As promised a while ago, I wanted to put something in writing about DK frost tanking. Muertedehoof did a very nice post on unholy but I thought I could add my two cents on a very nice tanking spec.
First, a few general ideas:
1) You are a tank, you are not dps. Never, ever, ever, ever, under any cirumstances forget this. When gearing, gemming, enchanting and fighting, always ask yourself "How will this help me tank better?" Obviously, it's nice to do decent dps in an instance. But I would much rather be in a group with a tank that does 1000 dps and never loses aggro than a group with a tank that does 1600 dps but loses aggro at times because of it.
2) With great responibility comes great reward and people will love you if you do a good job. You might also get blamed a lot too if the group goes bad. Just be ready for the challenge.
3) You are extremely important to your group. 2 people that the group cannot function without are the tank and healer. If your healer continues to heal dps that is not doing what they should (not following kill order and drawing aggro, not getting away from AoE, etc.), kindly suggest the dps change their actions and, if they do not, inform the healer to not heal them since it is jeaopradizing the group. (I know it sounds harsh, but I had this happen one time...the dps will fall in line, believe me.)
On to the good stuff. This of course is subject to change. You can find my build here. My basic rotations are as follows:
Multiple mobs - Death and Decay, Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Pestilence, Howling Blast, Blood Boil, Obliterate...you start over again from this point with the exception of DnD (you will have created enough aggro by this time that it is not necessary a 2nd time. You can also throw in some Frost Strikes as rune-power dump attacks whenever everything else is on cooldown.
Single Mob - just the same as your multi-mob rotation but without DnD or Pestilence
Right now I have 3 macros. I have Deathchill bound to Howling Blast. I've also created 2 mitigation macros. I've bound Unbreakable Armor and Icebound Fortitude and use this on some of the harder pulls. I've also bound Lichborne and Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight to use primarily in sticky boss situations as a panic button.
This brings me to another point. You always want to strive to have precisely 540 defense. This makes you uncrittable. Having less means you risk putting a great strain on your healer and therefore your group. Having more means you probably have gems or enchants that are being wasted on unnecessary defense (having more than 540 does not really help you). However, if you have Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight, you only need to have 530 defense. The proc rate on this is 100% and counts for 10 defense.
I'll continue to try out some things so feel free to check back for updates.
Showing posts with label Death Knight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death Knight. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
DK dps
Hello everyone,
Mahaliel here. For starters I would like to touch on something that i have spent a great deal of time researching and testing. Everyone knows what type of gear to get for a DK but hardly anyone seems to know how to use moves in a rotation to maximize dps. This is not a bad thing but something that everyone who is a DK should know about. For example what kind of spec are you using? This will affect your rotation as well as the different moves you will be employing. For today's example we will be using my favorite type of DK dps. Unholy dps is AOE based. It is improved by hit rating crit rating and AP. The talent points you will want to invest in are a hybrid spec.
For our lesson today we will be using the spec i have chosen which is not perfect but it works well with my gear. I put points into the improved Death and Decay. I also put points into vicious strikes. Epidemic is a must. Virulence is good. Outbreak is very important for AoE. I usually max out necrosis to be able to get further down on the unholy chain. Blood caked blade is a good one to max out. Don't forget to max out impurity.. This is the mainstay of a DK who does unholy AoE dps. Even though it is not necessary maxing out magic suppression is better than the other options for a DK and it allows for better raiding in certain circumstances. Desecration is an amazing move not only for its slowing effect but also because any melee in your raid will increase their dps by 5% and the enemies will take 5% more damage. Bone shield also gives you a bonus damage effect and because you are not tanking you will most likely not lose the charges which means a more consistent high damage. Crypt fever is a good thing to put points in as well as it gives you another disease that you put on your enemy which means more damage on AoE moves. Wandering plague is a great way to increase damage during AoE attacks. and Ebon plaguebringer is great too. Rage of rivendare is important because it allows for you to increase your chance of not being dodged or parried. The last thing you want to put points in for Unholy is unholy blight. It is a good way to increase your AoE damage output.
Now I also put points into Glacial rot but that is the only thing i take from the frost spec. The rest of the points i put into blood spec. I max out subversion, butchery, bladed armor, two handed weapon specialization, and to finish it off with dark conviction.
Now that we have covered my talent spec we will cover the move rotation. This will change slightly depending on how many mobs you are attacking.
With 1-2 mobs you use less AoE. you start off with DnD, icy touch, plaguestrike, pestilence. This will use all of your runes. by the time your blood rune comes up use bloodstrike. Only use it once. save your second blood rune. Use Icy touch and plaguestrike once more. Now use pestilence. This means all of your runes except frost and unholy should be used. Now pop obliterate and the mob should be down. During this whole time you should have kept unholy blight up as much as possible.
