Deathknight.nl is your one stop site for all your World of Warcraft Death Knight needs including add ons, spell and ability rotations, glyphs, raid buffs, specs, mounts, lore, ghouls and videos. Our Death Knight site also contains a tanking and dps guide.

Specs Updated for 3.3!

Patch 3.3 is out! The huge news in this patch for Death Knights is the return of the Unholy dps spec. It has been buffed and now out performs both Blood in Frost in both single target dps and aoe dps. All dps Death Knights will end up hoping over to Unholy now. Blood and Frost are just as competitive as before, nothing much has changed for them.

3.2 Is Out!

3.2 is out and there are many changes on the way for Death Knights! The most notably change is the spectacular return of dual wielding, now exclusively a Frost tree dps spec. Unholy and blood have also had their fair share of changes as well. All the specs have been updated on the site and the glyphs and runeforging are now also included!

DK Q&A and 3.2 & DW

The Blue Posts section of the website has been updated with the latest Q&A session with class designer Ghostcrawler about the Death Knight class! Latest 3.2 patch news is that Dual Wielding will be making its return as a key feature in the Frost Tree! Blue comments on the offical forums seem to indicate that the Frost tree will be balanced around Dual Wielding, though there will be no steps aimed at nerfing Frost 2 Hand specs. What this means is that over time it is most likely that Frost 2H dps will die as they don't seem to be planning to balance the tree around that. Short term, 2H Frost still seems to be holding up in patch 3.2

Latest Frost Dmg Spec Out

The site´s spec page has been updated to include the latest Unholy 2H DPS build. It is one of the latest specs around for dps and has a very interesting and effective approach to spending talent points!

Site Updated For Blood

The site´s spec page has been updated to the latest Blood 2H DPS build (Frost and Unholy are updated too). Blood Death Knights no longer use Obliterate, rather Death Strike. The new rotation and spec are on the spec page!

3.1 is now Live!

On the live servers, 3.1 is now up and running! There are a lot of changes to Death Knights in this patch. Dual wielding is no longer viable. Diseaseless Blood Death Knights are also no longer viable and a wide variety of tanking talents and abilities have recieved a big nerf. Up side is that the three 2H dps specs have their dps increased slightly. New glyphs are also out, as will be a ton of gear from Ulduar!

The patch notes:

• Anti-magic Shell: The amount of damage this ability can absorb is now limited to 100% of the death knight’s health.
• Blood Boil’s damage increased to make up for Pestilence no longer doing damage.
• Blood Boil now does some damage to undiseased targets and extra damage to diseased targets. Its radius has been decreased.
• Blood Plague: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
• Blood Strike: Bonus damage for diseases is now a multiplier rather than a flat bonus.
• Death Pact: This heal cannot be critical.
• Death Strike: The amount of healing per damage done has been reduced by 20%.
• Frost Fever: Now lasts 15 seconds untalented.
• Frost Presence: Now grants 5% damage reduction instead of 15% magic damage reduction.
• Obliterate: Bonus damage for diseases now increases damage done by a percentage rather than a flat amount.
• Pestilence does no damage and has only 1 rank.
• Plague Strike and Blood Plague no longer remove heal-over-time effects. Plague Strike’s damage increased quite a bit to compensate.
• Raise Ally now has a cooldown greater than 15 minutes and can no longer be used in Arenas.
• Raise Dead: Duration lowered to 60 seconds and cooldown lowered to 3 minutes. The cooldown on this ability now begins when the pet dies rather than when it is summoned.
• Rune of Cinderglacier now procs per minute instead of a 5% chance.
• Rune of the Fallen Crusader: This weapon enchant now provides only 15% strength, but its chance to proc is doubled.
• Rune of Razorice now affects Frost damage done by the death knight only, but stacks up to 10%.
• Strangulate no longer does damage and has been reduced to 1 rank.

