Here's the crap from the SA thread about DKs... I cut/pasted the specs and yes it's ugly but I'm too lazy to fix formatting.
Hey it's 3.2 and it's the new Death Knight thread what do you know!!
Previous Threads:
Def Knight Megathread 3.1: ft. Run AMZ and Busta Rimes
The Death Knight Megathread IV: I kissed a Ghoul and I liked it
The Death Knight Megathread III: I'll death grip you off this cliffffffffff
The Death Knight Megathread II: Ghostcrawler Is My Copilot
The Death Knight Megathread: Blood for the Blood Rune!
1. Introduction to the class
* Death Knights are the new class in Wrath of the Lich King that utilize two new resource systems: Runes and Runic Power. In addition they...
o Have a third almost-resource: Diseases
o Wear Plate that is statted exactly the same as Warrior/Paladins
o Use two handed weapons for both tanking and damaging
o Are able to talent into having a ghoul buddy
o Are the easiest soloing class in the game. This means you can fairly simply solo old world bosses and the like.
o Have a lot of sweet lore that I'm going to skim over because I'm a powergaming baby, but I hear there's some pretty cool stuff written about them.
* How do I get a Death Knight?
You can create a Death Knight on any realm regardless so long as you have a 55 or greater character somewhere on your account.
* What do you get when you create a fresh Death Knight?
You start off as a level 55 character with green gear and 4x12 slot bags. You have 270 First Aid and high enough weapon skills to progress through the starting zone with no problem (Note: you will need to get the weapon skills for 1H/2H maces). The starting zone is designed in such a way that you will earn the talent points in addition to quest reward armor. The quests are quite simple in nature and will take roughly 1.5-2.0 hours to complete depending on traffic. Also you get an epic riding mount as early as level 55 via a quest reward. By the time you leave the starting zone with money gained from quest rewards, and spending on upgrading talents is roughly 30 gold.
* Should I go to Outlands/Northrend at 58/68?
Yes.
2. Talent Builds
* Leveling
55-80 Unholy Leveling Spec
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=2305000500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002302303300202152003150203133151&glyph=092527060504&version=10192 No idea what to level as? Intimidated by all of the talents? Nothing strike your fancy? Are you a wishy-washy flip-flopper who can't make a decision to save their life? Use this spec then. Faster mount speed, faster run speed, permaghoul, ridiculously fast killing speed, practically no downtime. Welcome to playing a Death Knight. NOTE: Blood and Frost can be used to level just as well. Experiment.
* Level 80 DPS
o 1) Blood
51/0/20 Blood DPS
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=2305020530003303231023101351000000000000000000000000000002301303050030000000000000000000&glyph=100608060504&version=10192 Use Death Strike to turn UF runes into Death Runes, then spam Heart Strike. You're going to want ArPen and armor debuffs from Warriors+Druids in order to really maximize this build's damage. Vampiric Blood is there as a nice buffer cooldown if things are going south, or during widespread raid damage. This is a rather flexible build - switching points around between Morbidity, Necrosis and Blood Caked Blade as well as filling out Epidemic gives you a lot of tweaking options. Don't be afraid to experiment.
o 2a) Blood Presence 2H Unholy
16/0/55 2H Unholy
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#_CJEhE9lP1PoqE,FQp,10482 USE THIS IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ~200 HASTE RATING. A solid 2Hander DPS spec that outshines the others (okay, slightly) in BiS gear. 3.2.2's changes to the Gltph of Scourge Strike means that Reaping and Epidemic are no longer necessary for top DPS, so the rotation for this spec looks something like this: IT PS SS BS BS DC DC. Simple, huh!
o 2b) Imp Unholy Presence 2H Unholy
14/0/57 2H Unholy
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#_CJy4C1tueEEg,FQp,10482 USE THIS IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN ~200 HASTE RATING. A solid 2Hander DPS spec that outshines the others (okay, slightly) in BiS gear. 3.2.2's changes to the Gltph of Scourge Strike means that Reaping and Epidemic are no longer necessary for top DPS, so the rotation for this spec looks something like this: IT PS SS BS BS DC DC. Simple, huh!
