DEATH KNIGHT in Cataclysm Classic: Was It Any Good Though?

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World of Warcraft's first hero class sees its first expansion in Cataclysm. Despite being toned down again and again from its crazy launch state in Wrath of the Lich King, DK will still remain a powerhouse pick for Cata.
Today we check out the Death Knight's various strengths and find out - DEATH KNIGHT in Cataclysm Classic: Was It Any Good Though?
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Timestamps:
0:00 - The Death Knight
00:51 - What's New Baseline?
06:18 - Blood Talent Changes | PvE
08:40 - Frost Talent Changes | PvE
10:25 - Unholy Talent Changes | PvE
12:25 - How Do We Expect The Death Knight To Perform In PvE?
15:53 - Death Knight in Cataclysm Arena | PvP
17:49 - Death Knight Tier Sets
20:11 - Conclusion
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Songs Used:
► WoW OST
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#wow #classicwow #mmorpg

[@WillEmmo]

Thanks to Factor75 for sponsoring today's video. Go to strms.net/factor75_willemmo and get 50% OFF your first Factor75 box + Free Wellness Shots for Life! Two free wellness shots per order with an active subscription.

[@SkarrGaming]

bah, it's not even in the UK!

[@KingYeas]

WillE the last remaining classic content creator that hasn't gotten whiny and still delivers high quality videos. Thank you!

[@nexusobserve]

yup, so many badcreators with goblin accents

[@Brownboy42069]

For real that Comeback Kids guy always looks like he’s about to fucking cry in every thumbnail

[@deorwynn3597]

Wdym whiney, like people criticizing the game? Not sure what to take from this. WillE is good though I agree with that

[@nexusobserve]

@@deorwynn3597 look up madseason

[@MoonTurky]

Wille cant even properly read numbers, like half of the spell effects he reads are wrong wtf lmao

[@somerandominternetdweller]

Blood DK’s were so good, you could do raids as all Blood DK’s.

[@ManuelGonzalez-tp3us]

I remember the 25 DK Dragon Soul raid, lol

[@cipriancorneanu6120]

Smolderon 14:00 when talking about Cata content ? Smooth, hopefully no one noticed! ^^

[@roninhare9615]

During cata, the biggest difference between a good blood dk and a bad one, was how well they could stack their blood shields. Being my guild main tank I could time it so my shield ate almost any “death blow” without using cool downs. It did have its down sides, if you had bad blood should rotations, or something happened, you could get spiked, often I would reserve cool downs for that. Cata was my last expansion, I quit 2 weeks into mop due to RL. Always keep an eye on the game. I’m glad it’s still rolling after all these years.

[@gcstroud]

Great video, can’t wait to play my Blood DK in prepatch.

[@bnichoo]

It was funny seeing Smolderon fight outta nowhere in the video 😂

[@ShaiKappaElKappa]

14:00 Hey that Firelands looks a bit different.

[@moopotrop5462]

Ragnaros walks on heroic mode 😂

[@thakilla2]

Yet this is the wrong Firelord 😂

[@martinagrinz5994]

Swolderon in action

[@4RumTezzy]

Was a blood DK in OG Cata, ready to do it all again

[@wadebelknap7758]

Don't forget to add that when you use lichborne, you can death coil yourself for additional healing. I used that a great deal during the original cata as yet another way to keep myself up if the healers were having any kind of issues.

[@Kspice9000]

Yep. I was easily able to aggro like 20+ mobs. Throw up all dots + pestilence and then proceed to obliterate + death strike spam and then death coil if it gets to hairy. Legit had druids pausing about to help and just stare at my health bar constantly digging out between low and full health.

[@wadebelknap7758]

@@Kspice9000 Yeah, it's insane how much death coil can heal for, but I am thrilled to finally have the blood shield Mastery. Legit my favorite thing about blood tanking. Well, boneshield too.

[@pegmeasap7433]

Orc Unholy DK is hitting like a truck. Was even out damaging people with heirlooms in questing greens and RDF blues. The pet is always top 3 on charts.

[@vaels5682]

No mention of necrotic strike in the pvp section, it's really good. can keep doing effective pressure even when people pop defensives. Dispersion? just stack up necrotics

[@dudeguy508]

Blood DK used to be so fun in BGs during Cata due to Vengeance + Death Strike.

[@quinn562]

i'm surprised he didn't talk more about dark simulacrum for pvp - I was really interested in seeing his thoughts on it, other than that good video! Thought the first two tiers look solid but sorta let down by the dragon soul tier personally - can't win em all I guess lol

[@troydavis583]

I am REALLY hoping they do something to make 2H Frost on par with its dual wield partner. No reason for it to not be at least equal with its own spec. Just different play styles.

