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[3.3] Guide to Leveling Your Death Knight
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Post by
Nystali
Table of Contents
Primer
- Purpose
- Key Terms
- Stats
- Resources
Rotation
Blood Knights
- Spec
- Abilities
- Rotations
Frost Knights
- Spec
- Abilities
- Rotations
Unholy Knights
- Spec
- Abilities
- Rotations
Additional Information
- Presences
Primer
Purpose:
A lot of our
stickies
here pertain to end game and maximizing your dps or tanking ability, but a recent thread comment pointed out that we don't really have anything to help you while leveling. While you need to have leveled a character to level 55 prior to creating a Death Knight, this guide will generally work under the assumption that you have very little idea how the game works. This might not be a stretch considering some of the Death Knight we have all come across.
The builds that I list are for leveling purposes. If you are looking for end-game DPS or Tank centric builds, please look at the guides in the
Helpful Threads
.
Key Terms:
Deathtard
– A Death Knight that has made some very horrible decisions regarding his or her character. You will often seem a Deathtard in Spell Power gear and performing really horrible DPS.
Spec
or
Build
- Your Spec or Build is the method in which you spend the talent points you gain.
Itemization
- This is the type of gear you equip yourself in. Some gear is better itemized to produce higher output whether that is DPS (Damage Ser Second) or healing, while other pieces are itemized to help you absorb of avoid damage.
Tank
- As a Death Knight, you have the capability of becoming a tank for a dungeon group. This means that you will be the one trying to make sure the NPCs of a dungeon attack you rather than the rest of the group.
DPS
- As a Death Knight, you also have the capability of dealing out a good amount of damage for a dungeon group, measured in Damage Per Second (DPS). Your job will be to deal as much damage as you can without surpassing the Tank's threat. Part of this job means that you do not use certain abilities that would cause you to steal threat from the Tank.
Healer
- As a Death Knight, you are not a healer. If specced a certain way, you can provide healing utility to a group, but you cannot replace a true healing class for this role. When you become an advanced player, you might have some fun trying to expand upon your healing utility to attempt this with your friends, but do not do this to a random group.
Rotation
- A rotation refers to order in which our attacks and runes get used. When you start your Death Knight, your rotation will very simple. As you progress through the levels and gain new abilities and talents you will find your rotation getting a little longer and more complicated. It is very important that you begin to master your rotations and priorities within these rotations at an early stage in your Death Knight career as that will translate to success as you approach End-Game.
Tank Stats
- These are stats you will find on gear as you level that improve your ability to tank. These include Defense Skill, Dodge, Parry, Stamina, Armor, Hit Rating, and Expertise. If you desire to tank dungeons while you level, collecting a set with these stats will help you out.
DPS Stats
- These are stats you will find on gear as you level that improve your ability to deal damage to mobs. Generally, DPS stats are also good leveling stats as they will help you kill NPCs faster. These stats include Strength, Attack Power, Armor Penetration, Critical Strike Rating, Hit Rating, Expertise, and Agility.
End-Game
- This refers to anything you do after you've reached the current level cap. This generally involves running Heroic Dungeons or Raids. While a Death Knight at end game itemizes similar to a leveling Death Knight, there are slightly different priorities which I'll try to explain below regarding each stat. In some cases I might suggest that while leveling you do not need to focus on a particular stat, but that changes when you reach End-Game.
Stacking Stats
- Some stats are sought after so much as they are so beneficial to ability to perform or absorb/avoid damage that they are "stacked." For instance as a DPS, you'll want to stack as much strength as you can to produce more attack power to increase your overall damage. Stacking becomes more important towards End-Game, but as you level there are still some stats you stack.
Stats:
Spell Power
- A Death Knight casts spell and therefore would want to use Spell Power, right?
WRONG!
All Death Knight abilities are modified using
Attack Power
. Do not ever choose a piece of armor that has spell power on it. Normally I would say there some exceptions, but you're trying to fight of the perception of being a Deathtard, so avoid it at all costs.
Strength
- This is one of our more powerful stats. The key thing about Strength is that for every one point of Strength you have, you gain 2 Attack Power. Typically a Death Knight is looking for pieces or armor and weapons that have Strength on it. As a bonus, Death Knights also convert Strength into Parry rating. This helps those looking to Tank.
