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Death Grip

Death Grip
30 yd range

Instant	25 sec cooldown

Requires Death Knight
Requires level 55

Harnesses the energy that surrounds and binds all matter, drawing the target toward the Death Knight and forcing the enemy to attack the Death Knight for 3 sec.

Enhanced Death Grip (Level 92+)
Reduces the cooldown on Death Grip by 5 sec.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Shadow

Mechanic

Gripped

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Special

Cost

None

Range

30 yards (Medium)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

25 seconds

GCD

1 second

Effect

Dummy
Server-side script

Flags

Requires untapped target

Guides

Blood Death Knight Guide

Death Knight DPS Guide
(Frost/Unholy)

Overview of
Tanking and
All Tank Specs

Shadow Priest Guide

Comments

Comment by frmorrison

Currently this spell will stop casting if this is used mid-cast.

This spell is helpful when AoEing, so you pull more mobs into the Death and Decay.

Comment by adamosen

i used this on a chicken and he started to attack me

Comment by Keene

Getting into melee range of a ranged class is but one of the uses the spell has. It acts as a (ranged) taunt on instances, interrupts spellcasting (as mentioned) and it's the ultimate spell to catch running mobs, since not only will it drag them back, they will be forced to attack you, giving you or the party time to finish them.

Additionally, dragging a flag carrier to his pursuers or a healer in the thick of melee should be a big help for BGs.

Out of all Death Knight's spells, this is is one of the most exiting ones to me.

Comment by DrPancake

so far this is the only Anti-Kiting ability a Deathknight has, and it's not much....

Use it on a Hunter? Wing Clip and for the next 34 seconds you're being kited again.

Use it on a Druid? Travel form away again and again, kited.

Mage? Blink

Like seriously, no snare or anything = fail. This is essentially a reverse Intercept, without the stun or the Spamstring that follows.

Comment by buickboy87

to comment on person that said no snare or anything, the DK tank tree is frost, what do we all know frost spells have a tendancy to do? thats right, slow the target, pretty sure somewhere in the DKs arsenal of frost spells there will be a slowing effect.

Comment by HOTempest

Heard that this spell could actually dismount people on flying mounts.

Comment by theydidntnameme

what i dont understand is how this cannot cost anything. its totally free (other then GCD i guess)

Comment by Zaan3

with this, & the black motif on the class items, I guess Darth Vader's gon be a popular Death Knight name (& yeah, I know, there can't be spaces, but players can make variations, like just using "Vader" as their character name, or just "Darth")

Comment by addictedtotoads

if you are standing on the opposite side of a gap.. could u deathgrip and cancel halfway? O.o

Comment by Osendis

But I think Strangulate(ranged silence) will be the thing that most gets the name Vader on Death Knights,"You're lack of faith distrubs me".

I recently saw a video of a glitch involving this and chains of ice- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYLPnIBn3Y0&feature=related . It seems that Chains of ice doesn't reduce you're vertical movement speed, so when you get Death Grip used on an enemy with Chains of Ice, they float upwards. This is an interesting bug, but will for sure get wiped out before the beta finishes, or soon after that....

Comment by meeckraube

lol eots?
ur runnin low on hp, target a guy, jump off the edge and DG him off with you? prob will be made unusable while moving to fix this but still, people are gonna find bad ways to abuse this one xD

Comment by 7598462153

This seems to be pretty much an equivalent to Taunt, but with a nice twist that makes it very useful in PvP. Similarly, it will be useful generally as a ranged pull and panic taunt for PvE, meaning that if you're needing it before the cooldown, you're probably doing it wrong. On the other hand, this is probably going to be used every time it's available in PvP, so the two points to reduce its cooldown would be more than worth it.

Comment by Bandeeto

I love this ability, it especially shines when targeting a hunter or druid trying to flee you, use this and then corpse asplode them while they're laying there dead lol.

Comment by killarth

the decent range is nice for keeping people off the flag i think my last check also said that chains of ice kicks people off the flags in ab and av
i know that useing hungering cold and maybe psychic scream in pvp at wsg flag can cc mass amounts of people for around 20 sec.

lol u can even still killing blows from melee classes like a shammy who has no way of cloasing the gap of this super fast (druids have cat charge rogue shadowstep wars got like 6 charges it seems) just yank them away and hit them with a fast icy touch and blood boil and death coil to finish them.

lol in my pvp realm i went to westfall at sent hill and @#$%ed off an alliance guy by yanking him b4 he could turn in a quest then i 1 shotted him it was really fun

Comment by withmyrice

I hear the affectionate nickname for this over on the Hunter forums is "Re-engage"!

