Few DK-related questions...

[Drunkenfinn]

Ok I just kinda "re-rolled" to Stormscale horde-side in order to get a change of scenery and to play with a few IRL friends of mine... I've also never played Horde before so its kinda "new and exciting".

I basicly CBA lvlin from from 1 to 55 and the fact that I've tried about every class except this one made me roll a Death Knight. I've been having fun in Outlands owning the sh1t out of everything, be it players or mobs, as Frost (2k Frost Strike and Obiliterate crits FTW?) but there are still a few things I need to make my gameplay more smooth.

Ok here are the questions:
- I'm happy that they buffed DW! But some people tell me its not as good as 2h. How much is it actually behind? Or is it? I'll most likely go DW regardless though :P
- Is there any addon that would provide me a movable/customizable Runic Power-bar? I'm using Yury's Rune Display for my runes and would like to get somekinda Runic Power-bar near the rune-bar so I wouldnt have to be checking the upper left corner for it all the time

Thanks in advance!

[MushroomBomb]

Not sure about DWing, but I know a friend of mine uses http://www.wowinterface.com/download...RuneWatch.html .

EDIT: It even has a disease tracker for your target

[Jaydee]

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...RuneWatch.html

[Langianu]

With the buff to DW frost in the recent patch, at high lvl, dw frost is actually the highest performing DK dps spec, though i'm not sure at lower lvl's.
So if it feels good, just keep playing and enjoy it, than screw it if you'd get 25more dps by shifting over to sth else

[Dolz]

With the buff to DW frost in the recent patch, at high lvl, dw frost is actually the highest performing DK dps spec

No, 2h blood is. But DW is really viable aswell and is just an inch behind. And it's harder and more fun to play then blood.

Blood has some advantages in some aspects. For starters it does more stable dps and it has good survivalibilty (Death Strike HELLOOOOO). The other advantage blood has is the amount of CD:s. If you are a blood DK you can pop thease up when Bloodlust hits: Hysteria (though you'll probably give it to a warrior), DRW, trinket, racial (Berserker, Blood Fury etc.) and a pot. Now as a Frost DW you can only pop UA, trinket, racial and pot.

[Miniclasher]

I can tell you from my experiance that a good runebar and runewatch addon is magicrune's its pretty easy to configure to

And i have tryed both duel wield and blood dps in raid's and to be honest there isnt much in it at the moment. its similar dps.

[Daehauq]

No, 2h blood is. But DW is really viable aswell and is just an inch behind. And it's harder and more fun to play then blood.

Blood has some advantages in some aspects. For starters it does more stable dps and it has good survivalibilty (Death Strike HELLOOOOO). The other advantage blood has is the amount of CD:s. If you are a blood DK you can pop thease up when Bloodlust hits: Hysteria (though you'll probably give it to a warrior), DRW, trinket, racial (Berserker, Blood Fury etc.) and a pot. Now as a Frost DW you can only pop UA, trinket, racial and pot.

It's actually the other way around, Blood is just an inch behind of DW Frost (with BiS gear, Blood does ~8k theoretical dps while Frost does ~8.2k).
But it's actually more about personal preference and the style of the fight.

Edit: @OP:
As stated, RuneWatch or MagicRunes

[Dolz]

It's actually the other way around, Blood is just an inch behind of DW Frost (with BiS gear, Blood does ~8k theoretical dps while Frost does ~8.2k).

Do you have source for that, because I really thought it was the other way around.

[Nangz]

No, 2h blood is. But DW is really viable aswell and is just an inch behind. And it's harder and more fun to play then blood.

Blood has some advantages in some aspects. For starters it does more stable dps and it has good survivalibilty (Death Strike HELLOOOOO). The other advantage blood has is the amount of CD:s. If you are a blood DK you can pop thease up when Bloodlust hits: Hysteria (though you'll probably give it to a warrior), DRW, trinket, racial (Berserker, Blood Fury etc.) and a pot. Now as a Frost DW you can only pop UA, trinket, racial and pot.

not on giving hysteria to warriors; only to fury ones

arms will have wrecking crew with 100% uptime

[jai151]

not on giving hysteria to warriors; only to fury ones

arms will have wrecking crew with 100% uptime

Single best hysteria target is a feral druid. Kitties love us.

[Daehauq]

Single best hysteria target is a feral druid. Kitties love us.

Fury warrior: more dmg from whites -> more rage -> more dps

[jai151]

Fury warrior: more dmg from whites -> more rage -> more dps

In my experience not only is a kitty higher base DPS, but they have a near if not 100% physical damage making it a straight 30% boost

[Daehauq]

In my experience not only is a kitty higher base DPS, but they have a near if not 100% physical damage making it a straight 30% boost

So are warriors? so they get a straight 30% boost aswell PLUS they'll get more rage from whites resulting in even more dmg

Do you have source for that, because I really thought it was the other way around.

