What would be the iconic race for deathknight?

[Minikin]

As the title says:

For druids - night elf/tauren
for shaman - orc/troll
for paladin - draenei/human
for demon hunter - night elf/blood elf
for warrior - Orc/tauren/dwarf
for hunter - blood elf/night elf...the cinematic shows a dwarf hunter but my mind throws an error code picturing that.
for mage - blood elf/void elf
for monk - pandaren
for warlock - Orc
for rogue - tauren....nahhhh....i dont know some elf? human? goblin?
for priest - human/draenei/undead from the shadow side

what would a deathknight best fit? Human due to Arthas and Lorderon? Blood elf? Since so many of them got annihilated when he hit QT? Orc? cuz they were technically the first with Teron but we know azerothian dks are a bit different than those.

[apustus]

Probably human.

Called Ãrthäsz

[Lupinemancer]

I'd say Human or Orc

[Varodoc]

Old DKs (Veteran of Third War): Human. They are the race that lost the most men during the Third War. However if I'm not mistaken the Human DK is still from Stormwind, cause in that one quest where they talk about your past they say you're from Elwynn.

New DKs (Veteran of Fourth War): Either Kul Tiran or Zandalari. Amongst the allied races, they're the ones that lost the most men during the two main conflicts of BfA (faction war/war against Old Gods), and so the most likely to have been raised by Bolvar. Plus Kul Tiras and Zandalar were the main battlegrounds of BfA, with many bloody battles taking place there.

[Fawkess]

Thinking Human or Orc, feel the most natural and both have the most connection to the lore

[sam86]

the most iconic for me is human, and i'm pure horde, but i still consider the most iconic DK is the lich king Arthas, and he was human
even his failure of successor was also human Bolvar

- - - Updated - - -

also ur list is very generous
druid : nelf
shaman : orc
paladin : human
DH : nelf
hunter : very generic race, half of wow races can fill here
warrior : same story, also if u want to go berserker/fury warrior orc, but i can't see orc as protection warrior
mage : human (thanks to jaina, even if historically elves are far superior in general)
monk : pandas
warlock : orc
rogue : undead, the best rogue ever
priest : human mostly, but still generic class to be iconic for a single race

[Kyphael]

Human, just because Ner'zhul is technically the first, he didn't even have a body anymore at that point and was just a tortured spirit. Arthas is iconic and so widely recognized as a Death Knight, most people relate DK origins with him.

- - - Updated - - -

And just for fun.

druid : Night Elf
shaman : Orc
paladin : Human
DH : Night Elf
hunter : Tauren
warrior : Dwarf
mage : Blood Elf
monk : Pandaren
warlock : Orc
rogue : Human
priest : Draenei

[Sekach]

Human, just because Ner'zhul is technically the first, he didn't even have a body anymore at that point and was just a tortured spirit. Arthas is iconic and so widely recognized as a Death Knight, most people relate DK origins with him.

Teron Gorefiend is the first Death Knight not Ner'zhul and certainly not Arthas. Even so he only became a Death Knight once in a human body so humans are still the most iconic in that role.

[Mirishka]

DK is human without a doubt.

Demon Hunter: night elf
Druid: night elf
Hunter: hard to say, anyone can do it. Maybe dwarves with their guns?
Mage: human (Jaina) or gnome (renowned for their brilliant minds)
Monk: Pandaren obviously
Paladin: human, honorable mention to Blood elves/Draenei
Priest: human probably
Rogue: blood elf (Valeera imo is the iconic WoW rogue)
Shaman: orc, with trolls/tauren as runner up
Tinker (class in W3 so I'm going with it): obviously gnome/goblin
Warlock: going with orc since Gul'dan is the first name that springs to mind
Warrior: orc or human (Varian)

[Villager720]

It's definitely orc and human.
Hell, the Lich King was an orc who fused with a human.

[ravenmoon]

As the title says:

For druids - night elf/tauren
for shaman - orc/troll
for paladin - draenei/human
for demon hunter - night elf/blood elf
for warrior - Orc/tauren/dwarf
for hunter - blood elf/night elf...the cinematic shows a dwarf hunter but my mind throws an error code picturing that.
for mage - blood elf/void elf
for monk - pandaren
for warlock - Orc
for rogue - tauren....nahhhh....i dont know some elf? human? goblin?
for priest - human/draenei/undead from the shadow side

what would a deathknight best fit? Human due to Arthas and Lorderon? Blood elf? Since so many of them got annihilated when he hit QT? Orc? cuz they were technically the first with Teron but we know azerothian dks are a bit different than those.

I also see highborne night elf/nightborne as mage. But highborne doesn't have a unique customisation on night elf atm, so it's only from lore knowledge.

[Minikin]

Teron Gorefiend is the first Death Knight not Ner'zhul and certainly not Arthas. Even so he only became a Death Knight once in a human body so humans are still the most iconic in that role.

i believe @Kyphael meant the lich king rather than deathknight.

