Death Knoob

From WoWWiki

This is a silly article This article is silly. Coming from a source other than the computer games, trading card game, novels, RPG, or manga, its content is not part of official Warcraft lore, but nevertheless has become part of the culture belonging to the World of Warcraft community.

A Death Knoob (aka Dork Knight, Dunce Knight, Donkey Kong, etc.) is a poorly played death knight. The initial popularity of death knights coupled with a quirky play style resulted in a ubiquitous but not necessarily skilled player base. In addition, resentment grew among other classes, especially the classically tanking ones, that death knights who did not know how to tank generally wiped groups with some regularity while competing with other tanks for loot. Another sore point is their distinction as a hero class, initially "OP" capabilities, and an association with a 'dark' character leading to a stereotype of a pompous, egotistical, "emo" player. This is exacerbated by the high initial level of death knights, with players complaining a death knights will never have the experience of a player who has been playing since level 1. While the requirement of having another 55 level character implies the player having previous game experience, detractors point out the character may not necessarily fit a similar play style as the death knights.

Stereotypical indications of a Death Knoob include:

• Dual wield tanking prior to 3.3
• Blood spec, a blunt force DPS and self-healing ability supposedly making them reckless even when grouped.
• Inappropriate use of fairly easy-to-master DPS- or aggro-buffing Presences.
• Heading to the opposing faction's low level zones as soon as possible to pick on lowbies.
• Using paladin armor even though death knight spells are unaffected by caster stats.

Ironically, the proliferation of death knights may have resulted in an overall improved reputation (though lower population) of rogues and especially hunters, under the presumption that players who did poorly in those roles became bored with them and rolled death knights as an alternative.

Adding to the selection bias is that players may roll a death knights on any server once the initial 55 level requirement is fulfilled, making them popular 'test' or 'farming' characters on new realms which quickly become overrun with them.

Role Playing

Death knights are a popular on role playing servers, due in part to their ability to equip a large range of armor and weapons as well as being able to travel more freely than a new character of any other class. It is difficult to overlook those traits, yet not everyone wishes to be an undead vengeance machine, so the solution is to pretend to be something else. Players can write an alternative description using mods, such as FlagRSP, in which their characters could be described as being anything they'd like. This approach works on the assumption that fellow players are blind.

Role playing death knoobs tend to adopt the "out and proud" approach - playing their death knights as undead guys who know how to party. These death knights are most commonly seen dancing, drinking and whoring the night away in the Pig & Whistle, Stormwind. It is unlikely that this is what Morgraine had in mind when pledging his men to the destruction of the Lich King.