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Death Knight DPS Guide for Patch 4.2
Patch 4.2 rolled out last week, and pretty much every class got some love/hate. Death Knights were no exception, with the Unholy spec getting the love and Frost spec getting the hate. Once again, the bleeding edge crew over at Manaflask were all over the changes, and Daniie made the necessary adjustments. Unholy seems to be the flavor of the month, with Frost 2W coming in next and Frost 2H coming somewhere in the rear (Hawt — Editor). Again, this information is coming from the top shelf raiders who have endured the cruel taunts of “you have no life you think you’re sooooo cool” so for the love of God at least read it. Hopefully their emotional scars might be of some benefit to you.
Death Knight DPS Guide for 4.1
At the request of no one (except for Freaculano, which is almost like no one), I have included yet another class guide from the Manaflask folks – Death Knight DPS for Patch 4.1, by Daniie. This covers the two DPS specs (Unholy and Frost), and you should read it because Manaflask (Ensidia) knows what the Hell they’re talking about. If you think you’re pushing content, Ensidia has already bent it over and made dirty monkey love to it. So, well, just read and educate.
Death Knight Changes in Patch 4.1
Patch 4.1, which will be coming out any Tuesday now (coughApril26cough), looks like it’s going to make DK’s a little bit sexier. Now I know what you’re thinking, cause I’m good (or creepy) like that. You’re thinking “How can the Death Knight become any sexier? Are they going to fart bats or something?”
First, no. No they’re not farting anything.
Second, that’s sick dude.
Here are the changes coming in patch 4.1 for the Death Knight.
- Dark Simulacrum now works on numerous additional spells in dungeon encounters.
- Raise Ally has been redesigned to be a battle resurrection, analogous to Rebirth. It is instant cast, but costs 50 Runic Power to use, and has a 10-minute cooldown. It shares the same global battle resurrection cap with Rebirth and Soulstone.
Blood
- Blood Shield now only works while in Blood Presence.
- Death Strike self-healing no longer generates threat.
Frost
- Blood of the North (passive) now permanently converts both Blood Runes into Death Runes. There is no longer any proc interaction with Blood Strike required to activate Death Runes.
- Frost Strike now deals 130% of weapon damage, up from 110%.
- Howling Blast damage has been increased by 20%. To compensate, the area-of-effect splash now does 50% of the single-target damage, down from 60%. The net result of this change leaves the area-of-effect damage roughly the same as 4.0.6 numbers. In addition, Howling Blast now has a facing requirement.
Unholy
- Desecration no longer triggers when an applicable strike hits a snare-immune target. This is primarily to avoid unnecessary spell effect clutter during boss encounters.
- Rage of Rivendare again applies 15/30/45% additional damage to Plague, Scourge, and Festering Strike, up from 12/24/36%.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Raise Ally is now Glyph of Death Gate, and makes Death Gate cast 60% faster.
Death Knight Bug Fixes
- Runeforging no longer displays a skill-up UI element.
Frost will be feeling the love this time around, but I’m not expecting the buffs to last. For now, love the chilling embrace of the Frost DK.
Cute or no, he will mercilessly gut you like a fish and feel no remorse afterward.
The Frost Death Knight – Patch 4.0.1
According to the Elitist Jerks website, Frost DPS in both 2H and Dual Wield spec are roughly equivalent. The downside is that the specs do not lend any flexibility to the playstyle – every point is being used.
Talents
[Dual Wielding] | 3/31/2 (80) | 7/31/3 (85)
DPS in this spec is done in Frost Presence. Obliterate will be where the lion’s share of damage is done, with Frost Strike and regular white damage following right behind.
[Two Hander] | 3/31/2 (80) | 7/31/3 (85)
DPS is done in Unholy Presence, with Frost Strike taking the lead as the primary source of damage, with Obliterate and auto attack following right behind it.
Glyphs
Prime
- [Glyph of Frost Strike]
- [Glyph of Howling Blast]
- [Glyph of Obliterate] | [Glyph of Icy Touch], for AoE.
Major
- [Individual’s Choice]
- [Individual’s Choice]
- [Individual’s Choice]
Minor
These apply to both 2H and DW specs.