Dual Wield DPS
For dual-wield Frost specs, ALWAYS USE TWO SLOW WEAPONS. Dual-wield Unholy, it typically doesn't matter; just use the highest DPS weapons you have. Furthermore, keep in mind that if you're still leveling or you just hit 80 yesterday or something, these specs will generally be lower DPS than a 2handed spec.
o 1) Frost
0/53/18 Frost
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=0000000000000000000000000000320053503520030123000330013512302003050030000000000000000000&glyph=171318000000&version=10192 This spec's rotation focuses on using Obliterate as its main strike. Save KM procs for Rime. Use Frost Strike as the RP dump. USE BOTH DISEASES. Use FC/RI or FC/FC runeforges (FC/RI gives higher theoretical DPS on stationary targets, but FC/FC gives better DPS when you find yourself moving around between mobs or on a moving boss, which is most boss fights). Use the Sigil of Awareness Virulence.
Rotation: IT PS OB BS BS Dump | OB OB OB Dump
o 2a) Blood Presence Unholy
3/13/55 Unholy
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#8lcqPOuGx_Qv7,FQpeO3,10433 USE THIS SPEC IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ~200 HASTE RATING. This build will still have Unholy Blight and Death Coil as your highest damage attacks, followed by Scourge Strikes. In BiS gear, this spec is highest DPS, equivalent to Blood Presence 2H Unholy. Use the Sigil of Virulence.
Rotation: IT PS SS BS BB DC DC
o 2b) Imp Unholy Presence Unholy
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#8lcqPOuGxs_M7,FQpeO3,10433 3/13/55 Unholy
USE THIS SPEC IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN ~200 HASTE RATING. This build will still have Unholy Blight and Death Coil as your highest damage attacks, followed by Scourge Strikes. Use the Sigil of Virulence.
Rotation: IT PS SS BS BB DC DC
* Level 80 Tanking
Tanking while leveling up consists of equiping items with more stam on them (optional) and going into frost presence. AOE a little more than you usually do. Anyone can tank! That includes you! Always be prepared to tank an instance.
o 1) Blood
53/8/10 Blood Tank w/ Morbidity
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=2055320500303313201020131350305000000000000000000000000000052300000000000000000000000000&glyph=261012040605&version=10192 Blood's a great spec for tanking, with high survivability and a lot of cooldowns to pop when shit gets dicey. This particular spec has a bit of increased AoE in the form of Morbidity. The 3 points in Spell Deflection may be switched out with Subversion, Sudden Doom or Rune Tap. Place them wherever you feel you might need them.
o 2) Frost
12/54/5 Frost Tanking
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=0055020000000000000000000000325050003520331003002031313510050000000000000000000000000000&glyph=241820060504&version=10192 In 3.2.2, Frost tanking has received a buff via Unbreakable Armor getting changed to something worthwhile and Frost Presence getting bumped up to -8% damage reduction. Frost will do well for mitigating physical damage whereas Blood excels at straight-up damage soaking. If Blood doesn't appeal to you, give Frost a try. In 3.3, Blizzard will be adding Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle clones for 1h weapons, making DW Frost tanking completely viable. Right now, it can work threat-wise (since Threat of Thassarian now gives double Rune Strikes) but you'll be losing some stamina and gaining... very little additional avoidance in return. If you like it, though, by all means!
o 3) Unholy
10/10/51 Unholy Tanking
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=0055000000000000000000000000005050000000000000000000000002352320300200152033000203103150&glyph=250412060504&version=10192 You'll have workable single target threat and respectable magic mitigation. The downside is that you lose the array of cooldowns you get with Blood. Bone Shield's a nice proactive cooldown, though, and the reduction in magic damage taken can be useful for fights heavy in magic damage. As of 3.2.0, however, the nerfs to Scourge Strike combined with the loss of the old UhB make Unholy not-so-hot for tanking. If you want a great AoE tanking build, check out Frost. For single-target threat, give Blood a try. Unholy is just in a very strange place right now, but we'll see where 3.3 takes us.
