- 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.
- See also: Starting a death knight
| “ | When the Lich King's control of his death knights was broken, his former champions sought revenge for the horrors committed under his command. After their vengeance was won, the death knights found themselves without a cause and without a home. One by one they trickled into the land of the living in search of a new purpose.
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| Fail:Death knight crest.png |
Death knights (introduced in Wrath of the Lich King) boast 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[1].
The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft. Death knights 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 departing Ebon Hold, they have a full set of rare gear ready for Outland. Through the death knight-specific quests in this necropolis and the surrounding areas, they learn to master the power of the death knight and learn to use this new power for the will of the Lich King. Quests 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 and Wrath of the Lich King on their account. Currently the Pandaren cannot become death knights.
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.
Immortal Soldiers of the Horde
Death Knight by Red Knuckle.
Dwarf death knight
Human death knight
Death knight as depicted in a teaser (very early concept).
- 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 potential loss 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.[3]
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 (in other words, 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/faction.
Notable death knights
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Races
- Main article: Death knight races
The death knight class can be played by the following races, with the following stats:
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 blade weapons (and maces, as revealed later). Like druids, they tank without shields. Their tanking mechanics involve high armor and a high chance to parry.[4] Death knight tanks depend on a combination of high damage abilities, in addition to high threat abilities.
Like every other class, the death knight has three different specializations; the differences between them are not as clear-cut as those of other classes, both for PvP and PvE environments. Notably, death knights can tank or deal damage regardless of specialization, although a careful selection is still required to bolster their preferred role. In patch 4.0.1, the roles became more defined, with Blood becoming the Tank specialization tree, and the others being DPS.
Blood enhances the death knight's melee abilities and damage and vastly improves the ability to heal itself. As the name suggests, the special abilities it grants through talents are based on the Blood Runes. Blood also provides healing utility to party and raids and has some very useful buffs and debuffs that the death knight can cast on others. Blood is considered the tree for soloing and should be given a thought when it comes time to level your Death Knight. Many 80-85 dks suggest to start as unholy and then switch to your blood spec depending on what suits you best.
Frost enhances melee abilities and focuses on increasing both AoE and single target damage. It provides some very powerful direct damage abilities.
Unholy enhances the death knight's diseases and damage over time spells, making them effective at AoE DPS. It also provides the death knight with a ghoul who is a permanent pet, a gargoyle guardian he or she can summon, and stronger diseases.
The Rune System
Death knights use a unique rune-based resource system to govern their 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. After the cooldown, the runes refresh. Death knights 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 they use a rune ability against a foe, it builds up a certain amount of Runic Power. This Runic Power is only used by few abilities.[5] All abilities that use Runic Power use a set amount. Death knights cannot reallocate the number and type of runes - they are fixed to two runes of each type.[6]
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.
Specializations/stats
| “ | A dark guardian who manipulates and corrupts life energy to sustain himself in the face of an enemy onslaught.
- Official description
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” |
- Stat priority
- Mastery Rating
- Hit Rating and Expertise Rating (until 7.5% of each)
- Dodge Rating and Parry Rating
- Haste Rating
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Dark Command Rune Strike Blood Parasite |
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Spell deathknight bloodtap.png | [Blood Rites] | Starts with |
| Fail:Inv shield 71.png | [Vengeance] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell misc warsongfocus.png | [Veteran of the Third War] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell nature shamanrage.png | [Dark Command] | 58 |
| Fail:Inv weapon shortblade 40.png | [Heart Strike] | 60 |
| Fail:Ability rogue bloodyeye.png | [Scent of Blood] | 62 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight bloodpresence.png | [Improved Blood Presence] | 64 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight runetap.png | [Rune Tap] | 64 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight darkconviction.png | [Rune Strike] | 65 |
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Spell shadow soulleech.png | [Blood Parasite] | 66 |
| Fail:Ability rogue vendetta.png | [Scarlet Fever] | 68 |
| Fail:Ability creature cursed 02.png | [Will of the Necropolis] | 70 |
| Fail:Ability deathknight sanguinfortitude.png | [Sanguine Fortitude] | 72 |
| Fail:Inv sword 07.png | [Dancing Rune Weapon] | 74 |
| Fail:Spell shadow lifedrain.png | [Vampiric Blood] | 76 |
| Fail:Ability deathknight boneshield.png | [Bone Shield] | 78 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight deathstrike.png | [Mastery: Blood Shield] | 80 |
| “ | An icy harbinger of doom, channeling runic power and delivering vicious weapon strikes.
