Newly updated for Cataclysm! The Death Knight is the first hero class added to World of Warcraft.  Introduced with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Death Knights are a plate-wearing Tank / DPS hybrid.  In contrast with Paladins, Druids, and Warriors, Death Knights are a more offensively oriented tank, gaining aggro through area of effect damage.  Death Knights tank with 2-handed weapons rather than the traditional 1-hander and shield, which means that their mitigation is more focused on avoidance than absorption.  Any race can be a Death Knight, with the lore reasoning behind it being that every race is capable of being corrupted.

Death Knight Leveling Stats

For stat priority, questing Death Knights will want to focus on Strength, Crit, and Haste, with a minor focus on Stamina.  Death Knights planning on tanking should prioritize Stamina, Strength, Parry, and Dodge.  Once Cataclysm is released, Mastery will be an excellent stat to seek out, as Death Knights have some of the best mastery bonuses of any class in the game.

Death Knight Leveling Build

Before Cataclysm was released, I recommended Blood as the ideal leveling spec.  In the current iteration of the game, Blood has been re-purposed as a fully dedicated tanking tree.  While it is more viable for soloing than most tanking builds, it’s position at the top of the heap for leveling has been eclipsed by both Unholy and Frost.

Currently, Unholy is the best possible leveling spec.  Although it lacks the survivability of Blood and the burst DPS of Frost, Unholy has excellent consistent AOE DPS, as well as the benefit of a permanent pet.  I would recommend the following for a Cataclysm death knight leveling build – click here.  The reasoning for most of these talents is quite simple, so I won’t go into too much detail.  Suffice it to say that you want to be moving from target to target as quickly as you can while dealing the maximum amount of damage possible.  Pretty much all of the recommended talents cater to that playstyle.

After your first 31 points, you may be wondering where to place the last 5 points that you will get from level 70 to 80.  Bladed Armor in the Blood tree is always a solid choice for 3 of them.  Alternately, you can pick up Unholy Frenzy, flesh out Magic Suppression and grab Anti-Magic Zone if you want to go pure Unholy.

Other Death Knight Leveling Specs

While Unholy is likely the best choice for speedy leveling, that doesn’t mean that Blood and Frost are off the table entirely.  If you’re a more defensively oriented player, Blood still makes an excellent choice.  Your survivability will be substantially higher, and though you won’t be mowing through enemies as quickly as your Frost or Unholy brethren, you’ll still be able to dish out the pain well enough to get to 80 without breaking a sweat.  For Blood leveling, my recommended Cataclysm death knight leveling spec would be this – click here.

If all you want out of your talent build is the capacity for some big sticky crits, Frost is probably a good fit for you.  You can either go with dual-wield or 2-hander, but for leveling I’d suggest sticking with a 2-hander since it’s better to not have to worry a ton about +hit gear.  Frost, as you’ve probably guessed by now, is all about putting out big numbers using Obliterate, Frost Strike, and Howling Blast.  Your survivability won’t be as good as Blood, and your AoE and sustained damage won’t be as good as Unholy, but man will you ever have some burst damage.  Here’s the Cataclysm DK leveling build that I’d recommend if you want to go Frost – click here.

Tanking As A Death Knight

For Death Knights who are planning on tanking during the leveling process, I wanted to add a special section just for you.  Here’s the deal.  Death Knights can be extremely powerful tanks, but it is important to know how your threat works and what your limitations are.  Death Knight threat is damage based.  That means that you need to stay busy.  Blood is the new de facto tanking tree, so spec and gear appropriately if you want to be a successful tank.

• Because you will have much more of an aggro lead on one mob than the others, use raid targets and set priority.  This will reduce the number of times you wipe by quite a bit.
• Please, please don’t tank as anything but Blood unless you massively outgear the content.
• Use Death and Decay.  Always.
• BLOOD PRESENCE. ‘Nuff said.

With that out of the way, I genuinely hope that you guys do try tanking, and hopefully a few of you like it enough to keep doing it.  There’s no faster way to get groups, and the World of Warcraft could always use another good tank.