This death knight shopping list for WotLK Classic prep is designed for players wanting to get their new DK to level 70 ASAP. The gear and items on the list all help cut down your leveling time a bit, and more so altogether. Nothing on this list is required for anyone wanting to level a new death knight more casually. I put this together myself to get into Outland raids before the full launch of Wrath of the Lich King Classic.
Updated with WotLK Classic beta experience!
This list has been updated with new data coming out of the WotLK Classic beta and my testing and experience on the beta server.
- Runecloth needed to reach Revered or Exalted with Stormwind/Ogrimmar for flying training discounts have been reduced.
- BoE items that featured Agility and Attack Power have been removed.
- Level 69 Fel Leather items added as they also go along with level 70 raid prep list (coming soon).
- Big note on not applying Cobra/Nethercobra leg armor ahead of pre-patch.
- The Shattrath quest to pick Aldor or Scryers is broken on the beta, beware.
Gold | Bags | Reputations | Quests | Professions | Gear | Consumables
More Death Knight Prep Guides:
DK Two-handed Leveling Weapons | DK Level 70 Pre-Raid Gear
Gold
The single most helpful resource when prepping for WotLK Classic is gold. A modest amount gets you past the initial gold sinks in Outland and Northrend.
Gold for Needs
Bank Slots = 112 gold
Flying = 295 gold
- Patch 3.2 made it trainable at level 60 in Hellfire Peninsula in WotLK
- Flying speed upgraded from 60% to 150%, making it a strong leveling tool
- Assumes a 10% Honored discount from the new trainer in Hellfire Peninsula
Dual Spec = 1000 gold
- While leveling maintain a solo DPS spec and a group tank spec
- You won’t need specific tank gear to get through leveling dungeons
Cold Weather Flying = 1000 gold
- Trainable at level 77 and needed for Storm Peaks and Icecrown zones
- You’ll earn the gold needed while leveling in Northrend
Immediately Transfer to Death Knight ~1500-2000 gold
You’ll need 1400 gold for the expenses above minus Cold Weather Flying (you can add 1000 up front or just wing it with quest rewards from Northrend). Round that up to cover any other basic leveling expenses and to give you a head start on level 70 spending. This amount does not include the cost of bags or any other items listed below.
Gold For Wants
These are by no means must-have items. But if you want to save up a lot of gold for big toys these are the more popular options.
Epic Flying = 4500 gold
- Trainable at level 70
- Not required in Outland or Northrend, but a good quality of life upgrade
- Assumes a 10% Honored discount from the new trainer in Hellfire Peninsula
Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade = 1000 gold
- A unique flying mount for death knights that works with either riding skill level
- You can buy a standard faction mount for 50 gold
Ring of the Kirin Tor = 8500 gold
- A good pre-raid item
- Can buy upgrades during new content phases
- Free hearth to Dalaran for the entirety of WotLK
Mekgineer’s Chopper = 12,820g + mats
- Not on everyone’s shopping list, but I loved mine in the original WotLK
Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth = 20,000g
- 16,000 gold if you buy at Exalted, but that will be after you’re level 70 and have missed much of this mount’s potential usefulness
Primordial Saronite = A Lot
- If you seriously plan to go for Shadowmourne you’ll need to buy 25 Primordial Saronite early in the quest process. Don’t expect it to come cheap.
You don’t need all the gold for all the things you want in WotLK before the new expansion launches. There will be more gold earning potential in Northrend than we have in Outland, making gold farming easier later on. Focus on your more immediate needs and then achieve/save as you can without stressing over your eventual total.
Bags – The First Item for Your Death Knight Shopping List
New death knights start with four 12-slot bags, hardly suitable for extended quest outings or dungeon spamming.
Mooncloth Bag x11
- Great value (gold per slot)
- Do not bind to the death knight, so they can be reused or sold when upgraded later
Netherweave Bags may be cheaper if buying bags and not mats, but they will bind to your death knight.
