Death Knight Guide, and Myths busted!

[Grakor456]

Now, on the subject of Runeblades, I'm pretty sure they're all specially crafted to be runeblades. Sure, you can slap a few runes onto a pointy thing and say it's a runeblade.. but it isn't. For Scourge DKs, they are given a blade by Arthas, and when they were freed from his control, many DKs forged blades for themselves, from what I was told. I know Darion forged his own new blades, and Thassarian, too, I believe.

One of the very first quests on Live for DKs has you going to forge a runeblade for yourself. The process? Taking a battle-worn sword off of a weapon rack and putting runes on it.

[Piken]

Is it? Hm, I could have swore I was told otherwise. <Shrug> My bad.

[Mike]

I
Worship
You

Really, I do.

[QuantumLegacy]

The only beings able to safely wear Saronite are the Scourge.

It drives any creature that can think on its own into madness, even Knights of the Ebon Blade.

For those of you to lazy to look at WoWwiki.

[flavafat]

Hm, interesting to say the least. Thanks for posting this friendo'.

[Grakor456]

Is it? Hm, I could have swore I was told otherwise. <Shrug> My bad.

No big. It's definitely a poor man's runeblade and not ideal. After doing the DK newbie quests, I got two implications that really made the class make a lot more sense that you might not realize until you've done them.

1. The Scourge is (or was) literally trying to mass-produce these guys. No joke, there are a ton of them, and there are many more that were made and quickly perished in the fight against the Scarlets. What you see in Acherus is just a small percentage of the numbers made. With that in mind, it simply isn't feasible to give each of them specially crafted runeblades.

2. Similarly, because DKs can only be made out of the bodies and souls of those who were decent combatants, it makes a lot more sense, combined with the above, that the class is open to all races. The Scourge isn't picky. If some relatively powerful warrior managed to get himself offed in the Plaguelands, they're gonna try to turn him into a DK (or tried in the past before Arthas fled to Northrend.)

[Piken]

Yeah, I do believe they were pretty much mass produced and all given runeblades, but like I said, I was told that alot forged their own after they were freed. Or some did anyway. "Ooh, corpse! /raise, give sword Go get 'em, tiger!"

[PiesOfNub]

Edited the part about Saronite.

Thanks for that, Piken! :3

[BlackMage]

I have two little questions about DKs, actually.

Must a Death Knight be wielding his runeblade to use his powers, or must it only be on his person?

and,

If one picks up a Death Knight's runeblade, let's take a Joe Blow human warrior for an example, do they suffer debilitating effects, or is it just a regular sword? (Only asking because in D&D, if you pick up a Death Knight's weapon, you suffer some pretty hefty penalties for it, and WarCraft and D&D have a surprising amount of similarities.)

[Kaelvan]

I believe you just have to have it on you, I guess. But most DK's use their runeblades for combat anyway. Shouldn't matter too much.

As per the second question. It has debuffs as to buffs. In the hands of the living, that is. In the hands of a forsaken, It wouldn't really 'debuff' them or hurt them. It would function as a normal blade, I believe.

[flavafat]

( Directed to Blackmage. )
1. No, the blade just enhances his power enabling him to channel it into a weapon, making the blade and the power more advanced.

2. A Runeblade gives off a certain runic aura I believe, so even if it was a foresaken or if the blade was not enchanted, no matter what race, if it isn't a Death Knight it would cause some damage.

[zackaroth]

Now are you saying all DKs are emo? My Forsaken DK on retail is neither emo nor bitter about turning into a Death Knight. Infact it is reverse. He is thrilled about gainining these new powers and holds no remorse for the things he did because he was never on good terms with the Scarlet Crusade anyways. He also relishes the fact he is now technically more immortal then he was a normal Forsaken. Before he had to worry about rotting away. Having access to powers of Frost, it seems he can easily preserve himself.

Is this too far out there for a Death Knight?

[Grakor456]

Now are you saying all DKs are emo? My Forsaken DK on retail is neither emo nor bitter about turning into a Death Knight. Infact it is reverse. He is thrilled about gainining these new powers and holds no remorse for the things he did because he was never on good terms with the Scarlet Crusade anyways. He also relishes the fact he is now technically more immortal then he was a normal Forsaken. Before he had to worry about rotting away. Having access to powers of Frost, it seems he can easily preserve himself.

Is this too far out there for a Death Knight?

Oh, no, we're not saying *all* DKs are emo. They just have a very good reason to be so...they are, after all, men and women who have been physically, emotionally, and mentally violated. That's going to leave some psychological damage to almost anyone.

But that doesn't mean they're emo. You just have to take what happened to them into account. Some might enjoy the new powers they gained, but the process of getting them was not fun.

[PiesOfNub]

Added another edit to the original post.. A profile comparison!

Malth vs OMGWTFMalth.

Oh, and a few more fixes based on community input, etc.

[PiesOfNub]

Added a small section regarding the Death Knight magic schools!

Yip yip!