[Compilation] DK Questions and Answers

[bals]

unholy is actually pretty good. You could keep whatever gems you have now since crit is only slightly better than mastery in bis and a balance between mastery and crit is recommended.

also guess you missed the whole tier of tot where unholy was stronger than frost when using the festerblight rotation

[kleintrpt]

unholy is actually pretty good. You could keep whatever gems you have now since crit is only slightly better than mastery in bis and a balance between mastery and crit is recommended.

also guess you missed the whole tier of tot where unholy was stronger than frost when using the festerblight rotation

Haha yea I was off of WoW from between the end of Cata to about 2 months before MoP's 5.3 patch release. I releveled a new DK on a server with other friends and up until this patch I haven't ran heroic raids (only LFR ToT, normal straight through once in 5.4; 5/14H 14/14N SoO atm).

Having not tried Unholy this xpac period, I am very tempted to give it a go, even with running a proper simc/stat weight reforge on my personal toon.

Worse case scenario its mainly 20+ gems that is the gold sinkhole... (x2 if I want to go back FDW). That or try 2H frost since weights are so similar to Unholy.

[Mendenbarr]

Haha yea I was off of WoW from between the end of Cata to about 2 months before MoP's 5.3 patch release. I releveled a new DK on a server with other friends and up until this patch I haven't ran heroic raids (only LFR ToT, normal straight through once in 5.4; 5/14H 14/14N SoO atm).

Having not tried Unholy this xpac period, I am very tempted to give it a go, even with running a proper simc/stat weight reforge on my personal toon.

Worse case scenario its mainly 20+ gems that is the gold sinkhole... (x2 if I want to go back FDW). That or try 2H frost since weights are so similar to Unholy.

As it stands, DW is the "Flavor of the Month" spec right now. This is due to DW simming slightly higher (2.5%) for ST with the same ilevel weapons, and DW having very useful innate strengths, or perks, compared to the other specs. To name a few strengths; DW gets the most free cleave, 2H frost is the easiest to play, and unholy gets the highest burst. All specs are VIABLE on every fight, but DW is probably OPTIMAL on most of them, given perfect skill level and ideal gear. Unholy and 2H frost are basically equal for ST, with a slight variation based on your itemization, and between the 2 a slight preference or familiarity for one over the other will tip the balance.
Play what you want to play. If that's unholy, I'd say the regemming is worth it.

[kleintrpt]

As it stands, DW is the "Flavor of the Month" spec right now. This is due to DW simming slightly higher (2.5%) for ST with the same ilevel weapons, and DW having very useful innate strengths, or perks, compared to the other specs. To name a few strengths; DW gets the most free cleave, 2H frost is the easiest to play, and unholy gets the highest burst. All specs are VIABLE on every fight, but DW is probably OPTIMAL on most of them, given perfect skill level and ideal gear. Unholy and 2H frost are basically equal for ST, with a slight variation based on your itemization, and between the 2 a slight preference or familiarity for one over the other will tip the balance.
Play what you want to play. If that's unholy, I'd say the regemming is worth it.

Thanks once again for all of the insight! I'll shop around a bit with F2H and UH and see how it feels/performs for me. Can always go back =P

[Shiira]

This is due to DW simming slightly higher (2.5%) for ST with the same ilevel weapons, and DW having very useful innate strengths, or perks, compared to the other specs.

Not to mention the lack of competition for weapons.

[kleintrpt]

Not to mention the lack of competition for weapons.

Haha this is ultimately why I'll probably end up staying and closing out MoP with DW. It'll be no time till I get my 2nd Xifeng and, eventually, 2x Warforged. With current team (Druid and DK tank) I have ALL dibs on one-handers.

[Deleted]

About the t16 2set bonus.

Im DW frost dk. Currently sitting at around 16000 mastery rating and 5000 haste. Setbonus should be giving either mastery or haste whichever is the highest currently.

Problem is. I was getting it to proc haste every once in a while, which would cause me to keep the hastebonus until i ran dry with killing machine procs, causing rune overflow (couldnt spend runes AND the gained RP before new set of runes was ready). Would this be because of my 543 timeless str trinket which procs me haste (around 11k rating) or is it because my mastery percentage with the proc up was lower than my passively boosted speed(haste) % showing up my character panel.

So, Does the t16 setbonus check the currently highest from rating or from percentage? If aforementioned, i need to drop my haste values by 1k causing me to get runestarved in some fights. If its the latter, Wouldnt it be retarded with some class/spec masteries like blood (yes i know that the bonus isnt for blood) with mastery % ranging from 50 to 450% compared to sub 100% haste levels)

[Mendenbarr]

About the t16 2set bonus.

Im DW frost dk. Currently sitting at around 16000 mastery rating and 5000 haste. Setbonus should be giving either mastery or haste whichever is the highest currently.

Problem is. I was getting it to proc haste every once in a while, which would cause me to keep the hastebonus until i ran dry with killing machine procs, causing rune overflow (couldnt spend runes AND the gained RP before new set of runes was ready). Would this be because of my 543 timeless str trinket which procs me haste (around 11k rating) or is it because my mastery percentage with the proc up was lower than my passively boosted speed(haste) % showing up my character panel.

So, Does the t16 setbonus check the currently highest from rating or from percentage? If aforementioned, i need to drop my haste values by 1k causing me to get runestarved in some fights. If its the latter, Wouldnt it be retarded with some class/spec masteries like blood (yes i know that the bonus isnt for blood) with mastery % ranging from 50 to 450% compared to sub 100% haste levels)

It's rating based, and iirc, it does not take the 3k mastery raid buff into account. I would advise dropping as much haste as possible as DW with or without the 2-set proc, as with proper AMS/PL usage, you should go rune starved rarely, if ever.

