Death Knight DPS for 3.1

[Tony]

I have been sifting thru hundreds of web pages looking for new build expectations, I was wondering what all of you are planning to do come 3.1?

[Rocknlock]

I have no clue really. I was on ptr the other night and blood just ain't cutting it on there, so for now it looks like back to the old unholy spec I had. We'll see though.

[dharq]

Based on what I've read, I think the biggest problem is across the board you're looking at a significant drop in DK dps... The only build I've found mentioned that seems somewhat close is a 2h UH build, but even it's significantly lower than it is now.

At this point, I don't know that you'll find any spec that comes close to what we're used to. Play whatcha like.

The one I'm currently pretty close to set on is:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=23050215330033032010230013500000000000000000000000000000230130305003010000000000000000&glyph=171112050406&version=9767

I'm also debating between:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=20000000000000000000000000003202505035000311230005101351230200305003000000000000000000&glyph=141811050406&version=9767
and
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight=20000000000000000000000000003200500030000000000000000000230230335002215000150203133151&glyph=041911050406&version=9767

I'm leaning toward the blood and unholy builds since they're similar to what I'm used to. I really, really want to find a good frost dps build though... any suggestions?

[Tony]

I agree Darq, I have done both Unholy and Blood and with the new 1h that I picked up I tried 32/39 for the first time and REALLY like it. It's a shame that it's going away. I will have to do some more research tonight...

[Tony]

This is the main spec that I will start working with tonight when I get home.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVZG0xxAbckf0q0stc:pTamVc

Originally, the thought of having the glyph of frost strike was in my mind, but I changed it to howling blast for AOE purposes. Using the HB glyph to apply frost fever and then the pestilence glyph to spread it, I found no reason to have +8RP as opposed to more diseases on more targets for my next KM/HB. This may change one we get to Ulduar and Single Target dps will take priority.

Rotation would theoretically be PS-IT-(FS)-OB-BS-BS-(FS) | PS-IT-(FS)-OB-(FS)-OB-(FS) and using HB when KM procs, then Pestilence to spread FF.

I cannot take credit for all of this, it has been gathered most formidably on Elitistjerks website. Someone who is wearing similar gear to me stated that he was doing 3200 dps on a target dummy. I leveled blood before the nerf, raided as unholy, it's time to try something new. Frost, HERE I COME!

[dharq]

I've dual-specced and am running the blood and unholy builds that I posted above. Unglyphed cause I'm broke.

I was able to pull close to 3k dps on a target dummy with the blood build w/o hysteria or horn of winter up. The trick was keeping UB up 100% of the time, and I might also note that that was using DS instead of OB for dps... Unglyphed, 98% of weapon dmg + bonus dmg + healing per hit... Not bad at all.

With the unholy build, I must've been doing something wrong because my dps was down around 2.4k consistently.

[Tony]

Just wanted to update this post. I've speced blood again and love it. I finally broke 4k dps the other night in Naxx 25.

Speced and Glyphed for Death Strike is hitting for 10k (last night on sarth with hysteria and trinkets)

One thing to note, the dps increase in Blood Boil is amazing. If you use DRW before your AOE rotation, it will cast pestilence and Blood Boil and alot of people are saying to do this for your AOE rotation. Wondering if anyone has tried this yet and can confirm it.

[Gargamesh]

I change my spec alot, but right now I've been doing pretty well with this unholy PVE DPS build:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jZG0xZfMhIpcdgcq0ssut:LbrcmM

I've heard some good arguments that IUP is more than worth the two points, but I'm not convinced. And of course corpse explosion is situational. And I might try taking a point out of Morbidity to max Necrosis (apparently it stacks well with Black Ice), but, eh...haven't decided yet.

For glyphs I went SS, Ghoul, and the new Dark Death one. The only other one I'd even consider for unholy PVE DPS is Unholy Blight.

I've had pretty good dps (2100-2700) with even my crap gear with this build, and it does scale well.

[Tony]

Darq, Dude, I am totally confused here... I need some tips or something. I just looked at your armory compared to mine. We have almost the same gear, but your AP is ~3600, but mine is at ~2800  does that blood build you have with points in ravenous dead really give you that much more AP than I have? Seriously, I have more STR gems, and your hit is insane, I just dont understand how you can have 800 more AP than I do. Ravenous Dead is only a 3% of your total str???

After further inspection, I am even more confused than I was before. I now see that you have almost 10k more armor than I do. Did I forget to click a button or something? Are you under the influence of a potion? Is it because I went with a female instead of a male? Am I not gemming properly? Seriously, this is gonna drive me nuts!


BTW, how are you liking that build without DRW? I like the idea of having UB in my blood rotation, so I might just give that one a shot...

[Donnelly]

Is it an armory error? What do your actual in-game unbuffed stats look like?


edit: My stats are way off so don't use mine for comparison! I haven't specced Des since the talents got reset on Tuesday.

[dharq]

I logged out in frost presence, evidently. My normal armor is around 14000 and AP is between 3000 and 3100. We don't think we're significantly different in regards to gear or stats at this point.

The big thing that I like about UB is that it provides a constant, aoe dmg increase over DRW. The other thing that really excites me about it is that it provides roughly 2000 extra damage over 20 seconds to everything around you... 2000 extra damage is not a huge deal, but when you figure it's up almost 100% of the time, it provides a 9000 damage increase over the same time period as DRW (w/ the cd figured in).

The big advantage here IMO is that it's AOE damage. It's not as bursty as DRW, but I like the reliability. The other thing I'm debating is dropping the [item]Grim Toll[/item] and adding back in the [item]Extract of Necromantic Power[/item].

[Tony]

We don't think we're significantly different in regards to gear or stats at this point.

Please elaborate, I dont quite understand that.

[dharq]

I'm just saying that our overall stats are pretty similar--when I'm not in frost presence and boosting my armor and AP.

[Shadowwolf]

I dont play my DK as much as the rest of you, but I tried this spec and glyph markup recently, and I noticed some nice dmg in PvE

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMqh0IcbRfosxZfMhhbcd:AGaMmV

As for a rotation...im still working a good one out, hehe.

[capnpop]

I'd recommend changing one of your glyphs shadow (Death Strike and Oblit glyphs that is).  It is a tad overkill (imo) that you are using same-runed strikes and boosting both. 

TBH, I don't know offhand what you could replace it with (perhaps Death coil glyph for 15% more death coil dmg, but that is similarly overkill with unholy blight (RP) and death coil (RP)).  Then again, if it works for you stick with it