#0 - Nov. 10, 2008, 5:12 p.m.
Getting Started, Episode 1: The Runes and the Runic Bar
The death knight does not use energy. He does not use rage and quite certainly does not use mana (/spit). Instead, he uses some strange circles with different colors that are called runes and a blue bar that shows 0/100 that is called a runic bar.
The runes are six, two of them from each kind (Blood, Frost, Unholy). No, you can not customize them, although that was the initial intent… but it didn’t even make it to beta.
The runes have a 10 second cooldown. Most abilities use one rune, some use 2 (a Frost and Unholy). Those abilities are Howling Blast, Scourge Strike, Obliterate and Death Strike, our “finishers.” Death and Decay (our AoE) uses 1 of each kind.
The important thing was that runes have 10 sec CD. So, in order to be efficient, you need to rely on rotations. More about them in a second. (Oh yeah, when explaining rotation I do not include rune power abilities in them… just use them whenever you can/ whenever you have nothing else to do)
Upon using a rune ability (say Icy Touch), you gain 10 Runic Power. 15 if you use a 2 rune ability. Certain spells like Death Coil and Frost Strike use this resource.
Getting Started, Episode 2: Blood, Frost, Holy, wtf?!
So you found yourself in Orgrimmar/ Stormwind after completing the truly epic beginning quest line. Now what? Well, you may (and should) have already noticed the three talent trees, you may (and probably should) have already specced in one (or more) of them. But what are they all about? First of all, you should know that there is no PvP, PvE DPS and tanking tree. All of them can be used for all purposes. However, some spec will always be better for certain areas than another. Again, it is all to player’s choice, but I’ll give my best to explain them.
Blood: The blood tree heavily relies on physical attacks. Therefore, it boosts their efficiency and provides the greatest boost to strength and expertise. The special thing about the tree is that it grants you immense survivability through self heals (and stuff that boost heals) like Rune Tap, Vendetta, Mark of Blood, Vampiric Blood and Blood Presence itself. The thing about this tree is that it allows almost constant fighting, no down time at all.
Basic Rotation: Icy Touch (IT) -> Plague Strike (PS) -> Blood Strike (BS) -> BS-> Obliterate
Next Rotation (you need Death Rune Mastery) : IT->PS-> BS x4
I recommend the tree for: leveling/ single target DPS (imo, this tree is the weakest for tanking)
Frost: Frost… well frost boosts your frost attacks. It gives you perfect burst and control, as well as survivability. For me, it is the most enjoyable tree of them all.
Basic Rotation: IT-> Howling Blast (HB) -> BS x 2 -> Obliterate (well basically use HB whenever it is off cooldown, you will also use Frost Strike a lot, so there might be no time for obliterates, maybe even for a second blood strike)
I recommend the tree for: PvP / Tanking (my personal tanking choice, MTed Naxxramas with it)
Unholy: Unholy is all about diseases. And pets. You may have noticed that Death Knights do have a pet, though he is uncontrollable, has a 2 min duration and a 5 min cooldown. Well, Master of Ghouls in Unholy takes care of this. You now have a pet bar and your dead buddy lasts until killed. Unholy also adds 1 additional diseases (Crypt Fever, UB counted as one until like 2 weeks before release but… meh) which tremendously boost disease dependant abilities (Scourge Strike, Obliterate, Blood/ Heart Strike, etc)
Basic Rotation: IT -> PS -> Scourge Strike (SS) -> BS x2
Next rotation (requires Reaping): SS x 3 (this might be a little tricky, make sure diseases are still up)
I recommend the tree for: Good all around, though the pet has no AoE survivability in raids… and it a significant part of your DPS.
Runeforging: Tweaking your lightsaber
As a Death Knight, you basically get a free proffesion, Runeforging. It allows you to enchant your weapon for free (omG, OP?!) and actually some of the enchants are better than the normal ones (omfG, OP x 2?!). There are lots of them, I’ll just help you bind them to your role:
Blood: Rune of Cinderglacier… though I’d prefer the one that adds 2% fire damage/ Razorice/ parry, as blood only cares about shadow damage for Death Coils.
Unholy: Cinderglacier (definitely!)