Comment by Toastie

Macro this:

/script PlaySoundFile("Sound\\\\Creature\\\\HeadlessHorseman\\\\Horseman_Beckon_01.wav")

with Death Grip for epic win.

Comment by bloodseek

i don't know if this has been posted before but i'm sayin it anyways...

In WSG, you can use this to pull people to the balcony above the flag room on the second floor. I used to yank the enemy flag carrier to me and he didn't know what the hell to do, it was too funny.

Comment by Ritz

This spell can be reflected, causing you to be pulled towards your target.

Comment by shadowarror

Anyone use/been victum of Death Grapple? It's when 2 Death Knights stand at a high cliff and duel but don't attack each other. When they see you walk past and you're unfriendly, one of them jusmps off the cliff and Death Grips you, then the other one Death grips the DK that Death Gripped you. Very funny if you're not the victum.

Comment by synistrad

u can pull the flag wielder whit this ability in WSG?

Comment by EvilElpay

With Path of Frost, this is great for pulling enemies off of boats in the Strand of Ancients. Nothing more humiliating than having to swim back from the ocean.

Comment by Ingolfur

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Comment by Corbis

Lemme make this clear, everyone who doesn't play a DK, in PvP...FRICKEN HATES THIS SPELL. Good Day Unholy Sir.

Comment by Corbis

ALSO in group/PvP/quests I as a Paladin hate running halfway to the mob and the DK yanks the mob to him, making me have to turn around and run back...

Comment by Eviltwig

Druid + Nelf Death Knight x 2 = Perfect Arathi Basin LM Defence.

Stand the Druid within 4 yards of the edge, and have the deathknights right on the edge. All 3 use Shadowmeld.

Works with any class that has a knockback ability. The shorter the CD, the better.

Comment by Remord

PATHETIC DKS NERF OR ........ YOUR MUM!

Comment by kaykay

Remember Death Knights, ALWAYS open up with Death Grip. It's not like you might need it later or anything...

Really awesome uses:

1. Sneak up on someone, make sure they haven't seen you, then DEATHGRIP! The effect is hardly noticeable and it will take an extremely alert player to realize they are getting ganked by a DK.

2. Run up to almost melee range, then DEATHGRIP! BAM!

3. If you are outmatched, throw Chains of Ice on them and start running away... then turn around and DEATHGRIP! They'll never know what hit them.

4. If you see two or more of your teammates whacking away at a stunned enemy, DEATHGRIP ALREADY!

Comment by Meowth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2DnuxZ8SCQ
This happened to my friend when I deathgripped him on the Booty Bay boat. Seems like it's still a bit buggy. =)

Comment by Groundlord

(Can't believe nobody's posted this yet...)
The "drag" effect won't work on Bosses, even the pre-WotLK ones, but the Taunt effect works normally.

Comment by Aerim

I HATE YOU ALL :p

Comment by hetekos

too bad yu cant pull frendly players yu can bring yur flag carrier back to roof after he get yanked by an enemy dk

Comment by Thurrock

Just thought of a really evil application of this in PvP Arathi B if you happen to be an engineer. When defending the LM, target somebody who is around 75% health and leap off the edge. In mid-air death grip them, then apply your parachute and float over to the Blacksmith as they shell out gold for durability repairs ;-)

Comment by jcthekiller

thats a dam good spell

Comment by jcthekiller

thats a weird screen shot

Comment by Qonos

My apologies in advance if I come off as an elitist snob, but Disengage is effectively the anti-Death Grip, and any hunter who blows his Disengage CD before his DK opponent uses Death Grip is, well... not a very good Hunter.

Typical scenario: DK Death Grips, I immediately Disengage and Conc. Shot, resume kiting (replace CS with Wyvern if I need to bandage before resuming the fight). Since Disengage is on a lower CD (25 sec., 16 sec. with talent+glyph) than DG (35 sec., 30 talented), it should be a nobrainer to keep it ready and not blow it until the DK uses DG.

Comment by irascible

Here are some macros for Arenas/PvP:

Example 1: Hold down shift and have your mouse over your target to strangulate; otherwise, Mind Freeze your current target (melee range).

#showtooltip
/cast Strangulate, Mind Freeze

Example 2: Have the opposing healer targeted in a focus frame ( /focus ); Shift+Click to strangulate, otherwise, Mind Freeze current target.

#showtooltip
/cast Strangulate, Mind Freeze

Example 3: Also, a Death Grip w/ Mind Freeze is often helpful. If you have a Ghoul pet (unholy DK's) you can add the Gnaw in there (shift click to activate).