Blood

• Abomination’s Might: This effect can now also be caused by Death Strike.
• Blade Barrier: Now grants 1/2/3/4/5% damage reduction instead of 2/4/6/8/10% parry.
• Blood Aura: Replaced with Improved Blood Presence. This allows the death knight to keep the healing-from-damage-done bonus of Blood Presence in any presence, and increases healing received while in Blood Presence.
• Blood-Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.
• Bloody Strikes: The bonus damage this talent grants to Blood Boil has been reduced to 10/20/30%.
• Bloodworms now heal more.
• Dancing Rune Weapon: Damage done by, and duration of this pet is reduced by 50%, but the cooldown is reduced to 90 seconds. Attack speed of pet increased from 2.0 to 3.5.
• New talent: Improved Death Strike: Increases Death Strike damage by 10/20%, and critical strike chance by 3/6%.
• Heart Strike: Bonus damage for diseases is now a multiplier rather than a flat bonus. No longer affected by Glyph of Blood Strike.
• Hysteria: This ability now causes the target to lose health rather than take damage.
• Might of Mograine: No longer affects Obliterate.
• Scent of Blood: Will now proc on a dodge, parry or when taking damage, and now grants 10 runic power per charge. Internal cooldown removed.
• Spell Deflection: This talent has been increased to 15/30/45% damage reduction from a direct damage spell.
• Sudden Doom now procs a free Death Coil instead of requiring you to push the button. Ranks reduced from 5 to 3.
• Vampiric Blood: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes from 1 minute.
• Will of the Necropolis: This ability now has a 15 second cooldown on how often it can occur.

Frost

• The following talents have moved in the Frost tree: Runic Power Mastery, Glacier Rot, Killing Machine, Chilblains, and Endless Winter.
• Black Ice: This talent now provides a 2/4/6/8/10% bonus to Frost and Shadow damage instead of 4/8/12/16/20% to Frost.
• Blood of the North: Now also increases damage dealt by Frost Strike by 3/6/9/12/15%.
• Chillblains: Now a 15/30/50% movement speed debuff up from 30%. Can no longer be dispelled.
• Frost Aura: Replaced with Improved Frost Presence. Allows the deathknight to keep the health bonus of Frost Presence in any presence, and decreases magic damage taken while in Frost Presence.
• Glacier Rot: 3rd rank added, and damage bonus increased to 7/13/20%.
• Howling Blast: Base damage and scaling doubled. This ability no longer deals bonus damage to targets with Frost Fever. 8-second cooldown. Swapped positions with Hungering Cold in the talent tree.
• Icy Talons and Improved Icy Talons: These talents now have new icons.
• Improved Icy Touch: Now increases Icy Touch damage by 5/10/15% instead of by 10/20/30%.
• Lichborne: No longer improves your chance to be missed. Now correctly grants immunity, and will break all effects to which Lichborne makes you immune.
• Rime: When this talent triggers, it also resets the cooldown on Howling Blast.
• Runic Power Mastery: Moved up to tier-1 and reduced to 2 ranks (15/30%).
• Tundra Stalker: Now increases the damage on abilities by 3/6/9/12/15% instead of 2/4/6/8/10%.
• Unbreakable Armor: Now grants damage reduction instead of physical damage reduction. Cooldown increased to 2 minutes from 1 minute.

Unholy

• Bone Shield: Cooldown increased to 2 minutes from 1 minute.
• Desecration: This talent now has a 100% chance to be triggered, works with Scourge Strike, and instantly snares targets within the Desecration area. Additional points in the talent increase the damage bonus and snare magnitude instead of increasing the chance it will be triggered.
• New Talent: Ghoul Frenzy: Grants 25% melee haste to your pet and heals it for 30% of its maximum health. Costs 1 Unholy Rune. Requires at least 30 points in the Unholy tree.
• Impurity: This talent is reduced to 4/8/12/16/20% bonus to attack power scaling.
• Magic Suppression: Now has 3 ranks (down from 5) for 2/4/6% magic damage reduction.
• Master of Ghouls: Now also reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 60 seconds. This talent now requires at least 25 points in the Unholy tree, and has Night of the Dead as a prerequisite.
• Night of the Dead: Redesigned to grant a flat reduction on cooldown to Raise Dead and Army of the Dead instead of a reduction from using abilities. Requires at least 15 points in the Unholy tree; prerequisite for Master of Ghouls.
• Outbreak: No longer increases Blood Boil damage. Now gives a 7/13/20% damage bonus to Scourge Strike. Plague Strike Bonus lowered to 10/20/30%.
• Reaping: Now procs on Blood Strike and Pestilence instead of Blood Strike and Blood Boil.
• Scourge Strike: Damage increased. Bonus damage for diseases now increases damage done by a percentage rather than a flat amount.
• Shadow of Death: This talent has been removed.
• Unholy Aura: Replaced with Improved Unholy Presence. Allows the death knight to keep the movement speed bonus of Unholy Presence in any presence, and increases rune regeneration rate while in Unholy Presence.
• Unholy Blight and Gargoyle have swapped places in the Unholy tree. Gargoyle is the new 51-point Unholy talent.
• Vicious Strikes: This talent no longer affects Death Strike.

