THIS GUIDE IS OUTDATED!
THERE ARE NEW GUIDES IN DK CLASS FORUM SECTION!!!
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=349828 Frost
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=349829 Unholy
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=349830 Tank
U can still read this one for some diferent itemisations, and to see what mistakes i made on my way as a DK.
Latest version of my guide on how to DK overall is on page 11.
Just scroll trough it, u will find FDK, UDK, DK TANK (latest update) comments which are the guides i came up with after 11 pages of all kind of shenanigans. Focus mainly on Rotations since Gear wont matter that much when u are BIS anyway, RNG will decide who wins (im talking about 1-3 items diference in itemisation).
There wont be any new guides or anything big, when it comes to DKs, maybe a mini guide per class on how to DPS that will mainly focus on rotations.
Best of Luck. :)
U can read this aswell in order to see if and where i did make mistakes.
Update before this was on PAGE 4 and PAGE 5.
It might help somehow, it might not, who knows...
Here il try to give some advices to new and old players on what they can do with their DKs if they are bored, want to try something new, or just new to the game. I might also trigger someone so be warned about that aswell.
U all know that there are 3 talent trees. Blood, Frost, Unholy. I will be posting mainly which one is best for what and why, with some itemizations, rotations, and all other stuff latter on... Lets get started.
BLOOD DK:
Best out of 3 for Tanking purposes. It brings ton of defencives, high aggro if combined with frost, ton of raid buffs, and a lot self heals.
Spec:
http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#j0EMqIbfcbobsZhxbxmMIz
Glyphs:
Major: Glyph of Disease, Glyph of Vampiric Blood, Glyph of Dark Command (Glyph of Rune Tap if u dont care about ur taunt hitting and love to live life dangerously).
Minor: Glyph of Horn of Winter, Glyph of Raise Dead ,Glyph of Pestilence (Glyph of Blood Tap).
Rotation:
Presence u should be in: FROST AT ALL TIMES.
Rune Strike: i wont be putting it in rotation since it has no GCD and since it should be used constantly whenever its available.
On Pull: IT > IT > BT > IT > ERW > IT > IT > IT > PS > BS > PS > ... use this ONLY if u have aggro problems and u have to build up **** ton of threat.
If u have MD / ToTT u can simply go: IT > PS > IT > PS > BT > IT > BS > ... to activate rune grace period on all the runes, and use ERW when u need some Extra Healing from Death Strike.
There is no strict rotation for Blood DK tank. I would suggest u to always have 1 blood rune up and to be fast on ur Rune Tap bind when u get low. Dont forget to use that 1 blood rune 1-2 sec, if u are safe from any potential lethal dmg, before the other one becomes ready so u can keep Blade Barrier up all the time. If u are about to take **** ton of dmg, use Pestilence to keep both of ur diseases fresh on the target and spam as many Death Strikes as u can. DO NOT use Death Strike if u are on 100% hp. Time it. If, for example, Sindragosa starts casting breath at u, wait for it to end and use Death Strike 0.5sec right after she does it. Always think ahead and save runes if needed. If u know u are not going to take any dmg and u see that ur healers can keep u alive, spam as many Icy Touches as u can to build up aggro. If u know big dmg is coming towards u, or if u see healers with unchained magic, all kind of debuffs, mainly not beeing able to heal u, save some runes and selfheal... Thats about it, always think ahead and look arround u.
IT > ur main aggro ability, use it to build up threat
PS > use it as a filler after IT if u have a free unholy rune
BS or BB > use it to activate Blade Barier talent, depending on how many targets u have to hit
DS > use it for healing, after this u should get 2 death runes which u should use for 2x IT
Pestilence > use it to refresh diseases when u have to spam Death Strike a lot
Rune Strike > It has no GCD, use it whenever u can
Gear:
There is nothing much to say tbh. Get as many Stamina and Armor as u can get. Get 8% Melee hit (263hit)! If u can, get 26 expertise when u are close to bis list. Death Strikes beeing dodged when u are on 10% HP wont be a fun thing to watch. U can use 10hit15stamina and 10expertise15stamina gems in yellow and red sockets in order to cap these 2. Try to match bonuses where u get most stamina in return, for example, why match ur neck socket bonus from which u get only 6 stamina when u can match ur chest socket bonus and get 9 stamina instead.
Meta gem: 32 stamina + 2% armor value from items. How to make it work? 2x 30 stamina gems + 10expertise15stamina in red gem that gives u most stamina from the item u are matching the socket in.
