I had been planning on going straight to Outland after getting out of the death knight start area and running some errands. The Plaguelands have never been known as a great leveling area and I figured since we’ll be level 58 anyway why not go through the Dark Portal. However I’ve read some good arguments about hanging around the Plaguelands for a couple of levels. They are based on ease (believe it or not) and may actually be part of a faster leveling path.

The basic argument for staying in the Plaguelands is this. The reason you send alts to Outland at level 58 is because the gear rewards are so much better. In Outland the gear has more stamina and an overall increase in item levels compared to quest rewards in Azeroth. This rule doesn’t apply to death knights, however. The blue gear set we end up with is on par with Outland quest rewards. So that removes the big advantage of heading straight to Outland. The argument continues by pointing out some of the mobs in Hellfire Peninsula are a few levels above a new death knight. Thus a level 60 death knight will have an easier time questing, getting through the mobs faster, than a level 58 death knight.

So staying in the Plaguelands until level 60 leads to faster questing in Outland, so the argument concludes. Okay, I buy that. Depending on how many people take this route you could also avoid some of the first day crowds in Hellfire as well. What really makes Plaguelands work for 58-60 leveling is it opens up some new turn-in quests, and we all know how much I love early gathering for turn-in quests.

My Plaguelands included plan now has me using Death Gate to get from Blasted Lands to Ebon Hold, then flying out to Chillwind Point, Western Plaguelands. If you want credit for the animal parts quests in Blasted Lands you need to turn them in first, because the quests don’t give XP at level 60. You then start in Western Plaguelands rather than Eastern Plaguelands because you need quests that grant Argent Dawn reputation.

The idea is you start questing at Chillwind Point, earning XP and rep. Also be sure to get an [Argent Dawn Commission] for Scourgestones. Once you get to Friendly with the Argent Dawn five turn-in quests become available, offering you almost 48,000 XP.

Bonescythe Digs – [Bone Fragments] x30

The Elemental Equation- [Core of Elements] x30

Cryptstalker Armor Doesn’t Make Itself… – [Crypt Fiend Parts] x30

Binding the Dreadnaught – [Dark Iron Scraps] x30

Savage Flora – [Savage Frond] x30

The quests are all at Light’s Hope Chapel in Eastern Plaguelands and all of the items can be gathered up quite easily before expansion. If you feel like spending some gold for every bit of XP possible you can also gather up materials for That’s Asking A Lot.

Once you’ve gained access to the above quests you can quest however you like to 60, even a bit longer if you can easily finish up some quests.

This same philosophy can be used in going from Outland to Northrend, too. In that case there are some nice gear upgrades in Northrend, but even if you quest in Outland until level 70 you’ll still have zones of quests available to you and you’ll have an easier time with Northrend mobs.

If you are planning to enchant your death knight’s start gear this is the stuff you want to enchant. The armor is on par with Outland quest greens and can last you to Northrend easily, especially if enchanted. Be sure to check with your local inscriber on getting some [Armor Vellum II] to save you from having to beg an enchant to come back from Northrend.

Plate Armor

Amulet, Rings, Trinkets, and Sigil

Greatsword of the Ebon Blade or Greataxe of the Ebon Blade

• The sword has better stats IMO, but both work. Orcs should definitely take the axe, humans the sword. Everyone else I say esthetics > stat differences.

Noth’s Special Brew

• Good stuff! You get it with a repeatable turn in quest in the start area.

You’ll also get Death Gate. It is a spell, not an item, but works like a death knight heartstone back to Ebon Hold so thought worth mentioning.

Here’s a list of the gear a death knight starts with upon login. I’ll go over the gear you end up with at the end of the start area later.

Acherus Knight Set

• Plate armor and cloak you start with. Yes, your manly death knight starts with a skirt.

Amulet and Rings

Runed Soulblade

• Technically you don’t start with it, but you’ll get it from your second quest.

Deathweave Bag x4

• These are 12 slot bags you’ll start with. They are enough to get through the start area with, but I would upgrade them after that.

You’ll also start with a hearthstone and half a stack of level appropriate, non-buffing food. There are food and general vendors in Ebon Hold, but you start with almost no cash. You can access a mailbox during your first series of combat based quests.

Your trinket and sigil (death knight range slot, like an idol or relic) slots are empty to start.

To reserve a name just make a character with that name. While you are at it might I also suggest you go ahead and figure out what character features you want for your death knight. Some features will change with the death knight class: eyes glow so eye color doesn’t much matter and there are new skin shades and hair colors, but the more know you want in advance the sooner you’ll be chatting with the Lich King.

On launch day you’ll need to delete the character you created to reserve your name, then immediately create your death knight (see where knowing what you want it to look like in advance helps?). As soon as the character is deleted the name is released.

If your guild is anything like mine then you’ll probably have only a few players switching to death knight mains, but a lot of players looking forward to playing a death knight alt.

Playing as an alt will certainly be fun: starting a hero class at level 55 in a really cool zone you can only access with said alt. Get to play with an all new combat and spell resource system, but not have all the stress of trying to power level to keep up with guild mates starting expansion 15 levels ahead of you.

