Death Knights are the new hybrid tanking class introduced by Blizzard in Wrath of the Lich King and offer some unique abilities in PvE and PvP to throw into the class mix.
While Blizzard has clearly stated that Death Knights will not replace Warriors as end-game main tanks, they are certainly viable as a tank, and more efficient at dealing with caster bosses then any of the other tanks with abilities like Anti-Magic Zone and Anti-Magic Shell.
With Druid’s healing superiority over arena’s in TBC with their high mobility, instant cast HoT’s and stacking lifeblooms, death knights are going to be the equalizer, with abilities like Plague Strike, unfortunately it looks like Degeneration didn’t make it through, but maybe a little overpowered.
Blizzard made a lot of changes with racials, and while many people say that you should only pick a race based on “looks”, racial abilities should be another factor to look at if you are serious about end game play.
Continue reading to see how each race’s abilities benefit the death knight most in PvE and PvP.
Blood Elf
- Arcane Torrent - Silences all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec and restores 15 Runic Power
Mana tap and global cool down has been removed from this spell making it much more viable. A great pvp talent to allow death knights an extra silence in their attack sequence with Strangulate and Mind Freeze and also gives them 15 runic power which can be inserted at crucial points to complete certain combos, almost like how rogues use energy.
- Magic Resistance (passive) Reduces the chance you will be hit by spells by 2%.
This ability will make Blood Elfs the best magic tanks in the game for min/maxers. This ability already plays up to the death knights advantage in mitigating magic damage and the guilds that will want to use a death knight to take on really tough end game magic bosses will definitely want a magic tank who has a +2% chance to mitigate even more magic damage.
Orc
- Blood Fury (instant - 2 min cooldown) - Increases attack power by (Level*4)+2 per character level (322 at 80). Lasts 15 sec.
They removed the -50% healing debuff from this racial which is HUGE! Orcs will be the highest DPS melee of any DK’s out there and this makes them even more leathal when they get their death grip on you.
- Hardiness (passive) - Duration of Stun effects reduced by an additional 15%.
This will let you handle rogues and paladins much easier, stacking this with On a Pale Horse (20% talented) and meta gems (+15%) will give you (ex. 8 second stun - 20% = 6.4 - 15% = 5.44 - 15% = 4.26 stun). However death knights already have a stun immunity Icebound Fortitude that they can cast if in combat with a heavy stun user, but it doesn’t break stun so it must be used offensively and it’s on a 1 minute cooldown.
- Command (passive) - Damage dealt by Death Knight, Hunter and Warlock pets increased by 5%.
This ability increases the damage that your summoned Ghoul’s do from Army of the Dead, while 5% is not game breaking you do summon about 9 ghouls so buffing all their damage starts to add up.
- Axe Specialization (passive) Expertise with Axes and Two-Handed Axes increased by 5.
solidifying orcs as the best melee dps DK you can pick, disappointed that this ability wasn’t buffed since you see a lot of items now having +expertise on it.
Tauren
- War Stomp (instant) - 0.5 sec cast - 2 min cooldown. Stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yds for 2 sec.
the staple Tauren pvp ability, however with a lot of ways to already shut out casters (Strangulate, Mind Freeze) this is a weakened version of Arcane Torrent that blood elfs get, still has its situational uses and is AoE.
- Endurance (passive) - Base Health increased by 5%
Nerfed from being +5% of total health to base health which pretty much negates any scaling this ability would have with level 80 gear in later tiers. However it is a passive talent that will boost your health by about 400-500. An ability welcome for PvE making Taurens the 2nd best tank.
- Nature Resistance (passive) Reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%.
Nothing to talk about here, you are a little more annoying for druids to deal with.
Troll
- Berserking (instant) 3 min cooldown. Increases your attack speed by 10% to 30%. At full health the speed increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 30% if you are badly hurt when you activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec.
An ability with some pretty great potential for scaling a DPS Death Knight, putting them just behind Orcs for best PvE DPS.
- Regeneration (passive) Health regeneration increased by 10%. 10% of total Health regeneration may continue during combat.
This ability regenerates 10% of total health which is pretty awesome. For a death knight that is able to keep himself healed with abilities this will be an extra welcome addition to health management.
- Da Voodoo Shuffle (passive) Reduces the duration of all movement impairing effects by 15%.
Here is the best survivability talent that horde DK’s could hope for, since the main weakness of a DK is to get crowd controlled and kept at a distance from their targets. This stacks with Toughness but unfortunately it is only multiplicative (30%+15%= 34.5%) giving trolls 34.5% reduced duration of all roots and snares. If you think about it - getting snared for 8 seconds now equals 5.24 seconds, and then diminishing returns on the next snare would be 2.62 seconds, almost making a root only a global cooldown after the first. Roots and Snares are the only CC ability in which DK’s don’t have other immunities like stun, fear, sleep, and charm.
Undead
- Will of the Forsaken (instant) 2 min cooldown. Removes any Charm, Fear and Sleep effect.
One of the staple horde pvp abilities, greatly increasing our defense against a warlock or priest. For a DK this is only has very limited use as you can utilize Lichborne to be immune to fear, sleep, charm AND since you are now undead effects like polymorph, hex and sap will no longer work on you. However WotF can be used while you are under the effect and Lichborne must be activated prior, so it is still good for getting out and saving your trinket. Be careful as Lichborne also makes you susceptable to Priest and Paladins PvE-only spells against undead targets like Shackle and Turn Undead.
