World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Deathknight

Death Knight Class Information

The fearsome death knight, World of Warcraft’s first Hero class, is not your average adventurer seeking to prove his or her worth on Azeroth’s fields of battle. No longer servants of the Lich King, they begin their new calling as experienced, formidable adversaries, heavily armed and armored and possessing an arsenal of deadly and forbidden magic learned in the Lich King’s thrall. Here is an introduction, subject to change, of some of the death knight’s core gameplay mechanics and abilities:

Unlocking and Creating the Death Knight

Simply having a character of at least level 55 on the realm where you'd like to play unlocks the ablility to create a new level-55 death knight of any race on that realm (if on a PvP realm, the death knight must be the same faction as your existing character). Upon entering the world, your neophyte death knight will undertake a series of quests designed to teach you your new abilities. You will be able to create one death knight on each realm that is already home to at least one level 55+ character of yours.

Class Roles

Tank: The plate-wearing death knight is a capable tank for small groups as well as raids. His or her damage output while tanking will be respectable.
DPS: The death knight can also spec and gear for a melee DPS role, which draw upon many debilitating disease effects as well as direct damage and instant attacks.

Talent Trees

The talent trees for the death knight are Blood, Frost, and Unholy.

Blood: Talents in this tree focus on weapons, armor, and strikes.
Frost: Talents in this tree focus on control, counters, and combos.
Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, and diseases.

Example Abilities / Presences

Death knight talent trees are complemented by Presences -- self-only auras that benefit the death knight. Selecting the matching Presence for each tree augments the class abilities for that school of magic.

Blood Presence increases damage output by a percentage and restores a percentage of damage dealt as health.
Frost Presence increases threat and lowers damage taken by a percentage.
Unholy Presence increases attack speed and reduces the global cooldown on death knight abilities.

The Rune System

The resource mechanics for death knights are runes and runic power. A skilled death knight makes efficient, timely use of runes and runic power to maximize his or her damage-dealing or tanking abilities.

Runes: Every death knight ability requires runes, which come in three varieties: blood, frost, and unholy. Depending on the ability, it may require runes of a single type or a combination of types. When a rune is used, it has a cooldown period before it can be used again.
Runic Power: As rune abilities are used, the death knight also generates another resource called runic power. The death knight has certain abilities that consume all available runic power, with varying levels of effectiveness based on total runic power spent. Similar to a warrior’s rage, runic power decays over time if not spent.

Summoned Creatures

Creating minions from the ranks of the unliving is a core ability of the death knight.

Raise Dead: The death knight can raise a ghoul companion from the corpses of fallen creatures, as well as those of both friendly and enemy players. If cast on a friendly player, that player will have the opportunity to actually play as the ghoul, controlling its movements and actions.
Army of the Dead: This channeled spell raises a group of undead followers who will attack the death knight’s enemies but only exist very briefly before disintegrating.
Summon Deathcharger: Every death knight can summon the level-40 version of a deathcharger land mount. At higher levels, they can complete a quest to learn the epic version.