Death Knight Guide/Q&A - (PvE DPS/Tanking and PvP)

[Luztra]

I have a question regarding Frost tanks and Rune Strike. I would assume it's not very smart to macro Rune Strike to all your abilities because that will completely eat up your RP for Frost Strike, so how do Frost tanks normally handle using Rune Strike? (I've been using it manually, but it's a god awful lot to keep up with the procs going off constantly).

[MooDK]

I have a question regarding Frost tanks and Rune Strike. I would assume it's not very smart to macro Rune Strike to all your abilities because that will completely eat up your RP for Frost Strike, so how do Frost tanks normally handle using Rune Strike? (I've been using it manually, but it's a god awful lot to keep up with the procs going off constantly).

I don't know how any other DK do it.. but i have it macroed with Blood Strike and Obliterate. It works alright for me. I'm sure there are better ways to do it.. but thats what i do at least.

However, Rune Strike does better threat then Frost Strike. So if Rune Strike eats a lot of Runic Power, then let it do so. You'll just get better threat. You still shouldn't macro it with everything though, because you don't want to risk using up Runic Power at times you need to use a cooldown (IBF/AMS).

[Tesal]

I have a question regarding Frost tanks and Rune Strike. I would assume it's not very smart to macro Rune Strike to all your abilities because that will completely eat up your RP for Frost Strike, so how do Frost tanks normally handle using Rune Strike? (I've been using it manually, but it's a god awful lot to keep up with the procs going off constantly).

MooDK already answered but to reiterate, runic strike is your best threat ability specially if you get your t8 2piece bonus and glyph. The only time frost strike is even close is when killing machine procs. I also have it macroed to my Obliterate and Blood strike and the only time I ever had an issue was during a 10 man when I was tanking Vezax and I was also interupting.

Btw MooDK I normally do surf EJ but I usually have to search for an hour for a simple question like rotation or spec where as MMO lists it in the first page of a sticky. In any case very nice guide I have used it for both my DKs dps and tanking spec. Thanks for writing it!

[MooDK]

Btw MooDK I normally do surf EJ but I usually have to search for an hour for a simple question like rotation or spec where as MMO lists it in the first page of a sticky. In any case very nice guide I have used it for both my DKs dps and tanking spec. Thanks for writing it!

Thanks a lot!

and thanks for further answering the question concering Frost Strike/Rune Strike

[Montan]

Well,

Which specc is the best for Raiding?

I raided As Unholy once And I made 3.5k dps, (not much) So Do you have any good Raiding, Could you give me a link?

Thank you

[MooDK]

Well,

Which specc is the best for Raiding?

I raided As Unholy once And I made 3.5k dps, (not much) So Do you have any good Raiding, Could you give me a link?

Thank you

Which spec that will preform best for you is very much depending on the gear you have and your personal playstyle. Since i can't know how you play, then we'll disregard that factor. If you give me your armory link, or another way to show me your gear if you want to be anonymous, then i can better help you.

I'd suggest though that you read what i've written in the OP, i've got 3 very good raiding specs there. One Blood, Frost and Unholy. It seems like you've missed that.

[Montan]

Which spec that will preform best for you is very much depending on the gear you have and your personal playstyle. Since i can't know how you play, then we'll disregard that factor. If you give me your armory link, or another way to show me your gear if you want to be anonymous, then i can better help you.

I'd suggest though that you read what i've written in the OP, i've got 3 very good raiding specs there. One Blood, Frost and Unholy. It seems like you've missed that.

Well. I want to raid With The bear specc you know . But I Pref Unholy if i should choose

armory link: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...&n=M%C3%B3ntan
Only Level 78 But , I hope to get gear Fast, Got a friend there maybe can get me in a good guild

Well Maybe you could give me at link to those 3 specc you got

[MooDK]

Well. I want to raid With The bear specc you know . But I Pref Unholy if i should choose

armory link: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...&n=M%C3%B3ntan
Only Level 78 But , I hope to get gear Fast, Got a friend there maybe can get me in a good guild

Well Maybe you could give me at link to those 3 specc you got

The build are already linked in my Opening Post.. read and you'll find more info on Unholy DPS. Heres a link for the Unholy build i'd suggest for you. 12-0-59

