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CLASS: Death Knight guides

The Death Knight is a hero class Blizzard will be adding in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. In order to play a Death Knight, you will need to complete a high-level quest chain ("similar in difficulty to the Warlock epic mount quest") which will allow you to create a new Death Knight character (your existing character will remain). You will be able to make a Death Knight of any race and your Death Knight will start at level 55 (this is Blizzard's current thinking -- though that may change before release).

Death Knights will be a tanking and damage dealing class capable of dishing out the hurt with a mix of heavy melee weapons and magical spells. They wear plate armor and can wield a variety of weapons -- though they cannot wear shields. Instead of mana, rage, or energy, Death Knights have a runic resource system. Each ability they use consumes certain runes in certain quantities. (Instead of a mana bar, a Death Knight has a bar filled with a number of rune icons. Think of the number of runes you have as three little energy bars -- which you can change the size of when out of combat.)

Looking forward to creating a Death Knight of your own? Read on for all the details!

Death Knight basics

• Death Knight details
  Blizzard introduces the Death Knight at BlizzCon 2007 -- check out the first word on Death Knight abilities directly from the source!
• Death Knight tidbits from Nethaera
  Nethaera jumps in and does a mini Death Knight Q & A in the Druid forms -- there's a lot Blizzard isn't sure about yet, but Neth tells us the current plan is for new Death Knights to start at level 55.
• Death Knight tidbits from Vaneras
  EU CM Vaneras tries to answer all of your questions about Death Knights in one place. There's still a lot of uncertainty here, but we get some detail on Death Knight races, class balance, and the runic resource system.

The Death Knight's runes

• What does this rune do?
  Blood runes will be damage oriented, Unholy runes will be utility and DoTs, and Frost runes will be CC type abilities.
• The Death Knight's rune system may take some skill
  Not only will the other 9 classes still be needed to succeed in any group effort, but the tactics involved in playing a Death Knight might be too hard for the average Stanley Noobsauce to master.
• Runes and hero classes

Death Knights and tanking

• The dynamics of Death Knights and Warriors
  if both Death Knights and Warriors are designed to be damage-dealers and tanks wearing plate, how will they peacefully co-exist?
• Will adding a tanking class solve the tank shortage?
  Blizzard stated that one of the reasons they choose the Death Knight as the first Hero Class to introduce to the game was to address the shortage of tanks. But with Warriors, Paladins and Druids already fulfilling the tanking role, is it really a lack of choices?

Death Knight lore

• Know Your Lore: Death Knights
  ...let's check out the lore behind one of the new additions to World of Warcraft: the Death Knight class! There's already been quite a stir about them on the forums, with people complaining that they should only be humans and undead, should only come out of sacrificing your previous character, and shouldn't be in the Alliance because it would conflict with the wonderful art of roleplaying a talking paladin cat.
• Should Death Knights have a runeblade for life?
Death Knights have always had a special relationship with their runeblades, using the same weapon for their whole lives. Arthas is the classic example, since he and his sword, Frostmourne, are forever associated with one another.
• Would you welcome a Death Knight to your town picnic?
  It's a problem: here you are, a master of your very own runed blade, a summoner of an army of undead, an immensely powerful tank and damage-dealer -- and yet no one will let you into the lore party over at Starshine Shadowstrider's house! "Yuckie!" they say. "He got his powers from the Lich King! ...Eww!"
• Death Knights and Paladins
  When The Burning Crusade was released, the paladin class was added to the Horde faction, and we learned that this type of Paladin was a very different breed... are Death Knights so different?
• Death Knights to break away from the Lich King
  Part of the Death Knight lore will have them "break away" from the Lich King influence to be free agents, the way the Forsaken have broken away from being mindless undead.

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