Cost: 1200 Hit Points: 60 Damage: 5-9 Armor: 0 Sight: 9 Speed: 8 Range: 3 Magic: 255 max (85 starting)

Death Knight
These soldiers of darkness were created by Gul'dan to replace the slaughtered Warlock clans. Assembled from the corpses of the Knights of Azeroth slain in the last battles of the First War, these abominations were then instilled with the ethereal essence of the Shadow Council. Further empowered with magical energies culled from the slain Necrolytes, the Death Knights wield an arsenal of necromantic and elemental spells that mete out all but certain death to the enemies of the Horde.

By magically increasing the speed at which a body generates vital energy, the caster may bestow great speed to any being. All actions by one so enchanted are swifter than a common adversary - an advantage that is evident on the battlefield. The effects of Haste can persist for but a short time.

Haste has limited uses. Haste speeds up attacks on only Dragons and speeds up the walking speed of only some units. It speeds up casting of Death and Decay for Death Knights and makes them travel very fast. It also is good for speeding up Peons harvesting Lumber, repairing buildings, and mining Gold. The main uses for Haste are for casting it on Death Knights, Dragons and Peons.

Speed
Haste increases the speed of most units, however, there are some units that Haste does not affect.

Attacks
Haste does not noticeably increase attack speed or the number of attacks except in the case of Dragons. Haste makes it appear through the animation, that units are attacking faster but actually they are not.

Dragons & Gryphons are the only exception to this. Dragons do about double the attacks with Haste on them. Haste also speeds up Dragons even though they are speed 14 to 20+. Hasted Dragons attack faster and fly faster.

There are a few units which Haste has no effect on such as Ogres, Flying Machines, Oil Tankers, Transports, and Destroyers. It doesn't make them travel faster nor attack faster.

Speed of units when Haste is cast

Land
Peon/Peasant = 13 (Same as Ogre)
Grunt/Footman = 13 (Same as Ogre)
Axe thrower/Archer = 13 (Same as Ogre)
Ogres/Knights = no effect
Catapult/Ballista = 9 (Slower than a Grunt, Faster than a Mage/DK)
Sappers/Demos = Speed 17! (Same as Goblin Zeppelin)
Death Knights = Speed 17! (Same is Goblin Zeppelin)
Mage = Speed 13. So Hasted Death Knights are faster than Hasted Mages.

Air
Zeppelins/Flying Machines = no effect
Dragons/Gryphons = Faster than speed 17, about 21+ speed.

Sea
Tankers = no effect
Transports = no effect
Destroyers = no effect
Juggernaughts/Battleships = Speed 10 (Same as Oil Tanker, Transport, Destroyers)
Subs = Speed 10 (Same as tanker, trans, destroyers)

Death Knights
When you cast Haste on Death Knights they move as fast as Goblin Zeppelins and they are able to cast Death and Decay VERY fast. One of the problems with Death and Decay is that often enemy units can simply walk out of the damage area of Death and Decay before they are hit with serious damage. When Hasted, Death Knights can quickly start Death and Decay bringing it to full damage before the enemy units can move out the way.

Dragons/Gryphons
Haste not only make Dragons travel unbelievably fast but also doubles their attacks. Bloodlust a Hasted Dragon to get even more damage. Hasted/Bloodlusted Dragons can destroy buildings and units very quickly but they can still die easily to Blizzards and Polymorph.

Peons/Peasants
They move as fast as an Ogre and are able to repair, chop, and mine much faster. They do not however build buildings any faster with Haste on them except when repair-building the buildings.

Mining Gold
Hasting Peons mining is pretty much useless. It only lasts about 2-3 trips.

Harvesting Lumber
It might be useful to cast Haste on peons chopping Lumber. A Hasted Peon can chop about 200 wood to every 100 that a un-Hasted Peon chops. So it's a 2:1 ratio. Cast it on 4 Peons and you get Lumber fast. Cast it on 8 and you get even more.

Repairing buildings
Haste allows Peasants repairing to greatly speed up the process of repair-building and normal repairs.

Death Coil is a particularly potent variation of Touch of Darkness. by channeling the necromantic powers of the underworld through his ghoulish form, the Death Knight creates a field of dark energy that drains the life-force from any who come in contact with it.

