Death knight talents

Classes
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The death knight talents are split into three trees: Blood, Frost, and Unholy.

Notes

As of Patch 4.0.1 Blood is the designated Tanking tree and Blood Presence is used for tanking. The Frost and Unholy trees are each viable for PvE DPS. In addition, whereas tanks will always use Blood Presence, DPS could use either Frost or Unholy Presence.

With the new talent trees and Mastery, you now gain a number of bonuses when choosing your tree of specialization.

Blood

Talents in this tree focus on Damage reduction and self-healing. Blood is the tanking tree.

Choosing this tree gives you

• [Veteran of the Third War]
• [Blood Rites]
• Vengeance
• Mastery: Blood Shield

Talent	Points	Requirements	Description
[Butchery]	2	None	Whenever you kill an enemy that grants experience or honor, you generate up to 10/20 runic power. In addition you generate 1/2 runic power per 5 sec while in combat.
[Blade Barrier]	3	None	Whenever your blood runes are on cooldown, you gain the Blade Barrier effect, which decreases damage taken by 2/4/6% for the next 10 sec.
[Bladed Armor]	3	None	Increases your attack power by 2/4/6 for every 180 armor value you have.
[Improved Blood Tap]	2	Blood 5	Reduces the cooldown of your Blood Tap ability by 15/30 sec.
Scent of Blood	3	Blood 5	You have a 15% chance after dodging, parrying or taking direct damage to gain the Scent of Blood effect, causing your next 1/2/3 melee hits to generate 10 runic power.
[Scarlet Fever]	2	Blood 5	Gives your Blood Boil a 50/100% chance to afflict enemies with Scarlet Fever, reducing their physical damage dealt by 10% for 30 sec.
[Hand of Doom]	2	Blood 5	Reduces the cooldown of your Strangulate ability by 30/60 sec.
[Blood-Caked Blade]	3	Blood 10	Your auto attacks have a 10/20/30% chance to cause a Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 25% weapon damage plus 12.5% for each of your diseases on the target.
[Bone Shield]	1	Blood 10	Surrounds you with a barrier of whirling bones. The shield begins with 3 charges, and each damaging attack consumes a charge. While at least 1 charge remains, you take 20% less damage from all sources and deal 2% more damage with all attacks, spells and abilities. Lasts 5 min.
[Toughness]	3	Blood 10	Increases your armor value from items by 3/7/10%.
[Abomination's Might]	2	Blood 10	Increases the attack power by 5/10% of party and raid members within 12 yards. Also increases your total Strength by 1/2%.
[Sanguine Fortitude]	2	Blood 15	While active, your Icebound Fortitude reduces damage taken by an additional 15/30% and costs 50/100% less runic power to activate.
[Blood Parasite]	2	Blood 15	Your melee attacks have a 5/10% chance to spawn a Bloodworm. The Bloodworm attacks your enemies, gorging itself with blood until it bursts to heal nearby allies. Lasts up to 20 sec.
[Improved Blood Presence]	2	Blood 15	Increases your rune regeneration by 10/20% and reduces the chance that you will be critically hit by melee attacks while in Blood Presence by 3/6%. In addition, while in Frost Presence or Unholy Presence, you retain 2/4% damage reduction from Blood Presence.
[Will of the Necropolis]	3	[Rune Tap] 1 Blood 20	When a damaging attack brings you below 30% of your maximum health, you generate a Blood Rune and the cooldown on your Rune Tap ability is refreshed, and all damage taken is reduced by 8/16/25% for 8 sec. This effect cannot occur mroe than once every 45 seconds.
[Rune Tap]	1	Blood 20	Converts 1 Blood Rune into 15% of your maximum health.
[Vampiric Blood]	1	Blood 20	Temporarily grants the Death Knight 15% of maximum health and increases the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 25% for 10 sec. After the effect expires, the health is lost.
[Improved Death Strike]	3	Blood 25	Increases the damage and healing done by your Death Strike by 15/30/45%, increases its critical strike change by 3/6/9%.
[Crimson Scourge]	2	Blood 25	Increases the damage dealt by your Blood Boil by 20/40%, and when you Plague Strike a target that is already infected with your Blood Plague, there is a 50/100% chance that your next Blood Boil will consume no runes.
[Dancing Rune Weapon]	1	Blood 30	Summons a second rune weapon that fights on its own for 12 sec, doing the same attacks as the Death Knight but for 50% reduced damage. The rune weapon also assist in defense of its master, granting an additional 20% parry chance while active.

Frost

Talents in this tree focus on burst and procs. Frost is a DPS tree and can be played dual-wielding one-hand weapons or using a single two-hand weapon.

