World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is new expansion for the long-running MMORPG, arriving just after WoW’s 16th birthday. The new expansion brings some big changes to Azeroth, including a “level squish.” This means that current max-level players will have their level reduced to 50, with 60 becoming the top level just as it was in vanilla World of Warcraft.
However, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands’ level squish and the desire to get players to new content has missed a huge opportunity. One class will see significant changes in its origins in Shadowlands, which will likely leave many fans disappointed as old content is swept away in favor of getting players to the new expansion.
The Death Knight experience has changed significantly in WoW: Shadowlands. When the class was released as WoW’s first hero class in 2008’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion, it came with one of the most unique questlines in the game.
At the time Wrath of the Lich King released, most WoW questing was more along the lines of killing NPCs to loot certain items than it was about presenting a full story. Wrath of the Lich King changed that, creating questlines with narrative arcs, even for the player character. No better was this shown than in the Death Knight starting experience. “A hero,” begins the voice over which introduces Death Knights to the new content, “that’s what you once were.”
Over the course of the original Death Knight starting experience, players go from an undead thrall of the Lich King to a warrior on the way to regaining their free will. Quests ranged from the delightfully evil, like poisoning crops or hiding in a mine cart to jump out and attack people, to dramatic, with each Death Knight confronting someone who recognizes them from their past life before killing them.
Until now, the Death Knight class was limited to those races which were released up to and including Cataclysm. Even the inclusion of the Worgen felt strenuous, with Blizzard having to explain how a Worgen came to escape Gilneas and eventually fall into the ranks of the Lich King. Shadowlands, however, now allows all races to become Death Knights, with a catch.
Pandarden and Allied Races will be able to play as Death Knights, but with a new, far shorter introduction. Instead of playing through a questline which tackles their dark rebirth and redemption, the new Lich King Bolvar simply brings these player characters back to life at the top of Icecrown Citadel. The player starts at level 8, and after talking to few NPCs will hit level 10 and be thrown out into an expansion of their choice. That expansion’s content will get them from level 10-50 at record speed, and then the player can go to the Shadowlands.
However, in its eagerness to get the new Death Knight players into the world and the Shadowlands content, the game misses a huge opportunity to create a unique Death Knight experience for the Shadowlands expansion. The Death Knights have always felt out of place since Wrath of the Lich King ended with the defeat of Arthas, and Shadowlands was an opportunity to continue their story in a meaningful way.
Other groups deeply tied to the Lich King like the Forsaken got new plotlines which explored the aftermath of Arthas’ death and their new goals in a way the Death Knights did not. Instead, the Bolvar introduction players get does away with all the moral complexity which made the original Wrath of the Lich King Death Knight intro so iconic. One major thread which runs throughout the Warcraft games seems to be abandoned, that raising people into undeath for any reason is inherently morally wrong.
When Sylvanas Windrunner began raising new Forsaken in Cataclysm, it shocked even hot-headed Warchief Garrosh Hellscream. There was always an implication that part of the Lich King’s crime wasn’t just robbing the undead of their free will, but robbing them of the freedom of death itself. This is why the Forsaken still considered themselves cursed long after they regained their free will. Bolvar, on the other hand, seems perfectly content to raise new Death Knights now that the time calls for it, with neither the new Lich King nor the player encouraged by anything in the story to consider the moral implications.
There are new starting zones which were added to Shadowlands. Exile’s Reach is a brand new starting experience for new Horde and Alliance players, which makes it seem like a shame that Blizzard didn’t take the opportunity to tell a new story with the Death Knights risen by Bolvar.
There are even some major factors of the Shadowlands story which could have been used to create a fascinating new Death Knight questline, perhaps shorter than the original but with just as much of a focus on the expansion’s overarching threat. The Death Knight starting experience takes place immediately before Sylvanas attacks Bolvar and destroys the Helm of Domination, opening a rift to the Shadowlands. A new questline could, at least, have let Death Knights bear witness or be involved in the events surrounding the Shadowlands’ opening.
The fact that the new Death Knights are raised just before Bolvar loses his status as the Lich King raises some questions and eliminates some other interesting storytelling possibilities as well. First, it raises the question of whether or not any new Death Knights will be able to be created now that the Helm of Domination is destroyed, and how Blizzard plans to incorporate any new Allied Races into this starting zone structure.
Second, it misses the opportunity to explain Bolvar’s willingness to raise new Death Knights into undeath. If the Shadowlands had already been opened but Bolvar retained the ability to raise Death Knights after the destruction of the Helm of Domination, it would have given him a great moral justification. It is heavily implied that Sylvanas opening the gateway to the Shadowlands is responsible for all dying souls on Azeroth to pour directly into the Maw, causing the anima drought which features in heavily in the new expansion’s plot. Bolvar could have been raising Death Knights to save them from that fate and to allow them to fight for the afterlife they wanted.
Ultimately, the new Death Knight introduction prioritizes pragmatism at the cost of exciting, immersive storytelling in order to complement the level squish and get players to new content. The Death Knight experience won’t make or break the expansion, and players who pick old DK races can still play through the original questline. However, it is a missed opportunity to continue to tell the story of a group that, at times, it feels like World of Warcraft’s new story has left behind.
World of Warcraft is available on PC. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will release on November 23rd.
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