4.0 Death Knight DPS - *bangs head into wall*

I'm reposting this from my personal blog back on Oct. 13th, right after patch 4.0 went live.  This sort of dissatisfaction played a pretty big part in me abandoning Chill of the Grave for a while.  I've gotten over a lot of it, not because I figured out some magic combination to make everything wonderful but because I just came to terms with it.  I'll have more technical posts on the changes in the near future, as well as on Blizzard's upcoming changes and my dabblings in Unholy, but for now, here's some ranting.

I'm not ready to give up on Dariahn yet, but I'm not getting along with the changes to Frost DPS.  The old rotation had a rhythm to it that clicked perfectly with me on, at risk of sounding really dippy, a deep, visceral level.  Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Obliterate, Pestilence, Blood Strike, Frost Strike while the runes refresh, Obliterate, Obliterate, Obliterate, Frost Strike while the runes refresh, Obliterate, Obliterate, Pestilence, Blood Strike, Frost Strike while the runes refresh, throw in a Howling Blast when Rime procs to keep me from zoning out too much...  The mathematical grace of the old rotation was dead-on perfect.  I felt a deep sense of satisfaction when I managed to get through, say, Koralon without having to reapply my diseases because everything clicked at just the right moment.  Nothing went to waste.  Yes, fights like Putricide that were nothing but waste were frustrating, but not every class can be good at every fight.

It was certainly no reason to make waste the default.

What, praytell, is the point of Festering Strike?  [Okay, I know now the point is to spam it in Unholy, but still.]  The cost of refreshing diseases - refreshing them for a whole 8 seconds out of their now-30-second duration - has gone from 1 Blood rune to 1 Blood rune, 1 Frost rune, and 1 now-useless Unholy rune.  Likewise, what was the point to reducing the cost of Howling Blast to 1 Frost rune?  If there was also an attack that used a single Unholy rune it would be forgivable.  In a Frost rotation, Blood Strike existed to use up those Blood runes that you weren't spending on anything else so they were not sitting there wasted.  It also turned them into nice useful Death runes.  Nothing serves that function for the Unholy rune left behind by Festering Strike or Howling Blast.  It sits there on my pretty little DKI Runes UI, a testament to the wastefulness of the new DK playstyle.  It mocks me.  I hate it.

I was also bothered by how often I found myself standing there for several seconds auto-attacking the training dummy because I was out of resources.  Yes, there were times in my old rotation when I might be out of resources for possibly two whole seconds if Rime didn't proc, but this was noticeably worse.  Despite what one might see in the occasional PuG or from that DK who is clearly only in the raid because they know people, Death Knights aren't supposed to just stand there auto-attacking.  This just isn't acceptable.

Maybe I'm wrong.  I'm willing to work on it, to concede that this is just growing pains from having to l2p all over again, to hope that once I get a proper new rotation hammered out everything will smooth out and I'll look back on this post with amusement.  Right now, though, I feel like my favorite class has lost its groove.

An Unholy Terror

I returned from my holiday trip this weekend to my roommate informing me that DW Unholy is not only a viable spec but is also a lot of fun. I dabbled in Unholy ages ago, but since 4.0 I was sitting on a Blood spec I pretty much never used because that's what happens when your roommate is addicted to tanking. He nudged me to give it another try, and in between my struggles with Yellow Dot Syndrome I ran a couple Heroics with it.

My first impression of DW Unholy, post-Cataclysm, is that it is fast. The Runic Corruption talent speeds up the notably slowed-down rune refresh rate, and combined with Reaping you almost always have some resources to use. Festering Strike becomes part of your regular rotation, so you don't have to worry too much about refreshing your diseases. Wrath Unholy was a strict rotation spec, whereas Frost at the time was notable for the procs. Unholy has procs now too, most significantly Dark Transformation, which turns your ghoul into a bigger, nastier monster, and Sudden Doom, which gives you a free Death Coil.

Initially I was a little disappointed to see the different specs lose their flavor - it's like if DW Arms was suddenly a viable Warrior spec - but I really enjoyed Unholy for the few hours I got to play it. Once I've had a little longer to experiment with it I'll have more to say beyond my first impressions.

How To Be Your Tank’s Best Friend (Without Turning Anything Into A Sheep)

A quick note up front: Most of my PvE posts for a while are going to be from a DPS perspective. Even before Cataclysm I officially declared DPS my main spec when I found a good 25-man ICC group that was full up on tanks, and now that I have a leveling/instancing buddy who insists on tanking everything I’m not called on to play meatshield as often as I was in BC and Wrath. I will cover tanking to a certain extent, but for the moment DPS is my specialty.

After the faceroll-fest that was Wrath Heroics, Blizzard decided to bring the pain back to dungeons in Cataclysm. Crowd control abilities that languished on some forgotten keybind for the last two years are suddenly in demand again. Crowd control abilities...that Death Knights do not have.