Attack Power
- Attack Power is also a powerful stat for Death Knights. Attack Power increases that damage you deal with all of our attacks (This includes our Spells!). Generally you will be seeking to increase your Attack Power through the Strength you gain from armor and weapons. However, if you have a piece of armor that provides more raw Attack Power than what you would gain through Strength on another piece of armor, then you would likely choose the Attack Power over Strength.
Stamina
– While leveling, Stamina can help reduce the amount of times you need to run back to your corpse. Tanks stack this more to absorb more damage, while leveling just accept what’s on any gear you have and don’t bother looking for more.
Agility
– This is a lesser DPS and Tanking stat. It provides Critical Strike rating and some Armor. For the most part, don’t bother gearing with Agility, however some weapons or armor will often pair Attack Power with Agility. In those cases, if the Attack Power gained is better than that from Strength on another piece, go with the Attack Power+Agility piece.
Armor Penetration
- This is how much armor your attacks ignore when they hit your opponent. This is an end-game stat but it does tend to show up on leveling gear in northrend.
Critical Strike
- This increases the ability of your attacks to Crit, meaning they do double the damage.
Hit Rating
– Hit reduces the chance that your attacks will miss. Even though your attack may be capable of hitting a target, that does not mean that target cannot Parry or Dodge that attack. While you are leveling, hit rating can be useful and helps you perform higher DPS and hit on a more regular basis but you do not focus on it like you would as you prepare for End-Game content.
Expertise
- This is purely an End-Game stat. Expertise helps you to try prevent your target from Dodging and Attacking. Some gear you obtain while leveling may have expertise on it, but only consider that AFTER you've looked to see what other stats it provides.
Defense Rating
- Defense Rating is Tanking Stat that is used to prevent your opponent from getting a Critical Strike (double normal damage) on you. While leveling, having some Defense Skill is useful and advisable when trying to tank instances and it makes you more healable. However, having a good amount of Stamina or a large health pool can be just as effective. Defense Rating is not as useful for normal quest grinding and it not used at all as DPS.
Armor
- Most pieces of gear that you wear (not weapons) will have armor on it. Considering items of equal level, Plate will have more armor than Mail which has more than Leather, which has more than Cloth. While there may be some instances where you can wear Mail or Leather pieces as upgrades, there will be absolutely no instance where a Cloth piece would be usable (except for your cloak).
Dodge
- This governs how often you will prevent damage from an attack by Dodging it. This is the one universal pure tanking stat to all tanking classes, aside from Defense. Do not go after Dodge if you are a DPS.
Parry Rating
- This governs how often you will prevent damage from an attack by Parrying it with your weapon. This is generally a weaker Tanking stat to stack than Dodge. Do not go after Parry if you are a DPS.
When considering between what you're using and a quest reward or boss drop, I generally follow this thought process:
How much
Attack Power
do I gain from it (through
Strength
or straight
Attack Power
)? Does one piece provide considerably more? If yes, take that piece. If no:
Does one piece provide more
Hit
than the other? If yes, take that piece. If no:
Does one piece provide more
Stamina
so I can survive better? If yes, take that piece. If no:
Does one piece provide better or more secondary stats (
Crit
>
Armor Pen
>
Expertise
)? If yes, take that piece.
If at this point, you haven't made a decision. It requires too much thought for leveling purposes so pick the quest reward that sells for the most gold.
Resources:
Runes
- Every Death Knight has 6 runes available to use: Two Blood Runes, two Frost Runes, and two Unholy Runes. For the most part, Blood runes power the abilities that come from the Blood portion of your spellbook, Frost power those from the Frost portion, and Unholy power those from the Unholy portion. There are a few abilities that require a combination of runes in order to be used. In order to become a successful Death Knight, you need to find a proper rotation to use all your runes in an efficient and powerful manner. This rotation differs based upon your spec and situation because of the different abilities used. When a Rune is used by an ability, it goes on Cooldown which means it cannot be used until a certain amount of time has expired. Then the Rune is refreshed and can be used again.
Runic Power
- Every time you use a Rune (or a select few other abilities), you generate Runic Power. This energy resource is then used by other attacks and abilities to help fill the gaps while your Runes are on cooldown. A good rotation will either weave the use of Runic Power abilities between Rune abilities or after all the Rune are on cooldown until they start to refresh.