3. Stat Weighting from Elitist Jerks
* Blood DPS
code:
Stat APE
Attack Power 1
Weapon DPS 9.89
Strength 2.89
Armor Penetration 2.75
Hit Rating (to cap) 2.51
Expertise Rating 2.47
Crit Rating 1.56
Haste Rating 1.5
Agility 1.37
Hit Rating (Spell) .52
Armor .03
* Frost DPS
code:
AP 100
Strength 261
Agility 114
Crit 144
Haste 126
Armor Pen 185
Expertise 347
Hit 388
Spell Hit 171
Weapon DPS 691
Weapon Speed 36029
2T8 12000
4T8 13076
2T9 26615
This stat weighting is for DW Frost, which is the de facto Frost DPS spec. "Spell Hit" is any hit rating over 5%. DW autoattack hit penalty is not worth considering.
* Unholy DPS
NOTE: THIS ASSUMES 4PC T9. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE 4PC T9, CRIT IS RATED SLIGHTLY LOWER - SAY 2.00.
code:
AttackPower 1.00
Strength 3.05
BeforeMeleeHitCap<8% 3.05
HasteRating 2.29
CritRating 2.10
ExpertiseRating 1.65
HitAfterMeleeHitCap 1.40
ArmorPenetrationRating 1.30
Agility 1.05
WeaponDPS 6.03
WeaponSpeed 238.1
4. Crazy Coefficents
code:
Ability Coefficient
Blood Boil 0.04
Blood Plague 0.055
Bloodworms 0.006
Death and Decay 0.0475
Death Coil 0.15
Frost Fever 0.055
Howling Blast 0.1
Summon Gargoyle 0.4
Icy Touch 0.1
Pestilence 0.04
Strangulate 0.06
5. Resource Utilization
* Runes:
You have three sets of two runes: Blood - Frost - Unholy. Each of your abilities will cost a certain amount of runes (or Runic Power). Each tree has a talent that will let you turn one or two of these types into another type: Death Runes. Death Runes are a wildcard rune and, as such, can be used for any Rune ability.Runes recharge in 10 seconds untalented, or 9 seconds if you're in Unholy Presence with Improved UP.
* Runes, if used within two seconds of recharging, will continue their 10 second cooldown. Example: An unholy rune refreshes (t=0), I use death coil (t=0), I use Plague Strike the next GCD (t=1.5), my unholy rune will refresh at t=10. This allows for a lot of leeway in rotations (as well as lag!).
* Runic power is generated by either using Rune abilities or casting Horn of Winter. Single rune abilities will generate 10 RP, Multi-Rune abilities will generate 15, and HoW will generate 10. Runic power is used by two main offensive abilities (Called the Runic Power Dump): Death Coil (if Unholy/Blood) and Frost Strike (if Frost). Gargoyle, Hungering Cold, Dancing Rune Weapon, and Death Pact also use Runic Power, though these abilities aren't used as frequently.
6. Rotations
All of the rotations can be used for both tanking and DPS, except in the former case you need to pay attention to your defensive cooldowns (and use them where appropriate).
* Crazy Jargon
PS: Plague Strike
IT: Icy Touch
BS: Blood Strike
SS: Scourge Strike
BB: Blood Boil
OB: Obliterate
RP: Runic Power Dump
DC: Death Coil
HS: Heart Strike
FS: Frost Strike
DrW: Dancing Rune Weapon
DnD: Death and Decay
Pest: Pestilence
* Blood
o Single Target
IT-PS-HS-HS-DS - RP
IT-PS-HS-HS-HS-HS - RP
DS-IT-PS-HS-HS - RP
HS-HS-HS-HS-DS - RP
o AOE
DnD-IT-PS-Pest - RP
DS-BB-DnD - RP
* Frost
o Single Target
IT-PS-BS-BS-OB - RP Dump
OB-OB-OB - RP Dump
o AOE
HB-PS-Pest-BB-IT - RP Dump
HB-BB-BB-OB - RP Dump
* Unholy
o Single Target
IT-PS-SS-BS-BS-DC-(HOW)-DC
IT-PS-SS-BS-BS-DC-DC
o AOE
IT-PS-Pest-DnD-RP Dump (for trash/generic AoE)
IT-PS-SS-Pest-BB-RP Dump (for "cleave" AoE such as Anub'arak)
6. Macros
*
Rune strike macro (it's off the GCD and reactive so this makes it easy) - Also you can substitute Plague Strike for whatever else you use.
