Blood DK Warlords of Draenor Patch 6.2 Guide (Long but has TLDR Version)

[Saiyendra]

How much of a mitigative loss is it to drop Bonus Armor for the same amount of Strength?

(I guess this wouldn't happen realistically, but I'm just generally curious about the comparison between these stats for mitigative purposes).

[Troxism]

How much of a mitigative loss is it to drop Bonus Armor for the same amount of Strength?

(I guess this wouldn't happen realistically, but I'm just generally curious about the comparison between these stats for mitigative purposes).

Maybe 20%ish, but that is a really rough estimate.

On completely unrelated news I just found out someone plagiarized this guide so heavily that it's hilarious. They have a REALLY short version of the guide, but with the same wording/phrasing/formatting, just trimmed down, but they are taking credit for it themselves. Won't link (don't want to give views or start some big thing about it).

Biggest giveaway? Other then it literally just reading like a copy-paste, is the fact that 'BiS Gear is coming Soon', and the guide was written before I added my BiS Gear to this guide.

Sounds like I have some 'fans'

[Kalshen]

So im unsure if I should use the MC helm since I do not have a cm helm yet but the other helm i have is the Verdant Plate Helm with a gem socket. Normally i would just sim this but now that I am playing a tank im not sure if there is a reliable way to sim it. Thanks in advance for the help and great guide =D

[Troxism]

So im unsure if I should use the MC helm since I do not have a cm helm yet but the other helm i have is the Verdant Plate Helm with a gem socket. Normally i would just sim this but now that I am playing a tank im not sure if there is a reliable way to sim it. Thanks in advance for the help and great guide =D

Very close call. Probably MC helm.

[WarpKnight]

On completely unrelated news I just found out someone plagiarized this guide so heavily that it's hilarious. They have a REALLY short version of the guide, but with the same wording/phrasing/formatting, just trimmed down, but they are taking credit for it themselves. Won't link (don't want to give views or start some big thing about it).

Biggest giveaway? Other then it literally just reading like a copy-paste, is the fact that 'BiS Gear is coming Soon', and the guide was written before I added my BiS Gear to this guide.

Sounds like I have some 'fans'

haha, oh dear, I think I know which guide you're talking about

[Milocow]

for blacksmithing items, helm/chest/pants is the best slot to upgrade?
considering regardless of slot (wrist/glove/etc) they all cost 100 ingots

[Troxism]

for blacksmithing items, helm/chest/pants is the best slot to upgrade?
considering regardless of slot (wrist/glove/etc) they all cost 100 ingots

Yes that is the case.

[Deleted]

eTMI, sorry.

Here's an interesting scaling for higher ilvls and a slightly optimized DS usage:
eTMI Scaling for ilvl 695
Strength 1.00
BonusArmor 1.62
Stamina 1.25
Armor 1.65
Mastery 0.75
Multistrike 1.00
Haste 1.05
Versatility 0.73
CriticalStrike 0.51

Increasing the frequency of DSs seems to be better than increasing the strength.

I have a hard time believing Crit to be that bad while haste is even better than mastery/MS? I have 0 haste currently and Im totally fine, almost no downtime with my current multistrike. After simming myself for dps stats, haste also seems to be one of the worst for pure dmg.

[Troxism]

I have a hard time believing Crit to be that bad while haste is even better than mastery/MS? I have 0 haste currently and Im totally fine, almost no downtime with my current multistrike. After simming myself for dps stats, haste also seems to be one of the worst for pure dmg.

He isn't simming DPS at all, he is simming eTMI (which like I said I think is a waste of time, but either way it has nothing to do with DPS output).

[Deleted]

First part of my reply is regarding TMI, not dps - the second part is tho

[Troxism]

First part of my reply is regarding TMI, not dps - the second part is tho

Sorry didn't see. Reason why Crit is poor for TMI is because it's hard to make the APL play around avoidance. Also it doesn't affect magic damage, and there is some in the default boss. Haste is good because the APL used is very spammy, so having more DSes means you have a higher chance of Death Striking at the right time in the APL, helping the TMI a lot. This is kind of what I mean by simming for TMI being a little silly; it's very hard to make a perfect APL for it for a Blood DK.