Diseases
- Diseases are an essential part of the Death Knight class. The two base diseases that every Death Knight can apply are
Frost Fever
and
Blood Plague
. These will do damage over time to an opponent and can be talented to perform other debilitating actions. The reason why I list these under resources is because a good portion of a Death Knight's attacks can be modified by your diseases on a target. Therefore it is something that you must learn to manage.
Post by
Nystali
Rotation
As mentioned above, the key to becoming a successful Death Knight is to develop the rotation that works best for your spec and the situation that you are in. That is why thing whole section will be devoted to the understanding of rotations.
Where to begin?
A Blood Knight uses different abilities than a Frost Knight and Unholy Knight because the Blood Knights talents modify different abilities to perform better. The same is true for Frost and Unholy Knights. Therefore, a Blood Knight has a different rotation than a Frost Knight which has a different rotation from a Unholy Knight. Additionally, certain rotations work best on one target because they make use of strong single target attacks while another rotation may be used for a group of mobs because it spreads the damage to multiple targets.
What is the basis of a good rotation?
A good rotation will involve making use of all of your Runes and then the Runic Power that is generated by the use of those runes. That is the simplest explanation of a rotation. As a demonstration, I will use three of the Rune abilities all Death Knights start with:
Icy Touch
,
Plague Strike
, and
Blood Strike
.
How will I demonstrate a rotation?
First I will need to explain the Rune System. Assuming all runes are on cooldown, your resource bar will look like this:
(Blood Rune)(Blood Rune)(Frost Rune)(Frost Rune)(Unholy Rune)(Unholy Rune)
or:
BB FF UU
Each of the abilities I listed uses one of one type of rune. So if I were to use a
Blood Strike
, this would happen:
BB FF UU
BS
xB FF UU
The first Blood Rune is used, and goes onto cooldown. Now, I could still use the second Blood Rune to perform a second
Blood Strike
:
xB FF UU
BS
xx FF UU
Now I can no longer perform a
Blood Strike
until the first Blood Rune comes off of cooldown. So at this point I would look to use another ability, lets say
Icy Touch
:
xx FF UU
IT
xx xF UU
Now lets say I want to throw in a
Plague Strike
:
xx xF UU
PS
xx xF xU
As you can see, you use an ability that requires a Rune, and it takes the Rune away until it becomes refreshed after a short time. Let’s say you were performing the above actions fairly slow, so the first Blood Rune you used has become refreshed. You'd now have:
Bx xF xU
That means you could perform another
Blood Strike
if you wanted. Typically though you can go through all your Runes if you are properly chaining your attacks (using them when you can) before the first rune used becomes refreshed. So you could perform:
IT
->
PS
->
BS
->
BS
->
IT
->
PS
This is a typical representation of a rotation. Performing this rotation would make your Runes go like this:
BB FF UU
BB xF UU
BB xF xU
xB xF xU
xx xF xU
xx xx xU
xx xx xx
At the end of the rotation you would have no more Runes left for a few seconds and so you would then want to use up the Runic Power you just generated. Therefore you'll use the next starter ability you have that uses Runic Power instead which is
Death Coil
. So your rotation would look like:
IT
->
PS
->
BS
->
BS
->
IT
->
PS
->
DC
Depending on talents, glyphs, etc. you may have enough runic power to perform one or two more
Death Coils
, but for expediency that
Death Coil
listed in the rotation represents a
Runic Power Dump
. This means you use that ability until you no longer have enough Runic Power. By that time, the first Rune should be already refreshed or nearly so and you can use your Rune abilities again.
Why did I use
Blood Strike
after
Icy Touch
and
Plague Strike
when I demonstrated
Blood Strike
first up above?
If you read the tool tip for
Blood Strike
, you'll see that it does increased damage for each of your diseases on the target. Therefore, you apply the diseases first through
Icy Touch
and
Plague Strike
:
IT
->
PS
(
Frost Fever
and
Blood Plague
applied)
And then you hit with even stronger
Blood Strikes
:
->
BS
->
BS
(Enhanced
Blood Strikes
due to diseases)
If that's all you need to do, then what's the purpose of these other abilities?
That rotation I just showed you is actually a very poor rotation.
Why?
Because you apply the diseases from
Icy Touch
and
Plague Strike
a second time before the first diseases expire.
And?
And that means you are not maximizing the use of your runes. Therefore, let me introduce you to another ability all Death Knights get fairly early on:
Obliterate
. If you read the tool tip for
Obliterate
, you'll see that it deals increased damage for each disease on the target while also consuming both a Frost Rune and an Unholy Rune. Generally the abilities that consume multiple Rune perform more damage than single Rune abilities (there are some exceptions).
