Theorycrafting Roundtable Discussion Topics

[Mendenbarr]

#Acherus (The Death Knight theorycrafting chat room) is hosting a roundtable discussion, likely using mumble or skype, to go over the state of death knights. The discussion will be recorded and published somewhere (still ironing out the details) for anyone who misses it, and will include several prominent theorycrafters and dk experts.

This will take place at sometime (details!) in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, we need topics! If you have any death knight related topics you want to see mentioned or talked about, here is the place to put them.

After we get the time, date, and guests sorted out, I'll make another thread announcing them.

List of topics:
Spec balance between unholy, festerblight, 2-hand frost, and DW frost.
Specs on a fight by fight basis
Avoidance vs. accuracy for blood
Changing stat weights in different situations and simulationcraft
Gemming strength vs. gemming secondary stats.
Hit rating and how it's too damn high.
Festerblight
Runes
Successful changes for DKs in 5.0-5.2 and what is still broken
2-hand vs. DW frost (should the choice dicate performance, playstyle, both, or neither?)
Reintegrating blood runes to the frost spec
Redistribution of obliterate's damage in frost's rotation
How do you feel about death knights compared to other melee at the moment? What makes us strong? What makes us weak?
Favorite dk ability
Favorite transmog gear
Best DK mounts
Soloing old content
Fun uses for Control Undead and Dark Sim
What is one ability from our class's past that you would want back?


(Disclaimer: not every topic in this list will be covered in the discussion, it's point is to keep a consolidated list of all possible topics we think of. A final list of topics will hopefully be in the announcement thread.)

[Donken]

Festerblight
-What is it?
-How to do it?
-What trinkets you need?
-How to gear?
-What fights is it viable on, which is it not?

(I do know the answer to some of these, but it's worth discussing for people who aren't as familiar)

A discussion of how Simcraft calculates stat weights by default, and when you should use reforge plots instead of straight stat weights. Also I think it would be nice to talk about why stats are weighted the way they are for each spec, for example why mastery is strong in DW but not in 2H

I assume "Hit rating" in the OP refers to the massive amount of hit on gear this tier.

[fangless]

The people in the discussion, what level is their raid progression experience at?

[DarthMetatron]

Raiding topics
- Optimal AMS soaking in the current content
- Strong fights for each spec and how to take advantage of those strengths
- Explore stat weights and the differences in weights specific to the different encounters (patchwerk vs. movement, heavy AMS soaking, AoE, etc)
- Overall character optimization (basically discuss subjects like in the Advanced DK thread)

Fun topics
- Favorite transmog gear (armor and weapons)
- Best DK mounts
- Stories of soloing old content and strategies used
- Fun uses for Control Undead and Dark Sim
- How Alliance DKs have so much more class than Horde DKs

[Sinzaram]

This is a really awesome idea, can't wait for it.

My subject suggestion: Legendary meta gem, how good is it for each dps spec? Does it affect weights or playstyle at all?

[Mendenbarr]

A comprehensive guide to Festerblight for people who are not sure what it is can be found here: http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t131138-.../#Festerblight
That should have everything you need to know about it, if it's missing anything important, let me know. To clarify, the point of this would be to discuss things that don't have a "right answer", not be a guide. We have plenty of guides on every subject already.
As far as raiding progress, I have no idea, as I'm not sure who is coming yet. Hopefully we will have a variety of players.

Fight specific ams soaking can be found here" http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t131138-...ts__and_glyphs

Legendary meta is worth about 5-6k for DW/unholy, and 8-9k for 2-hand frost. Slightly bumps haste and str and crit, doesn't change mastery, or playstyle.

Thanks for the input so far!

[Nangz]

If you do manage to find death knights who are......well versed in pvp;

How do you feel about death knights compared to other melee at the moment? What makes us strong? What makes us weak?

Think having introductions for each person in the roundtable would be good. Mention things like progression, guild, past progression, and other things like "has a guide at somewhere.com"



A personal question that i'd love to hear an answer to.

What is one ability from our class's past that you would want back?

[Dossou]

The people in the discussion, what level is their raid progression experience at?

