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  • 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

Death Knight Talent Trees

Each class in World of Warcraft
has access to three distinct Talent Trees. Here players will have the
chance (starting at level 10)to place talent points, that are earned as
the player levels, into class specific abilities known as talents. At
one time picking these talents could be a difficult and daunting task,
but thanks to a few changes by Blizzard choosing talents is simpler
than ever before.

Your first step is to decide
what talent tree appeals to you. The Death Knight talent trees consist
of: Unholy, Frost, and Blood. Unholy and Frost are both DPS trees while
Blood is the current tanking tree for Death Knights. Once you have
chosen and placed your first point in one of these talent trees you
will be required to place at least 31 points into that talent tree
before you will be able to branch out into other trees. How you spend
these points is totally up to you, although there are certain
“standard” placements among all classes.

Below you will find several of
the most important talents for each tree as well as talents you should
avoid. Remember, these are only suggestions based on current standards,
how you ultimately choose to spec is entirely up to the individual.

Death Knight Unholy Talents

Blizzard describes the Unholy
Death Knight:

“A
master of death and decay, spreading infection and controlling undead
minions to do
bidding.”

Those players that choose the
Unholy tree will automatically gain Scourge Strike as soon as the first
point is placed in the tree. This talent will become a major part of
the Unholy Death Knight’s DPS. On top of this ability perks
for the Unholy Death Knight include the ability to reduce the cool down
on Raise Dead by 60 seconds and the Ghoul summoned by the spell is
considered a pet under the Death Knight’s control, whenever
the Death Knight uses Blood Strike, Pestilence, or Festering Strike the
Runes spent will become Death Runes when the activate, Strength is
increased by 20% and
a Mastery bonus that increases Shadow damage by 20% with each
additional point of Mastery increasing it by an additional 2.5%.

The Unholy tree is full of
excellent talents and you will want to pick up most of them (you have
to spend 31 points here anyways). Here are some of the talents you will
want to pick up in this tree:

  • Virulence
  • Epidemic
  • Morbidity
  • Runic Corruption
  • Unholy Frenzy
  • Contagion
  • Shadow Infusion
  • Magic Suppression
  • Rage of Rivendare
  • Unholy Blight
  • Improved Unholy Presence
  • Dark Transformation
  • Ebon Plaguebringer
  • Sudden Doom
  • Summon Gargoyle

Once you have spent your 31
talents in the Unholy tree, you can then look to the other talent trees
for some excellent options such as: Improved Blood Tap, Scent of Blood,
Scarlet Fever, and Hand of Doom in the Blood tree or Runic Power
Mastery in the Frost tree. Talents you will want to avoid include PvP
based talents such as Death’s Advance. Any other talents are
fair game so feel free to experiment with your spec!

Death Knight Frost Talents

Blizzard describes the Frost
Death Knight:

“An
icy harbinger of doom, channeling runic power and delivering rapid
weapon strikes.”

Those players who choose the
Frost tree will gain the Frost Strike ability as soon as they place a
point into this tree. They will also gain a 20% increase to melee
attack speed, the ability to permanently transform Blood Runes into
Death Runes, and a Mastery bonus that increases all Frost damage by 15%
and each additional point of Mastery increases Frost damage by an
additional 2.0%.

The Frost tree is full of
excellent talents and you will want to pick up most of them (you have
to spend 31 points here anyways). Here are some of the talents you will
want to pick up in this tree:

  • Annihilation
  • Merciless Combat
  • Chill of the Grave
  • Killing Machine
  • Rime
  • Pillar of Frost
  • Improved Icy Talons
  • Brittle Bones
  • Hungering Cold
  • Improved Frost Presence
  • Threat of Thassarian
  • Howling Blast

There are also some excellent
talents in the other trees as well that you may want to consider
picking up including Butchery and Bladed Armor in the Blood tree, and
Virulence in the Unholy tree. Stay away from talents such as Lichborne,
Chilblains and On a Pale Horse that are primarily PvP based. Also if
you decide you would rather use a Two-Handed weapon instead of
Dual-Wielding be sure to skip over talents listed above that benefit
only Dual-Wielding Death Knights such as Threat of Thassarian.

Death Knight Blood Talents

Blizzard describes the Blood
Death Knight:

“A
dark guardian who manipulates and corrupts life energy to sustain self
in the face of an enemy onslaught.”

Choosing the Blood tree will
allow the Death Knight to instantly gain access to the Heart Strike
ability. On top of this they will also reap several other benefits
including: an increase in Stamina by 9% and Expertise by 6, whenever
the Death Knight hits with Death Strike or Obliterate, the Frost and
Unholy Runes will become Death Runes when the activate, each time the
Death Knight takes damage 5% of the damage taken will be be added to
your attack power up to 10% of your total health and finally a Mastery
bonus that allows the Death Knight to gain 50% of the amount healted as
a damage absorption shield each time you heal yourself with Death
Strike while in Blood Presence with each point of Mastery increasing
the shield by 6.25%.

The Blood tree is full of
exciting talents and you will find that you will want to place the
grand majority of your points here. Several of the must have talents
include:

  • Blade Barrior
  • Bladed Armor
  • Improved Blood Tap
  • Scent of Blood
  • Scarlet Fever
  • Bone Shield
  • Toughness
  • Sanguine Fortitude
  • Blood Parasite
  • Improved Blood Presence
  • Will of the Necropolis
  • Rune Tap
  • Vampiric Blood
  • Improved Death Strike
  • Dancing Rune Weapon

Once you have allotted the
required points into the Blood tree you may begin to look into the
other trees for talent choices. There are several that are useful
including: Runic Power Mastery. Icy Reach, Lichborne, and Endless
Winter in the Frost tree and Epidemic in the Unholy tree. Because Blood
is the tanking spec picking talents here is easier than any other spec.
Simply choose talents that improve survivability and skip the ones that
don’t. Feel free to play around with your spec using this
logic…you cannot go wrong!


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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