What does that mean?
That means you don't
Obliterate
until AFTER you apply the diseases with
Icy Touch
and
Plague Strike
. So, to put it visually:
OB
->
IT
->
PS
=
Bad
IT
->
PS
->
OB
=
Good
So you now perform
IT
->
PS
->
OB
->
BS
->
BS
->
DC
for your rotation?
Wrong. Again, that is a poor rotation.
Why?
Because if you look at the tool tip for
Obliterate
again, you'll see that it also consumes the diseases on the target. Therefore, if you followed an
Obliterate
with two
Blood Strikes
, you'd once again be performing two wimpy un-enhanced
Blood Strikes
. So, using these abilities, the most effective rotation would be:
IT
->
PS
->
BS
->
BS
->
OB
->
DC
That's all?
That's all for using those abilities. Because
Obliterate
will remove the diseases, you follow up that rotation with the same exact one. However, as you level, you'll get new abilities and new talents to spend that will enhance different abilities that make them a better option to use in your rotation. As you get these new talents and/or abilities, look at their tool tips in the same manner so you can decide the following:
What runes do I need available for this ability?
Do I need to have diseases applied to enhance this ability?
Will this ability do anything to my diseases (remove or enhance) that governs where I use it in my rotation?
Is this ability better for a single target or a group of targets?
Will this ability change my runes in any way and will that allow a different follow-up rotation?
What the heck does that last question mean?
I'll give you an example of a standard rotation assuming a deep Blood build:
IT
->
PS
->
DS
->
HS
->
HS
->
DC
DS
->
HS
->
HS
->
HS
->
Pest
->
DC
HS
->
HS
->
DS
->
HS
->
HS
->
DC
DS
->
HS
->
HS
->
HS
->
Pest
->
DC
How'd I get so many Blood Runes to use for that ability
Heart Strike
?
First of all, congratulations for reading the tool tips on the abilities and see that
Heart Strike
requires Blood Runes and that the last three lines of the rotation required 4 Blood Runes to pull off. The answer is that each tree has a talent that turns Runes used into Death Runes which act as any type of Rune needed. This generally allows for more complicated and higher production rotations. I'd advise you to get comfortable with a simple rotation first and then start to experiment with Death Runes.
Get comfortable?
Yes! The key to being a successful Death Knight is to be able to perform a rotation, simple or complicated, as flawlessly as you can. Practice constantly so it becomes second thought and you can start to pay more attention to what you're standing in rather than what ability you need to hit next.
Anything else?
Not without getting into specifics about your build, which is what we'll do in the next few pages.
Post by
Nystali
Blood Knights
The Blood Tree is more focused on single target melee damage. Your primary weapons will be slow two-handed weapons. The blood tree is widely considered the tree with the least downtime as it has self-healing capabilities. For tanking, the blood tree provides more health than the other trees.
Spec:
49/0/0
- This is a general leveling build you'll be creating as you work your way through the Death Knight starting area. Many of the points here are to generate or improve generation of health while still producing a great amount of DPS on mobs while you level.
To build up this tree, I'd place points in this order:
Butchery
->
Subversion
->
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
->3/5
Bladed Armor
->
Rune Tap
->
Dark Conviction
->
Vendetta
->1/3
Improved Rune Tap
->
Veteran of the Third War
->
Blood Strikes
->
Abomination's Might
->Finish up
Improved Rune Tap
->
Blood Worms
->
Improved Blood Presence
->
Sudden Doom
->
Improved Death Strike
->
Heart Strike
->
Might of Mograine
->Finish up
Bladed Armor
->
Blood Vengeance
After that I'd suggest finishing out the blood tree with
Blood Gorged
and
Dancing Rune Weapon
. Then I'd move into the Unholy Tree speccing to
Virulence
and then
Vicious Strikes
. This should leave you at level 69 (entering or just into Northrend) with
55/0/5
.
From there you could place points into
Ravenous Dead
and
Epidemic
then
Necrosis
which you place you at lvl 79 with
55/0/15
. Once you get your last level, I would spec into a true DPS or Tank build (if you haven't already) as many of the talents chosen here were for survivability while leveling.
