Death Knights- Casual Considerations

I'd like to take a moment to consider some issues surrounding Death Knights for casual players.

Should a casual player start a Death Knight? The time commitments of casual players are limited. I play less than 10 hours per week and usually more on the order of 4-6 hours per week. I have my main toon at 71 now, and at this rate would expect to get to 80 in about 1 year.... That's the reality of casual. The possibility of creating a level 55 character of any faction, any server and any server type is an attractive method to gain access to a new flavor of WoW. On the other hand, leveling another character beyond ~60 is going to occur very slowly and at the expense of my main character. Therefore, the risk of starting a DK is missing the lowbie instance action, guild progression and other social aspects of your main character. In my opinion, for a casual player, this is a compelling reason not to start a DK with the intent of quickly leveling another level 80 toon.

However, the benefits and gameplay options for low level DKs abound. Twinking a 59 DK for BGs could be fun and having another toon on the same server in the high 50s or 60s or even 70s with complimentary professions could be very efficient. Against this strategy is the low-level farming and gold that it would take to level a profession to the point where it would be useful to a main toon. Once to level 70 skill levels, getting level 70+ skill levels would mean leveling the alt DK to at least 61, which isn't too bad. However, the gold required for that feat is not trivial and probably on the order of about 2000-3000 depending on the profession- an uncasual amount.

As for PvP versus PvE server, a trial of a few levles on PvP couldn't hurt, but by all accounts things can be brutal there.

As for race and faction, pick a different race, but for most casuals a toon on the same server in the same faction has the potential to enhance game play, while a toon on a foreign server will not have this advantage. If you must choose a separate faction, keep the player on your main's server to get some cross faction swapping if needed.

In summary, there are pros and cons to starting a DK for a casual player. I think that keeping a DK in low levels, same faction, same server and leveling one crafting profession that compliments a main character will be my strategy. Plus or minus 59 twinking.

What are your thoughts?

Intro to Death Knight: Prelude

The Sea.

The swells under the life raft didn't cease in the two months I spent adrift. Their incessant, silent pattern haunts my dreams. A rumor of the tireless water passes under my feet occasionally, and I fall to the earth without warning. The salt smell like a partial vomit lingers in the deepest holds of my memory.

The Sun.

She was only deliverance from the hollow night for a few short moments. Taciturn, she tortured me until sundown, when the cold greedy air begged in breezes and my scorched hide cheaply released heat to its pleading. The detritus of the ship was only visible for a day, then the barren landscape of steel- that mental prison- was all that illumination ever did show.

The Sickness.

I knew of gods who the crew offered their blood. I called upon them to take mine more rapidly, but I was dismayed at having enough to continue in a feverish stupor inside the gunwales. Ignoring the skin, blood came seeping through as a sweat and always blackly. It had no temperature. It had no sound. Commonly, I only knew of the hemorrhage vaguely, a stickiness matted through my hair, a crust underneath porous nails upon waking or a ferric spice at my lips. It seems to have passed now, though chronic pain has infested the holes of the liver, the stones in the kidney and the scars on my brain.

Northrend.

Where water is frozen and the sun stays low. Where among drifts of snow I may sleep. The ice is firm there and the sun bounces from its surface into space.

Who sent me to sea to find this disease?

I will know.