- Official description
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- Stat priority
- Strength
- Expertise Rating (until 7.5%)
- Hit Rating (until 7.5%)
- Mastery Rating (2H - Haste)
- Haste Rating (2H - Critical Strike Rating)
- Critical Strike Rating (2H - Mastery)
- Hit Rating (past 7.5%, up to 26.5%) (Dual-wield only)
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Frost Strike Obliterate |
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Inv weapon shortblade 79.png | [Blood of the North] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight empowerruneblade2.png | [Frost Strike] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell frost arcticwinds.png | [Howling Blast] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight icytalons.png | [Icy Talons] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight classicon.png | [Obliterate] | 58 |
| Fail:Inv helmet 08.png | [Unholy Aura] | 60 |
| Fail:Inv sword 122.png | [Killing Machine] | 63 |
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Spell deathknight frostpresence.png | [Improved Frost Presence] | 65 |
| Fail:Ability deathknight brittlebones.png | [Brittle Bones] | 66 |
| Fail:Ability deathknight pillaroffrost.png | [Pillar of Frost] | 68 |
| Fail:Spell frost freezingbreath.png | [Rime] | 70 |
| Fail:Inv sword 120.png | [Might of the Frozen Wastes] | 74 |
| Fail:Ability dualwieldspecialization.png | [Threat of Thassarian] | 74 |
| Fail:Inv misc gem sapphire 01.png | [Mastery: Frozen Heart] | 80 |
| “ | A master of death and decay, spreading disease and controlling undead minions to do her bidding.
- Official description
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” |
- Stat priority
- Strength
- Hit and Expertise Rating (until 7.5% of each)
- Haste Rating
- Critical Strike Rating
- Mastery Rating
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Spell shadow animatedead.png | [Master of Ghouls] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell shadow shadetruesight.png | [Reaping] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell shadow unholystrength.png | [Unholy Might] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight scourgestrike.png | [Scourge Strike] | 58 |
| Fail:Spell shadow requiem.png | [Shadow Infusion] | 60 |
| Fail:Inv helmet 08.png | [Unholy Aura] | 60 |
| Fail:Inv sword 61.png | [Festering Strike] | 62 |
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Spell shadow painspike.png | [Sudden Doom] | 64 |
| Fail:Spell shadow unholyfrenzy.png | [Unholy Frenzy] | 66 |
| Fail:Ability creature cursed 03.png | [Ebon Plaguebringer] | 68 |
| Fail:Achievement boss festergutrotface.png | [Dark Transformation] | 70 |
| Fail:Ability deathknight summongargoyle.png | [Summon Gargoyle] | 74 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight unholypresence.png | [Improved Unholy Presence] | 75 |
| Fail:Achievement zone westernplaguelands 01.png | [Mastery: Dreadblade] | 80 |
Skills/Glyphs
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Blood Strike Death Coil Death Grip |
*Quest rewarded abilities.
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Spell deathknight deathstrike.png | [Blood Strike] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell shadow deathcoil.png | [Death Coil] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight strangulate.png | [Death Grip] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight frostpresence.png | [Frost Presence] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight icetouch.png | [Icy Touch] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell deathknight empowerruneblade.png | [Plague Strike] | Starts with |
| Fail:Spell DeathKnight SummonDeathCharger.png | [Acherus Deathcharger] | 55* |
| Fail:Spell Arcane TeleportUnderCity.png | [Death Gate] | 55* |
| Fail:Spell deathknight butcher2.png | [Death Strike] | 56 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight bloodboil.png | [Blood Boil] | 56 |
| Fail:Spell shadow plaguecloud.png | [Pestilence] | 56 |
| Fail:Spell shadow animatedead.png | [Raise Dead] | 56 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight bloodpresence.png | [Blood Presence] | 57 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight mindfreeze.png | [Mind Freeze] | 57 |
| Fail:Spell frost chainsofice.png | [Chains of Ice] | 58 |
| Icon | Ability | Min Level |
|---|---|---|
| Fail:Spell shadow soulleech 3.png | [Strangulate] | 58 |
| Fail:Spell shadow deathanddecay.png | [Death and Decay] | 60 |
| Fail:Ability mount undeadhorse.png | [On a Pale Horse] | 61 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight iceboundfortitude.png | [Icebound Fortitude] | 62 |
| Fail:Inv misc horn 02.png | [Horn of Winter] | 65 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight pathoffrost.png | [Path of Frost] | 66 |
| Fail:Spell shadow antimagicshell.png | [Anti-Magic Shell] | 68 |
| Fail:Inv misc bone skull 01.png | [Control Undead] | 69 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight unholypresence.png | [Unholy Presence] | 70 |
| Fail:Spell shadow deadofnight.png | [Raise Ally] | 72 |
| Fail:Inv sword 62.png | [Empower Rune Weapon] | 76 |
| Fail:Spell deathknight armyofthedead.png | [Army of the Dead] | 80 |
| Fail:Spell deathvortex.png | [Outbreak] | 81 |
| Fail:Inv axe 96.png | [Necrotic Strike] | 83 |
| Fail:Spell holy consumemagic.png | [Dark Simulacrum] | 85 |
| Fail:Ability deathknight soulreaper.png | [Soul Reaper] | 87 |
Blood Plague
| Icon | Ability |
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| Fail:Spell DeathKnight BloodPlague.png | [Blood Plague] |
| Fail:Spell DeathKnight FrostFever.png | [Frost Fever] |
| Icon | Ability |
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| Fail:Ability Parry.png | [Parry] |
| Fail:Inv chest plate12.png | [Plate Specialization] |
- Main article: Runeforging
Runeforge
Runeforging allows the death knight to permanently enchant their weapon with enchants that are typically more powerful than enchants available to other classes. 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.