Well crap.

We aren’t completely useless, though. There are still things we can do to make dungeon runs easier for the whole party:

Don’t attack the sheep. Those of us who played back before crowd control went out of style should remember the importance of not hitting targets who are under the effect of crowd-controlling spells. All the trouble that mage or shaman went through to turn their target into a cute little animal will be for naught if you immediately run up and start AoEing in its face. Ideally the tank will pull mobs far enough away from CCed targets to allow you to hit Howling Blast, but be mindful that tanks who aren’t used to working around CC may not remember to do this, and even those who are may have some complication keeping them from doing so. When in doubt, just Obliterate the skull.

Watch for stragglers. Two abilities that make us such great tanks on our own can also help our tanks keep things together: Strangulate and Death Grip. If there’s a pesky caster mob who refuses to come over to the tank, use Strangulate to silence it and force it to come into melee range. If you’re dealing with something ranged but nonmagical like an archer, you can use Death Grip to bring it into the Death and Decay/Consecrate/Shockwave/Swipe area. Use it wisely. One of the biggest complaints about Death Knights is misuse of Death Grip, but when used in communication with your tank it can be an effective form of crowd control. If possible, let the tank know you’re going to do it before you do it - I cheat by being able to yell into the next room, but a macro will do - and immediately switch back to attacking the main kill target so you don’t keep aggro any longer than necessary. As plate wearers we can take a couple hits, but we can’t tank these guys solo in our DPS gear. Yank it into tanking range and then let the tank pick it up.

Take care of yourself. This is more to make things easier on your healer, but keep in mind that even with a DPS spec you have the ability to heal yourself up a little and mitigate some damage. Death Strike doesn’t do as much damage as a nice fat Obliterate, but as they say, you do 0 DPS when you’re dead. Anti-Magic Shell works wonders against AoE magic damage. Remember that your healer is dealing with a much more challenging mana situation than they’re used to and may have to choose between healing you and healing the tank. Don’t stand in the fire - or at least use Anti-Magic Shell.

Stand in the good. Some healing classes now have area-targeted AoE heal-over-time spells - think a healing Death and Decay - that they can cast into the middle of the fight to help keep the tank and the melee healed up. Learn what these look like and stand in them. For the love of all that is unholy, stand in them.

Interrupt whenever you can. Even trash mobs can do magic damage that will put a huge dent in your tank’s massive HP - not to mention yours if it’s an AoE. Learn what mobs cast interruptable high-damage spells and use Mind Freeze to stop them. Make sure your unit frame of choice has cast bars turned on for your target and keep an eye out for in-game and DBM warnings. Keeping the tank alive keeps everybody alive.

Save the healer. The short duration on Chains of Ice keeps it from being a proper crowd control spell, but if you notice something pulling away from the pack and heading over to eat the healer’s face it can be a lifesaver. Taunts can also be used in a pinch, but again, get it to the tank and then let them take it.

Remember, it’s an exciting new world for all of us. Be patient with your tanks, give your healers time to drink, stay out of the bad, and we’ll all be back in epics in no time.

Patch 3.3.3 Notes, A.K.A. Blizzard Loves Me

As of this writing, the Patch 3.3.3 notes have some pretty delicious changes for Death Knights, especially of the Frost DW variety. Go on, take a look at them. I'll wait.

Done? Excellent.

There are three of these that I find particularly exciting for DW Frost in general and my playstyle in particular:

• Nerves of Cold Steel: Now increases off-hand damage by 8/16/25%, up from 5/10/15%.

This is just a nice, straightforward DPS buff for DW. Any attack based on weapon damage, including some of our staples like Obliterate and Frost Strike, get a nice little buff from this talent by working alongside Threat of Thassarian. This will also buff threat generation for tanks as Nerves of Cold Steel was already a staple of DW tanking specs.

• Icy Touch: This ability now causes a very high amount of threat while the death knight is in Frost Presence.

The implications of this are obvious, targeted at tanks of any spec. One of our lead-off spells, and a ranged one at that, now generates extra threat when in Frost Presence. I see this as a sign that Blizzard is trying to move people away from the single-disease Glyph of Howling Blast tanking style that's become popular of late. When single- or no-disease rotations have become popular in the past Blizzard has made changes to make them less desirable, and they seem to be continuing to assert that a two-disease (or three-disease for Unholy) rotation is the way they intend the class to play.

• Improved Icy Talons: This effect is now passive instead of being a proc. The self haste buff remains unchanged.


• Glyph of Disease: When this glyph causes Frost Fever to be refreshed, it will now also trigger a refresh of Icy Talons. (This is further down under the "Items" header.)