[Deleted]

I really favour the highest DPS stats a lot since I feel like it will matter a lot, sure it wont be like in SoO where you top meters cause of vengeance but we will definitely be competitive. Which is why, as I mentioned, I really dislike haste because Im already not that far from almost having too much to do thanks to 900 multistrike rating (close to 30% with buffs).

After stacking MS I try to have a nice mix of mastery and crit, where mastery is the superior defensive stat and crit the superior offensive stat, balancing eachother out. No idea what Ill do in Highmaul, even tho I will be getting 100% of all plate aswell as tank offpieces from both normal and heroic (an almost filled raid with alts and socials to funnel gear to mains ftw), I guess Ill have to equip all that haste gear with disgust in the end due to the surperior ilvl.
Only 2 pieces in total with ms, aswell as only 2 pieces with mastery. Rest is just filled with haste and vers bullshit, like the head from Kargath. Yay, the easiest trash boss drops the absolute shittiest headpiece, while the siiiick shoulders with crit/MS drop from the last boss, will be great for progress!

[Troxism]

I really favour the highest DPS stats a lot since I feel like it will matter a lot, sure it wont be like in SoO where you top meters cause of vengeance but we will definitely be competitive. Which is why, as I mentioned, I really dislike haste because Im already not that far from almost having too much to do thanks to 900 multistrike rating (close to 30% with buffs).

After stacking MS I try to have a nice mix of mastery and crit, where mastery is the superior defensive stat and crit the superior offensive stat, balancing eachother out. No idea what Ill do in Highmaul, even tho I will be getting 100% of all plate aswell as tank offpieces from both normal and heroic (an almost filled raid with alts and socials to funnel gear to mains ftw), I guess Ill have to equip all that haste gear with disgust in the end due to the surperior ilvl.
Only 2 pieces in total with ms, aswell as only 2 pieces with mastery. Rest is just filled with haste and vers bullshit, like the head from Kargath. Yay, the easiest trash boss drops the absolute shittiest headpiece, while the siiiick shoulders with crit/MS drop from the last boss, will be great for progress!

Crit is barely a DPS increase over for example mastery honestly, and is generally a poor stat for intagible reasons (somewhat random, although playable around, and a lot of things just aren't avoidable). I really don't recommend it, as you are tossing out too much survivability for tiny DPS gains (and there is always a ratio where it's not worth it for new content, even if you favour DPS heavily, which I also do), but do what you will. You won't 'cap' MS at 30% not even close (even with 32% MS and about 22% haste, I am NOWHERE near GCD cap outside of lust unless I have amazing RNG), so I don't think worrying about that has much point this tier until maybe the very end. So MS will remain by far and away the better DPS stat compared to anything but STR/BA for a while yet.

If you are anywhere near GCD locking outside of lust/right on the pull with full runes ATM, you likely aren't hitting abilities right on the GCD. And as stupid as that may sound, it's an insanely common issue that I see; even in 5.4 Blood wasn't really GCD locked outside of lust/AMS soaking/AoE Tanking contrary to popular belief at the time, was more like 80-90% Gcd locked, even with a bit of haste.

[Milocow]

Is Bonus Armor that godly such that A 630 item with bonus armor beats a 640 item without bonus armor?

Also, what garrison buildings do you recommend to build?