#showtooltip Plague Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE")
/cast Rune Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE")
/cast Plague Strike
Thanks Moolissa!
*
Heal your pet
/cast [target=pet] Death Coil
*
/use 13 will activate your upper trinket if placed in a macro
/use 14 will activate your lower trinket if placed in a macro
/cast bloodfury(Racial) will use the orc racial every time it is cooled if placed in a macro
*
Hit it to DC your target, hold down alt and hit it to heal your pet
#showtooltip
/cast [nomodifier] Death Coil;[modifier:alt,target=pet] Death Coil
7. Runeforging
Runeforging is a unique skill exclusive to Death Knights that gives a weapon enchant at the cost of swapping them out at Ebon Hold.
Runeforge enchantments are outlined as follows:
Cinderglacier: provides a chance to increase damage of your next 2 attacks that deal frost or shadow damage by 20%
Fallen Crusader: 15% strength boost (total not base!) for 15 seconds and heals you for 3% health. Procs very often.
Lichbane: Increase damage against undead by 4% or adds 2% fire damage to everything else.
Razorice: Causes 2% of your weapon damage in frost damage and can increase frost vulnerability on the target.
Spellbreaking: (1 hander): deflects 2% of all spell damage and reduce the effect of silence effects by 50%
Spellshattering: deflects 4% of all spell damage and reduces silences by 50%
Swordbreaking: (1 hander) Increase parry chance by 2% and reduces disarm effects by 50%
Swordshattering: Increase parry chance by 4% and reduce disarm effects by 50%
Stoneskin Gargoyle: Increases Defense (note: not rating) by 25 and Stamina by 2%
Generally, you'll only be using Fallen Crusader/Stoneskin Gargoyle depending on if you're dpsing/tanking. Swordshattering is never superior to Stoneskin Gargoyle, though, due to SSG's +2% stamina and roughly equal avoidance (about 3% total avoidance). So don't use it unless for some reason you are insane and want to Frost DW tank, in which case use 2xSwordbreaking you wild and crazy guy.
8. Trade Skills
If you're looking for the best option stat-wise it's Jewelcrafting/Blacksmithing. If you're primarily a tank, Jewelcrafting/Mining will be slightly superior. Regardless of what else you do, I suggest becoming a Jewelcrafter -- The Dragon's Eye gems are ridiculously superior to normal gems though as of 3.2 they are no longer prismatic, meaning that you will have to actually choose which gems to use! Here's some suggestions:
* TANK META: Austere Earthsiege
* DPS META: Chaotic Skyflare
* DPS RED: Bold Scarlet (EPIC: Cardinal) Ruby
* DPS BLUE: Sovereign Twilight Opal (EPIC: Dreadstone)! Use two of these to activate your meta.
* TANK BLUE: Solid Sky Sapphire (EPIC: Majestic Zircon)
* TANK RED: Precise Scarlet(EPIC: Cardinal) Ruby / Guardian's Twilight Opal (EPIC: Dreadstone)
9. Enchants
Generally, for DPS you will want to enchant for whatever it is you need the most of.
* If you need more hit, enchant your gloves with Precision. If you don't, enchant them with Crusher.
* If your talent spec takes Necrosis and BCB, Haste > Agility on your cloak. Otherwise, Agility > Haste.
* If you aren't Unholy spec with Imp. Unholy Presence, put Tuskarr's Vitality or Cat's Swiftness on your boots. That extra run speed can save your life.
* Never put anything other than a Runeforge on your weapons. They are better than any enchant.
* Get your shoulder enchants from the Sons of Hodir (First tier at Honored, best enchants at Exalted). Well-geared tanks should consider the Greater Inscription of the Gladiator (bought for 10000 Honor Points) as it provides +30 Stamina and a bit of general damage reduction in the form of Resilience.
* For DPS, your head enchant is from the Knights of the Ebon Blade (Revered). For tanks, your head enchant is from the Argent Dawn (Revered).
* Tanks will want to put +22 Defense on their breastplates. DPS will want to put +10 to all stats.
* Don't use the Expertise enchants, they're really really terrible.
Author
for boosting overall raid dps. Blood has been doing more overall single target for a patch or two and I'd spec it if I could get someone else consistently applying +13% spell damage. 