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

[kaid]

Honestly I see no reason to go out of your way to collect anything for leveling. Doing the DK area will get you to 58. Once you are 58 head to hellfire the xp gain in the outlands is 30% faster than it was before. I went in to hellfire at 58 and left at 64. To get to northrend you just need to get to 68 you can do that by the time you are done with nagrand it does not take long folks no need to spend time grinding up lots of random bits.


I also forgot to add there is ZERO reason to buy any gear. The starting area quest gear will last till you are around 65 or 66 and then will be replaced by some outland stuff and then you hit northrend and you will catch up to raiders from tbc fast. The starting weapons you get are fine for leveling and then the ring of blood or weapon from halaa will bring you the rest of the way to northrend.

Also please note you MUST finish all the DK area quests so there is no reason at all to try to level up via other means from 55 to 58.

[Merusk]

The Idea, I believe, is that all these quest turn-ins are easily farmable on one's own and get you to 60 without doing time-consuming quests.  If you hit Outlands at 60 you're even better equipped (from a level and ability standpoint) to take on the content there, and will get done with Hellfire at 65 or even 66.

It's just Min/Maxing the leveling. 

[kaid]

The problem is you HAVE to do the quests in the DK area you cannot skip them. And since that gets you to 58 and outlands xp is super fast now the time and or cash you give up gathering the mats up is not worth the effort.

To give you an idea from beta I finished up DK quests got 58 went to hellfire got to 64 doing just hell fire went right to nagrand got to 68 and then went to northrend. The leveling jump up in outlands is silly now for rapid leveling.

[Dewdrop]

As for leveling, while Blood does do alot of self healing I found that my dps was much higher with unholy as well as the fact that you decimate with aoe. Add to that "On a Pale Horse" and "Unholy Aura" talents and you cant really beat Unholy for speed leveling. Faster mount, faster movement, aoe, tons of self healing (Deathstrike with 3 diseases is pretty potent + Blood presence). For leveling I personally ranked the different trees as such: Unholy > Blood > Frost.

[Merusk]

The problem is you HAVE to do the quests in the DK area you cannot skip them. And since that gets you to 58 and outlands xp is super fast now the time and or cash you give up gathering the mats up is not worth the effort.

To give you an idea from beta I finished up DK quests got 58 went to hellfire got to 64 doing just hell fire went right to nagrand got to 68 and then went to northrend. The leveling jump up in outlands is silly now for rapid leveling.

See, YOU think the time/ cash spent gathering isn't worth the effort.  I, on the other hand, am doing nothing but cranking out old dunegons for achievements on my main right now.  I've got 7k gold and nothing to do with it either, since all my current chars have their epic flyers.  Spending a night or two right now will push me into 60 with about an hour's running-around time is worth it to me.  Nobody's saying run around and do this gathering after next week.  That'd be silly, but there's a week until Thursday to spend time gathering it all up.

   I know how fast outlands xp is right now from beta.  I also know it was a lot less of a pain in the ass running around Hellfire at 60 instead of 58, because the aggro radius on those orcs and boars suck.

[kaid]

I would agree that Unholy is about as fast or faster leveling than blood now. The changes to deathstrike allows unholy to self heal very easily.

As for running around grabbing resources prior to each their own but even if you can do the turn ins to get you to 60 in an hour you will first have to do about 4 to 5 hours in the deathknight area first anyway so if you have the time and money to blow go for it but you won't be saving yourself much if any time once you start your DK.

[Draegan]

From what I've read you actually don't have to do ALL of the quests in the starting area.  There are talks of people RAFing two DKs for super super min/max leveling.

[Dewdrop]

The current RAF plan is to tandem two DK's (triple XP bonus) and finish up the whole shebang at about 60.8, then do the cloth turn ins and a couple of other basic quests you can collect for now and hit 61 which would allow you to skip HFP and head to straight to ZM where there will be NO crowd.

