Thinking back to the post about good Death Knights, we (meaning all the DK players out there) need to destroy the illusion that Death Knights are for average players, face-rollers, newb-bait, and piss poor. I want to see a change in the perception of Death Knights in WoW.

Even with the additional content released in patch 3.3, you may still see Death Knight players of lower level spouting rubbish, or horsing around as alts. Even worse is that I think the DK class is still not beyond all the stupidity of calls of being imbalanced.  That said I know we can’t kill every troll on the forums. Hunters have had the curse of Tard for as long as I can remember, and I know certain inane opinions will never truly die. But we can start to alter the perception by changing the way we play.

At best it will affect the change I/we want, at worse it will make your online time more satisfying.

Here are some trigger points for action for any serious Death Knight player, who wishes to change the face of the class within the community.

Triggers for Action:

1 – Be ready to help. If somebody asks for help, take the time to give it to them. Or at he very least write down their toon name, and maybe offer help later. This crosses over to all other classes, but especially the other plate dps classes too, as our stats and goals in gear are very similar. I know many folks who appreciate the explanations in plain English about Expertise and Hit Rating, and showing a willingness to assist goes a very long way.

2 – Share your positive stories. In your guild pages, blog comments, wow.com rants; everywhere. A statement made about a real scenario carries weight, and is very hard to debunk or call out. The negative elements of the community may attach to your message, but in the end if your story is truthful then you have presence. Have a screenshot and it weighs three times as much.

3 – Do a good deed every now and then. Give a boost to a starter DK, it could be an entry point to a new good player, may get you a thank you, and will certainly be a way that the other player might seek advice in the future. My effort a little while ago was crafting a set of starter blues for a DK just hitting Northrend. This meant his gear needs were pretty much set, and he trundled through to 80 pretty quickly. Toon is probably better geared than me now. :)

A place of solace for Death Knights - Inside Ebon Hold

4 – Know the resources. Find and link to the common and useful DK resources, such as DeathKnight.info, the DK forum in Elitist Jerks and the WoW.com DK area. Better yet help make others aware of these. Kill a mob for a DK and they’ll have silver for a day, teach that DK to kill, and they’re rich for life.

5 – Don’t feed the trolls. If you get baited into a troll comment, or see a total asshat speaking rubbish, it might be better to reply in a light, even handed way, and then move on. You keep the higher ground and make the asshat look silly, which is what we want.

6 – Don’t be a loot whore. This means that you should be honest about what is your main vs alt, what is your primary vs secondary spec, and what you really Need, versus what you only want/Greed. I’ve watched in horror as a DK started spouting that Tanking was actually his main spec, just as a Tanking item dropped for DKs. The fact that the toon was in the raid as dps, had a terrible tank and dps set, seemed not to matter, and then I found myself in an argument about declaring our main vs offspec roles after it had already been discussed.

Happy killing – TyphoonAndrew