Imbued Netherweave Bags are an upgraded starting point if gold isn’t as much of an issue for you. Or compromise and get four of these for your character and 7 cheaper bags for your bank.
You don’t need the largest bags in Outland to get started. The TBC 20-slot bag will be much cheaper once the WotLK Classic pre-patch is out. But you’ll likely find even cheaper versions after WotLK Classic fully launches.
When comparing bags use gold per slot, not the total cost.
Reputations
There are three reputation grinds of note you can speed up by stocking up on repeatable turn-in items:
- Stormwind/Orgrimmar – Discount on flying mount training
- Aldor/Scryer – Shoulder enchants
- Cenarion Expedition – Head enchant
Stormwind/Orgrimmar
The idea is to turn in a lot of Runecloth you bought for cheap (or farmed) to save some gold on your fast-flying training. The new trainers in Hellfire Peninsula are tied to Stormwind and Orgrimmar factions. If you do not intend to buy fast flying for your death knight as soon as they hit level 70 then there is little benefit to grind this faction immediately.
The Runecloth sums below are not cumulative. Pick your desired reputation level and that’s how much Runecloth you need in total. It does NOT include the 60 Runecloth or other clothes you need for the initial, XP giving turn-in.
Honored:
Initially, older reports were that death knights ended up Friendly with Stormwind/Orgrimmar after completing the starter area quest chain. But early WotLK Classic beta data is showing they’ll start as Honored. We’re going with the beta data for the numbers below.
- Training Cost: 4500 gold
- Runecloth Required: None
Revered:
- Training Cost: 4250 gold
- Runecloth Required: 2800
- Buy Runecloth at 8 silver or less
- Requires an extra 140 bag slots to store
Exalted:
- Training Cost: 4000 gold
- Runecloth Required: 8400
- Buy Runecloth at 5 silver or less
- Requires an extra 420 bag slots to store
For most players, the Honored discount without any extra effort is the best option. The biggest problem with going for Revered or Exalted is the required bag space. Bag space issues can be overcome with some new bank alts and cheap bags. Also if you’re not getting Runecloth cheap you’ll come closer to breaking even than saving any meaningful gold. But the option is there if you want it.
Human death knights can take 10% off of the Runecloth requirements listed above.
Aldor/Scryer
The quest needed to pick Aldors or Scryers in Shattrath City was broken on the beta for me and other death knights. We don’t know if that is a bug that’ll be fixed or what.
Getting Honored with Aldor/Scryer opens up their shoulder enchants and getting Exalted opens up their BiS shoulder enchants. If you plan to run raids during pre-patch you’ll want access to these enchants. If you plan to stop at level 70 until Northrend arrives then getting to Honored is the most you should spend time and gold on.
Aldor is the recommended Shattrath faction for death knights. But if you instead go Scryers the same advice and numbers apply, change out for Scryer rep items.
Mark of Kil’Jaeden x220
- Available at level 62
- The first turn-in grants XP, the rest will get you from Neutral to Honored. Do this ASAP before completing any Aldor quests.
- This is enough to get access to their lesser shoulder enchants.
- Humans need only 198 marks.
- Draenei needs only 100 marks if going Aldor.
- Blood Elves need only 100 of their initial Firewing Signet if going Scryers.
- Draenei going Scryers or Blood Elves going Aldor will need 120 more marks/signets.
Fel Armament x8
- Available at level 64
- The first turn-in grants XP, the rest are to get enough Holy Dust for the greater shoulder enchants.
Mark of Sargeras x1200
- Available at level 68
- The first turn-in grants XP, the rest will get you from Honored to Exalted if you do little to no Aldor-related questing.
- You may not need all these marks with quests, but the majority of the Aldor quests are in Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley. You will likely hit 70 before getting to them and you may want to save turning in those quests until WotLK launches for some quick XP.
- Humans need only 1080 marks.
