Death knights get to open up even more at level 68. Blood starts really pumping up the damage, Unholy gets even more AoE and some damage help from the blood tree, and Frost is finally a viable leveling build.

Blood Leveling – 51/0/20

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Heart Strike x2, Death Strike, Runic Dump, Death Strike, Heart Strike x4, Runic Dump

• Simple rotation
• Best self healing
• Fast mount
• Best for soloing elites
• No special AoE abilities

Unholy Leveling – 10/0/61

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2, Runic Dump, Scourge Strike x3, Runic Dump

• Best DPS in AoE situations
• Permanent ghoul pet
• Fast mount
• Fast run speed
• Dependent on ghoul for best DPS rating

Frost Leveling – 2/52/17

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Obliterate, Blood Strike x2, Frost Strike, Obliterate, Frost Strike, Obliterate x2, Frost Strike

• Haste buff
• Reduces target’s attack speed
• Longer range Icy Touch pulls
• A strong AoE hit, but on cooldown
• More attacks ignore armor
• Increased DPS on low health targets
• Fast mount

Leveling talent builds continue on through Outland pretty much like they were in Ebon Hold. Frost doesn?t become viable until level 67-68 and On a Pale Horse is a huge talent to lose for trying something different, given all of the riding around you?ll be doing on a ground mount.

You may also notice I?m skipping reactionary and cooldown based talents a lot. This is partly because of my own play style, but it also reduces the number of things to keep track of. As a starting out death knight you?ll find you have plenty of things to watch by default as it is.

Blood Leveling – 42/0/17

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Blood Strike x2, Death Strike, Death Coil, Death Strike, Blood Strike x4, Death Coil
Swap out Blood Strike for Heart Strike when you get it.

• Simple rotation
• Best self healing
• Fast mount
• Best for soloing elites
• No special AoE abilities

Unholy Leveling – 7/0/52

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2, Runic Dump, Scourge Strike x3, Runic Dump
Runic power dump should be Death Coil with single target, Unholy Blight with multiple.

• Best DPS in AoE situations
• Permanent ghoul pet
• Fast mount
• Limited self healing
• Dependent on ghoul for best DPS rating

Back before Wrath launched I had posted guides on leveling a new death knight, including leveling talent build suggestions. The patches since then have changed the talent trees so much I figured some updated versions were called for. So I’ll be putting up new posts this week based on those original posts, with suggested talent builds for 55-58, 58-68, and 68-80.

These builds are based on both my own experience leveling up (back in beta and again when Wrath launched) and the very in depth death knight forums on Elitist Jerks.

These talent builds are meant to be suggestions for those looking for a place to start. You may want to rearrange some talent points for abilities you like (or to avoid those you dislike). You can of course do something completely different. Please keep in mind these builds were designed to be efficient in terms of solo level play, so they do not take grouping heavily or tanking into account. They also should not be used for end game play, unless you do nothing but questing.

From level 55 through 58, as you quest around Ebon Hold, you?ll earn talent points as part of your quest rewards. By the time you finish you?ll be level 58 with the appropriate number of talent points.

Blood Leveling – 32/0/17

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Blood Strike x2, Death Strike, Death Coil, Death Strike, Blood Strike x4, Death Coil
As you gain levels and talent points you’ll expand to this full rotation.

• Simple rotation
• Best self healing
• Fast mount
• No special AoE abilities

Unholy Leveling – 2/0/47

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2, Runic Dump, Scourge Strike x3, Runic Dump
As you gain levels and talent points you’ll expand to this full rotation.

• Best DPS in AoE situations
• Permanent ghoul pet
• Fast mount
• Limited self healing (for now)
• Dependent on ghoul for best DPS rating

As with the tank builds I posted this information is based heavily on the Elitist Jerks Death Knight forum and are considered to be the top DPS builds in patch 3.1 for all three talent trees. As with any published talent build there are things to keep in mind. These were designed based on providing the best raid DPS and nothing else. They are cookie cutter builds and not everyone likes that. There is nothing wrong with adjusting these builds to suit your own play style or needs, however you should expect your tweaked build to lose DPS as, again, these builds are already tweaked specifically for raid DPS.

Based on both PTR testing and DPS simulators the following builds, all things being equal, are thought to perform best for raid DPS. They are ranked here from top to bottom as best to “worst.”

