So you want to dps as a death knight and look like a complete and utter noob, I won't lie DK is not an easy class to get good at. An idiot can pull some numbers with it but overall to pull the highest of the high one must know the class inside and out. Before we move on though one must know the strengths and weaknesses for each spec as to when to use each spec.
Key: ScS= Scourge Strike
HS= Heart Strike
Pest= Pestilence
KM= Killing Machine
BS= Blood Strike
IT= Icy Touch
PS= Plague Strike
DS= Death Strike
DC= Death Coil
OB= Obliterate
HoW= Horn of Winter
General
Pros: Can take the most punishment in a melee enviroment and can infact sometimes ignore mechanics that force melee out.
Atm doing 3rd highest parses in icecrown as a hybrid (behind spriests and fury wars)
High sustained dmg, and overall good aoe dmg.
Cons: Has the weakest burn dps out of all melee with only one spec (blood) beating out some of the lower melee burn classes (mut rogues).
High ramp up time on changing to new targets if blood runes are not up (10 second CD) and are not within 20 yards.
Rotation is easily interuptable and if so is the biggest dps loss outside of mutilate rogues when broken.
Sometimes trash mobs or kill targets die before we can get our diseases up (double the dmg of our strikes and make them worthwhile)
Gimped in any fight were mobs dispell their own debuffs
Blood
Pros: Highest burst.
Has easiest time changing targets with often times having 6 blood runes at a time
Arguably the easiest rotation to master out of all the dk specs.
Cons: AoE dmg with more then 2 targets is shite
CD managment is only way to improve dps outside of gear once rotation is learned.
Can get boring
No utility and group buff while nice is commonly brought
Lowest dps until insane levels of gear (we are talking ICC 25 heroic)
Unholy
Pros: Greatest overall aoe dmg, and tying frost for single target dps in average gear levels
Highest durability of all 3 specs
Cheats built in aoe limiters (think faction champions)
easily spreadable Curse of elements (duh)
Half it's dmg is magical
Free mind freezes
Cons: Half it's dmg is magical
Lowest burst of all dk specs
tied for hardest to switch between targets for dps (tied with frost as the rotation is so similar)
CD is lackluster at best
Frost
Pros: a solid balance of dmg both physical and magical, aoe and single target, and a signifigant amount of burst in it's base rotation.
Competing with unholy in most fights and at the insane top end levels of gear is just barely below blood.
3.3.3 Glyph of disease allows the spec to become a lot more mobile and easy.
Free mind freezes
Cons: Using 2 onehanders you don't get as much str and ap as the other two builds, plus getting 2 one handers in the first place is a PITA (trust me I know I'm trying right now)
NO CDS ADSFLKA; other then a 20% str for 20 seconds that costs a rune which if used at the wrong time can cost dps.
Group buff is commonly brought (windfury)
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SpecsAs you can see spec is everything to a dk and due to our rune system each spec offers a unique combination of moves, some rotations are interchangeable and just use different name for the same basic move (In terms of dps Death strike=Scourge Strike=Obliterate as both take a frost and an unholy rune)
BloodAt the moment the current single target champion at high gear levels is blood, blood is a spec which uses several smaller hits in a single rotation with all it's talents and stats used to prop that single move up, what is that move you ask? Heart Strike, the one and all cleave of ccbreakiness. It costs one blood rune and yet can do sometimes as much damage as a scourge strike (I've personally experienced 14k heart strikes with all trinkets up and such while ScS typically deals 10-11k)
The most in use spec atm is
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMqI0Icbof0stZfMhhxM:pIGVMm the points in unholy can be rearranged a little but in general this is what you would want. Note glyphs are included in the link.
As for rotation, as stated before blood has the simplest rotation of all. For your first two rune refreshes it should look something like
Death Strike (DS)>Icy Touch (IT)> Plague Strike (PS)>Heart Strike (HS)>Pestilence (Pest)>Death Coil (DC)> HS>HS>DS>HS>HS>Pest>HS
At this point if it's early in the boss fight and you know you will stay on the boss, along with know Heroism won't be used for atleast 5 mins in (anub arak) pop empowered rune weapon to refresh your rotation to be even tighter but it should follow this general format regardless for now on.
