Introduced in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Death Knights are World of Warcraft's first hero class. Death knights start at level 55 in a special, instanced zone unreachable by any other class: Acherus, the Ebon Hold, located in Plaguelands: The Scarlet Enclave. Here they will earn their talent points as quest rewards and even get a special summoned mount, the Acherus Deathcharger!

Death knights have multiple very strong damage dealing options, as each of their talent trees can be specced to perform exceptionally well with a variety of melee abilities, spells and damage-over-time dealing diseases. They are also very capable tank classes, with both their Blood and Frost trees providing unique options - Blood dealing more with self-healing abilities and Frost providing significant damage mitigation and strong AoE damage.

Death knights fight with a special buff active called a presence (similar to a warrior's stances) which provides special bonuses to their roles. Death knights utilize a unique power system, with most spells costing either Runes, which are replenished throughout battle, or Runic Power, which can be generated by various abilities.

• Unholy death knights can spec into Master of Ghouls, which makes their summoned Ghoul minion a permanent pet to aid in battle!
• The death knight class has its own special weapon enchanting ability called Runeforging, which replaces the need for conventional weapon enchants.
• Death knights are a very unique damage-dealing class in that their damage is dealt by both melee abilities and spells!