#1: Unholy Two-Hand: 0/10/61 (best in Ulduar gear)

#2: Unholy Two-Hand: 12/0/59 (best in Tier 7 raid gear)

#3: Blood Two-Hand: 51/2/18

#4: Frost Two-Hand: 13/51/7

Yes, there are no dual wield builds listed. That is because dual wield is once again not a serious competitor with two-handed builds. There are viable dual wield builds, but you will be hurting your raid DPS significantly just for the play style. For more information on dual wield in patch 3.1 check out the Elitist Jerks thread on the topic.

Now let’s go over the details of the four top raid DPS builds listed above.

Unholy Two-Hand DPS: 0/10/61

This build is best after you’ve geared up from Ulduar. Black Ice really shines at that point in boosting your frost and shadow based abilities. For patch day if you want an unholy DPS build you’ll want to start with 12/0/59, list below.

With the glyphs Dark Death (new to patch 3.1) and Ghoul are staples for unholy DPS. Scourge Strike could be swapped out, but a lot of members of the death knight community like it. The new [Glyph of Disease] looks appealing, use Pestilence twice over Blood Strike and save on Icy Touch and Plague Strike, but truth is you lose DPS doing that. Scourge Strike has four chances to proc in a full rotation so it can make your rotation more flexible and even fun, however the rotation isn’t dependent on it so if it doesn’t proc it isn’t a big deal. Still, in the end, personal choice dictates that particular glyph slot more than anything else.

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2, Runic Dump, Scourge Strike x3, Runic Dump

Apply Frost Fever, apply Blood Plague, big hit, blood rune to death rune, blood rune to death rune again, use up runic power. Then big hit, big hit, another big hit, and again use up runic power and start over. If Glyph of Scourge Strike went off feel free to use a SS over the opening IT and PS, but as always 100% disease uptime rules all.

Sigils: [Sigil of Awareness] or [Sigil of Arthritic Binding]

You just can’t beat increased Scourge Strikes with an unholy build. There has been mention of the epic sigils from Naxxrama becoming available via venders in patch 3.1 and the blue quality sigils are all available for an hour of solo PvP play in Grizzly Hills.

Runeforging: Rune of the Fallen Crusader

Yes it got nerfed, but not too badly and blood and unholy just don’t work well with any of the other offensive runes.

Unholy Two-Hand DPS: 12/0/59

This is the unholy DPS build you want to go with on patch day. It gives you better single target damage and aggro management while your tanks are learning the new content. Once you’ve geared up from Ulduar you can then switch over to the 0/10/61 build without any change to your glyphs or rotation.

Rotation, Sigils, and Runeforging are all the same as Unholy 0/10/61 build listed above.

Blood Two-Hand DPS: 51/2/18

This blood build competes very well with the unholy builds for raid DPS. In most testing it is just under the unholy builds, so in practice it is very possible a blood death knight could out perform an unholy death knight. As before blood provides some nice survivability features, certainly nothing to ignore in the early days of the patch and learning new raid content.

The Death Strike glyph along with talents and class changes makes Death Strike a hard hitter worthy of replacing Obliterate, especially if the extra survivability matters to you.

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Heart Strike x2, Death Strike, Runic Dump, Death Strike, Heart Strike x4, Runic Dump

Apply Frost Fever, apply Blood Plague, good hit, good hit, big hit, then use up runic power (but the more you keep the bigger your upcoming DS is going to be, just use up enough to not waste what you are about to generate). Next a big hit, good hit, good hit, good hit, still spamming the good hit, and again use up your runic power.

Sigils: [Sigil of Haunted Dreams], [Sigil of Awareness], or [Sigil of the Frozen Conscience]

Up your primary attack, Heart Strike if you have the epic. Sigil of Awareness is being changed to include Death Strike, so it is also viable. Otherwise boosting Icy Touch is your next best option. There has been mention of the epic sigils from Naxxrama becoming available via venders in patch 3.1 and the blue quality sigils are all available for an hour of solo PvP play in Grizzly Hills.

Runeforging: Rune of the Fallen Crusader

Yes it got nerfed, but not too badly and blood and unholy just don’t work well with any of the other offensive runes.

Frost Two-Hand DPS: 13/51/7

Frost DPS comes in last of the trees, but that shouldn’t be a surprise to the loyal fans. On the bright side the patch changes should have increased your DPS output with frost by about 10%. As before Obliterate beats Howling Blast except in AoE situations.

Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Obliterate, Blood Strike x2, Frost Strike, Obliterate, Frost Strike, Obliterate x2, Frost Strike

Apply Frost Fever, apply Blood Plague, big hit, blood rune to death rune, blood rune to death rune again, Frost Strike specifically to use up runic power. Next comes a big hit, another runic power dump, then big hit, big hit, and once again a runic power dump.