Now, the first of these two changes seems to negate the second, but a blue post has since explained that the glyph change was implemented before they decided to phase out ability-procced raid buffs across a number of classes. What this effectively does is make Glyph of Disease viable for Frost DKs who were only loved for their ability to keep Improved Icy Talons up for a raid group. I've spoken before of my fondness for Glyph of Disease for keeping your diseases up at a minimal cost, and this will enable you to do that without getting chewed out by your raid leader. I also note the second change because it shows that this is something Blizzard intends for us to be able to do rather than just a nice side-effect of the change to ability-procced buffs.

Of course, this is all subject to change, and I assure you if it does I'll let you know with a nice round of QQing. In the meantime, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that this goes live.

Death Knight 101: The Talent Trees

Because we start at level 55 and unlock our talent points over the course of only three levels' worth of quests, the question of which tree to put your talent points in comes up much sooner for Death Knights than any other class. We are also unusual for having talent trees that are less clearly-defined than most classes, as you can find a spec in any tree for either tanking or DPS (though you shouldn't rely on the same one for both if you want to do either well). There are more nuances than just, "This tree is for tanking," and as a result your choice of spec is based more on your own personal preference than anything else. So which one do you pick?

Before I really get into the meat of it I'd like to note that this post isn't going to be about min-maxing except for the occasional "As of this posting..." comment. We didn't see nearly as many adjustments to our class in the most recent patch as we have in prior ones, but Blizzard is still working out the kinks. The flavor of this month may not be the flavor of next, and I would like this post to still be a useful resource next month. Therefore, I'm just covering the concepts of the different talent trees rather than what's currently best. As always, I recommend Elitist Jerks for up-to-the-minute theorycrafting.

Frost
I'll start with Frost because, as you may have noticed, it's my specialty. Early in development, Blizzard declared Frost to be the tanking spec for Death Knights. They later changed their minds and gave all specs viable tanking options, but it's kept that reputation. More recently it's become the dual-wield spec because it is the only tree with talents that apply specifically to one-handed weapons. Both of these are misconceptions to a certain degree: It has excellent, solid tanking options but is not the only tree for the task, and while your DPS will be gimped if you try to dual wield as any other spec there are perfectly good two-hander-based Frost specs.

Personally, I see Frost as the AoE spec, whether you're DPSing or tanking, no matter what weapon you're carrying. The tree's 51-point talent, Howling Blast, is an AoE powerhouse for both damage and threat, doing damage on par with Obliterate on each mob it hits. Frost tanking is comparable to Paladin tanking for AoE threat generation, and it's excellent in any situation with trash pulls, especially if you're dealing with a rowdy PuG. For leveling, it's best for burning down large groups of mobs. If you're going to dual wield, the talents Nerves of Cold Steel and Threat of Thassarian are absolutely required for reasons that are self-evident in their descriptions. No other tree has talents that are specifically geared to bringing DW damage in line with two-handers.

The downside to Frost for most people is that, compared to the other trees, it's frankly kind of boring. There's no real gimmick to it. Even from a lore perspective, you have the necromancy tree, the vampirism tree, and the...hypothermia tree. The 9k+ AoE crits keep it interesting enough for me, though. The emphasis on proc-based talents like Killing Machine and Rime make it more reactive, which doesn't appeal to everyone.

TL;DR: Spec Frost if you want to dual wield or if you want to have strong AoE capabilities.

Blood
The whole point of Blood is survivability, both through raw stamina and self-healing. Early on it was primarily considered a leveling tree, since the self-heals meant you could keep going with very little downtime. More recently it's become a popular raid-tanking spec, trading Frost's AoE threat for talents that just plain keep you alive longer. Where Frost's threat generation is like a Paladin's, Blood's is like a Warrior's, with more emphasis on single targets. DPS is likewise more single-target based, with Strength-buffing talents that improve your overall damage but no AoEs except the basic class ones. This is fine for leveling, since you likely won't have more than a couple mobs to deal with and you can survive long enough to take them all down one at a time. It's also very good for boss fights. As a whole, Blood is the least magic-focused of the talent trees.

The downside to Blood is that when tanking, much like Warriors, you need time to ramp up threat on multiple mobs, which requires your DPS to actually show some restraint and maybe follow a *gasp* kill order. For DPS, your numbers won't look quite as good on those big trash pulls as more AoE-based classes.

TL;DR: Spec Blood if you want self-healing and extra survivability.

Unholy
The poor Unholy tree has been nerfed and buffed and tweaked all over the place since Wrath went live, but the basic concept has stayed the same: This is essentially the pet spec. All Death Knights can summon a ghoul for a short period, but with Master of Ghouls you get a permanent buddy. It even gets a new name randomly generated from some ghoulish words every time you raise one, some of which are unintentionally hilarious: I have a friend who once summoned a Gravelstealer, inspiring us to express concern about the safety of our driveways, and I once saw a Bonegobbler which made me giggle because I have a dirty, dirty mind. The perma-ghoul is a great little DPS boost for groups or soloing as well as an irritant for PvP. It's also useful for distracting any mobs that might attack when you're mining or herbing. I went Unholy DPS for a bit before 3.2 made Frost dual wielding viable, and I missed my ghoul when I changed. Unholy also has an AoE in the form of Corpse Explosion, but it requires you to have finished killing something to use it, so it doesn't have quite as much utility as Howling Blast.

