DK Mentor

DK Mentor is a World of Warcraft Retail addon built specifically for Blood, Frost, and Unholy Death Knights.

It combines Blizzard's native Assisted Combat features with contextual Death Knight guidance, a visual talent-tree mentor, DK Meta Pulse, visual build and gear recommendations, stat and character analysis, Delve companion guidance, preparation checks, survival coaching, resource tracking, important buffs and procs, and compact configurable HUDs.

DK Mentor is designed to help you understand, prepare, and play your Death Knight better without trying to play the game for you.

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What's inside DK Mentor

Visual Build Mentor

Browse recommended Death Knight builds for different types of content:

• Auto / Current Content
• World
• Delves
• Dungeons
• Mythic+
• Raids
• PvP

Build recommendations include:

• Hero Talent direction
• Key talent icons
• Native WoW spell tooltips on mouseover
• Build focus and intended use
• Recommended and alternative setups when relevant
• Source and review information
• SBA-friendly guidance where appropriate

You can browse builds for Blood, Frost, or Unholy without changing your active specialization.

DK Mentor recommends builds only. It does not automatically change talents.

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Visual Talent Tree Mentor

Build Mentor can render Blizzard's live Class, Hero, and Specialization talent trees directly inside DK Mentor for the build being reviewed.

The visual tree includes:

• Blizzard-native spell icons and talent connections
• Native WoW spell tooltips
• Guide-defining talent highlights
• Clear distinction between recommended, selected, and flex/pathing nodes
• Choice-node mismatch guidance
• Short Why / Por que explanations on recommended nodes
• Per-key diagnostics: OK, MISSING, SWAP, and NOT MAPPED

Talent matching uses stable Blizzard node, entry, spell, and Hero subtree identifiers instead of depending on English or pt-BR talent names.

Color guidance:

• Gold — recommended guide key not currently selected
• Green — recommended guide key already selected
• Blue — selected flex/pathing talent
• Gray — other available/flex node

NOT MAPPED means DK Mentor could not resolve that guide key against the live Blizzard tree. It does not automatically mean the player's talent choice is wrong.

The tree also includes explicit loadout tools:

• Export — generate Blizzard's import string for the compared loadout
• Save — store a reusable DK Mentor talent snapshot
• Saved — reopen previously stored snapshots
• Clone in WoW / Clonar no WoW — create a separate saved Blizzard loadout from the complete compared import string

Cloning is an explicit out-of-combat action for the current specialization. The cloned loadout is not activated automatically.

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DK Meta Pulse

DK Mentor includes a dedicated Meta section for current Death Knight activity in Heroic Raid, Mythic+, and High Keys.

Meta Pulse can show observed signals such as:

• Hero Talent usage
• Sample size
• Build-performance snapshots
• Popular weapon signals
• Blood, Frost, and Unholy comparisons
• Guide vs Logs status

Guide vs Logs helps distinguish when DK Mentor's reviewed guidance is aligned with, split from, or different from observed aggregate play data.

Observed popularity is treated as a meta signal, not automatically as a BiS recommendation.

DK Mentor can optionally detect the Archon Tooltip addon as a fail-safe external data provider. If a compatible aggregate feed is not available, DK Mentor keeps using its reviewed built-in snapshot.

DK Mentor performs no web requests from inside World of Warcraft.

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Stats & Folio Advisor

DK Mentor includes a specialization-aware advisor for your current character.

It can display:

• Current secondary-stat percentages and ratings
• Recommended stat direction
• Diminishing-return awareness
• PvE and PvP guidance
• Blood, Frost, and Unholy recommendations
• Current Omnium Folio state when it can be safely detected
• Recommended Folio direction
• Clear source freshness information

The advisor is intentionally informational.

It does not modify your talents, stats, or character automatically.

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Visual Gear Mentor — Gear Targets 2.0

The Gear Mentor provides an easy-to-read equipment planning interface for each Death Knight specialization.

It includes:

• Recommended gear targets
• Item icons and native WoW item tooltips
• Equipped / Owned / Missing status
• Loot sources
• Trinket recommendations
• Craftable alternatives
• Upgrade guidance
• Secondary-stat direction
• Current equipped item level
• Runeforge guidance
• Season 2 tier-set planning
• Live 2-piece and 4-piece tier status
• Catalyst planning
• Target, craft, and tier annotations

Item names and tooltips are retrieved from the WoW client whenever possible, so they naturally follow your game client's language.

