Death Knight Class Overview
Lords of the plague and masters of the Necrotic Death Knight remains one of the most
iconic classes in World of Warcraft. In Mists of Pandaria you can choose to either Tank as
Blood or DPS as Unholy or Frost. Regardless of the specialization or role you choose for your
Death Knight you will be able to provide unique utility with abilities like Gorefiend's Grasp
and will always be in demand in almost every form of content.
Introduction to Death Knight
Death Knight is a melee focused class that can either Tank or DPS. Death Knight operates off of two
unique resource systems, Runic Power and Runes. Runic Power allows you to use abilities like
Frost Strike
and is generated by most of your abilities that consume Runes. Runes are your primary way of casting abilities
like
Howling Blast or
Scourge Strike and slowly regenerate over time. All three Death Knight
specializations play significantly different so make sure to give each of them a try to get a better idea of
what fits you the best.
Death Knight Specializations
Death Knight is able to choose from three specializations:
Blood, Frost,
and Unholy.
Blood — Blood remains the king of self-sufficiency in Mists of Pandaria and now makes a strong argument for being the highest damage dealing tank thanks to many unique interactions the spec has with
Vengeance. In Mists of Pandaria a massive focus has been made on active mitigation and as a Blood Death Knight you will have to maximize each use of your
Death Strike ability in order to survive the challenges presented throughout Pandaria.
Frost — Frost is a unique DPS specialization with a constantly changing set of priorities that will require you to remain engaged at all times to do maximum damage. Frost Death Knight is known to deal massive amounts of cleave damage thanks to its signature ability
Howling Blast but you also have tons of unique tools to bolster your damage done like
Pillar of Frost that will considerably increase your damage dealt. If you are ready for a constantly changing rotation and enjoy face-paced game play Frost is a great choice.
Unholy — Unholy focuses on dealing as much damage as possible with its potent diseases and its powerful minions like your ghoul and
Summon Gargoyle. As an Unholy Death Knight you will be tasked with maintaining your diseases at all times while getting in as many
Scourge Strike casts as possible.
What Specialization Should I Play?
Each Death Knight specialization is a bit difference with the single largest being that
Blood is the Tank specialization and Frost and Unholy are both DPS. If your goal is to Tank
or solo content than Blood is the default choice. If you're interested in DPSing than you have
a bit more to think about. Frost is a constantly changing set of priorities that will test your
ability to react to what procs and what resources you have available. Unholy is just as challenging
but a bit easier to predict your next move, as an Unholy Death Knight you will focus on keeping
your undead minions active while spreading potent diseases.
Blood
Blood is the specialization for Tanking. In Mists of Pandaria the focus has gone from
passively mitigating damage with a large health pool to a much more engaged style that will challenge you not
only to cast as many
Death Strikes as possible to keep yourself alive but also deal as much damage as you
possibly can to vanquish your enemies. Many of your abilities as Blood like
Death Siphon deal tons of damage
when paired with high amounts of
Vengeance. Another main draw to Blood Death Knight is the availability
of defensive cooldowns, Blood Death Knight has some of the strongest Defensive cooldowns in the game in the form
of abilities like
Icebound Fortitude,
Anti-Magic Shell and even
Army of the Dead allowing
you to consistently take large amounts of incoming damage.
Unholy
Unholy is a DPS specialization for Death Knight. Unholy focuses on dealing as much
damage as possible with potent diseases and summoned minions like your
Summon Gargoyle. Unholy
is often regarded as one of the strongest melee specializations throughout all of Mists of Pandaria
and provides incredible utility to your group on top of being a consistently high performing DPS.
If you enjoy the idea of using powerful cooldowns to bolster the power of your undead minions Unholy
is a great choice.
Frost
Frost is the DPS specialization for Death Knight. Frost is a unique specialization
in that your rotation will be constantly changing as it is much more of a list of priorities than a true DPS rotation.
Your goal as a Frost Death Knight is to make sure you are spending your Runic Power on
Frost Strike while
making sure to keep up with procs like
Rime and
Killing Machine to determine which of your next
Rune spending ability like
Howling Blast you will cast next.
How Viable is Death Knight in Mists of Pandaria?
Death Knight is great in that all three Specializations are viable and with changes made specifically in
Mists of Pandaria Clasic Frost, which often times struggled to compete with Unholy will now be among one of the strongest
melee dps specialization. Regardless of whether you find yourself wanting to play Tank or DPS Death Knight you will also be able
to provide some of the strongest utility in the game in the form of both unique abilities like
Gorefiend's Grasp
and powerful raid cooldowns like
Anti-Magic Zone.