Choosing this tree gives you

• [Frost Strike]
• [Icy Talons]
• [Blood of the North]
• Mastery: Frozen Heart

Talent	Points	Requirements	Description
[Runic Power Mastery]	3	none	Increases your maximum Runic Power by 10/20/30.
[Icy Reach]	2	none	Increases the range of your Icy Touch, Chains of Ice and Howling Blast by 5/10 yards.
[Nerves of Cold Steel]	3	none	Increases your chance to hit with one-handed melee weapons by 1/2/3% and increases the damage done by your off-hand weapon by 8/16/25%.
[Annihilation]	3	Frost 5	Increases the damage dealt by your Obliterate ability by 15/30/45%.
[Lichborne]	1	Frost 5	Draw upon unholy energy to become undead for 10 sec. While undead, you are immune to Charm, Fear and Sleep effects.
[On a Pale Horse]	2	Frost 5	You become as hard to stop as death itself. The duration of movement-slowing effects used against you is reduced by 15/30%, and your mounted speed is increased by 10/20%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
[Endless Winter]	2	Frost 5	The cost of your Mind Freeze is reduced to 10/0 runic power.
[Merciless Combat]	2	Frost 10	Your Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Obliterate, and Frost Strike do an additional 6/12% damage when striking targets with less than 35% health.
Chill of the Grave	2	Frost 10	Your Chains of Ice, Howling Blast, Icy Touch and Obliterate generate 5/10 additional runic power.
[Killing Machine]	3	Frost 10	Your melee attacks have a chance to make your next Icy Touch, Obliterate, or Frost Strike a guaranteed critical strike.
[Rime]	3	Frost 15	Your Obliterate has a 15/30/45% chance to cause your next Howling Blast or Icy Touch to consume no runes.
[Pillar of Frost]	1	Frost 15	Calls upon the power of Frost to increase the Death Knight's Strength by 20%. Icy Crystals hang heavy upon the Death Knight's body, providing immunity against external movement such as knockbacks. Lasts 20 sec.
[Improved Icy Talons]	1	Frost 15	Increases the melee and ranged attack speed of all party and raid members within 100 yards by 10%, and your own attack speed by an additional 5%.
[Brittle Bones]	2	Frost 15	Your Strength is increased by 2/4% and your Frost Fever chills the bones of its victims, increasing their physical damage taken by 2/4%.
[Chilblains]	2	Frost 20	Victims of your Frost Fever disease are Chilled, reducing movement speed by 25/50% for 10 sec.
[Hungering Cold]	1	Frost 20	Purges the earth around the Death Knight of all heat. Enemies within 10 yards are trapped in ice, preventing them from performing any action for 10 sec and infecting them with Frost Fever. Enemies are considered Frost, but any damage other than diseases will break the ice.
[Improved Frost Presence]	2	Frost 20	Increases your bonus damage while in Frost Presence by an additional 2/5%. In addition, while in Blood Presence or Unholy Presence, you retain 2/4% increased runic power generation from Frost Presence.
[Threat of Thassarian]	3	Frost 25	When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Rune Strikes, Blood Strikes, and Frost Strikes have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your offhand weapon.
[Might of the Frozen Wastes]	3	Frost 25	When wielding a two-handed weapon, your autoattacks have a 15/30/45% chance to generate 10 Runic Power.
[Howling Blast]	1	Frost 30	Blast the target with a frigid wind dealing 1288 Frost damage to all enemies within 10 yards.

Unholy

Talents in this tree focus on AoE, minion summoning, and diseases. Unholy specs should always use a two-handed weapon.

