Unholy, Blood, or Frost for Death Knight Leveling In Cataclysm

Really depends on your favorite flavor of leveling on what spec you wish to use while hitting the new 85 level cap.  Currently I'm using a dual spec of Blood and Unholy, which allows me to tank the new dungeons and kill things faster while questing.  At this point, the cost for dual spec shouldn't be a hindrance and any hybrid class should be taking advantage of the ability.

But you say, 'I don't have good enough gear to run the new normal dungeons in Cataclysm as a tank.'  Pfsssh, the first few quest rewards are green items of ilvl 277 or higher, which will be the best gear available at lvl 80, pushing you above the arbitrary gear score Blizzard requires for queing in the dungeon finder.

Been doing a bunch of quests in Hyjal and starting to get burned out, take a break and go discover the new dungeon entrances.  As of this posting you cannot use dungeon finder to que for a dungeon until you discover it's entrance.  This means at level 80 you need to discover Blackrock Caverns and Throne of the Tides.

Fast XP

I will tell you that you need to take time to run each low 80 dungeon at least once.  The amount of XP received from running Blackrock Caverns is just a crazy amount and the new quest system is amazing.  The quest giver and receiver is all inline within the dungeon, so no returned trips necessary.  Kill 'X' and receive upwards of 70k experience and with all the bosses in Blackrock Caverns this adds up really quick.

Blackrock Caverns

Death Knight Leveling from 81-85

All the experts are coming out of the wood work to tell you the best way to power level, get a realm first, or just stomp out levels 81-85 in time to grind heroics the longest.  My advice sucks, because I don't know the best Death Knight leveling spec, and I certainly won't bet getting a realm first.  I'm above casual, but I also enjoy the game, so my journey will be just as important as my destination.

That being said, let's look at some Death Knight Cataclysm leveling tips worth looking into.  These won't get you there the fastest, but will hopefully aid in the completion of the thousands of new quests that await us in the newly destroyed Azeroth.

Auto Loot - Quite possibly the simplest of tips, it's a check box in your interface menu and allows for short work of all the sparkly dead bodies laying at your feet.

Use Buffs - It's been a long time since some of us have ingested a potion, elixir, or buff food in any other setting besides a raid.  Well, get back in the habit of making sure your self buffs are all up before accepting that big yellow exclamation point.

Dual Spec - We have the ability and relatively inexpensive method of having multiple specs now.  Go ahead, spend the gold and buy that second spec that you will use specifically for leveling purposes.  You won't need to be min/max'd for raids any time soon, so sacrificing a lil DPS for more self heals in a balanced build will help the quest turn-ins fly by.

Unholy Death Knight Leveling Spec

I won't pretend to say this is the end all answer to a leveling spec, but it gets a lot of things right.  Depending on your method of leveling, this will be balanced enough to do crazy amounts of damage and provide some survivability.  Obviously this Unholy leveling build requires you to be at least level 79.

Death Knight Leveling Spec

WoW Head Death Knight Leveling Spec - http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jbhZZcucdfcodfo
How to use this spec automatically with WoWTal.

I think in another post installment I'll do a write up of the best places to level and when to pickup some notable quests.  You know, the ones that reward decent gear to help get you prepped for Heroic Dungeon grinding. ;)  See you in The Shattering!

Death Knight Preparation for Cataclysm Leveling

The end is near, Cataclysm is looming in the distance and the shattering will be happening any day now.  So what should Death Knights be doing to prepare for leveling to the new cap of 85?  Also, what will be the best way to gain experience from 80-85?

Of course there are plenty of arguments about taking your time, power-leveling, instance runs, or just questing.  Really, I prefer a mixture of all of the above.  I love questing, but get bored fairly quickly and the same can be said for running instances over and over and over again.  Furthermore, I normally hit the power-leveling quick and hard, but back off as the bubbles disappear and my rested XP wears off.

Leveling Spec and Buff Stuff

If you don't plan on tanking instances all the way to 80, it may be a good idea to at least dual-spec into Unholy.  Unholy will provide the most damage and allow the completion and killing of Cata Creatures much faster or efficiently.  Also, the use of buff food, elixirs, and potions will help min/max your leveling experience to 85.

Personally I've been stocking up on some Strength Elixirs and other various buff foods.  If you happen to be a cook or alchemist the need for this may be null and void, since so many new buff stuff will be available.  However, if you are buying it all, you may save some money buying the Lich King expansion goodies now.

