Starting a death knight
From WoWWiki
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| Class races: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Quests: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Abilities: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Trainers: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Talents: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Glyphs: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Talent builds: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Tactics: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Armor sets: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Starting a: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| PvE guide: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| PvP guide: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
| Useful macros: | Dk | Dr | Hu | Ma | Pa | Pr | Ro | Sh | Wl | Wr |
Before it is possible to start a death knight character, you must have a level 55 or higher character on any server. Players may have one death knight per realm, per account, but when the character is first created, you must do a series of quests. By doing these quests, you will learn how to bend the power of the Death Knight to your own will, and after you have mastered that, you are then capable of going to any other area.[1]
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Unlocking the Death Knight
For any players to unlock the first hero class, the Death Knight, the player must have a character level 55 or above on any server. You are limited to creating only one Death Knight on each realm.
Previous information also says that death knights may not be created on newly formed realms until incoming character transfers are allowed to that realm, unless the account has a character which has levelled up to 55 on that particular realm.
Creating the death knight
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- Main article: Death knight quests
Any race is available for the death knight. When created, the death knight begins at level 55 with uncommon gear, 20
, as well as a few spells and abilities already learned. Death Knights start without any talent points, and gain their missing 46 talent points through the In Service of The Lich King quest chain. As any other class starting out, there is a beginning series of quests that bring the character into the game. Their first sword is the 
[Runed Soulblade], awarded for completing the second quest in the In Service of The Lich King quest chain.
Death knights come in to being with First Aid, Axes, Defense, Polearms, Swords, Two-Handed Axes, Two-Handed Swords and Unarmed at 270 skill.
Death knights will spawn in a necropolis in the Eastern Plaguelands, in a new starting area called Acherus: The Ebon Hold, which will include a dedicated questing area and class trainers.
For the actual quest chain, visit Death knight quests.
At the conclusion of the quest chain, death knights wind up with the rare gear seen in the paper doll frame below.
| Questline complete gear
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| Level 57 Death Knight | ||||||
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There are options for the cape:
- [Sky Darkener's Shroud of Blood], [Sky Darkener's Shroud of the Unholy], or [Shroud of the North Wind]
And options for the weapon:
Choices to Make for Your Death Knight
Race
Many players like to choose the race with the 'best' traits and abilities for their class. Here is a brief overview of how the racials look from a death knight's perspective.
- Alliance
- Human: Higher reputation gains. Able to remove snares and crowd control effects from self. Expertise with swords and maces. Better stealth detection.
- Dwarf: Can remove bleed, disease and poison effects while briefly increasing armor. Expertise with maces. Small chance to avoid frost spells.
- Night Elf: Able to vanish if things are going badly. Less delay from dying. Small chance to avoid melee and ranged attacks as well as nature spells.
- Gnome: Able to remove snare and root effects from self. Small chance to avoid arcane spells. Bonus to Engineering skill.
- Draenei: Increased chance to hit for self and group. Able to heal self and others. Small chance to avoid shadow spells. Bonus to Jewelcrafting skill.
- Horde
- Orc: Able to increase attack power. Expertise with axes. Stronger minions. Shorter duration on stuns.
- Undead: Able to remove fear, sleep and charm effects. Better post-combat self healing when fighting humanoids or undead. Small chance to avoid shadow spells.
- Tauren: Able to stun nearby enemies. Larger health pool. Small chance to avoid nature spells. Bonus to Herbalism skill.
- Troll: Able to increase haste. Shorter duration on snares. More damage versus beasts. Faster health regeneration (a minor benefit due to all your life stealing and self heal effects).
- Blood Elf: Able to silence nearby enemies and gain runic power from it. Small chance to avoid all spells. Bonus to Enchanting skill
In the end, race is a rather minor consideration. Just go with whatever race you feel like, whether for its racials, its looks, its personality and flavor, or any other reason you can think of.
Professions
Death knights start with their professions at one point and it can be tedious to build them up. However, if you are willing to do so you can reap the benefits of whatever professions you choose.
Primary
- Gathering
- Herbalism: Lifeblood furthers self healing. Fuels alchemy and inscription.
- Mining: Toughness slightly boosts max health. Fuels blacksmithing, engineering, and jewelcrafting.
- Skinning: Master of Anatomy increases crit rating. Fuels leatherworking.
- Crafting
- Alchemy: You can make your own potions and elixirs, made even better for you through mixology. This profession has a good level of demand since most of its products are consumable and the buffs stack with magic and well fed effects.
- Blacksmithing: Being able to make plate armor and melee weapons should appeal to a heavy melee class. It also offers some special equipment modifiers like sharpening stones.
- Enchanting: Convenient enchantments should appeal to any class. Keep in mind that enchanting a weapon will replace any runes you've forged into it, and vice-versa.
- Engineering: A rather gimmicky profession, but some of the devices are kind of neat.
- Inscription: Gives you a convenient source of glyphs and scrolls, along with shoulder enhancements at high levels.
- Jewelcrafting: Convenient gems are good, and there are some rings, necklaces and trinkets that a death knight might like.
- Leatherworking: Some of the armor kits might be appealing, but for the most part this profession is a poor choice for a plate wearer.
- Tailoring: This offers you bags and clothes for role-playing. That is about it.
Secondary
- Cooking: Well fed buffs are nice. Work on it if you like. Get some achievements while you're at it.
- First Aid: Death knights do have self healing, but it's limited, so keep your first aid skill up. Conveniently, you start with 270 first aid and the ability to make heavy runecloth bandages.
- Fishing: It's slow to level up, but it makes cooking and some primary professions easier, and there are achievements to be had.
Blizzard regarding the death knight creation
Bornakk, a CM on the US forums, wrote:
- The idea is that a character goes to become a Death Knight, is trained as a Death Knight, but then realizes they don't want to go through with the evil acts that they are instructed to perform. So the character finds a new Alliance or Horde home who accepts them as a necessary evil (like warlocks) to help them fight their enemies.
- BlizzCon happened at the beginning of August and the story continues to be worked on so things could change quite a bit from now until the Death Knights are implemented. Details on this and many other things will become available as we get closer to launching Wrath of the Lich King.
The idea seems to be a bit differed, as the Death Knight doesn't just realize on his/her own that he/she doesn't want to go through the evil acts, but is fighting for the Scourge unwillingly and the Lich King reveals that their life is meaningless, and during the time, most of the Death Knights (except for Orbaz Bloodbane, who flees) regain their will from their life.
Videos
| [How to] Death Knight: starting quests (Part 1/5). | |
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| More guides here] | |
| [How to] Death Knight: starting quests (Part 2/5). | |
| More guides here] | |
| [How to] Death Knight: starting quests (Part 3/5). | |
| More guides here] | |
| [How to] Death Knight: starting quests (Part 4/5). | |
| More guides here] | |
| [How to] Death Knight: starting quests (Part 5/5). | |
| More guides here] | |
Trivia
- It is stated in-game by Master Siegesmith Corvus that he forged the Questline complete gear.
References
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