Gem u like the most: 30 Stamina, get as many as u can get.
Profesions:
Suit urself, BS is good, JC is good, Engi is good, Letherworking can be good if u need resistance, again, go what u feel like going.
FROST DK:
Best out of 3 when it comes to SINGLE TARGET DPS.
Spec:
For Armor Penetration capped FDKs: http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#jMZG...zf0cuzAofM0hxM
For Strength stacking DKs, and for gearing up phase: http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#jcZG0jxAMczf0cuzAofM0hx
Glyphs:
Major: Glyph of Disease, Glyph of Obliterate, Glyph of Frost Strike.
Minor: Glyph of Pestilence, Glyph of Horn of Winter, Glyph of Raise Dead.
Rotation:
Presence u should be in: BLOOD, gives u the most DPS out of all 3 (Unholy sometimes)
On pull: IT > PS > BT > Pestilence > UA > Obli > FS* (ONLY if u have KM up, if not skip this FS) >
> ERW > Obli > Obli > Obli > FS > FS > FS > ... step 2
step 1: Obli > Obli > Obli > FS* > FS* > ... step 2
step 2: Obli > Obli > Pesti > BS > FS* > ... step 1
FS* = If u have "Freezing Fog" (proc from "Rime" talent) use Howling Blast instead of FS
FS* = If u dont have runic power for FS, if u dont have Freezing Fog, use Horn of Winter instead of FS
FS* = If u have Freezing Fog and u are on 120+ runic power, use FS an then use Howling Blast
Refreshing UA: there are many ways to do this. Most efficiant from my point of view is:
Number 1: step 1: Obli > Obli > UA > BT > Obli > FS* > FS* > ... step 2
Number 2: step 1: Obli > Obli > Obli > BT > UA > FS* > FS* > ... step 2
If u are new to the game this one is safer:
Number 3: step 2: Obli > Obli > BT > UA > Pesti > FS* ... step 1
Always try to maintain step 1 > step 2 or step 2 > step 1. Whatever happens try to get back on the track. This i cant teach u, this depends on the situation u get urself into and practice u have on the dummy and in raids, and in dungeons, and in pvp, and so on...
My advice is to practice a lot on a dummy. Like really, A LOT. A LOT...
After that go and do some RDFs. U can do this in Unholy presence. Unholy presence helps u spread diseases faster and do some Obliterate and Frost Strike before the mobs die. And on top of all, it has low GCD with which u can spam **** ton of spells FAST, so its fun, for me atleast. After that u can start going in raids.
Gear:
Get 5% melee hit (165+), that is with 3% from Nerves of Cold Steel is cap for special abilities.
Get 26 expertise. This is easy as **** to cap when u are almost bis. T10 legs, emblem Cloak and u are on 23 exp. 20exp + 10exp10hit gem and u are capped.
Get Sigil of Awareness. Best. Sigil. Ever. Combined with T10 2/5 tho. Its questionable if Sigil of Virulence is better before u get T10 2/5, but as soon as u get it, go Sigil of Awareness.
I would suggest u to go Armor Penetration cap on BIS, or close to BIS (1386-1400 armor penetration, dont go more, try not to gem it if u cant get atleast that much).
As for ppl that are gearing up, id suggest u to try and do ur best to get 165 hit rating and 26 expertise asap. After that go for Strength, some more Hit, and Crit. Haste isnt so good for FDKs, from my point of view. Prio hit, crit and armor pen over it.
Meta gem: 21 agility + 3% more dmg from crits. How to make it work? Get a Nightmare Tear (10 to all stats) gem in blue socket in an item that gives u most strength out of matching the socket color.
Try to match all the yellow sockets that give u strength with 10str10crit or 10str10hit depending on how much hit u have.
Blue sockets ignore (exept that one u put ur Nightmare Tear in) and put 20strength or 20armor penetration in them.
(match only yellow socket alone and yellow + red sockets, ignore yellow + blue socket items like T10 legs and just put 2 red gems in those sockets)
Id suggest u to get 2-4 agility items (Wrist, Ring, Cloak, Neck, Ring, Gloves on BIS) to boost ur crit and armor penetration a lot.
Profesions:
I would suggest BS + JC. With these 2 u get extra 82 armor penetration. Aint a small thing...
