- Author: Nevermore
- Date: July 6, 2022
- Updated: July 21, 2022
- Expansion: WotLK Classic
With the coming of the Wrath of the Lich King, Death Knights are available for every race without restrictions.
Just like most classes, when it comes to performance, each faction displays one or two races that are vastly superior to the others when it comes to their racial effects.
Horde
Orc is the strongest race you can choose for Horde when it comes to a Frost Death Knight, this is mainly due to two of their racial effects being extremely strong, namely Blood Fury which can be used to severely enhance your burst, and Axe Specialization which is extremely potent considering that most of the best weapons in the game are axes.
Orcs are often considered the best race available when it comes to a Frost Death Knight, providing several strong effects that enhance their tool kit. Orcs are often seen among the first lines of any battlefield, cutting down their enemies in a savage way.
- Axe Specialization increases your expertise by 5 when using axes or fist weapons. There are a lot of very powerful axes out there, including Shadowmourne, the strongest two-handed weapon in the game, thus this racial is extremely powerful.
- Blood Fury is an on-use spell that increases your Attack Power and scales with your level. At level 80 it will provide +322 attack power for 15 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. The fact that this is an on-use ability has big implications for burst phases / stacking your cooldowns.
- Hardiness provides you with resistance to crowd control effects which is better suited for PvP scenarios but it can also help you during certain PvE encounters.
- Command is a very powerful racial, that can enhance your pet’s damage. However, you will not benefit from it as a Frost Death Knight, considering that your ghouls will not be viewed as pets by the game, rather them being treated as minions.
Trolls are the second available choice when it comes to playing a Frost Death Knight, possessing strong racial effects that can improve your overall PvE performance.
- Berserking is an on-use spell that offers +20% increased attack speed for 10 seconds on a 3-minute cooldown. The fact that this is an on-use ability has big implications for burst phases / stacking your cooldowns.
- Beast Slaying increases your damage dealt to Beast-type enemies by 5%, which is very powerful. Unfortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of Beasts in Wrath of the Lich King, especially inside raids, making this racial not too impressive in practice.
- Da Voodoo Shuffle passively reduces the duration of movement slowing & immobilizing effects on you by 15%. Generally mostly a PvP racial, but it can occasionally come in handy in PvE as well.
- Regeneration increases health regeneration by 10% and allows you to regenerate health during combat at 10% of the your normal regeneration rate. While this racial is mostly only relevant while leveling or questing, it can have situational uses in end-game content as well when it comes to increasing overall survivability.
- Bow Specialization and Throwing Specialization increase your critical strike chance with bows & throwing weapons by 1%. Sadly, Death Knight does not benefit from this racial effect.
Taurens are seen as a rather mediocre choice when it comes to playing a Frost Death Knight, being much more of a tanking spec choice.
- Endurance increases base health by 5% — meaning your natural health at level 80, without your extra health or stamina from equipment, buffs, etc. This can help you survive slightly better than other Death Knight races but is generally weak on Frost Death Knights.
- War Stomp gives you an on-use AoE stun with a 2-minute cooldown. While it’s mostly useful in PvP situations, it can also be used to provide a quick crowd control effect to aid your tank or your healer — but generally not too useful.
- Nature Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Cultivation increases your initial Herbalism skill by 15. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact besides minor convenience.
Undead can be considered a mediocre to weak choice when it comes to playing a Frost Death Knight in PvE scenarios. They can be considered much more of an aesthetic choice rather than a choice for overall performance. There is a somewhat certain irony in choosing to play an undead Death Knight, as you would be double the undead.
- Will of the Forsaken removes charm, fear, and sleep effects. This will be the biggest beneficial racial for PvE as it will help mitigate certain raid mechanics.
- Cannibalize allows you to feast on the corpses of your slain enemies to restore your health. This does not have big implications for PvE content but does come in handy whilst doing solo content.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Underwater Breathing helps you survive for a very long time underwater.
Blood Elves provide the worst choice when it comes to playing a Frost Death Knight, having weak racial effects for PvE content, and being much more of an aesthetic choice.
- Arcane Torrent is a racial effect that provides an instant AoE silence, while also providing you with 15 runic power. This racial effect can be considered rather weak, having a 2-minute cooldown and only providing 15 runic power. Considering that your runic power spender is not as impactful as either Unholy’s spender or Blood’s spender, this racial is especially weak on a Frost Death Knight.
- Magical Resistance reduces the chance to be hit by spells by 2%. This racial effect, while useful by definition, does not provide a considerable gameplay bonus while in raids.
- Arcane Affinity increases your initial Enchanting skill by 10. This does not have colossal gameplay implications, only providing an initial minor bonus.
Alliance
Human is seen as the strongest option for Alliance Frost Death Knights, mainly due to their Sword Specialization & Mace Specialization which increases their expertise by 3. Every Man for Himself is also an excellent racial effect, particularly in PvP.
Human is seen by far as the strongest choice when it comes to playing a Frost Death Knight, having strong overall racial effects that improve both quality of life and overall PvE performance.
- Sword Specialization & Mace Specialization increase your expertise by 3 when using swords or maces. This is lower than the 5 expertise that other races get with equivalent racials, but you have more versatility in picking different weapon types, while other races are generally forced into 1 specific weapon type.