Races For Death Knight
Death Knight Has tons of options when it comes to races. For both Alliance and Horde you can choose
any race as a Death Knight other than Pandaren, which are not able to be Death Knights. Highlighted below is a breakdown
of the benefits of each race.
Horde Races
Tauren — is the sturdiest of the races thanks to its
Endurance racial which increases your base health by 5%. Tauren also provides
War Stomp which stuns all targets within 8 yards for 2 seconds. Tauren is a great choice if you find yourself wanting to Tank but does not offer much benefit for either DPS spec.
Goblin —
Time is Money is a great way to get in more auto-attacks but this unfortunately struggles to compete with some of the other DPS racials.
Rocket Jump is a massive increase to our mobility, which is an area all 3 specializations struggle so Goblin can be a solid choice if you are less focused on maximizing your DPS output.
Blood Elf — the main draw to Blood Elf is
Arcane Torrent which silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 seconds and grants some Runic Power. This is a solid way to group up caster enemies but again will not be able to compete with Orc or Troll in regards to increasing your DPS.
Orc — is the default choice for all three specializations. The added Attack Power from
Blood Fury is a massive increase to your damage done and can help snapshot an even stronger set of diseases with
Outbreak.
Command is also a huge increase to our damage done increasing the damage of your summoned minions by a flat 2%.
Troll — is even closer to Orc than past expansions but will still likely lag slightly behind it.
Berserking is an incredible racial especially when paired with
Pillar of Frost but the increased attack speed is just not quite as valuable as the raw Attack Power from
Blood Fury.
Beast Slaying is another massive part of your racial abilities as a Troll, increasing the damage done to Beasts by 5%, there are a number of encounters throughout Mists of Pandaria that feature Beasts making this a tougher choice to make than past expansions if your goal is maximizing personal DPS.
Undead — similar to Blood Elf and Tauren, Undead does not offer much in regards to increasing your damage output but
Will of the Forsaken can help mitigate the effects of crowd controlling abilities if you find yourself without your
Anti-Magic Shell.
Alliance Races
Worgen — will be your default choice as a Death Knight mostly due to limited in combat benefits of other Alliance races.
Darkflight is a powerful source of additional mobility and the added Critical Strike from
Viciousness is great.
Human— is another great choice especially early in the gearing process as
Sword Specialization and
Mace Specialization increase your expertise when using a Sword or a Mace by 1%.
Will to Survive is another great tool to get yourself out of any kind of crowd controlling or movement impairing abilities to maximize your uptime on your target.
Dwarf — remains one of the sturdiest race as Alliance thanks to
Stoneform which removes all Poison, Disease and Bleed effects as well as reducing all incoming damage taken by 10%. You also gain
Mace Specialization which increases your expertise by 1% while using a Mace to help smooth out the early gearing process.
Night Elf— does not offer a ton in the way of in combat benefits as a Death Knight but
Quickness increases your Dodge chance by 2% indirectly increasing your damage done as Blood thanks to the new ability
Riposte.
Gnome — also offers a unique way to get out of movement impairing effects in the form of
Escape Artist and increases your Expertise by 1% when using a one-handed sword with
Shortblade Specialization.
Draenei— is another strong choice regardless of the specialization you choose thanks to
Heroic Presence which increases out Hit chance by 1%.
Gift of the Naaru also acts as a great tool to quickly heal yourself or an ally in an emergency.
Gearing and Stats
Death Knight can wear all armor types, but you should only be wearing
Plate.
Plate Specialization greatly outweighs any possible benefit
you may find by wearing a non-plate piece due to the increased benefit of Strength
in Mists of Pandaria.
Death Knight is able to equip one and two-handed Swords, one and two-handed Maces,
One and two-handed Axes, and Polearms. The Weapon you use will depend on the specialization
you are playing, but generally speaking the type of weapon you use is irrelevant as long as it
is offering you the most of your desired stats.
Due to the nature of stats and gearing, it is recommended that you visit our dedicated pages for each respective spec to get a full understanding of what gear you should be after. A general rule to follow is that the more primary stat an item has, the more of an upgrade it will be.
Death Knight Addons and Macros
Addons and Macros can greatly improve your quality of life in Azeroth and Pandaria. Listed below are some of our recommendations on Addons and Macros to help get the most out of your time playing the game.
Changelog
- 15 Jun. 2025: Page added.