Death Knight Class Overview

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

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.