World of Warcraft Classes - The Death Knight
Background Information on the Newest WoW Hero Class
Feb 2, 2009
Anyone who has upgraded WoW with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion who has raised a character to at least level 55 can create a Death Knight. Thanks to a recent patch, players who meet the requirements can create one Death Knight per server.
Starting in Ebon Hold in the Heart of Acherus, new Death Knights will embark on what is easily the most entertaining starting series of quests in World of Warcraft. It doesn’t hurt that your character begins at level 55, but felling armies of the Crimson Crusade with cannons and skeletal ice dragons is certainly a nice touch.
WoW Death Knights in Action – The Rune System
Death Knights are designed to be playable as a DPS class or a tank class, depending on player preference and talent specs. They are quite capable in both roles, but like most hybrid classes they do not stack up with the pure damage or tanking classes.
Death Knights in WoW use runes to supplement their power. These runes may be ‘runeforged’ to weapons for additional bonuses, gained as damage is dealt (similar to rage for the Warrior) or used to cast spells or abilities. The three basic runes for a Death Knight are blood, frost and unholy and are used like rechargeable reagents in spells and abilities. Some abilities or talents allow spent runes to return as death runes which may be used in place of any of the three basic rune types.
Death Knight Talent Specs – Blood, Frost, Unholy
Players may choose to spec, or specialize, their character in many ways by using the three talent trees – blood, frost and unholy.
The blood talent spec for Death knights tends to focus more on consistent increases in damage. One of the most attractive aspects of the blood presence (similar to the Paladin’s auras although presences affect only the Death Knight) is that it returns a portion of all damage dealt to the Death Knight as health.
The frost talent spec focuses more on expenditure of runic power as damage in burst form. Frost specs work very well for Death Knights who dual-wield as they are able to build their runic power quite quickly. Frost Fever, when used correctly, can greatly increase the damage output (DPS) of the Death Knight.
The unholy talent tree focuses more on disease and damage over time (DoT) as a means of increasing DPS. Unholy spec Death Knights also find their pet ghoul far more useful, as talents in the unholy tree increase pet damage as well as bonuses to the Death Knight while using the ghoul. Players will find the talent ‘Corpse Explosion’ quite fun as the name is self-explanatory.
World of Warcraft’s First Hero Class – the Death Knight
The first WoW hero class is certainly intriguing. The Death Knight is a flexible and fun addition to the World of Warcraft, giving experienced players a versatile tank or damage dealing class. As time goes on, Blizzard Entertainment will hopefully work other Hero Classes into the game as successfully.
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