[OFFICIAL] Death Knight Build Thread

[Nolith]

Hey everyone 8)

So with wrath of the lich king upon us and most of us having made a death knight its time to discuss mechanics and what works. I decided to put this thread together after seeing countless threads about different builds that people have come up with and to be honest when i finished i was more confused then when i started. I along with others im sure am having a hard time deciding when it comes down to what spec to go with. I am starting this thread to eliviate some of the time it would take to read through the countless posts about builds. The intention of this thread is to combine everyones experiences with the death knight talent trees so that it makes it a bit easier to decide which build would work best for different play styles.

PLEASE! Do not post replies to this thread with stuff like "Is this a good build?" This thread is meant for those who have tested these builds and are offering there experiences, thank you.

So to help keep this thread organized i would appreciate if everyone would follow a simple format:

Level: Obviously the character level of the build
Build: In the format of XX/XX/XX
Talent calculator link: Basically what it says

And finally the most important thing, your experiences with that particular build. It's basically to help everyone figure out whether or not the build is your cup of tea. Also it would be nice if you post a build and make a change to the build because you found it improved your dps/tanking ability to edit your post to reflect the change you made and why.

Also as much as final level 80 builds are awesome, it would be helpful to see some builds between 60-80 so feel free to post em.

I hope to make this the first thread people go to when trying to decide what builds they should give a try so that people dont make new posts all the time as this is all new stuff to all of us. /wink to mod

Let the posting begin..

Enjoy ;D

[heerobya]

This is my current build (Level 59):
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIsfozzA

Zero downtime, fast killing speed on single mobs, simple rotation:

Icy Touch - Plague Strike - Heart Strike - Death Strike - Heart Strike

and then use Death Coil for Runic Power use and to finish off mobs. Nothing survives past one rotation yet.

If the mob is a caster, I start with a Death Grip and then Stragulate/Mind Freeze as neccessary.

Here's leveling through Outland:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIsfozzAoZf0h

Going to Northrend at 68 then finish up leveling (Level 79) with this:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIsfozzAoZfzhI0co

Once 80, switching to this for raid DPS-

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqh0IsbRxzAoZfMhI0co

Only point I don't like in this build is Rune Tap but with Glyph is kind of useful for limited party healing...

[Nolith]

Thanks for your post, very informative I sure wish there was more. I guess this thread was a good idea at the time but didnt really catch on :'(

[spazmcnasty]

What's official about this thread?

[shinn18]

i plan on unholy tanking with this

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jZ0xcZfgMItcoxxVocsut

im not to sure on how the duel wield is gonna work with tanking apposed to two handed weapons but i will be up for switching around if need be

i very much agree with the second post on raid dps i will probably switch between the 2

[Gamehenge]

My primary knowledge in beta was of the frost tree as i spent most of my time using it.

For tanking i've found the best frost spec is:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

This spec focuses on maximizing all your tank stats through resistances, hit, and avoidance. It also has some of the best frost damage talents.

For pvp frost i used this spec mostly for arenas:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

Another arena spec i really liked is this deep unholy with some blood:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

The main downside to this spec is that it lacks toughness for the snare reduction. However it makes up for this with some other really really good talents. Mark of blood basically removes a dps class from the fight for 20 seconds, rogues especially, although big bursters like mages/destro locks can still overcome it easily. Rune tap is a must no matter what your pvp spec is and getting the improved talents is a must as well. It would be nice to have desecration however i feel that for pvp improved ams, and amz are much better.

I never got to try out unholy tanking but theorycrafting with other unholy tank beta testers i feel through their comments and my knowledge of how a dk tanks, this would be a viable tank spec for them:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

[Haloscanburn]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...50151003103151

Would be my unholy tanking spec I think.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...03150023133151

Unholy DPS spec.

[Gamehenge]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...50151003103151

Would be my unholy tanking spec I think.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...03150023133151

Unholy DPS spec.

I'm guessing you didn't play beta cause both of those specs are lacking a huge part of unholy builds. Where exactly you going to dump all your runic power into? If you look over other unholy builds posted you might notice it.

[Gamehenge]

i plan on unholy tanking with this

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jZ0xcZfgMItcoxxVocsut

im not to sure on how the duel wield is gonna work with tanking apposed to two handed weapons but i will be up for switching around if need be

i very much agree with the second post on raid dps i will probably switch between the 2

You're not going to be tanking anything if you don't get blade barrier

[Haloscanburn]

I'm guessing you didn't play beta cause both of those specs are lacking a huge part of unholy builds. Where exactly you going to dump all your runic power into? If you look over other unholy builds posted you might notice it.

