Getting Started with the WotLK Death Knight

The Death Knight in the Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK - the latest World of Warcraft Expansion pack) plays the dual role of tanking and DPS. They perform these tasks as well if not better than the other classes. Blizzard has saturated this class with abilities that are both new and creative and therefore likely that players will enjoy.

The WotLK Death Knight charges in. As others beat at it, the Death Knight keeps the foe in its place soaking up damage while taking the first hit. The WotLK Death Knight might not be the class you should play if you are more into healing or ranged damage.

PvP

You’re going to have to learn how to play PVP all over again with the Death Knight. After you get used to it you can be very effective. Practice dueling and play the battlegrounds, and when you have the feel for it go ahead and join an arena team.

Raiding

Death Knights shine at raiding. They can tank as well as any class, and can put out high damage.

Builds

WotLK Death Knight talents are split into 3 categories, each of which are fully capable of supporting either a tanking or dps role:

Blood: This tree primarily amplifies the Death Knight’s melee spells, weapons, and abilities, and has a prominent health-regeneration theme.

Frost: This tree has many control elements, with a strong critical strike/bonus damage theme, as well as several talents that improve physical damage mitigation.

Unholy: As well as a strong focus on diseases and related abilities this tree also improves summoned minions. Even has spell damage shielding, mobility improvement sub-themes and AoE.

Suggested Professions

As a plate mail wearer, the WotLK Death Knight would do well to choose Blacksmithing as a profession, with Mining as a complement.

You probably won't need a gathering profession since you need to have a level 55 character to unlock a Wrath of the Lich King Death Knight. To run around with effective gear while leveling consider Blacksmithing and Enchanting as professions if you have bags of gold at your disposal.

World of Warcraft Mastery will soon include a detailed Wotlk Death Knight guide as part of its package of Warcraft Guides.