For Tanking, I would follow this progression:
44/5/0
->
46/5/5
->
46/8/7
->
49/8/9
->
53/8/10
There are still some leveling type talents in that tree so once you get to 80, I'd look at the
Stickies
to find some true end-game talent builds to respec into in addition to looking up higher threat generating rotations.
Abilities:
Icy Touch
- Standard single Frost Rune ability to apply
Frost Fever
.
Plague Strike
- Standard single Unholy Rune ability to apply
Blood Plague
.
Blood Strike
- A hard hitting single target strike that is modified for each disease on the target. Generally used to consume your Blood Runes until you pick up
Heart Strike
.
Blood Boil
- This is an area effect ability that does damage to all enemies within a few yards of you. This is a good ability to use if you have more than three mobs on you. Otherwise,
Heart Strike
will probably produce better results and get everything dead faster. This is modified by diseases as well.
Pestilence
- This ability uses one Blood Rune to spread your diseases to multiple mobs.
Death Strike
- A hard hitting strike that gets modified by the blood tree to hit even harder. This is the Blood Knight's Unholy and Frost Rune attack of choice.
Death Coil
- This is the Blood Tree's primary Runic Power dump.
Rune Tap
- This talented ability provides life in a pinch while you level. It does have a cooldown so you cannot spam it, but you'll be healing yourself enough through attacks than an occasional Rune Tap should be all you require to stay topped off on life.
Heart Strike
- This ability is a hard hitting strike that will generally replace
Blood Strike
in your rotation. The benefit of this ability is that it also acts as a cleave, hitting a secondary target.
Death and Decay
- This a spell that you can cast on the ground and performs damage over time to anything standing inside the area of effect. I would generally not recommend using this ability while leveling as you can deal more than enough damage to multiple targets with multiple
Heart Strikes
or
Blood Boils
.
Dancing Rune Weapon
- This is a spell that is fairly neat to have. I do not include it in any of the rotations below, but feel free to use it whenever you have excess runic power. Just be aware that
Death Strike
does require a certain amount of Runic Power to be at full strength.
Rotations:
The following rotations do not take into account the use of Death Runes as Death Rune Mastery was not provided in the suggested spec. Perform the entire rotation and then start from the beginning if the target has not died yet.
Single Target (until
Heart Strike
is gained):
IT
->
PS
->
DS
->
BS
->
BS
->
DC
DS
->
DS
->
BS
->
BS
->
DC
Single Target with
Heart Strike
(good for 2-3 Mobs):
IT
->
PS
->
HS
->
HS
->
DS
->
DC
DS
->
HS
->
HS
->
DS
->
DC
Group:
IT
->
PS
->
Pest
->
BB
->
DS
->
DC
DS
->
BB
->
BB
->
DS
->
DC
For the group rotation, you are still doing single target dps and using
Death Strike
to stay alive as there are multiple mobs hitting you but then you are throwing in
Blood Boil
to deal damage to everything around you.
If you do change up the spec a little bit in order to incorporate Death Rune Mastery and the use of Death Runes created after the use of
Death Strike
then these the rotation change a little.
Single Target (until
Heart Strike
is gained):
IT
->
PS
->
DS
->
BS
->
BS
->
DC
DS
->
BS
->
BS
->
BS
->
BS
->
DC
Single Target with
Heart Strike
(good for 2-3 Mobs):
IT
->
PS
->
DS
->
HS
->
HS
->
DC
DS
->
HS
->
HS
->
HS
->
HS
->
DC
Group:
IT
->
PS
->
Pest
->
BB
->
DS
->
DC
DS
->
BB
->
BB
->
BB
->
BB
->
DC
Post by
Nystali
Frost Knights
The Frost Tree is a fairly high crit tree with abilities that deal frost damage. Right now, in end-game the Dual Wielding DPS builds of the tree are outshining the Two-Handed Weapon builds but for leveling it is easier to find suitable Two-Handed Weapons than suitable one handers (you need two slow one-handers for effective Dual Wielding). It is a good tree for beginner tanks as it is solid in both Group and Single Target damage.
Spec:
0/49/0
- A general leveling build for the Frost once you are finished with the Death Knight starter area. A lot of the talents help to produce more crits and more damage. You may notice that this tree does include the Death Rune producing talent of
Blood of the North
as it also increases the damage to two of the abilities commonly used.