For everyone out there considering playing a death knight alt at some point let me offer you two pieces of advice:

One, create your death knight on WotLK launch day. Login and watch the cinematic. You want to do this because the spot where you first login at is a resting area, so now your death knight alt is gaining rested XP.

Two, once you’ve created your death knight and logged in please log off and head back to Northrend with your main. Why? Well for one you’ll want to focus on your main, especially if your guild plans to do end game content. Your guild may not have a level 80 deadline and I certainly hope you’ll take your time in Northrend and enjoy the journey, but your main should be your focus and needs to keep up with most of your guild. For another the death knight starter area is going to be crowded enough as it is the first week of expansion. Those who are leveling death knights as mains are behind their guild but want to reach end game status by the time their guilds get started. The fewer alts there are in those early days the less competition there is for mobs and less lag in the area.

So please consider saving yourself the stress of an overcrowded zone and think of your guild mates and others who are making the push of a new main. I’m sure Northrend will also be crowded, but the dual entry zones should help and both Howling Fjord and Bordean Tundra are much bigger than Ebon Hold. You’ll be rewarded for your patience with plenty of rested XP once everything settles down. Thank you.

I was hoping two handed weapon itemization from Northrend quests would change as beta testing progressed, but going by the info on Wowhead’s WotLK section it looks like the bigger weapons were itemized as intended when I went through the quests in beta. The itemization issue I ran into was two handed axes grossly out performed two handed swords for death knights. I prefer swords to axes (for esthetics) and I’ll be using swords through Outland. However the best quest reward weapons in Northrend are all axes, which puts a crimp in my esthetics. More importantly it means we all need to be prepared to change weapon types and that means being skilled up before Northrend.

Axe of Frozen Death can be picked up within a couple of hours in Borean Tundrea. It is an instant upgrade over any Outland or early Northrend weapon. The first sword to compete with it is Liberator’s Blade from Grizzly Hills, several zones later. The first sword to be clear upgrade over the axe is The Argent Resolve from Icecrown. However before you reach Icecrown you should pick up De-Raged Waraxe from Zul’Drak, which beats out every quest reward two hander on the continent.

Clearly those of us sticking with two handed weapons will be using axes all through Northrend, which means keeping axes skilled up. The best way to do this is to train up axes as you level, switching out to an axe to get 4-5 skill points before switching back to your main weapon. This is annoying, but much less so than trying to catch up 65 skill points while facing mobs at or over your level (trust me, I did the later and it sucked). So in addition to the sword upgrades I have planned I also need some decent axes available for the skill ups. Here is my planned upgrade path.

Level 58

Greatsword of the Ebon Blade – Main Weapon
[Arcanite Reaper] – Skill Up Weapon
An Arcanite Reaper may not be easy or cheap for you to have crafted. If so then pick up any green level 58-60 axe you can from the AH.

Level 60

[Blade of Misfortune] – Main Weapon
Buy it now from the AH, costs ~100 gold. If you can’t get it pick up [Helboar Carving Blade] from Hellfire Peninsula.

Level 65

[Adamantite Cleaver] – Skill Up Weapon
Easy and cheap to get made and will last you until you get your good axe in Northrend.

Level 66

[Halaani Claymore] (Alliance) or [Arkadian Claymore] (Horde) – Main Weapon
Vendor purchase from Halaa, when your faction has control of the town.

There is one good axe fairly easy to get in Outland, it actually beats out all of the swords: [Honed Voidaxe]. However it requires a group to get, which isn’t viable for everyone.

I’ll miss the zombies, but I had my fill of zombie fun as well. I am liking the rapid pace of this event (for an MMO) and that none of its parts will get old. I also imagine things will continue to go bad before they get better, so just imagine what we’ll be facing next week.

The madness continued over the weekend, though the capital cities never became fully shut down like I expected. Oh they came close, with the infection time lowered to 1 minute, high level zombies spawning and entering capital cities, and most of the Argent Healers removed from the cities. Luckily the world attacks by floating necropolises have helped distract much of the player base away from the cities as well.

Now we have a full blown event going on, complete with special vendor items and Karazhan level epic drops. The plot thickens with the Alliance and Horde setting up research areas outside the Aldor bank in Shattrath City. There are new instance bosses. We even have player grieving in the form of people stealing the tap on Shadow of Doom other players summon.

I know not everyone is fond of a world event that they are forced to participate in, but I’m really liking it myself. Being a zombie is fun, fighting off the zombies is fun, and running the quests and other events is fun. The more unique toys and trinkets are cute and clever. There are only two things I’m not loving about the event. One, if you miss a day in game you could miss some stuff. That isn’t great for the less hardcore players, and a lot of us regular players were spending less time in game with the wait for the patch. Two, and this is the big thing for me, almost none what I do and gain now can have any impact on my death knight. I’m switching mains in just over two weeks but everything is BoP or limited time quest or achievement. I understand, just would be nice if my rogue could collect some neat things for my death knight. I did at least find one thing I could pass on to my death knight: Haunted Memento. That should confuse some people in the starting area.

Visit Wowhead and look up anything you like. Then take a look at the top of the page’s frame.

In related news the infection time has been dropped from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.