New and changed Death Knight glyphs:

• Glyph of Blood Boil: This has been replaced with Glyph of Heart Strike, which adds a snare effect to Heart Strike.
• Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon: Increases the duration of Dancing Rune Weapon by 10 seconds.
• Glyph of Dark Death: Increases the damage done by Death Coil by 15%.
• Glyph of Death Strike: This glyph now increases Death Strike damage by 1% per 2 runic power, but has a limit of 25% increase.
• Glyph of Disease: Your Pestilence ability now refreshes disease durations on your primary target back to their maximum duration.
• Glyph of Howling Blast: Your Howling Blast ability now infects your targets with Frost Fever.
• Glyph of Hungering Cold: Reduces the cost of Hungering Cold by 10 runic power.
• Glyph of Icebound Fortitude: Icebound Fortitude now grants at least 30% damage reduction, regardless of defense skill.
• Glyph of Plague Strike: Bonus lowered to 20%.
• Glyph of Strangulate: This glyph has been changed to reduce the cooldown by 20 seconds.
• Glyph of Unbreakable Armor: Increases the amount of damage absorbed by Unbreakable Armor by 20%.
• Glyph of Unholy Blight: Increases the duration of Unholy Blight by 10 seconds.

 

 

Latest Changes for Death Knights in 3.1

Frost

• Howling Blast cooldown has been reduced from 10 sec to 8 sec.
• Rime now has a 15% chance to reset the cooldown on Howling Blast and cause your next Howling Blast to consume no runes.

Unholy

• Death Strike damage has been lowered, it now deals 60% weapon damage (down from 75%) plus 178.2 (down from 222.75) for Rank 5.
• Night of the Dead has been moved from Tier 8 to Tier 4.
• Ghoul Frenzy has been moved from Tier 6 to Tier 7.
• Master of Ghouls has been moved from Tier 4 to Tier 6.

3.1 Patch Notes Out: Massive Shake Up!

The patch notes are out for patch 3.1 and there are many changes coming that will shake up the way Death Knights of all trees spec.

Dual Wielding Death Knights will face massive nerfs this patch. Howling Blast is now the 51point Frost Tree talent, meaning it will currently be beyond the reach of Dual Wield Death Knights. Gargoyle is also moved to the 51point spot in the Unholy Tree, also putting it too deep in the tree for Dual Wield to pick up. Blood-caked Blade now has a 3sec cooldown on the effect. Necrosis now only affects the main hand weapon. All together the old method of Dual Wielding is now effectively broken.

There are also small changes through out all the talent trees that will affect all Death Knights of every spec. Aside from the Dual Wield nerfs, most of these changes are buffs, albeit marginal ones. Non-disease Death Knights (Blood Death Knights that use only Heart Strike and Obliterate without applying diseases) will also be nerfed as all attacks that increase their damage relative to the number of diseases on the target have been rebalanced to have a reduced base attack but gain more damage per disease on target - making the attack weaker on non-diseased targets but roughly the same still on targets that are diseased. The one stand out nerf though is Pestilence which is now purely a disease spreading ability which causes no additional damage.

Full patch notes are available in the Blue Posts section of the website.

PvP Nerf Incoming?

