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FOREWORD- <3.2>
This post has all the basic class information you'll need to start a DK

For specialized views into late game DPS/Tanking/Gearing/etc, Be sure to check out the other stickies on this forum maintained by competent DKs like Kailee and Ashes.
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This is an original work (Except for Ghoulgrims list of terminologies... because its awesome)

In this FAQ I will be covering the following areas:

1: The restrictions and such

2: General Information on the Death Knight and about the Start of a Death Knight

3: Play style of A DK

4: Ghoulgrim's list of DK Terminologies

updated

5: DK Beginner's Macros

6: Questions from the Community

Here we go.

1: The restrictions and such

1a) I bought Wrath, and I cant make a Death Knight?!

As the Death Knight is WoW’s first Hero Class that begins at a high level, there is a level restriction in place to prevent newcomers to the game from missing out on all that Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor quest wisdom. You must have a level 55 or over character somewhere on your account to create a Death Knight. This level is set at 55 due to the Death Knight also starting at 55.

Also make sure you have entered the cd key in your account management to upgrade your account to Wrath Status.

1b) Awesome, I’m just gonna go roll 9 Death Knight Alts

You’re welcome to, however I hope you don’t mean on the same realm. There will be a restriction on Death Knight creation to 1 per realm. (3.2)PVP realm rules no longer apply. You can make a Horde DK even if your chars are allied.

1c) What happens to my 55+ character?!

Nothing. You don’t sacrifice it, it doesn’t become your Death Knight, it doesn’t wave at your Death Knight in a dark alley, etc etc. The Death Knight is created at the character select screen, just like everyone else.

1c-2) What happens if I create a DK with a 55+ char, then delete that char with no other 55+s on my account?

Nothing. As long as you have a 55+ on creation, your DK will not be affected should you delete all other 55+s.

1d) Role Play Support?

I'm not a role player, but I can only assume that Role Play rules will still be heavily enforced on Role Play servers. They have strict naming rules too, so don't go namin' your DK Blaumeux or Rivendare :P

1e) So, race restrictions?

None. All races can be Lich King'd

2: General Information on the Death Knight and about the Start of a Death Knight

2a) So, What level does the death knight start as and why is it so?

The Death Knight starts at level 55. This is due to it being classed as a “Hero Class”. As former heroes of the Alliance or Horde, these corrupted beings have now been raised after death to continue servitude to the Lich King. This does mean when you first create you Death Knight, you’re not officially part of the Alliance or Horde, but part of the Scourge. As seasoned veterans of both life and death, it is believed that running around Goldshire being owned by Defias Bandits is a little below their calibre.

2a.5) I have to go and get my flight paths again?

You are given every flight point in Eastern Kingdoms except Zul'Aman for some reason. You are given all of them in Kalimdor. As for Outland and Northrend, you're on your own.

2b) 55?! What about all my talents?!

Upon first creation of a DK, you will have 0 talents. As you progress through the Death Knight only chain, you will get talent points as quest rewards. 1-3 talents a quest. Respecs until you leave the instanced area, are free.

2c) What gear we talkin’ here?

Your DK will start in a suit of greens which will eventually upgrade to a suit of blues by the time the chain is over.

2c-2) - Are DKs restricted to plate gear?

Like all other plate classes, DKs can wear Plate, Mail, Leather and Cloth

2d-1) Can I get killed by other players doing the DK chain?

No. The DK chain takes place in an instanced area. Horde DKs and Allied DKs are in separate instances until the final bit of the chain. The Ebon Hold is a sanctuary anyway so no pvp can occur.

2e) So like, I start off with 300 in every profession yeah?

No. You get a high skill in First Aid which allows for heavy runecloth bandaging. That’s it. If you want to level up professions, you’re going back to lovable Eastern Kingdoms after your Chain.

(Spoiler) 2f) So I’m on the chain and I’m up to this horse quest. WHY WONT HE TAKE MY HORSE?

