A Death Knight with pink pigtails
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 7th 2008 at 5:00PM
Ever since we heard way back at BlizzCon last year that Death Knights would be available for all races, the lament has been heard: Gnome Death Knights will ruin it for everyone else. Death Knights are, by their very nature, supposed to be pale and scary and imposing, and given the fact that there are bound to be a ton of Gnome Death Knights out there just for hilarity's sake, the Death Knight starting area is going to look more like a nursery than a gothic bed of evil.But will it really ruin the lore? Daniel already pointed out very insightfully that Gnomes definitely have a dark side -- we all seem to overlook the fact that Gnomes can be Warlocks, and that doesn't make the Felguard they send after you any less scary. And while yes, on launch day, there'll be a lot of Gnome DKs running around (the starting areas will be chaos no matter what gets rolled), after that it should settle down for sure. After all, if Gnomes were all people wanted to play, we'd never see Humans or Dwarves on the realms, and there are plenty of those.
So I'm all for Gnome Death Knights, pigtails or otherwise. If nothing else, it'll give us Horde something to laugh at -- right before we go in for the kill.
Filed under: Gnomes, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Humor, Classes, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jayo Jul 7th 2008 5:08PM
if you ask me, gnomes are creepy by nature anyway. Ever have one show up on your doorstep? not funny in the slightest, and just may give you nightmares.
Kaphik Jul 7th 2008 5:11PM
Pale and scary and imposing, until they hit Outland and start wearing a horrendous abstract color mixture of green text armor.
Jack Spicer Jul 7th 2008 6:49PM
If you ask me, the joke about "cute" gnome DKs will get old the second day after the expansion is released. And most of those players will delete their gnome and reroll a toon they would take more seriously.
Jesse Jul 8th 2008 7:41AM
gnomes still have escape artist. You could maybe make a case that for arenas, shadowmeld is a useful racial, or stoneform, but snare removal for a melee class is amazing. I'm not too impressed with either GotN or Perception..
I hypothesize that most Ally pvp DK's will be gnomes, just as most high end alliance warr's are gnomes.
Frank Jul 8th 2008 11:22AM
Perfect time to remove gnomes from the game entirely.
Theadrick Jul 7th 2008 5:11PM
Nope, I don't think it harms the lore in any way, and fits in with the gnome races inquisitive to the point of being dangerous nature. Like you pointed out... gnome warlocks are a perfect example of this.
Memzer Jul 7th 2008 5:10PM
The image accompanying this story is somewhat hot!
Jayo Jul 7th 2008 5:16PM
yea. defintely a freak in the sheets.
Jordrah Jul 7th 2008 5:22PM
i'd tap that
flawless Jul 7th 2008 6:52PM
Tap it, tap three lands, cast Fireball...
User4574 Jul 9th 2008 7:42AM
lolz @ "tap three lands!" Good one! =D
JR Jul 7th 2008 5:12PM
I agree gnomes don't match the death knight image, but that could be said for other races. What about trolls, the Horde-side comic relief? Would you take a troll death knight seriously? I wouldn't.
Actually, the only race I can picture playing a DK is humans.
Meatrender Jul 7th 2008 5:40PM
If you are by some way insinuating that Trolls are the Gnomes of the Horde....
I have some choice words for you that are inappropriate for this forum.
As far as being Imposing as death knights i think Trolls would do alot better than gnomes. They may not have warlocks, but trolls have on of the darkest religions on Azeroth. I think Witch Doctors are creepier than warlocks anyway.
Also bear in mind that PCs are only Darkspear Tribe Trolls, and represent only a tiny fragment of the total Troll population, and the rest of the Trolls are a pretty bloodthirsty, superstitious people.
Damon Jul 7th 2008 5:45PM
Ha, actually me and my friend both agreed the only race we couldn't really see as death knights where trolls and maybe draenei. We're both trolls, so yeah.
Maybe it's just the blue skin thing. An azure epidermis just doesn't really seem to be the choice for scaring the daylights out of people.
But i guess it fits perfectly into lore. Trolls have been known to worship a variety of death-gods. Guess the lich king isn't much different from hakkar in the end.
Note that i resent the "Comic relief" bit.
JR Jul 7th 2008 6:02PM
"Note that i resent the "Comic relief" bit."
Actually, I think trolls have a very interesting history. I love Sunken Temple, even though most people hate it with a passion. I wish I could have gone further in the Hakkar storyline, but unfortunately I started playing after BC, so no Zul'Gurub for me.
In spite of that, I still think Blizzard went the comic-relief way in the playable trolls. And I wish they hadn't.
Kolo Jul 7th 2008 5:16PM
Frankly I'm sick of this QQing. I've been a gnome player since day 1, if people don't like it, tough luck.
Haderic Jul 7th 2008 5:20PM
that image brings up a question I have had for a while about Death Knights. Do DKs get the pale skin and white hair that the gnome in the picture has?
Ametrine Jul 7th 2008 5:29PM
I hope so. That is an awesome image.
dan Jul 7th 2008 5:54PM
Normal racial colors at this point from all the screens we've seen thus far. I sure hope blizz tweaks this before launch.
Ichigo Jul 7th 2008 5:24PM
Gnomes should not be DK's but then again, they shouldn't be Warriors either if you want to get down to brass tax.
If you stick to lore (yeah I know.. shush!), Humans, Dwarfs, forsaken, and Blood Elves should be the choices for DK's.