Cenarion Expedition
Getting Revered with Cenarion Expedition allows you to purchase Glyph of Ferocity, a death knight’s best head enchant in TBC Classic. If you plan to run raids during pre-patch you’ll want access to this enchant. If not then you can skip this rep grind. Tanking death knights should also consider this, as Glyph of the Defender required Revered with Keepers of Time and a lot of dungeon spamming.
- Available at level 60. Turn these in before completing any CE quests in Hellfire Peninsula to maximize your rep gains.
- The first turn-in grants XP, the rest will get you from Neutral to Honored.
- Save any Uncatalogued Species you receive from these turn-ins until you reach Honored, then turn those in immediately (useless once Revered).
- Humans need only 324 plant parts.
- Available at level 67, but requires a Steamvault dungeon run to unlock the turn-in
- These are optional when going from Honored to Revered. Completing Cenarion Expedition-related quests (no dungeons required) gives you more than enough rep to get from Honored to Revered if you did your plant turn-ins first.
- These award 75 rep per item. You would need 160 to get to Revered without any questing.
- If you plan to mostly dungeon spam, then having some saved up isn’t a bad idea. But if you plan to solo as much as possible the dungeon requirement makes these awkward.
Quests
Your Death Knight shopping list is more than bags and gear. Several quests require tradable items to be completed. You can collect these items in advance so that your death knight can instantly complete the quest when they come upon it.
Quest Items from the Death Knight Shopping List
Capitol City Cloth Donations for XP
At the end of the death knight starter area, you’ll be sent to Stormwind or Orgrimmar to join your faction. While there you can turn in donations of cloth for XP. You can do this in up to five cities, but it’ll require travel time. Having a mage friend or tipping for portals are your best options.
Wool Cloth x60 per city (300 total)
Silk Cloth x60 per city (300 total)
Mageweave Cloth x60 per city (300 total)
Runecloth x60 per city (300 total)
Weapon Trainers
While turning in donations of cloth you can also hit up local weapon masters for training. Death knights should only need to train maces as they’ll have proficiency with swords, axes, and polearms from the starter area (need to confirm on WotLK Classic beta).
Mace Weapon Masters:
- Ironforge
- Exodar
- Thunder Bluff
Eastern Plaguelands Quests
If you’re willing to return to the plaguelands for a bit of early questing you can get some bonus XP out of collecting some turn-in items. Most require you to be Friendly with the Argent Dawn, which is where regular questing comes in.
- In Stormwind/Orgrimmar pick up A Call to Arms: The Plaguelands (Alliance/Horde).
- Head to Chillwind Point in Western Plaguelands (Alliance) or The Bulwark in Tirisfal Glades (Horde). Remember you can Death Gate back to Eastern Plaguelands for a shorter travel time.
- Do the quest Clear the Way (Alliance) or Scarlet Diversion (Horde).
- Once done you’ll be given the first Scourge Cauldrons quest. Go through the series which should be relatively easy and earns a good amount of rep with the Argent Dawn.
- Keep questing until you reach Friendly with the Argent Dawn, then head to Light’s Hope Chapel in Eastern Plaguelands (Death Gating is the fastest).
- Pick up the various collection quests and turn in your saved items.
Bone Fragments x30
Core of Elements x30
Dark Iron Scraps x30
Savage Frond x30
Thorium Bar x2
Golden Rod x1
Because of the added traveling and regular questing required collecting these items may not be on the fastest path for leveling. But consider the added perks before you make up your mind.
- You come out of the death knight starter area at level 58, but heading to Outland at 59-60 increases your power and kill times.
- The initial wave of death knights will mean competition for quest mobs, starting in the less popular plaguelands may mean less frustration.
Blasted Lands Quests
On your way to the Dark Portal and Outland, you can turn in several quests with only a slight detour. Find Bloodmage Drazial and turn in these items for a quick XP boost. The Draenethyst items are turned in to Kum’isha the Collector.