I built up a BiS gearset for both Blood and DW Frost on Rawr, then simulated their DPS.
Opinion based result < fact based result.

[Guunz]

my advise is level blood dude. You have so many cooldowns that can be used for survivablity, and a bunch of save my ass buttons such as Vapireic blood or w.e its called, basicly it makes it so your healing abilities heal you for alot more. when i leveled as blood i could solo most group quests untill i went frost DW, where if you not ment to kill it.. your not gana kill it.

level blood, get yourself a 2Hander, then when u hit 80 go back to frost Tank DW. thats what i did

[Kelarian]

level blood, get yourself a 2Hander, then when u hit 80 go back to frost Tank DW. thats what i did

DW tank is sub-optimal. It can be and is done. But DW tanking stresses being expertise capped even more. Reason being most tanking weapons (needed because you can't put Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle on a 1h weapon) are fast hitting weapons. Primary drawback is faster swings resulting in many more swings for the boss to parry than a slow 2 hander. As a side note, faster weapon speeds means lower damage per hit, making strike damage lower. Unless you are considerably above the special hit cap, you might not make up the lost threat with damage from the off hand, as you have a 24% base miss rate.

As for deciding between frost DW and blood 2h for which is optimal for your gear, rawr works, but it is not perfect. I suggest going to Elitist Jerks website. Under forums is a thread for Class Mechanics. Look under DK's, and you will find DPS threads for all three specs. These threads include lots of information regarding which spec/weapon combo is doing the most dps atm. You can also find a link for Kahorie's DK Simulator. With the simulator, you can plug in your current specs (strength, crit, hit, haste and armor pen if you have any) and run any of the standard specs and rotations. This will tell you which is best at your current gear level. I found out that in my current gear, (theoretically) I could pull over 500 more dps as blood 2h than frost DW. This is due to my gear, not because blood 2h is better than frost dw at all levels.

IMO, for leveling, it does not matter if you would pull 50 or 100 more dps in a different spec. If your current spec is fun to you, run with it. The only time to consider changing specs while leveling is if you get bored with your current spec.

[jai151]

So are warriors? so they get a straight 30% boost aswell PLUS they'll get more rage from whites resulting in even more dmg

Fury warriors only, as arms has the non-stacking buff. And all I ever see any more is arms, though I have heard Fury comes back into play at BiS levels.

The other thing is I haven't played a warrior since vanilla, but I don't seem to remember rage being much of a limiting factor in my DPS...

[Daehauq]

Fury warriors only, as arms has the non-stacking buff. And all I ever see any more is arms, though I have heard Fury comes back into play at BiS levels.

The other thing is I haven't played a warrior since vanilla, but I don't seem to remember rage being much of a limiting factor in my DPS...

Yeah well I'm no warrior expert but I'll trust my guildie, who's among the top DPS'ers, on this

[jai151]

Yeah well I'm no warrior expert but I'll trust my guildie, who's among the top DPS'ers, on this

Fury or arms? =P

Honestly, to settle this there would have to be hours of testing done, something I don't think either of us want to do. I'll take the middle ground and say Feral or Fury are the #1 hysteria targets. Here's a question though, what would be #3? I was in a quasi-pug for Ulduar 10 last night (all guildies but a mishmash of our regular groups. Odd week) and had no cats or warriors in the group. I'm usually a tank, and was in that situation, so I wasn't a valid target. I wound up dropping it on the combat rogue.

[Deleted]

The only problem i can see with giving hysteria to a fury warrior is that you must know that the warrior wont be popping Death wish at the same time as these 2 abilities no longer stack, hence the cd is then wasted. So imo if you have a ferel druid close to topping dps, its best to slap him full of hysteria, as some others have said their dmg is near as damn 100% physical.

In the end it would come down to whichever you choose to cast it on as it benefits both classes alot, id tend to cast it on which ever player has the highest dmg output/dps on any given raid.

[Daehauq]

The only problem i can see with giving hysteria to a fury warrior is that you must know that the warrior wont be popping Death wish at the same time as these 2 abilities no longer stack, hence the cd is then wasted. So imo if you have a ferel druid close to topping dps, its best to slap him full of hysteria, as some others have said their dmg is near as damn 100% physical.

In the end it would come down to whichever you choose to cast it on as it benefits both classes alot, id tend to cast it on which ever player has the highest dmg output/dps on any given raid.

^this. And I used to cast my Hysteria (when fooling with Blood) on the warrior I mentioed on our IC hardmode attempts. He would start with Death Wish and have a timed macro to whisper me for Hysteria after DW had ran out, thus giving him 1min of +20% dmg :P