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  1. #21
    Hey guys, I have a Frost DK and chose Runic Empowerment as a talent over Blood Tap.

    Some sims I've seen suggest Blood Tap is better dps, the only issue I have with that is the whole Death Rune concept.
    I just really dont understand how it works.

    I've Googled it, read it on Wowwiki and Icy-Veins and I'am still not seeing how it works properly.

    All I get from it is once I have 5 stacks out of a possible 12 I can activate it and it will refill a random depleted rune, is that it?
    Whereas RE has a 45% chance to do that passively, a Death Rune can do it on demand.
    Am I right?

    So also if I have say 3 Death runes up and no more Frost ones my next attack requiring one Frost rune would consume the Death one instead without me activating anything or waiting for the regen of that one Frost rune?

    I think I've got it just not so sure.

  2. #22
    Dreadlord Leviatharan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judas View Post
    Hey guys, I have a Frost DK and chose Runic Empowerment as a talent over Blood Tap.

    Some sims I've seen suggest Blood Tap is better dps, the only issue I have with that is the whole Death Rune concept.
    I just really dont understand how it works.

    I've Googled it, read it on Wowwiki and Icy-Veins and I'am still not seeing how it works properly.

    All I get from it is once I have 5 stacks out of a possible 12 I can activate it and it will refill a random depleted rune, is that it?
    Whereas RE has a 45% chance to do that passively, a Death Rune can do it on demand.
    Am I right?

    So also if I have say 3 Death runes up and no more Frost ones my next attack requiring one Frost rune would consume the Death one instead without me activating anything or waiting for the regen of that one Frost rune?

    I think I've got it just not so sure.
    Yeah, you've basically got it.

    Basically, the Death rune is like a wildcard: it's anything you need it to be. If you have no Frost runes but you cast Howling Blast, then it will consume a Death rune.

    With that in mind, what Blood Tap does for a dual-wielding DK, other than giving you the power to regenerate runes on-demand, is give you the option of what rune you can transmute into a Death rune- if you cast Blood Tap when you have a Frost rune and a natural Death rune active, then the regenerating Frost and natural Death runes can't be targeted by Blood Tap, but if both Unholy runes are regenerating in that moment, then it will turn an Unholy rune into a Death rune. While dual-wielding, that means you can burn all three runes on Howling Blast, since the only purpose of Obliterate to you is to keep your Unholy runes cycling.
    If you're a two-hander, which rune is transmuted is a bit less relevant to you since a Death rune can pair with anything, but being able to cast it twice in a row gives you the option to store a full Obliterate up your sleeve for some extra burst.

    Hope this doesn't confuse you too much!
    Leviatharan - Level 120 Blood Elf Unholy Death Knight - Inscription/Herbalism - <Conflux> - Drak'Tharon US

    Now author of Morbid Musings, a blog dedicated to DK theorycraft. Ish.

  3. #23
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by kritor View Post
    Good guide in general, but I just wanted to comment on a few things. And yes I realize this is not a tank specific guide, but since tank is my MS, my comments are from that perspective mostly:

    1) You left out one important feature of Army. "While channeling Army of the Dead, the Death Knight takes less damage equal to his Dodge plus Parry chance." Thus it can in theory, be used in a pinch for some survivability when tanking dungeons/raids.

    2) Conversion is not as useless as you claim IMO. I am the MT for my guild and in the week or so we've had the patch it's saved me several times. It's on par with Death Pact IMO. I picked it up because of what I read about it on the beta and because DP was something I had already used many times. Plus this gives us an extra thing to spend RP on when we're maxed out on it, instead of just spamming RS. It syncs well with Blood Tap in that regard because once you get your BT stacks to 12, you can't get anymore (AFAIK) and thus you're free to use your RP on something else while the BT buff is still active. And once you have significant threat you don't need to RS as much and should be focused on keeping up diseases and mitigating/healing as much damage as possible to keep yourself alive (through DS and the BS it provides).

    3) The DRW glyph is useful if you raid with trigger-happy players. Some of my guildmates fall into this category and like to pop every cooldown they have as soon as the pull starts so in order to not wipe the group I have to get as much threat as possible as quickly as possible. Your job as a tank is first to get threat and hold it and then if possible add damage. Focusing on damage only is not advisable IMO. Damage is for DPS to do. This concept can be seen to great effect on normal and heroic Zon'ozz. Ball placement is haphazard at best without DPS being trigger-happy, so you would need the extra threat immediately.

    4) The VB glyph I don't think is that useful for me. I'd rather have the extra HP personally rather than additional healing. Especially if you're running fights with only 2 healers where you're less likely to have a dedicated tank healer. Thus you're less likely to see benefit from the extra healing it would provide. Just my 2 cents. But of course if you're constantly running a 3+ healer group configuration, and thus most likely have a dedicated tank healer, then it could be useful for that.

    5) Rune of Swordshattering is preferential in my experience for tanking at the level cap until you're doing heroic raids only and then it's more of a toss up between it and Stoneskin Gargoyle.

    DRW is a waste of glyph as tank use it non glyphed to get more dps AND more threat
    when a player is trigger happy just taunt problem solved

  4. #24
    Great guide, but it's kind of a pain to read. Large paragraphs with no difference in color or breaking. If ever you have spare time, definitely think about re-formatting it... It's hard for a quick reference because of the clunky paragraphs.

  5. #25
    This helped me a lot and was really easy to read. Thanks!

  6. #26
    Awesome guide dude, it's great to have an inside view of playing a DK - This guide has actually made me start one and play seriously

  7. #27
    Deleted
    I was wondering if any of you lot could help me out with a couple of macros I can't get to Work.
    I need a macro that uses Outbreak on CD, otherwise will use Plague Strike. No modifiers pls.

    Also I need 1 that uses Darktrans when up, otherwise Festering Strike. Again no mod's pls.

    I reallize this isn't optimal, but I need those to fit in enough spells in my action bar.

    Thx for the help in advance.

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Don Kanalje View Post
    I was wondering if any of you lot could help me out with a couple of macros I can't get to Work.
    I need a macro that uses Outbreak on CD, otherwise will use Plague Strike. No modifiers pls.
    Not possible due to Blizzards macro limitations.

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Kanalje View Post
    Also I need 1 that uses Darktrans when up, otherwise Festering Strike. Again no mod's pls.
    Again: Not possible due to Blizzards macro limitations.

    Quote Originally Posted by Don Kanalje View Post
    I reallize this isn't optimal, but I need those to fit in enough spells in my action bar.

    Thx for the help in advance.
    Get modifiers or more buttons then.

  9. #29
    Deleted
    Damn...
    Thx for the quick reply, now I know why I couldn't do it. Tried for about an hour to figure it out.
    I have about 30 keybinds with mod's and just can't fit it all in atm.

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