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Back, way back, at the dawn of time, well the dawn of the World of Warcraft’s time anyway, there were players and then there were Huntards.  Just to be clear, not all Hunters were Huntards, just the vast majority.  Then along came the Burning Crusade, and the reign of the Huntard continued.  However, when the Wrath of the Lich King was released a strange thing happened. The Huntard faded into the background and the Deathtard (or Death Noob as they are sometimes called) was born and supplanted the Huntards place as the most numerous and annoying class on most servers.

Huntards

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What exactly is a Huntard?

Before we delve into what exactly a Deathtard is, it’s best to look back at what a Huntard was and where the term came from and meant.  To start off, obviously Huntard is a contraction of Hunter and Retard, which quite blatantly proves that it is a derogatory term.  The term came about from the simple fact that when the World of Warcraft was first released, the game was more difficult to solo than it is now, and a Hunter’s pet gave them a huge advantage.  Warlocks had the same advantage but due to wearing cloth and being casters were slightly weaker than Hunters. 

Even a completely green player could log in, create a Hunter, struggle through learning how to train a pet at level 10, and then race through the next 50 levels faster than any other class, all while very rarely dying. Many Hunter players were able to reach level 60 and not even know how to change attacks on their toolbars, since they just sent their pets to attack and then autoshot until dead.  Grouping with any Hunter at level 60 was not just a risky proposition, it was almost a guaranteed failure.  This led to the term Huntard, which referred to roughly 90% of the Hunter population.  To be fair, over 50% of all players, regardless of class, got to level 60 without really knowing their class.  Hunters however outnumbered all other classes, so earned the worst reputation.

Rise of the Deathtard

When Wrath of the Lich King was released, the Death Knight class became open to all players that already had a level 55 or higher character.  This meant that anyone that wanted an alt to play on a server had two choices - level from 1 to 80 or 55 to 80.  I am not sure about your math, but I believe that the 55 to 80 is WAY less work, and so did most other players.  Within the first few weeks of WotLK being live, it seemed that Death Knights quickly jumped out to the lead in pure class numbers.  Almost every person who had a character over level 55 all of a sudden had a Death Knight as well, and hence the Deathtard was born.

It wasn’t always the case that these players were unskilled players to begin with. It was just that all players really needed to do was spec blood or unholy and nuke everything until they hit Northrend.  The content that existed for Death Knights from level 55 all the way through the mid 70’s as a Death Knight with the gear you are provided is so easy that you almost never die, and race through the levels, without even trying that hard.
The easiest way to see the pure number of Death Knights out there is to jump into any Outland looking for group and see the list of all Death Knights looking for a group.  This may not be that bad, other than not a single one ever seems to be tank specced or has any clue on how to play a tank. After all, if you can put every point into blood, and need to go out of your way to die, why bother with anything else?

What exactly is a Deathtard or Death noob?

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Playing a class that you don't really understand is just as bad as sleeping in a corner during a raid

As with any other class, even the dreaded Huntard, just because the class has a bad rep doesn’t mean every single one in a ‘tard.  Listed below are just a few things that indicate that a Death Knight may in fact be a Deathtard.  The basic definition though, is that a Deathtard is anyone that does not have the skill, ability, knowledge, or desire to play the class well.

1. Being level 80 and having all talent points in one tree.  Come on, there are many places you can find standard builds; use them.
2. Being level 80 and having never tried another spec, other than the one they started with.
3. Being level 80 and not knowing how to manage runes and runic power.
4. Being in an instance or raid and doing 1/3 to 1/2 the other DPS’s damage, despite having gear that is on par.
5. Not watching threat levels against targets in a group.
6. Charging into every fight and dropping Death and Decay before the tank even gets to the enemies.
7. Reaching level 80 and not knowing that Death Knights can tank.

The list could go on and on, but I believe that between the items above that show someone as being a Deathtard, and the items that we will discuss next, you will have a good idea what one is.

How to avoid being a Deathtard

While you might just play for fun, and never want or need to be at the cutting edge of your class proficiency, you should still understand several things about your class.  These are just a few simple things that will help ensure you do not end up being a Deathtard.

1. You should study your class and make sure you know a few simple numbers, such as your hit cap, expertise cap, and which stats most benefit you. 
2. You should try out several different builds, including a tanking build.  Get comfortable with the different schools of abilities and make sure are at least aware of them.
3. Learn the best known attack rotations for each build and situation (single target vs. AOE).
4. Learn to assist the tank in instances, and not do DPS to random targets.
5. Try tanking!  At least a few times, you should try tanking so that you can be called on in a pinch, and so that you understand that tanking is a difficult, generally thankless job.  This will make you a better, smarter, DPS player.
6. Practice on Target Dummies in cities to find improvements in your attack rotation and timing.
7. Use the UI mods that are best for your class.  At a minimum use Omen so that you do not pull threat from a tank (or so you know how much of a threat lead you have as a tank), and Recount so that you can compare DPS and rotations between runs.
8. Learn to watch your Runes and Runic Power and spend them ASAP! An unspent rune or runic power just sitting there is wasted DPS, get busy.
9. When DPSing do it in Blood Presence, when Tanking use Frost.  Period.  There is no excuse to use anything else.
10. Do not let diseases stay off of a target for long, refresh them as soon as you can in your rotation.
11. Use the biggest, slowest, hardest hitting two-handed weapon you can.  Dual wielding and fast two-handed weapons do not generate as much damage.
12. Remember to interrupt spell casters with mind freeze and strangulate.
13. Use Death Strike while in a group to keep your health up as need when there is lots of damage going on or the healers are low on mana.  This will ultimately keep you alive longer and boost your overall damage, even though your DPS may suffer a little bit.

Really the new Huntards?

So are Death Knights really the replacement for Hunters as the worst played class out there?  Unfortunately, I have to say that they really are.  Just like Hunters, Death Knights are a deceivingly difficult class to play, simply because of the simplicity that you can play them with.  I know that comes across strangely, but it is very true. Both Hunters and Death Knights can be picked up and played very easily and seem to never die, and do decent damage.  However, hand the reins of either one over to a skilled player and they become entirely different characters.  I have seen characters from both classes in virtually identical gear do over double the damage in a raid from one player to another.  I have met Hunters and Death Knights that die like roadkill in the path of any starting PvP player. And yet there are others that last forever and scythe through seasoned opposition like it was not even there.  This all just reinforces and refocuses everyone else on how often these classes are under-played or misplayed, which really is what earns them the title Death Noob.

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Learn your class, play smart, and above all don't be a Deathtard!

Many players question why players would call someone a Death Tard or Death Noob, and claim that it is derogatory.  Of course it is derogatory, it is meant to be.  As to why bring it up? That really depends.  If the player is just someone random, I think you should just leave it; they are not worth your trouble.  If it is someone you play with all the time, teasing them about it, or discussing it rationally with them, could actually help them pull their head out of their posterior and pay attention to what they are doing, and eventually learn to play. Unfortunately teasing them about it or even rationally discussing it could piss them off and end up with them not speaking to you. I know that the above may seem a bit of a harsh statement, and you may not want to push it too far when picking on them, but really, if you spend time on something, don’t you want to do it right?  I never understood the mentality of some people that sort of half ass everything in life. Sure, it’s just a game, and sure, it’s just for fun, but what fun is it being the butt of everyone’s jokes? Straighten out, learn to play, and become the hell inspired instrument of death and destruction you were meant to be.