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Disclaimer
None of the information regarding 4.0 is in this guide.
If you're looking for an outstanding guide for Unholy DPS, use http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t105521-...rongest_flame/
If you're looking for an outstanding guide for Frost DPS, use http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t105701-...y_best_theory/
End Disclaimer
FAQ/General Knowledge
The Rune System & Runic Power (stolen from Alcotraz)
The Death Knight class introduced a unique power system formed by 6 Runes and a Runic Power Bar (much like a Rage Bar). Every Death Knight has two of each different type of rune: Blood, Frost and Unholy. Each rune has a non-dependent 10 second cooldown after use. This cooldown will be reduced to 2 seconds if the ability the rune was spent on has missed, is dodged, or is parried. The way you spend Runes will vary from spec to spec, with different abilities requiring different Runes.
Runic Power is created when the Death Knight uses an ability that requires a rune/s. If the ability requires 1 rune 10 RP is generated, 2 or 3 runes generated 15 RP. There are many talents that allow the Death Knight to generate additional RP by casting a specific ability or avoiding a blow. Anti-Magic Shell also generated RP when it absorbs damage. It goes for rough 1 RP every 100 damage.
The Rune System may seem a bit confusing at the beginning, since you need to track 6 different cooldowns as well as the RP Bar, but its really simple, and even simpler if you learn to follow it. Runic Power abilities cost a fixed amount of Runic Power usually 20, 40 or 60 which can in some cases be modified by Talents and/or Glyphs.
Now I will introduce you to the 4th Rune in the Death Knight Rune System, the Death Rune. Death Runes are wild runes, they can be used as either a Blood, Frost, or Unholy rune. Each tree has different talents for turning Runes into Death Runes and different results. All Death Knights also have the Blood Tap ability that allows them to change one Blood Rune into a Death Rune. Luckily for us Blood Tap is not on the Global Cooldown.
What presence should I be in?
Frost DW DPS: Frost Presence
Frost 2h DPS: Unholy Presence
Unholy 2h DPS: Unholy Presence
What is the Hit/Expertise cap?
The soft melee hit cap is 263, 8%. The soft expertise cap is 26, 6.5%.
The spell hit cap is 446, 17%.
The spell hit cap with Virulence (3% hit) is 368.
The spell hit cap with Virulence (3% hit) + Imp Faerie Fire (3% hit) is 290.
The spell hit cap with Virulence (3% hit) + Imp Faerie Fire (3% hit) + Heroic Presence (1% hit) is 264.
What enchants should I have?
• Head: Arcanum of Torment, 50 AP, 20 Crit Rating
• Shoulders: Greater Inscription of the Axe, 40 AP, 15 Crit Rating
• Chest: +10 stats
• Cloak: +23 haste
• Wrist: +50 AP
• Hands: +44 AP (or +20 hit if it helps you get capped)
• Legs: Icescale Leg Armor, 75 AP, 22 Crit Rating
• Boots: Icewalker is probably preferable to +32AP if you can use the hit. Tuskar's Vitality may also be preferable for high movement fights.
Note: Engineering enchants now STACK with the other enchants.
What Runeforge Weapon Enchant should I have?
A: Unholy = Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Frost = Razorice and Fallen Crusader
What consumables should I use?
Flask of Endless Rage
Potion of Speed
Indestructible Potion - can be used 3-5 seconds before a pull for roughly 100 AP if you have Bladed Armor.
What simulators are available?
There are some great simulators, there are some decent simulators, and there are some bad simulators.
Great simulator: Kahorie’s <- Use this one
Bad simulator: RAWR <- DO NOT USE RAWR AS A DK
How do I run a sim using Kahorie’s?
The instructions can be found at the website where you download it
Blood
Is now the tanking spec, go read a tanking thread.
Frost
Playstyle
Frost DKs dual wield one handed weapons and focus on fast auto attacks and a mix of physical and frost damage special attacks. Buffs include Improved Icy Talons and Pillar of Frost The 31 point talent is Howling Blast.
Everything has changed, refer to http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t105701-...y_best_theory/ for the time being.
Unholy
Playstyle
Unholy DKs use a 2h as well as a pet and focus on a mix of magical and physical attacks. Unholy has the hardest ticking dots of all the specs and the highest passive aoe potential. Buffs include Ebon Plaguebringer. The 31 point talent is Summon Gargoyle
A lot has changed, refer to http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t105521-...rongest_flame/ in the meantime.
How to use Summon Gargoyle
There are 2 major things you can use to increase your gargoyle's damage.
