What's the best way to learn a new spec

[JustRob]

So I levelled my death knight as frost, and now I kinda wanna offspec into blood... Problem is, if I do, I'm gonna get a shitload of new abilities all at the same time and I think that's gonna be kinda confusing.

What's the best way to learn a new spec at 100? Should I just make a new DK and level it as blood for a bit?

[Deleted]

Change spec, put your abilities on your bar. Hit stuff until it makes sense.

[Tyze]

Beginners guides on Youtube, you get to see stuff in action. Easier for me

[ReVnX]

Check a rotation/priority guide to get some basic knowledge, read the tooltip of the skills and start experimenting from there

It's a little confusing at first, but the only way of getting used is "play, play, play!"

[Venziir]

So I levelled my death knight as frost, and now I kinda wanna offspec into blood... Problem is, if I do, I'm gonna get a shitload of new abilities all at the same time and I think that's gonna be kinda confusing.

What's the best way to learn a new spec at 100? Should I just make a new DK and level it as blood for a bit?

... Are you serious? How do you learn anything in life? You read the instructions and then you try.

[Deleted]

I always use a few steps:

1. I look at the rotation on a website like http://www.icy-veins.com/wow/blood-d...owns-abilities
2. I make a list of all the abilities that are important.
3. Then I write down what they do and why they are in that spot in the rotation.

Especially that last part is important in the way I learn things.
Learning what to click is boring and hard.
Learning WHY I click them helps me a lot.

I especially agree with the knowing why you do something. So many players just see what their rotation is and presses those buttons, same with raids, they get their tactics and they just follow them blindly without knowing WHY you are doing it.

knowing why you are doing something will make you a much better player.


What I usually do is read my passives/abilities first, seeing how the abilities and passives sync together. then i will look up the rotation and read additional information on the abilities and such. After that it's just practicing until it becomes natural.

[Mirishka]

... Are you serious? How do you learn anything in life? You read the instructions and then you try.

God forbid you post something helpful or constructive, instead of stupid-ass nonsense like that.

@OP, your best bet is to check sites like Icy-veins and also Youtube like someone else said, or just talk to any players you know that play the spec proficiently. Blood isn't 'hard' per se, but there's definitely a skill check involved in terms of properly using your Active Mitigation/cooldowns.

[Djuntas]

Sort out bar's.

Check icy veins

Check macro's / more advansed stuff

how I do it. Takes about 3 hours with setting up UI also.

[Ciddy]

Sort out bar's.
Check icy veins
Check macro's / more advansed stuff
how I do it. Takes about 3 hours with setting up UI also.

Good advice here. To build a bit more on that:

Look on something like Icy Veins (or Google "how to play a blood DK" and look for guides) and start by spending a few minutes to read over things like stat priorities and rotation. Then go beat up on a target dummy for a while to familiarize yourself with that rotation. The important things while you're beating on the target dummy are to get comfortable with your rotations and get your keybinds/bars set up the way you want them, so move things around as you see fit here. Target dummies aren't much for gauging DPS (since they don't take things like raid buffs into account and assume you're doing a Patchwerk-style fight), but they're great for practicing and getting used to rotations.

There's not really a "right" way to set up your keybinds as long as you're using them. Trying to copy the same keybinds some world-first player uses might not work for you. Target dummies are the best place to sort this out and determine what works best for you.

Once you think you're comfortable with that, start off slow and do things like LFR or heroic dungeons for practice.

That's about it. Once you're at that point, you're doing pretty well and can start moving on to the more advanced stuff.

I don't think the "make a new DK and level it as blood for a bit" thing is going to be as effective. You'll pick up a few things as you go along for sure, but you'll be missing a lot of abilities until you get to higher levels anyway.

Most of the above probably sounds generic, but it's always worked well for me when I needed to learn a new spec.

edit: and this is assuming PvE is your priority. PvP is probably a good bit different. I'd say for PvP, you'd practice by beating up on your friends in duels instead to learn counters and such instead of beating up on target dummies.

edit 2: also the class forums here have guides stickied at the top, so you can read over those too.

