How are Death Knight's in PvP?

[:1]Hello everyone, after being a pve nub for a while, decided to make a character exclusively for PvP (rated bg's, arenas etc..) Now, I wanted him to be melee and not ranged so that narrowed down the choices a lot. I definetly, wanted him to have lots of survivalbily so that narrowed it to Ret or Frost/Unholy DK, and I have personally played a retribution paladin but did not like the proc type of combat it revolved around. And this is from what I've seen in random bg's nothing that I know 100%.

So now that I have chosen DK, I want to ask you guys a couple of questions.

1. Overall, are they considered a good pvp class? Can they survive alot? Do they have many tools to escape situations?

2. Do I have choice between Unholy and Frost or is it only Frost?

3. Are they good without PvP gear or they only shine with the maxed out pvp gear?

That is all, Thanks.

1. Sure depending on your environment

A. Frost has been great for RBG very low survivability compared to the other two specs but with a healer behind you you're gonna destroy w/e you come across frost is also great on healers in areans coupled with necro stacking/slows/snares they can be pretty deadly in general. If you're running solo bgs as frost you're at times gonna wanna bash your face into the desk as many ranged classes can come and solo you without much problem

B. Blood- My blood PoV is strictly from an rbg FC standpoint. They are amazing probably best behind warriors for FC and the dmg they put out is by far much bigger then any other tank spec. Downfall is you're easily kited a lot of the time ignored if you're focusing on offensive simply because of the lack of snares/slows you have you're limited to DG and chains of ice (which is garbage as blood) Other then that you'll be happy living forever

C. Unholy i have no clue haven't touched the spec in cata although i've seen some amazing unholy dks with necro being one of your main strikes makes for a healers worst nightmare you get your ghoul stun which is a nice couple with silence coming right after for the kill but yea!



2. To me this is the one class that has viable use in all three specs as far as RBG/Arenas/BGs are concerned

3. No class is gonna be good without pvp gear ever so to answer your question no there not good...even the blood dks with 0 resil suck so you're best off either buying the blue gear or just suffering through the slow grind


GL hope this helps


You don't have many tools to escape situations. Aside from proactive use of AMS, DKs don't have avoidance/escape cooldowns (you will never cast Hungering Cold if anyone not already stunned is paying attention to you). All your CDs revolve around soaking damage, because you're probably not getting away from anything without significant outside help.

I'd call DKs good, though I have zero experience in RBGs, being in a 10man guild where 5/10 of the players hate/avoid/stink at pvp, on a server with very few options. You are great against casters, and less good against most other melee (no idea about 4.3 ret paladins, but they could generally be rofl'd prior to the patch). But there is certainly a niche.

You can spec whatever you want, assuming it has synergy with your partners' specs. Going UH on a burst-oriented team, for instance, may not the best idea. Actually, frost in general remains better, but it's getting to the point that a lot of casual types don't know how to react to an Unholy Death Knight anymore, because you never see them (the opposite of the way it was in late LK and early cata!). So again. Niche. Note that the other portion of the playerbase will relentlessly kill your ghoul, making you hate life because it is still on CD and you can't summon another. Also note that the Unholy ghoul is currently pretty bugtastic (I think all pets are, but the ones with summoning CDs hurt a lot more), and he may lose his action bar or despawn at random.
We can put out enormous pressure that can make healers cry. On the bad side melee tears us a new one. Vs. casters we do very well.
1. Were a little weak, but its still possible to do good. For survivablilty we have 2 heals and a shield, The shield is only good for magic users, And the healing is decent but very predictible so it may become hard to use them. For escape situations, we have non at all. Its hard for a DK to escape unless you have alot of cover to break LoS, if not you will mostly be forced to fight untill you or then enemy dies/escapes.

2. Blood is only good for normal BGs/Being FC, if you want to do anything more I think its best to go go Unholy or Frost. Unholy is a little more anti-caster while Frost is the glass cannon.

3. Like all classes, it best to have PvP gear.

and like Ohgodfleas said, we are very anti-caster but melee will tear you a new one.
UH is win right now...on that note, roll a rogue or feral druid if you want survivability.

As for me? I shall stick to ticking random bg'ers off because everyone wants to bonk the blood dk and then complain about being eaten on the forums.

1. Were a little weak, but its still possible to do good. For survivablilty we have 2 heals and a shield, The shield is only good for magic users, And the healing is decent but very predictible so it may become hard to use them. For escape situations, we have non at all. Its hard for a DK to escape unless you have alot of cover to break LoS, if not you will mostly be forced to fight untill you or then enemy dies/escapes.

2. Blood is only good for normal BGs/Being FC, if you want to do anything more I think its best to go go Unholy or Frost. Unholy is a little more anti-caster while Frost is the glass cannon.

3. Like all classes, it best to have PvP gear.

and like Ohgodfleas said, we are very anti-caster but melee will tear you a new one.

Note that Blood is the reverse of that last line. It has a hard time with casters that can keep their range, but will normally leave any melee - including fellow DK's - dead at their feet with 100% health.

Blood really plays something like it's own class at the moment. A pretty overpowered one, at that.

1. Were a little weak, but its still possible to do good. For survivablilty we have 2 heals and a shield, The shield is only good for magic users, And the healing is decent but very predictible so it may become hard to use them. For escape situations, we have non at all. Its hard for a DK to escape unless you have alot of cover to break LoS, if not you will mostly be forced to fight untill you or then enemy dies/escapes.

2. Blood is only good for normal BGs/Being FC, if you want to do anything more I think its best to go go Unholy or Frost. Unholy is a little more anti-caster while Frost is the glass cannon.

3. Like all classes, it best to have PvP gear.

and like Ohgodfleas said, we are very anti-caster but melee will tear you a new one.

Note that Blood is the reverse of that last line. It has a hard time with casters that can keep their range, but will normally leave any melee - including fellow DK's - dead at their feet with 100% health.

Blood really plays something like it's own class at the moment. A pretty overpowered one, at that.

Trolllllll.......