Rotations
This is how the pros see it:
Single Target
Diseases > Ob if both Frost/Unholy pairs and/or both Death runes are up, or if KM is procced >
BS if both Blood Runes are up > FS if RP capped > Rime > Ob > BS > FS > HoW.First thing first: as stated toward the beginning of this post, dual-wielding will perform this in Frost Presence while those using a two-hander will be best off using Unholy Presence. The reason for this difference is due almost entirely to MotFW; not only does the talent substantially increase the value of quicker attack speed, but it also GCD caps the spec by a moderate margin, which makes the 1 second globals of UP priceless.
Beyond that, everything is relatively straightforward:
Diseases come first, as always, with Frost Fever being applied by Howling Blast and Blood Plague being applied by Plague Strike. With Rime, you should never have to worry about FF… the odds of going without a Rime proc in a 33 second window are absurdly low. BP maintenance is simple enough – if you have an Unholy rune come up from an RE proc when diseases have about 6 seconds or less left, then go ahead and use it on PS, otherwise just use the next rune that regularly respawns, be it Unholy or Death. When doing so, you may be left with a Frost rune sitting by itself; it’s best to let it sit unless the other Frost rune is also up (or if you need to refresh FF), in which case merely HB.
After that, you prioritize Obliterate and Blood Strike if both runes of the relevant cost (UF/D or B) are up. The reason for this is the same as it’s always been – you don’t want to “waste” runes by sitting on them, when you could have them cooling down. On top of that, if KM is up, it’s always better to use it on Obliterate than on the alternative of Frost Strike. Ob simply hits harder.
Similarly, you want to FS if RP capped, as wasting runic is just as undesirable as wasting runes.
If Rime is up, then you obviously want to use it. There’s no need to worry about KM: Rime neither benefits from nor consumes the buff any longer. You never want to Obliterate back to back without having used a Rime procced by the first – and if you’re following this priority, that won’t occur, anyways, so not a worry.
If all of the above is taken care of – you have no more than one of each rune type up, KM isn’t active, you have less than capped RP, and Rime isn’t up – then you simply Obliterate and Blood Strike as you can. Remember, under the new rune system you can sit on runes so long as you don’t have both of a single type up, and you won’t lose any dps.
Following that, Frost Strike. Make sure you’re not Frost Striking when you don’t actually have all six rune on cooldown, as if you only have three, they’ll be recharging, and thus RE takes a hit. You need to have runes fully depleted for to make the most out of RE.
And, of course, when left with no other option… Horn of Winter.
Multiple Targets
The AoE rotation is actually quite different than the single target one:
HB if both Frost runes and/or both Death runes are up >
DnD/PS if both Unholy Runes are up > BS if both Blood Runes are up >
FS if RP capped > HB > BS > DnD/PS > FS > HoW.First off, Frost Presence is mandatory whenever adds are present, whether you be dual-wielding or using a two-hander. No exceptions.There’s no need to specify applying diseases: you’ll constantly apply them with glyphed Howling Blast (which is your hardest hitting ability, of course) and PS (which you’re going to be tab “spamming” due to the fact that HB leaves you with leftover Unholy runes anyways). Using Pestilence just isn’t worth it when you consider all of that, on top of the whole 50% penalty going on – you might use it when you have a dozen adds up, but rare exceptions like that are it.. You’ll still prioritize DnD over PS whenever it’s off cooldown, of course, but that’s a given.
Following that, you still want to Blood Strike with your runes, not Blood Boil – the reason being BS converts to Death runes, while BB does not. Since a BS + HB > 2x BB, simple decision, although if you’re in a scenario where you won’t be AoEing for ~10 seconds (long enough for the Blood rune to come back up as a Death), then yes, BB does more immediate damage.
Then, of course, comes using runes on HB/BS/PS/DnD as appropriate, followed by the dumping of runic into Frost Strike for RE procs. Nothing fancy.
Stats
Pretty much what you’d expect:
Dual Wield
Hit to cap >= Expertise to cap > Strength > Mastery > Haste > Crit > Agility > Hit to spell cap
Two Hand
Hit to cap >= Expertise to cap > Haste > Mastery > Strength > Crit > Agility > Hit to spell cap
If you’re looking for more of an explanation of why things are set up the way they are, or looking for enchants and so on, you can get a fleshing out of this bare bones post over at Elitist Jerks








