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Death Knight FAQ - updated 1/5/09
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Post by
visas
This FAQ has been updated as of 1/5/09.
Q: How do you create a Death knight?
A: Currently, once you have a level 55 or higher character of any class on your server, you can create a deathknight on your server which will start at level 55. As of the 3.0.8 Patch, once you have a level 55+ character on -any server-, you will be able to create a new deathknight on -any server- as well.
Q: Where do Death Knights start?
A: Death Knights begin at level 55, in an instanced version of Eastern Plaguelands - more specifically, you find yourself awakened in Acherus: The Ebon Hold, which is a necropolis floating above light's hope chapel, similar to Naxxramas.
After the cutscene, you follow a series of questlines both within Acherus, as well as in the plaguelands below; these quests will eventually lead you up to level 58, at which point -after- having finished all of the start quest chains you will be able to leave the Ebon Hold and venture onward into outland.
Blizzard has used a new "phasing" system in the deathknight starting zone for it's quests. What this means is that as you complete specific quests, the world around you changes, and you are only able to interact with players who are in the same phase as you are.
Q: What races can be Death Knights?
A: All races can currently become Death Knights, the lich king doesnt discriminate when picking his warriors.
Q: Does "Hero Class" mean Death Knights will be more powerful than other classes?"
A: No, what signifies the Death Knight as a "Hero Class" are 3 things:
1. You begin at level 55, giving you a head-start on leveling compared to other classes.
2. An abundance of lore and deathknight-specific quests drive the class progression.
3. You earn a set of superior-quality gear as you finish the starting quest chains.
Death Knights are balanced on the same scale as all other classes, and the blizzard developers strive to keep Death Knights as equally strong as other classes as possible.
Q: What types of armor can Death Knights use?
A: Death Knights primarily wear Plate Armor, but are capable of wearing all armor types.
Q: Can Death Knights equip Shields?
A: No, Death Knights were designed to tank without the use of a shield, similarly to Feral Druids.
Q: What types of weapons can Death Knights use?
A: Death knights begin with 175 weapon skill for the following weapon types:
1-Handed Swords
2-Handed Swords
1-Handed Axes
2-Handed Axes
Polearms
Death Knights are also able to speak with weapon masters in order to learn how to use 1-handed Maces and 2-handed Maces, though both of these weapon skills start at 1 once trained.
Death Knights -CAN- dual wield, though it is a subject of much debate as to whether or not dual wielding is more (or even equally) effective as using 2-handed weapons.
It should be noted that the final quest chain in the Death Knight starting zone currently rewards one of the two following weapons, both of which are 2-handed weapons:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38632
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38633
Q: Can Death Knights use Ranged Weapons?
A: No, death knights - like shamans, druids, and paladins - use 'relic' items in their ranged weapon slots. Death Knight relics are called "Sigils", and provide various improvements to abilities and/or stats.
Q: What class roles can Death Knights fulfill?
A: Death Knights can fill both Tanking and DPS roles within a group or raid, but they are not given heals powerful enough to allow healing an instance or raid group.
Q: How will Death Knights tank without a shield?
A: Similarly to Feral Druids, Death Knights have abilities which improve their damage mitigation without the use of a shield. These abilities are listed below:
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48263
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48792
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49222
(Available to unholy-spec death knights only)
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51271
(Available to frost-spec death knights only)
Various other talents within all three trees improve avoidance, damage mitigation, resistances, and health.
Q: What are the Death Knight Talent Trees?
A: Death Knights, contrary to standard class design, are capable of fulfilling both tanking and DPS roles regardless of the talent tree they choose, so long as the proper talents within each tree are chosen to benefit the role the player is trying to fill.
The three Death Knight talent trees are blood, frost, and unholy. Each tree has a unique playstyle, described below:
Blood:
The Blood tree focuses almost entirely on melee damage. Many blood abilities and talents also allow the Death Knight to heal himself, either when dealing damage or being attacked. This self-healing has caused Blood to become the preferred 'leveling' spec for most Death Knight players, as it reduces downtime inbetween mobs to almost zero. Blood spec Death Knights are capable of dealing high amounts of melee damage, both burst and sustained, making it a well balanced tree for any situation.