[StillMcfuu]

Umm.... Human or Orc, technically the first DKs were Orcs, but they were in Human bodies. We obviously have Arthas and a good majority of DK NPCs are Humans. Outside of Dranosh Saurfang, I can't really recall a famous Orc or non-human DK.

Also off the OP, Undead and Blood Elves are easily the most iconic Rogues. Ironically, I don't even think there are too many famous Undead Rogues, unless you are a long time Horde player and are familiar with questing NPC. Valeera being the obvious HighElf/Blood Elf famous Rogue.

[Syegfryed]

human and orc, because ner'zhul, the first and second death knights

[deenman]

Thinking Human or Orc, feel the most natural and both have the most connection to the lore

personaly i always liked undead dk lol,they still count as human lore wise

[Highelf]

As the title says:

For druids - night elf/tauren
for shaman - orc/troll
for paladin - draenei/human
for demon hunter - night elf/blood elf
for warrior - Orc/tauren/dwarf
for hunter - blood elf/night elf...the cinematic shows a dwarf hunter but my mind throws an error code picturing that.
for mage - blood elf/void elf
for monk - pandaren
for warlock - Orc
for rogue - tauren....nahhhh....i dont know some elf? human? goblin?
for priest - human/draenei/undead from the shadow side

what would a deathknight best fit? Human due to Arthas and Lorderon? Blood elf? Since so many of them got annihilated when he hit QT? Orc? cuz they were technically the first with Teron but we know azerothian dks are a bit different than those.

Druids: Night Elf only
DH: Night Elf only
Paladin: Human only

[Shadowferal]

When I first made a dk, he was human.
But I thought worgen was a better fit, so deleted human. (I liked the starting zone for dk so going through it all was good)

[Razion]

Forsaken I think embodies the WC2/WC3 DK unit best, especially with SL offering the skin cover option for particularly a WC3 look. You can get pretty close to the WC2 unit look if you use T14 and T18 (or even S13 or WLS2/3) transmog if you need a skeleton face or the cowls that obscure the face respectively. There isn't much in the way of good plate robes or other weapons that look like staves that match the WC2 look, though, at least as far as I've found. And while they were an orc unit originally, to me they only really sounded orcish and always just looked more 'dead' than anything else. (Especially when the portrait had the skeleton head instead of the mask-cowl.) Arthas and WC3 DKs did look a lot more Human than Forsaken, admittedly, but I still think the original idea and theme of being dead lends itself better to the fantasy of being a dead knight in control of death - kind of embodying the reaper and all that. (Probably why they kind of made it wields staves - to take after scythes probably.) Also probably more appropriate to WC3 to be Forsaken, because the entire rest of the Scourge is dead and everything.

However if the theme you're going for is a Death Knight raised by Arthas, most of his kills would probably be from Lordaeron... so to me that screams Forsaken, and Human DKs I'd probably say are more of the kingdoms that the plague didn't really impact as much - like Stormwind.

If we're just talking pure iconography, I think Worgen DK is really cool. The Worgen were already used by Arugal to specifically fight the Scourge, so the idea that its enemy gets killed and raised by it I think is really symbolic, although I think the idea of the Forsaken DK can hit the original concept visual a lot better. The Forsaken is a little bit less believable if you're running with the went Forsaken then fought Scourge then got raised plot given by the NPCs, but I think the Worgen story provided of being used by Arugal to fight the Scourge and ended up falling to them and being raised is kind of typical for enemies of the Scourge who would then be raised.

So I think it makes a lot of sense that the player selection screen kind of gives you that DK option for Worgen as kind of the default combo. It's very appropriate that Worgen, almost kind of introduced entirely to fight the Scourge, would be raised by it. I guess the seasonal World Events that have you target players tend to point players in the direction of Human, Forsaken, or Orc DKs, but I guess they also point to Worgen DKs as well so it's kind of toss up between them all honestly.

If we're just talking about to play though, I don't find Worgen or Forsaken swing weapons for their animations all that great, so I stick to Orc myself. The Orc racials match the DK really well, but no doubt the Worgen Darkflight is super great when you're Unholy with Death's Advance and Wraith Walk... but then I find myself missing Command. It can be pretty hard to decide. I think of all the recently introduced Allied Races Vulpera are really fun animation-wise, but they probably don't fit stereo-typically. Void Elf would probably fit the most, thematically. There are even a handful of DK-related quests you can find that reference Void magic, so it's not completely out of left field that an elf that dabbled in and mastered the Void would find themselves tied up as a DK somehow... though nowadays the Void is almost completely separated from DKs so it's pretty loose connection at best.

[Aeula]

Human or Blood Elf depending on faction. The two races who suffered the most at the Scourge’s hand and the ones with the most reason to go after their former master.

Granted playing a DK in general doesn’t make sense to me anymore now they’re all Bolvar’s slaves. Legion kinda fucked any love I had for the class fantasy.

Back when I cared those were the only two I would play.

[therealstegblob]

Rogue: blood elf (Valeera imo is the iconic WoW rogue)

As someone who plays a Blood Elf Rogue: no