Rolling a Death Knight as a New Main? Infos to help!

[Dewdrop]

Hit 68 last night on my DK and hopped the zep to Borean Tundra. This is definitely the way to go. I think it took me 3 hours of /played to go from 68-70 and was almost laughably easy. Did all the WSH quests (up through the quest reward blue item deal, nice axe), then Amber Ledge -> Coldarra and completed all the Coldarra quests. On my server most of these zones are DK's only and some stragglers but there was very little competition for mobs. DK's mow through Northrend mobs about as easily as Outland mobs. Still spec'd unholy, its just awesome for leveling.

I'm really loving my DK even more now than I was on beta. Now I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of Northrend!

For Reference: Took me about 28 hours of played time to reach 70. No rested experience to speak of and no grinding, just questing.

[Righ]

Not surprising. Right now DKs are strong. Ret is just insane though.

Having said that, you might wanna try unholy or frost. I found blood to be the least fun as you're basically spamming one button.

I have to disagree with this. DKs are every bit as "insanely overpowered" as retadins right now. If you're not finding them to be so, you're probably making common mistakes. Spamming one button would be one of those common mistakes. DKs are all about ability rotations. As you use abilities you use runes. Spam one ability and you are doing white damage while waiting out a 10 second cooldown. Once you get a decent rotation for any of the major talent builds, you'll be doing huge damage while healing yourself - and its not this nonsense 'stop killing and heal thyself' nonsense that pallies are forced into, but a constant income of fairly serious healing while you're still knocking the crap out of everything in your path. Any elite within three levels of you that doesn't have some instagib DPS trick and a shitton of health can be farmed solo without any break from your usual routine.

[AcidCat]

DKs are all about ability rotations.

I'm still getting used to it. I frequently glance up and notice I have a full runic bar going to waste. And I was questing in Hellfire for about an hour before I realized I had totally forgotten about Bone Shield.

[WindupAtheist]

I just miss the shit out of my bubble anytime I'm on a character that doesn't have it. Having to wait for elevators instead of just bubbling and diving off a cliff is such a pain. 

[K9]

Levitate ftw.

[MrHat]

Levitate ftw.

Reincarnation ftw.

[Fordel]

Glyph of Levitate ftw.

I fixed it!

[WindupAtheist]

Levitating gently to the ground or self-rezzing after going splat are not nearly as awesome as plummeting from as high as your flying mount can take you, watching the ground slowly close in, then bubbling and landing lightly on your feet like you just hopped down off the curb.

[MrHat]

Pretty sure I found a bug w/ the DK and the talent that lets you rise as ghoul when you die.

Go into an instance, fight some mobs, die, rise as a ghoul.  Zone as a ghoul.  When you leave the instance, you have full health and are back to your regular DK self.

[Koyasha]

Levitating gently to the ground or self-rezzing after going splat are not nearly as awesome as plummeting from as high as your flying mount can take you, watching the ground slowly close in, then bubbling and landing lightly on your feet like you just hopped down off the curb.

Personally I always imagine I would leave a crater when I do that.  Or at least cracks in the pavement.

Levitating ALL THE TIME now that the spell doesn't require a reagent, with the minor glyph, is awesome.

[Draegan]

I still can't get the hang of AOE with unholy.  I had a much easier time of it as Blood since Pestilence/ BB were easier to get off with your unholy and frost runes turning into death runes 100% of the time.  With pestilence losing that one UH rune really fucks up your damage rotation for the Unholy spec.

I have been leveling an Unholy DK, having a blast, as for AEing.

Start with PS, IT, then Pestilance to spread the diseases to the other mobs, drop a death and decay if its ready, and also Unholy Blight. You can then use the Blood Boil and just go to town single target. You should have the talent that makes it so you have a chance equil to your crit chance for your single target abilities to trigger a AE effect.

I can take around 5 equal level mobs no problem, and have gone as high as 8.

This.  I found out last night I totally forgot to put point into Wandering Plague.    I got 1 point in it now at 67.  I found that once you gather all your mobs, popping D&D first then PS>IT>Pestilence>UB is the best way to go.

