Well look at that. You're dead. Sort of. Well, you were dead, and now you're not. You're half dead. Or something. If you're undead you're probably superdead, yet not dead. Either way, welcome to being dead!

Being a Death Knight is a fun and fulfilling job in the Scourge empire, and now you too can join this illustrious community and further the progression of universal destruction! Hurray!


BASICS
But first off, we're going to start with the basics. Why?Because I said so. So deal.

I WANT TO BE A DEATH KNIGHT BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE EVIL!!!
"Well, then don't for goodness' sake. Evil is a matter of personal choice, my dear, and if you don't want to be evil what you have to do is look in the mirror each morning and say: ‘I will NOT be evil today'. " - Wysprr, Kithicor


MY OPPOSING FACTION FRIEND IS HERE BUT I CAN'T SEE HIM! WHY????
Because the starting area is seperated into a Horde and an Alliance instance, so you can level in relative peace, other than all the idiots who didn't read that spamming "OMG HORSE QUEST BUGGED!!!" in /1. Yah. Enjoy that.


MY NON DK FRIEND IS HERE BUT I CAN'T SEE HIM! WHY????
Because the starting area is instanced. That makes it so you won't get the %#*! ganked out of you. He'll just have to wait for you to get done with training.


MY DK FRIEND IS HERE BUT I CAN'T SEE HIM! WHY????
Because the starting area is a PHASING AREA. That means, as you complete quests, the WORLD AROUND YOU CHANGES. So while he's out stealing a horse, you're raining death upon the inhabitants of the city on the back of a giant Frostwyrm. If you're that far apart, chances are, you won't see each other.


WHERE DO I TRAIN MY DEATH KNIGHT???
There's only one place currently -- Acherus. That's where you start. That's where you must return to train. You gain an ability called Death Gate, so don't worry, you can easily warp back, or fly back, to your trainers.


MAIL
There's no mail in Acherus. Why? Because apparently dead people get no tail---err---I mean mail. Yes. Mail. Of course. Lucky for you that there is a mailbox on our ground base, next to the horse stalls, by a small house.
...sure is a bummer being dead. /sigh


RUNES
Runes power many of our skills, especially physical skills. They come in either blood, frost, or unholy. YOU HAVE TWO OF EACH. That means you have BBFFUU. THESE CANNOT BE CHANGED. So don't try, ok? Runes take 10 seconds to recharge, so use them wisely. Some abilities require more than one rune, so think ahead of time what you need to use to make a good attack sequence.


DEATH RUNES
Now here's where it gets tricky. Death runes are special runes that count as ANY other rune. However, you can't just normally get them. You can either use Blood Tap to gain one, or you can use talents to make certain abilities make death runes out of the runes that were previously used. For example, if you have the talent, you can make the frost and unholy rune required for Obliterate into death runes. Careful though, they only last 20 seconds, so roll your face on that keyboard asap!


RUNIC POWER
Runic Power is your second "power" bar. Yep. You have two. Screw you class mechanics, we get two. It works similar to rage, but yet must be explained differently. When you use certain abilities, they will generate Runic Power. Runic Power is used for many of your magical abilities. You do NOT GAIN RUNIC POWER BY BEING HIT OR HITTING SOMETHING. It ain't rage. When you use special summoning abilities such as Dancing Rune Weapon, it takes "blah" Runic Power every second it is alive, which means if you run out of Runic Power, it dies. Bam. Dead. Just like that. Waste of a 3 minute cooldown. Sucks to be you. SO DON'T!


PRESENCE AND AURAS
When you start, you only have one presence: blood. But as you level, you gain frost (57) and unholy (70). But...wait...you also have AURAS?? That's right. You take a piss on class mechanics and take both Paladin AND Warrior abilities. Serves them right. Auras are gained through talents, while Presences are gained through levels. Note that the benefits of Auras and Presences DO NOT STACK. If you have Unholy Aura and Unholy Presence, you ain't moving at +30% speed. Presences only effect YOU, while Auras effect the entire GROUP. Use the right combination for the right situation. Or don't. Whatever, not like I'm ever partying with any of you anyways!

