Experienced DK at a loss on what spec to go.... (Two Handed)

[skaarrj]

For a while, i was 2 handed Frost, until they nerfed the hell out of it and made it so dual wield did more damage than 2hand in the Frost Tree. So I went with Frost DW DPS using a good spec and pulling 4.5-5k on most fights. I just feel like a Death Knight should be using a 2 handed weapon, it feels very Death Knighty if you know what i mean. Which unholy or blood spec should i use? Which one does the most dps? Do you think Frost DPS might still be worthwhile with a twohanded weapon, or is it really phased out to DW (I know i answered this myself, but i want to see if anyone found something different).
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...Ta0YVw6oqI1daf

That's my character, ignore the PVP trinket, i have GrimToll, i just needed my trinket for the PVP fight in 25TOC.

[nwo]

Blood is higher DPS in most cases, but you would have to get some armor pen gear for it.

Also, you need to work on your hit rating and get hit capped (8% for melee) and re-gem for STR, only rogues and shamans gem for AP.

[skaarrj]

My guild JCer can only make the 40 AP gems right now, and i dont want to spend money on the 20 STR ones. It's not too big of a DPS loss. Dont worry about my gems or hit, i'm aware of it.

Blood's generally higher eh? I don't have the Armor Pen for it though, so i guess it's unholy for me.

[Oshi]

My understanding is that the current best PvE "Unholy" spec is an obliterate based build with full Annihilation, skipping scourge strike... But again, that might require ArP to be successful.

[skaarrj]

its a big loss not to go for 20str gems......your weapon enchant increases you str by a % of your own str so you lose out alot there, if your serious about raiding afew 160g gems shouldnt matter. im pretty sure there are other jewelcrafters on your realm so dont slack!

I'm sorry, but i'm not going to see a noticieable increase from putting in 2 20 strength gems in place of my 2 40 AP gems. You're wrong thinking it's a big loss for what I have.

Anyone else who talks about gems, I'm just going to not read it.

Anyhow, Yeah, I'm not going to spec a gimmick unholy/frost build that will get nerfed later on. Since i don't have ARP the clear choice is unholy. Thanks guys.

[NoAbloIngles]

I'm sorry, but i'm not going to see a noticieable increase from putting in 2 20 strength gems in place of my 2 40 AP gems. You're wrong thinking it's a big loss for what I have.

Anyone else who talks about gems, I'm just going to not read it.

Anyhow, Yeah, I'm not going to spec a gimmick unholy/frost build that will get nerfed later on. Since i don't have ARP the clear choice is unholy. Thanks guys.

i lol'd, callling for help but...
40str = 119AP vs 88ap

119ap vs 88ap - 31ap

skip, next...

[nwo]

Dual weild frost is also another good option, if you could get 2 semi-decent 1 handers for it. It doesn't rely on ARP as much as blood, and it pretty much uses the same stats as unholy, with the exception that arp is actually a beneficial stat since it increases your dps whereas it does nothing for unholy.

[Liminal]

I just feel like a Death Knight should be using a 2 handed weapon, it feels very Death Knighty if you know what i mean.

No I don't

Do you want to do max DPS or do you want to max out your RP skills?


As far as gems go, every little bit counts.


Don't ask for people's help if you aren't willing to take their advice


Fail on so many levels

[Wingwraith]

From the looks of your gear, I'd say 2H Unholy Oblit build is going to be your best bet till you can get up to ~25-30% ArP from gear, then switch to blood.

BTW: You have 1 too many blue gems. You only need 2 for meta requirement. And they are correct about not using AP gems, AP is terribad. I'd rather have cheap +16str gems than epic +40AP gems.

[Dunpealnl]

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...&version=10192

Best dps spec atm for Blood. So start building your armor pen set =P

Loose 1 in Epidemic and put it in Morbidity, you don't need that extra 3 sec for your rotation.

