Death Knight Pre - Raid DPS Preparation

[Kyzara]

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King comes the new class, The Death Knight. We all want to level a Death Knight to level 80 as fast as possible and get to where we can finally begin to experience the end game of the new expansion. This guide is about how become raid ready.

There are a few things we must know first...

Dual Wield or Two-Hander

For most Death Knights this will be an easy decision as there is only one spec which plays well for DW and that spec isn't expected to be used very often. I will give some suggestions for Dual Wielding, however, You will be better served going for a Two-Hander as a Death Knight. This is mainly because all our skills are based around weapon damage and Two-handers in general play better in this role. If you wish to go dual wield then that is fine, but be prepared to get a lot of hit and to use a hybrid Spec. I will be only be covering Two-Handed Weapons in this guide as the theory crafting on dual Wielding is still very incomplete compared to Two-Handed Death Knight dps.

Itemization

The primary stats of a Death Knight are very similar to that of other melee classes. Remember you do have ranged abilities, however, at your core you are a melee class and need to be in your enemies face to do any real damage. That being said, Spell Power does nothing for you as a death knight and should never be itemized in your gear set.

Attack Power - This is the base stat for all melee it increases your ability to do damage with every attack, spell, skill, ability you may use. Every Death Knight skill has a coefficient to your attack power which increases the strength of the skill. This also increases the amount of damage your normal or white attacks do and thus is very potent.


Strength - Death Knights get 2 Attack Power for every 1 point of Strength they have. This fact makes Strength an extremely strong stat to itemize for any Death Knight. This is probably the top itemized stat assuming the str *2 = 1 Attack Power on one item is greater than the attack power another item gives.

Hit Rating - This stat is only important till you hit the cap for your specials and spells which is 11% or 288.53 if you have Virulence. If you are not speced into Virulence you need 367.22 Hit Rating instead. It is very important to be capped at Hit Rating.

Armor Penetration Rating - Armor Penetration is overall weak for Frost and Unholy, but strong to have for Blood. The reason behind this is that most of the damage you do as Unholy and some of the damage you do as Frost will not be mitigated by armor. Blood, however, deals solely in physical damage and is effected by armor to a greater deal then the other two specs.

Expertise Rating - Expertise Rating is not as powerful for a Death Knight as it is for a Rogue or Warrior when it comes to dps. This is because the majority of the damage a Death Knight does is from disease and abilities which cannot be dodged. Also every spec if you go deep has innate expertise. This isn't a bad stat to cap on, but definitely not worth it over other stats such as str, crit or Hit.

Crit Rating - Crit rating has it's uses for a Death Knight, but is also dependent on the spec you use. As Unholy this has an increased value due to Wandering Plague. For the most part you are better served to get AP, or Strength over crit though as crit has no bearing on your diseases which are a large part of the dps you can do as a Death Knight.

Agility - Agility only effects two things as a Death Knight. Armor and Crit chance overall you are better served to get Crit Rating over agility as Crit Rating will turn into more crit faster than Agility will as far as dps goes.

Haste Rating - Haste Rating is in the same arena as Agility in that it doesn't effect a whole lot of the Death Knights abilities. This is because the GCD for Death Knights is not affected by haste and thus it only makes you white swing faster. As most of the Death Knights damage comes from abilities and disease and not white swing haste has little bearing on our dps.

Gear List

Below is a sample listing of the Gear which a Death Knight would want to get to begin their Journey into Naxxramas 10. I've included several items which can be attained through Normal Dungeons, Heroic Dungeons and Crafting. I've also put in some quest rewards if no better drops are available from Normal Mode dungeons.

Two-Handed Weapons
Reputation - Runeblade of Demonstrable Power
Normal - Dreadlord's Blade
Heroic - Colossal Skull-Clad Cleaver
Crafted - Titansteel Destroyer

Helm
Normal(Quest) - Faceguard of Punishment
Heroic - Chitin Shell Greathelm
Crafted - Spiked Titansteel Helm

Neck
Normal - Necklace of the Chrono-Lord
Heroic - Gold Amulet of Kings
Crafted - Titanium Impact Choker

Shoulders
Reputation - Spaulders of the Giant Lords
Normal - Pauldrons of the Lightning Revenant
Heroic - Spaulders of the Careless Thief
Crafted - Trollwoven Spaulders

Chest
Normal(Quest) - Breastplate of Jagged Stone
Heroic - Engraved Chestplate of Eck
Heroic - Breastplate of Undeath

Cloak
Normal - Centrifuge Core Cloak
Heroic - Cloak of Bloodied Waters
Crafted - Ice Striker's Cloak
PvP - Hateful Gladiator's Cloak of Triumph

Belt
Normal - Spiked Metal Cilice
Heroic - The General's Steel Girdle


Bracers
Normal - King's Square Bracers
Heroic -Bands of the Stoneforge
Heroic(BoE Drop)- Cast Iron Shackles
Crafted - Vengeance Bindings

Gloves
Normal(Quest) - Gauntlets of The Culling
Heroic - Gauntlets of Dragon Wrath

Legs
Normal - Ancient Royal Legguards
Heroic - Legplates of the Oculus Guardian
Crafted - Savage Saronite Legplates
PvP - Savage Gladiator's Dreadplate Legguards

Boots
Normal(BoE Drop) - Berserker's Sabatons
Heroic - Rift Striders
Crafted - Spiked Titansteel Treads

Rings
Heroic - Mobius Band
Heroic - Band of Frosted Thorns
Heroic - Hemorrhaging Circle
Crafted - Windfire Band
Crafted - Titanium Impact Band

Trinkets
Normal - Vestige of Haldor
Heroic - Sphere of Red Dragon's Blood
Heroic - Meteorite Whetstone
Heroic - Incisor Fragment

[Drek-SiN]

Kyzara, what race do you feel will output max DPS as a Death Knight? I'm pretty set on making mine an Orc and I'm just wondering if you have any other suggestions and why?