Your action bars have changed when you mount the horse.
1) Turns the horse into the dued
2) Is like a sprint for 5 secs to help you get away from the elite roaming the area

(Potential spoiler ) 2g) So like, I’m sure there were guys down there last time I went down there

This is a new system called the WoW Phasing system. As you progress through quests, your input into the area is shown without teleporting to a different area, and without a load screen. There are different levels of phasing. The most extreme phases prevent you from interacting with other players whom are on different parts of the quest chain than you. The transition between phases is so seemless, you won’t notice it till it has happened. This new system really advances plots as you can see the effect your assistance gives to, in this case, the scourge’s attack on New Avalon. The Death Knight starting areas is only one of many new phases in Northrend, You’ll just have to find them!

2h) How hard is this chain?

As hard as it needs to be for a 55 + Teaching new game mechanics. This chain should be where you judge if a Death Knight is right for you. IF you don’t really understand the play style or aren’t enjoying the play style, it would probably be best to discontinue (after you finish the epic chain of course)

3: Play style of A DK

The Death Knight is, in my opinion, a very calculated class. Like many other classes, you’ll find a rotation that works and stick to it, however there is a lot of rune combos that work.

3a) The Rune System]

A Death Knight’s power comes from their rune blade. Unlike original concepts, Death Knights have been built around 2 Blood runes, 2 Frost runes and 2 Unholy runes. These runes cannot be changed. The previous way to change these runes, “Runeforging”, has been remade. It is now an ability for Death Knights to enchant their own weapons with rune enchants that are better than commercially available enchanter enchants. They are FREE and you can change them as many times as you want. However this can only be done in The Ebon Hold. Like Druids, you will learn a spell to open a portal back to The Ebon Hold at any time.

You have 2 forms of attacks. Rune Skills and Runic Power Skills.

Rune Skills are staple abilities of the class that consume runes to function. Each rune has a base 10 second cooldown. For example, I use Icy Touch. This consumes 1 frost rune. Then I use Death and Decay, 1 unholy + 1 frost + 1 blood. I will no longer be able to use skills that require a frost rune until the first rune cools down. Some Talents allow for your runes to come back as "Death Runes". These runes count as any of the three rune types.

Whenever you use a Rune Skill, you will generate Runic Power (very similar to rage in that it degenerates over time). These skills are mainly used to tie rotations together. You have a base maximum of 100 runic power which can be increased via talents. Different Rune Skills generate different amounts of Runic Power.

An example of a Runic Power consuming skill you will have access to on creation of a Death Knight is Death Coil. This skill consumes 40 runic power to launch a ball of death at an enemy to damage them; and can also be used to heal your undead minion which is introduced in 3b.

In order to generate the Runic power required to cast Death Coil, I would need to cast 4 single rune strikes if I have no talents placed; as there are talents that increases the runic power generation of your moves.

Recap: 6 runes -- 2 Blood, 2 Unholy, 2 Frost. -- 100 runic power (130 with 2 points in tier 1 frost)

3b) The Ghoul Mechanics

No matter your spec, you will have the spell Raise Dead (trained at level 56). With any humanoid corpse, you will be able to raise a ghoul to fight beside you without a cost (with any corpse that is not humanoid, or no available corpses, corpse dust is required unless you have the new minor glyph of raise dead, which removes this restriction)

Assuming no talents have been placed: A ghoul will last for 1 minutes and the spell has a 3 minute cool down. You will have no control over the ghoul. It will attack whatever you attack.

Unholy Death Knights have a lot more versatility in the Ghoul department.

A point in unholy talent 'Master of Ghouls' not only gives you total control over the ghoul, and gives it a cute random name each summon like “Dirtmonger” and it will no longer die after a set amount of time, so it will either be dismissed or killed. This talent now also reduces the cooldown of Raise Dead by 60 seconds.

The Talent "Night of the Dead", which is now a requirement to get Master of Ghouls will reduce your Raise Dead cooldown by a further 1.5mins, meaning your Raise Dead will only have a 30 second cooldown!

Another interesting thing to note is, since your ghoul is undead, you can launch a Death Coil at his face!... Like Arthas in WC3, your Death Coil heals undead friendly targets like your pet ghouly. On the flip side, Death PAct allows you to kill your ghoul to restore your hp. But if you want to sacrifice your ghoul in other gruesome ways, you can spec 11 points in unholy to get "corpse explosion". If you target your ghoul while and cast this spell, he'll turn into a 3 second timebomb, exploding for substantial damage to every target withing ~15yrds.

