Death Knight Talents, Builds, and Notes

Death Knights, the heavy metal (plate) wearing Hero Class of [tag-tec]Wrath of the Lich King[/tag-tec], are probably going to be the most played class once people load Wrath onto their systems.

As it stands, their ability trees are blood, frost, and unholy. They generate runic power and use it to power their big smash attacks. Blizzard sees them as tanks for caster mobs, which brings about interesting PvP thoughts, but they’re solid in the DPS department and should be a blast to solo.

Talents? Builds? Powers? Well… All their talents and abilities are still being run through the beta grinder and will be buffed, nerfed, and kicked around until Bliz is happy enough with their status. Since they’re getting a lot of attention from the Devs I assume that the “happy enough” state will actually occur.

If you’re one of the few whole will actually be playing one of these death machines then you might want to check ouit some of the “How the [tag-del]Death Knight[/tag-del] Stands Right Now” posts below. Keep in mind that there will be changes between now and the Wrath release date.

Edit: While you’re here grab this free Death Knight Leveling Guide. It’s a PDF and it covers the DK starter area (levels 55-58.)

This first is advice to raiding DKs from a Druid:

Tips for new Death Knights from a fellow melee, part 1 – I’ve healed a lot of Death Knight tanks, and tanked for a lot of Death Knight DPS. Most of you seem like cool people, so I say this with sincere love in my little Druid heart and a touch of worry over what will happen in November: …

Zuggy covers Death Knight presences and powers:

Death Knight Abilities and Spells – Death Knight Presences Death Knight presences can be best described as equivalent to warrior stances. There are 3 stances a death knight may enter. Blood Presence – Increases damage done by 15% and heals the Death Knight by 2% of damage …

An Update on current talents and DPS:

Death Knight Discussions/Changes for Wrath of the Lich King (Oct 2nd) – Frost tree to get some buffs Disease damage went down a little, which will lower’s Unholy’s overall dps. Dancing Rune Weapon was doing a huge portion of blood’s dps. We thought it was cooler to let it hit hard but be out less often. …

More on DK changes and where they stand, now:

9014 Beta Build and More – As always, our friends over at WotLKwiki where quick to post the Death Knight changes. Here they are, I’ll add any other changes I find in a future post. 9014 Death Knight Changes. Blood. Bloody Vengeance – No longer increases frost and …

More DK Changes and Commentary:

New Beta Patch: Death Knight Changes – Runic Focus – Description changed to : “Unlike most casters, a Death Knight’s spells cause double damage on critical hits.” Unholy. Death and Decay – Damage Increased (Now Rank 4 – 62 Damage) (Old Rank 4 – 52 Damage) …

Here’s a free Death Knight prep guide. (Look for the button in the middle of the red text.) It’s not a talent or leveling guide, rather it gives info on recommended gear as you level to 70, as well as a number of other tips. You can also pre-order the full Death Knight guide from the same page.