Death Knight at 64 and going up

I caved in and purchased the expansion for two reasons: 1 my friends wanted to play and 2, the Death Knight. I've been looking foward to this class ever since I heard about it because the combat mechanic that this class uses totally fits my play style.

First of all, you get to use plate armor and huge swords. Sure warriors and paladins get to do the same but here's what separates them: DKs get offensive magic capabilities, which in this game is specifically Disease related. They also get several pets (which I love) but they're not an essential part to the character like a Hunter or Warlock which I disliked because I wanted to feel powerful enough w/out them.


So a plate wearer that does some magic and has a few pets, what else can he do? Death Knights get this very cool ability called Death Grip that almost acts like Scorpion's Spear Move - GET OVER HERE! haha. Its great for questing because you can AOE, thats right, just like the pally aoe the DK can do it too and very well. So you can Death Grip wandering mobs or players and bring them to your little circle of death (& decay). I can see the devs nerfing this ability somewhat in PVP because unlike the warrior or druid bash where you run up to the oppenent, you're bringing them to you (also disrupting any casting) and if you already have any aoe going, they basically are somewhat helpless. But right now, its way too fun. In an instance you can actually PULL the mob to you instead of just shooting it and of course if you're the tank you dont have to run around as much to get the mobs to fight you if you just Death Grip them.

The Rune-based system and runic power is also one of my favorite parts of the Death Knight. These little runes (2 blood, 2 frost, 2 unholy) act as mini energy bars that get refiled after a certain small cooldown (10 sec per rune). Energy is one bar that gets refilled every tick, mana the same but at a much slower pace (although you get more out of it when its full), and rage is built up out of getting hit and hitting mobs or players, which then gets used up as you use special skills. I find the rune system to be actually superior to all if you know how to play the class well. For instance, several skills use just 1 or 2 at the most runes to cast, afterwards you build up runic power like rage but this time its after each rune gets used up. After only a few spells have been used, you already have enough rune power to cast your bigger spells like Unholy Blight, or Summon Gargoyle (I'm unholy spec btw). To me they act almost as free spells to cast. However, what can work against a death knight is that they used up all of their runes and no longer have any rune power, they'd basically be stuck in the water until their rune cooldown finishes, which could be disasterous in a battleground or in an arena. So unlike a rogue or cat druid, you cant exactly spam your skills on opponents, you have to play the character with the runes available in mind and build up rune power for the right spell at the right time. Definitely an interesting class to play that's going to require much more time playing to get used to.

I was questing in Zangarmarsh last night when an Ally Death Knight tried to gank me. Well i hate getting ganked because Im so busy questing so of course I was pissed, so I remembered several pvp skills the DK has and used them at once ( Ice Bound Fortitude, which basically prevents stuns and reduces damage up to 50% for the next 10 seconds, and Chains of Ice, which freezes them in place for 3 sec and allows them to move 10% each second afterward). I swear this DK was wondering how the hell did I beat him since he started his rotation first. I bet he forgot about Ice Bound Fortitude, I should really keep remembering that one because people are going to say its OP later on.

So after about 9 levels, I'm still going to play this guy and probably reach 80 first with him before any of my other toons. I can't help it when I find the class so fun yet useful to others for once.