#showtooltip
/cast Gnaw
/castsquence Death Grip, Mind Freeze

Also, the most common:

#showtooltip
/castsquence Death Grip, Chains of Ice

Comment by Exelcior

Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in.

Comment by Clajjan

It has the power... to move you.

Comment by Orangsword

Do you start out with this move or do u buy it? I don't see a price above so I'm guessin it's a starter. I am not sure tho cause I'm yet to buy LK but am soon and just wondering.

Comment by Ghostyamine

Gayest thing ever Jesus Christ this is Charge on steroids.

Comment by Stunned

Worth noting that you CANNOT grip a mob in PvE if it has been tapped by another player.

Comment by Hubrex

this spell really does suck if you're not a death knight. it makes strategic positioning a futile effort. however, if you are a death knight, be aware that just because you are not next to the target you want to hit, doesnt necessarily mean you should use death grip. For example:
-There are 2 or more melee already attacking the target. I saw an enemy mage flag carrier being beaten down by 3 melee midfield wsg when a dk deathgrips him away at max range so he can get his selfish turn beating the mage. The mage deep freezes the dk, blinks away, trinkets the crippling poison, and caps the flag. If you use death grip at the wrong time it becomes a free blink for your target.

-Your teammate is fleeing the enemy in your direction. This has happened to me on multiple occasions. Some ret pally or whatever is beating the hell out of me so I kite them, often in the direction of a friendly plate wearer. Unfortunately my beefy friend is a DK so he death grips my pursuer. Now im running right into a two handed sword that used to be 30 yds behind me. Im sure death knights find this to be hilarious.

Comment by Dynnrad

Just when I thought I was out... they pulled me back in!

Comment by Crystufer

This got a pvp nerf it seems. Can't pull people down from things anymore. Or up to things. You have to be able to walk to them to death grip them. Can anyone else attest to this?

Comment by 13lacklight

What happens if 2 dks death grip each other at the exact same time? would they just switch places?

Comment by sunnycrab

This spell is one of the MAIN reasons, combined with chains of ice that makes DKs the overpowered class.

Comment by pallylock

Either this or chains of ice needs to be removed from the game I'm tired of dks deathgripping me into enemy packs then casting chains of ice while everyone else pummels away on me with their ccs.

Comment by bazanaka

As of 3.2.0 you CAN deathgrip stunned targets. I am not sure if this is intentional, or if it was just a temporary fix to the disconnect glitch.

Comment by Gohlusk

yet another little death knight trick that makes people hate them, no matter what the level.

Comment by Justdiespawn

Someone should write an addon with the "Get over here!" sound that the Mortal Kombat character Skorpion does to pull his enemy back.
Lol, would be really really funny to spam Death Grip and hear "GET OVER HERE! GET OVER HERE!"

Comment by oldiron79

DG is really fun when you are dk/really annoyng when against DK.

Other than the obvious keeping people from kiting you applications in a BG or arena you can use the DG to pull an enemy melee off of one of your friendly casters/healers

Comment by geordiesi

"Spell Reflect Up"

( Your DK can now Charge/Intercept )

Comment by AdjudicatorX2

Would it be possible to death grip a person who has been knocked backward by the shaman ability "Thunderstorm"?

If so... i can see a great deal of potential fun to be had >: }

First Possibility:
You get TWO Elemental Shamans (both with Thunderstorm) and another death knight and have the four of you stack on one another. When an enemy comes running (maybe your in arathi basin or something) have the first death knight death grip and just when the enemy is about to land have one of the Shamans pop thunderstorm. During the knockback of this thunderstorm death grip the person again and reel them in... and then - of course - pop the second shaman's thunderstorm. If you want, you might be able to get a chains of ice in there. Obviously this plan would NOT work well if you have high latency, and the impracticality of getting the characters (and potentially having less players to actually fighting to win the battleground) leave this tactic as more of a fun thing to do rather than an actual strategy.

Second Possibility:

This requires only one Elemental Shaman OR A Balance Druid (After the 3.2.2 update to Typhoon) and a group of any number of death knights (preferably 3+) which shouldn't be too hard to get considering death knights are everywhere...:
First off, stack up on eachother and wait for a big enemy push to the arathi basin lumber mill (best to use at the flag); if you have a moonkin then it's all the better - just have him/her Shadowmeld and wait. When they get in range, have all the death knights death grip a different enemy to the flag, and have the shaman/moonkin ready to Typhoon/Thunderstorm the enemies straight off the cliff!

Again, both these tactics are impractical at best... but still fun!

Comment by hetekos

what would be useful is to use this on frendly players. in wsg me and the FC are on the roof he gets pulled down to the floor and into a piranna pit of allys i wished i could have saved him or to mess with people in dalaran and such.