To build up this tree I would go:
Improved Icy Touch
->2/5
Toughness
->
Black Ice
->
Annihilation
->4/5
Toughness
->
Killing Machine
->
Glacier Rot
->
Chill of the Grave
->
Rime
->
Merciless Combat
->
Icy Talons
->
Blood of the North
->
Improved Icy Talons
->Finish
Toughness
->
Frost Strike
->
Guile of Gorefiend
->
Death Chill
->4/5
Tundra Stalker
After that, finish the Frost tree with
Tundra Stalker
and
Howling Blast
and then move into the Blood Tree for
Butchery
->
Subversion
->
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
->2/5
Bladed Armor
which leaves you at level 69 with
9/51/0
as you just begin Northrend.
Then finish out
Bladed Armor
,
Dark Conviction
, and then go to the Unholy Tree for
Virulence
to end up at
17/51/3
at level 80. At this point check out the stickies to see if you want to switch to a Dual Wielding or Tanking Build (if you haven't already). This build will be suitable for Two-Handed Frost DPS, however it is lagging behind all the current DPS builds at this time.
For tanking I would follow this progression:
5/44/0
->
5/51/0
->
5/51/5
->
10/51/5
->
14/51/6
This is actually a high-threat suitable end-game tanking build so you can stay here or look at the other tanking stickies to decide on another end-game tanking spec to suit your needs in addition to reading up on high-threat rotations.
Abilities:
Icy Touch
- Standard single Frost Rune ability to apply
Frost Fever
.
Plague Strike
- Standard single Unholy Rune ability to apply
Blood Plague
.
Blood Strike
- A hard hitting single target strike that is modified for each disease on the target. Generally used to consume your Blood Runes and turn them into Death Runes.
Blood Boil
- This is an area effect ability that does damage to all enemies within a few yards of you. This is modified by diseases as well.
Pestilence
- This ability uses one Blood Rune to spread your diseases to multiple mobs.
Death Strike
- This strike is only used by the Frost Tree if a little health is needed while leveling. Mostly ignored in favor of
Obliterate
.
Obliterate
- This ability is the primary Frost and Unholy Rune attack. The reason why the Frost tree uses this strike is that it is talented to no longer consume the diseases that modify its damage.
Death Coil
- This Runic Power ability is only used if you need to hit from range.
Frost Strike
- This is the primary Runic Power Dump for the Frost Tree.
Howling Blast
- This is the primary multi-target damage attack of the Frost Tree. Consumes a Frost and Unholy Rune to use, but the talent
Rime
allows for a chance of a free cast (and refreshed cooldown) from use of
Obliterate
.
Death and Decay
- This a spell that you can cast on the ground and performs damage over time to anything standing inside the area of effect. I would generally not recommend using this ability while leveling as you can deal more than enough damage to multiple targets with
Howling Blast
and multiple
Blood Boils
.
Rotations:
Single Target:
IT
->
PS
->
OB
->
BS
->
BS
->
FS
OB
->
OB
->
OB
->
FS
Group:
IT
->
PS
->
Pest
->
HB
->
BB
->
FS
OB
->
BB
->
BB
->
HB
->
FS
If you use the
Glyph of Howling Blast
which applies
Frost Fever
to the targets it hits, then you perform an even simpler Group Rotation:
HB
->
BB
->
BB
->
OB
->
FS
In all cases, whenever using
Obliterate
processes
Rime
, throw in that free
Howling Blast
and then continue on with the rotation.
Post by
Nystali
Unholy Knights
The Unholy Tree allows you the use of a permanent ghoul in addition to a speed boost talent. It also provides an extra disease to modify certain abilities even more. It does use Two-Handed Weapons. For tanking, the Unholy Tree does provide suitable tanking ability. While it used to be strongest with Group Tanking, that has been toned down a bit to increase its Single Target tanking capability. It provides a strong bit of Mitigation through its talent of
Bone Shield
.
Spec:
0/0/49
- This would be a suitable spec to end up with when done with the Death Knight starter area at level 58. It provides an extra disease to increase the damage of certain attacks, and then provides a speed boost to help you get from place to place while questing.
To get there I would go
Vicious Strikes
->
Virulence
->
Ravenous Dead
->
Morbidity
->
Outbreak
->
Necrosis
->
On a Pale Horse
->
Night of the Dead
->
Impurity
->
Unholy Blight
->
Master of Ghouls
->
Dirge
->
Desolation
->
Bone Shield
->
Crypt Fever
->
Scourge Strike
->
Ebon Plaguebringer
->4/5
Rage of Rivendare
.
