Death Knight Hero class,Unlocking your death knight

The criterion for creating a death knight is the existence of a level 55+ character[4] on the player's account. Once that criterion is met, the player can create one death knight per realm.[5]

The death knight combines martial prowess with dark, necromantic energies. Players might be familiar with the death knight from previously released Warcraft games -- most recently, in the campaigns for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne expansion, the former paladin Arthas became a death knight and wrought havoc across Azeroth before fusing with the spirit of Ner'zhul to become the Lich King. It is important to note that these particular death knights are based upon those created by the Lich King in Warcraft III, not those of Orcish origin as seen in WarCraft II.

Unlocking your death knight

The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft. This is a separate character from other characters and can be created as soon as one of your existing characters on a given server reaches level 55. After making a death knight, you will not lose access to any of your existing characters. The death knight will start at level 55 in Acherus: The Ebon Hold over the Eastern Plaguelands, with multiple spells and abilities ready to use, and a set of uncommon gear. When you leave Ebon Hold, you will have a full set of rare gear ready for Outland. Through the Death-Knight-specific quests in this necropolis and the surrounding areas, the character learns to master the power of the death knight and learns to use this new power for the will of the Lich King. Quests will take them outside the necropolis and into an area within the Scarlet Enclave.

Players can create one death knight per realm as long as they have at least one character that is level 55 on the realm they wish to create it on. There are no racial limitations for creating your death knight, but PvP servers are still limited by faction (i.e., if you have an Alliance character on a PvP server, you cannot make a Horde death knight on that PvP server).

The Rune System

The death knight uses a unique rune-based resource system to govern his spells and abilities. There are three rune types: blood, frost, and unholy; each with an attached color and symbol. As they use their abilities, the runes will be exhausted. After a period of time (10 seconds) the runes will refresh.[6] The death knight will be able to use spells to turn a rune into a Death Rune, which can be used as a Blood/Frost/Unholy rune. In addition, whenever the death knight uses a rune ability against a foe, it will build up a certain amount of Runic Power. This Runic Power is only used by few abilities.[7] Certain abilities (such as Dancing Rune Blade) will completely drain all the Runic Power that has been accumulated. The more power stored, the more effective the ability. Most abilities that use Runic Power use a set amount, like Death Coil.

Death knights cannot reallocate the number and type of runes - they are fixed to two runes of each type.[8] Runeforging will still be available, but it will only provide permanent weapon enchants. The enchants work just like the permanent weapon enchants provided by Enchanting, but are self-only and are supposed to be better for the death knight than the Enchanting ones.

The original player frame for death knights shown at BlizzCon has changed as feedback showed it was not ideal for displaying rune power for players.

Character's role

In general, the death knight can be considered a hybrid class that combines damage dealing and tanking. They will wear plate armor, and be able to dual-wield or use two-handed blade weapons (and maces, as revealed recently)[6]. Like Druids, they will tank without shields. Their tanking mechanics will most likely be high armor as indicated by Frost Presence, and by having a high chance to parry.[9][10] Blizzard has said that their tanking niche will be caster-type enemies.[11] A common assumption among fans is that Hero Classes will be overpowered, however Blizzard has stated on announcing the death knight that they will be of similar strength and value to existing classes. Like other classes they will have their own unique abilities, a few of which can be seen at the death knight abilities article.

Runeforging

Runeforging allows the death knight to permanently enchant their weapon, and thus overwrites any weapon enchants from Enchanting. A player will have to be near a runeforge in able to forge a rune onto their weapon.