hero class? phfft

The WoTLK expansion for WoW will include the Death Knight class - one touted as a hero class, but on closer inspection it seems to be more hype than hero.

I'm thinking there's an opportunity here though - a way to have their cake and eat it too. The opportunity arises because each player is different in their demands: some are casuals, some are min/maxers, some are hard core, some role play, some PvP, and so on. Trying to balance every character class to satisfy all player types is difficult and frustrating .. so how about introducing a character class that appeals to the hard core types only?

Make the "hero" class more powerful than other classes of the same level, but make them pay to have that power. Pay a salty price of blood, sweat, and tears.

Make it damn heroic to have that class, and not just some past glory of a qualifying quest either. Make it damn hard to level a character of that class, make it damn hard to even maintain that class. Make the class heroic, such that the average scrub looks at your Death Knight and says two things: (1) that's one mighty fine laudable achievement you got there, and (2) you must be crazy and totally off your nut to have even tried.

Firstly, given that the class would be more powerful for it's level than others, it follows that knocking over similar level mobs would be much easier. Therefore, don't give experience for same or lower level mobs. Heck, give only minimal experience for mobs one level higher. You want to be a hero? Take on some real challenges. A Death Knight should scour the land for elites to defeat, not min/max the optimum grinding of XP/hour.

Secondly, since there isn't anything particularly heroic about just putting in lots of time to progress, institute penalties that punish the character if they fail to perform at an exceptional level of capability at all times. While other classes have it ez-mode for leveling when it comes to death penalties, Death Knights should be more hard core. Dieing too many times through incompetence should result in slower progression, perhaps even backwards progression. Heck, simply running away from a fight should result in a penalty - do or die please, you're a hero, behave like one. And just for kicks give them a bigger aggro radius.

Many will try, most will fail. Do you have what it takes to be a Hero?