Warcraft Death Knight Guide

Posted on 15 October 2009 by wowman

In this WoW Death Knight guide we’ll take a look at the Death Knight class. In some respects Death Knights are a hybrid combining both magic and melee.

Death Knight Overview:

Death Knights can do magic but are especially talented at melee, able to deliver destruction to their enemies. It’s this melee ability combined with anti magic that can make them great tanks in a group. We’ll take a look at some of the upsides and downsides of this class.

You’ll need to have leveled your character to at least 55 before you can unlock the Death Knight. However, any race and faction can unlock the Death Knight class. Here’re some good races for Alliance and Horde.

Read more about Death Knight strategies in the WoW Death Knight Guide

Alliance Faction:

Night Elves- Great for PvP
Gnomes
Dwarves- Stone forms are really good for Tanks

Horde Faction:

Tauren’s War Stomp- Great for both PvP and PvE
Forsaken’s will of the Forsaken- Their also really good at PvP and PvE

But as I mentioned you can choose any race.

Death Knight Guide the Upside and Downside

Upside:

Heavy Plate Armor- This makes them great for combat and melee.
Uncommon & Rare Gear- You get these right from the start.
Uses Runic Power and Runes- You’ll get some unique playing benefits compare to other power sources.
Two Hand Weapons- Great for Tanking.
Anti Magic- Makes them formidable adversaries to magic users.
Can use Blood Magic for healing.

Downside:

As mentioned you’ll need a level 55 character before you can unlock this class.
The only downside when it comes to tanking is that they can’t tank with a shield.
Because of their abilities they can take some time to master

Runic Power:

Death Knights don’t use energy, mana or rage but instead use Runes and Runic Power. You start with 6 runes; once they get used up they’ll regenerate every 10 seconds

There are 3 Runes you can use. They are Blood Runes, Unholy Runes, and Frost Runes.

Here’s how the Runes are used for the various Death Knight abilities.

Death Strike: Uses 1 Unholy & 1 Frost Rune; this is an instant cast and doesn’t require a cool down.
Icy Touch: Uses 1 Frost Rune
Blood Boil: Uses 1 Blood Rune

You can use these abilities in combination with one another. This is what makes them challenging to play. If you don’t use your Runes properly you may not have any at all for 10 seconds. 10 seconds is a long time to wait if you need your power right away, like in combat.

WoW Death Knight Guide