I'm running Forge, Enchanting house, Salvage yard
Stables, Barracks
and Lumber Mill and Frostwall Tavern

[Dizzzzzzzzz]

So I was 'lucky' enough to get a warforged piece from my highmaul mission...
Any thoughts? I'm pretty confused as to why the strength is like ungodly low <_<

edit: oops not enough post count to post pics or links, the item is Tectus's Beating Heart.

trinket +117 strength, Chance on hit to grant 1843 crit for 10 sec (.92 procs/min)

[Troxism]

So I was 'lucky' enough to get a warforged piece from my highmaul mission...
Any thoughts? I'm pretty confused as to why the strength is like ungodly low <_<

edit: oops not enough post count to post pics or links, the item is Tectus's Beating Heart.

trinket +117 strength, Chance on hit to grant 1843 crit for 10 sec (.92 procs/min)

Part of the trinket nerfs, too bad they only affected some trinkets. Sadly that trinket is pretty bad for it's ilvl, since crit procs don't give any parry (for some stupid reason), but it's better then nothing obviously as it does give good DPS, and the Strength is at least decent, although lower then static stat 5 man trinkets...

- - - Updated - - -

Is Bonus Armor that godly such that A 630 item with bonus armor beats a 640 item without bonus armor?

Also, what garrison buildings do you recommend to build?

I'm running Forge, Enchanting house, Salvage yard
Stables, Barracks
and Lumber Mill and Frostwall Tavern

Should have War Mill to do work orders for follower items (level 2) to gear them up to get raid/645 missions, but might be too late now. Should have had that now for weeks.

Tough call on the BA there. Depends on itemization.

[Comp]

Thanks friend.

[Milocow]

Part of the trinket nerfs, too bad they only affected some trinkets. Sadly that trinket is pretty bad for it's ilvl, since crit procs don't give any parry (for some stupid reason), but it's better then nothing obviously as it does give good DPS, and the Strength is at least decent, although lower then static stat 5 man trinkets...

- - - Updated - - -



Should have War Mill to do work orders for follower items (level 2) to gear them up to get raid/645 missions, but might be too late now. Should have had that now for weeks.

Tough call on the BA there. Depends on itemization.

630 MS BA cape vs 640 Mastery MS cape
630 Mastery BA ring vs 640 Haste Mastery ring

judging from your PMs i guess the BA pieces win though

Yeah I just built a level 2 warmill hopefully I can unlock level 3 before this week ends

1. Also, is it intended that crit procs do not give parry via Riposte or is it just a bug?

2. btw Scabbard of Kyannos is shit right?

3. Which Highmaul pieces have shitty itemization such that Blacksmithing items are a gain over it?
I guess head,shoulders, gloves, wrists, gloves and waists?

[Cryopathy]

I mentioned before that I've been working on a Blood Simcraft APL that is closer to how a Blood DK would actually play than the original. Simcraft has many deficiencies for tanks as was discussed on the previous page, but it can at least be somewhat useful for tank DPS, at the very least. I figured I'd post it here for people to look at and hopefully improve upon.

# Executed before combat begins. Accepts non-harmful actions only.
actions.precombat=flask,type=greater_draenic_strength_flask
actions.precombat+=/food,type=calamari_crepes
actions.precombat+=/blood_presence
actions.precombat+=/horn_of_winter

# Snapshot raid buffed stats before combat begins and pre-potting is done.
actions.precombat+=/snapshot_stats
actions.precombat+=/potion,name=draenic_armor
actions.precombat+=/army_of_the_dead

# Executed every time the actor is available.

actions=auto_attack
actions+=/potion,name=draenic_armor,if=buff.potion.down

#Defensive CDs -- Not used intelligently, just used one after the other
actions+=/antimagic_shell
actions+=/dancing_rune_weapon
actions+=/bone_shield,if=buff.bone_shield.down&buff.dancing_rune_weapon.down&buff.icebound_fortitude.down&buff.vampiric_blood.down&buff.rune_tap.down
actions+=/vampiric_blood,if=buff.bone_shield.down&buff.dancing_rune_weapon.down&buff.icebound_fortitude.down&buff.rune_tap.down
actions+=/icebound_fortitude,if=health.pct<80&buff.dancing_rune_weapon.down&buff.bone_shield.down&buff.vampiric_blood.down&buff.rune_tap.down
actions+=/death_pact,if=health.pct<50