HS>Pest>DC>DS>DS>HS>HS>HS
And repeat until boss drops shinies. Also to note that is you find yourself with an empty GCD (Global cooldown) to use deathcoil.
Cooldowns: As blood you have 3 effective cooldowns, Hysteria one of the best buffs in the game as it increases all physical dps by 20% and can be cast on other people meaning if some physical dps (Marks hunter, Warrior, Rogue) is significantly ahead of you pop it on him. Though note out of those physical dps only marks hunter has no CD that overlaps hysteria, so be careful on who you use it on during burn phases. If no one is present or your near the top, congratulations you can use it on yourself.
Dancing Rune Weapon is our second CD and while kind of wimpy it still provides some epic burst. The weapon when summoned takes a snap shot of your stats and uses it for the duration of the CD therefore it is important to note when in the encounter your shaman will use heroism and how many DRW you have roughly before he pops it. If you have enough time for the cooldown to expire before using heroism by all means use it. However when heroism is used use it right away with a speed pot if you have enough money and pray your procs which use Internal CDs are up. With that you will have an insanely fast weapon and hard hitting weapon which for the time of heroism can translate to a 1k dps increase.
FrostFrost is our dual wield tree and atm is with buffs acting as strong as the other two specs while offering a dynamic play style and in some fights pulling ahead of the other two specs,
this comes at the disadvantage of trying to find two decent one handers to play the spec with.
The current spec with the highest mathematical value is:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight#8lP1Q6ZMH_t4pi,IaS3eO,11685 (glyphs included again) however some points in frost tree can be shifted a little a if one finds the need for utility, though not the do not miss talents are: Rime, Killing Machine, Frost Strike, Threat of Thassarian, Nerves of Cold Steel, Howling Blast, Icy talons, and Imp Icy Talons
Your first come first serve rotation:
Cooldowns: What stinking Cooldowns? You time for heroism and every 1 minute to hit blood tap and unbreakable armor.
UnholyUnholy is the disease spec, the only spec which has any raid utility of any kind with a free easily spreadable Curse of Elements, unholy is a force to be reckoned with. Instead of relying on quick bursts like frost or blood it likes to rely on mediocre physical strikes with dots backing up all of it's damage. If you are not good at managing dots this is not the spec for you. Managing dots is the only way this spec can break 6k dps, so learn your dots and how to keep them up as much as possible.
Current spec is
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jZG0xx0MZfM0Ixcdg0zx0uIqo:LsbMmV glyphs as normal.
The rotation for Unholy follows a very similar route to frost but somehow feels less turret like.
IT>PS>BS>Pest/BS>ScS>DC>BS>BS>ScS>DC>ScS>DC>Repeat
The maitence of diseases is super important and it is also important to let diseases fully fall off before repeating for full possible dmg.
Cooldowns: The unique two CDs is Boneshield and Gargoyle for unholy. Boneshield is a small dmg mitigation talent that also increases your dps by 3% for 5 minutes or until the bones fall off (and they will), typically you want to put your bone shield on about 3 seconds until the fight begins because your rune will refresh by the time you get to your first ScS to use it on. If it falls off hit blood tap and then bone shield (make sure to /cancelaura the blood tap).
Gargoyle follows the same rule as Dancing Rune weapon, and Empowered Rune Weapon same as always. Remember to always keep your ghoul out and to make sure he's there while buffing as he will scale with buffs such as kings and might.
GearingAt the moment all Death Knights share one common creed. Gem Strength, gear Armor penetration. What this means is take the biggest upgrade you can with the most dps+armor penetration but never ever waste a gemslot on armor pen. After this however it gets mucky.