[WindupAtheist]

I have to disagree with this. DKs are every bit as "insanely overpowered" as retadins right now. If you're not finding them to be so, you're probably making common mistakes. Spamming one button would be one of those common mistakes. DKs are all about ability rotations. As you use abilities you use runes. Spam one ability and you are doing white damage while waiting out a 10 second cooldown. Once you get a decent rotation for any of the major talent builds, you'll be doing huge damage while healing yourself - and its not this nonsense 'stop killing and heal thyself' nonsense that pallies are forced into, but a constant income of fairly serious healing while you're still knocking the crap out of everything in your path. Any elite within three levels of you that doesn't have some instagib DPS trick and a shitton of health can be farmed solo without any break from your usual routine.

"Stop killing and heal thyself"

lol

I spent the better part of an hour last night ripping through equal level mobs as fast as I could run to them, with virtually zero downtime except for throwing an insta-cast flash heal on myself after the mob dropped. The last time I had to bother bubble/healing was while soloing a "suggested players: 3" quest boss plus a couple of random adds.

[Morfiend]

Hit 70 on my DK and borrowed some money from the guild bank, I now have my flyer with epic flying speed. The DK flyer looks like an undead armored chicken, and runs like a weird dog.

[Draegan]

After looking around I think I'm going to respec my Unholy DK and put a few points in different spots.

I'll be going with something like this: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMVZZfMhhxckgcoMcsut

Also right now I have the Ghoul and Boneshield glyphs.  I think I'll be swapping out the Boneshield for the Deathstrike one.  I always forget to keep putting up boneshield.  I should macro it to one of my attacks like Plague Strike.

After hitting 67 I get Rune Strike I think.  Anyone have any good macro's for it?  I'm thinking about putting it on Blood Strike or Scourge Strike since I spam those the most. 

[Morfiend]

After hitting 67 I get Rune Strike I think.  Anyone have any good macro's for it?  I'm thinking about putting it on Blood Strike or Scourge Strike since I spam those the most. 

Rune Strike seems not very good. It seems to be tired to auto attack not an instant so it constantly slows down my rotation. Then again, I could be doing it wrong.

[Merusk]

After hitting 67 I get Rune Strike I think.  Anyone have any good macro's for it?  I'm thinking about putting it on Blood Strike or Scourge Strike since I spam those the most. 

Rune Strike seems not very good. It seems to be tired to auto attack not an instant so it constantly slows down my rotation. Then again, I could be doing it wrong.

Yeah it's next melee, but I *think* you can tag it and then continue the rotation.  I have been, and I haven't noticed it going away without going off.

[Draegan]

Yeah, it's like Heroic Strike and not on a GCD so I think it's spamable.

[Morfiend]

Yeah, it's like Heroic Strike and not on a GCD so I think it's spamable.

Humm. It didnt seem to be to me. Maybe it was just timing, but I hit Rune strike, and then right after Blood Strike to test if that was the case, and the second I hit BS, it unhighlighted RS.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, it's like Heroic Strike and not on a GCD so I think it's spamable.

Humm. It didnt seem to be to me. Maybe it was just timing, but I hit Rune strike, and then right after Blood Strike to test if that was the case, and the second I hit BS, it unhighlighted RS.

It has some weird display issues, but it'll still go off. At least it does for me.

[Draegan]

Yeah, it's like Heroic Strike and not on a GCD so I think it's spamable.

Humm. It didnt seem to be to me. Maybe it was just timing, but I hit Rune strike, and then right after Blood Strike to test if that was the case, and the second I hit BS, it unhighlighted RS.

I'm only going by what I've read, I hit 67 last night before logging off so I havn't seen it yet.  I'll be testing some macros later.

[dd0029]

Rune Strike is really good.  It think you could make arguments it too good.  It had it critting for 3k+ at 67 in crappy quest greens.  Running Utgarde Keep at 70 with a shaman and an arms warrior for buffs, I saw it crit once for over 6k. Its queable and does not use the GCD.  I found the tooltip to be a bit unclear, but it triggers when you parry or dodge.  So, when you are not the tank, it will not light up.  Since it does not tie up the GCD, the conventional wisdom is to macro it to every strike so you won't have to worry about hitting yet another hot key. 

IE:

#showtooltip Heart Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Heart Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");

[Draegan]

Thats what I was thinking of doing.

What does the /script thing do?

[dd0029]

Removes the you don't have enough whatever error message before you fire the skill and then turns it back on.

[Draegan]

Oh thats nifty.

