So, you want to play a Death Knight? This Death Knight leveling guide contains all the information you need to level as fast as possible. If you want more information about the class like history, mechanics etc., go to my Death Knight Guide.
If you don't like the build what I recommend in this guide, head over to my Death Knight leveling spec page, it will list some alternative leveling spec/talent. However, I recommend you to stick to what I recommend here. I tested it and this is the fastest way to level a Death Knight.
This guide is updated for WoW Patch 4.0.6.
What's the best spec to level?
Blood. Of course you can level a Death knight with any other spec, becuase most of them are really good but Blood is the best.
- Heart Strike hits up to 3 target, so you can kill pack of mobs easily.
- No downtime. You can faceroll from mob to mob because Death Strike heals you.
- A lot of extra defensive cooldown. Everyone hates to die when leveling. Well, with Blood, you simply won't.
Now you are probably thinking this Death Knight leveling guide sucks and I'm a moron because Blood is a Tanking spec, and it's obvious that you level faster with the other two talent spec which are the best for end game damage dealing. Well, that's not true. With Blood, you will kill mobs as fast as with Frost or Unholy. You combine this with no downtime. You get the best Death Knight leveling spec. Frost is really close, becuase of the +20% mount speed talent, but I still found Blood to be the better spec because of the self healing. You can also get the +20% mount speed with Blood, but only at level 82.
Talent Builds
I usually use two different Blood talent Builds, one for tanking only and one for leveling. Dual Talent Specialization cost only 10 gold. Buy it, it's useful.
- Level 55-58
Since you will start a Death Knight at level 55, you will get talent points by doing quests until level 58. It does not really matter yet which talent points you choose first. Level 58 Talent build
- Level 58-69
Max. out Improoved Death Strike first, the rest does not matter. Level 69 Talent build
- Level 69-79
Put your first 2 points into Unholy Command. Level 79 Talent Build
- Level 81-84
Open a Death Gate, visit your trainer and unlearn your talents. The reason for this is that you can put points into On a Pale Horse now, which I mentioned in the first part of this Death Knight Leveling Guide. Your level 82 talent build should look like this. You will have 2 more talent points left until you reach level 85. Put those into Unholy Command.
Skill rotation
There isn't really a rotation for any class now, it's usually priority-based rotation. You will learn Death Strike at level 56.
Heart Strike > Death Strike > Death Coil
That's it, it's not worth to use Diseases because you will kill the mobs too fast.
Always use Death Grip if it's not on cooldown.
You will use Frost Presence until level 70 when you get Unholy Presence which you will want to use, because the +15% movement speed greatly increase leveling speed. You also get lower GCD with Unholy, which means you will kill mobs faster.
Glyphs
You can read more about Glyphs and about unlocking Glyphs slots in my Inscription/Glyph guide.
Prime
- [Glyph of Heart Strike] - It boosts the damage of your main DPS ability by 30%. No brainer.
- You either use [Glyph of Death Strike] or [Glyph of Death Coil] in the second slot. When you reach level 75 you will want to use both. There is no other good Glyph for Blood.
Major
- [Glyph of Dark Succor] - Great Glyph, you should use it from the beginning.
- There is no other good Major Glyph. Use whatever you want.
You can use any Minor Glyph. It does not affect your leveling speed. Use the one that you think is fun, or don't use any if they are expensive.
Gear and Stats
Don't stress too much on this.
Strength > Hit until you have 5% > Crit
You are leveling, you will change your gear pretty often. General rule is that you want to look for plate gear which has Strength on it, you shouldn't worry about the other stats for now. Crit is good, hit is good, expertise is also good. Don't stack haste for leveling.
I hope you liked this Death Knight Leveling Guide, if you have any suggestions, just contact me!!