1. Speed buffs (Heroism + Potion of Speed)
2. Procs (Trinkets/Fallen Crusader/T9 2pc)
These must be on you BEFORE you summon your gargoyle. They will stay on your gargoyle for its full duration, whether or not you still have the buff. The best time to summon is generally 5-15 seconds into the fight, when all your trinkets are up.
Tricks of the Trade (no, not the rogue one silly!)
There are quite a few small adjustments you can make to your play that will increase your dps.
Don't be a fool, use your ghoul! (Frost)
Don't write off your little buddy just because you're not Unholy. Using a ghoul at the beginning of the fight, when you have all your procs up, can result in a ghoul that can do 60-70k damage over the course of the minute he's alive. That's over 1k free dps!
Addons
There are a TON of addons out there, so I'm only listing ones that I've heard to be good or tried out myself.
MagicRunes - http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...agicrunes.aspx
This addon will change the way your view your runes. Of all the rune addons I've seen, this is my favorite and the one I currently use.
MikScrollingBattleText - http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...ttle-text.aspx
This addon will change the way you see your damage and healing. If you're playing with the default UI's battle text, and you're tired of seeing your entire screen fill with yellow numbers when you drop DnD, this will save your life.
Power Auras - http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...s-classic.aspx
I personally haven't used this one, but people often recommend it and swear that they live by it. The addon tracks a multitude of buffs such as greatness, rune of the fallen crusader, etc...
NeedToKnow - http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...d-to-know.aspx
This is an alternative to Power Auras, and one that I personally use. It will track any buff/debuff you tell it to, and you can change the colors of each thing tracked to your preference. The only downside is it might take you a few minutes to input everything you want tracked. I highly recommend this addon for tracking your diseases/trinkets/bone shield/desolation/killing machine/rime/unholy strength/you name it.
ForteXorcist - http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...texorcist.aspx
This is another alternative to Power Auras/NeedtoKnow. This does basically the same thing as NeedtoKnow, as well as adds a cooldown bar that will show your internal cooldowns (great for tracking trinkets) and all cooldowns in general. I personally dislike how bulky the spell timers portion is, so I turned that off and use the Cooldowns bar in conjuncture with NeedtoKnow. If you do get this addon I suggest turning off the rune cooldowns, as that will just be redundant with Magic Runes.
Macros
#showtooltip Dancing Rune Weapon
/use 10
/use Potion of Speed
/cast Hysteria
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Dancing Rune Weapon
This will use your Hyperspeed Accelerators (Engineers Only), a Potion of Speed, Cast Hysteria on yourself, cast Blood Fury (Orcs only), and finally cast Dancing Rune Weapon.
#showtooltip Summon Gargoyle
/use 10
/use Potion of Speed
/cast Blood Fury
/cast Summon Gargoyle
Same thing as the DRW macro listed above.
/cancelaura Blood Tap
This will cancel your Blood Tap buff similar to as if you had just right clicked it. This can be very useful when you need to Blood Tap + Bone Shield, or Unbreakable Armor. There are macros that will automate the entire process of casting Blood Tap, casting BS/UA, and canceling the aura, but I find that they often take more than one button push and can often fail due to user error. If you can get them to work, great, if you're like me and macro retarded, just stick with the cancel aura one.
#showtooltip Raise Ally
/cast @mouseover [help,dead] Raise Ally
Useful for raising dead raid members
#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:shift] Strangulate; Mind Freeze
Will normally cast Mind Freeze. If you hold shift will cast Strangulate.
#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:shift] Chains of ice; Icy touch
Will normally cast Icy Touch. If you hold shift will cast Chains of Ice.
While the next macros have nothing to do with improving your DPS, they will improve your quality of life
#showtooltip
/cast [modifier:shift] Rusted Proto-Drake; Stormwind Steed
Will normally cast your ground mount. If you hold shift you will cast your flying mount..
/script for bag = 0,4,1 do for slot = 1, GetContainerNumSlots(bag), 1 do local name = GetContainerItemLink(bag,slot); if name and string.find(name,"ff9d9d9d") then DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Selling "..name); UseContainerItem(bag,slot) end; end; end
^this macro will vendor all gray items currently in your bags. Just make sure you've got the vendor page open, or it will try to equip the grays.
/run nf="[Flask!]: ";for i=1,GetNumRaidMembers()do for b=1,41 do ufl=UnitAura('raid'..i,b);if ufl then if strfind(ufl,"Flask")then break;end;elseif b==41 then nf=nf..UnitName('raid'..i).." ";end;end;end;print(nf);
^this macro will check everyone in your group/raid for a flask. It will give you a statement that looks like:
[Flask!]: Goodrouge, Pewpewadin, Arthasdklol, Legolass, Davidmiller