[dd0029]

Note about macro'ing Rune Strike:  I was reading on one of the EJ DK threads that tanking can be situationally difficult using the macros as you may not have the RP to use some of the AoE or other high threat abilities in a timely fashion.  You might want to set a second page/bar to have non macro'd versions for tanking situations

[Draegan]

Good point.

[Hawkbit]

Unholy Blight (51pt unholy) uses rp for aoe abilities.  If you spec frost, you don't use rp for anything while tanking.  Supposedly, Rune Strike can be macrod without issue.  So I hear. 

[Draegan]

Those macros work amazingly well, except I can't see the cooldown anymore in numbers on my toolbar.  However Runic Strike is OP.

[dd0029]

About the cool down numbers, that I am unsure.  I use the mod cooldown count for larger numbers.  Are you using the right #showtooltip for the underlying strike?  You want to nest Blood/Heart Strike under RS because RS does not trigger the GCD.  That means you need to use the #showtooltip if you want a different associated icon, etc, because by default macros show the tooltips for the first listed skill.

Last night was my first experience with the macros and they are indeed pretty sweet.

On the no RP for Frost, I thought it was Howling Blast, which is apparently some very hot stuff for the tanking, was RP based, but I see its actually the talented strike, Frost Strike, that is RP based strangely enough.  Not sure how I'd use Rune Strike considering that.

[Draegan]

Hmmmm You know what I may have some typos in there now that I think about it.

[Dewdrop]

Unholy Blight (51pt unholy) uses rp for aoe abilities.  If you spec frost, you don't use rp for anything while tanking.  Supposedly, Rune Strike can be macrod without issue.  So I hear. 

If you are tanking for frost you will most certainly be using Frost Strike (40rp) as your main RP burn. However, Rune Strike spam will usually take precedent, but its certainly untrue that you have no RP burn as a frost tank without macro'ing Rune Strike. The only tank that shouldnt macro RS is a Unholy tank, for the reason stated above, UB > RS, especially in any AE tank situation.

[DraconianOne]

Finally decided to roll a Death Knight and see what the fuss is about.  Haven't got anywhere yet but did find a book called "Guide to the Side Effects of Reanimation" in the starting quest hall which was very amusing.  Worth spending 60secs of your life reading.

[WindupAtheist]

Pasted off wowwiki. 

Guide to the Side Effects of Reanimation

Welcome to the Scourge. Now that you have entered your true service, you may find immense relief in your liberation from various mortal inconveniences. No bothersome sleeping to take up your time anymore, nor any great need for shelter from the elements, and you are even free from the mild irritation of cutting hair and nails! How delightful!

However, there are a few, almost insignificant, details to being undead:
Keep an eye on your rotting. Some is all very well to scare your foes, but an arm falling off mid-stab is just embarrassing.
Learn to love your stench. Some say foul, we say rawrr.
Avoid living animals, especially dogs.
Heed your unintelligibility. Should you misplace your lower jaw, you may be reassigned to a position where gurgling is not amiss, and few of those hold any prestige.
Alcohol is simply not the same. My apologies.
A bloodbath a day keeps the living away (although adding bubbles is frowned upon).
Avoid pastels. They simply do not work with our coloring.
Those pants will no longer make you look fat.

[Hawkbit]

Unholy Blight (51pt unholy) uses rp for aoe abilities.  If you spec frost, you don't use rp for anything while tanking.  Supposedly, Rune Strike can be macrod without issue.  So I hear. 

If you are tanking for frost you will most certainly be using Frost Strike (40rp) as your main RP burn. However, Rune Strike spam will usually take precedent, but its certainly untrue that you have no RP burn as a frost tank without macro'ing Rune Strike. The only tank that shouldnt macro RS is a Unholy tank, for the reason stated above, UB > RS, especially in any AE tank situation.

Somehow while theorycrafting I missed the whole 'frost strike has 40 rp' thing.  So yeah, I'm smoking crack.  Thanks for straightening me out.

[DraconianOne]

Pasted off wowwiki. 

Good find. Should've known they'd have it on there.  After reading that, I spent a little while finding all the other books in Archerus. Some very amusing ones to find.  I especially liked the following trilogy:

On Scholomance

On Stratholme

On Naxxramas

Plenty more to find and most of them are very amusing.