lore there's not 2 million paladins running around with ashbringer in Legion.

Race/class combinations aren't written the same way.

in that case i really dont see whats preventing us from being THE death knight panda

You're contradicting yourself to a ridiculous degree if you actually think we just literally stacked our garrisons on top of each other, because you're right when you say that certain lore elements aren't taken literally for gameplay purposes. But opening up certain races to certain classes has historically always been an extremely lore-sensitive gameplay element.

I don't know what the lore precedent was before that said gnomes couldn't be hunters, but there are simultaneously very easy lore implications that can say gnomes could totally be hunters, hence why we have them now. Being a Hunter is a relatively simple character fantasy (akin to the Warrior) compared to a Death Knight, whose origins are much more tightly knit together to the lore. From my knowledge, they've had to stretch themselves pretty thin to justify races like draenei and worgen being able to be DK's. It's nice gameplay-wise those options exist, but it's not very graceful.

okay, so lore matters when it comes to race/class combos. but now its also important to realize that lore isnt some ancient writting set in stone that blizzard just discovered somewhere and now follows it to the point... new stuff can still be written, for example a new npc that can raise death knights. "but, new starting area and shit?" - obviously he is not the lich king so his death knights start out weaker, at level 1 as all other classes. "but that means new death knigts wont see the starting scenario?" - yes and no, they will start at the usual starting zones, but another npc, a historian, will be added to acherus and he will let you replay the scenario if you wish.

[Deleted]

You can have your Panderen DK if I can have my Belf Druid, Deal?

Sure as long as I get my Tauren Rogue

[SirCowdog]

I'm fine with blizzard not adding them if they just say they don't want to spend the resources on it... but for Lore reasons? REALLY? Bullshit. Blizzard breaks the lore anytime it wants, ESPECIALLY for game play purposes.

Sidenote: there are already panda death knights within the lore as it stands, so it's especially stupid.

What resources would be spent? They already have pandas wearing plate and using both one and two-handed weapons with warriors. The voice modulation thing? Isn't that just a filter that can be turned on or off? Skin coloration? That might take an artist a day since the models and animations are already in place. The dev time required to plop a panda into the DK animations is negligible.

The only restrictions here are a handful of very shaky lore explanations and a little bit of strangeness of a panda being around during the fight with Arthas. This is no worse than the disconnect that happens with normal leveling zones, as you warp back and forth between Cata, to TBC era, to WotLK timeline, then back to cata, ans so forth. Even CURRENT Deathknights experience this, starting out with WotLK, then immediately warping back in time to level through TBC.

Barring that, Blizzard could even make up entirely new lore out of thin air if they really wanted to. Sunwalkers, anyone? Oh, how about goblin shammies, because they make SO much sense.

Given all that, there's very little reason to deny players access to panda DKs. Especially if it brings in more players, or keeps current players happy because they think it's fun. The only thing I can think of to withhold stuff like is this is that they'd open the floodgates. Panda paladins? Goblin paladins? ORC paladins? Draenie warlocks? They'd have to go all or nothing, so I can see where that might be a problem.

[Florena]

in that case i really dont see whats preventing us from being THE death knight panda



okay, so lore matters when it comes to race/class combos. but now its also important to realize that lore isnt some ancient writting set in stone that blizzard just discovered somewhere and now follows it to the point... new stuff can still be written, for example a new npc that can raise death knights. "but, new starting area and shit?" - obviously he is not the lich king so his death knights start out weaker, at level 1 as all other classes. "but that means new death knigts wont see the starting scenario?" - yes and no, they will start at the usual starting zones, but another npc, a historian, will be added to acherus and he will let you replay the scenario if you wish.

I highly doubt they're going to split up the death knight starting zone. Could they? Okay sure they COULD but WHY? Their design philosiphy is NOT to allow every class combo so why would they do this just to allow ONE more race to be DKs?

[Stormspark]

Why? There were at best a handful of Pandaren not on Pandaria/Wandering Isle. There is no way for Pandaren to be DKs. Since they were not known or even died on the main continents.

There were, as you said, a very small number like Chen that went exploring. It's possible for there to be, probably, 1 or 2 panda DK's. Not enough for it to be a playable race/class combo though.
http://wow.gamepedia.com/Gravewalker_Gie

[Shakou]

I"m pretty sure Gravewalker Gie was added as a garrison follower specifically to fuck with people that actually want to play a Pandaren DK. There's all kinds of garrison stuff like that actually, missions referring to Path of the Titans and so on.