Another option is if you have levels available to gift apparently you can abstain from turning in the final quest, thus being at 57.9 but able to leave Ebon Hold. Then get gifted 3 levels to 60.9, turn in the final quest to hit 61. The 'trainer' quest that people talk about skipping doesn't even exist in the final version of the DK starter, it was replaced with the final quest (when you can train through Mograine), but you can skip that final, or at least delay the turn in. The quests leading up to that are all tied together. I tested by skipping one quest and turning in all others available to me at that time, this prevented the next '!' from appearing.

Seems like alot of money (two accounts, etc) and effort to me, but on high pop servers it'll probably get you ahead of the crush. Im on a med-pop server, I doubt I'll struggle much in HFP, especially considering how many DK's will be fumbling around just learning to play while i just breeze by them having had the benefit of learning the ropes in beta.

[apocrypha]

This is convincing me more and more that what I want to do first is level a non-DK duo to 80, get them some semi-decent 80 gear and then roll my DKs. I want to take my time and enjoy all of the new content, not rush through it to get to the crappy endgame.

Plus I'll then have a pair of 80s to help out on group quests etc and hopefully a chance to have collected some gear for the DKs along the way.

[DraconianOne]

Think I'll be levelling to 80 first and then trying DK. The only reason I never made it to 70 before this week (apart from not playing the game for nearly a year) is because I went straight in to level a couple of Blood Elves. So my main is still in Terrokar and has only seen as much of Outland as is necessary to get the FPs. This time, I'm going to go and see Northrend first and then think about levelling a DK.

[Hawkbit]

We bled some guildies over the past six months, didn't realize it till last night.  At the moment, only one other person is considering a DK main along with me. 

[kaid]

As of a month ago I was going to go DK main but then blizzard went around and totally fixed my issues with prot warriors and now I am torn. Prot warriors went from being eye gougingly slow in pve solo and non existent in pvp to good at both. I still want to make a DK as well but probably wind up being a primary alt until I can compare them at level 80.

[Dren]

I have 9 characters I want to get closer to 80 before I even think about starting DK.

Ok ok, I'll start one, but it will be way low on my priority list, especially if I find it too annoying that I'm packed in with 1,000 other DK's in the same areas.  I'll certainly have plenty of things to bounce my attention off of for a long while.

[raydeen]

It's Death Knights as far as the eye can see. I rolled an unholy and it just kicks so much ass. Zombie pet + heal on attack + several AoEs = almost too easy. Not to mention the free mount and all the bag space. It feels like a hero class, so they definitely succeeded. Had a ?? dwarf Frost DK attacking the Crossroads and I decided to give him a go with my 60 undead Unholy. I actually got him down to about a 1/4 health before I kicked the bucket. Pet + Zombie form after death helped a lot.

[Shrike]

Rolled my DK over this last weekend. Wasn't going to, but a friend harrassed me into it. Pretty clueless at first, but a little research goes a long way. It's not a class that will make life easy for idiots.

Honor Hold was like DK class reunion weekend when I arrived at 58. The general consensus is that blood is the "leveling spec", but the general population of WoW is dumber than a bag of hammers. Blood is probably the most similar to paladin retribution in mechanics (not that that is saying all that much). I went unholy, however, and it just mows through stuff in HFP, even at 58. Unholy has the higheset magical damage output and all that orc armor means diddly-squat to an unholy DK. Ice is also tempting me. It looks interesting. Then there's the so-called tri-spec, but I do want to tank on my DK and that's contra-indicated with that build.

Anyway, I'm actually having a lot of fun with my unholy DK. Not going to be my primary focus, but might supplant my prot pally as my fun-to-level character when I don't feel like playing my shaman or fiddling about with my tradeskill focused hunter.

[Draegan]

Unholy is the best leveling spec due to their speed run/ride speed enhancements.  Other than that Blood is the best for single target dps and their healing, and unholy is good for aoe.

[Merusk]

I still can't get the hang of AOE with unholy.  I had a much easier time of it as Blood since Pestilence/ BB were easier to get off with your unholy and frost runes turning into death runes 100% of the time.  With pestilence losing that one UH rune really fucks up your damage rotation for the Unholy spec.

