Preface: The Death Knight starting area is very captivating and extremely well done. I decided to recreate my DK in order to play through that chain again, and to actually focus on learning the basic mechanics of the class as well. I have to admit, I’m seduced by her… this is definitely the beginning of a long, fun-filled affair. (For those who may be concerned, yes Byaghro will still be my first love and main character… this is more of an experimental stage!)

Before we delve into my second impressions (first impressions here), I want to urge every person who ever considers looking at a Death Knight to read this:

Stop mashing buttons and learn to kill things: TSF Teaches You How To Start Playing Your Death Knight

The above guide, written by Queklain of The Stoppable Force, is the best beginner’s guide to playing a Death Knight I have seen. Read it. If you learn nothing else at all, at least you’ll have a skill rotation to be successful killing most things.

Now, for the rest of the story:

The following snippet came from a chat I was having with a friend, and summarizes the overall experience I’ve had up to this point:

2:06:39 PM “J”: i’m going to try anyway, there have been a couple of elites i didn’t even realize were elite until halfway through the fight
2:06:47 PM “J”: it was like “wth, he isn’t deat yet?”

2:06:51 PM “J”: “oh, elite”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to proclaim that anyone is overpowered. I have a fairly similar feeling leveling on my rogue. What makes the Death Knight seem so much more powerful is the Blood Aura, and it is one of the reasons I’m enjoying the class as much as I am.

Overall, if a class is enjoyable to play and actually has you wanting to log in and play for extended periods of time, that class is designed well. The Druid is that way for me, especially with the versatility the class brings, and this Death Knight is the next in line. When I stated affair above I meant it wholeheartedly. The past few days I’ve only logged on to Byaghro long enough to discover new inscription recipes, do a couple of enchants, continue our scheduled raid in Naxx, and send some bind-on-account gear to my beloved Degenerate.

Death Grip is insanely overpowered, and I love every moment of it. The only thing saving it is having a cooldown I have no doubt. This ability alone makes it extremely easy to pull the objective of a quest out from an area where one would have to kill more mobs (much like the enjoyment Rogues and Druids have when being able to stealth to the objective), and I use it every chance I get.

Path of Frost. My only complaint is that damage from falling breaks it too, but I’m assuming that same mechanic is utilized in Shamans’ water walking ability. Either way, this makes my life so much easier until I can fly, and I thoroughly enjoy the ability.

Death and Decay. Coming from playing classes that don’t really have any AoE ability, it is definitely nice being able to drop this while leveling. I like the animation too, which is a plus. There is something immensely satisfying about pulling more mobs than intended, dropping Death and Decay, focusing on each target individually, and walking away with fifty percent or more health.

Dancing Rune Weapon. This spell is spectacular to watch (and of course its contribution to damage is nothing to laugh at). Who wouldn’t want to be able to summon a weapon that duplicates everything you do for its duration?

All of the abilities have been fun, easy to pick up on when to use, and my ideas reassured by someone who knows far more about Death Knights than I do, but those four I listed above are actually what have me enjoying the class even more than I would otherwise. If you haven’t given Death Knights a try at least roll one and go through the starting quests. You might be surprised at how much fun it actually is.

There are very few aspects of Wrath that I am not enjoying, but perhaps the things that sticks out most in my mind is simply how well done and enjoyable to play the Death Knight class is. Blizzard definitely put a lot of work and effort into the storyline and character development, and I dare say they got everything right.

Side Note: Before I go too much further, I do want to state that I feel Death Knights are quite overpowered at the moment. I’m not sure how this will play out over time, but it is definitely something that is going to ned to be addressed.

My DK, Degenerate of Hellscream (US), is a Blood Elf. I’ve always liked the elven races in Warcraft, so this really is no surprise (besides, just look at my character lineup and you’ll see it comprised of nothing but elves anyway). I decided to use this opportunity to start off with a high-level Horde character since the rest of mine, save my poor little priest, are all Alliance.

I remember reading opinions on the starting questline for Death Knights being harsh, or horrible, or I think I even heard someone state that it made them squeamish. My experience was nothing of the sort however. Yes, it is quite apparent that the Death Knights are evil. Blizzard does an excellent job getting this point across. They also, however, do an excellent job of making you feel as though your character is just a shell of its former self, basically having become nothing but an instrument to be used by Arthas to achieve his goals. I hope there is more to the chain, because after finishing the questline I feel like I am merely following the orders set forth by (sorry, I don’t remember the guy’s name at the moment) and have no will/desire/soul of my own. If there is not more to the line then I can see how it fizzles, and leaves a bit of an empty feeling for many.

Regardless, I found the first few levels to be extremely well done and enjoyable to play, even though I was performing very violent acts and inflicting massive pain among the NPC characters.

I have to be honest, I really haven’t figured out everything that is going on with the Runic Power system yet. I’ve been spending my time leveling my Druid predominantly, and then playing around with the Death Knight for a little bit here and there. Once the Druid hits 80 I’ll provide a more detailed look into the mechanics of Death Knight play.

For now let me simply close with this: I highly recommend you play around with a Death Knight for the first 4-5 levels, just to see the extremely well-done questline. Even if you have no interest in playing the class at all it really is worth doing.