[@Straff_Dis]

Blood DK already feels so fucking strong I love it.

[@carlew7441]

Thx for the Video

[@stormruler9292]

13:59 retail spotted pogchamp

[@TheOnlyGBeast]

Unholy used to dual-wield at the beginning as Sudden Doom used to proc off of any weapon attack but it got nerfed to only proc from main hand attacks, which single handedly killed DW UH

[@Pixtel1]

In the pre-nerf dragon soul you would use frost in bosses like the ship, deathwing spine and whenever you have to change or burst targets, both where really fun.

[@goldenace3457]

Hello and thank you for this video! I'm playing an Unholy DK and I'm full pre bis but I can't figure out which stat to prioritize... Currently without any buff except my unholy presence I am at 35% haste / 26 expertise / 8 mastery (basic) / 8.20% hit / 25% crit. But I noticed that when I lower my haste a little from 35% to 25% and put it in mastery I do more damage. So if anyone knows the correct caps to reach for an unholy full PVE dk thanks in advance =)

[@Broly91571]

So...bias i guess as i mained that after maining warlock. Once it was released I rolled my DK and never swapped out. It was a worgen and i raided and the whole nine yards with it. Was an unholy / blood and to me. It had everything i wanted that my squishy warlock didnt. Plus i love dots and it had a few built in, tanky, had ghouls which was my main attraction to my warlock was the pet/dot damage. Even after returning to wow a week ago, i noticed we could make a death knight fresh out the gate instead of needing a max character...so yeah im back to maining DK again in dragon flight 😂

[@iMcDop]

Finally the video I’ve beeeeen dying for

[@simonandovski9216]

Waiting for the Rogue one. :)

[@Mark-ho6tn]

2024 and people still spell Rogue wrong. Incredible

[@alcyone1985]

U really shouldn't under value aboms might. the strength % may look small but it helps alot when it comes to building parry from strength

[@tsubasaozora7655]

My Class for Cata overall. First Time ill play this Expansion, lets gooooo

[@ManOlantern12]

Get ready for one of the worst xpacs in the catalogue. This, WoD, BFA and Shadowlands compose the bottom tier

[@Animefightforum]

@@ManOlantern12 Truth, but look forward to MoP my boyyyyyy

[@Coliteral]

I promise you when aparatus of khazgoroth comes out DW frost human DK is going to be so strong in pvp due to the fact you can stack a crazy strong on use mastery trinket plus the str trinket the damage is nuts.

[@MrD4nY3L]

Not sure but if that box was plastic from ad the microwaving it all together kinda not good idea

[@omarlozano9374]

UH DK didn’t end up as top dps in wrath because of the Gary debuff. Had it not been for that, it would have been lights out.

[@decai6899]

It was pretty much top dps. TOP Naxx, TOp uld, TOP TOGC, pretty mcuh top or top 2 in progression icc. And only once people got gear it fell back.

[@omarlozano9374]

@@decai6899 yeah, I definitely don’t disagree. And even when it fell off, it was optimal to have at least one. Can’t say the same about the other specs (in terms of dps).

[@General12th]

Hi Will!

[@Vhite]

I hope there are now some actual 1h strength weapons in the game for frost, because in wotlk you had to pick between 1h agi weapons and 1h tank weapons.

[@BREAKocean]

It always irked me that the tanking axe off kt was bis in phase 1 for so many melee

[@ramones1314]

if your group doesn't run a BDK then you're kinda actively throwing. they can largely self sustain, removing the need for healers to tank heal and can just focus on the raid, making things safer and easier. unless of course they buff other tanks or nerf BDK, but seeing as how BDK was the basis on their tank design moving forward in other expansions, I dont see them doing that. buffs to prot would be appreciated but not sure if or what theyd do

[@MrScart35]

well we'll see but they actively balanced DPS classes throught wotlk so buffing/nerfing tanks is not that far fetched

[@ramones1314]

@@MrScart35 i really hope they do cuz prot war is fun in cata but soooo fucking bad lmao

[@pwmetalftw]

As someone that played frost dk in original cata, I feel like one point should be brought up. It's true that you are basically the only class rolling for str 1h dps weapons. The only problem is that most tiers (at least from FL onwards IIRC) only have 1 str dps weapon from the whole raid. was pretty annoying trying to get 2x of the drops. Though I did do 10 man and not 25, so maybe that also played a part in it.

[@TheOnlyGBeast]

that isn't true for the first tier; you can get Lava Spine from Magmaw, and Soul Blade from BoT trash in Firelands you can absolutely get more than one in a week, as the Obsidium Cleaver is a trash drop and there is a fucking lot of trash in FL. They are also BoE so you can simply buy one or both if you have the gold this is also not the case in Dragon Soul; there is Hand of Morchok from Morchok, and Soul Drinker from Madness

[@brandonkruse6412]

@@TheOnlyGBeast There’s also some decent 350+ ilvl 1h str PvP weapons. Not ideal but will work while you’re in pre-raid heroic gear.