Frost:
The frost tree is most clearly defined as the "casting" tree, as most abilities used by frost Death Knights are magic-damage based. Frost is capable of more burst damage than both blood and unholy, making it a popular choice for PvP. Frost also has the best physical-damage mitigation talents among the three trees, leading it to be the preferred spec for general-purpose tanking. Much like a frost mage, frost death knights focus on using abilities in combinations that grant high critical chance and high critical damage.
Unholy:
The unholy tree, like frost, uses many spell-damage-based abilities. However, Unholy focuses more heavily on Area-of-Effect damage, as well as on diseases and damage-over-time effects; these traits give Unholy very steady, reliable threat and damage output. In addition, Unholy Death Knights gain access to a "permanent" ghoul pet, unlike the temporary ghouls summoned by other specs, and Unholy is also capable of summoning a gargoyle to rain destruction on a target for a short duration. Of the three trees, and arguably of all tanking classes, Unholy Death Knights have the best available spell-damage mitigation in the game, making them the prime choice for tanking spellcaster-type mobs and bosses.
Q: How does the Death Knight combat system work?
A: Death Knights were designed with an entirely new combat resource system, Runes and Runic Power. This system can best be described as a cross between the Rage and Combo Point systems.
All Death Knights have six runes, which are shown as symbols below the health bar in the Default UI - 2 blood runes, 2 frost runes, and 2 unholy runes. These Runes are not interchangeable.
Most Death Knight abilities use one, two, or three runes, and require specific types of runes to be used. For example, Blood strike requires one blood rune to use. All rune types have a 10 second cooldown after used before they can be used again.
In addition to the runes as a resource, all abilities which consume one or more runes generate a second resource called "runic power". Runic power works similarly to rage - you can build up a maximum of 100 runic power, and this runic power decays over time while you are out of combat.
Runic Power is used to fuel additional Death Knight abilities and spells. As an example, Death Coil requires 40 runic power to cast, and fires a bolt of shadow energy at the target which either does damage to an enemy, or heals a friendly undead target.
Post by
visas
Q: Do Death Knights get their own Mounts?
A: Yes, one of the first quests you do after creating your Death Knight rewards you with the Acherus Deathcharger mount, shown here:
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48778
The Acherus Deathcharger is an "epic"-speed mount, and can be obtained at level 55 after the quest is completed.
A second mount is available once the Death Knight has learned the ability to ride flying mounts - the Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade, shown here:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40775
This mount is a flying mount, which costs 900 gold to purchase and is obtained from a vendor inside Acherus: the Ebon Hold. Unlike most mounts, the winged steed "scales" with your riding skill. If you only have normal flying mount skill, the mount flies at 60% speed - but once you train epic flying mount skill, the same mount upgrades to 280% speed.
Q: Where are Death Knight Trainers located?
A: Death Knight Trainers are -only- found inside Acherus: The Ebon Hold. Upon finishing the final quest chain in the death knight starting zone, you learn how to cast a spell called Death Gate (
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=50977
). This Death Gate can only be used by Death Knights, and instantly transports you back to Acherus where you can train, repair, unlearn talents, and buy reagents.
Q: What classes will Death Knights be effective against in PvP?
A: The answer here largely depends on which talent tree you choose to pvp with. However, generally speaking, any class which is able to keep out of melee range will be difficult to beat, as Death Knights have few anti-kiting abilities available to them.
Due to the large number of spell interrupts, spell avoidance, and spell mitigation abilities available to most death knights, spellcasters will generally be the easiest classes for you to fight. However, due to the abundance of tanking and physical-mitigation talents available in each tree, melee opponents may be easier depending on your chosen talent spec.
