Ways to kill a Death Knight?

Well, they still feel. Their senses may be somewhat deadened, but they do have a sense of touch, they know when they are injured even if the pain merely spurs them on to greater feats of fury.

Or, is their sense of touch due to magic? That's possible, too.

All that said, I don't think a bullet or two to the brain would kill a DK--although obliterating it would, as in, shotgun blast point-blank, imo.

I'd imagine something like, the muscles in a human body are powered by electric impulses and energy taken through food/water we consume, whereas in a DK, they are powered by unholy/necrotic energy/consumed life force/whatever. So, the nervous system may still function, but the muscles they are attached to are powered by unholy magic. And if the muscles don't need outside "feeding" or care, then we don't need the cardiovascular system to power it, don't need digestive system to process energy intake through food, etc. Yet, tendons would still be required purely for the mechanics of the body. And the nervous system still sends the signals from the brain to the body?

...That actually sounds brilliant! Go, me! I'm so rolling with this now.

Feral / Blackfall wrote:Well, they still feel. Their senses may be somewhat deadened, but they do have a sense of touch, they know when they are injured even if the pain merely spurs them on to greater feats of fury.

Or, is their sense of touch due to magic? That's possible, too.

All that said, I don't think a bullet or two to the brain would kill a DK--although obliterating it would, as in, shotgun blast point-blank, imo.

I'd imagine something like, the muscles in a human body are powered by electric impulses and energy taken through food/water we consume, whereas in a DK, they are powered by unholy/necrotic energy/consumed life force/whatever. So, the nervous system may still function, but the muscles they are attached to are powered by unholy magic. And if the muscles don't need outside "feeding" or care, then we don't need the cardiovascular system to power it, don't need digestive system to process energy intake through food, etc. Yet, tendons would still be required purely for the mechanics of the body. And the nervous system still sends the signals from the brain to the body?

...That actually sounds brilliant! Go, me! I'm so rolling with this now.

Your powers of understanding magical biology speak leagues of you, sir. I take my hat off to you.

The secret is in throwing a bunch of sciencey-sounding words together with geekspeak and RPG content and pretending to grasp the underlying concepts. This makes you a god.

In other news, "sciencey" is now a word.

Melnerag wrote:Flamethrowers.

Signed. I love this one! XD

Drustai wrote:

Lexgrad wrote:Arthas's fate is not so clear cut, but yes More or less that.

The Sylvanas story shows it from Sylvanas' own perspective, she likewise saw only blackness. So I'm of the assumption that all undead/corrupted souls only find endless nothingness or outright oblivion after death.

Quoted from TV Tropes (because fuck looking at the Sylvanas story, I'm lazy):

"Sylvanas's short story on the official website reveals that after the Lich King's death, she committed suicide and found herself in a void where her soul was being torn apart. Arthas was there, and he had been reduced to the equivalent of a little boy huddling in the corner and crying. Then the val'kyr revived her, forming their bond that comes into play in Silverpine. "

Break the Unholy magic and you break the DK.

Yup. I always make Mana Burns/Mana Drains/Anti-Magic Fields/etc harm Dru, based on that rationale. Undead are animated by unholy magic, so, like you say, break the magic and you break the DK.

What we do not know is if that was the void or not. She landed on spikes of Saronite and that could easily lead to that epicode, as she ws dying. There is also the theory that maybe the Val'kyr were not being so forthright and would have made the visions so sylvanas would seal the deal. It could have been the void ofc, I kinda hope it isnt however, as as players we should not know what the hereafter or the void is like.

Simaria wrote:I play on tendons more or less working, as with bones ect. You break a bone, her arm is useless, you slice the back of her knee and sever the tendon, I play on her leg being useless. She take a arrow to the eye, or to the chest, She survives, but she is not pleased.

The 'Guide to side effects of Reanimation' dictates you can rot quite a lot without dying, as stated with;

"Keep an eye on your rotting. Some is all very well to scare your foes, but an arm falling off mid-stab is just embarrassing."

Drustai wrote:

Are you really wanting to imply that death knights are invincible unless they have their head cut off?

I did not say that. My reply there was more of a silly comment back to Melnerag's response.

I play on my DK being strong. That she can take a lot of damage, but that she -does- need muscles\tendons to function fully. I just don't let her -die- that easy. As in you can render her useless and harmless, but it takes proper damage to kill her. (or decapitation)

Good example is Wülfgnar breaking the arms and legs of my main char DK to render her helpless. It did not kill her, but she could no longer fight back.

