Know Your Class (Death Knights Don’t Need Spell Power)

The other day, the Dungeon Finder was kind enough to pair me up with an “interesting character.” This level 61 death knight had queued as a tank. He was fully specced into unholy which isn’t an impossible tanking spec, but unholy tanking seems to be the least popular option. Unfortunately, this “tank” had none of the 5/5/5 talents considered required for DK tanking.

Fortunately, we had another DK in the group that had some tanking experience. He was able to take over, since the previous tank failed pretty quickly. Before long, a BoE mail helm of spell power dropped. Since DKs cannot greed on mail items, the Unholy DK begged the person that won the greed role to please give him the helm because it was better than whatever he had. This is ridiculous since 1) if he really wants to tank, he needs plate, and 2) DKs have absolutely no use for spell power.

And this leads to the real crux of the problem. Why don’t more people know their class better? It seems obvious to me that if you are going to try a new class, you should research how the class works and get an understanding of primary stats, ability rotations, etc. Additionally, you should familiarize yourself with each new patch and understand how it effects your class. Most of us don’t have the patience to do the testing required to determine the best spec for specific class roles and situations, but there is always someone out there who will.

Before I start a new character, I develop an idea of what I want that character to do. I start very broad, such as “druid healer.” From there, I research the recommended specs, glyphs, and enchantments. I decide on a spec that sounds good to me and I plan around that. I bookmark important pages so that I can refer back to them as I level. (I guess I should make those bookmarks available.) I find and install the “required” add-ons. I do all of this before I even roll the toon. Although this seems like a lot of work, it lets me feel confident knowing I know how to play the class from the beginning. I can join groups knowing I understand my role and how to operate.

This leads me to one final point about death knights. Unlike other classes which refine their play-style 60 levels before heading for Outland, death knights are thrown directly into the fray at mid-level with lots of new spells and abilities. They are suddenly confronted with dozens of new spells rather than adding a new spell every few levels over a lengthy time frame. I think the complaints you hear about DKs in the 60-70 range is directly related to the relative unfamiliarity of many players with the class. If more players took the time to understand their class mechanics, there would likely be less complaints.