Death Knight Leveling Guide From 55 to 80 for WotLK Classic (2024)

Last updated on Aug 27, 2022 at 10:30by Sellin4 comments

In this article, we will help you leveling in WotLK Classic as a Death Knight.Death Knight is one of if not the fastest leveler in the game thanks to theirincredible self sustain and considerable multi-target damage dealing. As a Death Knight,you will have access to a wide variety of abilities that if used correctly can helpmaximize your uptime, kill speed and rate at which you are able to gain levels.

Death Knights are one of the fastest leveling classes in the gamelargely due to their mob kill speed, ability to deal damage to multiple targets,great self-healing, ability to wear gear with plenty of Armor, and a large number of passive abilitiesthat sustain and grant health and Runic Power, limiting downtime and making the leveling process extremelysteady and quite quick. Blood is by far the fastest leveling spec if you plan to play solo as aDeath Knight, as the extra healing that the talents in the Blood tree grantwill help you level considerably faster as you will be able to pull a largenumber of mobs than anything you will gain by speccing Frost or Unholy.

Providing non-Death Knight leveling advice is outside the scope of this article and iscovered in our general WotLK leveling guide.

Every Death Knight spec is useful in its own way and fills a role that isimportant to a group, but Blood will be the best by far for solo leveling whilealso allowing you to tank when needed.

If you are going to be leveling with other people, Unholy can be a good choice.Unholy Death Knights offer some of the strongest buffs/debuffs in the game,regardless of the level, and can spend talent points to make their alreadyextremely powerful debuff spells even stronger.

Frost is another great option either in a group or solo. Playing Frost heavilyutilizes one handed weapons as a large amount of their damage is amplifiedby procs from auto attacking and while leveling as Frost is viable and canhelp you deal a massive amount of AoE Damage, it is oftentimes very gear dependantand less durable than Blood.

• Apply your diseases to any monster you think will take more than a couple of hitsto kill by using Icy Touch and Plague Strike.
• Do not hesitate to spread your diseases using Pestilence if you are fightingmultiple mobs at the same time.
• Make sure you are ALWAYS in a presence. Blood Presence is preferablewhile leveling as it grants you a considerable amount of self-healing and increasesyour damage though Unholy Presence will grant you a considerable amountof movement speed and allow you to travel quicker while leveling.
• Keep Horn of Winter active at all times.
• Always be auto attacking. Death Knights deal a massive amount of their damagefrom auto attacks and have many abilities/passives that can proc from simplymaking sure you are always auto attacking.
• Do not hestiate to pull multiple mobs. Death Knights are built to deal largeamounts of damage to multiple mobs and have a strong amount of sustain naturallybuilt-in to their abilities such as Death Strike, so try to figure outhow many you can comfortably pull.

Leveling in groups both in the open world and dungeons is an increasinglypopular and efficient way to level in WotLK Classic. Death Knights are able to levelextremely quickly solo but can also be a key part of a group and can easily switchbetween Tanking or DPSing as needed. Death Knights shine when grouped with othermelee DPS such as Warriors, Rogues,Feral DPS Druids, and Enhancement Shamans.

Leveling through Dungeons is a strategy that many have seen considerablesuccess with due to the uncertainty of how respawnsin the world can be. Dungeons can be among the fastest ways to level in WotLK. With astrong group, especially with gear already from TBC Classic, you couldrealistically expect to see experience gains as fast as, if not greater,than what you would solo questing. You could viably farm dungeons all the way toLevel 80 if that is what you wanted to do. Death Knights areextremely strong Damage Dealers and Tanks for any group, but some group compsare stronger than others.

The Death Knight leveling rotation puts a large emphasis on their abilityto sustain their own health and pull large groups of enemies. An emphasis shouldbe put into talents/abilities that cause you to heal yourself or deal passivedamage through diseases as you will likely have your diseases spread to allenemies you are fighting, not just your primary kill target. Death Knight recievesan Epic ground mount for free as a part of theirstarting zone, so do not worry about saving up the gold for it.

Death Knights have three presences, one based off of each of their availablespecilizations. While you will most likely not match your presence to your specilization,each presence offers unique bonuses that are situationally useful and will greatlyhelp with the leveling process.

Blood Presence — increases your damage dealt and causes your abilitiesto heal you for a small percentage of the damage you deal while this buff isactive. This is the default leveling presence as your main goal is to increaseyour kill speed while mitigating downtime while leveling.

Unholy Presence — increases your movement and attack speed considerably.While this presence is extremely useful to get around, the bonus attack speed willnot help you kill faster than the added damage from Blood Presence, so thispresence should be used only when traveling from objective to objective.

Frost Presence — increases your Stamina and the contributions ofthe Armor from your gear. This is not a presence we would reccomend while levelingunless you are in a group and will be taking considerable damage while having a healerready to heal you.

Leveling as a Death Knight can feel a bit overwhelming at first as you willbe starting at a much higher level than other classes so you will have moreabilities faster. But do not let this discourage you, Death Knight is a relativelysimple class to level with and taking a bit of time to learn your abilitieswill greatly improve your experience with it. Death Knight is themaster of self-healing while leveling and have some of the lowest downtime of any class inthe entire game. Each fight should begin with you applying your diseases bycasting Icy Touch and Plague Strike. If you are fighting multiplemobs then these diseases should be spread by casting Pestilence.Death and Decay and Blood Boil will both deal large amounts of AoEdamage, so make sure to take advantage of them when pulling multiple mobs. Yourspecialization will largely determine which abilities you spend your Runic Poweron, but if you need a defensive cooldown do not hesitate to spend your Runic Poweron either Icebound Fortitude to protect yourself from stuns and reduce yourdamage intake; you can also summon a ghoul with Raise Dead and sacrifice it usingDeath Pact to be healed for 40% of your health.

If you are rushing to Level 80, then leveling Professions will slowyou down. The combat benefits of each profession are typically not worth the time you wouldhave to invest to obtain them for leveling, though they are considerably stronger inWrath of the Lich King than past expansions. There are, however, some professionsthat are very useful for leveling and can be worth doing while you level.

First Aid is a must-have profession at max level and while leveling, as itprovides healing for no Mana. The cloth you naturally gather while leveling isususally more than enough to level it as you go. Herbalism,Mining, and Skinning are great choices for makinggold towards your Epic or flying mount, andcan also be useful for helping to level other important professions later on,such as taking Mining to help level Engineering orSkinning to help level Leatherworking.

By the time you hit maximum level, it will be very helpful to read the restof our guides. Pick Unholy Death Knightif you intend to play Unholy at maximum level,Frost Death Knight if you intendto play Frost at maximum level, and Blood Death Knightif you intend to play Blood.