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Getting Started

This guide is designed to help you understand what the Death Knight is, why you should play one, what professions go along with the Death Knight, and to provide an introduction to many of the unique mechanics that fuel the unholy warrior's different play style.

One of the very first things to consider should be deciding if a Death Knight is the right class for you. However, this very simple question is actually prefaced by another question: do you already have a level 55 or higher character? If you do then you can consider the class. This is due to the fact that Death Knights are a hero class in the game and as such start at level 55, but require you to have a level 55 character before you can create one.

Death Knights are unholy warriors who fill both a DPS and tanking role. This means they know how to deal the damage and how to take it. They also can not use shields making them the on par with Druid tanks that can tank with two-handed weapons equipped. Most of their damage mitigation is from their tough armour, their presences (see below for more information), and various abilities.

Pros on playing a Death Knight:

• Death Knights wear Plate armour, start at level 55, and come with a set of uncommon gear and get a set of rare gear from their starting zone quests.
• Death Knights use runic power and a rune system which is unique to the class and provides a new and interesting style of game play.
• Death Knights can tank with two-handed weapons and get free weapon enchants as part of their Runeforging ability. As a tank they are in high demand for groups.
• Resilient class with lots of magical abilities and melee abilities providing a dynamic combat style.
• Can pull enemies directly to them with an instant ability.
• Lots of abilities to take down casters.

Cons of playing a Death Knight:

• Requires a character to reach level fifty five to unlock, meaning you cannot begin the game as a Death Knight.
• Identity Crisis: Death Knights start at level fifty five, making them attractive for everyone's first choice when they decide to make an alt, but this also means there are millions of them around.
• With Runes, Runic Power, and a number of cooldown abilities they can be complicated to play correctly.

Creating a Death Knight

Death Knights require you to have a level fifty five character before you can create one. You may create one per server and they can be any race (though some racial's lean themselves to the Death Knight more than others). You'll also need the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. If you have a level fifty five character and the expansion then you're ready to make one. Just head to the log in screen and click create new character, and away you go.

A good suggestion is to make one and take it through the starting zone. By the time you're done you'll have had a good deal of fun questing with all of the unique and high-tech quests in the area. Then you'll be able to make up your mind if it's right for you. Since you have to be seasoned with the game to make one you should have a good grasp on what you're looking for in a class. The Death Knight is already levelled up a good bit too giving you plenty of things to try and play around with.

The Death Knight can be any race which opens it up to a world of choice. Each race has its own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to picking. Races can be considered both subjective and definite. Some races are better in that their racial abilities are superior to others as far as the class is concerned. However, the differences can be cast aside whenever looks or visual appeal come into play.

If you're going by racial's then there are some obvious choices. For the Alliance you have Night Elves with their ability to shadow meld which can often give them an excellent PvP boost (not to mention their dodge chances for tanking), Gnomes who have Escape Artist, and Dwarves with Stone Form (which is excellent for tanking). Humans have increased expertise with Swords (which is awesome).

On the Horde side you have two very strong choices. The Tauren's War Stomp (another great PvP and PvE racial) and the Forsaken's Will of the Forsaken (which is also amazing in both PvP and PvE for the Death Knight) are excellent choices. Orcs and Trolls are also very viable. Every class is viable really, so you can't go wrong.

Since a Death Knight will generally be a secondary character for most players anyway, go for something you like. If you are still unsure of what race to pick then check out our detailed list of races right here. In this list youll be able to see the various abilities each race has along with how they look.

While professions will not make or break any character there are some nice benefits to many of the professions that make them attractive to a Death Knight. Some of the ones to consider are as follows.

• Alchemy - This is a good profession for almost any class since you will be using a variety of potions and flasks in your various roles. Alchemy can also be used to make an assortment of extremely useful potions, elixirs, and flasks that can be sold for cash or used to make combat easier.


• Blacksmithing - Many players find early on that creating your own weapons and armour can be very helpful compared to trying to obtain them through quests or the Auction House. The armor created through Blacksmithing can be very useful to a Death Knight, especially later in the game when you gain access to Raid level patterns. Blacksmiths can also add extra gem sockets to their bracers and gloves.


• Inscriptionist - Being an Inscriptionist gives you access to the best shoulder enchants in the game. This has the side benefit of letting you skip the long Sons of Hodir reputation grind.