The downside to Unholy is that, while you certainly could tank in an Unholy spec, there's nothing to recommend it like Frost's AoE threat or Blood's survivability. There's also the added responsibility that comes with using a pet, such as keeping it from randomly attacking the wrong things.

TL;DR: Spec Unholy if you want to play as a pet class, or if you think making corpses explode is the best thing ever.

Hopefully now you have a better idea of which talent tree is right for you and your up-and-coming Death Knight. In an upcoming post I'll get more in depth on the nuances that can make the same tree good for both tanking and DPS roles!

AddOns for Death Knights

Before I start, I recommend that any WoW player who is unfamiliar with addons read up on the idea itself. Addons can do add any number of things to your game, from making your user interface (or UI) more customizable to measuring your DPS to giving you a heads-up when your pizza is ready. Installation requires you to be able to navigate your computer's file directories, and they take varying levels of fiddling to configure, but if you don't already use them they can change your gameplay completely.

Anyone who regularly plays in a group situation will want to have a few particular addons installed. Omen Threat Meter, Recount, and Deadly Boss Mods or variations on them are all very basic, and they're all covered extensively elsewhere so I'm not going to go into detail on them here. They're also just as useful no matter what class you play (except possibly the first two for healers), so there's nothing very Death Knight-specific to discuss. Just remember that tanks want to be at the top of Omen, and DPSers want to be at the top of Recount! Though sometimes DPSers can get confused and think they want to be at the top of both.

For those already very familiar with addons, there are some I've found especially useful for Death Knights. Even a beginning DK can get a great deal of use from DeathKnight.info Runes/DeathKnight.info Diseases from the DeathKnight.info community. This is technically two addons, but they come packaged together and both are extremely useful. DKi Runes is a bar that you can move to anywhere on your screen that gives a graphical representation of your rune cooldowns as well as two other configurable bars that can be set to your HP or Runic Power. This lets you move your rune bar to somewhere more obvious than your character frame, and it looks really awesome to boot. For beginning DKs it's perfect for forming an awareness of your cooldowns, and even experienced DKs can benefit from tracking them more easily.

DKi Diseases fills a tracking function as well, in this case tracking your diseases. This addon creates movable, configurable bars to show how much longer your diseases will be up on your main target, with another underlay (or overlay) showing a timer for diseases spread to other targets by Pestilence. I can't stress enough how important it is for Death Knights to keep their diseases up! I've personally set mine to display right under the target frame below the other DoTs so I can glance up and see when I need to refresh them.

While it's not specific to our class, as a Frost DK I've found Power Auras Classic exceptional for making sure I get the most of my procs. It's an extremely fiddly little addon, and it may take a bit of tweaking to get it to do exactly what you want, but fortunately there's an entire wiki devoted to it. I use it to give me a heads-up when Killing Machine or Rime/Freezing Fog have procced as well as when my RP is getting too high. I have also tied the latter to a sound file of the Corrupted Ashbringer saying "Kill them all," because as we all know, runeblades are evil bastards. It's also good for letting you know if you're in the wrong presence, letting you know when Horn of Winter is no longer up, and any other warning you can think of. I've poked at it a little on some of my other characters, but my Death Knight is the one for whom I've found the most use for it.

I know there are other DK-specific addons out there I haven't tried, so feel free to comment with a testimonial on your favorite!

Sigils and Where to Upgrade Them

Sigils are for Death Knights what Librams are for Paladins or Totems are for Shaman: This is our Relic-slot item. It gives us a class-specific, Trinket-like Equip bonus, such as an attack power buff toward or after using a certain ability. When you complete the quest "Into the Realm of Shadows" below Acherus, you'll get your first one, the [Sigil of the Dark Rider], alongside your Deathcharger spell. This will do you great through Outland and through the first part of Northrend, until the first upgrade becomes available at level 74. Let's take a look at the Sigil upgrades we have to choose from:

• At level 74, get your undead rear over to Grizzly Hills and the Venture Bay PvP area. For a mere 30 Venture Coins, obtainable in a half-hour of questing at worst unless your server has some crazy hard-on for Venture Bay, you have a choice of three shiny new Sigils: The [Sigil of the Frozen Conscience] (unsurprisingly my favorite!), the [Sigil of Arthritic Binding], and the [Sigil of the Wild Buck]. Frozen Conscience, as you can guess from the name, is great for Frost with a buff to Icy Touch. Arthritic Binding is good for Unholy, as it buffs Scourge Strike. Wild Buck seems intended for Blood just by process of elimination, but as it buffs Death Coil (Blood's only real good Runic Power dump) it would be fine for Unholy as well.