HEALS
That's right, we have heals. Pretty sweet huh? However, they aren't your normal run of the mill "twirl your fingers and the HP bar goes shooting up" heals. They require a little more...finesse. The major difference in healing is DEATH COIL. This is NOT THE WARLOCK DEATH COIL. This is the ARTHAS death coil. When used on an UNDEAD ALLY, it heals them. When used on an ENEMY, it hurts them, but DOES NOT HEAL YOU. Also, note, that you are a HUMANOID, not undead. So you can't use it on yourself. That is, unless, you get the Frost talent Lichborne. While it's active, you're counted as "Undead", which means you can now safely death coil spam yourself and not risk blowing your head off in the process. However it also means that Paladins and Priests become a living freaking nightmare from hell. Oh well. It's the price to pay.


RUNEFORGING
SO I HERD WE GETZ DA ENCHANTZ?? Yes. That's right. This is a rather simple part. Runeforging allows you to enchant your blade with special DK only enchants. You must be near a Runeforge to...rune...forge. Yes, it is an enchant, and yes, it will replace any other enchants, so no, you can't have Fallen Crusader and SuperUltraOmegaMongoose or whatever we get in WotLK. Why not? Because Blizzard is mean. Take it up with them. Jeez.


WEAPON SKILLS
We start out with One and Two Handed Swords and Axes, as well as Unarmed and Polearms, at 250. WE DO NOT HAVE MACE SKILL. Why? Who knows. We just don't. YES WE CAN USE MACES. But you will have to learn it, and skill it up. /shrug


TALENT POINTS
But here's something a little different. You don't start with any talent points. The way you get these is QUESTS. Certain quests give talent points. By the end of your adventures here in Acherus, you will have the correct amount of talent points for your level. Why does this one not have a joke or something in it? Because it's night time and I'm tired, that's why. So screw it.


MOUNT
We're lucky in the fact that we get a free epic mount + training even BEFORE level 60. We also get a flying mount, however, this is NOT free. On the beta, this was buyable from a vendor at Acherus post-takeover.


MR. LIMPY (known more commenly as "GHOUL")
Mr. Limpy is your bestest friend in the whole wide world. He'll do whatever you say. You can summon him, make him run into a tree and then self destruct. It doesn't matter, he'll do it. He's also, unless you're Unholy spec, somewhat retarded, and will do what he wants to do. Also, he seems to have a halflife of 2 minutes, and will croak after that unless you are Unholy spec and have the correct talent. Then he lasts forever. He also requires one Corpse Dust to summon, or a nearby Humanoid corpse to exploit. However, note, that this requires the target to be able to give exp/honor. So no, you can't summon Mr. Limpy from Gamon. His cooldown is 5 minutes. But a neat thing! You can summon Mr. Limpy from a party member, and that member will control him! Oh how fun, just what your buddy wanted. What? Battle raise? Screw that, GHOUL FORM DEATH SQUAD GO!

ALSO, THIS IS A BUG, BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT------if you die as unholy spec, and raise as a ghoul, and then leave the zone (as in, enter/exit an instance), you will come back to life. Yep. No corpse run, no nothing. What do you mean now I screwed it over for everyone? Please. It was bound to be fixed sooner or later.


VALKYRIE RESURRECTION
So you died. Again. This time for realsies. That's no good. Lucky for you, the Lich King is watching you. Like a hawk. Like a stalker. Like a stalker riding a hawk. Either way, he's watching you, and he's going to make sure you do well as a new apprentice. If you die, DO NOT RELEASE. A Valkyrie Battle-Maiden will fly down to your downtrodden, beaten, mutilated, pathetic corpse and raise you from the dead. However, note, that this can only happen ONCE every 10 MINUTES. If you die more than once in that time, you suck and deserve to die.


AND WE HAVE COMPLETED BASIC TRAINING! Hoo-freaking-rah. Now it's time to move on to things that should-be-easy-but-for-some-reason-people-don't-seem-to-understand-them. or QUESTS!

******SPOILERZ START HERE. STOP READING IF YOU AREN'T HERE YET******
QUESTS
I'm only covering the quests that are odd. Why? Because beta is over, and now I can't log on to even do the quests anymore. Blah. Maybe I'll add them in later, maybe I won't care. Either way, sucks for you.


