Rolling a Death Knight as a New Main? Infos to help!

[Draegan]

Just wanted to help some people out since I've done some research into this in the last few days and I have all the info in my head right now.

Guide to Leveling 58-60 as a DK

Cool guide tog et you from 58-60 the quickest.  Awesome guide.  Also gives you a laundry list of stuff you can do now to prepare.

•   1. 300 Wool Cloth (for [60] A Donation Of Wool for all 5 factions.)
     2. 300 Silk Cloth (for [60] A Donation of Silk for all 5 factions.)
     3. 300 Mageweave Cloth (for [60] A Donationn of Mageweave for all 5 factions.)
     4. 300 Runecloth (for [60 A Donation of Runecloth for all 5 factions.)
     5. 30 Bone Fragments (for [60] Bonescythe Digs)
     6. 30 Crypt Fiend Parts (for [60] Cryptstalker Armor Doesn't Make Itself...)
     7. 30 Core Of Elements (for [60] The Elemental Equation)
     8. 30 Dark Iron Scraps (for [60] Binding The Dreadnaught)
     9. 30 Savage Fronds (for [60] Savage Flora)
    10. 2 Thorium Bars (for [58] That's Asking A Lot)
    11. 1 Golden Rod (for [58] That's Asking A Lot)
    12. 8 Hi-Explosive Bombs (for [58] That's Asking A Lot)
    13. 8 Unstable Triggers (for [58] That's Asking A Lot)

There are a few glyphs you might want to pick up:
Major: Death Strike or Goul and Boneshield
Minor: Pestilence

Other than your starter weapon you could try to grab a Blade of Misfortune which should get you from 60 to 65 where you can get the Voidaxe from the Blood Ring quest line in Nagrand.  The next axe is a blue from a simple quest in Borean at 70 which is the Axe of Frozen Death.

Apparently the races to be (if you care about racial traits and not the looks) are Human/Orc for DPS and Night Elf/Tauren for Tanking.  Blood Elf may be a good selection due to magic resistance I believe.

Right now specs for leveling are close between Unholy and Blood with most leaning to Unholy.

There is a lot of discussion over at Elitist Jerks about leveling practices.  Just ignore a few posts on theorycrafting and spreadsheet wankery, but it starts here: (Link) 

I've personally farmed Wool and Silk cloth last night and bought the 30-turn-ins.  Going to have to farm mageweave and runecloth sometime soon.

The only thing that's irritating is going to be leveling up professions.  If you're really insane you can go ahead a start stocking for that too right now.  I think the best route to go apparently is Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting.

Looking forward to the 13th.  I'm not sure if I'm going to be insane and get the game at midnight.  Most likely I'm not.

[Azaroth]

So this is really a list of things to farm and put on the AH in a couple of weeks to get incredibly rich, since 50% of the entire userbase of World of Warcraft will be rerolling a Death Knight.

[Draegan]

Eh not really.  I mean the hand ins really save you some time.  This only help people that want to speed level as quick as possible in the first few hours of play.  Most people playing a DK as an alt won't mind taking their time or don't feel like bothering buying up everything.

[Azaroth]

(He's noticed that I'm on to his plan)

[Draegan]

 

If you want to make cash, buy up all the Blades of Misfortune.  I can see them going for a pretty penny.  I bought one for 140g last night.

[Jayce]

I just want to know where they spawn in, since I have 70s on PvP servers.  EPL right?

My own death knight will be bank mules because of the sweet bags they get from the start.

[Ingmar]

I just want to know where they spawn in, since I have 70s on PvP servers.  EPL right?

My own death knight will be bank mules because of the sweet bags they get from the start.

It isn't going to be a baby sea turtles heading for the sea predator free PVP kill scenario, they level 56-58 in instanced safety land, and they can fly from their PVP guard protected ziggurat down to PVP guard protected Light's Hope Chapel. And they have full flight points to start off with, so they can really go anywhere they want.

[Dewdrop]

Whats the best place to farm up Wool? That's the one that always kills me, i can never remember where I used to get it.

Theres a debate going on over at EJ and some other places regarding whether to level from 58-60 in WPL/doing turn-ins or just hitting Outland and HFP at 58.  On beta I did it the Outland way, just jammed out there at 58 and went at it. With the sped up leveling curve I was level 62.5 once I finished with HFP, Did only CE and Swamprat in ZM and hit 65. If your fear is that you may fall behind the leveling curve because you are in outland so early fear not. If your fear is that HFP will be overcrowded then leveling in WPL is likely to be the best way to go. Either way you should be able to hit 68 by the end of nagrand (Assuming HFP-ZM-Terokkar-Nagrand). There is NO debate as to what to do at 68. You go to Northrend. The quests there are amazingly easy and fast, you cant possibly level faster in Outland. Not to mention the sheer volume of quest rewards.