Sigils: [Sigil of Awareness] or [Sigil of the Frozen Conscience]

Assuming you aren’t going crazy with Howling Blast then upping Obliterate is your best bet. Otherwise boost your Icy Touch. There has been mention of the epic sigils from Naxxrama becoming available via venders in patch 3.1 and the blue quality sigils are all available for an hour of solo PvP play in Grizzly Hills.

Runeforging: Rune of Razorice

Frost took too big of a hit from the Fallen Crusader nerf so Razorice is now coming out on top.

Blood Leveling Concluded – 51/0/20
Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Heart Strike x2, Obliterate | Death Coil or Dancing Rune Blade

• Simple rotation
• Good self healing
• Fast mount
• Better for soloing elites
• No special AoE abilities

Bloodworms continue to be optional, again just move those points elsewhere in the Blood tree if you don’t want them.

Unholy Leveling Concluded – 18/0/53
Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2 | Death Coil, Summon Gargoyle, or Unholy Blight

• Best DPS for leveling
• Even better DPS in AoE situations
• Permanent ghoul pet
• Early heavy hitting strike (Scourge Strike)
• Fast mount
• Dependent on ghoul for best DPS rating

By this point you may have replaced Signet of the Dark Brotherhood. If so you should change around your Blood talents a bit. Remove points from Blade Barrier and put points into Subversion. With the trinket Blade Barrier works nicely, but once you dump the trinket it becomes a pure tank talent, which you don’t want while leveling up.

Frost Leveling – 2/51/18
Rotation: Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Obliterate or Howling Blast, Blood Strike x2, Frost Strike

• Haste buff
• Reduces target’s attack speed
• Longer range Icy Touch pulls
• Frontal AoE
• Ignores armor
• Increased DPS on low health targets
• Fast mount
• Limited self healing

This build isn’t viable until level 69. Start at 2/41/17.

Personally I really enjoyed Frost for leveling in beta, however near the end of beta it tested the lower for DPS than the other builds. I’m not sure the difference is what those tests showed (around 30-50 less DPS) because they didn’t use the exact same build and rotation that worked for me.

A few tricks with a Frost build. Use Lichborne then immediately hit yourself with a Death Coil for an instant heal. Examine Obliterate and Howling Blast before going with Obliterate for single targets. Obliterate hits harder but is lessened by armor and is dependent on your weapon damage, so Howling Blast may do more damage (and will more likely do more crit damage regardless of weapon).

You may also notice I’m skipping reactionary and cooldown based talents. This is partly because of my own play style, but it also reduces the number of things to keep track of. As a starting out death knight you’ll find you have plenty of things to watch by default.

Blood Leveling Continued – 41/0/18
Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Blood Strike x2, Obliterate | Death Coil

• Simple rotation
• Good self healing
• Fast mount
• Better for soloing elites
• No special AoE abilities

Add in Obliterate at level 61 and swap out Blood Strike for Heart Strike when you get it.

The Bloodworms are optional with this build, as some people like them and some people don’t. They appear sporadically and are on aggressive, so they can and will pull additional mobs. That being said they do good damage and healing when around. If you don’t want them then put those 3 points anywhere else in the Blood tree.

Unholy Leveling Continued – 6/0/53
Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2 | Death Coil, Summon Gargoyle, or Unholy Blight

• Best DPS for leveling
• Even better DPS in AoE situations
• Permanent ghoul pet
• Early heavy hitting strike (Scourge Strike)
• Fast mount
• Limited self healing (for now)
• Dependent on ghoul for best DPS rating

These talent builds are meant to be suggestions for those looking for a place to start. You may want to rearrange some talent points for abilities you like (or to avoid those you dislike). Feel free to play around with the available talent builders online before expansion hits. You can of course do something completely different, but please keep in mind these builds were designed to be the most efficient in terms of solo level play.

From level 55 through 58, as you quest around Ebon Hold, you’ll earn talent points as part of your quest rewards. By the time you finish you’ll be level 58 with the appropriate number of talent points.

Blood Leveling – 32/0/17
Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Blood Strike x2 | Death Coil

• Simple rotation
• Good self healing
• Fast mount
• No special AoE abilities

Unholy Leveling – 2/0/47
Rotation: Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike x2 | Death Coil or Summon Gargoyle

• Best DPS for leveling
• Even better DPS in AoE situations
• Permanent ghoul pet
• Early heavy hitting strike (Scourge Strike)
• Fast mount
• Limited self healing (for now)
• Dependent on ghoul for best DPS rating

Glyphs are spell and ability enhancements that can be created by inscription, the new WotLK profession. Since inscription was introduced in patch 3.0.2 last week there are probably some inscribers in your guild already skilled up to around 365. If not your realm’s auction house is sure to be stuffed with glyphs.

