Death knight

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Classes
Starting a	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
PvE	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
PvP	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Tactics	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Class races	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Abilities	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Trainers	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Talents	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Glyphs	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Talent builds	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Armor sets	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Useful macros	Death Knight	Druid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior

This article is about the hero class in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. For other uses, see Death knight (disambiguation).

"DK" redirects here. For the old PvP mechanic, see Dishonorable Kill.

Blizzard's original death knight concept was that of an undead spellcaster unit which made its initial appearance in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.^[1] This death knight could be more accurately described as a horseback-mounted lich rather than the traditional undead warrior. Years later, Blizzard introduced a new death knight hero unit in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and this second rendition was revised to reflect the general characteristics of the more traditional death knight design.^[2] To understand the key differences between these two different generations of death knight, see the "Lore" section located further down this page. The death knight was later adapted as a prestige class within the Warcraft RPG and they were former paladin warriors.^[3] It is the Warcraft III version of the death knight that became the first hero class in World of Warcraft and was introduced in the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Lore

Death knight is a name shared by several organizations of powerful necromancers. These orders share a few things in common, including riding horses with horned skulls and many of the same abilities. Playable death knights, however, are specifically death knights of the Scourge.

All Ebon Blade death knights possess an addiction to inflict pain. If death knights do not regularly inflict agony upon another creature, they begin to suffer wracking pains that could drive them into a mindless, blood-seeking hysteria.^[4]

Immortal Soldiers of the Horde

Main article: Death knight (Warcraft II)

The original death knights were created for Orgrim Doomhammer by Gul'dan as powerful soldiers of the Horde. These death knights were created by placing the souls of the slain warlocks of the Shadow Council into the corpses of fallen Stormwind knights, the first of whom was Teron Gorefiend. Unlike modern death knights of the Scourge, these ghoulish fiends were not battle hardened warriors; they were insidious necromancers who possessed superior intellect and tremendous magical power. They often favored the use of terror tactics and reanimated the corpses of enemy soldiers who fell in battle to serve them as mindless undead minions.

Most of these death knights were destroyed during and after the Second War, either killed by the Alliance or transformed into liches by Kil'jaeden.

Champions of the Lich King

Years after the destruction of Draenor, the immensely powerful Lich King created a new breed of death knights: malevolent, rune-wielding warriors of the Scourge. The first and greatest of these was the Lich King's chosen champion, Prince Arthas Menethil, once a mighty paladin of the Silver Hand, who sacrificed his soul to claim the runeblade Frostmourne in a desperate bid to save his people. The rest are primarily made up of other fallen paladins whose souls were twisted and bound to the will of the Frozen Throne ^[2].

Unlike Gul'dan's death knights, these dark champions possess unholy strength, however, they do not possess free will and their minds are inexorably entwined with and dominated by the Lich King's vast consciousness. Despite the heavy costs of free will, some powerful mortals are intrigued by the promise of immortality and pledge their souls freely into the Lich King's service to achieve it. (Baron Rivendare is an example of this).

In the years since Arthas shattered the Frozen Throne and merged with the Lich King, the power and fury of the death knights has only grown. Now these unrelenting crusaders of the damned eagerly await the Lich King's command to unleash their fury on Azeroth once again. Unlike death knights of the Old Horde, the Scourge's death knights are not limited to their use of ranged spell casting abilities. In addition, these tireless death knights are considerably stronger, faster and more agile than they were in life. However, both generations are equally destructive and terrifying to engage in the field of battle.^[5]

The Ebon Blade

A new group of death knights, the Death knights of Acherus, was later created by the Lich King to garrison the necropolis of Acherus: The Ebon Hold for the ultimate purpose of assaulting Light's Hope Chapel and destroying the Argent Dawn. In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, these death knights are freed from the will of the Lich King and ally themselves with their former factions. Working closely under the guiding blade of Highlord Darion Mograine and the bolstered Argent Crusade, the newly-freed death knights have begun their march to Northrend.