[apocrypha]

I got my DK duo (both Unholy) up to the end of the DK quest chain then parked them to get some rested XP while I level my Shaman & Paladin for a bit. And omg there's a lot of DK's around. Wall to wall indeed

Playing 2 at once means that fights just don't last long enough for me to really get the hang of the rotations. I'll get 'em to 60 next week then go beat up Araj the Summoner a few times 

[Rasix]

Blood looks great for a soloer, but unholy just looks like a lot of fun plus you get a perma ghoul pet.  Still, not sure I'd want to give up blood. I like playing something that feels like it's impossible to kill.

Death knight starter area was worth playing even if I don't plan on taking this class any further.  Might wait for them to thin out some.  On my podunk server, it feels like they're half the population.

[Merusk]

I've found it REALLY thins out on the DKs around level 64.  The tedium of doing Outlands yet again begins to sink in, folks see their guildies hitting 72 to 74 and they say Fuck it and go back to their old 70s.     There were only 4 DKs in Howling Fjord and an equal number in Borean last night, while the pages were filled with other classes.

It's also funny to see folks just stop to watch a DK going at it for a bit, since the class is still so new.

I was Blood all beta but went Unholy this time around.  I miss blood a lot, but the pet is very nice for working up those level 1 harvesting skills, since the pet kills the mob while you harvest.  You do die a LOT more as UH, but hey at least you get to rezz and kill whatever killed you.

[Morfiend]

I still can't get the hang of AOE with unholy.  I had a much easier time of it as Blood since Pestilence/ BB were easier to get off with your unholy and frost runes turning into death runes 100% of the time.  With pestilence losing that one UH rune really fucks up your damage rotation for the Unholy spec.

I have been leveling an Unholy DK, having a blast, as for AEing.

Start with PS, IT, then Pestilance to spread the diseases to the other mobs, drop a death and decay if its ready, and also Unholy Blight. You can then use the Blood Boil and just go to town single target. You should have the talent that makes it so you have a chance equil to your crit chance for your single target abilities to trigger a AE effect.

I can take around 5 equal level mobs no problem, and have gone as high as 8.

[Dewdrop]

Assuming you have Wandering Plague then, like said:

PS-IT-Pestilence to start. Then you have to choose. If you have reaping drop a blood strike so that you come up with two death runes then you next ability is a UF (runes used) ability. AE'ing as a DK is all about choosing when to BB, when to SS, and when to DS.

So, for me:

PS-IT-Pest-BS-Unholy Blight-SS, then I switch to the target with the most hp and DC off my last 40 RP or just wait. My next runes that come up are Unholy-Frost so i can SS or DS (depending on HP), My next runes to come up are Death runes, if my HP are fine I'll Blood Boil twice, then DS on the last rune refresh, then its about finishing off the last little bit (most mobs will be low HP by then). The most mobs i took at one was 9-10 bone lashers in The Bone Wastes + A couple of scorpids (it was a bad pull). I came out with 90% hp and I think recount had me at just under 1100 dps. 

I think alot of it will come down to practice for most people. I was fortunate in that I leveled a DK up in beta so I kind of knew going in how to do it. And donut forget Unholy Blight, on paper it looks so-so but the bigger the pack the more awesome it is. I will say this: I have a warlock built for farming that I previously thought was the best possible class for mass farming with little to no downtime. This DK makes my lock seem slow and weak by comparison.

[Morfiend]

Pretty much all the info you need to know. The spec section is good, because it gives rotations for each spec, and even if you dont have rune management down pat, just knowing the rotation will help you a LOT.

Death Knight Compendium on EJ.com

[Lum]

To give you an idea from beta I finished up DK quests got 58 went to hellfire got to 64 doing just hell fire went right to nagrand got to 68 and then went to northrend. The leveling jump up in outlands is silly now for rapid leveling.

Actually the biggest block now are all the deathknights trying to quest in Outland.

[Lum]

Blood looks great for a soloer, but unholy just looks like a lot of fun plus you get a perma ghoul pet.  Still, not sure I'd want to give up blood. I like playing something that feels like it's impossible to kill.

