Death Knight Runes and Runic Power

Mana, energy, or rage may have been what your eyes payed very close attention when you were first leveling up. You needed to carefully watch how much mana you used or else you’d be out and either being chomped on by nasty monsters, watch how much energy you had before you used an ability or else you’d be cutting yourself short on your next ability, or monitor your rage and make sure you were getting enough to use your abilities. Runes and Runic Power work differently than either of these three.

As a Death Knight you’ll have six “runes” shown below your health bar. You will have two Blood, Frost, and Unholy runes. Abilities will use a set number of runes that when used will make that number of runes go inactive for 10 seconds until they’re recharged. So let’s say you’re giving a Murloc quite a bit of a thrashing and you use an ability which costs one Blood and one Frost rune.  For ten seconds one of the two Blood and Frost runes will be unable to be used. So if you had an ability that used two Blood runes then you’d be out of luck.

Now, if you played a Warrior on your way to fifty five then you’re in luck. Runic Power works a lot like Rage. You gain runic power every time you use a rune. Some abilities work off of Runic Power meaning that you’d be able to unleash them after you’ve used enough abilities that were powered by runes. Runic Power depletes over time like Rage, so be sure you use it up when it’s available!

Certain abilities can affect the recharge on runes or even convert them into “Death” runes which will work for any of the three rune types. Mixing these abilities into combat can really help you finish off enemies faster and show Murlocs an extra good trashing.