Best Death Knight leveling spec 3.3

[DeusX]

Maybe because I always pulled 3+ mobs, never less. If there was a patrol of 2 mobs running around, I was proximity-pulling them, then run into another pack of mobs and burn them down. The self healing of blood allowed me to pull all kind of stuns. The Improved Blood Presence + Rune Tap + every mob which died was giving me a lot of hp, chain pulling was no issue. But while playing Unholy for a short while, the PET was somehow getting into toruble with 1-2 mobs and getting killed. Ofc, not every pull... but anyway, I just enjoeyd blood too much.

And yes, the advice is try each spec for a couple of levels, since you are lvl 70, you can have fun with all. In fact, leveling a DK is not a matter of time, unless you are really bad and keep needing bandages and stuff after every pull, it's a matter of having fun. Sometimes I think about making another DK just to try whatever I have missed doing while I leveling my first one.

I am having my fare share of Unholy playing now, in ICC, with my pet alive all the time unless I die.

[MCC1701]

Maybe because I always pulled 3+ mobs, never less. If there was a patrol of 2 mobs running around, I was proximity-pulling them, then run into another pack of mobs and burn them down. The self healing of blood allowed me to pull all kind of stuns. The Improved Blood Presence + Rune Tap + every mob which died was giving me a lot of hp, chain pulling was no issue. But while playing Unholy for a short while, the PET was somehow getting into toruble with 1-2 mobs and getting killed. Ofc, not every pull... but anyway, I just enjoeyd blood too much.

And yes, the advice is try each spec for a couple of levels, since you are lvl 70, you can have fun with all. In fact, leveling a DK is not a matter of time, unless you are really bad and keep needing bandages and stuff after every pull, it's a matter of having fun. Sometimes I think about making another DK just to try whatever I have missed doing while I leveling my first one.

Unholy is the best at AOEing, and honestly unless you were messing up your pet should never had gotten any agro. Maybe you weren't spreading diseases, or using D&D, because either one of those alone as unholy would be enough to keep threat off your pet. I even sent my pet to kill stuff on his own, and he barely lost any health. Maybe they buffed or nerfed ghoul health between the time we leveled, who knows..

Also I know what you mean, but I wouldn't level a DK. They were alright, but at end-game are over-populated, and are by far not the most OP or fun class/spec to level. Have you seen a GOOD aff lock mass drain tank? Man, they put DKs fresh out of their starting areas to shame, and IMO are WAY more fun and interesting to level...

[MCC1701]

You don't need to be blood to do that.

Heck, you don't even need to be a DK to do that, I have soloed most group quests for every char I have leveled(priest, lock, mage, druid, shaman, DK)

[Ssith]

http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51267

that is the best leveling build.

[Morgeni]

I woud Specc like This: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...G,9QFOR3,11403

[Unholyground]

See, I'd really like to have a dual-wield spec because it'd be fun and something out of the ordinary, but the problem is that I'm not looking to be a Rogue out of stealth. I don't think a Frost DW build has a lot of survivability when leveling, in the sense that you're going to be eating constantly after a battle and you'll have difficulty soloing multiple mobs or an elite.

Right now, I decided to spec mainly in Blood, while putting points in Unholy, so that I have the two points in On A Pale Horse for the mount speed increase. Since I'm now level 72, this lets me use a majority of the Blood talents, too, including Heart Strike, and it's working very nicely.

Their is no eating as a DK, frost kills stuff too fast to take any damage, and even if you do there's a little thing called death strike and death pact, believe me frost is the fastest for leveling. Frost also has the best and most powerful AOE contrary to what others say, I have been playing the DK since early beta. I know all the ins and outs of the DK.

[Saangi]

My dk has been blood and unholy. frost is probably my least favorite leveling spec.

blood has the most survivability. unholy has the best aoe grind..

it depends on what you want to do.

[Unholyground]

My dk has been blood and unholy. frost is probably my least favorite leveling spec.

blood has the most survivability. unholy has the best aoe grind..

it depends on what you want to do.

If your looking for speed, frost is still the way to go, and it has the best AOE becasue there is no ramp up, you get your diseases on the main target, pestilence then howling blast, then they are pretty much done for. Unholy has great AOE but it takes longer to do its damage than frosts AOE. Survivability is not a problem for any DK spec, if your dying as a DK while leveling your doing it wrong.