And btw Skaarrj, Gem Strenght because Attack Power is a big no no. Don't forget Strength gems benefit from talents like: Veteran of the Third war, Abomination's Might and Ravanous Dead. And buffs like Blessing of Kings and your own weapon enchant Fallen Crusader.

So don't be so stuborn and change it asap.

Experienced DK my ass.

[Daehauq]

Loose 1 in Epidemic and put it in Morbidity, you don't need that extra 3 sec for your rotation.

DPS 6906 (51/0/20, 1/2 Epidemic, 3/3 Morbidity, 5/5 Necrosis)
DPS 6939 (51/0/20, 2/2 Epidemic, 3/3 Morbidity, 4/5 Necrosis)
DPS 6970 (51/0/20, 2/2 Epidemic, 2/3 Morbidity, 5/5 Necrosis)
and
DPS 6867 (same spec as above but with 1/2 Epidemic and 1pt unspent)

So using unspent pt on Epidemic yields ~1.5% dps (6867 * 1.015 = 6970.005),
while on Morbidity it's ~.57% dps increase (6867 * 1.0057 = 6906.1419).

And to OP: as stated, Str >>>> AP

[HavocZephyr]

to be quite honest I had the same problem myself, back in 3.1 I was doing the single disease HB rotation with frost, it was the shit. I miss it so much T_T;

but anyway, after that I was a bit lost, i went to frost 2hand and liked it, I didn't feel like increasing my hit rating for Dual wield so i hopped to uholy, in the broad side of things I brought Ebon plague to my guild runs so it worked out for the better. Do yourself a favor and try out Unholy w/ Obliterate, its just juicy juicy damage man. I used to HATE unholy because of scourge faceroll rotations (seriously 4 buttons and go to sleep, its stupid) now I use it and am usually on the top of the charts...unless one of the rogues log in T_T;

To be quite honest I have never tried blood dps so I dont know what I'm missing by trying that spec. but the rotation and feel of unholy w/Obliterate is really refreshing and fun.

as everyone else has been saying STR will always outscale atp for death knights. ESPECIALLY in raids when you get that awesome blessing of kings (I LUB YOU PALADINS <3)
Horn of winter + Fallen Crusader + current STR + whatever else you have + 10% of that = Epic win

[Shabibbles]

Blood is still the reigning DPS champ from everything I've done, tested, an read.

As stated though, armor penetration is a MAJOR factor in the spec. I noticed someone else mention something about armor penetration while using an uh obliterate spec... which is false. The only reason OB is hitting harder than SS boils down to the debuffs on a boss.

I would highly suggest going blood, and trying to get your armor pen up to roughly 40% on the character screen (Which is 50% due to talents), and picking up a grim toll, or mjolnir runestone. This will give you 100% armor pen 15-20% of the time.

Also, as far as gems go, most of them are correct. STR > AP, however there's a sweet spot where you should stop gemming for STR altogether, an go armor pen gems if you still haven't reached that point. I believe from my testing, the point at which you want to start gemming AP to reach your "cap" is around 6300-6400 raid buffed attack power (Don't forget that you get abom might in combat, not just standing around, when you look at your character screen to see where you're at.)

[HavocZephyr]

I can't find the source right off the bat, but i recall overhearing that 16% armor pen is when Obliterate + 3 disease in that spec outdamages Scourge Strike, but I could be wrong. Its still an impressive DPS boost to have regardless.

[Wingwraith]

I can't find the source right off the bat, but i recall overhearing that 16% armor pen is when Obliterate + 3 disease in that spec outdamages Scourge Strike, but I could be wrong. Its still an impressive DPS boost to have regardless.

I remember hearing that it was ~20%

[Daehauq]

I played Unholy pre-3.2 and once I heard that Oblit would surpass SS as main attack for top dps I checked the sim.

I only had around 119 ArP rating and 0/17/54 was already ahead of 12/0/59.

[Shabibbles]

Now, for those saying 16-20% is the magic number for OB to be > SS, does that INCLUDE, or does it not count Sunders, and other such debuffs.