WHERE IS DA LICH KING?????????????????QUESTIONMARKx2
He's right freaking next to you. Imbecile.


IMA CHARGIN MUH [Eye of Acherus]
Eye of Acherus may seem complicated at first. It's not. Unless you're stupid. Then it's complicated. But we're going to pretend you aren't, and go from there. If you are, you may want to seek another job. I hear self-destructing mindless ghoul zombie is quite popular this time of year.

Anyways. When you first get in your Eye of Acherus, you will notice you are not in control. So sit back and relax until you are given control. Or hit buttons like an idiot that will do nothing. Whatever. Once you gain control of your Eye of Acherus, it's quite simple. It's like one really big, scary, evil, ghoul-summoning Eye of Kilrogg. You have a couple abilities as a big floaty eye thing. You can:

Go invisible.
Not go invisible.
Summon ghouls (that don't go invisible).
Or scan an area for information.

Obviously, the people will not be too happy when a really big, scary, evil, ghoul-summoning Eye of Kilrogg comes flying down towards them, so you want to AVOID them. Fly above what you want to scan, hit the scan button, let it channel to max, and then go fly off to your next target.

BUT WAIT, I KEEP ASPLODING BEFORE I GET TO THE CHAPEL!
That's because it's not a chapel. It's a cathedral. You're going to the wrong place. Don't they teach you anything anymore? Wait...nevermind. Peasents and Peons are a perfect example of "No, we don't." My apologies. Anyways. Cathedrals are BIG, chapels are SMALL. So stop flying towards it, because it's the wrong way. Fly towards the small one. Congratulations, you're done.


DUELING
That's right, this quest requires you to duel to the near-death. However, you don't have to duel just players. There's NPCs nearby that you can talk to and duel as well, which is good if there's a lack of players nearby, or if you suck at dueling. Because face it. You have to WIN in the duel for the credit. So if you suck, you won't win, and you'll be on this in ten weeks. So go fight the NPC. It's much easier. And if you're playing the week the game comes out, prepare to get PWNED BY LAG.



MY LITTLE PONY (or [Acherus Deathcharger])
It's time to go steal a horse. "BUT WARE??" you ask. At the stables. Can't find the stables? You have problems. When you get to the stables, you will notice there are a lot of horses, and there is an insane boss guy walking around that will kick your ass to kingdomcome if he sees you. So...don't let him see you. Instead, sneak in, grab a horse, and run like hell. It DOES NOT MATTER what horse you get.

BUT I CANT TURN IN MY QUEST!!!
Yes you can. You don't talk to the guy to turn in your quest, you have to dismount the horse. BUT WAIT. Do not just get off it. That's not good enough. You must PRESS THE MAGICAL BUTTON OF SUPERDISMOUNT. Or 1. Or whatever that keybinding is for you. It turns the horse in to the dude, he lobs its head off, and now you can continue on your path of dead horse riding skill training.


SOMEBODY IS TELLING ME NAUGHTY THINGS!!
That's the Lich King. You get that when you attack people who beg for their life. Savor the moment, it means he cares about you -- for now. Lob their arms off. Then their legs off. Then reattach their arms and lob them off again. Then bring them back from the dead and lob their legs off again. Have fun with it!


CANNONFODDER PEW PEW.
Welcome to your first siege weaponry training. Also known as "shoot unsuspecting people with a huge freaking cannon that somehow also shoots lightning out of its arse if the need arises." This is quite simple. Get to a mine cart. Kill everyone near the mine cart. Jump in the mine cart. Ride in the mine cart. Jump out of the mine cart ONLY WHEN YOU REACH THE BOAT. If you do it before, you will die. And then a Valkyrie will raise you. And then you will die again because you're freaking surrounded by like 50 elite mobs. And then you'll corpse run and die again. So...don't die. Anyways. So get on the boat, hop on a cannon, and start blowing them all to kingdomcome. if someone gets near, activate the lightning thingy that a cannon somehow has that will kill anyone near you. Oh, how fun!