Q: What is the Death Knight's "specialization" in PvP Arenas and Battlegrounds?
A: Death Knights have the unique ability to remove heal-over-time effects from the target, through plague strike and blood plague. Currently, no other class has this capability, which makes Death Knights the perfect counter for classes which rely heavily on heal-over-time effects; primarily this means Restoration Druids.
Like most melee classes, Death Knights have relatively high burst damage output so long as they stay in melee range. So, HoT removal aside, Death Knights can effectively fill the same role as rogues, warriors, retribution paladins, and feral druids in an arena team or battleground match.
Q: What is the fastest leveling spec for Death Knights?
A: This, as well, has been a subject of debate here, and among other forums. Many death knights swear on the self-healing capabilities of Blood spec, which give it extremely low downtime when soloing. However, the high relative damage output provided by Frost and Unholy cause many death knights to prefer those trees, allowing them to kill more quickly.
As always, choose the talent tree which offers the playstyle you enjoy most. You'll level faster if you have fun playing the character.
Q: Do Death Knights have unique skins/appearances?
A: Yes, Death Knights are able to choose unique facial features, skin colors, and hair colors that are unavailable to other classes of the same race.
In addition, Death Knight "voices" are different from the voices used by other characters of the same race, giving them a more haunting tone to their speech.
Q: What color do Death Knights appear in the raid and search windows?
A: Death Knights use a dark red color for their raid and search interface colors.
Post by
visas
Q: What is Runeforging?
A: Runeforging is a secondary ability unique to death knights, similar to poison crafting for rogues. Runeforging allows the Death Knight to imbue his or her weapon with permanent enchantments which provide additional damage or tanking benefits - However, runeforged enchantments do not stack with normal weapon enchantments.
Runeforging is acquired through one of the first quests given to you after character creation, though at that point in time you only have a couple different runeforge abilities available. You may -only- put new runeforge effects on your weapon while in close proximity to a runeforge. Runeforges can be found in Acherus: The Ebon Hold, as well as in the shadow vault of icecrown. It is speculated that runeforges may be available inside the raid instance Icecrown Citadel.
Here are the current runeforges available:
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53341
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53331
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53343
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=54447
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53342
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=54446
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53323
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53344
One new runeforge is being added in the 3.0.8 Patch:
Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle:
Affixes your rune weapon with a rune that increases defense skill by 25, and total stamina by 2%.
This new rune should greatly alleviate the difficulty in achieving critical strike immunity for Death Knight tanks at level 80.
Post by
visas
VARIOUS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM POSTERS
I heard an rumor that you can't leave this starting place..the Necropolis till you have done a quet line.This is true?
This is true. In the final events of the starting quest chain, you free yourself from the lich king's control and are then able to travel outside of the necropolis and eastern plaguelands. Before then, it is not possible to leave Acherus: the ebon hold.
will they be able to use polearms ?
if yes you can actually obtain a better weap at the very beggining
Yes, they can use polearms. However, the two handed axe or sword you choose as the final quest reward when you finish the starting quest chain is better than anything you will come across until level 60 in outland. The axe and sword both deal around 60 DPS and have exceptional stats on them.
The first upgrade I found when questing in outland was the hellboar carving blade in hellfire penninsula, and it was a very minor upgrade.
so are each race of dks going to get a special spell or ability exclusive to race like a priest?
No, deathknights do not receieve racial-specific abilities other than those available to all members of their race (perception or warstomp, for example).
When a DK is created, does he/she automatically receive 46 talentpoints? It would make sense but I just want to make sure. =)
No, when your death knight is created you have no talent points to spend. Each quest during the death knight starting quest chain rewards a small number of talent points. Most quests reward 1-2 talent points, some reward as many as 6-8. This is to help you gradually place talent points as you would while leveling a normal character, rather than being thrown 46 talent points immediately and not yet realizing how each talent effects the class.
Do the Deathknight lose runic power like warriors lose rage, or does the Deathknight have the runic power all the time?
