Death Knight Week: Kalmali

  I'm doing Alt Appreciation along with Lae and others. It's about that time of the expansion cycle where this kind of blogging is fun filler, after the mid raid and before the last, little-to-no information on 6.0 (The Dark Below?). I'll be doing several posts a week, which is so much more than I'm used to, but this theme brings together a few things I've been wanting to post about. I'll post first about my own character of the class of the week. Second, I may post about other players of that class that I remember fondly, that I'm playing with now, or that write blogs that I follow. Third, I'll post my perspective on the class lore. Finally, I'll also post about each race option of that class, addressing lore and racial abilities both, as well as races that are not an option for that class and why I think they should or should not be allowed. *edit* Too much, maybe another time.

  It's an 11 week project, naturally, so it'll be interspersed with Siege of Ogrimmar commentary and 5.4 gold making. 3 solid months of posting incoming.

   Kalmali is a Sanskrit name meaning "dispeller of darkness." I chose the name not based on what a Death Knight might be named, but rather what any young Dwarf might be named, especially one destined, presumably, to serve the Church of the Holy Light. As a servant of the Lich King, the name was a bitter irony. As a Knight of the Ebon Blade, it is a more subversive irony, as well as an oath of revenge.

  That's about as much RP as I do, just a good name and a bit of story.

  My Death knight went through a few iterations in Wrath. I knew I wanted to tank, so I first tried playing a Night Elf, but no, I just will not play an elf. I tried Human, but I don't like the male Human model, and I already had my female Human Priest. I tried another Dwarf, and it was perfect.

  I capped January of 2012, but I didn't get into tanking raids until 4.3 where I did a couple of Firelands runs, a couple of DS half-runs, then a whole lot of LFR. I did the occasional LFR run as Unholy and I tried out Frost in 5 mans, but mostly I stuck with Blood.

  In Mists, I've been occasionally tanking in LFR, and tried a few alt runs on normal mode. When the tank/raid leader of my main raid group took an unexpected break, I stepped in and started gearing up for normal modes, but after he came back just as unexpectedly, I quit that group. Now my DK is just a JC/Mining alt, making gold.

  DK is one of the two classes I've only played one spec of, for the most part, the other being Monk. I occasionally dabble in the other specs, but mostly I just like to tank. Since I don't anticipate raiding normal modes anymore in Mists on my DK, I'm probably still going to be sticking with Blood. With the exception of Lao-Chin's, which is still BiS upgraded twice, all my tank gear is 502+, so I'll be tanking some 5.4 LFR for sure.

  My transmog is the Overlord's set with the Field Plate Helmet substituted. I like having a functional look I might wear in real life, with no huge spikes smacking into the side of my head, no shoulders that would break my clavicle, ect. My current weapon is Bo-Ris, which makes me happy that I can use my Legend's Glaive for transmog. Strength polearms FTW! Though other weapon types restrictions have been loosened, I like to stay with the weapon type I have equipped. On standby I have Darkmoon Executioner for 2h axe, Royal Mallet for 2h mace (very Dwarvish!), and Archaic Defender for 2h sword.