Comment by mixter

"2 DK's DG eachother at same time when they are at 10% HP"

/cast (insert DK melee pwnage ability here)

2. 2 dead DK's
3.?

4. profit

Comment by zachdog11

Blizz should put a 1 second stun on this cuz if i DG some mobs that can charge they are always able to charge me

Comment by dreadblood

for some reason whenever I use this all I can think of is devil may cry 4...

Comment by Turbocat

Well, this spell is nice satisfaction at BG's when shammys thunderstorms-you-out :D Nothing better than see their reactions after they get notified that they fly away as well as you :)

Comment by luckton

This is getting changed next patch to have an 8-yard minimum range.

Comment by Ksero

id just like to add if you are on anub in ToC and one of the adds tries to submerge off the ice, you can death grip it to you to interrupt the submerge. saved an alt raid i was doing where the tank wasnt paying attention.

Comment by mickezi

This ability really deserves it name "NOOB GRIP" :D

Comment by Mastrcapn

I had a similar idea. Got my Death Knight, as well as a friend's. We stood max range from each other and initiated a duel. We started mashing the buttons as the clock ticked down to the duel start and successfully traded places with Death Grip.

Comment by earthritual

After much consideration I have determined that this ability is OVERPOWERED AS HELL in a pvp setting. Nerf this *!@# already.

Comment by Muzzle248

If you are surrounded by DKs they could fight over you with DG

DK: He's mine!

DK: No he's mine!

DK: No mine!

DK: Give him to me!

DK: I deserve him!

You: AHHHHHHH!

Comment by Leviatharan

This ability is useless about 50% of the time when your target is not level with you.
What I mean is, try using it in WSG when the alliance are on the platform above you in the Horde base? They'll noclip on the ledge and you'll still have to run around the building after them. If you're on the platform and they're by the flag, however, it might work.
Try using it in WG when you're next to a cannon and trying to steal the killing blow from one of the rogues at ground level? Target won't come up, so don't bother.
Trying to pull the Silver Covenant Agent through the sewer pipe so you jump off and can drag them off Dal? Rather stupid idea for one if you don't have slowfall, and they'll noclip on the end of the pipe (and promptly reset) anyway.
Trying to pull that annoying Bot off a cliff for stealing your kills, see previous.
Try using it when at the beach and your target is in the water, nothing.
Try using it when you're on a HILL... you get the idea.
And of course, the pull is ineffective against large targets. The taunt, not so much.

Feel free to experiment with this spell, cause a large number of the 'endless possibilities' are unlikely to work.
The only way I can see that it would be 'overpowered as hell in pvp', is if you were stupid enough to get pulled into Drek'thar by not staying out of LoS of the DK right behind him.

P.S. Interesting tidbit, the lightning effect on it changes if the target is not pulled by the Death Grip, as if your DK is trying too hard to pull them. Instead of one bolt, it turns into, basically, Darth Sidius spamming the Force Lightning. If the target is tapped, however, no lightning effect; the spell doesn't intiate at all.

Comment by clovis6780

While many mobs, especially bosses, are immune to the grip effect but not the taunt effect, it may be possible that some mobs are susceptible to the grip effect but immune to the taunt effect.

I believe I observed it last night, but alas, I wasn't logging combat and I didn't think to check before I logged out.

Comment by Juling

Kinda off-topic, but I don't know if this has been said before, but I really want to get this off my heart to all the starter Death Knights out there.

Hi there! You may have just recently rolled a Death Knight and realized how insanely nice this ability is! A 35sec cooldown ability that grips a target to your location without having to move an inch! You'll be wearing that 'w'-key out a whole lot slower now!

However, I am going to say something that might, no, will blow your mind away. This ability is going to make you the most flamed human being on the planet. Why? Because every single time you use this on a mob or a player that is being attacked by another player on your faction, you are essentially flipping them the bird. As in, the middle finger.

I can not tell you how many times I have tanked in an Outlands instance with three dps Death Knights who continually Death Gripped one or more mob away from me while I was aoe-tanking, and then whine about me not doing a good job tanking because they died. I'm going to show all of you a nifty little trick here. See that fine print on the tooltip of the ability? The part where it says "forcing the enemy to attack the death knight for 3 sec."? That essentially means you just killed yourself.