Basilisk Brain x11
Vulture Gizzard x14
Imperfect Draenethyst Fragment x1
Flawless Draenethyst Sphere x1
Turn off any auto quest turn-in addon you have. The first of each quest grants you XP, but they then offer a repeatable quest that does not. You don’t want to waste items by accidentally repeating a quest.
Hellfire Peninsula Quests
Nethergarde Bitter (Alliance only)
Zangarmarsh Quests
- Skip if you’re turning in plant parts for Revered rep with Cenarion Expedition (see Reputations)
Bog Lord Tendril x6 (42 recommended)
- Gaining a rep level with the Sporeggar opens up more easy turn-in quests, so here’s how I do that for the most XP and rep.
- Turn off any auto quest turn-in addon you may have.
- Accept both the Bog Lord Tendril and Mature Spore Sac quests.
- Only turn in the Bog Lord Tendril, and then the repeatable version 6 more times.
- Once you gain a rep level then turn in the Mature Spore Sacs.
Mature Spore Sac x10
Glowcap x10
Shattrath City Quests
Arakkoa Feather x30
- Skip if you’re turning in marks for Honored or Exalted rep with Aldor (see Reputations)
Fel Armament x1
- Skip if you’re turning in marks for Honored or Exalted rep with Aldor (see Reputations)
Mark of Sargeras x10
- Skip if you’re turning in marks for Honored or Exalted rep with Aldor (see Reputations)
Aldor is the recommended Shattrath faction for death knights. But if you instead go Scryers the same advice and numbers apply, just change out for Scryer rep items.
Nagrand Quests
- If you want to grind Consortium rep you can pick up 36 of these and repeatedly turn them in until you reach Friendly. Just make sure you do that before turning in any other Consortium quests.
Professions – A Priority for Your Death Knight Shopping List
You should consider stocking up on the mats needed to level up your professions. If going engineering you especially want to skill up ASAP, as you’ll have access to some nice goggles for leveling.
Professional Mats for engineering and jewelcrafting
You only need to skill up to 350 to learn Northrend recipes, many of which will be more cost-effective for skilling up if you’re willing to wait a week or two after launch.
Main Professions & Cooking
Whatever main professions you choose you should check out this online tool to see what items to collect and store. You can also use it to stock up for cooking skills.
- Select your server and faction in the upper right.
- Click on your profession and you’ll get a list of recommended recipes for each skill level.
- Go through recipe options, paying attention to total cost and how you learn the recipe before you decide what mats to buy.
- Buy vendor recipes as needed.
First Aid
First Aid is the only profession death knights get a head start on. You’ll start at 270, saving you a lot of low-level cloth. You will not need to travel to Theramore for any training.
Runecloth x220
Netherweave Cloth x100
You can pick up the Outland first aid training books while leveling.
Fishing
If you plan to skill up finishing these items will speed things up by ensuring more successful catches. But they are not required.
- You can get a fishing pole with the same +fishing skill from the quest Rather Be Fishin’
- The old Master Fishing quest from Nat Pagle back in Azeroth will reward a new +25 fishing pole
Leveling Gear
This is a complete list of BoE leveling gear I had on my own death knight shopping list. It is designed for unholy DPS questing but should work well with frost or blood DPS specs. I mostly focus on rare pieces, as they give the most value for their cost and it cuts down on my storage needs. Keep in mind the rare armor set out of the death knight starter zone is quite nice (Molten Core/Zul’Gurub level) and there are many great quest rewards throughout Outland.
Gear from Death Knight Shopping List
Leveling Armor
Cogspinner Goggles of the Beast – No level (Engineering)
- You need to plan to skill up engineering ASAP to get any use out of them. Expect to have them for levels 58-62 at most.
Furious Gizmatic Goggles – Level 62 (Engineering)
- Again, I need to skill up engineering shortly after arriving in Outland to be able to use them. They will last you through the entire leveling process.
- Use Chaotic Skyfire Diamond (easiest meta requirement) and a strength/stamina purple gem.
Mask of Veiled Death – Level 67 (only if not an engineer)
Necklace of Trophies – Level 67
Shroud of Frenzy – Level 62
- Nice upgrade until you reach Nagrand.