- Shadow Resistance (passive) Reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%.
Since most of DK’s abilities are shadow based and they even get talents that add shadow damage to their attacks, this will make undead the best class to fight against another DK.
Alliance
Draenei
- Gift of the Naaru (active) Heals the target 50 + 15/Level over 15 sec - 40 yd range - 1.5 sec cast - 3 min cooldown. The amount healed is increased based on the caster’s Spell Power or Attack Power. This ability does not lose casting time from taking damage.
With the casting time on this, I doubt you would use it in place of another spell a DK could use to steal life and deal dmg at the same time. Good for extra survivability when you are rooted or out of LOS, but not that great.
- Heroic Presence (passive) Increases chance to hit with all spells and attacks by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.
+hit is always welcome for PvE encounters and will help you reach the cap so you can gem for other things. A good PvE DPS racial.
- Shadow Resistance (passive) Reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%.
Same as Undeads talent - “Since most of DK’s abilities are shadow based and they even get talents that add shadow damage to their attacks, this will make undead/Draenei the best class to fight against another DK.”
Dwarf
- Stoneform (instant) 3 min cooldown. While active, grants immunity to Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects. In addition, Armor increases by 10%. Lasts 8 sec.
A little boost in both PvE and PVP abilities here. This will stack (multiplicative) with Toughness to increase your total armor by (ex. 1000 armor: (1000+15%= 150) + 10% = +165 armor). Useful in PvP aganinst the powerful poisons and bleeds of warriors/rogues. Great against other DK’s who’s arsenal is mostly made up of diseases.
- Frost Resistance (passive) Reduces the chance you will be hit by Frost spells by 2%.
Will make dealing with frost mages and DK’s frost line easier.
Gnomes
- Escape Artist (instant) - 1.75 min cooldown. Escape the effects of any immobilization or movement speed reduction effect.
Free trinket to get out of snares/roots? making this the best PvP racial you can get by far. As stated earlier DK’s only weakness is against being CC’ed and snared and this negates that.
- Arcane Resistance - passiveReduces the chance you will be hit by Arcane spells by 2%.
Nice against those arcane barraging mages, but I have a feeling you won’t see many mages specing arcane with frost builds usually taking over pvp at the higher levels.
Human
- Perception (passive) Increases your Stealth detection.
increases your stealth detection by +1 level, ability to detect rogues before they get an opener on you? yes please.
- Sword and Mace Specialiation. +3 expertise.
A rounded version of what orcs get, increases to maces and swords opposed to only axes. A nice DPS upgrade.
- Every Man for Himself - instant - 2 min cooldown. Removes all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. This effect shares a cooldown with other similar effects.
Huh? where’d this come from! wow, they gave humans the best racial PvP talent in the game, have to confirm if this pops your trinket but from the sounds of it this will put that on cooldown as well, giving humans a free trinket slot to put something else. This talent makes Humans and Gnomes the best PvP races by far.
Night Elf
- Shadowmeld (instant) 2 min cooldown. Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or upon moving. Any threat is restored versus enemies still in combat upon cancellation of this effect.
This acts like a “vanish” in PvP as it makes you lose your target and interrupts any casting on that target when they disappear for a brief second. An extremely great ability for hunters, but as a death knight you would only use this when your abilities like Anti-Magic Zone and Anti-Magic Shell are not available.
- Quickness (passive) Reduces the chance that melee and ranged attackers will hit you by 2%.
A decent PvP and PvE defensive ability but not that great for PvP.
- Nature Resistance (passive) Reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%.
Makes druids a little easier to handle.
Summary
Horde PvP
Undead - to give you the extra fear/sleep/charm break without the risk of making yourself vulnerable to paladin/priest PvE undead spells. You can also break out of a warlock/priest fear if you aren’t able to cast Lichborne in-time.
Horde PvE - Tanking
Blood Elf - For end game raiding a DK will only be called upon to tank magic bosses and 2% mitigation to this will make you that much better at your specific role. (not saying DK’s can’t tank end game bosses, but min/max guilds will take a warrior for those and dk’s for magic bosses.)
Horde PvE - DPS
Orc/Troll - A tie here going more to the side of orc, but trolls ability has better scaling potential. However I don’t see DK’s getting called upon much to be only DPS, as many of the pure dps classes excel at that role, expect to be brought on raids for tanking.
Alliance PvP
Human - with perception and a free trinket break of any loss of control of your character this will definately be the way to go, with gnomes trailing behind.
Alliance PvE - Tanking
Night Elf/Dwarf - -2% chance to be hit by melee/ranged helps NE’s excel in tanking and dwarfs are close behind getting 10% to armor, however that 10% is only multiplicative on toughness, considering they both are specced fully in.
Alliance PvE - DPS
Human/Draenei - +3 expertise in Maces, Swords will allow humans to dish out more damage, Draenei will get +1% to hit and that buff goes to others as well, close tie here.
Choosing a race can be pretty difficult as you know your decision is irreversable once you make it, blizzard has made big changes to racials and don’t want them to be “game breaking” and in the last patch have deminished the value most of them have in PvE regards. Tauren used to be considered the only tanking option for warriors for min/max guilds but as we saw that was nerfed and now almost any race has a pro/con.
With this in mind don’t pick a race you hate looking at just because of the racial ability, you never know how blizzard will change the racials in patches to come, but this is a good thing to consider in making your decision.
If you found this article helpful in deciding the DK race you want, send it to any of your friends/guildmates who are also considering rolling a DK.
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