You lose runic power when you are not in combat, at a rate of about 1 runic power per second.
And do the Deathknight start with any gold? Cause how would they get theyr repairs done without, and if they start with it, they may just send it to a twink to gain gold..
Death knights do not start with any gold. The initial quests reward enough money for training and repair purposes.
During testing, I did not have any monetary issues. I started with no money, did not transfer money from my other characters, and had more than enough for training and repairs. By the time I hit level 60, I had over 150 gold from quests alone (both the starting quests in plaguelands, and quests within outland).
And a last question! Do they start with spells? or do they gain them through the starters quest?
Death knights start with the following abilities:
Plague Strike
Blood Strike
Death Coil
Icy Touch
Death Grip
Further spells are gained both through quests and through training within ebon hold as you level.
Do death knights get a boost to their professions to match their experience boost or will they have to Auction House or go back into low level zones for mats if they want to pursue any profession?
Death knights do not receive boosts to standard professions.
They do start at 250 first aid skill, however, and have the ability to craft everything up to runecloth bandages.
I have one question: Will DK's benefit from +spell dmg for their spells ? Damage form skllls such as Death Coil or Icy Touch is modified by AP, but do other benefit form spell dmg ? Even if I think it will be pointless to gather gear for +spell dmg, as if there is much +spell dmg Plate..
Death knight spells receive no benefit from the spell power stat. Instead, all death knight spells have what is referred to as an "attack power coefficient" - meaning they gain damage as your attack power increases.
Death knights will not need any spirit, intellect, mana-per-5, or spell damage/healing on their gear. As a death knight, you will be aiming entirely for melee stats, itemizing exactly like a warrior or rogue would.
Post by
visas
DK TANKING STAT WEIGHTS
Alright, first off I should note that I absolutely hate blizzard's diminishing returns on -everything- in this game now, as it makes number crunching a real pain in the rear when it was already difficult enough before... that said, these stat weights are heavily based on personal opinion, as it was difficult to get a true comparison on so many stats pre/post crit immunity and before and after diminishing returns kick in.
Now, I fully expect some of these weights to be disputed or incorrect as far as other players are concerned, but I've found they work fairly well for me when comparing items and looking for upgrades.
First off, stat conversions for level 80 Death Knights:
4.91666 defense rating = 1 defense skill
25 defense skill = 1% -crit, 1% parry, 1% dodge, 1% miss
40 dodge rating = 1% dodge
49 parry rating = 1% parry
51 agility = 1% dodge
196 strength = 1% parry
184 defense rating = 1% damage reduction (IBF)
1 stamina = 11 health
Now, using those, this is what I came up with for stat weighting:
Defense Rating = 14.9
Dodge Rating = 12.5
Parry Rating = 10.2
Agility = 9.8
Stamina = 5.5
Strength = 2.55
Armor = 1.0
Now, before you go "why is armor so low?", remember, thats per 1 armor, and you have a hell of a lot more armor on an item than you do defense rating =P
Anyways, like I said I know some of these are probably disputable, but what I did was figure out how much of one stat is equal to how much of another stat. Example, 49 parry rating is equal in terms of damage mitiagtion to 40 dodge rating, because both offer 1% avoidance. Due to that, parry rating is given a lower weight than dodge rating because it takes more parry rating to get the same amount of benefit, the same goes for other stats.
Now, when calculating the above I counted the 14.9 for defense rating's weight -AFTER- critical strike immunity (540 defense) was achieved, as it's slightly more valuable before you reach that 540 mark due to offering crit immunity in addition to avoidance and damage mitigation.
Another thing to note, these stats were calculated -with- the 3.0.8 changes, which offer an increase to armor via frost presence, and cause icebound fortitude to scale with defense rating (hence, defense rating actually gives damage mitigation to us now). If you use icebound fortitude every time it's available, then 184 defense rating will give you 1% extra overall avoidance due to defense's effect on icebound fortitude's total damage absorbtion.