Adamantite Breastplate – Level 67
Blade Dancer’s Wristguards – Level 63
Adamantite Plate Bracers – Level 66
- Use all strength gems.
Gloves of Ferocity – Level 60
- A strong upgrade from the death knight starting gloves, even more so with strength or hit enchant.
Gauntlets of the Skullsplitter – Level 64
Fel Leather Gloves – Level 67
Titanic Leggings – Level 55
- Expensive, but your best option except for a couple of group quest rewards or level 70 items
- Buy mats and have a guildmate craft them to save gold
- Do NOT add a Cobrahide or Nethercobra Leg Armor BEFORE pre-patch. Having the enchant on them causes them to bind to the bank character when pre-patch releases. Have the death knight apply the leg armor at level 60 themselves.
Elekk Hide Leggings – Level 66 (if skipping Titanic Leggings)
Fel Leather Leggings – Level 69
- Will continue to last you for a while at level 70.
- Use strength gems.
Boots of the Decimator – Level 60
Fel Leather Boots – Level 69
- Will continue to last you through most of the pre-patch as a level 70.
- Use strength gems.
Mercurial Stone – Level 65
- In WotLK Classic this turns into a trinket anyone can use, offering a lot of stamina and hit rating
Two-handed Weapons (Blood, Unholy)
Blade of Misfortune – Level 60
The Oathkeeper – Level 68
One-handed Weapons (Frost)
Mass of McGowan x2 – Level 57
- Your best and likely cheapest weapon upgrade out the gate.
- You’ll need to train maces before you can use them, and you’ll be starting at skill 1.
- If you prefer swords then Sword of Zeal x2 is nearly as good and at similar prices.
Fist of Reckoning x2 – Level 61
- If too pricey check out Axe of the Legion x2, you’ll have to wait for 2 more levels but they are usually cheaper
Leveling Gear Enchants
If you want to get extra sweaty you can also apply enchants or armor kits to the BoE items you collect for leveling.
- The only viable option for your head slot. Even with enough rep, you can’t apply the better glyphs until level 70.
- Can also be applied to the chest, shoulders, hands, legs, and feet if you prefer this cheaper option.
- You’ll need to buy and apply this with your death knight. Doable at level 64 with Honored rep. But not the most practical given the limited BoE shoulder options.
Enchant Cloak – Greater Agility
Enchant Chest – Exceptional Stats
- Expensive for a leveling piece. While this is the best option you may be happier with another armor kit.
- Inexpensive
Enchant Gloves – Major Strength
- Any speed boost is usually BiS while leveling.
- If you talent into Unholy Presence you won’t need this.
No Riding Crop
I didn’t forget a Riding Crop, you really shouldn’t need one.
- You can’t use the Riding Crop until level 69, and it’ll stop working when you hit level 71. It is only useful for however long the pre-patch lasts.
- The talent On a Pale Horse gives you twice the speed boost as the Riding Crop, and you can get it immediately.
Consumables
These are the best consumables to use while leveling (for DPS questing in any spec). The amounts assume 40 hours played once out of the death knight starter area. That’s likely an over-estimation given the XP nerf we should see between levels 60-70. But the same consumables will work in Outland raiding and early Northrend leveling.
Consumables
- Food buff to use from levels 55-64.
Spicy Hot Talbuk x40
- Only usable at level 65, but you can save the rest for Northrend leveling.
Adamantite Sharpening Stone x20
Kibler Bits x40
- Only for unholy death knights with Master of Ghouls talent
If you prefer flasks you can use Flask of Relentless Assault. If it is a DPS increase over the elixirs and will persist through death. But unless you’re dying a lot it will be much more expensive per hour than the two elixirs.
I’ve cut these numbers in half after the 50% boost to XP was announced. All death knights should be able to level to 70 in half the time. If you already have larger stockpiles you could always keep using these consumables going into Northrend.
