I just want to tell everyone the misconceptions that many people have, so you won't get caught by them and end up being OMGNOOBed at.
1- Making a Death Knight replaces your current character.
This is 100% false. You do a questline, the Knight is unlocked and you make a NEW CHARACTER as a Death Knight. The guy you did the quest with stays on your account as him, NOT A DEATH KNIGHT!
2- Death Knights will OMGWTFBBQPWN everyone because they are a Hero Class.
Also false. They are not going to be OP, they are going to simply start at a higher level.
Will add more as I find more... not that that will be tough.
^_^
I've been thinkin about these deathknights and it does not make sense to me why every race would get one. I think any race that offers a paladin should get one, as well as undead and maybe orcs and gnomes since they already have evil warlocks. But the DK does not seem to fit taurens or nightelves.
I see those 2 races as getting the next hero class which i would guess would be Demon hunter but they may make that one for everyone depending on how many complaints they get for not making DK playable for every race.
If you read the novels and more in depth into the Warcraft lore, you would know that Death Knights and Paladin's are completly un-related. It is simply cooincidence that Arthas was a paladin when he became a Death Knight. The first Death Knights were in fact orcs. Gul'Dan created them as his generals and all around shock troopers, he created them by having some of his strongest warlocks pour out all the evil energy they could in a ritual and while they were, he killed them and turned their hearts into crystals which he then inserted into orc corpses. The corpses rose and became what we now know as death knights. Also so that the death knights didn't scare the living orc troops they wore large hoods, you can see an example of this in Teron Gorefiend in-game. He is a death knight, and in fact one of the strongest to ever live. So basically, any living race that can become undead (which is every one) can become a death knight, so it's possible to even have Tauren or Night Elf death knights.
Personally i do not understand how Death Knights will fit to the Alliance (i am playing Alliance). Blizz is doing everything to make this game cute, but without deeper sense. I like when there are really big differences between horde and alliance, then game is much more interesting.
Here's a little info from the WoW site regarding the Death Knights, for those that don't want to look stuff up or haven't read it yet:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/deathknight/lore.xml
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/deathknight/interview.xml
The next hero class will likely be a class that has a talent option for healing. Death Knight is partially being placed into the game to help round out the tank population. Anyone who has played at level 70 in BC has realized that the need for tanking has been quite higher than it used to be pre-BC.
So it is likely you will see some kind of class that can opt into healing, while, like shaman may also provide some kind of DPS.
Then you might expect to see your Demon Hunters sometime after that.
What most of you don't seem to understand is that the Death Knight is a class...a class made between the Warrior and the Warlock. Similar to the Pally (Warrior+Priest combination). Therefore if you want to suggest a race limit (which isn't going to happen) it should still include any race that can roll either a warrior or a warlock. But I guess that just makes too much sense.
Guys.. just shut the fuck up about race limits on the Death Knight. There won't be any. Get over it and move on.
/rant
Death Knights in my opinion should be contrary to close belief, nothing similar or even similar to the oposite of paladins. As was stated ubove any race can become a Death Knight and if blizzard dosen't do that there backtracking on there own story line and contradicting themselves (just like the bible dose) so eh, I hope there different from all the other classes, and i can't wait to see this 'rune system'
/endrant
This post is faded because it has a negative score.
How are death knights cute?
Why does blizzard say their not yet ready to put in a healer tank? What about pallys huh blizzard? shows how us pallys get no love and are totally ignored as being tanks damn blizzard anit-paladin employees.
Actually, it was human corpses, not orc corpses. He saw the power of the human knight, so he decided to create death knights based on this. If you notice, Teron Gorefiend has a human body, not that of an orc.
/agree
ofc, belfs are the only race that cant roll warriors, and they can roll locks, so it follows that any race can be a death knight :-)