With 3+ mobs we use a different approach. start off using DnD. Icy touch+ plaguestrike+ pestilence. Don't forget to use unholy blight. When blood rune becomes ready use blood boil. Now use icy touch and plaguestrike with pestilence again. Unholy blight should need to be renewed by this time. Now use blood boil one last time and use obliterate to finish them off.
Boss fights- here we have something that doesn't work so well with bosses. AoE is designed to do maximum crowd damage. However a boss doesn't take as much damage as a bunch of npcs. Here we will have to switch up our moves a bit to accomodate that style of single target fighting.
DnD to start it off. Icy touch and plaguestrike. Here is where it changes up a bit. Use bloodstrike a lot. When your diseases are about to finish up then use obliterate. Then reapply icy touch and plaguestrike. Always keep up unholy blight for the extra dps. Also during this fight you will be gaining a lot of runic power.. As long as you have unholy blight up then you may use death coil liberally.
Your boss fights will differ of course.. but as long as you remember to keep your diseases applied to your targets then you will keep maximum dps possible.
Thanks,
Mahaliel, Muertedehoof
Mahaliel here. For starters I would like to touch on something that i have spent a great deal of time researching and testing. Everyone knows what type of gear to get for a DK but hardly anyone seems to know how to use moves in a rotation to maximize dps. This is not a bad thing but something that everyone who is a DK should know about. For example what kind of spec are you using? This will affect your rotation as well as the different moves you will be employing. For today's example we will be using my favorite type of DK dps. Unholy dps is AOE based. It is improved by hit rating crit rating and AP. The talent points you will want to invest in are a hybrid spec.
For our lesson today we will be using the spec i have chosen which is not perfect but it works well with my gear. I put points into the improved Death and Decay. I also put points into vicious strikes. Epidemic is a must. Virulence is good. Outbreak is very important for AoE. I usually max out necrosis to be able to get further down on the unholy chain. Blood caked blade is a good one to max out. Don't forget to max out impurity.. This is the mainstay of a DK who does unholy AoE dps. Even though it is not necessary maxing out magic suppression is better than the other options for a DK and it allows for better raiding in certain circumstances. Desecration is an amazing move not only for its slowing effect but also because any melee in your raid will increase their dps by 5% and the enemies will take 5% more damage. Bone shield also gives you a bonus damage effect and because you are not tanking you will most likely not lose the charges which means a more consistent high damage. Crypt fever is a good thing to put points in as well as it gives you another disease that you put on your enemy which means more damage on AoE moves. Wandering plague is a great way to increase damage during AoE attacks. and Ebon plaguebringer is great too. Rage of rivendare is important because it allows for you to increase your chance of not being dodged or parried. The last thing you want to put points in for Unholy is unholy blight. It is a good way to increase your AoE damage output.
Now I also put points into Glacial rot but that is the only thing i take from the frost spec. The rest of the points i put into blood spec. I max out subversion, butchery, bladed armor, two handed weapon specialization, and to finish it off with dark conviction.
Now that we have covered my talent spec we will cover the move rotation. This will change slightly depending on how many mobs you are attacking.
With 1-2 mobs you use less AoE. you start off with DnD, icy touch, plaguestrike, pestilence. This will use all of your runes. by the time your blood rune comes up use bloodstrike. Only use it once. save your second blood rune. Use Icy touch and plaguestrike once more. Now use pestilence. This means all of your runes except frost and unholy should be used. Now pop obliterate and the mob should be down. During this whole time you should have kept unholy blight up as much as possible.
With 3+ mobs we use a different approach. start off using DnD. Icy touch+ plaguestrike+ pestilence. Don't forget to use unholy blight. When blood rune becomes ready use blood boil. Now use icy touch and plaguestrike with pestilence again. Unholy blight should need to be renewed by this time. Now use blood boil one last time and use obliterate to finish them off.
Boss fights- here we have something that doesn't work so well with bosses. AoE is designed to do maximum crowd damage. However a boss doesn't take as much damage as a bunch of npcs. Here we will have to switch up our moves a bit to accomodate that style of single target fighting.
DnD to start it off. Icy touch and plaguestrike. Here is where it changes up a bit. Use bloodstrike a lot. When your diseases are about to finish up then use obliterate. Then reapply icy touch and plaguestrike. Always keep up unholy blight for the extra dps. Also during this fight you will be gaining a lot of runic power.. As long as you have unholy blight up then you may use death coil liberally.
Your boss fights will differ of course.. but as long as you remember to keep your diseases applied to your targets then you will keep maximum dps possible.
Thanks,
Mahaliel, Muertedehoof
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