The buzz currently on the North American official Blizzard forums is that Death Knights may soon be in line for a PvP nerf. Ghostcrawler responded specifically to the issue of Plague Strike and HoT (healing over time) removal and the rather underwhelming state of the spell when used for damage alone (some Death Knights are now pursuing a 'one disease rotation'). It seems we are set for a Plague Strike damage buff (good news for PvE Death Knights) that will be paid for by losing the HoT removal component of the spell. This hasn't been decided on yet, so get on the PTR that is out this week and let your voice be heard! The full post from Ghostcrawler is reported in the Blue Posts section of the website.

Patch 3.08 Goes Live!

The latest patch is now live and it brings many buffs and also a few nerfs to Death Knights. The various pages on this website have now been updated to ensure you have the latest and most accurate information!

Next Patch Brings Glyph Buffs

The patch notes for the next minor patch are now out and there are a number of very nice glyph buffs incoming for Death Knights. Some glyphs have been changed entirely, but most have just had the negative effects removed and the positive ones buffed. Check out our Blue Posts page for more details - remember, this is still on the test realm and nothing is final!

Many Buffs Incoming!

A few of the notes for the next patch are out and Death Knights, especially Blood Death Knights should be expecting a few nice buffs. The main focus of these buffs are to increase the aoe damage that Blood Death Knights produce, which is currently their main weakness - on any fight with even a small amount of aoe the Blood Death Knight is currently left far behind in the damage meters. It also means that Blood Death Knights that tank should have an easier time holding agro on packs. Check out the list of changes on the Blue Posts page.

Explode = No Durability Damage!

If you are an Unholy Death Knight and have speced so that you are able to return to battle for 45secs after you die as a ghoul, you are able to use your new ghoul ability called Explode to destroy yourself, thus, like all self inflicted deaths by abilities, you suffer no durability damage! This can save you a lot of gold if you are wiping a often!

The Shadow Vault!

The Shadow Vault is a phased area in Icecrown. To open it up for use you must complete a quest line that begins with Thassarian on The Skybreaker flying base in Icecrown. After completing his quest chain you will conquer the area of The Shadow Vault and it will phase to a fully functioning town - complete with inn keeper, flight path and even a Runeforge! Those Death Knights going damage spec will want to farm Knights of the Ebon Blade for the helm damage enchant, which is done primarily out of The Shadow Vault - the main town for this faction where the quartermaster is located.

Death Knights are Go!

Good luck and have fun to all in your race to 80! We wish you success in avoiding the ganking gangs hunting you in Hellfire Pen.

2 Days to Go!

The Lich King has unleashed scourge attacks on Stormwind and Ogrimmar. The Alliance and Horde are rallying to protect their respective capitals and both Varian Wrynn and Thrall have vowed to invade Northrend to end the threat of the Lich King! Prepare to set sail for Northrend!

Rules and Regulations!

With just 5 days to go until Wrath of the Lich King hits, here are the restrictions that Blizzard has imposed on Death Knight creation! I hope none of you got caught out on this!

• Death Knights can only be created on a server that you currently have a level 55 or higher character on.
• On PvP servers it must be of the same faction as the rest of your characters - as usual there is no such restriction on PvE servers.
• Creating a Death Knight creates an entirely new character, you do not sacrifice a character or turn a character in to a Death Knight.
• Only one Death Knight is permitted per server per account - regardless of server type, so even on a PvE server you cannot make a second Death Knight of the opposing faction.
  

Ten Days to Go!

Not long now to go to Wrath! Today the beat servers were brought down, a testimate to the fact that Blizzard feels it is ready to ship. Patch 3.03 will becoming next week also. Make sure you don´t delete your patch files (3.01 and 3.03) as you will need to reinstall them after you have installed the expansion.

Up and Running!

Welcome to Deathknight.nl! With two weeks to go to the release of Wrath, we are now live and available as an amazing resource for all your Death Knight issues!

here


blueposts addonsbluepostsgearghoulsglyphsloreminstatsmountsminstatsracialsraidbuffingruneforgingsigilsspecsspellrotationsvideosthe netherlands