3b – 1) OMG CORPSE DUST WHERE I GET?

A reagent vendor? Duh?

3b – 2) If I’m an unholy DK with a ghoul and I mount will it die?

No, it functions as a normal pet. If you do not have the point in Master Of Ghouls, it will act like a guardian and not despawn when you mount.

3b – 3) You’ve been talking about a single ghoul. What about that mad DK who summoned all them Ghouls at once on the Blizzcon trailer?

Don’t worry. Your mad lust to send ghouls at innocents is still in the game. With a 20 minute cool down, the spell “Army of the Dead” allows for the summoning of a huge legion of ghouls (channeled for 5 seconds) for ~ 1 minute. Even with a point in master of ghouls, these ghouls will just run around and kill anything they see. They also taunt EVERYTHING.

The Talent "Night of The Dead" mentioned earlier will reduce the cooldown of this spell by 10 minutes.

4: Death Knight Terminology

(I dont usually like to take things I didn't write. But Ghoulgrim from the beta forums posted this excellent terminology guide and allowed others to repost it. - CREDITS TO GHOULGRIM <3)

AMS - Anti-magic Shell
AMZ - Anti-magic Zone
AotD - Army of the Dead
B - Blood rune (1B = one blood rune, etc.)
BB - Blood Boil
BCB - Blood Caked Blade
BP - Blood Plague
BS - Blood Strike
BT - Blood Tap
CE - Corpse Explosion
CF - Crypt Fever
CoI - Chains of Ice
Desc - Desecration
(3.2)Deso - Desolation
DnD - Death and Decay
DC - Death Coil
DK - Death Knight
DRM - Death Rune Mastery
DRW - Dancing Rune Weapon
EP - Ebon Plague, Ebon Plaguebringer
ERW - Empower Rune Weapon
F - Frost rune (1F = one frost rune, etc.)
FF - Frost Fever
FS - Frost Strike
FU - Rune combination that generally results in a strong rune attack.
GoG - Guile of Gorefiend
HB - Howling Blast
HC - Hungering Cold
HoW - Horn of Winter
HS - Heart Strike
IBF - Icebound Fortitude
IIT - Improved Icy Talons
IT - Icy Touch / Icy Talons (IT is usually icy touch when used in rotation layouts)
LB - Lichborne
MoB - Mark of Blood
MoM - Might of Mograine
OB - Obliterate
PS - Plague Strike
RoR - Rage of Rivendare
RP - Runic Power
RPM - Runic Power Mastery
RS - Rune Strike
RT - Rune Tap
SS/ScS - Scourge Strike (not to be confused with Sinister Strike, or Steady Shot)
(3.2)ToT - Threat of Thaussarian (
U - Unholy rune (1U = one unholy rune, etc.)
UA - Unbreakable Armor
UB - Unholy Blight
VB - Vampiric Blood

5: Beginner Death Knight Macros

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/cast [target=pet] Death Coil
>This macro will target your ghoul and cast Death Coil on it to heal it in one click!
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/cast Death Grip
/yell GET OVER HERE!
>... You need this
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#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Plague Strike, Icy Touch
>This macro will allow you to bind both disease attacks to one button. It will cast PS first, then IT. It will reset to PS after 10 seconds of non use, or if you use Icy Touch.

For other helpful macros, please see the DK Macros sticky on this forum!

6: Questions from the Community

Scarrune <Velen> : Q: How do you repair yourself when you are damaged? You start off with so little money that you really can't afford to repair your armor. I went to my main, warrior character and sent my DK character 100g, and then went back into the game as DK, now I am unable to find a mailbox in which to get this money. So Now I'm stuck with damaged armor, damaged sword, and no way to repair myself making doing any quests impossible. Please advise.

