Death Knights Would Have Fixed Classic's Imbalances

If you're reading this, I'm sure you're hyped for WotLK Classic. I'm in the same boat.The upcoming classic expansion got me thinking about Death Knights and how they would have fit in the original classic WoW. And after reflecting on it, I think DK's would have made the game better if they were around from day 1.CLASSIC TANKSOne of the biggest complaints about classic is the class balance. Now, I personally think classic was much more balanced than people give it credit for, but with one caveat: classic's balance came at the cost of the paladin's class fantasy.Paladins are supposed to be a tank class. They were legitimate raid tanks in TBC and WotLK. They were tanks in Everquest, the game that WoW is based on. They are tanks in the lore. They are one of two classes that can complete the quest for Quel'serrar (warriors are the other class). And their class-specific enchant from Zul'Gurub even provides defense.However, WoW's paladins were not designed to tank in classic raids. This is because they were exclusive to the Alliance, while shamans were exclusive to the Horde. Even though shamans are decent group tanks in classic, they are most definitely NOT raid tanks. Shamans were healers in Everquest, healers in other MMOs, and have never been a legitimate tank in any WoW expansion.Paladins and shamans needed to be balanced against one another, and unfortunately paladins drew the short end of the stick. Paladins became a heal/support class in raids and a limited group tank, similar to shamans. This left each faction with 1 plate-wearing tank class and 3 healing classes for raids, which is balanced... but the cost of that balance was that it destroyed the paladin's class identity. It was never fixed until TBC, when paladins and shamans were made available to both factions and paladins were finally given the tools to tank.THE SOLUTIONThis is where DK's come in. If DK's are available to both factions, then each faction would have a plate-wearing secondary tank available to them. This would allow paladins to take on the role of tanks. Paladin tanks would be balanced against DK's, rather than being balanced against shamans.Paladins and DK's could fill the same niche: AoE tanks that use spells to hold aggro on a large number of mobs at once. They would have lower defenses than a warrior, as well as lower single-target threat and damage, but higher AoE threat and damage.CONSOLATIONSIn order to fit in classic, DK's would have to be a bit different than they were in WotLK. For starters: they wouldn't have runic power and runes for their resource system. Classic DK's would need to use mana. This would allow DK tanks to share gear with paladin tanks, with both classes using gear that features stamina, strength, agility, intellect, and spell damage. This way DK's and paladins aren't competing with warriors for gear and forcing raids to choose between them.Naturally, DK spells would have to be completely re-balanced to account for this, with abilities having a cooldown and a mana cost rather than a rune or RP cost. Spell damage scaling would have to be introduced. (WotLK DK's don't use spell damage at all.) With classic's crushing blows, classic DK's would most likely need the ability to wear shields. (WotLK DK's can't wear shields and crushing blows don't exist in WotLK raiding.)However, I think the basics would stay the same: get up diseases, spread them with pestilence, and use death and decay for massive amounts of AoE threat. This gives classic DK's a niche over warriors and puts them on par with paladins as the kings of AoE tanking.ALLIANCE HEALINGWith paladins acting as legitimate tanks, Alliance raids might need to bring more priests and druids to make up for the lack of dedicated paladin healers, although paladins wouldn't lose their ability to heal. Paladins would still heal whenever their tanking is not needed (such as on a single-target boss that does not have adds). Lay on Hands remains an important support ability that can be used on others, even while tanking.Ironically, this would probably make Alliance healing setups even stronger. Paladins are weak healers but are brought to raid regardless because of their blessings. With paladin tanks able to provide those same blessings, priests and druids would need to pick up the slack, which means means more healing done. More priests also means more inspiration uptime on the tanks.THE BEARSWith paladins and DK's acting as tanks, classic druids would have a much more limited tanking role. However, I think this is an acceptable sacrifice. People were surprised that druids (which are traditionally a healing class in MMOs) could tank in WoW. I think WoW druids were given the ability to tank so that each faction could have an off-tank, but with DK's available to both factions, classic druids would no longer be the only off-tank available to the Horde.With the addition of DK's, classic druids would still have a small niche as a rage-based tank that does not share gear with warriors, allowing them to gear up relatively quickly. Druid tanks would still be useful for fights like Ouro and Broodlord, which are threat-sensitive single-target fights, and for Patchwerk's Hateful Strike, which can not crit or crush and can only be mitigated by high armor.HARM TOUCHOne of my favorite abilities that never made it into WoW is Harm Touch, which is basically the DK counterpart to Lay on Hands in Everquest.Instead of healing a friendly target like LoH, Harm Touch deals a large amount of damage to an enemy target with a 1 hour cooldown. The idea is to give DK's more of an offensive presence than paladins and allow them to do decent damage when not tanking, similar to warriors who can use recklessness when not tanking.If classic were to hypothetically have DK's, they wouldn't be able to do as much damage as warrior/rogue/mage/warlock/hunter outside of cooldowns without upsetting the game's balance. DK's would need an ability like Harm Touch so that they could add real damage to certain bosses when their tanking is unnecessary.WotLK DK's didn't need Harm Touch because WoW was a much different game by that point. Every class had a competitive DPS spec in WotLK, including DK's. But classic DK's would need it (or something similar) to have competitive boss damage.WILL IT EVER HAPPEN?Unfortunately, I doubt we will ever see DK's in a future season of classic WoW. Even though I think they would make the game better, it would take a massive amount of work to fit DK's into the game while maintaining that classic feel.DK's would need to be completely re-designed from what they were in WotLK. Paladins would need new abilities to help them tank, such as a taunt. The raids would need to be re-designed to add mechanics that paladins and DK's could handle better than warriors.It's fun to think about, though!