[@brgessner]

getting that off hand was a real pain

[@mortezakazmi3601]

I've played OG cata and throughout Private servers as well. with confident I can say Frost is strong due to gear dependency (like fwarr). in early phase 1-2 you gonna fall of behind unholy but if you try the two handed build you gonna do do the same amount unhoyl does with Death Coil, becuase the 2handed build is actually works and takes over Dual wield. obviously you need gear for the build so I'd assume in the phase 2 and end of the expansion you gonna be very strong.

[@RatsoMan20]

Im just sad my blood dps dk is now a tank 😢

[@heshh5297]

Whats better for pve dps troll or orc ? or are they same ?

[@Mrdnz-ll1uh]

Whatever you enjoy more bud

[@OnlyImperius]

Dono, snap shot garg is still good but the ghoul when transformed hits hard and orcs +5% pet dmg will add up over a fight.

[@decai6899]

orc

[@Hybridsixtynine]

Cata Tank DK in a nutshell: Already playing MoP, while every other tank is stuck in Wotlk.

[@brandonkruse6412]

Feral Bear is very very strong in Cataclysm.

[@MoonTurky]

@@brandonkruse6412 No its not bot, dk or no donuts low T energy

[@brandonkruse6412]

@@MoonTurkyuninformed I guess.

[@psysavageyo6741]

Love the DK!! XD

[@natecw4164]

Is this the expansion where you could stack spell penetration and wreck people with Howling Blast in PvP? Or am I thinking of some patch in Wrath? Cause aside from BC resto druid, that was my favorite time to PvP (ok, when windfury could proc windfury, that was a fun few months 😂)

[@conorf8091]

That’s probably wrath. Necro strike stacking is where it’s at in cata

[@brandonkruse6412]

Spell Pen isn’t a stat in Cata.

[@natecw4164]

@@brandonkruse6412 Ah ok, thanks! I wonder what patch I'm thinking of 🤔

[@Osanve]

@@brandonkruse6412there is spell pen in cata

[@Mrdnz-ll1uh]

​@@brandonkruse6412it exists donkey

[@Beans113]

I loved blood death knight in wrath, made me sad that it just became standard tank in cata. That was actually the reason / expansion I quit wow and never came back 😢.

[@owenporter1472]

You do know blood DPS is actually crazy powerful in Cata, right?

[@Beans113]

@@owenporter1472 nope, cause I quit lol.

[@owenporter1472]

Blood remained one of the strongest DPS for the entire xpac, you quit for no reason.

[@boomermiller2737]

Is blood really a viable dps in cata?

[@Beans113]

@@owenporter1472I quit cause the spec I liked was gone. I wasn’t trying to min max I played to have fun. I had a two blood death knight team in wrath named “ da bloodz “ and we only got to the 1800s. I know what they may or changed was probably for the better, but it wasn’t fun tor me so I moved on.

[@derkreuzritter6789]

Does unholy still do gargoyle snapshot shenanigans?

[@OnlyImperius]

Yes

[@phantom0456]

There’ll be more DK’s in Cata than you can shake your WillE at!

[@MoonTurky]

Bro watching these vids makes me so happy I dont play wow anymore Its literally a group of people looking forward to updates that where updates 10 years ago, lmao

[@jpf7942]

Unholy DK are beasts

[@RealJohnnyGuillotine]

HasteFrost first 2 tiers, Master Frost for last tier. Fucking amazing

[@Kspice9000]

Haste + 2h = ridiculous dmg

[@Lildonwavey]

​@@Kspice9000 how?

[@Korzyon]

Pvp wise it was. Blood dk was a menace, infinite sustain with decent damage to back it up Unholy with necrotic strike spam was the bane of healers + huge unload if you stack up the burst Frost was meh, only played by those who couldn't handle doing more than spamming necro on unholy and didn't feely dirty enough to abuse blood + you had to play 1h spec, might of the frozen wastes was just a downgrade Dunno bout pve

[@cartograph8162]

Festerikng Strike isnt new to just frost dk its new baseline to all dks

[@kalena7126]

Okay but why could you roll a worgen/goblin dk in Cata? I always thought that was so strange.

[@tyrnip7868]

Goblins even make sense as the scourge had surely infected at least a few goblins. The worgen were essentially all behind a wall at that point, especially considering most worgen outside the walls at the time of WotLK were basically mindless monsters

[@bisalissy3846]

Goblins were everywhere already so it makes sense, especially because their cartell disliked them after their transformation. As for Worgen - that's just stupid. But Cata is one of the expansions where Blizzard didnt care much about Lore making sense.