[Aydinx2]

Only if Bolvar Fordragon is making new Death Knights. Otherwise the answer is no.

[Krekal]

Guys what about a Pandaren Paladin?

[Grenzstein]

How about Human Shamans ?

[Trickname]

Might be a 'feature' when they want to cash in on the Scourge again.

[Tenant]

dnt play the lore card cos its complete bollocks for example goblins are allowed to be shamans since when have they been intune with elementals, unless you count the fire from there bombs as fire. theres no reaon for pandarens not to be dk's, Warcraft lore exists more in the books than the actual game and all it does is hold the game back,

Goblins can be shamans because they're enterprising people and supposedly make deals and contracts with the elementals. I've also read before that since goblins were slaves to trolls, they could have picked up on their masters' shamanistic arts when their intelligence was sky-rocketing. It's not the strongest reasoning, but Goblins have the benefit over Pandaren of having existed in the mainlands for most of history.

okay, so lore matters when it comes to race/class combos. but now its also important to realize that lore isnt some ancient writting set in stone that blizzard just discovered somewhere and now follows it to the point... new stuff can still be written, for example a new npc that can raise death knights. "but, new starting area and shit?" - obviously he is not the lich king so his death knights start out weaker, at level 1 as all other classes. "but that means new death knigts wont see the starting scenario?" - yes and no, they will start at the usual starting zones, but another npc, a historian, will be added to acherus and he will let you replay the scenario if you wish.

Yes, you can add new lore to justify a new race into a certain class; that's what happened with Tauren paladins. Your idea is neat, but it's unrealistic; Blizzard seems like the type that if they did add Panda DK's, they'd find a way for them to start off the same as every other DK; the DK starting experience is important in setting up how a pawn of the Lich King defects and joins either of the two factions. Even though it may not seem like it, I'm sure Blizzard's very partial to the starting experiences for all players. If they ever did heavy changes to the DK starting experience, that could be the chance for Pandas to join; whatever they do to it, I'd imagine Blizzard would still want all DK's starting together and at level 55: the unique starting experience and the increased level are why they're supposedly a "hero class", afterall.

But regardless, there's no point to this debate if we're just going to assume Blizzard will find any way to get every race into every class. In a perfect world all races could be any class, with a perfectly succinct lore justification for all of them to boot, but it's simply not realistic.

[Dezminion]

We can always start hoping for pandaren demon hunters ^_^

[Eleccybubb]

I dont know, we got gnome hunters which is cancer


Maybe we get another type of cancer in the next expansion

Would love to hear your explanation on how it is "cancer"?

[Kuja]

When you see buddhist monk terrorists irl, then you can expect panda death knights shortly after

[Al Gorefiend]

We're gonna need more Demon Hunter races before this happens.

[Nakida]

dnt play the lore card cos its complete bollocks for example goblins are allowed to be shamans since when have they been intune with elementals, unless you count the fire from there bombs as fire. theres no reaon for pandarens not to be dk's, Warcraft lore exists more in the books than the actual game and all it does is hold the game back,

There is actual lore behind Goblin Shamans actually. Goblin become shamans by using their shrewd business tactics to make deals with elements. There are several quest dialogues and NPC dialogues that prove this. The best case is from a quest in Deepholm where a Goblin Shaman from the Earthen Ring asks you to kill his fire elemental to get a burning heart.

Quest: http://www.wowhead.com/quest=27135/something-that-burns
Fire Elemental: http://www.wowhead.com/npc=45099/magmatooth

Something it yells when summoned is, "This is not in my contract," which shows that goblins make contracts with the elements instead of seeking their aid like other shamans. Pandarens cannot become DK's because they were relatively non-existent at the time of the Scourge invasion and the Lich King raising races as Death Knights. For them to be playable, they would need an entirely new starting zone experience to have them be Death Knights. I could see this new starting zone being used for the other races as well to have their lore of becoming a death knight under Bolvar instead of Arthas, but that would mean losing an entire starting zone which was quite beautifully written. But that is the only way that would happen.

[Hyve]

see when it comes to this, people will never stop bringing up the Worgen DKs. Or even Draenei.

But there at least were Worgen during the reign of the Lich King, and while secluded, they certainly weren't isolated entirely.

[Doomislav]

You could have pandarian DK's, but it will cost you a raid tier.

[ComputerNerd]

every palading wields the ashbringer and is the leader of all paladins. much lore, so justified.

By that argument every legendary should only ever drop once.
Or any signature item of equipment, so pretty much most boss loots.
So your point is what.