blizzard said that you will complete a quest which will unlock the ability for you to create a death knight, the catch is that the death knight will start out at a high level im guessing 60-70 and you will get to level him up to 80 from there as a seperate char

however, how he/she will be geared from that point or what spells and abilities will be available is unclear

Things Blizzard has already stated:
1.) Once you complete a high-end quest you will be able to make a new character with the new hero class.
2.) You will not lose acsess to your original character.
3.) You can still create standard characters.

Things this information could imply, I guess:
1.) This will be just like making a new character, with a different name even.
2.) I'm guessing all classes except Night elves, Dreanei, Tauren and trolls will be able to be Death Knights.
3.) A few more months into the development we'll learn that their including a second hero class, most likely the Necromancer. (as blizzard had originaly planed to include Necromancers and Death Knights in the game when it was first released.)

Actually, it has been stated that any race can be a death knight, even if it goes against lore. Everything else is right, though.

Go find and read the interview that Blizz gave about the class. The reason Horde and Alliance can play death knight classes is because after the started along the Death Knight path, they didn't like the other goals that went along with it so they broke off to join either Horde or Alliance.

Actually it would follow game lore for both side will have access to the Death Knight class because the very first death knights were in fact orcs who after being slain had there souls sealed in the body's of fallen knights of Stormwind by Gul'dan.  So perhaps human and orcs as death knights? Or maybe introduce a new race all together have have it so they just decide if they want to be Alliance or Horde

lol if you were to just take some time and rea dposts and other forums about the DK class you could kno just as much, as far as the runes go to answer sunandmoon, the runes that you attach to your sword let you use different abilites, and you can combine up to 6 different ones on a sword at one time, at leas thats what i have been hearing.

Do you have to have a toon a high enof lvl to do the DK quest or can u do it a lvl lvl 10 or something? Still night elfs said they would never use dark magic becuz they almost died of it so if night elfs could be DK would they be Illdian stormrages followers?

the post above asked if you have to be a certain level, yes you have to have a level 80 in order to get the quest. Blizz said that the quest would be similar to the warlock mount quest. But, no you do not give up your class, it's a completely seperate character.

guys every class would be able 2 become one and why cant tauren use dark power there also twilight dudes that r tauren

i think if it is a transition i would believe that they would make the races for this orc, troll, undead, bloodelf, nightelf, human, dwarf, and draenei {each of these are either paladins or human shape... death knights are suppose to be paladins that lost faith in the holy power and went to shadow} tauren cant cause their size and they have warriors but they would just be to overpowered and gnomes cause they are to small and most people will discourage a gnome death knight

All races can for fairness reasons. 

From my understanding of it, the Death knights when introduced will be badass for lack of a better term.  DPS Tanks?  Unreal.  There in lies the problem though.  Everyone will make their DK's, and the servers will be overrun with them, and in the next patch after Lich King comes out, they'll be nerfed to hell.  Me personally, I'll wait until the nerfing begins so as to avoid the annoyance of relearning how to play my character.  Just my thoughts on the whole idea.  Others?

Totally agree with above poster! ^ ^

That is true, but on the other hand the lvl 70 gear will be as useless as the lvl 60 gear went when The Burning Crusade was released... Still see your point though.

Sorry for ot!

actually.. blizzard stated they made a mistake when making the difference between 60 and 70 gear too great. so they now have said they are going to make 70 tier 4, 5, 6 equivalent or about the same as lvl 80 blues.  Its not going to be the same at all from 70-80.

apparently each account can have only one DK on a server

ur completely right thats a good idea

cause ally have a lot of pally classes is the exact reason that it shouldn't be only a pally racial thing. horde is the original side the deathknight was on i belive.

I am gonna have to agree with you guys on waiting to start until after nerfs, plus i think the quest is gonna be quite difficult so I'll just take my time and enjoy the game. Any thoughts ?

looks like there will be no quest... you just need at least one lvl 55+ char on you account to be able to create a new DK char on any realm (but only one per realm), faction doesnt matter. and it should be available to all races.

DKs will start on lvl 55 somewhere in plaguelands... probably where naxxramas is right now (naxx wil be moved to northrend). there will be a series of quests in the beggining to get you some better gear...

apparently they will use 2H swords and axes... and i think they will be able to dual wield. no shields.

they'll have a 60% mount from the beggining, at lvl 60 there'll be a quest from 100%, similar to pallys

but of course any of this can change :)

but what will happen once DK becomes playable? will it  become the next BE and how many people will stop playing their 70 and play the dk and try to get it to 80?

lol the bard class was just a joke

'I need more Rock power'

'That song is not ready yet'

'You need an instrument to do that'

Your Crazy Guitar Solo (rank 5) hits Arthas for 32 (2145425 resisted)
Arthas hits you for 340580698 (crushing)
You die

I agree with the person who said about level 55 death knight.
I think they will be like pallies but without healing and extra strength bonus etc.
I like the idea about the mount cos i cba paying 570 odd gold for riding u know. :S
I wonder wot a gnome death knight would look like?!
maybe a mini darth maul with a big duel sword?

If they make this class my frost mage is level 54 atm and ill b in the lvl 60s when WotLK comes out so ill prob make the death knight my main until they get nerfed

Deathknight will be available to all classes lvl 55 and up but I'm not sure if the Class wil be worth it.  Check out Youtube.com for more info. Good luck all.

I think that they will nerf DKs baddy because bad sports will compain that they are to OPed, well I say just go on your DK and kill ppl and if you are to low then stop pvping and lvl!