[@Armakusify]

the actual in-game explanation is that the worgen Death Knights were the worgen under control of Arugal, who were then turned into undead between classic and cataclysm

[@MoonTurky]

You play a game like WoW which is 110% fantasy fiction and you are weirded out when you can play a goblin and a worgen all of a sudden? I mean, missing a brain is one thing but..

[@tyrnip7868]

@@MoonTurky I mean he was obviously talking lore wise for death knight specifically, because Worgen had no reason lore wise to have been infected by DK

[@nisx2012]

as Unholy main on retail seeing this version of unholy makes me sad...

[@neehime6]

I wouldve respected more this video if only lasted 10secs after you saying the phrase "were dks any good in cata... Yes! Ty and suscribe for more content". And the doing a second video with the real analysis xD

[@jigsaw6954]

Unholy presence frost dk was god tier

[@DerKalko]

Frost 2 2h weapons? buddy i guess u messed something up there hahaha

[@Kspice9000]

2h frost was op as shit.

[@DerKalko]

@@Kspice9000 nah i mean he says Frost Dk can dw 2 2 Hand weapons Like warr furry haha

[@brandonkruse6412]

@@Kspice9000Not in Cataclysm, that’s not really until MoP. 4.3 Frost dual-wield is miles ahead and there’s no real incentive to go 2H.

[@stephaneroy3976]

A bit misleading in your video, outbreak is for all 3 specs

[@piefishman-nz9yg]

oh no, too many runes, what ever shall i do with all the choice i have with no extra wasted downtime? i really dont see how this is an issue anyone could complain about. ignoring the change to regen on the 45%, at what point is having a rune ready to use an issue to anyone who isnt ragingly autistic and cant stand things been "overcapped" when you dont have a way to build them anyways

[@reval1989]

Are they changing so Worgen/Goblin can be DK? Cause that was not the case at Cata launch

[@douglasprimm4683]

Everything I can find from cata time period sources says worgen can be DKs, so might have been a change in 4.0.6 or some early patch if they weren't initially available.

[@uhkapeli]

It was literally said in a Blizzcon panel when Cata was announced that Goblin & Worgen will be able to be Death Knights.

[@brandonkruse6412]

You could always be a Worgen/Goblin DK.

[@madcat789]

I liked Unholy being the Duel Wielding spec. I hate not smashing with a 2hander in Frost.

[@alexanderdiaz8464]

We should be able to DW/2H for all DK dps. If anything limit the tanks to 2H

[@brandonkruse6412]

@@alexanderdiaz8464You definitely won’t want to be dual-wielding as Unholy in Cata. That was only viable in Wrath because later expansions force you into 2H.

[@brandonkruse6412]

2H Frost is pretty strong in the first two tiers in MoP iirc

[@jrmcbuck1]

What is wrong with you my guy duel wield unholy was so goddamn cringe...

[@jrmcbuck1]

​@@alexanderdiaz8464that's backwards dps should only be 2h and tanking duel wield. Makes sense because dk tanks version of blocking is just parrying. Having 2 weapons to parry is better than one

[@adyenlichtwachter6684]

Three words: LIFE SYPHON =WIN

[@mojotmn]

DK is the reason why i stopped playing wotlk and went back to era 😂

[@Milk-rn5uq]

boomer

[@mojotmn]

@@Milk-rn5uq roll a shammy then judge 😉

[@Kspice9000]

​@@mojotmnl2counter.

[@SillyBoyKisser74]

so sad frost tanking is no longer possible, the further we get from classic the less anti meta there is

[@Gstee112]

back when dk was actually fun to play, now dk is one of the most boring and lack luster classes of retail

[@Kspice9000]

That's sad to hear.

[@ManOlantern12]

No one is going to be playing Cata.

[@prokofyevvv]

🤣🤣

[@Mrdnz-ll1uh]

I will

[@brandonkruse6412]

Everyone but you it seems

[@ManOlantern12]

@@brandonkruse6412 : No, no one is going to play this lol. It is one of the worst xpacs of all time. It demolished the original WoW population, let alone the current one

[@brandonkruse6412]

@@ManOlantern12 Buddy, I don’t know why you’re preaching here. This isn’t the Classic Era crowd. Cataclysm is a very popular expansion whether you like it or not and most people who played Wrath will return for the pre-patch. If you don’t like Cata that’s fine. You have Era and SoD. Go play there with the few people left lol.

[@FILIFILI-nl5di]

when comes rogue-video? 🥲

[@slayersuckssweatybal]

If they're going for #somechanges, toning down blood dks would be a great start

[@BREAKocean]

They could buff warriors and make content more difficult