The Knights of the Ebon Blade is a faction consisting of the renegade death knights that broke free of the Lich King's control after the battle of Light's Hope Chapel (including player-created death knights). Led by Highlord Darion Mograine, the Knights of the Ebon Blade have allied themselves with the Alliance and the Horde with the help of Highlord Tirion Fordring of the Knights of the Silver Hand, and have pledged to do their part in defeating their former master, the Lich King. Their main base is Acherus: The Ebon Hold, taken from the Scourge after breaking free. It should be noted that the Knights of the Ebon Blade are not a separate player faction such as the Alliance and Horde. For the purposes of gameplay, player-created death knights still belong to either the Alliance or Horde depending on their race.

Notable death knights

Horde

Teron Gorefiend (The first Death Knight created by Gul'dan)
Ragnok Bloodreaver
Gaz Soulripper

Scourge

Arthas Menethil (Former Lich King; slain by the forces of the Ashen Verdict)
Alexandros Mograine (Former leader of the Four Horsemen; freed from undeath by his son)
Baron Rivendare (Former leader of Stratholme; leader of the Four Horsemen)
Lord Alexei Barov (Former owner of Caer Darrow, Brill, Southshore, and Tarren Mill)
Dranosh Saurfang (Known as the Deathbringer, slain during the Battle of Angrathar the Wrathgate and raised into undeath)
Orbaz Bloodbane (Leading member of the Death knights of Acherus during the assault on the Scarlet Enclave; current leader of the Host of Suffering)
Trag Highmountain (Raised into undeath by the Orb of Ner'zhul)

Ebon Blade

Darion Mograine (Highlord of the Ebon Blade)
Koltira Deathweaver (Horde representative)
Thassarian (Alliance representative)

Hero Class Overview

Death knight as depicted in a teaser (very early concept).

Death knights in Wrath of the Lich King are a new class mirroring their previous incarnations. While boasting powerful melee abilities, as well as plate armor, these warriors supplement their strength with dark magic. Calling upon a rune system of magic, the death knight may summon unholy, blood, and frost spells. The criterion for creating a death knight is the existence of a level 55+ character on the player's account on any realm^[6].

Unlocking your death knight

Main article: Starting a death knight

The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft. The death knight will start at level 55 in Acherus: The Ebon Hold over the Eastern Plaguelands, with multiple spells and abilities ready to use, and a set of uncommon gear. When you leave Ebon Hold, you will have a full set of rare gear ready for Outland. Through the death knight-specific quests in this necropolis and the surrounding areas, the character learns to master the power of the death knight and learns to use this new power for the will of the Lich King. Quests will take them outside the necropolis and into an area within the Scarlet Enclave.

Players can create one death knight per realm, so long as they have a level 55 character already (on at least one realm), and the Wrath of the Lich King on their account. There are no racial limitations for creating your death knight.

The Rune System

The final frame art used since WotLK public release.

The death knight uses a unique rune-based resource system to govern his/her spells and abilities. Three rune types exist: blood, frost, and unholy, each with an attached color and symbol. Using certain abilities exhausts one or more runes, starting a cooldown of 10 seconds. When both runes of a particular type are used, the second rune does not begin its cooldown until the first one finishes. The death knight can use spells to turn a rune into a Death Rune, which can be used as a blood, frost, or unholy rune. In addition, whenever the death knight uses a rune ability, it builds up a certain amount of Runic Power. This Runic Power is only used by a few abilities.^[7] All abilities that use Runic Power use a set amount, like Death Coil. Death knights cannot reallocate the number and type of runes - they are fixed to two runes of each type.^[8]

The original player frame for death knights shown at BlizzCon was changed as feedback showed it was not ideal for displaying rune power for players.

Runeforging is a profession available only to death knights, providing permanent weapon enchants. The enchants work just like the permanent weapon enchants provided by Enchanting, but are self-only and are designed specifically to benefit the death knight class. These are independent of the rune resource system.

Character's Role

In general, the death knight can be considered a hybrid melee class that combines damage dealing and tanking, somewhat akin to Warriors. They wear plate armor and are able to dual-wield or use two-handed weapons. Like druids, they tank without shields. Their tanking mechanics involve high armor and a high chance to dodge and parry a,d.^[9] Death knight tanks depend on a combination of high damage abilities, in addition to high threat abilities, such as Death and Decay and [Rune Strike], to generate and hold aggro.

