Is blood spec viable without any ArP gear?

[Arisen]

Hey folks, simple question really.

Our raids atm are without 10% AP buff due to holidays and the individuals bringing that buff being awol etc etc

We're still progressing on Yogg Saron 25 man and my gear is pretty much full ulduar level bar a couple of items, but these are mostly aimed towards unholy as in avoiding Armor Pen where possible.

I am considering going back to blood spec for the time being, but i havent played it since before 3.1 and the armor penetration buffs/changes.

i just wanted to know if i will still be viable as blood spec without the armor pen gear and gems. is the 10% talent plus 2 pieces of gear enough to pull it off or is armor pen vital to be of any use as blood? I have aesirs edge weapon and the t8.5 helm as my only pieces of armor pen gear currently.

http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...athor&n=Arisen

Thats my armory, it was still showing my tank gear last i checked so hopefully itll update soon.

Cheers in advance.

[Shiira]

Blood is completely viable without armour penetration, it just doesn't reach its full potential.

Armour penetration doesn't really become good until you have more than about 300 passive and either grim toll or mjolnir runestone anyway, so if you aren't at that point then you should actively avoid it and just stack strength instead.

[Sindrop]

You can still be viable yes, but will fall behind other DK's with more ArP. I've seen a similar gear scored DK in blood spec with only 24% ArP passive and no ArP trinket pull great numbers. I'm sitting at 42% passive and grim toll and I clearly pull away from him. Most boss fights I was 500 or so dps above him. Both of our raid buffed ap is right around 7k.

[Arisen]

Well its only for the progression fights (which atm is just yogg saron). So i shan't beat myself up about it.

I will see if i can pick up Mjolnir runestone if we get Thorim hard down. depends if we bring our rogue though as i expect he'll get better use out of it when i go back to unholy

thankyou for the responses though.

One question i had re: the rotation

Atm im opting loosely for the EJ blood suggested spec and rotation being

IT PS HS HS DS DUMP
DS HS HS HS HS Dump

The thing i find odd with this, is that the suggested dump phase of the first rune cycle is immediately followed by a DS.
Now it may be just me, but isnt this going to be a loss of DPS by not stacking up runic power for the second DS? (With the DS Glyph effect that is).

timed correctly i have runic power for 2 DCs after the first cycle and 1 spare GCD i use for raise ghoul. Would it be wise to sit out a GCD and hold onto 40 RP for the following DS? Or does the average damage of the DC overwrite the gain of hoarding RP for the DS :S

[Shiira]

That rotation is fine, and with the ulduar sigil and 3/3 morbidity it's always better to death coil instead of holding onto the rp.

[Arisen]

If tacs are going on on TS or if we pull soon after the last trash while my RP is still high it isnt impossible to manipulate your runicpower pre-pull.

I used to have it much easier pre-building RP as unholy. HoW, Ghoul Frenzy, Bone shield, DnD.
As blood i can only find HoW, DnD, and Vampiric Blood.

I have only awareness sigil, ive passed on the XT sigil twice for tanks/DPS that use frost and/or blood as their main specs. Now i'm the only DPS DK Left in our raids 99% of the time, typically it doesnt drop :P