Death Knight stuff

[Ackley]

Alright, Alexialas/Swerto has been giving me a lot of help, but I just want to get this solid, when I start killing a mob, I hit Icy touch, plague strike, pestilence, Death and Decay. But if I use Blood strike, I get desolation which boosts my damage, my question is where in the rotation would that be?

Also single target, if Desolation buff is up, should I just wait for SS to be up, or smack him with Bloodstrike if I can?

[Moknim]

From a little googling:

Single target:
PS – IT – BS – BS – SS – DC – HoW
SS – DC – SS – SS – DC – (DC)

Multi Target:
Initial: IT – PS – Pestilence – DnD – DC – HoW
SS – BS – BB – SS – DC – DC
SS – Pestilence – DnD – DC – HoW

Alternate between second and third.


DKs (from my limited play) are pretty rotation-locked - my experience is limited, so here is EJs answer to your question:

Blood Striking to proc Desolation is a larger net dps gain than Blood Boiling, for those who are curious. If Desolation is already up, then Blood Boiling becomes the clear winner, of course.

One common mistake players make is to Death and Decay before spreading their diseases. Doing so is a bad move (from a dps point of view. Tanking is another matter). Although it might seem like a dps gain to use Death and Decay initially so it is off cooldown sooner, it loses a lot of damage if your diseases aren’t on the target (15% from Rage of Rivendare, 13% from Ebon Plague, so on). As well, spreading your diseases sooner means more raid dps thanks to Ebon Plague.

Source: http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t72364-unholy_dps_3_3_5_cataclysm_naturally/#Generalized_Rotation#ixzz0odJNZlp0


If I am wrong - I will definitely defer to more experienced DKs.

[Ackley]

Hmm, I had forgot about blood boil, I may have to work that in.

[Swerto]

Pretty much the single rotation is keeping your diseases up, keeping desolation up, and hitting scourge strike and death coil as often as you can with open global cooldowns.

I usually go IT > PS > BS > BS > SS until my plagues are down and then starting it over (that's four times), hitting death coil whenever I have an open open GCD. Didn't think about using HoW to gain extra RP during the rotation, I'll have to try that next time I'm on my DK.

AoE I usually spread diseases, drop DnD (dropping it every time the cooldown is up) and keep desolation up and running scourge striking and blood boiling as much as possible and tossing out death coils where I can.

So yeah, pretty much what Moknim posted.

Haven't done ICC with my DK yet, but I was pulling 7k DPS in T9 in ToC 10 -shrug-.

[Ackley]

Yeah I'm pulling like 4k dps on raids so doing pretty good.

[TenShields02]

Follow on question. Since im at work and everything is banned. When geming a Blood DPS Deathknight, what are the first stats I should be looking to increase? I have dragoneyes lined up for cuts, but im not sure if AP / Crit / Hit rating should go in. Thanks in advance.

[Swerto]

I'd assume armor penetration due to how physical blood DK's are, if not that you def want strength. Plate DPS tend to gem a lot of red.

[Amallah]

Follow on question. Since im at work and everything is banned. When geming a Blood DPS Deathknight, what are the first stats I should be looking to increase? I have dragoneyes lined up for cuts, but im not sure if AP / Crit / Hit rating should go in. Thanks in advance.
Armor Penetration.

Edit: Just make sure you're hit capped. Your gear should give the amount of hit you need, however.

[Dahnek]

Especially with 4.0.1 around the corner, do not gem ArP. Gem str once you are hit capped and exp capped.

[TenShields02]

Hit Cap=______

Exp Cap=______

*Sorry, at work. Reduced freedoms to roam the internet.

[Swerto]

As soon as 4.01 hits none of this shit will matter regardless, so don't bother gemming at all.