I have not weighted out hit rating, strength, agility, crit rating, expertise, etc. for threat purposes yet, those numbers are giving me even more of a headache than these did, but hopefully I'll come up with something soon.
Post by
visas
DK DPS STAT WEIGHTS
Dual Wield DPS stat weights
Stat Weights:
Format:Stats (Point Value)
DPS (10.36)
Hit (2.40)
Str (2.37)
Crit (1.25)
Haste (1.24)
Exp (1.23)
AP (1.00)
APR (0.76)
Agi (0.386) (Thanks and credit to Eriskhaos for the Agi value)
Post by
Wildhorn
Well.. since what i posted got deleted...
/dance
Post by
visas
so what happened to the dirge talent that summoned ghouls when you killed enemies? They remove it entirely?
I liked that one =(
Post by
Katalliaan
This is a great thread, try to push for a sticky. AFAIK this is the only one like it for DKs.
Post by
visas
This is a great thread, try to push for a sticky. AFAIK this is the only one like it for DKs.
thanks.
I did do this off of memory really, so I probably missed a ton of frequently asked questions... if you guys come across any post them here and i'll add them.
Post by
122517
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Wildhorn
If you want this sticky, you need to make a post about it on Site Feedback forum.
so what happened to the dirge talent that summoned ghouls when you killed enemies? They remove it entirely?
I liked that one =(
Maybe was too powerful :P
What i think is weird, is the Blood/Frost/Unholy Aura talent moved from Tier1 to Tier8.
Oh yeah, you shoud add to the FAQ the armor DK start with. List is here
http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=24753
There is also this video that show what DK of all race/sex look like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1BEM1sj7Nw
(the first minute, half of video, is useless login in stuff, so skip to 1:00 right away)
Post by
115952
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Xheoul
You might also want to point out in the tanking section for DKs that they will most likely be basing a lot of their defense on parry chance as well... Since Blizz already stated they wll be able to dish out a decent amount of damage while tanking (this is speculation though) I assume it will have to do a lot with that slight haste a character gets when they parry...
Since they can use 2h weapons the additional haste rating after parrying would make a lot of sense for DKs to actually stack parry chance...that is if blizz releases gear with chance to parry...
Post by
visas
Oh yeah, you shoud add to the FAQ the armor DK start with. List is here
http://www.wowhead.com/?forums&topic=24753
There is also this video that show what DK of all race/sex look like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1BEM1sj7Nw
(the first minute, half of video, is useless login in stuff, so skip to 1:00 right away)
I wrote that list, it's not something i'd forget about - but i dont think it or the video have any place in a FAQ thread. This thread is for answering the basic questions that come up on the forum so people dont spam them in new posts... not for showing off everything that gets leaked from the alpha testing.
Post by
Skyfire
One request I have for the sticky is to separate the word "death" and "knight". Never have they been thrown together in such a way as you are doing, and Blizzard does not use it in such a fashion either. ;o
Post by
visas
Woohoo, it got stickied =)
All the deathknights were changed to death knights as requested.
Post by
122517
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Arathian
question:I heard an rumor that you can't leave this starting place..the Necropolis till you have done a quet line.This is true?
Post by
visas
question:I heard an rumor that you can't leave this starting place..the Necropolis till you have done a quet line.This is true?
Not yet known, nobody here has access to alpha testing and that isnt a peice of information that's been leaked.
Such a restriction could make things annoying for experienced death knight players making a new DK as an alt, but it does make sense that the initial quests you do in the death knight starting area actually 'give' you your abilities as you complete those quests, so if you didnt finish them you'd be stuck with no abilities until you leveled a few times and trained them elsewhere.
Regardless, I think everyone -should- finish all the starting quests just so they know what their class is about. I'm sure there will be plenty of the pvp jerks going "lolrp" and trying to skip them or insulting the players who actually take a genuine interest in the lore behind the class, but those are also the guys who will give up on their DK within a month because the class is too complicated for them to use.
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