When Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King, a lot of people started playing DK at a high level. Getting started playing a high-level character is not easy, as it involves a steep learning curve. I have created this DK leveling guide from my own experience playing my DK. Along the way I also get the chance to exchange tips with Guildmates and friends who also started playing DK. This guide will be very useful for everyone who is starting to play DK.

While playing DK, you will notice that a lot of people play Unholy DK. They have very good reasons for this. First of all, Unholy is easier to play. Second, it provides good DPS. Lastly, Ghoul and Gargoyle gives you a certain level of safety and also a nice DPS boost. I recommend sticking with the Unholy build until you’re done leveling up and want to experiment more with DK.

The unholy spec should be as follows:

Virulence

vicious punches

ravenous dead

Epidemic

bloodstained blade

unholy plague

lead

Ghoul Master

Impurity

Loneliness

crypt fever

bone shield

Scourge Strike

ebony plaguefighter

wandering plague

Necrosis

Outbreak

Night of the deaths

Rivendare’s Wrath

summon gargoyle

Get some complement of Blood talents with your build.

Two-Handed Weapon Specialization

edged armor

Subversion

Butcher shop

dark conviction

Now that we’ve covered the specs, let’s move on to the basic DK leveling guide.

In case you are still clicking to activate attack abilities. You should use key attacks as it is much faster and hard to get used to though. It will be worth the effort, trust me. You can also quickly rotate by holding down the right mouse button and moving it left or right.

To get money quickly, you need to sell everything you don’t need in AH. The best way to do this is to create an alt that is in a capital city and email your articles to it and use it for AH.

Moving on from the basics, I will now talk about the DK leveling guide.

While the presence of blood will give you more damage, the presence of frost can keep you going, and when combined with Death Strike, you can kill elites without breaking a sweat.

The glyphs are of the utmost importance and I recommend that you get them as soon as possible. Ghoul and Death strike are your leveling friends. There is also a glyph that removes the corpse dust requirement.

In an emergency, you can save your life by making the mob sick and putting your Ghoul in the mob. Stay away from the mob until you die or have deadly attack runes to recover health. Don’t bother with Bone Shield or Death and Decay as they are not suitable for most leveling situations. Don’t forget to use Death Coil when all your runes are on cooldown.

At level eighty, this will be a good example of rotation:

Plate Strike – Icy Touch – Blood Strike – Scourge Strike – BS – Death Spiral – HoW, SS – BS – SS – BS – DC – DC Until runic powers run out.

For easy mobs you can achieve it with TI then PS. After the mob is sick you can burn your runes, use Blood Strike, Scourge Strike or Death strike to get some health back if needed.

Lastly, don’t forget to use your Ghoul’s cooldown, at least until he gets the permanent. Do the same with the gargoyles.