Death Knight questions (New to WotLK)Follow

Hello all! Thanks in advance for any help you can offer me.

I am an "old school" WoW player, most of my time having been in "classic" WoW and a bit being in Burning Crusade. Left before Lich King ever came out so as you can imagine I am quite lost on how things are running.

Long story short I have decided to go Death Knight. Lucky for me one single toon escaped the "great scourging" of my accounts once I quit. I still have a 61 Undead Warlock who is stripped and trashed but that does not really matter if I am rolling a DK =P.

My main question is what is the situation like for Death Knights at 80? I can imagine they are probably the most played class. For the most part I am completely a PVP player, I love BGs and World PVP (Arena to an extent but no where near as much as the former two). Is it still possible to gear yourself via Battlegrounds for PVP via Battlegrounds or has that changed? By that logic is there also a guide somewhere that gives a list of "Pre 80 PVP" gear for the Death Knight? Craftable or otherwise.

Gear brings me to my next question. How hard is it to get in a group, heroic or otherwise? Is there a stigma against "Death Knight tanks" or are tanks even in short supply anymore? My main love for the game is PVP but obviously you have to get geared for it to be competitive. So in short what is the grouping situation like?

Thanks in advance for any help you all can offer. I used to be a WoW guru but now I feel like a complete nub, so much has changed.

Edited, Aug 30th 2009 6:39pm by DuckandCover

I agree, cannot stand the arena system. Not because I am bad at it, I was a moderate to great pvper. My old guild on Silver Hand had the most rank 13/14s on the server and we ran awesome teams. I love the battlegrounds where it actually feels like a battle, not glorified group dueling.
A bit disheartening to say the least but oh well. I will hold out faith that things will be corrected when rated BGs come out in the new expansion.

That being said I am very interested still in the Death Knight class. Mainly because they start at level 55 with great leveling gear and a free epic mount. All of which appeals to my complete and utter lack of gold if I come back. =P.

So what is the grouping situation like for a Death Knight? Is it incredibly hard to find groups for tanking/dps due to competition or is it not a terrible issue?

Thanks for the replies!

As I'm sure the others have said (I haven't read all the way down), Death Knights are easy to level, just as easy really as the others. They start off with more than "decent" gear and by the time you're done with your DK quests, you're level 58 and have a few gold in the bag.

As far as PvP goes, they are pretty balanced now and not as overpowered as before. So, it still takes tactic and skill to PvP, just like any other class. While battleground armor is still available, depending on what you'd like to do with your character, you're going to want to continue on to do raids.

I'm a tank on my DK, and it's not an easy process. DPSing is by far the easiest to achieve on a death knight. Why is this? This is because all three specs can work for tanking, while DK's don't have the perks of a pally like a shield or righteous fury. Death Knights take a good bit of research to pull off as a tanking spec, and it's essential that you learn how most of the spells work and how runic power works in order to time each spell off to keep aggro.

It's a fun class to play, and definitely one of the most complex. Just make sure you don't get side-tracked with dual wielding, if so, dual wield tanking is 10x more complicated to master. You don't hit as hard, you don't hold as much aggro. But that's a whole different topic. =]

Basically, just remember the basics about tanking gear:
High defense - (effective cap is 540)
High parry rating
High dodge rating
High Hit Rating
NO SHIELD BLOCK VALUES! (DK's can't use shields!)

When specing, make sure that you focus on things that increase critical hits, hit ratings, and damage on your highest spec. I'll link you mine at the bottom of the post just so you can toy around with it using wow-head.com.

Have fun man, and make sure you don't get discouraged! People will down you left and right for playing a DK, especially as a main. Most of those people haven't played them to the extent you will, since it's your main. Have fun with it! =]

My talent-tree: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Anetheron&cn=Blackthorn&gn=Pestilence