Summary
World of Warcraftjust confirmed that Earthen can no longer play the Death Knight race once they arrive inThe War Within. Though the newest Allied Race inWorld of Warcraftcould play Death Knights for a brief time inThe War Withinalpha, it seems the class won’t be available to them at launch.
At BlizzCon 2023,WoWrevealed the Earthen as a new neutral Allied Race inThe War Within. During the announcement, it was said that Earthen would be able to play every class except Demon Hunter, Druid, and Evoker. This was corroborated by early builds of the Alpha, where Earthen could choose any of these classes, including Death Knight.
However, it seemsWorld of Warcrafthas changed its mind about allowing Earthen to be Death Knights. Blizzard recently shared a blog post formally introducing the Earthen Allied Race ahead of thestart of theWorld of Warcraft: The War Withinbeta. On the table revealing their available classes, Death Knight is now listed as one of the classes they will not have access to, confirming the decision to remove the option.
Available Classes for Earthen in WoW: The War Within
While Earthen Death Knights were available in the earliest Alpha builds, the option was removed later on. This coincided with the implementation of the Earthen starting zone, which allowsWorld of Warcraftplayers to choose a backstory for their characters, meaning Blizzard likely removed the class because of story reasons.
In the lore, Death Knights were originally agents of the Lich King who broke free from his grasp.Allied races implemented after the Lich King’s fall inWorld of Warcraftwere instead raised by Bolvar Fordragon, the second Lich King. However, the events ofShadowlandsdestroyed the Helm of Domination and removed Bolvar from the position of Lich King, so there is ostensibly no easy way to explain how Earthen could become Death Knights inThe War Within.
WhileWorld of Warcraftfans generally want as many class options as possible, many seem to understand this new limitation. While an Earthen Death Knight would be cool, it would make no sense lorewise. That said, players are baffled as to why they can’t be Druids, especially when the Freywold faction seems to have a naturalistic practice inspired by Freya, the Titan Keeper who shaped the Emerald Dream. Hopefully,World of Warcraftwill eventually figure out a way to let Earthen play Druids – and perhaps even Death Knights – some time in the future.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the ninth expansion pack for the iconic massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft.Dragonflight features an overhauled user interface, raises the level cap to 70, and introduces a new race and class.