You could RP that rather than the shadow magic moving the whole arm it moves the muscles that pull on the tendons. That way you will still be untiring and yet damage to the muscle will still reduce its efficancy.

Skaraa wrote:

Melnerag wrote:Flamethrowers.

I concur. KILL IT WITH FIRE!

People, people, bring me mats, i shall be happy to make them OOC-wise! http://www.wowhead.com/spell=127128

I'll just keep slashing at them and hope they drop at some point. *nod*

Yeah, as said previously, fire pretty much kills anything.

As for the other things;

- Though a blunted weapon may prove effective at breaking bones, a good sword arm could remove the Death Knight's arm and that's even better!

The way I see it: get creative! A poison may not work, but in the WoW world you could make a formula that could turn their blood to stone... (or yoghurt)

EDIT: How do you destroy a Death Knight's blade?

Biggest problem is not the DK, but the saronite plate. It is hard, it is magic-resistant and lore-wise.....it is even resistant to the HOLY LIGHT. Like fucking hell!?

On the good side, a spellcaster can just make the ground erupt under the feet of the night, encase him in ice or stonem ensnare him with roots and whathave you.

Melnerag wrote:Biggest problem is not the DK, but the saronite plate. It is hard, it is magic-resistant and lore-wise.....it is even resistant to the HOLY LIGHT. Like fucking hell!?

On the good side, a spellcaster can just make the ground erupt under the feet of the night, encase him in ice or stonem ensnare him with roots and whathave you.

Not all DKs have it, luckily enough. But as you said, it isn't the most pleasant addition to the game I wish it was extremely rare.

Not all DKs have it, luckily enough.

Well, any smart DK would have it, it's part of the standard equipment of DKs at the beginning, afaIk. And sure those who fight against Lighties on a regular basis, such as Black Hand, but not only, would have it.

Longknife/Decurius wrote:

Not all DKs have it, luckily enough.

Well, any smart DK would have it, it's part of the standard equipment of DKs at the beginning, afaIk. And sure those who fight against Lighties on a regular basis, such as Black Hand, but not only, would have it.

"Because of the rarity of the metal outside of Northrend, saronite armor was only given to death knights of Acherus who truly proved themselves in battle against the enemies of the Scourge. "

This is from the wiki, I cba to find what source it is from - that is why I said not all!

Also, are all forms of magic resisted by the metal? Because I thought only light and nature were tested.

EDIT: http://www.wowwiki.com/Quest:Pure_Evil

"Because of the rarity of the metal outside of Northrend, saronite armor was only given to death knights of Acherus who truly proved themselves in battle against the enemies of the Scourge. "

I've done that questline twice(and gonna do it a third time as soon as the idiotic one-dk-per-server limit gets lifted), and the thing looks a bit made up to me through that bad best called common sense.
Anyway, considering that the Death Knights who arrived at the end of the starting zone are for sure 'those who proved themselves in battle against the enemies of the Scourge' we can guess that almost any dk would use it(and considering the amount of zealots Stomwind is plagued of these days, I'd get to Northrend and get it anyway, just to ensure my 'survival'). So, I'd always take for granted that my dk enemy wears saronite. In case doesn't, great, I'm lucky. But never underestimate the enemy.

About other kinds of magic, I'd say offers little protection: one, because if not then it's so OP that makes you almost unbeatable, two, because non-divine magic is in itself different in source and level from the divine. Arcane, in its own different ways, and fel way more are inherently corrupting. And saronite is meant to work on shadow magic too, so would offer little to no protection from it. It's a bit made up, not being any lore source for much of this, but I think can make sense.

It's rare because it is over-powered, that's the whole idea of it being used to construct a Necropolis. A powerful material.

I don't know where you pull it out being the starting piece of gear, considering saronite is green and the gear you start with is blue.

I don't know where you pull it out being the starting piece of gear, considering saronite is green and the gear you start with is blue.

1) Dks have huge issues at bearing the Light.
2) LK sends dkss to destroy the Scarlet Enclave, with like every single combatant farting Light.
3) Dks destroy the Scarlet Enclave
I
I
V
4)Undeads had some kind of protection against the Light, the saronite.

About colors, Arthas dressed in blue, and I highly doubt was some kind of lesser metal. Icecrown is lorewise made in Saronite, and it's all but green.

Chances are or that Saronite can be colored, or that its color is not so precise, going from darkish grey-blue, to green, or even black. If you get to the armory, you'll get that all gear things made in saronite are of almost any color in existence, so color is not really an issue here.