Also, if you are leveling a DK don't forget to farm up consumables now. +20 str food you can use right away plus Str elixirs. They actually help out a fair bit. Fiddled around in Nagrand last night on my 'lock for about 30min and came away with over 40 clefthoof meats. Additionally you may want to consider farming up some scryer (or Aldor, but scryer stuff seems the easiest to find) stuff for the initial turn ins, decent XP there as well.

[Draegan]

I farmed wool last night.  The best spot is the Stockades.  Since I'm horde and I didn't feel like dieing a bunch I ran Deadmines over and over.  I'm a prot paladin so it went by quickly.

[Calantus]

Blade of Misfortune is already up to 1.5k on my server. This is why I always laugh when people say you can play the AH for mass money. Our AH is so heavily camped by resellers that you'd have to get up very early and be lucky in order to turn a good profit.

[WindupAtheist]

So if you have a 55+ character on any server, you can make a level 55 death knight on any server you want, right? So what's to stop a griefing plan like this?

1) Make death knights on several PVP servers.
2) Do the starter quests on each so you have some nice gear and an epic mount.
3) Park each one in a lowbie zone.
4) Frag newbs willy-nilly.
5) Get killed by someone's 70 after a while.
6) Switch to a different death knight on a different PVP server.
7) Repeat from 4.

[Mazakiel]

Besides boredom? 

Unless it's changed, the initial roll-out of death knights will be limited to making one on a server you have a 55 on.  The any server thing is something they've had an issue with or some such, and will come later.  Anyone inclined to roflstomp lowbies would have an easier, and quicker time, doing it with their already level-capped character on the server. 

[WindupAtheist]

I wouldn't be surprised if the "Hey make level 55 death knights all over any fucking server!" thing quietly goes away. We all know damn well people have done FAR stranger things in order to have endless newbs to pwn and grief pointlessly.

[Azazel]

Blade of Misfortune is already up to 1.5k on my server. This is why I always laugh when people say you can play the AH for mass money. Our AH is so heavily camped by resellers that you'd have to get up very early and be lucky in order to turn a good profit.

I just bought 4 of them all for 90 gold each, or under. That's all my server's AH had.

They'll go to my DK, my wife's one, and the other 2 for a pair of our friends we game with.

[Merusk]

So if you have a 55+ character on any server, you can make a level 55 death knight on any server you want, right? So what's to stop a griefing plan like this?

No, they changed it a few weeks ago so that you can only make the DK on the server your 55 character is on.  They said it's only for launch (Probably so people aren't going to other servers and fucking around when theirs is down/ has a queue) but we'll see if they change it back.

[K9]

Thinking ahead, what other items are people expecting to spike or crash in price.

I'm pretty sure all BC gems, except perhaps uncut uncommon and rare (needed to level JC) will tank heavily, as will all level-70 crafted gear.

On the other hand I'd guess all cloths and copper, mithril and thorium ores will shoot up.

[Gobbeldygook]

Thinking ahead, what other items are people expecting to spike or crash in price.

I'm pretty sure all BC gems, except perhaps uncut uncommon and rare (needed to level JC) will tank heavily, as will all level-70 crafted gear.

On the other hand I'd guess all cloths and copper, mithril and thorium ores will shoot up.

I wouldn't bet on cloth.  The only reason the cost is so high now are tailoring alts.  There's no reason to believe DKs will take up tailoring en masse.  No, the big money will be in professions DKs take - Leatherworking, Jewelcrafting (blue gems will not be of value post-wotlk for grinding the skill up), blacksmithing, maybe mining (ie smelting mats).

There will probably be a spike of level 70 crafted gear/world drop prices as DKs enter that range and rich folk splurge on twink gear for them.

[Azazel]

So what stats are valuable for DKs?

Str? Sta? Agi? Spellpower?

[Mazakiel]

Supposedly:

1 point of stamina = 10 health (10.5 for Tauren)
1 point of strength = 2 attack power, Increases parry rating by a % of strength.
1 point of agility = 2 armor, and increased Dodge and crit

I believe all DK 'spell' abilities scale off of attack power, so no spellpower weapons need apply.  Basically, you'll want warrior type gear, unless it has shield block type ratings on it.

[Fordel]

FYI, Tauren HP Racial was changed. It scales Base Health now, not Total. (IE: Unmodified by gear, only levels)

[Azazel]

Int not useful at all then? Just buying some gear in advance.

[K9]

Int is useless for DKs, you'll want either DPS plate (Str+Stam+Hit+Crit) or tanking plate itemised with Stam, Str, Dodge and Parry. Parry is the big tank stat for DKs. Avoid Shield Block like the plague. Agility isn't going to be a key stat, and following the plate reitemisation you're not going to see a lot on 70+ plate. Int and Spirit are completely out. I'm not sure on the AP <-> Str value, Warriors and Pallies have been changed to prefer Str in almost all cases, so again I'm not sure how much AP you'll see on gear anyway.