- Every Man for Himself is a crowd-control removal ability just like the Undead race, but this one has universal applicability. It is useful in PvE scenarios but has much more use in a PvP encounter, where Humans are typically considered the strongest race in the game.
- Perception passively increases your stealth detection level by a small amount. Since there aren’t a lot of stealthed mobs in PvE, this benefit is largely not too useful.
- Diplomacy increases the rate at which you gain reputation by 10%, a major boost for your reputation grind. Whilst a beneficial quality of life racial, it doesn’t impact actual gameplay.
- The Human Spirit increases your spirit by 3%. This is unfortunately nearly useless for Death Knights.
Draenei are considered the second strongest option for Frost Death Knights, as they have two strong racial effects that directly impact PvE performance and some other decent bonuses that aid in their overall quality of life experience.
- Heroic Presence increases the chance to hit with spells and physical attacks by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards. Every single DPS group will want to have at least 1 Draenei for this powerful buff.
- Gift of the Naaru places a heal-over-time effect on a single target that lasts 15 seconds, with a 3-minute cooldown. This can help save your life occasionally, and may even come in clutch with healing the tank during a high damage period, but it’s generally not a great racial for Death Knights.
- Shadow Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Gemcutting increases your initial Jewelcrafting skill by 5. This doesn’t have a gameplay impact besides minor convenience.
Dwarves can be considered an average race, having two decent racial effects and a fun gimmick-type of racial that allows them to have a unique type of experience in the open world.
- Mace Specialization increases your expertise by 5 when using maces. Most of the strongest weapons you could use tend to be axes and swords, making this racial better on paper than it is in practice. Regardless, it is incredibly powerful if you’re using maces.
- Stoneform is an on-use spell that gives you +10% increased armor for 8 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. For most classes and specs, this would be a purely tanking-focused boost but it can prove to be useful when it comes to overall survivability during tough encounters, even as a DPS.
- Gun Specialization increases your critical strike chance with guns by 1%. This racial effect is entirely useless for a Death Knight.
- Frost Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Frost spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Find Treasure is a very cool racial from a roleplay point of view, allowing you to see treasure on the minimap. This is very fun to use while questing and leveling up, but it unfortunately has 0 relevance in raids.
Night Elves are can be viewed as a mediocre choice when it comes to playing a Frost Death Knight in PvE, having racial effects that are intended more for PvP. However, their Shadowmeld racial can prove to be extremely useful in dangerous situations during certain encounters.
- Quickness reduces the chance you’ll be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 2%. While this talent is way better suited for tank-focused Death Knights, it also happens to be the only PvE-relevant racial you get as a night elf, occasionally causing attacks to miss you, which is… something?
- Nature Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Nature spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Shadowmeld can be used in order to escape combat and become stealthed once every 2 minutes. It will also cause you to drop all threat on every target you’re currently engaged in combat with, but all threat will be restored the moment you leave stealth — which will happen the moment you move or take any action. Simply put, this racial has high applicability in PvP, but it also has high applicability in the early stages of PvE, especially dungeons, in case you pull a group of mobs or steal aggro from a tank by mistake.
- Elusiveness reduces the chance to be detected if you are stealthed. The only way to go stealth as a Death Knight is through Shadowmeld, making this racial irrelevant in PvE content.
- Wisp Spirit increases your movement speed by 75% while dead. You generally don’t want to be dead.
Gnomes can be considered the worst race to choose when desiring to play a Frost Death Knight due to their extremely weak racials in PvE content. The only true benefit that they have is the special bonus to Engineering, as Engineering has a special type of scaling.
- Escape Artist instantly removes all movement slowing and immobilizing effects on a 1-minute cooldown. While this can occasionally be useful in PvE, it’s generally better in PvP (where Humans are far better anyway), so this is overall not amazing.
- Engineering Specialization increases your initial Engineering skill by 15. This is slightly more useful than other profession-boosting racials, as Engineering has guardian-type summoned pets, which scale with your Engineering skill. This racial makes your summoned pets level 83, which makes them a decent bit stronger, but as there aren’t many useful guardians, this racial isn’t really ground-breaking.
- Arcane Resistance reduces the chance you will be hit by Arcane spells by 2%. This is mostly a neglectable racial when it comes to PvE.
- Expansive Mind increases your total Intellect by 5%. Death Knights do not benefit from intellect at all, rendering this racial effect entirely useless!
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About the Author
Have you ever seen a tri spec range style DK from Wrath similar to this? How do you think it would do Thanks https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/talent-calc/death-knight/230230053-320023503502031103-2302003050032_001s7w11s8721s9131s9r41sxd51ts8
Draeni is top choice for any OH class because of Heoric Presence going to OH and your WHOLE PARTY. Human has useless Expertise buff which is too easy to meet cap WELL before pre-bis. But your OH is going to need that heroic presence. Draeni also has helpful self healing while human has simple CC remover which isn’t very useful in ICC. Also consider how common it is for DK to dual spec Tank and DPS. Lot of tank gear out there has NO hit rating and heroic presence will help with that.