Death Coil is an area effect spell much like Death and Decay. When cast, you will lose mana even if no unit gets hit by the Death Coil. This explains why Death Coil misses. What happens is you cast it on an area, and the enemy runs out of the area before it is cast. If you want to test this, just cast a Death Coil in the middle of water or something. You will see you lose all the magic points but nothing happens. If there were some Gryphons over the water, you would have Death Coiled them. But since no organic enemy was in that area, the spell was cast, the mana lost and nothing happened. This is exactly how other area effect spells like Exorcism and Death and Decay work.

Death Coil does two things. It totally misses as in you cast it nothing happens but the mana is taken away and also appears to miss but really doesn't. Take a look at this picture. As you can see Death Coil appears to miss but it doesn't.

When multiple enemies are hit by Death Coil, the damage is distributed between them all. So the more enemies, the less damage it does.

You have no control over which unit is hit by Death Coil when cast on a group of enemies. Cast Death Coil on a block of 9 Peons. Then with your Death Knight, try to cast a Death coil on a specific Peon. Impossible. So when trying to attack specific enemy units try to get them separated from a group. Combine Death Coil and one or more Axe Throwers for destroying Dragons and Gryphons. The Death Coil takes most of the Dragons health and the Axe Thrower will finish the job.

Cast a Death coil on a Sheep, Pig, Seal or Boar to heal your Death Knight 5 hit points. A waste of mana but it is funny.

This focusing of the winds of the underworld cause any caught within to be cast about with great force and violence. Bones are easily shattered and mainsails are quickly snapped within the torrents of these fierce winds. The howl of these winds allow no commands to be issued to those trapped within the Whirlwind, rendering those unfortunates helpless until the magiks fade.

One of the main problems with Whirlwinds is that they are uncontrollable. Once cast there is often no telling where it will end up. Often you need fire then run out of the way to avoid damage from your own Whirlwinds. However one benefit of the Whirlwind is that it last a very long time. You can cast it on enemy Peasants mining Gold which will disrupt mining operations much longer than a Death and Decay would. If anything it's more of an annoyance and humorous spell.

Death and Decay is cheaper, more controllable, and causes more damage in most situations.

Whirlwinds can be casts on top of groups of ships to drive them away. While Death and Decay lasts only a short time, Whirlwinds can cause trouble for a long time.

The Whirlwind tip must be exactly on a building to do any damage.

[ Click to Enlarge - 62 KB ] A Whirlwind prevents Peons from mining Gold.

The dark magik is the final legacy of the Orc Necrolytes who were destroyed shortly after the First War. The Death Knight can animate corpses of the newly dead and command these monstrosities to attack their enemies.

Raise the Dead can allow you to get some Skeletons after a battle. Skeletons however are only slightly more powerful than Peons. Grunts can easily kill Skeletons. Knowing this, mana is best spent on Death and Decay rather on Raising the Dead. Death and Decay can cause much more damage than any Skeletons raised from battle. However when Farm space is limited or the map is out of resources you can use your remaining Death Knights to create an undead army out of left over Peons with no resources but mana spent.

Skeletons require no farms.

Sometimes when you cast Raise the Dead on a recently killed unit nothing happens. That is because before your Death Knight can raise a skeleton the dead unit must decay down to bones before it can be turned into a Skeleton. So If it doesn't work, wait a second, and try again.

Skeletons will only last a certain amount of time after which they explode on their own.

( Skeletons ) ( No Human Counterpart )

This ancient Necromantic spell transforms a portion of the recipient's life force into an unearthly, phantasmal suit of armor. This spectral armor then absorbs the damage from any attack directed at its wearer for a limited amount of time. As the magiks that link this armor to its host cease, so will the invulnerability that it grants.

Unholy Armor's main weakness in the short time that it lasts. Often what the enemy will do is see Unholy Armor, run until the spell wears off and you're left with a unit with 1/2 hit points.

Another major weakness with Unholy Armor is that units can still be Polymorphed. The main use of Unholy Armor is on Death Knight before you send him in to use Death and Decay.

You can also cast Unholy Armor on Demolition Squads and Goblin Sappers to blow them up.

Unholy Armor is good for killing enemy Flying Machines. Cast it on Flying Machines and Goblin Zeppelins and their hit points will be cut in half. when it wears off, the enemy units will be easier to kill.

Cost: 2000 Gold
Mana: 25
Time to Upgrade: 200

The aphotic, swirling clouds conjured by the Death Knights can cause anything within their path to rot and decompose. The vapor created by Decay can consume anything - flesh, bone, wood or even the strongest metal. Heavily laden with base substances, these clouds descend and quickly diffuse, leaving only suffering in their wake.

For more information refer to Blizzard and Death & Decay.

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