Spooncraft

Round two! Here’s the compiled information we have on the meat of the Death Knight class. My last post was more of an overall look at the concept and playability of the class. Here we’re going to look at the spells they have and some very interesting ideas that will change the game forever. As usual my commentary is bolded after the item.

• Death Coil — Depletes all Runic Power, dealing 600 damage to a non-Undead target, or healing 900 damage on a friendly target. (Curse.com) Good a DPS class that can self hea. That reminds me a lot of the Druid in Diablo 2 where in werewolf form I could heal by attacking.
• Death Grip — This is the Death Knight’s “taunt” ability. It also pulls the target to the Death Knight, forcing them to attack the Death Knight for a short amount of time. Yes, I said pulls the target; Blizzard is going to allow players to move mobs in the expansion both with Death Grip, and other knockback/pull abilities. This works on players too, so PvP balance ahoy! (Curse.com) Yeah this is something that doesn’t freak me out at all. Matter of fact this is great. Blizzard has gotten the technology down so that a player can knockback or knockdown another player. Kind of like my old Earthshaker used to do. I have to assume that this ability will not be Death Knight exclusive. There are too many other classes (shaman, warrior, druid for example) that can fit this ability. Maybe not pulling people to you, but definitely knocking them down or knocking them away from you.
• Chains of Ice — Roots the target in place. When the spell fades, it places a snare on the target that reduces in potency as the duration runs out. (Curse.com) Like Gruul’s slowdown and stone.
• Death Pact — Sacrifices the raised ghouls to heal the Death Knight. (Curse.com)
• Death and Decay — Targeted, AoE Damage-over-time which pulses similar to the Paladin spell Consecration. Anyone affected by Death and Decay has a chance to be feared. (Curse.com) If this is an ability that only stands beneath the Death Knight then it’s going to be one HELL of a defense for flag carriers or defending nodes. If it’s a ranged cast like Blizzard, then it’s going to be very overpowered.
• Frost Presence — Increases Armor by 45% and allows the Death Knight to generate 25% more threat. Only one presence can be active at any time. (Curse.com) Tanking aura.
• Unholy Presence — Increases Attack Speed and Movement speed by 15%. Only one presence can be active at any time. This was described by Tom Chilton as the “PvP” presence. (Curse.com) Yeah I can’t argue with this, especially since Death Knights can use 2H or 1H bladed weapons. Seems like it’ll make the most sense to give them a fighting chance at DPS. Remember nothing about the existing classes has been released yet.
• Anti-magic Shield — Reduces the damage of the next magical spell cast on the Death Knight by 75%. It also converts the damage reduced into Runic Power. (Curse.com) Depending on it’s cool down, this is going to be a really great way to “generate rage” for the Death Knight when tanking or even countering casters in PVP.
• Strangulate — Depletes all Runic Power, dealing minor damage and silencing the target for up to 5 seconds. (Curse.com) Nothing new here to panic about, mages can do this so can Felhunters and so can shadow priests but without the damage part.
• Summon Deathcharger — Allows the Death Knight to summon a Deathcharger mount. This mount is acquired through quests, similar to the Paladin and Warlock land mounts. (Curse.com)
• Raise Dead — Raises a nearby corpse to fight for the Death Knight for 2 minutes. If used on a player corpse, the player has the option to play as the ghoul for the duration — gaining access to the ghoul’s abilities. (Curse.com) It’s not a rez, it’s a way for your buddy to keep playing. Once again depending on the cooldown as well as the cost to the Death Knight this can be a very balanced and unique little spell.
• The ghoul has the ability to do the following: Leap to the target, rend for decent damage-over-time, stun target, and of course more.