After this I would finish off
Rage of Rivendare
, pick up
Wandering Plague
, and then go to the Blood tree for
Butchery
,
Subversion
, and
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
to have
7/0/53
at level 69 to as you're starting to dig into Northrend.
Next I would do
Bladed Armor
and
Dark Conviction
to end up at level 79 with
17/0/53
. Once you hit 80, I'd suggest looking into the
Stickies
to find a better end-game build.
For tanking I would follow this progression:
5/5/39
->
5/5/46
->
5/5/51
->
5/10/51
->
10/10/51
. After that, I'd check the stickies to find a more suitable end-game tank spec. Also look into Tank
stickies
for better threat generating rotations.
Abilities:
Icy Touch
- Standard single Frost Rune ability to apply
Frost Fever
.
Plague Strike
- Standard single Unholy Rune ability to apply
Blood Plague
.
Blood Strike
- A hard hitting single target strike that is modified for each disease on the target. If you take the talent
Reaping
, then it allows for
Blood Strike
to turn a Blood Rune into a Death Rune.
Blood Boil
- This is an area effect ability that does damage to all enemies within a few yards of you. This is modified by diseases as well.
Death Coil
- This is your Runic Power dump. It is used in conjuction with the talent
Unholy Blight
to add another damage over time to your target in addition to your diseases.
Pestilence
- This ability uses one Blood Rune to spread your diseases to multiple mobs.
Death Strike
- This strike is only used by the Unholy Tree if a little health is needed while leveling. Mostly ignored in favor of
Scourge Strike
.
Scourge Strike
- This ability is the primary Frost and Unholy Rune attack. It converts weapon damage into a shadow damage by-passing armor.
Death and Decay
- This a spell that you can cast on the ground and performs damage over time to anything standing inside the area of effect. I would generally not recommend using this ability while leveling as you'll probably get everything down faster by burning them one at a time while hitting
Blood Boil
with your Blood Runes.
Rotations
Single Target:
IT
->
PS
->
BS
->
SS
->
BS
->
DC
SS
->
SS
->
BS
->
BS
->
DC
Group:
IT
->
PS
->
Pest
->
SS
->
BB
->
DC
SS
->
SS
->
BB
->
BB
->
DC
Post by
Nystali
Additional Information:
Presences:
A Death Knight uses different presences depending upon the situation. Here's a quick rundown of each presence and its uses:
Frost Presence
- This is our tanking presence. It reduces the amount of damage you take and increases our health and armor while also increasing the threat generated through all of our damage dealing abilities. It is because of this presence that Death Knights are able to tank without being able to use shields as the armor gained through the presence is roughly equivalent to shield using tank classes. This presence can be used while leveling if you come across a mob that hits a little harder.
Blood Presence
- While leveling, this presence is our DPS presence. It increases the base amount of damage we deal with our abilities while also providing some healing. That self-healing is what makes this the best leveling presence. Do not try to tank with this presence if you're in a group that is equal or greater level than you. If you're helping some lowbie friends out with dungeon runs, you can use this presence as the damage/threat you deal will far outpace whatever damage/threat they deal.
Unholy Presence
- While leveling, you could primarily use this presence as a travel presence due to its speed increase, running short distances when you're too lazy to wait to mount up or if you're running in some zone where you cannot mount. If some quest has you running around and annihilating a bunch of critters, this presence may be the one to use despite the lack of self-healing as you will be able to get to each critter faster. At max-level this is used by some builds as the DPS presence of choice as it also decreases the cooldown time of your runes and your global cooldown (the base cooldown shared by almost all abilities) allowing them to use abilities and generating runic power faster, making up the the lack of base damage increase that
Blood Presence
provides.
**Will add or shift topics as they come up in the thread.**
Post by
DasGhoti
If you don't need to reserve any more posts,
check paragraphs in key terms sec.
-------Ctrl-F all of these for spell check etc.
This a spell that you can on the ground
are for leveling purpose. If you are looking
dungeon group, measure in Damage
Some stats sought after so
This helps those looking
fairly high crit tree with abilities
amount of Stamina or a large health pool can be (redundant, remove one or add commas (generally))
Why did Blood Strike
In all cases, whenever using Obliterate processes Rime, then throw in (re-word, or remove "using" and "then")
to increase it Single Target
------- Other things
dealing with teaching rotations:
BB XF XU
XB XF XU the x's kind of clutter up the rune representation. removing them, or if you still want a placeholder, maybe a period "." would work better, to show what runes you really have left.