DEATH TO THE MINERS
Simple quest. Go in. Throw things at miners. They die. Only one thing. Not all of them die and become what you need for the quest. Sometimes they became angry, evil spirits hellbent on tearing out your jugular. That's not good. Kill them if this happens, otherwise, keep throwing things.

SCOURGE DIPLOMACY
This quest can be an ass, but it can also be easy. I did it in one mob. Some people were going crazy for hours. Other than crossing your fingers though, there are a few things you can do to make this quest easier. First off, dual wield those pokers. This lets you hit the maximum amount in the shortest time. Next, DO NOT USE ANY SKILLS. Get in there, and just poke the crap out of the guy. THE MORE SKILLS YOU USE, THE FASTER HE DIES. The faster he dies, the less chance he squeels. So keep beating on him until he sings. Or doesn't. Either way, kill him when you're done. Why you ask? Why not. It's fun.


WHERES THE BLOOD ELF DUDE??
This quest is annoying if you have no clue what you're doing. Go in to the barracks. Fight through people, kill them, ravage their corpses, whatever. But do NOT GO UPSTAIRS. He is not upstairs. NOT. He's down in the basement. So start looking around for a little door (or lack of door, rather) that leads downstairs into a dark, spooky basement of evil. There you go. You found him.



THIS [Human/Dwarf/Gnome/Night Elf/Draenei/Orc/Tauren/Troll/Undead/Blood Elf] IS TELLING ME THEY KNEW ME BEFORE I WAS DEAD AND THAT I NEED TO BETRAY THE SCOURGE! WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Rubbish. Just cut their head off and be done with it. Quite simple. However, note, that if they do not talk to you when you enter the room, that's because they're either busy talking to someone else, or glitched, or dead. Wait for whatever the problem is to be fixed, and then RE-ENTER THE ROOM. If you do not, the quest will not activate.


FROSTWYRM EAT YOU RAWR!!
That's right, it's Frostwyrm time. Time to wage all-out-war on those happy slappy light loving lunatics. First off, a note. Frostwyrm doesn't actually spew ice. You see, through an intense amount of concentration, they warp the air around them to become cold, ice particles, then shoot it off hurling at the enemy. In other words? It's magic. It takes mana. YOUR MANA IS NOT INFINITE. But you can restore it! By EATING a person, you can regain mana! Note that the mana regained works as a HoT. When you eat the person, keep attacking, because it doesn't heal all at once. In other words, THE BEST WAY TO USE THE FROSTWYRM IS CONSTANTLY EAT PEOPLE WHILE YOU FIGHT. This causes no downtime, and keeps your Frostwyrms pelt nice and shiny.


DEATH TO THE LIGHT!!
Time for the fun stuff. It's time to strike the finishing blow to the Argent Dawn. It's time to destroy Hope's Chapel. Ride on over and get in the action. You'll be uberbuffed, so don't worry about dying. Eventually the sky will rain blood. Dance in the rain while you're at it, or drink the blood if you're a lunatic. Either way, have fun. If you notice, there's 300 Argent Dawn defenders, and a pissload of you. "BUT ZAFT, DOES THAT MEAN--" Yes. It's a joke on the movie and story of 300. Anyways. Eventually, even if you're kicking their tush, Mograine will go wimp on you and give up. A long, tearful cutscene will occur, and like Sarah Palin, the Death Knights will go rogue. It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and apparently you're all out of gum. Get your new, blue weapon from Mograine, and return to Acherus. It's time to end what you started.


DEATH TO THE SCOURGE!!
This is an easy and straight-forward mission. Kill things. You're once again uberbuffed, so if you die, you really, reallllllly suck. Like REALLY. Run in, kill some scourge. Then run in and kill Patchwerk. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE IN A GROUP TO GET CREDIT FOR THIS. You just need to help kill him. It is POSSIBLE to kill him 1v1, but it is a MUCH better idea to kill him with multiple people. Don't be scared with Mograine tells you to bring more people, he's just saying that because it totally sucks to fight Patchwerk for like 5 freaking minutes. That's right Patchwerk. No more play.