UNHOLY DK:
UPDATE: Expertise seems to be ****ed up and the cap for dodge is HIGHER than 26 atm. That also results in **** TON of dodged abilities as UNHOLY dk with only 5 expertise. When i get the time i will test the Strength Build in which i use Skeleton's Lord Circle ring for some extra expertise to see how it behaves. Unable to raid atm but will post as soon as i get the results.
Best AoE constant DPS spec in the game (WotLK expansion only ofc)
Spec:
UHDK DPS - http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#jZG0...hIxMdx0zx0uIqo
Hard on AoE - http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#jZG0...hItMbx0zx0uIqo
Use "Hard on AoE" spec only if u know u can use some nearby corpses to do nice AoE dmg.
Glyphs:
Major: Glyph of Icy Touch, Glyph of the Ghoul, Glyph of Dark Death.
Minor: Glyph of Horn of Winter, Glyph of Pestilence, Glyph of Raise Dead.
Rotation:
Presence u should be in: BLOOD (Unholy sometimes)
Opener: IT > PS > BS > SS > BS > ERW > Garg > ... step 1
step 1: SS > BS > SS > BS > DC* > DC* > ... step 2
step 2: IT > PS > BS > SS > BS > DC* > ... step 1
DC* = if u dont have runic power for it, use Horn of Winter instead.
AoE rotation:
IT > PS > Pestilence > DnD > BT > BS > DC
Keep diseases up on all targets, use DnD off CD, keep Desolation up on u. If u have all of these 3 conditions going, u can use Blood Boil instead of BS if u have a free blood rune.
As unholy DK DPS u are not limited with melee range only., compared to Frost, when u have to run away from ur target, or u cant reach it with melee range, u can just leave a DnD, leave ur pet on that target, spam DCs... Use Death and Decay (DnD) more often. It does almost same dmg as SS + BS and sometimes even more (depending on what crits), but the only downside is that u get less runic power for ur Death Coils. U can use it when u are on 80% runic power, and just drop **** ton of DCs on the target. U can also use it combined with AMS (Anty Magic Shell) in order to drop **** ton of DCs on the target again. I would suggest u also to use it when ur target dodge ur SS, so u dont lose the track in rotation cos 2nd unlucly dodge on SS ****s up Rune Grace Period a bit.
Presence switch: same as frost, when targets die faster than u can spread ur diseases and pop a good DND, just go unholy and have some fun.
Gargoyle boost trick: U can start a fight in Unholy presence since both pets gain haste from it. Ghoul, wont make such a diference. Garg, it becomes OP.
Rotation: IT > PS > BS > SS > BS > BT > Garg > HoW > Blood Presence > ERW > ... step 1 > ... step 2 ... and so on.
Use this only on opener and u have to be fast so u dont activate Rune Grace Period on runes before u ERW.
Army of the Dead trick: If u use a pull timer in ur raid, u can cast: Death and Decay > Army of the Dead, 8-9sec before the pull so when u enter combat u instantly activate Rune Grace period. With this u dont need to cast ERW after first step, u can do the 2nd step aswell and than cast ERW.
IF u find a way to combine Army and Garg with unholy presence and end up with the best unholy DK opener ever, pls tell me the rotation in the comment section below so i can do it myself.
Gear:
Get 9% melee hit. Arround 295 hit rating or something like that, im not sure about the exact number... Still its easy to get. With this u cap ur Spell Hit (IT, DC, DnD wont ever miss) and u cap ur ghoul Hit and Expertise.
U dont need expertise, part from 5 expertise u get from talents (having 5-25 expertise is same ****, its all up to RNG on how many times ur abilities will be dodged, so dont waste stats and dont go more than 5 if u dont want to cap it).
Get **** ton of Strength. To buff ur diseases, death coil, and death and decay dmg.
Get nice amount of Crit. To increase chances of Wandering Plague procing.
And... Thats it... There is no much to say about unholy.
At bis try to get arround 10% haste and 50% armor pen, but as far as for the ppl that are gearing up goes, just get that hit and **** ton of Strength.
Id suggest going for 2 agility items (Wrist, Ring, maybe cloak and neck on gearing up stage) to boost ur crit.
Profesions:
BS + JC is good for the extra 82 passive strength. U can also go for Engineering for extra haste on Garg and Rocket boots.
Hope i got most of the questions for the newbie DKs answered and some new ideas for the old DK players to check, if they didnt alrdy...
If i made a mistake somewhere feel free to comment about it. Noone is all knowing and i might learn something new.