Hello, my name is Ian, on speedrun.com/twitch my handle is vortox and my in game name is dunk. I am a fairly decent speedrunner/death knight enthusiast and I’ve decided to make this guide to help anyone that wants to start running as a death knight get set up. If you have any feedback you can give, or any questions that this guide doesn’t answer, please contact me on discord and I’ll do my best to resolve this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Why Death Knight?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While death knights are generally considered immobile(rightfully so) with some optimization they can become some of the best runners in the game, as plate wearers they have access to the best legendary for speedrunning(aggramar’s stride), as well as access to the runeblade of baron rivendare for an extra 10% movespeed. While they lack the baseline mobility other classes bring to the table, with optimization they can become consistently faster than almost any other. Another relevant strength they bring to the table is their excellent clearing ability, with both the main specs having a no cooldown ranged aoe ability they can clear through trash much easier than most classes and keep bear tartare flowing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Races~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All races save pandaren can be a death knight, and for the most part it doesn’t matter which one you choose, but if you want to save every single second possible this may be important to you, races that benefit the class are as follows

                            Human:
The Human Spirit: 2% extra benefit from every secondary stat, this will help you deal slightly more dps for bosses you cannot one shot, and will give you slightly more haste for movespeed with aggramar’s stride, nothing insane, but noticeable and reliable

Every man for Himself: This doesn’t come up very often but every now it comes in clutch and gets you out of a run-killing stun, don’t sleep on this.

                            Night Elf
Quickness: Extra 2% movespeed, solid bonus

Touch of Elune: 1% haste during the night, 1% crit during the day, if you run during the night this is a very solid bonus

                             Gnome

Nimble Fingers:1% haste, solid bonus

Escape Artist: Removes all slows, not too useful, except for icc where it is a godsend

                             Worgen

Darkflight: Increases movespeed by 40%, this stacks with bear tartare, making this an extremely useful ability
                              Troll

Berserking: 15% haste for 10 seconds, a fair movespeed boost but nothing gamebreaking

Da Voodoo Shuffle: Reduces the duration of movement imparing effects for 15%, nearly useless, but not completely so

                             Goblin
 
Time is money: 1% haste increase, same as above, decent boost

Rocket jump: Haven’t tested this very much, might be a slight speed boost overall, at worst it means you don’t have to buy avalanche elixir

Overall I would say night elf is the best choice, worgen's coming up in second(they beat out nelfs hard if the run is shorter i.e. gruul's lair/magtheridon's lair),  with humans and trolls coming in distant third and gnome being the best if you want a dedicated ICC toon



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Talents/Specializations~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frost
First with the best spec overall for raid clearing is frost, the main strength of this spec comes from its very nice burst coupled with a hungering rune weapon after every boss kill, giving a very good uptime on a 20% haste buff, keeping you on a very good pace

https://i.imgur.com/dW2Ay89.png

Most of these talents are changeable with the exception of hungering rune weapon

Unholy
This spec is also quite good, and edges out frost on some raids, while also being the best for all dungeon categories, the main advantage over frost in this aspect is wraith walk becoming a movespeed increase over bear tartare, edging out HRW after about 2 minutes(since the cooldown does not reset in dungeons) as well as soul reaper being a very viable movespeed increase when enemies live long enough for a festering strike+soul reaper to not kill them outright

https://i.imgur.com/dzrAExT.png

Unlike the frost talents I would not change any of these talents, with the exception of infected claws, I will explain why I believe these to be the optimal talents below.

1st Tier
Ebon fever greatly increases not only your overall dps but how fast you can kill enemies from a distance, bursting sores is slightly better burst on boss fights but is not worth taking comparatively. AWS is inviable

2nd Tier
BRW helps out your burst on bosses tremendously, pestilent pustules is next to useless as you won’t be popping wounds very much throughout any run, and epidemic is completely useless, as most enemies will either rot down from ebon fever, or be clawing shadowed down before your bear tartare runs out

3rd Tier
Clawing Shadows slightly edges out unholy frenzy in usefullness, it is slightly worse in burst situations, but is very useful when you need to do a bit more damage to a ranged enemy to chain your bear tartare, or you want to kite some mobs from a pack, rather than burn them all down from your dots, castigator is never worth considering.

4th Tier
On the surface none of these seem useful, but you can proc sephuz’s active off of trash with asphyxiate, which makes it slightly more useful than the others

5th Tier
Pretty clear choice, one of these talents increases your mobility, so you pick that talent

6th Tier
If you are facing a boss with enough health to require you to use your pets you should use infected claws, if you are running a category where the trash is not always being one shot(like all WoD dungeons) It can be beneficial to use necrosis in combination with clawing shadows.

7th Tier
Soul reaper is better for burst and better for movement, easy choice.

Blood
Blood is much more niche, with very limited/slow ranged damage it can be difficult to chain bear tartare, the main usage is when there is little killing involved as the 10% haste from boneshield makes you run faster over long distances compared to unholy’s wraith walk or frosts HRW

https://i.imgur.com/jkFP0Rp.png

 As with frost almost all of these are interchangeable, the only exception being march of the damned

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Gear~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In general you want to keep any gear with speed on it, besides that the best gear possible is crafted gear that rolls all haste, as far as legendaries you want aggramar’s stride and sephuz’s secret. Depending on the run you will swap between your artifact weapon and the runeblade of baron rivendare, depending entirely on how quickly you can kill the enemies in that run, you will want to enchant your rings with haste, gem for haste, and enchant your cloak with gift of haste from warlords of draenor.

If you do not have aggramar's stride you can get nitro boost x-treme, it is nowhere near as useful, but is the best substitute

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Consumables~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The most important is bear tartare, killing an enemy with bear tartare will give you a 70% movespeed buff for 5 seconds, keeping this uptime as close to 100% as possible is critical for a good run in any category

The second most important are the drums of fury(you can also use drums of the mountain), while this is much less important in dungeon categories, getting a 40 second ~30% movespeed buff every time you kill a boss is insane, and carries you through longer raid categories

Another important consumablet is skystep potions, these are essential if you want to save that extra 5-10 seconds that makes a PB a WR, nothing to sleep on.

Gunshoes range from extremely useful to useless dependant entirely on the category, if you are outside during an extended part of the run these are extremely useful, if not they aren’t worth picking up

Another noteable consumable is the avalanche potion, this lets you fall great distances safely, which is important since goblin gliders are no longer useable in raids

Bandages are useless in every category except for ICC all bosses where they are required, don’t forget bandages if you want to run ICC all bosses as a DK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Professions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professions are not too important so I’ll be brief, engineering is useful for the nitro boost enchant on your belt, which lets you save money not buying skystep potions and being almost as useful as them, as well as letting you craft your own gunshoes. In the same vein alchemy is good for crafting your own skystep potions.