Why didnt DKs go straight into Northrend?

[Marston]

Blizzard made a mistake. New death knights are pretty much time travelers.

http://i.imgur.com/Ds9lKf5.png

[faithbane]

there has to be some reason. Blizzard could have easily adjusted the DK quests by now to spit you out at 68, but they havent.

The game was just more hardcore back then and they didnt wanna give someone a free character boost to 70. You had to start at 55 and get used to playing your character before you can do Wotlk content. Keep in mind that the class was pretty OP at the start and there was a world/server first race to 80 was going on and any DK would have quite possibly won that race.

You can find a quote of some dev somewhere accepting that its as a mistake to keep start the DKs at that level and Lore was it is confusing and makes no sense. It was done for 100% gameplay reasons and no relation to lore.

[Zafire]

http://i.imgur.com/Ds9lKf5.png

LOL.

That made my day better, thanks.

[Mister Cheese]

Blizzard had a different design philosophy back then compared to today. They wanted everyone to level. They wanted everyone to experience their content, even outlands. That was their reasoning behind it.

[Rojaha]

Bliz actually answered this question on their forums way back in the day during Wrath.

It was so long ago, so I don't remember the post exactly, but IIRC they thought it would be unfair to basically give someone a BC max level char, and they thought leveling through BC to learn your new class before joining people on their mains in WOTLK dungeons was reasonable.

Nowadays, you can just buy boosted Lv100s, so why not let DHs start at Lv100.

[mahesvara]

Reason I heard was so at release all the WotLK zones would be less crowded. With potentially so many people trying DKs by forcing them to relevel through BC Blizzard could make it so the early zones (fjord/tundra) were significantly less crowded .

[Rudkobing]

Just...
Just don't think about it.

[aziras]

The game was just more hardcore back then and they didnt wanna give someone a free character boost to 70. You had to start at 55 and get used to playing your character before you can do Wotlk content. Keep in mind that the class was pretty OP at the start and there was a world/server first race to 80 was going on and any DK would have quite possibly won that race.

Reason I heard was so at release all the WotLK zones would be less crowded. With potentially so many people trying DKs by forcing them to relevel through BC Blizzard could make it so the early zones (fjord/tundra) were significantly less crowded .

These two got it.

The level race was a much bigger deal in WotLK, partly because the introduction of achievements added an actual in-game reward for being world/server-first to 80.

They also learned a lot from the clusterf**k of the TBC launch. With all players flooding to Hellfire simultaneously it totally broke questing. In WotLK, not only were there two starting zones, they also avoided the pvp-centric starter quests that sent players to pick stuff in overlapping zones in the first 10 minutes.

The lore took a little hit to make room for better gameplay, but people did not really complain. I seem to remember that there were even early WotLK discussions that DKs should have been locked behind lvl80 achievements. So you had to play through the expansion before unlocking the hero class. But I cannot find any proof of that.

[Airwaves]

The DK starting zone takes place long before the invasion of Northrend. After we defeated naxx, Arthas bought in the DKs and their flying fort to do what naxx was originally meant to do. Arthas loses again and the Dks break free. This is 2-3 years before Arthas makes his next move. Since Arthas goes silent the DKs join the factions. Illidan attacks and the DKs mobilise along side the horde and alliance to invade outlands. Since that is a more direct threat. The DKs spend years in outlands and defeat Illidan. Years later after returning home Arthas attacks again. The Dks mobilise again and take part in the invasion of Northrend.

[SirBeef]

As for why Blizzard had the DK's start at level 55...my theory is they wanted to kind of Retcon them into all the Vanilla Lore. Basically, all characters other than Demon Hunters are credited with being at least part of the force that killed all the threats up to now...including all the Vanilla and BC content. If DK's went straight into Northrend...they wouldn't have that.

It really is as simple as EPL was a level 58-60 zone. DH's started out in EPL and finished their starting zone at 58. They also wanted players to learn how to play the DK prior to joining up with the rest of the players. In hindsight I am sure they would have made them start off at 65 finish at 68 and be ready to hit Northrend. There is no conspiracy theory or anything deeper than what I stated.

- - - Updated - - -

These two got it.

The level race was a much bigger deal in WotLK, partly because the introduction of achievements added an actual in-game reward for being world/server-first to 80.

They also learned a lot from the clusterf**k of the TBC launch. With all players flooding to Hellfire simultaneously it totally broke questing. In WotLK, not only were there two starting zones, they also avoided the pvp-centric starter quests that sent players to pick stuff in overlapping zones in the first 10 minutes.

The lore took a little hit to make room for better gameplay, but people did not really complain. I seem to remember that there were even early WotLK discussions that DKs should have been locked behind lvl80 achievements. So you had to play through the expansion before unlocking the hero class. But I cannot find any proof of that.

DKs starting 10 levels higher would not have had an impact on the race. By the time one finished the starting area, he would have been behind the curve.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard made a mistake. New death knights are pretty much time travelers.

I don't see how. Every DK made since WotLK to now and in the future starts out with their story unfolding after the events of Naxx 40 prior to TBC happening. So their natural flow of expansions is in perfect harmony with the timeline. Any character that starts out at level 1 though are time travelers.

[ScreddyLoix]

Because people back then did not expect to be given out free max level toons, and were content to work for it.

[Allenseiei]

Blizzard made a mistake. New death knights are pretty much time travelers.

Any new player is a time traveler.

On topic: It was a gameplay wise decision. The dev team did not think it was wise to throw you close to level 70 with 0 experience in playing the actual class. In those times the dev still had a bit of TBC design left and felt that you needed to acumulate more hours of gameplay on your toon so that you werent a burden to everyone else.

[Deleted]

Yeah, but you can't get angry at that quest, it's hilarious

That quest was hilarious, the joy I took in chasing down Johnny Awsome <AFK> and slaughtering him.
On topic, was right for its time I guess, would be nice for them to update it, but doubtful that would happen

[ZenX]

http://i.imgur.com/Ds9lKf5.png

That narrative is golden and deserves to be made into a novel.

[Doomislav]

Cause they wanted you to play your toon a bit before doing WoTLK content?

This is it - there is no relevant lore connection to go to outland.

[Volitar]

Leveling was still somewhat hard/time consuming back then. Figure it would feel too much of a cheat if they got to skip even more leveling.