A: There is a repairer up in Ebon hold (next to the anvils) but the Mailbox in the starting area is down the bottom. After the attack on the humans begins you can go out of Death's Breach and towards the human village. Next to one of the first houses there is a mailbox that you can use. If you cant find it, activate the blizzard UI (turn off all your mods) and activate the Mailbox tracker that is on the minimap of the Blizzard UI (looks like a telescope when you click it you can track for a lot of things)

Bhosux <Kael'thas>: Q: So why were/are DKs aligned with Horde or Alliance in the first place? They fought and killed both. I think a true DK should be neutral and be able to pick and choose a side when and for as long as it suits them. After all they are DEATH Knights, not Weenie Knights. I just do not see them being obliged to belong to either side; their only goal being revenge on the LK and to heck on who or what they use to get it.

A: That's all explained in the DK chain ^_^.

But I'll reiterate.

You are actually not part of the alliance/horde at all. You're part of the Knights of the Ebon Blade. Highlord Darion Mograine asked you, a former champion of the alliance/horde army; to present Tirions peace treaty to your leader. If you had gone to the opposing factions leader, not only would you not know their language, they would have simply killed you on the spot for being an alliance/horde. They wouldnt even think twice hey this guys a death knight.

So you're only assisting the alliance/horde by request of highlord mograine as our order needs allies to survive.

Zorik: <Burning Legion>: Q: Ok, about the new split ghoul spells. I only have a raise ghoul, and no raise ally. Also, when I go to a trainer, I see no new raise ally spell that I can learn, now (lvl 66), or even at the later levels? Is it a quest or what?

A: Trained at level 72 :)

Great list of tank gear with multiple items per slot, and where to get them
http://deathknight.info/forum/index.php?topic=6673.0
NOTE: this list is missing several good items from N/H ToC 5... Complete ToC loot list below
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=869

If you're a theorycrafter, here's a theorycrafting think tank. There is a lot of useful information, but it may or should i say WILL overwhelm first time players (It's like reading a dictionary). Suggested reading only after you've "got a feel" for the class.
http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t36638-death_knight_pve_dps/

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Edit: most faqs got stickied, these are three that i found VERY useful
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Edit YaY i was mentioned in the first post ^_^
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BTW Elixir, send me in-game mail on this character if you need me to add anything in this space like links etc. (if your post can't fit anything more). I haven't been playing my DK (guild needed a shaman, and now a hunter...) so I haven't checked this post in months :(. I've played him twice in the last 2 months and am seriously considering tank gearing him out so I can run things with my friend's guilds on off nights ^_^.

Awesome post.

You might wanna mention that Blizz's goal is to allow all three specs of DK to be able to tank or to DPS, but not both at teh same time.

That is, there's frost DPSers and frost tanks.
There's blood DPSers and blood tanks.
There's unholy kitty-ghoul DPSers and unholy kitty-ghoul tanks.

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Q u o t e:


I'm not a role player

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Q u o t e:
From the lowliest peasant to the greatest king; from the smallest gnome to the tallest tauren, the Lich King enslaves you all.

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Kitty-Ghoul? lol

Edit:

@Televator

Getting creative and making a post more entertaining to read is not roleplaying.

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Q u o t e:

Edit: Notable Posters so far on live: (I didn't keep track of beta enough)
Elixer - Barthilas
This Massive FAQ

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For shame! Lol xD

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Q u o t e:

@Televator

Getting creative and making a post more entertaining to read is not roleplaying.

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think of it as free bumps

can't a brotha troll :(

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Q u o t e:
Kitty-Ghoul? lol

Edit:

@Televator

Getting creative and making a post more entertaining to read is not roleplaying.

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Well~ hunters get kitties, we get kitty-ghouls. :p

That, and I said I would totally name my ghoul Kitty if I could.

Part 5 done.

Let the questions, trolling, learning and loving commence!

Thanks Elixir.

Reported for sticky!


Check out my guide and see if there's anything you'd like added too it. Note that it is NOT a comprehensive guide, it's just a beginning guide so we can dodge stupid questions!

Awesome small tweaks to layout ^^

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Q u o t e:
Reported FO' STICKY

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<3

Just a quick glance through and this caught my eye:

The Unholy Talent "Army of the Dead" Also reduces the cooldown on your army of the dead and raise dead every time you use plague strike.

Shouldn't that be the Unholy talent "Night of the Dead"? :P

Amazing FAQ though Elixir, reporting for sticky as well!