Poisoning a Death Knight - some theories:

Please note that this is all suggested ideas, not an 'I think the lore works this way and if you disagree you're WRONG and a BAD RPER!!!'. It's not been done in canon, to my knowledge, but neither (I think) has it been contradicted in canon.

I'd suggest that this would be possible, but would take some work and would be far more likely to debilitate (in preparation for a kill by other means) than kill outright.

For weakening a death knight by means of poison, the trick would be to know your target.

Death Knights, of course, tend to favour a particular aspect: blood, ice or unholy.

For those with an affinity for blood, distillate of duskbat saliva (a strong anticoagulant) should interfere with this by disrupting the functioning of the Death Knight's blood. In particular, defenses that rely on the thickening and redirection of the death knight's own blood should be significantly impaired by this method.

For the frost-aspected ones, a potent and pure alcohol in sufficient quantity (see below re: application - it may be difficult to get enough of this into the bloodstream by means of a blowgun dart, unless some form of sorcery is used to distill the alcohol to truly lethal potency) should disrupt their ice-based defensive abilities by making it more difficult for ice to form within their bodies.

For unholy-aspected death knights, holy water would probably be the best recourse.

For all of them, the venom of the puff adder or recluse spiders may be of use. These are necrotoxins, which break down the structure of the flesh (at the cellular level). Despite the fact that death knights are necromantic, the process is not related - it is a product of natural, living creatures. And despite death knights' use of, and affinity with, decay, they are still likely to suffer substantial inconvenience at best from parts of their flesh abruptly turning to unpleasant mush.

For applying the poison, a blowgun would be quite useful, due to the deadened pain-senses of many death knights. It also has the great benefit of remaining unseen and out of melee range.

Poisoning food might also be a viable method for those few death knights who still eat out of habit or in an attempt to be sociable.

By that theory Thrakha you can total a Frost DK with a jar of salt!

Not quite. Maybe if you found a way to get a lot of salt into him....

siegmund wrote:

Skaraa wrote:

Melnerag wrote:Flamethrowers.

I concur. KILL IT WITH FIRE!

People, people, bring me mats, i shall be happy to make them OOC-wise! http://www.wowhead.com/spell=127128

This one is better! http://www.wowhead.com/item=88995



ROAST EM' BITCHES!

Skarain wrote:

siegmund wrote:

Skaraa wrote:

Melnerag wrote:Flamethrowers.

I concur. KILL IT WITH FIRE!

People, people, bring me mats, i shall be happy to make them OOC-wise! http://www.wowhead.com/spell=127128

This one is better! http://www.wowhead.com/item=88995



ROAST EM' BITCHES!

I know, but most people CBA to get those Justice, i'm sure .

BUT YEAH ROAST THE BASTARDS!

Dehydration would work?

Regarding poison, I'd just like to note that in the TFT undead campaign, Sylvanas shoots Arthas with a poisoned arrow which completely paralyzes his body, so it's been done in lore!

Dehydration wouldn't work. But flooding would. Preservation requires removing moisture from the body and intentionally dehydrating it is part of the preservation process (the body is typically already salted, too, in response to the joke on the last page). That's why the undead are flammable, because they've been dried out (normally the body is full of moisture and can't catch on fire, but once dried out and preserved it becomes very flammable). But rain, water, and damp conditions would put more moisture into the body, thus giving a place for bacteria and insects to thrive, hastening decay.

Undead, being preserved as they are through magic, rather than just mundane preservative techniques, likely have some resistance to moisture. But too much of it (like extensive submersion in water for lengthy periods of time) will probably still be bad for their state of being.


As for poison: The problem is that the blood doesn't circulate (except in maybe blood DKs as part of their bood magic). In fact, DKs may not have any blood at all -to- circulate, as removing blood is part of the process of preserving a corpse against decay (though it is clear that some undead keep their blood in-game, so it's not always the case). Therefore most physical poisons won't do anything. Ideally you'd want magical potions, which would be able to circulate through the spell network that is holding the undead together.

It is likely possible (and probably known by rogue players and alchemists) to use alchemical methods to make magical poisons that would affect undead. Alchemy is partly spiritual, afterall, and therefore partly magical. But normal, physical poisons would do nothing.

Flesheating acids, on the other hand, would still be quite useful even without any kind of magic, seeing as they disintergrate the flesh itself instead of trying to attack no-longer-necessary biological systems.

Spoiler:

Ultimate weapon against DK: a druid Locust Swarm. A swarm of tiny insects that get under the armor and DEVOUR THEM FROM WITHIN.