• At level 80 you'll primarily hit up the Emblem vendors for your Sigil upgrades. 15 Emblems of Heroism will get you the [Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight] for tanking or the [Sigil of Haunted Dreams] for DPS, 25 Emblems of Valor will get you the [Sigil of Awareness] for DPS, and 19 Emblems of Conquest will get you the [Sigil of Deflection] for tanking or the [Sigil of the Vengeful Heart] for DPS.


• I'm not going to go into detail on those at this point, though, because Emblems of Triumph have become the common currency. For 25 of them you can get the [Sigil of Insolence], an upgraded version of Deflection which lets your Rune Strikes proc more delicious Rune Strikes. DPSers can get the [Sigil of Virulence], which gives a Strength proc to bread-and-butter DPS abilities from every spec. Both are excellent for their intended uses, and with the new cross-realm LFG system raining Emblems on our heads any serious Death Knight who's been level 80 for more than a week should absolutely have the one for their preferred role.


• There are also two Sigils available for 30 Emblems of Frost each, the [Sigil of the Bone Gryphon] for tanking and the [Sigil of the Hanged Man] for DPS. However, as they have a stacking buff rather than a flat buff and even at full stacks they do not have a significantly better buff that the Triumph Sigils (+30 Dodge over Deflection, +19 Strength over Virulence) you may want to just keep those Emblems of Frost tucked away for T10 instead unless they get a buff at a later date. They aren't bad, but they're still not a significant upgrade. Note that the uptime for Hanged Man will generally be better than Bone Gryphon, and it will be better for Frost or Unholy than it will for Blood due to the frequency of the trigger ability in your respective rotation. It is worth noting that they are the first Sigils to use a different tooltip graphic.


• I'm not an expert on Death Knight PvP, so I'll just touch on the PvP Sigils, all available with Honor and/or Arena Points: The [Deadly Gladiator's Sigil of Strife] is currently 15,300 Honor, the [Furious Gladiator's Sigil of Strife] is 6,400 Honor and 350 Arena Points, and the [Relentless Gladiator's Sigil of Strife] is 1,150 Arena Points. All are held in rather poor regard, so Death Knights interested in PvP should probably just get one of the PvE DPS Sigils listed above.

So don't forget to upgrade your Sigil while upgrading the rest of your gear. There are excellent buffs to be had from them!

How Not to PuG

Let's be honest: Death Knights get a bad rap. We're a popular class because we're new and easy to level. Everyone has one, whether they've put any effort into learning to play it or not. Anyone who managed to faceroll another class to level 55 can roll one and just push the "I Win" button through Outland and much of Northrend. Heck, when I was leveling Dariahn I made a point to keep pushing to areas at least 1 if not 2 levels above me for maximum XP because I could get away with it. We're exhilaratingly overpowered when leveling. The playing field levels out at 80, but at that point we've only had 25 levels to get the hang of some fairly complicated class mechanics. It's no wonder the ones who have learned how to play have so much to prove!

Since the implementation of the random PuG system, I've heard a lot of complaints. Some come from my boyfriend, who is valiantly trying to level a resto druid through the last part of the 60s through random PuGs. Some come from friends in general. Some come from the wow_ladies community over on LiveJournal, who were kind enough to share their anecdotes with me. So here's some advice from one Ebon Blade to another on How Not to PuG:

1. Don't queue as a tank just because you can.
This is the biggest complaint I hear: Death Knights queuing to tank just because that little checkmark next to the shield icon is clickible, with no idea how to actually do it or gear for the role. This is especially bad because, due to the relative number of tanks vs DPS, if you checkmark that shield and then queue up, you will be tanking. Do not queue up as a tank and then show up on the dungeon doorstep asking who's tanking. Surprise! It's you!

This is not to discourage people who genuinely want to tank! If you're familiar with the basic concepts of tanking and you want to give it a try, go for it! Pop into Frost Presence, put down your D&D, and have fun! But, especially in anything harder than Hellfire Ramparts, you want to make sure you're geared for it. Don't show up in a level 80 Heroic with two pieces of tanking armor thinking you'll be fine. Tanking is srs bsns! Make sure you're capable of doing it before queuing as a tank, I do not care how much shorter the wait is. See also #4 below.

2. If you're not tanking, don't tank.
Okay, so let's say you followed #1 there, determined that you are in no shape to tank an instance, and signed up as DPS. So don't tank. That means do not pull, do not initiate boss fights, do not use Frost Presence, do not put down Death and Decay unless you know the tank has established a firm grasp on all the mobs. Do not drop Death and Decay on top of CCed mobs. Do not use Death Grip unless absolutely necessary, such as to pull a caster back to the tank or to save a healer from a stray. Using Death Grip to pull something off the tank because you are level 60 and still think Death Grip is hilarious does not fall under "absolutely necessary". Along those same lines...

