*** WORK IN PROGRESS ***
Hey guys,
Karazee and I have decided to try to put together a dummies guide for DK PVP in all three specs. I don't expect this to be a comprehensive spoonfeeding session on how to play every single aspect of PVP, but it should be enough to get everyone started on the right path if they come looking for basic answers.
I would ask the following:
- If you contribute, explain your contribution! Don't simply post, "This is better," and expect to be taken seriously. Provide good, sound reasoning so that our post can contain quality, not opinions.
- Be humble enough to know when opinion and fact differ. I don't want this thread to degrade into petty quibbling over filler points that don't matter, or aspects of gaming that border on insignificance.
BLOOD
Introduction:
Blood is typically a tank spec in PVE, so its use in PVP is esoteric to say the least. While you will be capable of hitting quite hard due to Vengeance and Glyph of Death Strike, you’ll be unable to effectively control anyone else, melee, ranged, or caster. Your strength as Blood is in your ability to stay alive, almost to the point of annoyance for your opponents. Vampiric Blood in combination with Death Strikes and Rune Tap can quickly refill your health bar and make you an excellent flag carrier (FC) or node protector (such as Arathi Basin). However, it’s generally believed that if you aim to assist an arena team in dealing damage, you’d be best suited trying Frost or Unholy.
Spec:
Blood Spec
There is a lot of room for flexibility in the remaining points. Blood is about survival, not killing, and any points beyond attaining Lichborne in the Frost tree merely provide utility or damage. Use the remaining points as you see fit.
Glyphs:
The only Prime Glyph that adds to survivability, albeit very little, is Glyph of Death Coil when used to self-heal in combination with Lichborne. Aside from that, choose from any of the following to your liking:
Glyph of Death Strike
Glyph of Rune Strike
Glyph of Heart Strike
Stats/Gems:
With survivability in mind, Stamina and Resilience are your best options. Traditional tanking stats (Dodge, Parry, Mastery) can be very powerful in certain situations, but very useless in others (ie, powerful vs. melee, useless vs. casters). This means that red gems are typically not as powerful, and in general, you would likely be best-served to only gem for a red socket when the bonus is beneficial (+30 Stamina, +30 Resilience, etc).
Color/Desired Stat:
Blue: Stamina
Yellow: Resilience
Red: Avoidance (Parry) or Expertise (if needed)
Meta:
Austere Shadowspirit Diamond
Blue:
Solid Ocean Sapphire
Yellow:
Mystic Amberjewel
Red (socket):
Defender's Demonseye
Guardian's Demonseye
Enchants:
Any profession-specific enchant would override the enchants listed below. Keep in mind that Stamina and Resilience are key, and that many Cataclysm enchants don't offer either. Below I've listed the best possible Stamina and Resilience available to everyone. Use your best judgement when selecting enchants.
Head: Arcanum of the Earthen Ring
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz
Back: Enchant Cloak - Protection
Chest: Enchant Chest - Greater Stamina or Enchant Chest - Mighty Resilience
Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Major Stamina
Hands: Heavy Savage Armor Kit
Legs: Drakehide Leg Armor
Boots: Enchant Boots - Earthen Vitality
Weapon: Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle or Rune of Swordshattering
Playstyle Tips:
- Stay in Blood Presence for the damage reduction and Rune Strikes on-call
- Pay special attention to classes that can disarm you (rogues, warriors, hunter pets) as you will be extremely vulnerable with no Death Strikes
- Remember you can summon a ghoul and sacrifice him for a quick 40% health boost
- Dark Simulacrum against healers can provide even more survivability
- Your diseases are little more than an annoyance at the end of the day – use them sparingly as they have no effect on Death Strike or Rune Strike
- Don’t blow all your Blood Runes on Heart Strikes (remember, you’re not in the group to do damage) – always save at least one for Rune Tap
FROST
Introduction:
If you’re just beginning with DK PVP, Frost is the spec for you. It’s highly effective with use of a minimal number of skills, and is pretty forgiving regarding ability choice compared to Unholy. Conversely, if you’re a seasoned player looking for a highly competitive Arena spec, or a spec that’s going to obliterate (no pun intended) FCs in Rated Battlegrounds (RBGs), then look to Unholy.
Spec:
I am only going to say this once. If you don’t read this, and you post something to the contrary in the thread below, we all reserve the right to tell you to learn to read, and/or call you stupid:
>>>FROST SPECS ARE HIGHLY DEBATED!<<<
Some people swear by 2H, some swear by Dual Wield (DW). I am only going to provide what is considered general knowledge for both sides, and leave you to make the choice that you believe is best for your playstyle and/or preference.
2H:
2H Frost Spec
Pros:
Cons:
- High Runic Power (RP) generation, leading to great Frost Strike burst
- Flexibility in talents (no need to take 3/3 Nerves of Cold Steel)
- Great Necrotic Strike stacking from 2H weapon damage
- Need slightly more Hit Rating to reach cap, which drops other stats
- Slightly less predictable damage as you rely heavily on Might of the Frozen Waste procs
DW:
DW Frost Spec
Pros:
Cons:
- Two weapons allows use of both Rune of the Fallen Crusader and Rune of Razorice, leading to better sustained damage on a single target
- Some flexibility in secondary trees as there is merit in taking either Unholy for Desecration, or Blood for Butchery and Scent of Blood
- Necrotic Strikes hit for significantly less, meaning you will rely more on Howling Blast and Frost Strike to provide pressure
- Rune of Razorice has a slight ramp-up time (to reach 5 stacks), so you will suffer if you switch targets heavily
Glyphs:
Glyphs for both specs are fairly straight-forward. In general, Obliterate is considered a poor choice of a skill in PVP due to the heavy damage reduction it suffers from both Armor and Resilience, though it still has a place as an execute against cloth-wearing classes. As such, most players choose to ignore Obliterate almost entirely in lieu of Necrotic Strike, Howling Blast, and Frost Strike. This makes our Glyph selection fairly simple.