Specializations

Main article: Death knight talents

Like every other class, the death knight has three different talent trees that enhance certain aspects of his or her abilities. Orginally each tree was fully capable of supporting either a tanking or DPS melee role, however with Patch 4.0.1, the Blood Tree has been defined as the tanking tree, while the Frost and Unholy trees are used for DPS. Choosing a primary tree grants a unique primary ability, as well as a set of specialization bonuses, and a mastery available at level 80.

Blood

Blood is the death knight tanking tree, primarily amplifying the death knight's melee spells, weapons, and abilities. It enhances tanking abilities and provides new abilities to use, such as [Bone Shield] and [Vampiric Blood]. As the name suggests, the special abilities it grants through talents are based on the Blood Runes. Blood has a prominent health-regeneration theme, as well as providing healing utility to party and raids. It also has some very useful debuffs, such as [Scarlet Fever], as well as a raid-wide 10% attack power buff ( [Abomination's Might]).

Human death knight

Blood Specialization:

Ability Provided: [Heart Strike]: A cleaving weapon strike.

[Veteran of the Third War]: Provides expertise and stamina bonus.

[Blood Rites]: Death rune generating ability.

[Vengeance]: Attack power bonus based on damage received.

Mastery: [Blood Shield]: Damage absorption shield based on damage healed by [Death Strike].

Frost

Frost has many control elements, with a strong critical-strike/bonus-damage theme, and enhances the dual-weapon and two-weapon DPS abilities. It provides some very powerful direct damage abilities like [Frost Strike] and [Howling Blast]. Parties and Raids also benefit from this talent tree by gaining a 10% melee attack haste from [Improved Icy Talons], as well as a 4% increased physical damage debuff [Brittle Bones].

Frost Specialization:

Ability Provided: [Frost Strike]: A powerful weapon strike that uses runic power.

[Icy Talons]: Increases weapon speed.

[Blood of the North]: Permamently converts Blood Runes into Death Runes.

Mastery: [Frozen Heart]: Increases damage of Frost abilities.

Unholy

Unholy has a heavy focus on diseases and related abilities, with AoE, spell damage shielding, and mobility-improvement sub-themes. It enhances the death knight's diseases and damage over time spells, as well as improving summoned minions. It also provides the death knight with a ghoul who is a permanent pet, and a gargoyle guardian he or she can summon. Raid and party utility is granted by a 8% increased magic damage debuff [Ebon Plaguebringer].

Unholy Specialization:

Ability Provided: [Scourge Strike]: A powerful strike that causes shadow damage.

[Master of Ghouls]: Turns your ghoul into a pet, much like a Hunter's.

[Reaping]: Death Rune generating ability.

[Unholy Might]: Increases your strength.

Mastery: [Dreadblade]: Increases damage of Shadow abilities.

Runeforging

Main article: Runeforging

Runeforge

Runeforging allows the death knight to permanently enchant their weapon. These enchants act as a replacement for the stat enhancements provided by shields or ranged weapons, which death knights cannot wear.

A weapon can have an enchant from either runeforging or from Enchanting, but not both together (the runeforging enchants are always better). A player will have to be near a runeforge in order to forge a rune onto their weapon. Once a weapon has been engraved with a rune it is impossible for the rune to be removed, though it can be changed at a runeforge. Also even if it is not soulbound, once a weapon has been engraved with a rune it is impossible for that weapon to be traded.

Races

Dwarf death knight

Main article: Death knight races

All races released prior to World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria can be death knights, and start with the following attributes:

	Strength	Agility	Stamina	Intellect	Spirit	Armor	Health
Draenei	109	70	99	29	44	140	2169
Dwarf	113	69	100	28	41	138	2179
Gnome	103	75	99	33	42	159	2169
Human	108	73	99	29	43	146	2169
Night Elf	104	77	99	29	42	154	2169
Worgen	111	75	99	25	41	?	2169
Blood Elf	105	75	99	32	40	150	2169
Undead	107	71	99	27	47	142	2169
Goblin	105	75	99	32	40	?	2169
Orc	111	70	100	26	44	140	2179
Tauren	113	69	100	25	44	138	2246
Troll	109	75	99	25	43	150	2169