3. Army of the Dead is a Sometimes Ability.
This could go under one of the other headers, but it's come up so many times it clearly needs a section to itself, possibly with blinking sparkle-text. Blizzard had the grace to make nearly all raid bosses immune to their taunts, but I can count on one hand the number of situations you will encounter in 5-man instances where it's okay to use Army of the Dead. Think before you use it! They will taunt bosses off the tank, which can quickly wipe the group if the boss needs to be tanked in a certain position, and they will pull extra adds in trash pulls. Never, ever use Army of the Dead without checking with the group to see if it is okay. It very rarely is.

4. Learn to play your class before you queue up.
The middle of an instance is not the right time to go, "Hmm, what does THIS button do?" Before you subject other people to your totally awesome new Death Knight, go read up on the basics - or heck, just read your tooltips! Learn basics such as what presence you want to be in for your role and whether you need Spell Power (Spoiler Alert: You don't.) before an unfortunate group of random strangers who have been playing their classes for 60 levels as opposed to your 5 have to teach you. Learn what kind of stats you need to tank so you can follow #1. Know the defense cap before you queue as a tank for a Heroic.

5. Don't be a dick.
This goes for any class. Don't post Recount to show everyone how awesome you are three pulls in. (As of this posting it's broken in cross-server instances anyway.) If the casters need mana, let them drink. If the tank assigns a kill order, follow it. When running lower-level instances, remember that not all classes are as OP as we are and be mindful of your threat if DPSing. That warrior who's tanking Ramparts for you was not handed a full set of blues on an ebon platter at level 58. So long as the job is getting done, don't give unsolicited advice to your PuGmates, especially the DPS. Someone's DPS is way too low? Are the mobs still getting killed? Then hush. You were a new 80 once too. The defense-capped but blue-wearing tank is taking damage just fine but can't keep up with your full-T9 DPS? Throttle back and remember that everyone has to start somewhere. The important thing is that you finish the instance, not that you show random people you may never see again how big your epeen is. Be excellent to each other.

So with all that in mind, go forth, PuG, rack up the sweet XP or badges, and give people a good Death Knight story for once!

On "Rotations", Part 2: DPS

On Friday I posted about a fairly standard tanking rotation for Frost Death Knights, and I'd recommend at least glancing over that article first since I'll be referring to it a bit here. Death Knights produce threat by DPS, so the abilities that generate the most threat, with a couple exceptions, also generate the most DPS. There was a little controversy in the comments about another rotation that's gained some popularity, and if that rotation becomes a little more accepted I'll write up an article on it as well, but for now I'm focusing on the best-known Frost rotation that also, IMO, gives the best idea of how the class is intended to function.

I will note again that this rotation is helped immensely by having Glyph of Disease, which causes Pestilence to refresh your diseases on all targets. If you prefer not to use that, you'll have to add another Icy Touch > Plague Strike to refresh the diseases. It's very important to keep your diseases up! You may even want to look into an addon to help you track them if you don't have one already.

Again, your rotation will vary slightly depending on whether you're fighting a single target or AoEing. Frost is excellent for AoEs thanks to the high AoE damage of its signature 51-point ability, Howling Blast. I usually start off with Icy Touch > Plague Strike to get my diseases up, a Pestilence to spread the love around, Howling Blast, and then a Blood Strike to turn over that last Blood Rune. You want to make sure Frost Fever is up on everything before even bothering with Howling Blast. After that it's just a matter of hitting Howling Blast whenever it's available, Frost Strike to dump HP, Pestilence when you need to refresh diseases (or Icy Touch > Plague Strike > Pestilence if you're not glyphed for it), Obliterate whenever your runes are refreshed and Howling Blast is still on cooldown, and Blood Strike to flip Blood Runes. And be sure to take advantage of those Killing Machine and Freezing Fog/Rime procs! I generally skip Death and Decay when DPSing because I'd rather spend those runes on Howling Blast. You can try it if you really trust your tank, but I wouldn't recommend it with anything but a paladin or another DK, and not until they have a good tight hold on the group. It's a decent enough AoE DoT, but it does generate extra threat, relies on keeping the mobs standing in it, and at a whopping 1 of each Rune it's the most expensive ability in your arsenal.

On a single target, just as when tanking, you want to focus on Obliterate over Howling Blast unless you have a Freezing Fog/Rime proc. Killing Machine procs can be put to use with Frost Strikes unless Freezing Fog/Rime is up. Even on a single target, it's better to use Pestilence to refresh your diseases if you're glyphed for it.