I think haste is a good stat, but from what I'm reading armour penetration rating is now a really bad stat, so I'd avoid that.

[Hawkbit]

Int not useful at all then? Just buying some gear in advance.

Don't spend too much.  Most gear off this list is quested. 

http://www.wow-pro.com/class_guides/death_knight_shopping_list_55-70

On a side note, I finished my collection list from the OP.  Got 300 of each cloth and the 30 each of the 5 turnins, along with a Blade of Misfortune that some tool put up for 75g when all the others were 500g.  All set now.

[Draegan]

I finished my collections last night too.

As far as stats, think Warrior/Rogue.  You want Str then Def/Dodge (Or crit) then parry (or haste) then agi.  It depends on where you are capped as far as defense ratings etc.

[Dewdrop]

Quick question on the cloth turn-ins as I haven't done them in a long time. Can you do it all in one capital city? And you get XP for every turnin up to 300 cloth of each kind (as well as rep, but that is a lesser concern)? I just don't want to have to run from UC to Org to wherever..

Also, as stated above the key stat for a DK is str, over all else. Str = Parry rating (Forceful deflection, 25% of your str converts to that number in parry rating so, 100 str = 25 parry rating), Str = AP (AP is a DK's spellpower, all damaging abilities scale of AP). Also, if you have to choose between an item with AP and an item with Str 99.99% of the time the str item is better mainly due to straight AP getting no benefit from BoK.

About Blade of Misfortune: I bought one a while back when they were cheap on my server but I am rolling a Orc DK. Would I be better off just using the starter axe until I can get the Honed Voidaxe due to the expertise/axe racial or will the dps boost on the blade outstrip the 6 expertise at the lower levels? On the beta i leveled using the starter sword (Rolled BE) until the Honed Voidaxe and that lasted until Northrend. I only ask b/c i can flip the blade for about 5x what I paid for it.

[WindupAtheist]

Turn a profit on the blade and use whatever. It's just leveling.

[Merusk]

Turn a profit on the blade and use whatever. It's just leveling.

This.  Quest weapons work fine, only min/maxing goofballs flush with gold waste cash on blues that will be replaced in less than a day's /played time.

The Cloth Turn-ins have to be done in each individual city.  You can only repeat runecloth (for rep, not xp) after the first set of turn-ins for a city.  At least you start off with all the old world flight points, so no running around trying to deal with all THAT bullshit.   You have to do your own mapfilling, however.

[Draegan]

I've got a blade of Misfortune myself, and I plan on being an Orc.  However if I see the Blade start going for some obscene amount I'll sell it real quick.  Won't take me long to go from 60-65.

However I'm alone on a big server so I'm not sure if I'll have friends to give me a hand with the bloodring quest.

Anyone play on Mal Ganis?

[Simond]

There's a no-drop two-handed sword sold in Halaa which suits DKs well, just as a tip.

[Dewdrop]

There's a no-drop two-handed sword sold in Halaa which suits DKs well, just as a tip.

Level 67 to use is the only issue there and the Honed Voidaxe is available at 65 and is better.

As for Ring of Blood, any decent pop server should have enough people milling about nagrand on DK's to do it. On beta we did it with 4 DK's and someones alt Druid healer and mowed it down. Just did a 'lfm' in the Nagrand general chat and got like 7 tells and this was relatively early in beta (before instability forced everyone to play DK's in Outland b/c Northrend was so awful) when the DK population was still kind of low.

Good advice on the Blade. I got mine for 50g and they are going for 250+ right now. Its one market that hasn't tanked recently..   

[apocrypha]

Anyone got any thoughts on dual-boxing a pair of DKs? Normally I have a healer as one of my duo but since DKs don't heal that ain't gonna work here.

Think 2 frost-spec DKs with keycloning would work or would I just be better off leveling one at a time with a healer in tow?

[Merusk]

Anyone got any thoughts on dual-boxing a pair of DKs? Normally I have a healer as one of my duo but since DKs don't heal that ain't gonna work here.

Blood Knights heal their group for 2% of damage they deal with talents.  When my knight was Blood it was about impossible to lose health on one to two mobs, so there's your healing. 

[lamaros]

If you want to make cash, buy up all the Blades of Misfortune.  I can see them going for a pretty penny.  I bought one for 140g last night.

I bought up a whole stack back in june (and other leveling stuff, 1hers armor, etc) for massive profits. But I'm not subbed and doubt I'll be fucked to resub for wotlk in the end.

[apocrypha]

Anyone got any thoughts on dual-boxing a pair of DKs? Normally I have a healer as one of my duo but since DKs don't heal that ain't gonna work here.

Blood Knights heal their group for 2% of damage they deal with talents.  When my knight was Blood it was about impossible to lose health on one to two mobs, so there's your healing. 

Hurrah \o/

Operation Double Whoppa w. Cheese is on! :D

[Draegan]

Unholy is the king of AOE though.