Gear recommendations are intended as a practical farming reference.

For close upgrades, trinkets, crafted items, or unusual stat combinations, character-specific simulation is still recommended.

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Preparation & DK Ready Check

The Preparation system helps verify whether your Death Knight is ready before entering content.

Depending on specialization and equipment, DK Mentor can review areas such as:

• Death Knight Runeforges
• Weapon setup
• Enchants
• Gems and sockets
• Recommended consumables
• Flasks / Phials
• Food
• Potions
• Specialization-specific preparation
• Tier-set status
• Current gear state

The compact DK Ready widget can provide an at-a-glance status outside combat.

DK Mentor does not automatically purchase, equip, craft, enchant, or consume anything.

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Valeera Delve Mentor

DK Mentor includes dedicated guidance for Valeera Sanguinar in Midnight Season 2 Delves.

The Valeera Mentor provides Death Knight-specific recommendations for:

• Valeera role
• Combat Curio
• Utility Curio
• Poison
• Blood, Frost, and Unholy pairings
• Different Delve playstyles

Available presets include:

• Auto
• Safe
• Balanced
• Fast
• High Tier
• Leveling

The Leveling preset can prioritize options useful while increasing Valeera's progression and collecting Mislaid Curiosities.

DK Mentor also tracks relevant live fixes that can affect Valeera recommendations.

A shortcut is available to open Blizzard's native Delves Companion Configuration interface directly from DK Mentor.

DK Mentor does not automatically change Valeera's role, Curios, or Poison.

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Survival Coach

A compact contextual coach for defensive and recovery decisions.

It can help surface relevant Death Knight tools such as:

• Death Strike
• Anti-Magic Shell
• Icebound Fortitude
• Vampiric Blood
• Death Pact
• Lichborne
• Anti-Magic Zone
• Other specialization-specific survival tools

The coach adapts its recommendations based on your specialization and current situation.

It is designed to complement your gameplay rather than replace decision-making.

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Death Knight Resource HUD

Configurable Death Knight resource tracking includes:

• Six Rune indicators
• Blizzard-like Rune spending and recharge presentation
• Runic Power tracking
• Health tracking
• Classic resource-bar layout
• Optional DK Arcs presentation around the character

HUD options include:

• Scale
• Opacity
• Spacing
• Positioning
• Lock / unlock
• Preview mode
• Combat-only visibility
• Layout reset
• Preset export / import

The default and reset layouts are designed to keep resource, ability, coach, buff, and debuff HUDs separated instead of stacking them in the same screen area.

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Buffs, Procs and Ability Tracking

DK Mentor can track important Death Knight combat information through compact movable HUDs:

• Important DK buffs
• Important specialization procs
• External buffs applied by other players or NPCs
• Player debuffs
• Ability cooldowns
• Charges
• Temporary ability availability
• Important combat windows

The addon uses Retail-compatible Blizzard APIs and respects Midnight combat-information restrictions.

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Interrupt Mentor

DK Mentor can detect confirmed interruptible casts and help surface Mind Freeze when appropriate.

The interrupt system can use compact visual indicators and optional action-bar highlighting while keeping the final decision and key press with the player.

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DK Codex

The DK Codex is the central in-game reference for DK Mentor.

You can freely browse Blood, Frost, and Unholy without actually switching specialization.

Current Codex areas include:

• Overview
• Meta
• Stats & Folio
• Equipment
• Builds
• Rotation
• Survival
• Utility
• Character / DK Ready
• Valeera

The Codex is designed to keep DK-specific information in one place rather than forcing you to constantly move between external guides while playing.

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Character Diagnostics

DK Mentor can inspect your active Death Knight and provide useful diagnostics such as:

• Active specialization
• Runeforge coverage
• Important enchant coverage
• Empty sockets
• Current secondary-stat snapshot
• Tier-set state
• Unholy ghoul status when applicable
• Available utility toolkit
• Preparation warnings

Diagnostics are intentionally informational and do not automatically modify your character.

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Runeforge Guard

DK Mentor checks equipped Death Knight weapons for appropriate Runeforge coverage.

Guidance is specialization and setup aware, including situations where Frost uses different Runeforge combinations depending on weapon configuration and build.

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Unholy Ghoul Guard

For Unholy Death Knights, DK Mentor can help detect whether your ghoul is available when expected.

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Blizzard Assisted Combat Integration

DK Mentor works alongside Blizzard's native Assisted Combat functionality.