DKs technically have Death Strike a lot sooner than Obliterate, but I see why you'd want to preference that. do what you want with that part.
---------
Too lazy to find anything else worth noting. Just proof-read, checking commas etc. and re-wording anything that could potentially be confusing. Make sure you link skills in the first mention, and whenever you make a special side note (i.e. Howling Blast - This is the primary multi-target damage attack of the Frost Tree. Consumes a Frost and Unholy Rune to use, but the talent Rime allows for a chance of a free cast (and refreshed cooldown) from use of Obliterate.
Post by
Nystali
Links will come (along the lines of my intro to tanking guide). But much more prettying up to do in general. Thanks for the spellcheck. Probably during Maintenance.
Post by
178943
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391232
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Post by
Gorilla
A good start on a much needed guide. I've seen to many DK's out there with heavy spell power/spell pen gems and doing horrible DPS. Hopefully we can turn around the games unfortunate view of DK's.
Post by
DasGhoti
You don't get obliterate until 60 something, Death Strike is your starting FU attack.
my post DKs technically have Death Strike a lot sooner than Obliterate, but I see why you'd want to preference that. do what you want with that part.
reasoning: I believe the OP wanted to show why you'd use obliterate after blood strike, oblit having the untalented tendency to remove diseases.
Why do you have BS in the single target rotation for blood?
actually, not sure either, BS has 40% weap dmg and12.5% per disease dmg, HS - 50% weap and 10% per disease. I'm too lazy for any number crunching, but those are the stats.
Great guide too, It'll help more people than you even realize Nystali
Post by
Nystali
Ok, done for the most part. Will add stuff that comes up if any questions/comments arise.
Also threw in a new title so more people will take a look at in rather than say, "I don't need an intro, give me the level builds!"
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218980
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Post by
Skadja
Thank you!
And yeah, a little more discussion on presences and when to rock 'em would be good, but this is such a fantastic guide.
Post by
Nystali
Threw down some info on presences. Any other thoughts/questions are appreciated.
Post by
dervasavred
Why are you dumping RP so early in your initial rotation for Unholy when you still have 4 runes left to burn? Burning runes takes priority over emptying RP.
I understand about pulling from range with IT, but PS before IT is better for the RoR talent and yields more damage from the IT, FF and white melee that follow that PS up. I know it's not much DPS, but hey. It would be better to pull with a DC anyway.
Also, in UH, Blood Srtrike BEFORE a SS for the Desolation effect to boost your SS and DCs.
Correct rotation:
PS IT BS SS BS DC DC HoW
You can AoE grind very successfully as UH with your Ghoul. Make a /petattack macro, slap a Ghoul Frenzy on him, and send him one direction to get two-four mobs and return him to you with Ctrl-2 or a Leap macro. In the meantime, gather your own two-four mobs, drop D&D and go to town.
Glyph of Unholy Blight is also not recommended for levelling. Its effect is marginal: you'll be killing mobs so fast it won't matter about the DoT, ESPECIALLY if you're AoEing. Better to spend the point in either Ghoul Frenzy or Imp UH Pres as these will increase your Ghoul's contribution or your own levelling time, respectively.
The following spec is what I would do were I leveling again:
Level 58 --
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jZZf0hIzfbg0zxdhca:obZMV
Level 70 --
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVZZf0hIzfbg0zxducq:obZMV
(the point in Bone Shield is up for debate in the current patch; I might sub it for Dark Conviction or Necrosis, probably leaning toward DC for the buff to DC and D&D)
EDIT: Damn, I forgot all about Wandering Plague. WP is an odd talent: you won't have much crit leveling so its worth is degraded there. On the other hand, when it DOES go off, it's usually fairly hardcore, especially with 10+ mobs like you can easily down in some parts of Northrend.
Your mileage will vary with Wandering Plague.
If you DO want it, here are a couple of specs to get you going:
58:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jZZfMhIzfbx0zxbhIR
70:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfcZZfMhIzfbx0zxdhIq
79:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZZfMhIzfbx0zxdhIq
Respec at 80 to a raid or PvP build, obviously.
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