Game director says Death Knights are 'too strong'.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King screenshot

Blizzard has explained the changes that the upcoming World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 will bring to the popular Death Knight class.

The class, introduced in the second WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is considered by many players to be overpowered.

Changes to the Death Knight, which have been detailed on the public test realm (PTR) version of the patch, include a nerf (a reduction in power) to the Frost Strike ability, the doubling of the cooldown (the time it takes an ability to recharge) of Icebound Fortitude and the halving of the bonus to stamina from Veteran of the Third War.

When asked by VideoGamer.com to explain the changes Patch 3.2 will bring to the Death Knight, game director Tom Chilton said: “More than anything else we're just trying to make sure we balance Death Knights relative to everybody else. Of course we want Death Knights to feel like an awesome powerful class, just like any other class. People mention the fact that they're a hero class, but to us what that means is, well, they have their own special starting experience – they start at level 55, which is very heroic compared to other characters. But that doesn't mean that at the end game they're supposed to be more powerful. We've found there were areas of the game we felt like they were just too strong, so we're trying to balance them just like we would any other character class.”

Chilton also said that the patch is still “several weeks” from release on the main WoW servers.

“It's been on the public test realms for a few weeks now. Generally we have our patches up there for a while longer than that. I'm sure there will be several weeks when I get back that we'll still be on the PTR. Whenever we feel like it's ready and solid and as free of bugs as we can possibly get it, then we'll release it.”

What do you think about the changes Blizzard is making to the Death Knight? Let us know in the comments section below.