#Healing Tonic would be ideal but seems to not be supported by simcraft yet
actions+=/health_stone,if=health.pct<50

#Death Strike when runes capped
actions+=/death_strike,if=frost=2&unholy=2

#(attempting to simulate real play) Use 'reserve' Death Strike only if you've taken significant damage or if another Death Strike is immediately available through double Blood Tap/Plague Leech
actions+=/death_strike,if=buff.resolve.value>200
actions+=/death_strike,if=cooldown.plague_leech.up
actions+=/death_strike,if=buff.blood_charge.stack>=10

#Blood Tap if two charges are available or if a U/F rune is fully depleted
actions+=/blood_tap,if=buff.blood_charge.stack>=10
actions+=/blood_tap,if=(frost=0|unholy=0)

#Use one Blood rune when Blood runes capped
actions+=/soul_reaper,if=target.health.pct<=35&blood=2
actions+=/blood_boil,if=blood=2

#Get diseases up
actions+=/outbreak,if=runic_power>29&!disease.ticking

#Death Coil when RP at 50+
actions+=/death_coil,if=runic_power>49

#Use Crimson Scourge procs
actions+=/defile,if=buff.crimson_scourge.up
actions+=/blood_boil,if=buff.crimson_scourge.up

#Use second Blood rune
actions+=/rune_tap,if=health.pct<50&blood=1&buff.icebound_fortitude.down&buff.bone_shield.down
actions+=/soul_reaper,if=target.health.pct<=35&blood=1
actions+=/blood_boil,if=blood=1

#Plague Leech when possible if Outbreak can be used immediately and only if two runes are fully depleted
actions+=/plague_leech,if=runic_power>29&((frost=0&unholy=0)|(frost=0&blood=0)|(unholy=0&blood=0))

#Use rest of RP on Death Coil
actions+=/death_coil

actions+=/empower_rune_weapon,if=!blood&!unholy&!frost

The big issues are, which were explained earlier:
-You can't really predict damage/fight patterns and use CDs proactively. I just roll every cooldown consecutively instead because there's not much you can do about this.
-You can't rely on actions based off being at a certain percentage of health. In the default Simcraft setup, you spend almost the entire fight under 0 health as far as the program is concerned. Therefore, any action which relies on being under a certain percentage of health (which would be a good way to simulate using your 'reserve' Death Strike when you need to), will always fire whenever possible. I tried to simulate DS'ing only after taking hefty damage by using a pretty high Resolve threshold. I saw some stuff in the documentation about adding healers to the raid, so maybe it is possible to sim something more realistic.

[Vizer]

Crit is barely a DPS increase over for example mastery honestly, and is generally a poor stat for intagible reasons (somewhat random, although playable around, and a lot of things just aren't avoidable). I really don't recommend it, as you are tossing out too much survivability for tiny DPS gains (and there is always a ratio where it's not worth it for new content, even if you favour DPS heavily, which I also do), but do what you will. You won't 'cap' MS at 30% not even close (even with 32% MS and about 22% haste, I am NOWHERE near GCD cap outside of lust unless I have amazing RNG), so I don't think worrying about that has much point this tier until maybe the very end. So MS will remain by far and away the better DPS stat compared to anything but STR/BA for a while yet.

If you are anywhere near GCD locking outside of lust/right on the pull with full runes ATM, you likely aren't hitting abilities right on the GCD. And as stupid as that may sound, it's an insanely common issue that I see; even in 5.4 Blood wasn't really GCD locked outside of lust/AMS soaking/AoE Tanking contrary to popular belief at the time, was more like 80-90% Gcd locked, even with a bit of haste.

why do you prefer gearing for damage? do you feel that it's mathematically correct to do, and that if you're raiding on the bleeding edge and have great healers, you should gear for as much damage as you can get away with, as long as you're not dying?

would you recommend gearing for lots of multistrike/damage to a blood DK that's unsure of the quality of their raid (trying out for guilds, playing with new people/healers), or is it safest to always gear for mitigation until the extra damage is required?