WoW WotLK Death Knight - How to make a Death Knight in Classic WoW

If you're a World of Warcraft player who has played for a while, or maybe a retail player looking to spice things up a bit, then boy are you in luck. Wrath of the Lich King Classic pre-patch is here, and there's a LOT to do.

One of the biggest things that you can do during this time is create your own WotLK Death Knight, the game's very first Hero class. But if you remember playing Wrath back in the day and making your DK, it's a bit different this time around.

This guide will detail everything you need to know about making your very own Death Knight. If you don't subscribe to the Death Knight, melee DPS or Tank play style, then why not take a peek around at our Wrath Classic Healer tier list. It'll be useful to know what's the right healing spec for you, especially if you want to do some end game content.

How do I make a WotLK Death Knight?

If you had played Wrath of the Lich King when it was the retail expansion, then you may remember that there were some requirements to making a Death Knight. Namely, you had to have a level 55 character on the same realm as you wanted to make your Death Knight on.

click to enlarge

Well Blizzard has taken some critical player feedback into account here and is changing the game a bit. Here's the new requirements for making a Death Knight for Wrath of the Lich King Classic.

• Your first Death Knight created in any realm is free of restrictions (except for fresh start realms that will open with the pre-expansion patch).
• Any Death Knights created after your first one must be on a different realm, and require an existing level 55 character on the same realm.
• You may only have one Death Knight per realm.

Pretty straight forward if you ask me! Blizzard wanted players who were had never played Wrath before, but may have been familiar with the Death Knight to be able to play the class without having to level a fresh toon.

If you happen to want that experience though just like in the old days and have the time to commit to leveling a fresh character to 55, then there are 4 total "Fresh Start" servers, which essentially sets everyone to level 1 again, and you have to start a fresh character.

What is a Death Knight?

The Death Knight is World of Warcraft's very first hero class. They are former heroes and citizens of Azeroth, brought back in unlife by the Lich King, Arthas Menethil. They are charged to serve him as his champions, until the events at the Eastern Plaguelands, which is the introductory leveling scenario for the Death Knight.

There are three main playstyles, or specializations of Death Knight. Blood leverages various blood plagues and bones to heal and be incredibly resilient. Frost leverages the icy bitter cold to inflict massive amounts of damage.

• Check out: WotLK Death Knight leveling guide and spec

This is one of the damage specs. The last damage spec is Unholy. This is a minion class that also focuses on inflicting plague infested boils on their enemies, and detonating them for huge amounts of damage.

If any of these sound fantastic to you, then the Death Knight has never been easier to pick up and play. You'll still have to level through to 70 for the launch of Wrath Classic, but you do have some time. You'll hit 60 by the end of the intro scenario, and then you will level through the Outlands to get those last 10 levels.

And that's all that we have for you! While you're here be sure to check out our release date guide for Wrath Classic to know exactly how long you have to level that shiny new Death Knight. If you're looking for some retail news, then check out our Dragonflight release date and preorder guides as well