A weapon can have an enchant from either runeforging or from Enchanting, but not both together (the runeforging enchants are always better for the death knight). 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.
Runeforges can be found in Acherus: The Ebon Hold or in some of the Icecrown questing areas inside of the metal dams.
| Icon | Rune of | Type | Level | Weapon Type |
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| Fail:Spell Shadow ChillTouch.png | [Cinderglacier] | Frost | 55 | Any |
| Fail:Spell Frost FrostArmor.png | [Razorice] | Frost | 55 | Any |
| Fail:Spell Shadow AntiMagicShell.png | [Spellbreaking] | Unholy | 57 | One-handed |
| Fail:Spell Shadow AntiMagicShell.png | [Spellshattering] | Unholy | 57 | Two-handed |
| Fail:Spell Holy HarmUndeadAura.png | [Lichbane] | Blood | 60 | Any |
| Icon | Rune of | Type | Level | Weapon Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fail:Ability Parry.png | [Swordbreaking] | Blood | 63 | One-handed |
| Fail:Ability Parry.png | [Swordshattering] | Blood | 63 | Two-handed |
| Fail:Spell Holy RetributionAura.png | [Fallen Crusader] | Unholy | 70 | Any |
| Fail:INV Sword 61.png | [Nerubian Carapace] | Frost | 72 | One-handed |
| Fail:INV Sword 130.png | [Stoneskin Gargoyle] | Frost | 72 | Two-handed |
| Level | Icon | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| 56 (Choose one) | Fail:Ability deathknight roilingblood.png | [Roiling Blood] |
| Fail:Ability creature disease 02.png | [Plague Leech] | |
| Fail:Spell shadow contagion.png | [Unholy Blight] | |
| 57 (Choose one) | Fail:Spell shadow raisedead.png | [Lichborne] |
| Fail:Spell deathknight antimagiczone.png | [Anti-Magic Zone] | |
| Fail:Inv misc shadowegg.png | [Purgatory] | |
| 58 (Choose one) | Fail:Spell shadow demonicempathy.png | [Death's Advance] |
| Fail:Spell frost wisp.png | [Chilblains] | |
| Fail:Ability deathknight asphixiate.png | [Asphyxiate] |
| Level | Icon | Ability |
|---|---|---|
| 60 (Choose one) | Fail:Spell shadow deathpact.png | [Death Pact] |
| Fail:Ability deathknight deathsiphon.png | [Death Siphon] | |
| Fail:Ability deathknight deathsiphon2.png | [Conversion] | |
| 75 (Choose one) | Fail:Spell deathknight bloodtap.png | [Blood Tap] |
| Fail:Inv misc rune 10.png | [Runic Empowerment] | |
| Fail:Spell shadow rune.png | [Runic Corruption] | |
| 90 (Choose one) | Fail:Ability deathknight aoedeathgrip.png | [Gorefiend's Grasp] |
| Fail:Ability deathknight remorselesswinters2.png | [Remorseless Winter] | |
| Fail:Ability deathknight desecratedground.png | [Desecrated Ground] |
| Tag | Source |
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| Book of Glyph Mastery | [Book of Glyph Mastery] (requires 425 inscription skill) |
| T:# | Learned from a trainer with # Inscription skill |
| M:# | Minor Inscription Research (requires # Inscription skill) |
| N | Northrend Inscription Research (requires 385 Inscription skill) |
| V:# | Vendor (requires # Inscription skill) |
Notes
Blizzard's original death knight concept was that of an undead spellcaster unit that made its initial appearance in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.[7] 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] The death knight was later adapted as a prestige class within the Warcraft RPG and they were former paladin warriors.A&HC 24 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.
Media
Art
Videos
See also
- Death knight organizations
- List of death knights
- Death Knoob
Patch changes
- WotLK/Cataclysm Patch 4.0.1 (patch date::12-Oct-2010): See Death Knight/Cataclysm changes.
- WotLK Patch 3.0.8 (patch date::2009-01-20): All multi-rune abilities generate 15 runic power.
References
- ↑ http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features/deathknight/gameplay.xml
- ↑ 2,0 2,1 Death Knight. Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft III. Retrieved on 2009-06-20.
- ↑ Death Knight Lore. Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard. Retrieved on 2009-06-20.
- ↑ Gerald Villoria 2008-05-09. Enter the Death Knight. GameSpy. Retrieved on 2009-06-20.
- ↑ Cody Bye 2008-05-09. World of Warcraft: An In-Depth Look at the death knight. Ten Ton Hammer.
- ↑ http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8202574912&pageNo=1&sid=2000#10
- ↑ Death Knight. Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard. Retrieved on 2009-06-20.
External links
- Info
- Guides
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