Death Knight Death knights ( introduced in Wrath of the Lich King ) boast powerful melee abilities as well as plate armor . These warriors supplement their strength with dark magic . Calling upon a rune system of magic , the death knight may summon unholy , blood , and frost spells . The criterion for creating a death knight previously required the existence of a level 55 + character on the player ' s account on any realm . However , as of December 2014 , that requirement has been removed . The death knight is the first hero class in " World of Warcraft " . Death knights start at level 55 in over the Eastern Plaguelands , with multiple spells and abilities ready to use , and a set of gear . When departing Ebon Hold , they have a full set of gear ready for Outland . Through the death knight - specific quests in this necropolis and the surrounding areas , they learn to master the power of the death knight and learn to use this new power for the will of the Lich King . Quests take them outside the necropolis and into an area within the Scarlet Enclave . Before Patch 5 . 3 . 0 , players could only create one death knight per realm , so long as they had a level 55 character already and " Wrath of the Lich King " on their account . Now players are able to create multiple death knights on one realm . Currently , the Pandaren and the recently introduced Allied races are the only ones that cannot become death knights . Lore . Death knight is a name shared by several organizations of powerful necromancers . These orders share a few things in common , including riding horses with horned skulls and many of the same abilities . Playable death knights , however , are specifically death knights of the Scourge . Immortal Soldiers . The original death knights were created for Orgrim Doomhammer by Gul ' dan as powerful soldiers of the Horde . These death knights were created by placing the souls of slain Shadow Council warlocks into the corpses of fallen Stormwind knights , the first of whom was Teron Gorefiend . Unlike modern death knights of the Scourge , these ghoulish fiends were not battle - hardened warriors ; they were insidious necromancers who possessed superior intellect and tremendous magical power . They often favored the use of terror tactics and reanimated the corpses of enemy soldiers who fell in battle to serve them as mindless undead minions . Most of these death knights were destroyed during and after the Second War , either killed by the Alliance or transformed into lich es by Kil ' jaeden . Champions of the Lich King . Years after the destruction of Draenor , the immensely powerful Lich King created a new breed of death knights : malevolent , rune - wielding warriors of the Scourge . The first and greatest of these was the Lich King ' s chosen champion , Prince Arthas Menethil , once a mighty paladin of the Silver Hand who sacrificed his soul to claim the runeblade Frostmourne in a desperate bid to save his people . The rest are primarily made up of other fallen paladin s whose souls were twisted and bound to the will of the Frozen Throne . Unlike Gul ' dan ' s death knights , these dark champions possess unholy strength ; however , they do not possess free will and their minds are inexorably entwined with and dominated by the Lich King ' s vast consciousness . Despite the potential loss of free will , some powerful mortals are intrigued by the promise of immortality and pledge their souls freely into the Lich King ' s service to achieve it . Baron Rivendare is an example of this . In the years since Arthas shattered the Frozen Throne and merged with the Lich King , the power and fury of the death knights has only grown . Now these unrelenting crusaders of the damned eagerly await the Lich King ' s command to unleash their fury on Azeroth once again . Unlike death knights of the Old Horde , the Scourge ' s death knights are not limited to their use of ranged spell casting abilities . In addition , these tireless death knights are considerably stronger , faster , and more agile than they were in life . However , both generations are equally destructive and terrifying to engage in the field of battle . The Ebon Blade . A new group of death knights , the Death knights of Acherus , was later created by the Lich King to garrison the necropolis of for the ultimate purpose of assaulting Light ' s Hope Chapel and destroying the Argent Dawn . In the " Wrath of the Lich King " expansion , these death knights are freed from the will of the Lich King and ally themselves with their former factions . Working closely under the guiding blade of Highlord Darion Mograine and the bolstered Argent Crusade , the newly - freed death knights have begun their march to Northrend . The Knights of the Ebon Blade is a faction consisting of the renegade death knights that broke free of the Lich King ' s control after the battle of Light ' s Hope Chapel ( in other words , player - created death knights ) . Led by Highlord Darion Mograine , the Knights of the Ebon Blade have allied themselves with the Alliance and the Horde with the help of Highlord Tirion Fordring of the Knights of the Silver Hand , and have pledged to do their part in defeating their former master , the Lich King . Their main base is Acherus : The Ebon Hold , taken from the Scourge after breaking free . It should be noted that the Knights of the Ebon Blade are not a separate player faction such as the Alliance and Horde . For the purposes of gameplay , player - created death knights still belong to either the Alliance or Horde depending on their race / faction . Races . < tabber > Races = The death knight class can be played by the following races , with the following stats : TCG images = < / tabber > Role . In general , the death knight can be considered a hybrid melee class that combines damage dealing and tanking , somewhat akin to warriors . They wear plate armor and are able to dual - wield or use two - handed blade weapons ( and maces , as revealed later ) . Like druids and monks , they tank without shields . Their tanking mechanics involve high armor and a high chance to parry . Death knight tanks depend on a combination of high damage abilities , in addition to high threat abilities . The death knight has three different specializations ; the differences between them are not as clear - cut as those of other classes , both for PvP and PvE environments . Notably , death knights can tank or deal damage regardless of specialization , although a careful selection is still required to bolster their preferred role . In Patch 4 . 0 . 1 , the roles became more defined , with Blood becoming the Tank specialization tree , and the others being DPS . Blood enhances the death knight ' s melee abilities and damage and vastly improves the ability to heal itself . Blood also provides healing utility to party and raids and has some very useful buffs and debuffs that the death knight can cast on others . Blood is considered the tree for soloing and should be given a thought when it comes time to level your death knight . Frost enhances melee abilities and focuses on increasing both AoE and single target damage . It provides some very powerful direct damage abilities . Unholy enhances the death knight ' s diseases and damage over time spells , making them effective at AoE DPS . It also provides the death knight with a ghoul who is a permanent pet , a gargoyle guardian he or she can summon , and stronger disease s . The Rune System . Death knights use a unique rune - based resource system to govern their spells and abilities . Using certain abilities exhausts one or more runes , starting a cooldown of 10 seconds . After the cooldown , the runes refresh . The haste stat reduces the cooldown of runes . In addition , whenever they use a rune ability against a foe , it builds up a certain amount of Runic Power . Runic Power is consumed by certain abilities , which the death knight can use while his / her runes are on cooldown . All abilities that use Runic Power use a set amount . The original player frame for death knights shown at BlizzCon was changed as feedback showed it was not ideal for displaying rune power for players .