The main differences between the Frost tanking and DPS rotations, beside the hopefully obvious difference that you're doing it in Blood Presence instead of Frost Presence, are the lack of Death and Decay, the lack of Rune Strike, and the lack of bothering with your mitigation cooldowns unless you really feel like popping Anti-Magic Shell (or as I call it, the Banshee Bubble) so you can keep standing in that Blizzard. Unbreakable Armor is also back to giving a Strength bonus, so it's still worth speccing into and using even for DPS. And pop a ghoul every so often! If Rune Strike does proc there's not much reason not to use it, but if you just dodged something that means you've gotten something's attention and you might want to throttle back for the tank to pick it up. For me it's extremely easy to switch between the two since they're so similar. Your biggest difference is going to be gearing, which is a subject for a whole 'nother post.

But before that, we'll be discussing something that's become a hot topic lately: How Not To PuG.

It's Just The Gear You Want, Part 2

In yesterday's post I went over the drops from the normal version of the new Frozen Halls instances that Death Knights will want to look out for. Today we'll discuss the Heroic drops. Now, in Heroic mode the Frozen Halls are nothing to sneeze at, so you will have to work for that iLevel 232 gear, especially from the Pit of Saron or Halls of Reflection. So put on your srs face and keep your fingers crossed for these:

Heroic Mode:

• The Heroic Godfather of Souls has the [Weeping Gauntlets] for DPS Knights, with Crit and Haste. In general, you'll see more Haste on the DPS drops on Heroic, not the Best Stat Ever for DKs but good for those Killing Machine procs. He also drops [Nighttime], an excellent one-handed axe with Haste and Armor Pen. I have a friend who's already dual-wielding them.


• The Devourer of Souls here drops some good solid tanking boots, the [Black Spire Sabatons], as well as the Crit/Haste [Pauldrons of the Devourer]. It also drops the painful-sounding [Needle-Encrusted Scorpion], but with a huge base Crit bonus and an Armor Pen proc, expect to have to fight all the other DPS for it.


• Forgemaster Garfrost loves the DW Frost types on Heroic, with the [Shoulderplates of Frozen Blood]'s Expertise for tanks and [Malykriss Vambraces]' Crit-and-Hit for DPS. He also drops the [Barbed Ymirheim Choker], but it's another general-DPS item that's better suited to an Agility-based class.


• There's only one thing worth looking for from Ick, but it's a doozy: [Ick's Rotting Thumb], an excellent tanking trinket with Dodge and an HP on-use effect. Mmm.


• Scourgelord Tyrannus still isn't giving up his T10, but he does give up two excellent tanking drops: the [Icebound Bronze Cuirass] and a good solid tanking one-hander, [Rimefang's Claw]. For DPS, the [Tyrannical Beheader] has excellent stats for Blood, and the [Frost Wyrm Ribcage] is another Crit/Haste armor item. The [Band of Stained Souls] is another solid but, for a DK, unremarkable general DPS ring.


• This time through it's Falric who drops nothing of note for DKs of any spec, though if you really, really need an upgrade you can ignore the Shield Block on [Falric's Wrist-Chopper]. His bestest friend Marwyn drops the [Orca-Hunter's Harpoon], and while the enchant effect on it will stop traffic in Dalaran, the Agility makes it more of a Hunter/Druid weapon. Still, if you Need Upgrades Badly, you could do worse for two-handers.


• Once they're back on safe ground (and I'm still not going to spoil it!) tanks can look forward to the [Fossilized Ammonite Choker], with all the usual tanking stats. There's also the [Second Helm of the Executioner] for tanks, but again, it has Shield Block. DPSers have a better chance of a useful drop from there, with [The Lady's Promise], and excellent plate DPS ring, the [Grinning Skull Boots], with a solid Crit/Armor Pen combo perfect for Unholy, and the [Black Icicle], a one-handed mace with Crit/Hit. I'm personally hoping for a second of that last one.

So there you are. While you're at it, you'll be racking up [Emblems of Triumph] that you can spend on other upgrades you might need including T9 pieces, as well as some [Emblems of Frost] you can start saving for the new Sigils and maybe even some T10.

Later this week I'll be back with a look at the story of the Frozen Halls (with spoilers!) and how it ties in with the themes and origins of the Death Knights.

It's Just The Gear You Want, Part 1

It's been about a week since patch 3.3 dropped, and by now I'm sure all the level 80s out there are well aware that what truly lies inside the Frozen Halls is delicious, delicious lewts. Bosses in Normal mode drop iLevel 219 epics, with a jump to 232 in Heroic mode, making this an excellent place for casuals or players who just plain haven't been lucky with drops to do some make-up work. Here's a breakdown of what my Ebon Blade brethren will want to roll Need on:

Normal Mode:

• Tanks will want to be on the lookout for the ridiculously oversized [Lucky Old Sun] from Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls in the first part of the instance chain, the Forge of Souls. He also drops the [Minister's Number One Legplates], with the delicious Hit and Crit that Frosty DPSers need. And be sure to turn up his music while you're there.