[Kyzara]

Hands down for dps an Orc will be the best race by theory craft this is for a few reasons.

1) Blood fury, being able to increase your attack power not only effects your melee swing, but, also effects your diseases and spells. Since every ability a dk has is impacted by attack power this is just something that adds a lot to a death knight.

2) Axe Specialization - While this is a minor boost, since most weapons probably won't be axes in end game, this is something which will help any death knight early in the game when they are using an axe as a main weapon. The extra expertise is nice especially for a dk tank.

3) Hardiness - This stacks with on a pale horse making stuns last ~40% less then what they would normally making this a really strong pvp talent. However, indications are saying DK's will not be a focus class so this will end up being minimal in the end, especially since Death Knights can become immune to stuns by using Icebound Fortitude.

4) Ghoul Pet Damage - If specced unholy your pet will also deal 5% more damage if you spec into Master of Ghouls(no idea why you wouldn't). This is a big advantage since if you can keep the pet alive it is usually the #3 or #4 source of you damage, an extra 5% on that is quite nice.

In the end I will most likely go Blood Elf on my Death Knight as I have heard there are problems with Blood Fury and putting diseases back up on the target. I also like the ability to get snap Runic Power, but this is personal preference really.

[mcyoo]

Would the Sword of justice from halls of stone be better because of the higher end dmg?

[radek-SiN]

Originally Posted by mcyoo

Would the Sword of justice from halls of stone be better because of the higher end dmg?

Yes [Sword of Justice] would I do believe. Our DK's seem to be fiending for it =) I'm sure kyzara will correct me later if I'm wrong=0

[Mug]

Howdy fellow Wow fanatics

First off I wanted to thank for the great post. Lots of good info here for DK's.
I m on a raiding guild over Burning Legion(PVP) and I m rolling a Blood Spec DK. I was wondering if any of you have suggestions as for a good spell rotation, for bosses and/or trash.
Thanks for your time

Mug

[Kyzara]

Originally Posted by Mug

Howdy fellow Wow fanatics

First off I wanted to thank for the great post. Lots of good info here for DK's.
I m on a raiding guild over Burning Legion(PVP) and I m rolling a Blood Spec DK. I was wondering if any of you have suggestions as for a good spell rotation, for bosses and/or trash.
Thanks for your time

Mug

It really depends on your spec...

I currently raid as frost this is my spec

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

What I do with this is...

1: IT> PS> BS>BS>OB>FS(Use Rime proc here and all runic power)
2: IT > PS> OB > OB > FS(Use Rime proc here)

Using this I have pulled at most 3.6k dps, and it slowly has been climbing as I get more gear...

You can also choose to raid as unholy with a spec like this

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

The only thing you may not understand here is Uholy Aura, that is a dps increase to all melee dps in your raid is really good for any fight which requires movement, aka 90% of Raid level fights in wow....

rotation for this is...

1: PS >IT> BS > BS > UB
2: SS>SS>SS>DC(use gargoyle here if not on CD)

One thing you need to be aware of is that Gargoyle will drain your runic power and so you shouldn't use any runic power for 1m after casting it.

If you have any other questions that I didn't cover Mug please let me know. I have been working on different specs and rotations recently and hope to make a large posting about specs and rotations in the near future assuming I can find the time to do it and pull myself away from my Death Knight which I'm just addicted to at the moment =)

Would the Sword of justice from halls of stone be better because of the higher end dmg?

This is a good weapon, but far from the best from a heroic. The Axe from Halls of Lightening is the best pre raid weapon in my experience next to the Titansteel Destroyer.

[Morbidity]

Kyzara ...would u mind telling what presence do you use ? when frost DPS spec ofc

[Kyzara]

Originally Posted by Morbidity

Kyzara ...would u mind telling what presence do you use ? when frost DPS spec ofc

I replied to your pm, but I will also reply here to keep the discussion going.

I mainly dps in Blood Presence as it gives a 15% damage bonus to all our abilities plus a small amount of self healing. Unholy Presence for me is very situational and is more for pvp then pve, however, I do use it on fights where there is a lot of movement or little dps time on the boss. It's nice on fights like heigen when we go to dance to have the 15% movement speed since we don't have unholy aura in the raid(yet!). Keep in mind the melee haste is a very marginal gain for us Death Knights compared to a stright 15% increase in raw damage.

Also for me Unholy Aura is good for any fight where you will only be in melee range for a short time, though overall I've seen less dps when I do this so I have been switching back to Blood Presence, however, I need to test it more in fights like saphiron where your melee dps is really limited on how long they can stay in range of the boss.

So short answer.. Blood Presence

Long answer... it's very situational on the encounter.

[Mug]

wow Kyzara
You really know your DK

Here s my situation: I m working on a spec. for Naxx. I tried the frost one you listed above and I liked it. I was blood spec before fyi. Though I need some gear upgrade and improve on my rotation I m nowhere near the 3k dps you said you were at. I was able to dish out 900 on a dungeon last nite as a trial for the new spec.. The truth is I m a total noob when it comes to dps. For the past 2 years I ve been a tank with a Prot Paladin and I dont know much about melee dps. That being sad I m trying to learn this as quick as possible, so any information is helpful and welcomed.

Could you elaborate a bit more on this:
"Use Rime proc here and all runic power"

Also, the rotation you listed is for trash and bosses or only for bosses??

Thanks again for the great post

Mug