I did play beta, RP always went to UB or DC. I never saw any DK's in raids that had gargoyle. I played with it a little on beta and didn't see a noticable change in dps so I just went without it.

[Gamehenge]

I did play beta, RP always went to UB or DC. I never saw any DK's in raids that had gargoyle. I played with it a little on beta and didn't see a noticable change in dps so I just went without it.

Did you play more in early beta? Cause current gargoyle is very good. It does more dps than dancing rune weapon. It can add between 650-900 dps so i don't know how you didn't notice a change in your damage which is why i call shenanigans. Unholy blight is utterly terrible and isn't worth the rune power, you would be better off deathcoiling then using it.

[Klydde]

Can someone rate this build? I'm aiming to a full PvE raid build going with Blood DPS.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...00000000000000

[chris493tke]

My leveling Unholy build at 61:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=joZZfMMIhbogcq0cout

I like this build because:
-Permanent, stronger ghoul pet
-Longer, stronger diseases
-3 total diseases
-20% increased mount speed
-Some additional runic power generation
-Bone shield mitigates some damage

Typical rotation:

(2+ Mobs)
Icey Touch - Plague Strike - Pestilence - Death and Decay - Unholy Blight - Blood Boil (Finshing off with whatever you want, most are pretty close to death)

(1 Mob)
IT - PS - DnD - UB - Obliterate (Rinse and Repeat)

So far in Blood Furnace and Helfire Ramparts I do about 500dps.

*Note-I don't claim to be an expert or know everything. I could be doing everything totally wrong. I'm continuing to learn every day*

[Solissa]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfcMqMcIsfotzAo

This is my current spec, as I am level 62, However I am thinking of tweaking it a bit to;

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIsfozzAoZb

Why? Because I feel NO use for sudden death, i'm more often using my Runic Power on Icebound Fort or a 20 sec Godmode(err... DRW) than Death Coil, and when it does crit it crits for 800(lol). So maybe 1 time every 2 fights isn't all that great, since I use a somewhat slow 2H it doesn't proc that much as it is.

[Narcissism]

This is my current planned frost tanking build:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=191110050403

Should be able to take on pretty much anything. I am currently leveling as this build too and have had no problems with it, apart from the occasional unholy ganker

I have also made an unholy tanking build which i plan to try out at 80:

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

I dont know if ill miss desecration though.

[Narcissism]

And this is a blood one i've just played around with, you can switch one point from DRW to bloody strikes if the mood takes you.

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

[Greekboy69]

This is my current build (Level 59):
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIsfozzA

Zero downtime, fast killing speed on single mobs, simple rotation:

Icy Touch - Plague Strike - Heart Strike - Death Strike - Heart Strike

and then use Death Coil for Runic Power use and to finish off mobs. Nothing survives past one rotation yet.

If the mob is a caster, I start with a Death Grip and then Stragulate/Mind Freeze as neccessary.

Here's leveling through Outland:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIsfozzAoZf0h

Going to Northrend at 68 then finish up leveling (Level 79) with this:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqccIsfozzAoZfzhI0co

Once 80, switching to this for raid DPS-

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqh0IsbRxzAoZfMhI0co

Only point I don't like in this build is Rune Tap but with Glyph is kind of useful for limited party healing...

Just Wondering about the level 59 Blood Spec, does it work good for PVP or only Questing.

Thanks

[rustibust]

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

thats my lvl 80 spec for pve i like it works just fine for me

[Vallos]

I am a Naxx25-geared tank and a 1700-ranked PVPer (one of the highest ranked on my server this early on)! After many trials testing DPS, TPS and survivability, I decided on these specs--

Tanking: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

Notably I cut my ghoul to pick up Bladed Armor. This helps incredibly with aggro, especially in AOE circumstances. Altogether, those 5 points bought me almost 800 AP-- completely invaluable.

PVP: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...h=000000000000

This is your standard Unholy PVP build. It has high survivability and, once every 3 minutes, has very good burst. It'll take you into the 1700s even if you have no skill attached.

Enjoy!

[frozenpatato]

Hey, sorry to being an asshole right now.

BUT LOOK AT THIS: http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=29716.0

Seriously, it piss me off. I worked hours on this thread and nobody seems to cares.

I was planning to add every specs made my other players different than mine... but it seems I failed.