[Deleted]

Thanks. Havent studied all the possible soakable abilities since it doesnt matter at flex pug:s so i left some haste unreforged for bosses where i could be without ams soak for prolonged times. Gotta check the dungeon journal sometime for those rare bosses.

[bals]

this is an ok list of when a good time to ams is: http://forums.elitistjerks.com/topic...e-spreadsheet/
not sure if any comments add addition information but just looking over it it's missing a few things

[Deleted]

So, Does the t16 setbonus check the currently highest from rating or from percentage? If aforementioned, i need to drop my haste values by 1k causing me to get runestarved in some fights. If its the latter, Wouldnt it be retarded with some class/spec masteries like blood (yes i know that the bonus isnt for blood) with mastery % ranging from 50 to 450% compared to sub 100% haste levels)

I sit with about 1k (maybe more) less haste than you do and don't really find any problems with being rune starved with AMS/PL usage especially as DW with Blood Tap.

Just a question about PL i'm guessing its better to use BT charges instead of PL if you don't have a free UH rune to reapply Blood Plague? Also I may have imagined it but does it favor the UH rune if you have a death rune in the other UH rune spot?

As an aside thanks for that spreadsheet I was gonna sit down and figure it out myself tonight but this'll save some time.

[xeiral]

hello all.

just a silly question.. frost dk 2H, which trinkets should i be looking at?

1) Thoks 548
2) EEOG 540 currently, can be upgraded.
3) Skeers 567

yes, unfortunately i do not have the luck to get the normal trinkets. P

Please advise.

thank you!

[Deleted]

Thoks and Skeers. There's a list of trinket rankings here.

[Mendenbarr]

Yes, abilities always favors non-death runes over death runes, given the choice. As DW, it's pretty much always better to use BT then it is to use PL. PL usage doesn't depend at all on BP time remaining, it's better to PL a 27 seconds BP when you need the runes than try to soak a 3 second BP when you don't need them. BT and PL are filler abilities, and should be used, in that order (BT, and then PL), when you can't cast HB and don't want to cast FS (sub 40 and no KM). Don't worry about reapplying BP, it's uptime is not that important, but still worth doing the next time you have a spare unholy rune and are not about to cap runic, runes, or waste a KM proc.

[xeiral]

thanks for the reply at Nutella. Will take a look at the list.

[Deleted]

A question about dem stats as DW frost dk.

I have putted my dk toon on standby just before the minor buffs few months ago.
So i have played a bit with my reforges and shizzles last weekend and a question poped into my head with i couldn't really get the right answer for it via Siming(i think). So i hope someone have tried this when the buff went live.

So my logic before the question poped was the following - Icy talons are buffed with 10% more haste. So this mean more white swings(ignore the fact that runes will recharge faster for the moment). So more chances for KM procs. So higher uptime on the 2p bonus. What if i stop reforging haste to crit and instead reforge it to hit, so i can have more white hits, thus even more KM procs and higher uptime on 2p bonus on higher stacks?
because as we all know DW is all about mastery for harder hitting HB, FS, SR and FF ticks

[Mendenbarr]

A question about dem stats as DW frost dk.

I have putted my dk toon on standby just before the minor buffs few months ago.
So i have played a bit with my reforges and shizzles last weekend and a question poped into my head with i couldn't really get the right answer for it via Siming(i think). So i hope someone have tried this when the buff went live.

So my logic before the question poped was the following - Icy talons are buffed with 10% more haste. So this mean more white swings(ignore the fact that runes will recharge faster for the moment). So more chances for KM procs. So higher uptime on the 2p bonus. What if i stop reforging haste to crit and instead reforge it to hit, so i can have more white hits, thus even more KM procs and higher uptime on 2p bonus on higher stacks?
because as we all know DW is all about mastery for harder hitting HB, FS, SR and FF ticks

Yes, one of the benefits of both haste and hit over the cap increases km procs and therefore 2-set uptime, but it doesn't mathematically work out to be a gain overall. Mastery is the best stat yes, but it's not so good that it's worth giving up 10 crit to get 1 mastery. You simply give up too much crit and gain too little uptime on the stacks. SimC takes this effect into account when creating your stat weights, part of both haste and hit's value is from the 2-set. Still doesn't bump them above crit.

[SSHA778]

Yes, one of the benefits of both haste and hit over the cap increases km procs and therefore 2-set uptime, but it doesn't mathematically work out to be a gain overall.

Also just to note (as further support to your post), there are diminishing returns on that haste and hit in terms of additional KM procs and additional DPS T16-2pc uptime. The set bonus uptime is also strongly dependent on breakpoints, and unless you know for a fact you'll cross over one, there's really no point in bothering (which the sim would show).

[Brunevde]

Wondered if it was worth dropping four piece as dw frost to go from 536 shoulders to 567. Asked in the fix my dps threat but it seems pretty dead

[Mendenbarr]

Wondered if it was worth dropping four piece as dw frost to go from 536 shoulders to 567. Asked in the fix my dps threat but it seems pretty dead

This thread is more for general questions, like "Is it better to use soul reaper or a KM obliterate", and specific gear questions are better placed in the fix my dps thread. Since you've tried that, and I'm sad to hear that it's dead;

4-set is worth roughly 3% bonus DPS. If you gain more than that with the shoulder upgrade, it's worth switching, but it's very close. You can try simming yourself with both setups of gear to see which is higher up.