Glyph of Howling Blast
Glyph of Icy Touch
Glyph of Frost Strike
Some players also like Glyph of Hungering Cold, though recent nerfs (addition of a cast time) have made this skill far less useful than in the past. Use at your own discretion.
Stats/Gems:
Frost is about dealing damage, and lots of it. In general, 40 Strength gems will be better than any other choice, with the obvious exception of socket bonuses that compensate for the lack of 20 Strength in choosing a multi-color gem (for example, a yellow socket with a bonus of +30 strength would take a 20 Strength/20 X gem). Our best secondary stat is Mastery as it greatly enhances our Frost Strike and Howling Blast damage – two of our three bread-and-butter abilities.
Ideally, you will obtain enough Hit rating from PVP gear to reach the necessary cap of 5%. For DW, this is easier as the talent Nerves of Cold Steel gives 3% Hit as well.*
Another important consideration, which can be followed or ignored based on where you PVP most often, is the Spell Penetration cap of 195. Spell Penetration reduces enemy resistances by 1 point per point that you have. In general, Glove and Belt sockets will be blue, and are a good option for +50 Spell Penetration gems. Additionally, many players opt for the supporting 70 Spell Penetration cloak enchant.
Color/Desired Stat:
Red: Strength
Yellow: Mastery
Blue: Hit Rating (if needed) or Spell Penetration
Meta:
Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond
Red:
Bold Inferno Ruby
Yellow (socket):
Skillful Ember Topaz
Blue:
Etched Demonseye
Stormy Ocean Sapphire
Enchants:
As always, any profession-specific enchant would override the enchants listed below. These are options available to everyone.
Head: Arcanum of the Dragonmaw
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone
Back: Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike or Enchant Cloak - Greater Spell Piercing
Chest: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats or Enchant Chest - Mighty Resilience
Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Major Strength
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Mighty Strength
Legs: Dragonscale Leg Armor
Boots: Enchant Boots - Mastery
Weapon: Rune of the Fallen Crusader or that with Rune of Razorice on Main Hand for DW spec
Playstyle Tips:
- Stay in Unholy Presence for the run speed and global cooldown reduction - Frost Presence is far too clunky and makes you too slow to react effectively against most opponents
- Macro Pillar of Frost to any on-use trinkets with Strength or Mastery buffs
- Use your Pillar of Frost macro before opening on a target
- Stack Necrotic Strikes with Death and Unholy, use Frost Runes to slow/control, and dump Runic Power with Frost Strike after Frost Strike
- If DW spec, opt for Howling Blast over Necrotic Strike as Necrotic Strike absorbs dealing based on Main Hand weapon damage (which is low for DW)
- Abuse Chains of Ice like there’s no tomorrow
UNHOLY
Introduction:
At the moment (4.3.2), Unholy is considered the go-to spec for high-end Arena play, and even has its place in RBG groups. The pressure that it can apply with properly aligned cooldowns is beyond compare. However, there is a high skill ceiling associated with this spec as proper ghoul management and tedious monitoring of your runes and cooldowns will play a huge factor in your success (or failure).
Spec:
Much like Frost spec, there are two specs to choose from here. The difference in the specs is the choice of the talent Rage of Rivendare, which increases the damage of Plague Strike, Scourge Strike, and Festering Strike by 15/30/45%. The key question is whether or not you plan to rely on damage output (diseases and Scourge Strike), or by negating healing (Necrotic Strike).
Unholy Spec WITH Rage of Rivendare
This spec would focus on damage output via diseases, Scourge Strike, Festering Strike, and Death Coil.
Unholy Spec WITHOUT Rage of Rivendare
This spec would focus on use of Necrotic Strike to negate opponent healing, and rely heavily on other damage sources to kill.
Glyphs:
The glyphs of the two specs above only differ in that without Rage of Rivendare, there's no reason to glyph Scourge Strike. It leaves very few viable choices, however.
Glyph of Scourge Strike (Rage of Rivendare spec only)
Glyph of Raise Dead
Glyph of Death Coil
Glyph of Icy Touch (Possible substitute for Glyph of Scourge Strike in Necrotic Strike spec)
Stats/Gems:
The stats and gems between Frost and Unholy differ very little. The only significant difference is that Unholy prefers Haste rather than Mastery. Otherwise, the same general rules apply: 1) Hit cap, 2) Spell Penetration cap, 3) Strength in all sockets, unless a significant socket bonus calls for a multi-color gem.
Color/Desired Stat:
Red: Strength
Yellow: Haste
Blue: Hit Rating (if needed) or Spell Penetration
Meta:
Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond
Red:
Bold Inferno Ruby
Yellow (socket):
Fierce Ember Topaz
Blue:
Etched Demonseye
Stormy Ocean Sapphire
Enchants:
Again, these enchants are the common enchants that all players can obtain. Profession-enchants would override these where applicable.
Head: Arcanum of the Dragonmaw
Shoulder: Greater Inscription of Jagged Stone
Back: Enchant Cloak - Greater Critical Strike or Enchant Cloak - Greater Spell Piercing
Chest: Enchant Chest - Peerless Stats or Enchant Chest - Mighty Resilience
Wrist: Enchant Bracer - Major Strength
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Mighty Strength
Legs: Dragonscale Leg Armor
Boots:Enchant Boots - Haste
Weapon: Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Playstyle Tips:
Some community members have chimed in at later points in the thread. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'll simply provide their input.