• Jewelcrafting - Being a Jewelcrafter grants you access to several jewelcrafting only items and access to better jewelcrafter only gems. These gems provide additional stats which are highly benificial to any class.

Which profession you take is ultimately up to you. You should pick one that you enjoy and that works well with the talent build you choose. Which one is the absolute best changes from patch to patch, so don't get to worried if they change a bit over time.

Runes and Runic Power

Mana, energy, or rage may have been what your eyes paid very close attention when you were first leveling up. You needed to carefully watch how much mana you used or else you'd be out and either being chomped on by nasty monsters, watch how much energy you had before you used an ability or else you'd be cutting yourself short on your next ability, or monitor your rage and make sure you were getting enough to use your abilities. Runes and Runic Power work differently than either of these three.

As a Death Knight you'll have six rune shown below your health bar. You will have two Blood, Frost, and Unholy runes. Abilities will use a set number of runes that when used will make that number of runes go inactive for 10 seconds until they're recharged. So let's say you're giving a Murloc quite a bit of a thrashing and you use an ability which costs one Blood and one Frost rune. For ten seconds one of the two Blood and Frost runes will be unable to be used. So if you had an ability that used two Blood runes then you'd be out of luck.

Now, if you played a Warrior on your way to fifty five then you're in luck. Runic Power works a lot like Rage. You gain runic power every time you use a rune. Some abilities work off of Runic Power meaning that you'd be able to unleash them after you've used enough abilities that were powered by runes. Runic Power depletes over time like Rage, so be sure you use it up when it's available!

Certain abilities can affect the recharge on runes or even convert them into Death runes which will work for any of the three rune types. Mixing these abilities into combat can really help you finish off enemies faster and show Murlocs an extra good trashing.

You can find a more in-depth look at Runes and Runic Power in our sub-guide here: Runes and Runic Power.

Presences

Death Knights have access to personal aura like abilities called Presences. They provide powerful buffs to you that help you to fulfil your various roles. The presences are continuous effects, and will last until you change them. You can only have one active presence at a time. The benefit provided depends on the presence, but they can provide extra damage, extra health, extra threat, and more.

If you are doing damage in PvE then you will mainly be using Blood presence or potentially Unholy. If you are tanking, then you will be using Frost presence for extra health and threat. If you are fighting in PvP combat then you will be using Unholy for faster attacks or potentially Blood, depending on your build and the situation.

Character Stats

Being a hybrid class capable of melee DPS or Tanking, Death Knights rely on many statistics. The primary stats depend on what role you are attempting to fulfil in your group. If you are tanking then you are looking for Stamina, Defence, and Avoidance. If you are DPSing then you need to focus on Strength, Hit, and Crit.

Strength - Increases your Attack Power thereby increasing your damage.

Stamina - Increases your health points. This is critical for tanking since you will take a beating.
1 Stamina = 10 Health points

Agility - Agility increases the following: attack power with ranged weapons, armor, critical hit chance and your chance to dodge attacks. The ranged weapon bonus is meaningless to Death Knights since you can not use ranged weapons. The armor bonus is also relatively small since we can use plate armor. The main reason to boost agility is for the critical hit % and dodge %.

Defence - Defence is a key stat for Tanking Death Knights. The more you have the less chance an enemy will be able to critically hit you. At level 80 you need 540 defence to be able to tank without suffering critical hits.

Hit - Hit is critical for Death Knights but essential for DPS Death Knights. At level 80 you need 295 Hit rating to ensure that you do not miss with melee attacks. This number drops to 263 if you are a Draenei or have one in your party.

Expertise - This stat is another critical one for DPS Death Knights and important for Tanks as well. You need 123 expertise at level 80 as Blood or 172 as Frost or Unholy to reach the soft expertise cap. There is a hard expertise cap but it is significantly higher and not completely necessary. The soft cap prevents your attacks from being dodged, while the hard cap prevents them from being parried as well. DPS only needs to aim for the soft cap since they should be attacking enemies from behind, where they can not be dodged anyway. Tanks can aim to reach the hard cap since they will be attacking from the front but need to ensure they are not sacrificing too many other stats.

Critical Hit - This is important for DPS Death Knights since when you crit you will cause significantly more damage.