[Montan]

Thank you so much

What about "Unholy Blight"
Could i use that aswell?
"PS-IT-BS-BS-SS-RP Dump
SS-SS-SS-RP Dump"


PS = Plague Strike | IT = Icy Touch | BS = ? | RP = ? | Dump = ? | SS = Scourge strike |

[MooDK]

Thank you so much

"PS-IT-BS-BS-SS-RP Dump
SS-SS-SS-RP Dump"


PS = Plague Strike | IT = Icy Touch | BS = ? | RP = ? | Dump = ? | SS = Scourge strike |

BS = Blood Strike

RP = Runic Power

RP Dump means that you use up your Runic Power. It should be used on Unholy Blight, Death Coil and Gargoyle.

[Montan]

BS = Blood Strike

RP = Runic Power

RP Dump means that you use up your Runic Power. It should be used on Unholy Blight, Death Coil and Gargoyle.

Thank you so much !

[Scripts]

"Random" tanking question, tied to HB discussion above: Using HB to spread FF, would you then PS your primary threat target, pest then bboil? You are still looking at 4 runes (1F, 1B, 2U), so its roughly the same as a IC,PS,Pest rotation, but potentially more AOE threat. Biggest issue is if you just used D&D, but a D&D and a HB should solidify threat, no? Secondary advantage of spamming 2 boils is the deathrunes you gain from them, assuming you are talented for it.

I'm still heavily reliant on icy since I am using the icy +defense sigil the few times I have tanked, so glyphed HB is more an academic discussion for me, at the moment.

[MooDK]

At least i've never used PS and then pestilenced it away when i've already used HB..

I'd suggest that you go DnD, HB, BB instead.

[Deleted]

just a question, will you be updating this guide for 3.2? because many talents are changed (UB, desecration, ToT,...) and mechanics are changed a bit. i know the rotations for blood stays the same, but i think there now are 2 frost builds, DW and 2H specs. will you be including one tank and one DPS spec for each kind? (although parry haste might work against DW tanking).

[Bushyasta]

I see you're still looking for insight concerning unholy and blood tanking talent builds, so I guess I can try and help.

15-5-51
I used this build for tanking most of the time, it's unusual and rather offensive and is great for AoE tanking, but for single target as well. As you can see the main difference between yours and this one is that it has less RP generation as even with constant RS spam I had more that enough RP, so I've invested those few extra points into more offensive talents (I found the 5% crit to be pretty helpful) for a bit more threat generation. It ofc doesn't lack in defensive segment behind other unholy builds so I found it to be perfect for me. I've MT'd and OT'd pretty much every boss and trash currently in game and had little or no threat or survival problems. Ofc there's always those few extra points that people can experiment with and see what suits them better.

56-5-10
This is a rather standard blood tank build. Again difference between this and yours is minor, Scent of Blood switched to Spell Deflection as it's more useful and Corpse Explosion switch to Hysteria (corpse explosion in my opinion is useless as I've not even used it with unholy build for AoE tanking, and as blood you will mostly be tanking single targets as your AoE is inferior to other builds so Hysteria can be better for faster threat gain or you can boost someone else in raid/pary, but even for AoE blood tanking I see little use of it).

Standard or non-standard, build doesn't make that much difference, it's the player skill that ultimately determines raid/group performance. And best way to get that skill is by experimenting and testing and making your personal play style.

[MooDK]

I have decided to quit WoW. Which means i'll quit here aswell.

There won't be anymore updates from my side on this guide then of course.

Bye, happy slaying.

[Sedative]

You'll be back.

They always come back.

[gatorzrock]

How about this spec for 3.2 Dual Wield Tanking? if i'm missing something let me know.

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...&version=10147

[Wahlberg]

So using the 0/17/54 Unholy specc the rotation will be:

Chain of ice->SS->DC? what about blood strike?

[Shewasntfat]

So using the 0/17/54 Unholy specc the rotation will be:

Chain of ice->SS->DC? what about blood strike?

What are you tallking about? PvE or PvP, Tanking or DW Dps? If it's PvE, then there's no reason you'd ever open with CoI