Frost: Cinderglacier/ Razorice, both are pretty good
Tanking: Swordshattering (4% parry)/ Spellshattering (deflects 4% spell dmg) / or their 1H equivalents
Note: At level 70, you get Fallen Crusader, which is imo (!) better than cinderglacier, as it heals you for 3% and increases strength by 30% (on proc)
Death Gear, or What Should You Wear on a Dark Knight Party
First of all, Dark… urgh, Death Knights can use 2H and 1H swords, maces, axes, polearms (1H polearm Oo)and wear plate armor. What stats should be on that plate? Well, any warrior/ paladin gear is fine now, as Light Knights’ gear now aims for strength instead of intellect… still, avoid intellect would ya, your brain is dead and rotten by now. Like warriors, we gain 2 atk power per strength point.
Important: While we do have spells, we do not need spellpower, nor does it add to our damage or help in any way. Instead, our spells contribute from attack power.
Some important numbers:
Two-hander melee hit cap vs. a boss: 9% (same goes for Strikes)
Dual wield melee hit cap vs. a boss: 28%
Spell hit cap vs. a boss: 17%
Hit rating for 1%: 25.4
As for tanking, the usual +block rating won’t help, as we don’t use shields. The DK also relies on mitigation cooldowns to stay alive and… <Pause> Fellas? You with me? Yep, we can’t use shields. But how do we tank then? Well, we rely on Parry instead of block and basically the DK relies heavily on avoidance (and not on mitigation). We even gain 25% of our strength as parry. But still, the shield adds armor you say? Yeah, but that’s why we have
Auras… I mean Presences… Both?
Yep, we have three kinds of presences. We can only use one at a time, just like a paladin (but they are not party/raid wide… or are they… more of that in a second)
Blood Presence: 15% increase in damage dealt and 2% self heal from all damage.
Frost Presence: Armor increased by 60%, health by 10%, threat generated by 45% and reduces spell damage by 5% (and while frost isn’t the tanking tree this IS the tanking presence)
Unholy Presence: 15% run speed increase, 15% haste and 0.5 sec reduced global cooldown (I dare say this is the PvP presence, while blood is the PvE… still depends on spec and whether you DW or use 2H)
And… yeah, we have auras as well. Auras are deep tree talents (dunno why though, they suck :D ), they are not tied with presences, meaning they are always active and are raid wide (in a 45 yd radius)
Blood Aura: People are healed for 2% of the damage they deal (CRAP :P )
Unholy Aura: People move 15% faster (CRAP x 2 :P:P )
Frost Aura: People gain spell resistance (not so crap… but it doesn’t stack with some (most?) resistance buffs so CRAP :P )
Concerns. We suck?
If you have been reading the Beta forums or were speaking to people who have, you will know that there have been many large nerfs to the class. At a point, we were the gods, then we were last in DPS… Now… from my observations we are quite fine. Almost perfectly balanced internally, we are definitely able to deliver a pretty competitive damage. In the raids that I participated in, I was more often than not in the first three damage dealers.
Tanking is another story. Yet again it is very well balanced but there are things that our healers should know. We tend to rely on avoidance and cooldowns. And although they are great, there are certainly around 20-30 seconds when we are out of them. During that time healers should be aware that we are likely to receive some spiky damage. After all, not all attacks can be evaded (parried/dodged) and the lack of block can be easily felt. In summary: relaxed tanking, or healing for that matter (though tanking isn’t that relaxed, as we have a lot of things to consider and pay attention for), for most of the time, short intervals when healers (yeah, we cant actually do anything about it) should pay attention.
But what cooldwons am I talking about?
List of tanking/ survivability cooldowns:
[Blood Talent] Rune Tap – Converts 1 Blood Rune into 10% of your total health. 1 min CD (3 points in Impr.Rune Tap will reduce the CD by 30 sec and increase health gained by 100%)
[Blood Talent] Mark of Blood – Whenever the marked enemy deals damage to a target, the target is healed for 4% of its maximum health. Lasts 20 sec. 3 min CD
[Blood Talent] Vampiric Blood – Increases the amount of health generated through spells or effects by 50 %. Lasts 20 sec. 1 min CD. – This talent is sweet if you have a druid in the raid. Have him/ her stack every hot he can on you, pop vampiric blood, and let your healers ignore you for 20 sec and get the raid up
[Frost Talent] Lichborne – You become undead for 15 sec. You are immune to Charm, Sleep and Fear and all attacks against you have 25% more chance to miss you. 3 min CD
[Frost Talent] Unbreakable Armor] – Increases strength by 10% (= more parry), armor by 25% and parry by 5%. Lasts 20 sec. 1 min CD
[Unholy Talent] Bone Shield – You are surrounded by 4 bones. While at least one exist, you deal 2 % more damage and receive 40 % less, from all sources. Lasts 5 min. 1 min CD – yes, you