[Crusoe]

I woud Specc like This: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...G,9QFOR3,11403

So you recommend going far enough down to get Improved Blood AND Unholy Presence, but not far enough to get the main nuke abilities of Heart or Scourge Strike? You also missed Vendetta which is pretty much only good for leveling. To each his own.

I recommend just specing tank, all three specs can tank, so it is just personal preference. I would go blood tank, since if your healer sucks, you can still survive from your own self healing abilities, and a 2H will be replaced less than if you DW.

The reason I recommend leveling as a tank is because in this game, if you play a class that can tank or heal, someone will ask you to fill that role. You might as well learn how to do it while you level.

[Gazgul]

100% blood for lvling, best burst dmg and you can solo any elite quests.

[Exclusive]

Blood selfheal is extremely overrated
Unholy movement + mounted speed are very underrated

The latter will give you the biggest benefits while leveling. Think about how insanely much you walk or ride your mount. Think about speeding that up.

Unholy still has an awesome self heal with DS because you have 3 diseases and not 2, and you can sacrifice your ghoul as well.

[mhp]

Like I said before - I think - spec depends a lot on how you're going to level:

* Questing: Unholy. Mount speed is king.
* LFD (tank): Frost. HB is king, and you're never going to quest, so mount speed is useless.
* LFD (dps): Unholy/Blood.

[Nektarious]

I went with a blood/unholy hybrid for the self heal and mount speed increase. Similar to http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...VSSsxSc,,11623

[Wanky]

I went with a blood/unholy hybrid for the self heal and mount speed increase. Similar to http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...VSSsxSc,,11623

That's exactly what I'm doing, and it's working pretty well. I can pick up 3 mobs and remain at full health for the duration of the fight thanks to my Blood talents, but still have the mount speed increase with On A Pale Horse.

[DeusX]

That's exactly what I'm doing, and it's working pretty well. I can pick up 3 mobs and remain at full health for the duration of the fight thanks to my Blood talents, but still have the mount speed increase with On A Pale Horse.

Hey, finally a topic with a happy ending. :> Satisfied OP is satisfied.

[judaism]

Wow that is the dumbest build I've ever seen. You don't get Might of Mograine, Blood Gorged or DRW for a 5% mounted speed increase?? (turn on unholy presence for riding your mount) Vendetta? That is a terrible skill. If you're leveling in blood presence, which you should be, you'll be regaining health way too fast for a 5% hp post kill to matter. No morbidity? Mark of blood? Christ you guys wonder why we have such a shit population of DKs at end game. What kind of spec is that? MMO-Champion forums produce another idiot they complain about in other threads. Hopefully he picks up tanking at 80 too!

[MCC1701]

UG, I really should just leave this be, but I am going to post anyways...

ALL DK SPECS CAN LEVEL GREAT!
ALL DK SPECS CAN AOE BETTER THAN MOST CLASSES!
ALL DK SPECS CAN KILL WITH BARELY TAKING ANY DAMAGE!
ALL DK SPECS CAN DPS!
ALL DK SPECS CAN SOLO ELITES!
ALL DK SPECS CAN TANK!

No matter how you spec you will never have to eat, not be able to tank, or kill things poorly. Really it just depends on the perks each ones brings. I think unholy is great because you move faster, have a pet, more passive CDs, and great healing+damage reduction. Blood has better healing, but less damage reduction. Frost has more damage reduction but less healing. All 3 can AOE grind well, and speaking about OL is moot, because abotu 2 seconds after you DG something, it dies. Now I tried blood for a while, and disliked it because there were a lot of CDs, and you had to heal more because of more damage taken. With unholy I rarely took any damage, and if I did death strike would fill me up.

[Thatwsntmilk]

First [On a Pale Horse] and the rest in Blood is the best way to perfect your leveling speed.

[MCC1701]

First [On a Pale Horse] and the rest in Blood is the best way to perfect your leveling speed.

Maybe lots of people are unaware of this, but unholy does more Damage than blood. The only real advantage of the blood tree is taking healing talents. But you lose a HUGE amount of damage, and damage reduction. True you can get a talent like rune tap, but you lose bone armor. When blood was really OP, this would be fine, but now with unholy being best, both in burst and long tem DPS, going blood is just redundant

Oh, and for those that may get the math wrong, "on a pale horse" makes you travel +40% faster on an epic ground mount, and +50% faster on a flying mount. This means that when flying a reg mount, you are moving at 300% speed instead of 250% you would move without it.

[Thatwsntmilk]

Those great healing talents speed up leveling much more than a slight dps increase (which is also very situational).