You can get all the details on glyphs from WoWWiki.

Since glyphs are available already you know what that means… we get to squirrel away more stuff before expansion! That reminds me, Blizzard you are welcome for the sudden increase in bank storage purchases.

So let’s get down to it and look at the glyphs available to death knights now. Keep in mind there are more glyphs than these, but we’re limited to the ones created by 375 skill or lower until after expansion.

Major Glyphs

• [Glyph of Blood Strike]
• [Glyph of Rune Tap]
• [Glyph of Vampiric Blood]
• [Glyph of Frost Strike]
• [Glyph of Icy Touch]
• [Glyph of Unbreakable Armor]
• [Glyph of Bone Shield]
• [Glyph of Death Grip]
• [Glyph of Death Strike]
• [Glyph of Plague Strike]
• [Glyph of Scourge Strike]
• [Glyph of the Ghoul]

Minor Glyphs

• [Glyph of Blood Tap]
• [Glyph of Pestilence]
• [Glyph of Horn of Winter]
• [Glyph of Corpse Explosion]
• [Glyph of Death?s Embrace]
• [Glyph of Raise Dead]

From 55 to 69 we can use two Major Glyphs and two Minor Glyphs. Given your talent build options during those levels I suggest going with two of these:

• [Glyph of Death Strike]
• [Glyph of Plague Strike]
• [Glyph of the Ghoul]

And two of theses:

• [Glyph of Death?s Embrace]
• [Glyph of Pestilence]
• [Glyph of Raise Dead]

[Glyph of Horn of Winter] is also an option, but not until level 65.

At level 70 you can add a third Minor Glyph. You’ll have a lot more freedom with your talent build by then so pick the one that compliments your build best. There should also be some higher skilled inscribers around so we can take a look at new glyphs as well. Keep in mind you can easily replace your current glyphs with new ones. At level 80 you get a third Major Glyph.

Preparing For Your Death Knight is for those players planning to switch their mains to a death knight and are willing to go the extra mile before expansion to help speed up their death knight’s development after expansion launches. These steps are by no means required if you want to level a death knight, but they do help speed up the leveling process.

One of the few downsides to changing your main to a death knight is having to start over with professions. While not much will take away from the annoyance of dealing with low level profession grinding on a hero class character, Blizzard is at least helping on the other end. With the new Northrend recipes you only need to get your professions to around 350 before you can start learning all new ones. This will allow us to continue our professions easily once in Northrend without costing us an arm and a leg (easily obtainable for us undead, though it may be) grinding from 350 to 375 with just Outland recipes.

First Aid

Materials:

• [Runecloth] x260
• [Netherweave Cloth] x120

Death knights start with 270/300 skill in First Aid. It is the only profession we get a head start in, but at least that’s one less low mat grind for us to do. We’ll be going straight to 375 with Netherweave Cloth. We could stop at 350 and pick up the Frostweave Bandage skill in Northrend when we get there, but you’ll want the Heavy Netherweave Bandages while leveling in Outland so might as well make enough and get credit for them.

1. Make [Runecloth Bandage] until 290.

2. Head to Theramore, Dustwallow Marsh to see Doctor Gustaf VanHowzen (Alliance) or Hammerfall, Arathi Highlands to see Doctor Gregory Victor (Horde).

3. Do the Triage quest. NPCs with various degrees of injuries will appear and you must use special bandages given to you to heal 15 of them before 6 die. Focus on the critically injured ones first and work your way down, going back to critically injured as they reappear. If the critically injured ones are dying as you are healing them then try ignoring them and focusing on the others.

4. Learn [Heavy Runecloth Bandage] from the doctor NPC. Make [Heavy Runecloth Bandage] until 300.

5. Buy [Master First Aid ? Doctor in the House], [Manual: Netherweave Bandage], and [Manual: Heavy Netherweave Bandage] from Burko in the Temple of Telhamut, Hellfire Peninsula (Alliance) or Aresella in Falcon Watch, Hellfire Peninsula (Horde). Note you can buy these in advance and mail them to your death knight.

6. Make [Heavy Runecloth Bandage] until 330.

7. Make [Netherweave Bandage] until 360.

8. Make [Heavy Netherweave Bandage] until 375.

Cooking

See the cooking guides for 1-300 and 300-375 at WTBBlue. Stop skilling up cooking at 350. You’ll pick up easier and cheaper recipes in Northrend later. I strongly suggest gathering up the materials for cooking in advance, to save your death knight a lot of grinding. You’ll be surprised how cheap you can get most of them on the auction house, but supplies will run low after expansion hits.