Choosing this tree gives you

• [Master of Ghouls]
• [Reaping]
• [Unholy Might]
• Mastery: Blightcaller

Talent	Points	Requirements	Description
[Vicious Strikes]	2	None	Increases the critical strike chance by 3/6% and critical strike damage bonus by 15/30% of your [Plague Strike] and [Scourge Strike].
[Virulence]	3	None	Increases your chance to hit with your spells by 1/2/3% and reduces the chance that your damage over time diseases can be cured by 10/20/30%.
Anticipation	5	None	Increases your chance to dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%
[Epidemic]	2	Unholy 5	Increases the duration of [Blood Plague] and [Frost Fever] by 3/6 sec.
[Morbidity]	3	Unholy 5	Increases damage and healing of Death Coil by 5/10/15% and reduces the cooldown on Death and Decay by 5/10/15 sec.
[Unholy Command]	2	Unholy 5	Reduces the cooldown of your [Death Grip] ability by 5/10 sec.
[Ravenous Dead]	3	Unholy 5	Increases your total Strength by 1/2/3% and the contribution your Ghouls get from Strength and Stamina by 20/40/60%
[Outbreak]	3	Unholy 10	Increases the damage of [Plague Strike] by 10/20/30% and [Scourge Strike] by 7/13/20%.
[Necrosis]	5	Unholy 10	Your auto attacks deal an additional 4/8/12/16/20% Shadow damage.
[Corpse Explosion]	1	Unholy 10	Cause a corpse to explode for X Shadow damage to all enemies within 10 yards. Will use a nearby corpse if the target is not a corpse. Does not affect mechanical or elemental corpses.
[On a Pale Horse]	2	Unholy 15	You become as hard to stop as death itself. The duration of all Stun and Fear effects used against you is reduced by 10/20%, and your mounted speed is increased by 10/20%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
[Night of the Dead]	2	Unholy 15	Reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 45/90 sec and the cooldown on Army of the Dead by 2/4 min. Also reduces the damage your pet takes from creature area of effect attacks by 45/90%.
[Blood-Caked Blade]	3	Unholy 15	Your auto attacks have a 10/20/30% chance to cause a Blood-Caked Strike, which hits for 25% weapon damage plus 12.5% for each of your diseases on the target.
[Unholy Blight]	1	Unholy 20	Causes the victims of your Death Coil to be surrounded by a vile swarm of unholy insects, taking 10% of the damage done by the Death Coil over 10 sec.
[Impurity]	5	Unholy 20	Your spells receive an additional 4/8/12/16/20% benefit from your attack power.
Dirge	2	Unholy 20	Your [Death Strike], [Plague Strike], and [Scourge Strike] generate 2.5/5 additional runic power.
[Desecration]	2	Unholy 25	Your Plague Strikes and Scourge Strikes cause the Desecrated Ground effect. Targets in the area are slowed by 25/50% by the grasping arms of the dead while standing on the unholy ground. Lasts 20 sec.
[Magic Suppression]	3	Unholy 25	You take 2/4/6% less damage from all magic. In addition, your Anti-Magic Shell absorbs an additional 8/16/25% of spell damage.
[Reaping]	3	Unholy 25	Whenever you hit with [Blood Strike] or [Pestilence] there is a 33/66/100% chance that the Blood Rune will become a Death Rune when it activates.
[Master of Ghouls]	1	[Night of the Dead] 1 Unholy 25	Reduces the cooldown on Raise Dead by 60 sec, and the Ghoul summoned by your Raise Dead spell is considered a pet under your control. Unlike normal Death Knight Ghouls, your pet does not have a limited duration.
[Desolation]	5	Unholy 30	Your Blood Strikes cause you to deal 1/2/3/4/5% additional damage with all attacks for the next 20 sec.
[Anti-Magic Zone]	1	[Magic Suppression] 5 Unholy 30	Places a large, stationary Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party or raid members inside it by 75%. The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 10 sec or until it absorbs [10000 + 2 * AP] spell damage.
[Improved Unholy Presence]	2	Unholy 30	While in Blood Presence or Frost Presence, you retain 8% increased movement speed from Unholy Presence, and your runes finish their cooldowns 5% faster in Unholy Presence.
[Ghoul Frenzy]	1	Unholy 30	Ability that grants 25% melee haste to your pet for 30 sec. and heals it for 60% of its health over the duration. Costs 1 Unholy Rune.
Crypt Fever	3	Unholy 35	Your diseases also cause Crypt Fever, which increases disease damage taken by the target by 10/20/30%.
[Bone Shield]	1	Unholy 35	The Death Knight is surrounded by 3 whirling bones. While at least 1 bone remains, <he/she> takes 20% less damage from all sources and deals 2% more damage with all attacks, spells and abilities. Each damaging attack that lands consumes 1 bone. Lasts 5 min.
[Wandering Plague]	3	Unholy 40	When your diseases damage an enemy, there is a chance equal to your melee critical strike chance that they will cause 33/66/100% additional damage to the target and all enemies within 8 yards. Ignores any target under the effect of a spell that is cancelled by taking damage.
[Ebon Plaguebringer]	3	Crypt Fever 3 Unholy 40	Your Crypt Fever morphs into Ebon Plague, which increases vulnerability to magic by 4/9/13% in addition to increasing disease damage taken. Improves your critical strike chance with weapons and spells by 1/2/3% at all times.
[Scourge Strike]	1	Unholy 40	An unholy strike that deals 50% of weapon damage as Physical damage plus 400. In addition, for each of your diseases on your target, you deal an additional 25% of the Physical damage done as Shadow damage.
[Rage of Rivendare]	5	Unholy 45	Your spells and abilities deal 2/4/6/8/10% more damage to targets infected with Blood Plague. Also increases your expertise by 1/2/3/4/5.
[Summon Gargoyle]	1	Unholy 50	A Gargoyle flies into the area and bombards the target with Nature damage modified by the Death Knight's attack power. Persists for 30 sec.

External links

World of Warcraft Community Site Death Knight Gameplay

WoWGuidance.com In-depth Death Knight Builds

wowlevelingbuilds.com Death Knight Leveling Builds

World of Warcraft Community Site Cataclysm Changes

Pwnwear.com Death Knight Tanking Information