Multiple who raid in Top 10 World Guilds, People who raid in Top 10 US guilds, and people who don't raid hardcore (think top 50 as not hardcore) but are wizards of theory.

[blackblade]

- Fun uses for Control Undead and Dark Sim

This. Dark Sim has some interesting uses, most of which never see the light of day.

[Schizoide]

Unholy is the #1 DPS spec right now due to festerblight, even beating assassination who is also way too high. It is not long for this world.

User received an infraction for this post.

[Semani]

DK Raid Utility.

More specifically I guess would be Blood utility.

[Erishkigal]

Haste vs Str for 2h frost gemming

[broodax]

DK Runes and Runic Power - the thing that makes us different, the upsides and downsides, Blood Tap, RE, RC, PL, and whether the current system after 5.0 is a success.
How Roiling Blood and Pestilence should be fixed
Successful changes for DKs in 5.0-5.2 and what is still broken (Unholy AOE, Gargoyle, Army, New Talents, KM/Sudden Doom)
The argument about whether DW and 2H frost should have different rotations - player choice and aesthetics.
DK survivability (dps in PvE) - how AMS is fantastic and why we still need more

Unholy is the #1 DPS spec right now due to festerblight, even beating assassination who is also way too high. It is not long for this world.

- Is this an issue given that there are few fights where one can actually "festerblight", but many where "playing unholy" is necessary to be competitive.

[Schizoide]

- Is this an issue given that there are few fights where one can actually "festerblight", but many where "playing unholy" is necessary to be competitive.

It's definitely an issue. It seems fairly clear that festerblight is why unholy performs so well in T15, because all the testing and simulation we did on the PTR showed unholy's traditional priority and frost to be fairly close together, but Unholy is absolutely obliterating every other spec in the entire game except assassination.

[Deleted]

It's definitely an issue. It seems fairly clear that festerblight is why unholy performs so well in T15, because all the testing and simulation we did on the PTR showed unholy's traditional priority and frost to be fairly close together, but Unholy is absolutely obliterating every other spec in the entire game except assassination.

I get this from people in my guild all the time. 'So why aren't you unholy then?' (for my OS)

OT though I would like to hear thoughts on the direction of class balance vs. individuality.
Also, I would like to see some discussion about how our active mitigation model compares to other tanks at the bleeding edge of raiding. I get a lot of 'blood is OP' comments these days.

[broodax]

It's definitely an issue. It seems fairly clear that festerblight is why unholy performs so well in T15, because all the testing and simulation we did on the PTR showed unholy's traditional priority and frost to be fairly close together, but Unholy is absolutely obliterating every other spec in the entire game except assassination.

This is hyperbole. Unholy is very good, but it's ranked 4, 3, 5, 1, 4, 12, 5, 4 (just kidding, 4th from the bottom), 2, 2 - and the #1 rank and one of the #2's have nothing to do with festerblight.

What are you using to come to the conclusion that it's better than a lot of specs that are beating it in logs?

Anyway, the point is this would make a good topic.

[Schizoide]

Overall, nobody is beating unholy. It is the #1 overall spec in the entire game right now.

That doesn't mean it's #1 on every fight. Just that when you take the entire tier, unholy performs the best overall.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

[Frozendekay]

Overall, nobody is beating unholy. It is the #1 overall spec in the entire game right now.

That doesn't mean it's #1 on every fight. Just that when you take the entire tier, unholy performs the best overall.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

http://www.raidbots.com/dpsbot/

I don't see it being wildly OP on any fights there - it's #1 on Tortos but that's pure cheese (kiting bats + disease spread). It's near the top, sure, but nothing like locks or rogues on most fights.

[Murdos]

http://www.raidbots.com/dpsbot/

I don't see it being wildly OP on any fights there - it's #1 on Tortos but that's pure cheese (kiting bats + disease spread). It's near the top, sure, but nothing like locks or rogues on most fights.

90% of WOL is pure cheese after the first couple of weeks, everyone knows this. >_>

[Nangz]

Please get back on topic. Debating our current dps position isn't suggesting topics for the roundtable.