Instance Runs

Sprinkling in some dungeon runs will help break up the monotony of quest grinding.  Also, it has the added benefit of potentially providing superior loot, which will also in turn help your quest leveling process.  The stronger you are, the harder and faster they fall.

Death Knight tanks will also have the added benefit of learning the normal mode dungeons before jumping into heroics at 85.  This could pay off in spades, to learn the more difficult Cataclysm dungeons on a normal mode, when everybody is feeling their way around.  I find this will take the stress off of every trying to push for a rush as soon as heroic modes are available.

Misc Tips

Stocking up on gold will offer the side benefit of helping leveling your mat using professions.  Gold will become an even larger sink if you lack a gathering profession or there are people waiting in line for certain veins or herbs.  How long into Cataclysm before the auction house stabilizes?

Bonus Secret Extra XP Tip

Do 25 daily quests before Cataclysm launches on December 7th.  Then, once you have installed the expansion, had your level cap raised, go turn in said 25 quests.  This way you get an immediate boost in experience, perhaps just not enough to hit 81. ;)

Death Knight Leveling from 55 - 58

This is a guest article submission on leveling your Death Knight from 55 to 58 in the World of Warcraft MMORPG.

Death Knight is a playable characters on an account with level 55 or higher character. At the beginning of the game, you will start at level 55, where there is a floating citadel on top of the eastern plaguelands. The eastern plagueland is only accessible by Death Knights.

The Death Knight is equipped with tools such as a set of gear, and 4 x deathweave bag. The first aid skill gives the Death Knight ability to make and use bandages for up to a potential skill of 300. The Death Knight can use the cloth to make bandages found on the humanoids.

In addition, the Death Knight is equipped with 225 skills in riding from the beginning. The riding skill allows them to ride on non epic flying mounts at a speed of 150%. With the riding skill, the Death Knight can be trained at level 60 at the cost of 250. If the Death Knight has exalted reputation, the cost can be discounted for up to 200. For example, if you want to train with Orc trainer Kildar, the cost can be discounted based on the reputation from Orgrimmar. In this case, gamers are required to train their riding skill with the Orc trainer. If he is exalted with another race or visiting a northtrend trainer, he will not be required to train with the respective race’s trainer. You can buy the flying mount from the trainer for 50. The flying mount will be consumed upon learning the mount. Later, you will be able to use the mount to cast spell in the Mounts section of the Pets tab. For the current expansion, players can only use the flying amount in Outland and Northtrend.

As you proceed through the game, you will encounter different quests that form the Death Knight story line. Once you finished the game, you are equipped with a quality set of gear, a free epic land mount and flightpoints.

One leveling tip is to follow the instruction and not skip the Death Knight quest. If you put the talent points into talent, you will reduce the downtime and increase the Death Knight’s damage. The auto loot feature allows you to save time when looting bodies. You can turn on auto loot by pressing ESC on the keyboard. Next, you should select Options > Controls > Auto Loot. It is recommended that you don’t waste your time finding group. Instead, you should only group with people when necessary. You should use only one weapon because it is time consuming to level the weapon skill. Since you start out with a sword, you can use the two handed swords for the rest of your leveling. PVP will slow you down when you are performing the leveling. If possible, you should not confront the PVP and avoid the opponents. Confronting the PVP will put you at a higher risk compare to drying world mobs and slow you down. In addition, killing the enemy players will not give you any XP at all.

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Leveling A Death Knight

Without a question leveling my Death Knight was much more fun than it was on my Mage or Hunter. Death Knights are just plain fun and when leveling Blood you just feel OP at lower levels. It doesn't mean the class needs nerfing, all classes should be made this fun when leveling from 1.

Perhaps that's what Blizzard will try to achieve when they release Cataclysm, a 'Buff' to all classes so that they can be as fun to level as a Death Knight from level 1. We need more fun in the lower quests, more story telling, more involvement, and a feeling of opness so that the time goes by faster. Right now, it just seems like leveling takes forever. Yes, adding mounts at lower levels is a step in the right direction.

Also, I'm not against allowing classes to start at a higher level, like the Death Knight did, if a person already has a max level character. I didn't tank until I got to Northrend and I did just fine and I think others will too, even if they have to learn their class at max level. It's not like people are tanking at level 10 or clutch healing at lower levels either. Let's start all classes at higher levels...or just wait and see how much fun Cataclysm will be for starting a new class.