Fishing

You can fish anywhere there are fish and skill up, no matter your skill level, so there’s isn’t much need for a guide. You can pick up some +fishing poles to help out, [Strong Fishing Pole] and [Big Iron Fishing Pole], as well as lures from fishing vendors.

At 225 head to Dustwallow Marsh and speak with Nat Pagle to get the quest Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme. You’ll need to fish up four special fish:

• [Feralas Ahi]: in Feralas (62,5)
• [Misty Reed Mahi Mahi]: in Swamp of Sorrows (90,72)
• [Sar'theris Striker]: in Desolace (25,77)
• [Savage Coast Blue Sailfin]: in Stranglethorn Vale(33,32)

Between 275 and 300 you’ll need to purchase and learn [Master Fishing ? The Art of Angling] from Juno Dufrain, just southwest of Cenarion Refuge, Zangermarsh.

A great resource in general for fishing is El’s Extreme Anglin’.

Primary Professions

I won’t go over every primary profession, the guides at WTBBlue can help you out with whatever pair of professions you choose. Outside of Leatherworking and Tailoring any of the professions could be useful, so it is mainly a matter of personal choice. Myself I’m going with Jewelcrafting and Mining, mainly because my guild doesn’t have any raid main jewelcrafters. On my short list was Blacksmithing for gear crafting, Engineering for the toys, and Inscription since it is new.

I would suggest going over the materials listed in the profession guides and try to gather what you can in advance. Even if you are taking a matching gathering profession you won’t gather everything you need just by maxing out skill ups, so buy before prices go up for expansion and save your death knight some grinding. Again don’t worry about getting past 350 skill as it’ll be easier and cheaper for you to pick up from there in Northrend than it will be to deal with high end Outland materials.

Preparing For Your Death Knight is for those players planning to switch their mains to a death knight and are willing to go the extra mile before expansion to help speed up their death knight’s development after expansion launches. These steps are by no means required if you want to level a death knight, but they do help speed up the leveling process.

Consumables certainly won’t make or break your ability to level your death knight quickly, so you don’t need them. However, if you have the money or materials to get some made they certainly do help. In beta testing it was taking death knights anywhere from 20 to 40 hours played to get to Northrend, depending on skill and efficiency. Keep those numbers in mind when looking at how many of each consumable you want to stock pile.

Potions

[Elixir of Major Strength] – A death knight’s best DPS potion pre-Northrend.

[Elixir of Major Fortitude] – As far as guardian elixirs go this is the best one for leveling/grinding. However on a Blood spec death knight (which you’ll likely have through Outland) I find it less useful than the DPS boosting consumables.

[Unstable Flask of the Beast] – If one of your current characters has [Apexis Shard] to spare then pick up a stack of this stuff for when you’re in Blade’s Edge Mountains. Hard to beat a cheap flask.

[Healing Potion Injector] – Healing potions are a must for leveling (evening a Blood spec death knight) and the injector version is worth the extra Fel Iron and leather to save bag space and runs back to the bank.

Food

You are going to want to food for reduced downtime, might as well kick it up a notch (bam!) from vendor food and get food that gives you a nice DPS buff as well.

[Spicy Hot Talbuk] – Good at the lower levels. Once your gear alone gets you close to 5% hit then switch to Roasted Clefthoof.

[Roasted Clefthoof] – Pure +strength food never goes out of style.

Sharpening Stones

[Elemental Sharpening Stone] – It may or may not be cheaper than the Outland standard [Adamantite Sharpening Stone], on your realm. However pure +crit is better considering you’ll have a slow, two handed weapon. If you switch out for dual wielding weapons then look into the Outland ones.

Armor Kits

[Heavy Knothide Armor Kit] – You’ll be enchanting your death knight’s starter gear, but until you get your reputation up with Cenarion Expedition and the Aldor this is good to have on your head and shoulders items. It will also be nice when you start upgrading to Northrend greens. These armor kits only give 2 less stamina than the Northrend versions, are a lot cheaper to make, and can be made now.

Bandages

[Heavy Netherweave Bandage] – If you level up your First Aid (as you should) you’ll end up with a stack of these. Don’t bother making more, as you’ll likely be Blood spec for much of Outland leveling you won’t have a lot of need for bandaging. Just keep what you make and there will be plenty of cloth drops along the way to make more if needed.