Death knight abilities

For death knight abilities and talents on Classic servers, see Death knight abilities (Classic).

Death knight abilities are abilities used by death knights. Most abilities are shared between all specializations, while some are only specific to one (or two) specializations.

Death knight abilities use either runes (as part of the rune system) or runic power and are divided into the trees of Frost, Blood and Unholy.

Class[]

All death knights automatically learn the following spells at the specified level, regardless of specialization.

Specializations[]

The three death knight specializations are Blood (tanking), Frost (melee DPS) and Unholy (melee DPS). For an exploration of each death knight specialization, see Death knight specializations.

Talents[]

Talents become available at level 10. They can be changed at any time outside of combat, except during a PvP match or Mythic+ dungeon. A talented ability cannot be changed while it is on cooldown.

Row 5 is locked until 8 points are spent, and row 8 is locked until 20 points are spent.

Class talents[]

Tier	Talent	Ranks	Requirement
1	[Chains of Ice]	1	Automatic for Frost
[Death Strike]	1	Automatic for Blood
[Raise Dead]	1	Automatic for Unholy
2	[Mind Freeze]	1	Chains of Ice
[Anti-Magic Shell]	1	Death Strike
[Cleaving Strikes]	1	Raise Dead
3	[Blinding Sleet]	1	Mind Freeze
[Coldthirst]	1	Mind Freeze
[Permafrost]	1	Mind Freeze
[Improved Death Strike]	1	Anti-Magic Shell
[Anti-Magic Barrier]	1	Anti-Magic Shell
[March of Darkness]	1	Anti-Magic Shell
[Sacrificial Pact]	1	Cleaving Strikes
[Control Undead]	1	Cleaving Strikes
[Enfeeble]	1	Cleaving Strikes
4	[Icebound Fortitude]	1	Blinding Sleet OR Coldthirst OR Permafrost
[Blood Scent]	1	Permafrost OR Improved Death Strike
[Veteran of the Third War]	2	Improved Death Strike OR Anti-Magic Barrier OR March of Darkness
[Suppression]	1	March of Darkness OR Sacrificial Pact
[Brittle]	1	Sacrificial Pact OR Control Undead OR Enfeeble
5	[Acclimation]	1	Icebound Fortitude
[Merciless Strikes]	1	Icebound Frotitude OR Blood Scent
[Anti-Magic Zone]	1	Blood Scent OR Veteran of the Third War OR Suppression
[Might of Thassarian]	1	Suppression OR Brittle
[Clenching Grasp]	1	Brittle
6	[Proliferating Chill]	1	Acclimation OR Merciless Strikes
[Gloom Ward]	1	Merciless Strikes
[Asphyxiate]	1	Merciless Strikes OR Anti-Magic Zone
[Assimilation]	1	Anti-Magic Zone
[Death Pact]	1	Anti-Magic Zone OR Might of Thassarian
[Death's Reach]/ [Grip of the Dead]	1	Might of Thassarian
[Unholy Endurance]	1	Might of Thassarian OR Clenching Grasp
7	[Runic Attenuation]	1	Proliferating Chill OR Gloom Ward
[Wraith Walk]	1	Asphyxiate OR Assimilation OR Death Pact
[Unholy Ground]	1	Death's Reach/Grip of the Dead OR Unholy Endurance
8	[Insidious Chill]	1	Runic Attenuation
[Blood Draw]	2	Runic Attenuation OR Wraith Walk
[Will of the Necropolis]	2	Wraith Walk OR Unholy Ground
[Death's Echo]	1	Unholy Ground
9	[Icy Talons]	2	Insidious Chill OR Blood Draw
[Rune Mastery]	2	Blood Draw OR Will of the Necropolis
[Unholy Bond]	2	Will of the Necropolis OR Death's Echo
10	[Empower Rune Weapon]	1	Icy Talons
[Abomination Limb]	1	Rune Mastery
[Soul Reaper]	1	Unholy Bond

Specialization talents[]

PvP talents[]

PvP talents become available at level 20. Up to 3 PvP talents may be active at any given time (with additional slots becoming available at levels 30 and 40).

These talents are active in the open world with War Mode turned on, as well as during instanced PvP. They have no effect in dungeons and raids.

Runeforging[]

Runeforging is a skill that allows death knights to augment their weapons with various runes at any runeforge. A weapon can only have one rune at a time.

Name	Level	Weapon type	Description
[Rune of Razorice]	8	Any	Causes 2% extra weapon damage as Frost damage and has a chance to increase Frost vulnerability.
[Rune of the Fallen Crusader]	8	Any	Has a chance to heal you for 3% and increase total Strength by 15% for 15 sec.
[Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle]	8	Two-handed	Increases Armor by 5% and all stats by 5%.
[Rune of Unending Thirst]	20	Any	Increases Movement Speed by 5% and grants healing and extra Haste and Movement Speed on kill.
[Rune of Sanguination]	32	Any	Increases the damage of [Death Strike] based on the enemy's missing health and heals when falling bellow 35% health.
[Rune of the Apocalypse]	44	Any	Has a chance to apply one of four debuffs on ghoul attacks.
[Rune of Hysteria]	46	Any	Increases Runic Power by 20 and has a chance to increase Runic Power generation.
[Rune of Spellwarding]	48	Any	Deflects 3% of all spell damage and has a chance to create a shield that absorbs spell damage.

Glyphs[]

Glyphs are items that can change a spell or ability's visual appearance. Most glyphs are crafted by scribes, are color-coded by class, and can be applied as early as level 11. They can be removed at any time outside of combat using  [Vanishing Powder].

Glyph	Used on
[Glyph of Cracked Ice]	[Path of Frost]
[Glyph of Foul Menagerie]	[Army of the Dead]
[Glyph of the Chilled Shell]	[Anti-Magic Shell]
[Glyph of the Crimson Shell]	[Anti-Magic Shell]
[Glyph of the Geist]	[Raise Dead]
[Glyph of the Skeleton]	[Raise Dead]

See also[]

• Runes and runic power