Death Knights have been a bit stagnant in the last few expansions of World of Warcraft, as there hasn’t been too many sizeable changes to their kit. This may be part of why by December of 2019, they rested at the eighth most popular out of the twelve playable classes, as according to WorldofWargraphs.
With the upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, we’ve already seen a great number of changes coming to plenty of classes. Death Knights are far from exempt from this, as the class is finally getting some highly desired changes.
For example, Death Knights will once again be able to choose whether they would like to dual-wield or utilize two-handed weaponry for the Frost specialization. Recent expansions stripped this choice away, forcing Frost Death Knights to dual-wield one-handed weapons.
With these changes in mind, there are plenty of other changes coming as well. One of the most recent revealed is that the class will be getting a new set of runes, which is something that’s been in high demand for quite some time.
Presently, Death Knights aren’t given much of a choice in which Rune they would like to apply to their weapon via Runecrafting. Their options lie at the Runes of Razorice, Fallen Crusader, and Stoneskin Gargoyle, with the latter being a pure tank option and the others being damage, with Fallen Crusader generally the popular choice.
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Thankfully, Blizzard has announced several more runes that will be added for Death Knights to choose from. These new options will hopefully add enough of a variety to make it so that players are fine-tuning their kit rather than simply taking a class buff.
The first of these runes is the Rune of Hysteria. Applying this rune grants extra maximum runic power, as well as being granted more runic power from expending runes or general attacks. Utilizing this rune grants 20 maximum Runic Power and causes attacks to have a chance to increase Runic Power generation by 20% for 8 seconds.
Second comes the Rune of Sanguination, a powerful self-sustain option. Sanguination causes Death Strike to deal increased damage based on the target’s missing health. Additionally, the wielder will heal for 48% of their own maximum health when falling below 35% HP.
Third is the Rune of Spellwarding, which, as the name suggests, increases effectiveness against spell-wielders. This rune deflects 3% of all spell damage as well as having a chance to proc a steady shield against magic damage for 10% of your maximum health, also reducing the casting speed of those that attack the shield with spells by 10%.
Finally comes the Rune of Unending Thirst, which seems targetted towards PvP. This rune grants 10% haste and movement speed as well as healing you for 5% of your maximum health when slaying an enemy worth experience or honor. While not useful for PvP or Dungeons, it seems extremely effective for leveling and PvP.
