I’m in the starter area in the plague lands and when I cast the spell, it won’t teleport me after I click on the portal.
I recently leveled a new Death Knight and my death gate also did not work in the starting area, I needed to finish the entire questline and turn in the last quest to Mograine. (which required me to wait for him to respawn after the last event cause I went AFK for it and missed the normal chance)
I think it’s part bug part bad design decision, since Death Gate technically would warp you out of the starting area if you used it while in the starting location, which is why they used to only give it to you when you were turning in the quest to complete the starting area. That said if they really wanted to they could make it work just fine in the starting area.
It probably doesn’t work in the DK starting area because you originally didn’t get the Death Gate spell until after you completed the assault on Light’s Hope Chapel. You’ll need to rely on the circular podium underneath Acherus to get back aboard.
you have to finish the starter zone, and win the battle in front of Light’s Hope. Then wait out the lengthy RP sequence with the Lich King. At that point, they cast a death gate for you and you need to use that to continue/finish the DK starter quest line in Acherus