This isn't just a problem in PvE though! On my toon Death Knight, I've been doing some pvp-ing in AB, WSG, EotS, etc., and I've noticed something peculiar. Whenever you beginners approach me and my target, you seem to mash this ability like there's no tomorrow. That's a baaaaad idea. Why is that? Because when you Death Grip my target away, and there's only the two of us, I can't Death Strike properly. That means I'll be dead, and you're suddently all alone. Which means, you just potentially killed yourself. Also, I've noticed how a lot of Death Knights use this ability while the enemy is about to be stun locked by a friendly rogue! It's funny watching the target fly through the air, isn't it? Not for the rogue. When you Death Grip an enemy away from a friend who's not dying or in trouble, it essentially means you just spat in their face, because it means they can't finish their rotations, and the enemy dies later than he might have.

Of course, if you are all alone in the world, and there's no one around, I'd like you to spam this ability to all your hearts content. Hell, you might as well fill your action bars with this one ability! But please, if you see a friend, and he's attacking a mob or an enemy player, walk up to the enemy and mash his face in with your axe instead of gripping him to you. It's much more beneficial to both you and your friend. And if the target looks like it wants to run away, why not use Death Grip then while it's off cooldown instead of blowing it immediately?

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day!

Comment by ComradeAlek

I've also noticed that this ability is used quite often on enemies who just happen to have low health. Strange indeed... Especially when the high KB scores are accompanied by low damage output.

Comment by Nezzar090

Proc things such as "Drain life effect" from Bryntroll, Killing Machine etc. can proc of Death Grip, seems like it counts as a autoattack which does no damage.

I once killed a level 30ish gnome by using Death Grip because Bryntroll procced, made me lol.

Comment by lockfacee

I dont know if this works still, but if there are two Dk's targeting someone, and use DG at the same time, the enemy gets flung into the air, funniest thing eva!

Comment by malijin

can someone tell if Death Grip can be resisted ?because i have resisted many times when i was on my priest and i had my pw:s on.

Comment by pierrechalfoun

The reason why Deathknights can't use Iphone 4's !

Comment by seahen

Keeps your friends close and your enemies closer.

Comment by seahen

If I hit this at about the same time as my Interact with Target key, I move a few yards and the target lands behind my back. Ironically, having my target behind my back was what I was trying to avoid by binding Interact with Target in the first place -- I have Click-to-Move turned on (couldn't have quit keyboard turning without it), and at maximum zoom it's hard to make sure my right-click hits the target and not a spot on the ground behind it.

Until I discovered this, I was trying to figure out a way to chain both commands to the same key (there doesn't seem to be a slash command for interact, and the promisingly-named function InteractUnit is protected), and thus have a panic button for when I lost aggro.

Comment by Reapper

Get over here!

Comment by Krisom

This ability is also useful for interrupting spell casting(not in the same way Mind Freeze does so), especially against casters who have a silence/interruption immunity buff on them, although this does not work on Shamans who have the Spiritwalker's Grace buff on them.

Comment by alshaitan

Sadly, this skill doesn't work with Flexweave Underlay. I was hoping i could dismount, use the cape and chute my way down to safety, and grip a target in midair, hopefully making it fall to its demise.

But i receive a message saying that i can't use this spell while moving, even if i can do it normally while walking.

Comment by ArMeDSuRvIvOr

According to the icon's name, the artwork for Death Grip's icon was originally intended to be used for Strangulate! It makes sense since it's two hands... attempting to Strangulate someone?

"spell_deathknight_strangulate" is the icon's name.

EDIT: Downrated? Sigh. Just click on Death Grip's icon and see for yourself...

Comment by xakumazx

To the people saying a hunter should never be able to kite a DK are so very wrong. Scatter and Trap in the beginning and distance yourself from the DK. Begin the kite. DK will not be able to hit you due to his short range abilities. He will be forced to Death Grip you. The hunter will Disengage THEN use masters call as the DK 99% of the time will cast chains of ice. The hunter's Post Haste will easily out range the DK. The hunter can also Silence the DK after the disengage to prevent any spam of Howling Blast. If the DK uses a pet stun, trinket immediately and continue the kite. By the time the DK's death grip is refreshed, the hunter's disengage, scatter, and trap, and silence will also have come off cooldown. If worse comes to worse, the hunter will immediately refresh all of his abilities with readiness.

Comment by SoooWhoCares

Death Grip can be pretty OP in PVP with all these buffs:
-> 25s CD, Kill = CD refresh
Charred Glyph -> 35y (!) range
Glyph of Resilient Grip -> endless grip on immune targets

Imagine a Warrior charging in at 35y to realize how evil that is.
And now realize that a Warri would then at least be surrounded by enemies while a DK graps you towards his allies.

Comment by Zenjiko

#showtooltip
/yell Get over here! (or C'mere!)
/cast Death Grip

Comment by Azerothi

Very annoying if a DK in your group keep using it and pulls threat away from you as a tank

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