[Deleted]

- Check Icy Veins
- Put stuff in bars
- Addons / macros /weak auras
...

- Hit training dummy until the basics make sense
- Do Proving Grounds (I tend to do Gold).
- Queue to some dungeons / LFR to see how it works..

The old "learn while leveling" has never really worked.

[Mytheros]

I always use a few steps:

1. I look at the rotation on a website like http://www.icy-veins.com/wow/blood-d...owns-abilities
2. I make a list of all the abilities that are important.
3. Then I write down what they do and why they are in that spot in the rotation.

Especially that last part is important in the way I learn things.
Learning what to click is boring and hard.
Learning WHY I click them helps me a lot.

This is a great system ^ I use this as well....mostly I don't use icy-veins...

[corebit]

The best way to learn your spec is to get your hands dirty. Do proving grounds/normal dungeons/LFR where people aren't going to be judgmental of your DPS. The more you play it, the better grasp you'll get on the rotation/priority.

[PragmaticGamer]

I've tried to set up my keybinds to be altoholic-friendly.

Basically, I have 1-6/Q-Y/A-H/Z-N (leaving X and V for strafe left/right). And I used Bartender to stack my bars so they match the keyboard as much as possible. (Filling in F3 for mount/dismount in place of X, and F4 for other in place of V.)

I've decided that certain keys are for certain abilities (as much as possible, between classes, specs, talents, and on-use gear). E.g., Q is for interrupts, Z is for finishers ("if the target is less than 30% health"), E is for self-healing, F/R/T/G are for top priority rotationals, D/S/A are for situational rotationals, and so on.

Then I read the spec guides on Icy Veins, and try to assign the abilities/talents/etc. as close to what I designated as the key groupings as possible. It doesn't always work (e.g., my Discipline priest has more heals and less DPS than their Shadow off-spec), but it is close. It only takes a few minutes to reacquaint myself to the setup.

It helps that I have Bitten's Spell Flash for each class, so it provides SOME guide as to what ability to use and when. And since I have my action bars set up to match the keyboard, it's easy to see which finger to use to reach the one that's blinking.

[Raetary]

i always do this:
-change spec
-put abilities onto ma bars
-read what by abilities do
-play with the spec

[Roamingstorm]

I always use a few steps:

1. I look at the rotation on a website like http://www.icy-veins.com/wow/blood-d...owns-abilities
2. I make a list of all the abilities that are important.
3. Then I write down what they do and why they are in that spot in the rotation.

Especially that last part is important in the way I learn things.
Learning what to click is boring and hard.
Learning WHY I click them helps me a lot.

Pretty much this.

@OP icy-veins also does a pretty good job explaining why you're using X, Y, Z ability, so be sure to read, not just look at what your priorities are and just plop them on your bars.

[nexellent]

1.) read your abilities
2.) roll your face on your keyboard cause lolwod

[Ciddy]

1.) read your abilities
2.) roll your face on your keyboard cause lolwod

This is terrible advice. Keyboards have germs on them!

[Smank]

You're playing a DK. It doesn't really matter what you press

[Halicia]

I've always had a tricky time simply changing from one spec to a new one at level cap.

Its always been a heckuva lot easier for me to practice the new spec while leveling a fresh char, or when an expansion comes out.

Even when I already have some familiarity with the new spec, leveling with it is usually where I get more comfortable with things.

I think its more from the solo aspect. When I'm in a raid and others are depending on me to constantly be "at my best", I stick to the recipe and don't get creative. When I start playing solo, I can try new things at my leisure and find out what works for me, change my hotkeys around more comfortably, etc, and see what DOESN'T work for me either.

[Spiffums]

Doesn't everyone just learn new spec and hit the Group Finder? Or does it just seem that way with the groups I've been getting lately.