Here's my current spec at 61. You don't need a lot of investment in Unholy to get the omgfast ride speed and the permapet. I am basically unkillable. I soloed the Drillmaster (a 62 or 63 elite) at 60.

[Sjofn]

I was going to level my paladin to 80 before really digging into the deathkngiht, but my paladin fills me with despair, so I'm doing the deathknight instead. Someone else is going to have to heal the guild's instance groups for a while. Nyah!

[WindupAtheist]

I took my DK to 58 on the starter quests just to see what it was like. Now I'm running around the first part of Northrend with my ret pally. I'll probably mess with my DK some more once the ret runs out of rest XP.

[Mazakiel]

DKs are just fun as hell, I definitely plan on levelling one to 80.  I've gone mostly blood, and I'm basically an unstoppable killing machine.  The rune system worked a lot better than I thought it would going into it, having never played the beta. 

[Zetor]

Yeah, I thought I was going to level my resto shammy to 80 first, but it's still sitting at 70 (and that's after 3 instance runs + some quests). My DK, on the other hand, might hit Northrend this week. DKs are overpowered as heck (for now, at least), and I'm loving it. Plus there's the inherent awesomeness in a gnome laying down the smack with a 2-hander, especially on the random tauren/undead/bloodelf DKs that tried to gank me while leveling (I just got the "know your enemy" achievement yesterday after having killed a DK of every possible race).

I'm considering going frost after 70 (that's the spec I had my eye on ever since the talent trees were released), but right now unholy aura and pale horse are indispensable.


-- Z.

[DraconianOne]

there's the inherent awesomeness in a gnome laying down the smack with a 2-hander

You think there is but there really isn't.

A gnomes purpose is merely to be roadkill for the rest of us.

[apocrypha]

Pretty much all the info you need to know. The spec section is good, because it gives rotations for each spec, and even if you dont have rune management down pat, just knowing the rotation will help you a LOT.

Death Knight Compendium on EJ.com

Awesome link, thanks. Made my head hurt but managed to understand enough to be less useless with my DKs now 

[Morfiend]

there's the inherent awesomeness in a gnome laying down the smack with a 2-hander

You think there is but there really isn't.

A gnomes purpose is merely to be roadkill for the rest of us.

So. True.

[WindupAtheist]

I don't think I like my new blood DK that much. He feels limited compared to my ret pally. On my pally I can buff, cleanse, heal, and turn myself and other people invincible, all while stomping a respectable amount of ass now that the spec has been buffed, and it's not until someone/something gets me down below 50% or so health the second time in the fight that I even begin to worry. Meanwhile on my new DK I'm just mashing a bunch of seemingly interchangable "(scary word)+Strike" abilities all over the place.

[Fordel]

Blood is like the melee version of a affliction lock. You can regain so much health while killing at a good speed, it's hard to beat for 1 mob at a time killing.

Unholy is the most fun from my point of view though. It has all the bizarre toys and stuff 

[Ragnoros]

I don't think I like my new blood DK that much. He feels limited compared to my ret pally. On my pally I can buff, cleanse, heal, and turn myself and other people invincible, all while stomping a respectable amount of ass now that the spec has been buffed, and it's not until someone/something gets me down below 50% or so health the second time in the fight that I even begin to worry. Meanwhile on my new DK I'm just mashing a bunch of seemingly interchangable "(scary word)+Strike" abilities all over the place.

Not surprising. Right now DKs are strong. Ret is just insane though.

Having said that, you might wanna try unholy or frost. I found blood to be the least fun as you're basically spamming one button.

Unholy gets a surprisingly good pet, does mostly shadow damage--avoiding mobs armor--and has damn good AOE killing with wandering plague, corpse explosion, unholy blight and so on.

Frost is the CRIT spec. And turns you into a mini ice mage as someone else here had mentioned. Probably the best damage out of the three specs too. I can almost outdo my S4 warrior.

But honestly right now Paladins are where it's at. Enjoy the ride while it lasts.