• The next stop is the Devourer of Souls, who drops the [Legplates of Frozen Granite] for tanks with great Hit for DWers and the [Lost Reliquary Chestguard] with more of that Hit-and-Crit perfect for Frost DPS. He also drops the [Sollerets of Suffering], but the Shield Block makes it less than ideal for DKs, and the [Accursed Crawling Cape], which is fine as a general DPS cloak but the Agility makes it better for non-Strength-based classes.


• Also keep an eye out for the [Plated Grips of Korth'azz], which are a BoP trash drop. You may also encounter the [Titanium Links of Lore], but again, the Shield Block makes it less than perfect.


• Going through the portal to the Pit of Saron, we find Forgemaster Garfrost, who drops [Garfrost's Two-Ton Hammer] for those of a two-hander inclination. He also drops the [Ring of Carnelian and Bone], but again, it's more of a general DPS item than a plate-specific one. Hold out for...


• ...The next boss, Ick, who has an actual plate DPS ring, the [Purloined Wedding Ring]. He also drops the [Bent Gold Belt] for DPS types. Both of these have Crit and Haste, which is not bad at all for Frost DPS.


• At the end of this instance we get to our brother in Death Knighthood, Scourgelord Tyrannus. Sadly, he's a bastard and won't drop the T10 he's wearing. What he does drop is the [Scourgelord's Frigid Chestplate], which is interesting for a tanking piece as it doesn't actually have any Defense on it. It does have Expertise on it, great for a DW tank, so if you can spare the Defense or make it up elsewhere (maybe the new Rune of the Nerubian Carapace?) this is excellent. He also drops the [Painfully Sharp Choker] for plate DPS, with Armor Pen that's especially good for Blood and Unholy types.


• I'm not going to spoil the Halls of Reflection for you, but the first boss you'll fight will be Falric. The only thing of interest from him is the one-handed sword [Ghoulslicer]. His fellow captain Marwyn drops nothing of interest to DKs on Normal.


• At the end of the instance (which I will not spoil!) you have a chance for [Mourning Malice], an amazing-looking two-handed sword with Crit and Expertise, or the [Hate-Forged Cleaver] for DWers. The [Tapestry of the Frozen Throne] is an excellent plate DPS cloak, with Crit/Hit. The [Crystalline Citadel Gauntlets] also drop at the end, but note the Shield Block.


• Also keep an eye out for the [Eerie Runeblade Polisher], another BoP trash drop, and a perfect cloak for DK tanks to use to, uh, polish their runeblades.

Tomorrow I'll be back with a run-down of all the loot you can't live without from the Heroic version of these dungeons, and later in the week I'll get into some of the lore of the place. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Chill of the Grave!

I know, there are already so many WoW blogs out there, why start another one? Well, for one thing, because my boyfriend was getting tired of me keeping him up all night debating to myself the relative merits of Glyph of Death and Decay and Glyph of Obliterate. I'm a writer deep down in my bones, and a chatty one too, so this is largely a place for me to talk about things.

It's also a place to provide information for people who want to actually learn to play this class, though I'm more interested in debate than simply saying "This is how you have to do things or you fail". While there are definitely things you have to follow, there's plenty that is open to your own personal playstyle, and I believe all valid ways of playing the game are, well, valid. I prefer debating the advantages and disadvantages of one thing vs another to outright declaring that one is the only way to do things. I personally prefer to play as DW Frost, both in my Tanking and DPS roles, and that's the view I'm going to bring to this blog, but I don't think other specs are wrong. In fact, if this blog catches on, I'll look into getting Blood and Unholy columnists, too. I'm planning to approach things more in the fashion of sites like Mania's Arcania than Elitist Jerks. So expect that to be the attitude of the blog going forward: Informing and discussing decisions, not making them for you.

I'm also planning to do something most class sites don't: Discuss the lore of the class. I'm a creative type and an RPer at heart, and part of what made me so certain I would love playing a Death Knight from the start is the compelling lore around which the class is based. Expect to see discussions of lore and write-ups/reviews of things like the Death Knight manga in between posts about PvE mechanics and tanking.

And just who am I? My main is Dariahn of Thorium Brotherhood, Forsaken Death Knight of the RP guild Hand of the Blightcaller. I don't do much in the way of progression at the moment because of time limitations, but I do weekly 10-mans, roflstomp Heroics, and stay abreast of everything going on with the class. I was raid-tanking in Burning Crusade as a Forsaken Prot warrior, and I knew from the announcement of the Death Knight class that the combination of tanking capability and Forsaken-esque lore was going to make me love them. Since before I could roll one I was determined to learn to play the class well, and I like to think I've done a pretty good job of it.

So check back every so often! I hope to update at least once a week, ideally more, with assorted thoughts and opinions on WoW's most misunderstood class, and always feel free to comment!