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  • href="#sp">Solo Play
  • href="#unholy">Unholy
  • href="#frost">Frost
  • href="#blood">Blood
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/basics">Basics
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/combat">Combat
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/talents">Talents
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/leveling-guide">Leveling
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight">Main
Page

Playing a Death Knight can be
an incredible experience, able to choose to either tank or DPS
deepening on which spec they choose, the Death Knight is a versatile
class that will never leave the player bored. Players typically choose
one or the other (tanking or DPS) and collect gear accordingly,
however,
it is quite possible with the Death Knight to be accomplished
at both. No matter how you choose to play your Death Knight, you will
want to do it well. Most of your skill will come from hours and hours
of play time, but, below you will find some helpful information to
hopefully point you in the right direction:

Death Knight
Solo Play

Soloing as Death Knight can be
a tricky, yet rewarding, experience. Death Knights can not only handle
larger groups of mobs because of their ability to wear heavy armor, but
they can also dish out some crazy DPS combined with self heals that
seal the deal to soloing awesomeness. No matter what spec you choose
with the Death Knight soloing will be a piece of cake.

Simply be sure that all self
buffs are active (example: Horn of Winter), you are at full health, and
pull away. Defeat the mob using any combination of abilities you
desire. Solo play is pretty easy so you can pretty much auto attack
most enemies to death. Remember though, soloing is a prime place to
experiment with new abilities and rotations and familiarize yourself
with your class.

Death Knight Unholy DPS

Those who choose the path of
the Unholy Death Knight will want to start off in Unholy Presence and
will stick to this Presence in almost all situations. Unholy Dks will
also want to Runeforge their weapons with Rune of the Fallen Crusader
for optimal damage. While Dual-Wielding is not unheard of in this spec,
most will agree that it is no longer viable because of this Two-Handed
Weapons tend to be the norm found within this spec.

Death Knights of any spec have
no true rotation. Instead each spec has a set list of priorities
leaving an open range for how the Death Knight plays. The Unholy single
target priority list looks something like this:

  • Diseases
  • Dark Transformation
  • Death and Decay/Scourge
    Strike (Only if Unholy/Unholy or Death Runes are up)
  • Festering Strike (Only if
    Blood Boil or Frost Fever are up)
  • Death Coil
  • Death and Decay/Scourge
    Strike
  • Festering Strike
  • Horn of Winter

Looking to do some multi-target
DPS? No worries! Unholy Death Knights are more than capable. See the
priority list below:

  • Diseases & Pestilence
  • Dark Transformation
  • Death and Decay/Scourge
    Strike (Unholy/Unholy or Death Runes up)
  • Blood Boil (Blood Boil and
    Frost Fever are up)
  • Death Coil
  • Icy Touch

Unholy Death Knights also have
the useful ability to have a permanent Ghoul. This pet acts much like
the Hunter pet and will need to be monitored by the Death Knight in
order to produce the best results. For extra control over your pet it
may be helpful to bind the Ghoul’s Attack/Follow/Stay
commands to buttons or keys you can get to in a pinch.

Death Knight Frost
DPS

Currently unlike the other
Death Knight specs Frost Death Knights have the option to use either a
Two-Handed Weapon or Dual-Wield. If using a Two-Handed Weapon the DK
should use Rune of the Fallen Crusader. If Dual-Wielding the DK should
use Rune of Razoreice on the main hand weapon and Rune of the Fallen
Crusader on their off-hand weapon. Frost Death Knights will primarily
be found using Unholy Presence.

Death Knights of any spec have
no true rotation. Instead each spec has a set list of priorities
leaving an open range for how the Death Knight plays. The Frost single
target priority list looks something like this:

  • Diseases
  • Obliterate (if both
    Frost/Unholy pairs or both Death Runes are available or Killing Machine
    is up)
  • Frost Strike (if Runic Power
    is full)
  • Rime
  • Obliterate
  • Frost Strike
  • Horn of Winter

Looking to do some serious AOE
damage with your Frost specced Death Knight? Check out the priority
list below to find out how:

  • Howling Blast (Only if both
    Frost Runes and/or Death Runes are available)
  • Death and Decay/Plague
    Strike (only if both Unholy Runes are available)
  • Frost Strike (Only if Runic
    Power is full)
  • Howling Blast
  • Death and Decay/Plague Strike
  • Frost Strike
  • Horn of Winter

Death Knight Blood
Tanking

The Death Knight tank is like
no other tank in game, as they use no shield to protect themselves.
Because of this the Death Knight tank is left with the option of either
a Two-Handed Weapon or Dual-wielding. While you do have the option and
while it may be appealing visually, Dual-Wielding is currently NOT
viable as a DK tank and Two-Handed tanking is the way to go

Now that you know what you
should be tanking with lets get on to what you should do once you
actually start…you know…tanking. The Death Knight
tank has no clear rotation, instead they have a sort of priority list:

  • Outbreak (on cooldown)
  • Death Strike (highest
    priority)
  • Rune Strike
  • Rune Tap (only if 90% or
    less health)
  • Horn of Winter
  • Heart Strike/Blood Boil

Basically you want to put up
your diseases then use Death Strike as often as possible. Rune Strike
when you need the threat and to proc Runic Empowerment, and use Heart
Strike for additional threat and to maintain your blade barrier. During
this time you will also want to be sure to keep up both diseases using
Outbreak to provide additional damage reduction key to your survival.

Looking to tank more than one
enemy at a time? No worries the priority list for multiple targets
looks something like this:

  • Death and Decay
  • Outbreak (on cooldown)
  • Pestilence (if Outbreak is
    used)
  • Death Strike
  • Rune Strike
  • Blood Boil

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/basics">Basics
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/combat">Combat
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/talents">Talents
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight/leveling-guide">Leveling
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/deathknight">Main
Page


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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