[bold]Hit[/bold]: Hit should be your first priority as a DK of any spec, you need 8% or 263 rating to have your melee attacks be unmissable (still can be dodged or parried). Frost gets a caveat to this rule however in that they want to gear somewhere in the range of 5% and 13% as frost doesn't lose as much dps for going towards the spell hit cap as it's nowhere needed, along with not having to gear as much due to talent.
[bold]Critical Strike[/bold] Your bread and butter for any spec but Frost, this is due to the nature of our tier 9 4 piece bonus and just how unbelievably broken it is. Before and after it however it loses some value but for blood and unholy is a close 3rd on the stat priority either way. Frost doesn't get much out of critical strike as it is a tree with so many talents that their specials crit on an almost 75% basis just by talents, along with having agi on their weapons forcing some natural crit.
[bold]Strength[/bold]: The uberstat, abuse it or die to be horrible.
[Bold]AP[/bold]: Cheap substitute for strength
[bold]Haste[/bold]: The rage worthy stat as unlike other classes that it refreshes CD's faster and improves spellcasting speed, the problem for dks is haste does not effect rune generation meaning that all it does is increase our auto attack speed. Ya no thanks.
[bold]Agility[/bold]: A cheap mans crit strike rating, don't try to use it but don't actively avoid it, straight crit will always be better.
Armor Pen: It's broken, get it by all means other then gemming.
Enchantment?!!?!
Head: Epic ebon blade arcannum
Shoulders: Hodir dps type
Legs: Icescale leg armor
Chest: 10 stats
Bracers: 50 ap
Gloves: 36 ap or hit rating if your hurting for hit
Feet: Cat's swiftness, unholy Icewalker/Assault depending on AP (unholy should be taking imp unholy presence for runspeed only)
Sigil: All dk specs benefit the most from the sigil you get for 25 triumph emblems yes even with 3.3
Rune enchant on weapon: 2handers: Rune of the fallen crusader DW: Mainhand: Fallen Crusader Offhand: Razorice
DW frost, Fast or slow weapons?: Due to the nature of threat of thassarian and strikes use whenever possible two slow weapons.
Pre-Raid GearingUnlike other classes dk's are pretty much shitty until you get lots and lots of badges but here's what you are going to want to look at bare minimum.
Head/Gloves/Pants/Shoulders: T9 (
http://www.wowhead.com/?itemset=871) 160 emblems total
Chest: T9 again or Titanium Razorplate
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47589 if you have the money/willing to put in extra badges.
Bracers: Malykriss Vambraces
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50230 Heroic Pit of Saron
Boots: Grinning Skull Boots
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50305 Halls of Reflection
Back: Accursed Crawling Cape
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49792 Normal Forge of Souls.
Neck: Spiked Battleguard Choker
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45819 16 emblems
Belt: Belt of the Singing Blade
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45824 28 emblems or if you have money Belt of the Titans
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45550Ring 1: Bloodshed Band
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47729 36 emblems
Ring 2: Purloined Wedding Ring
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=49812 Regular Pit of Saron
Trinket 1/2: Get either of the following, but in order of most dps: Darkmoon Card Greatness
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=44326 , Mjolnir Runestone
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45931 (Thorim hard but not so hard mode 10 man), Grim Toll
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40256 3 bosses in naxx drop it, Needle encrusted Scorpion
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=50198 Forge of Souls heroic (note atm the proc is sort of broken and once fixed will put it above mjolnir and grim toll), Banner of Victory
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=47214 Regular ToC, Mirror of Truth
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40684 40 emblems.
Advanced notes- AMS and sit in effects you would typically run away from if the total damage is at or under 40k for more dps time on boss and free runic power
-Only army of the dead at the beginning of a boss fight or a transition phase, and never do it in a fight with adds.
-Always dps in blood presence no matter what
- (Frost and unholy) In a fight with multiple adds run your rotation against your kill target but when it comes time to refresh disease tab over to other target and hit pest, go back to kill target and hit pest again. With this you get a free ScS or Oblit.