The offensive recommendation/highlight itself comes from Blizzard.

DK Mentor focuses on the information around it:

• Survival
• Resources
• Utility
• Procs
• Interrupt awareness
• Build preparation
• Gear preparation
• Stats
• Character readiness

DK Mentor also includes SBA-friendly guidance for players who use Blizzard Assisted Combat.

Important manual decisions such as defensives, interrupts, crowd control, utility, and situational actions remain in the player's hands.

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Optional Loadout Pilot Integration

DK Mentor focuses on Death Knight knowledge and recommendations.

Automatic specialization, talent, equipment-set, and loot-spec management belongs to the separate Loadout Pilot addon.

When Loadout Pilot is installed, DK Mentor can provide convenient access to it without making it a required dependency.

DK Mentor remains fully usable without Loadout Pilot.

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Layout Presets

Supported DK Mentor HUD positions and visual settings can be exported and imported through layout presets.

This makes it easier to:

• Back up your layout
• Move settings between characters
• Share a DK Mentor layout with another player
• Restore supported HUD positions after UI changes

Preset support remains optional.

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Optional Lich King Commentary

DK Mentor includes optional immersive Lich King commentary for selected gameplay situations.

The commentary system can use:

• Arthas
• Bolvar
• An optional movable portrait
• Adjustable portrait scale and position

The portrait can animate while supported commentary audio is playing.

All audio, models, and textures are referenced from resources already installed with World of Warcraft.

No Blizzard audio, model, or texture files are bundled with DK Mentor.

The entire commentary feature is optional and can be disabled.

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Languages

DK Mentor currently supports:

• English
• Brazilian Portuguese (pt-BR)

Automatic mode follows the WoW client language, and a manual language override is also available.

Native WoW item and spell names/tooltips may continue to follow the language of your installed WoW client.

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Midnight 12.1 Compatibility

DK Mentor is developed for current World of Warcraft Retail / Midnight 12.1 and respects Blizzard's protected and secret-value restrictions.

The addon:

• Never casts abilities automatically
• Never attempts to bypass protected combat information
• Never automatically spends resources
• Never automatically selects targets
• Never performs prohibited combat actions
• Never replaces player input

Dynamic combat information uses Blizzard-supported Retail APIs whenever possible.

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Design Philosophy

DK Mentor is not intended to become a rotation bot or automated gameplay system.

The goal is simple:

Help Death Knight players understand what they have, what they need, and what they should be watching.

DK Mentor tries to keep important information close to the character while reducing unnecessary UI clutter.

Whether you are learning Death Knight for the first time, returning to the class, playing with Blizzard Assisted Combat, running Delves with Valeera, or simply want a compact DK-focused toolkit, DK Mentor is designed to make Blood, Frost, and Unholy easier to understand and monitor.

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Main Commands

• /dkm — Open or close DK Mentor
• /dkm codex — Open the DK Codex
• /dkm builds — Open Build recommendations
• /dkm meta — Open DK Meta Pulse
• /dkm gearmentor — Open the Gear Mentor
• /dkm advisor — Open Stats & Folio Advisor
• /dkm valeera — Open Valeera Mentor
• /dkm ready — Run the DK Ready Check
• /dkm help — Show the complete command list

Slash commands remain in English regardless of the selected interface language.

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Recommendation Sources

Build, gear, stat, preparation, PvP, Delve companion, and observed meta guidance is periodically reviewed against current public Death Knight resources, aggregate performance/usage signals, and the live WoW client.

Sources may include:

• Wowhead
• Icy Veins
• Archon.gg / Warcraft Logs-derived aggregate meta signals where applicable
• Blizzard / World of Warcraft patch notes and hotfixes
• World of Warcraft client data

DK Mentor includes source and review information where appropriate so outdated guidance can be identified and reviewed after patches or tuning changes. Meta usage data is presented as an observed signal and is kept separate from curated guide recommendations.

Recommendations may change after Blizzard tuning, hotfixes, guide updates, or seasonal changes.

For exact character-specific gear comparisons, simulations remain recommended.

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License

MIT License.

DK Mentor is an independent community project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment, Wowhead, Icy Veins, Archon.gg, Warcraft Logs, or any other third-party guide or data provider.

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Support the Project

DK Mentor is free and open source.

If you enjoy the addon and want to support its continued development:

Buy me a coffee:
https://buymeacoffee.com/bertuzzi

Thank you for supporting DK Mentor.