DEATH TO THE...oh wait...AMBASSADOR TO THE [Horde/Alliance]
This has got to be the easiest quest, and yet people still have problems with it. I have no clue how. I blame the media and grand theft auto myself. Nevertheless, this is how you do it. Take the portal. OH CRAP, YOU'RE THERE. You are silenced and pacified, which means NO SPELLS OR ATTACKS. That's right. That means no MOUNT. You have to run this. Run on in and head to the leader of your respective faction's chamber. You will be spat on, cursed at, bombarded by rotten fruit, etc, along the way. No, don't go back and kill the person. That would look bad. Keep moving forward. And by ALL MEANS DO NOT LET GAMON SEE YOU! He's going to defend Orgrimmar tooth and nail, even if a small breeze will send him to his perpetual 5 minute respawn grave. When you get to your leader, turn in the quest, and you will become Friendly with your respective faction and become unpacified/silenced. Plus people won't throw stuff at you anymore. Which is always nice.


HURRAY! You're done.

Thanks to all my supporters and contributers:
Fennecus, Lich King (Beta) - Redo Runic Power and Runes, add heals, add Valkyrie Ressurection.
Chookaka, Murmur (Beta) - Topic more discernable
Larwax, Lich King (Beta) - Presence correction
Miste, Northrend (Beta) - NO I WILL NOT REMOVE MY LITTLE PONY. Added ******SPOILERz****** so that people wouldn't complain.

Elixir, Barthilas - Added miner quest.
Casadoom, Kael'thas - Added talent points section.
Stakes, Kargath - Added the poker quest.
Xicuzab, Earthen Ring - Added lack of mail section. Or tail. One of the two. Take it as you will.
Carbon, Echo Isles - Added requirement of corpse dust for raise if honorless/expless target.
Cowbell, Scarlet Crusade - GAMON!!!
Huntera, Malfurion - Un-lack of mailbox section.
Thekazoo, Mal'Ganis - Mailbox location.
Eldadelin, Dragonblight - Mount section.
Nikodemos, Ravenholdt - Added all those spiffy links below!

Everyone who bumped the !%*@ out of this thread. <3

Whysprr, Kithicor (EQ2) - Because Dirges > Troubs

Zaft, Frostwolf (Me) - For being freaking bored waiting on the expansion. /wrist

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SUBMIT ANYTHING YOU WANT ADDED, CHANGED, ETC! I WILL CHECK THIS OFTEN!



Element's Death Knight Macros:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12454676816&sid=1

Jaime's Death Knight Mods:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12454538701&sid=1

Jaime's Death Knight Rotations:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12454538708&sid=1

Arkz's Death Knight FAQ:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12454677032&sid=1

Elixir's Death Knight FAQ:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12454536860&sid=1

Reserved 1/3

Reserved 2/3

Reserved 3/3.

You may now post. Thanks for not interrupting.

Dear Arkz,

You said:

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Q u o t e:
Because Dirges > Troubs

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I agree.

Signed,
Fae Dirge
------

Also, you forgot to mention the dental plan.

SHHH.

Dental plan is for the cool death knights only! Don't tell the others!

Ours is not to question. Only to act.

'THIS IS NOT WARLOCK DEATH COIL. THIS IS ARTHAS DEATH COIL'
10/10

- I loved it.

I think you summed up the chain pretty nicely...

Although did you mention That quest with the miners turning into shades and ghouls for absolutely no good reason? :O

Ah shoot! I forgot how annoying that quest was.

Ok, I'll add it in just a minute. Right now my fingers are cold. Very very cold.

You should also include a bit about Talents:

Although you start at level 55, you being your service to the Lich King with zero talents points. While questing in starting area, you will be awarded a number of talents per quest. Which on completion of the series of quests will grant you the 46(?) talents that a normal lvl 55 would have.

Great guide, thanks.

Very true. Will add.

cheesy as hell


what a tool

---

Q u o t e:
dumb

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Q u o t e:
cheesy as hell


what a tool

---

Good to see that the imbeciles are making their move to the DK forums with great haste.

Go screw a ghoul corpse and keep wondering why you can't turn in that horse.

-I will not respond to more troll bull%@*!, because I don't want this thread to become that-

Silly trolls.

Is GC on a break or something? I know I've seen the retard priest prancing around in other threads too. Would be nice if we could ban/delete some of these morons/posts.