Shihli's Unholy Death Knight builds, patch 3.2
Shihli — Wed, 08/12/2009 - 01:15
So here are some links to my new builds that I'm going to be using for at least a day or two. See how they perform.
DPS: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jcZG0xzZfMhI0cdg0uxbuIqo:LAbMmV
Main idea behind this spec: 3 points in Blood to beef up Blood Strike a smidge, but mostly to reduce personal threat.
11 points in Frost do a few things. First, Imp. Icy Touch helps the tanks a bit with essentially an extra, ever-persistant Thunderclap effect. Runic Power Mastery makes it so that all that extra RP I generate doesn't go to waste. Black Ice is the main reason for going into frost, though; I felt that the 10% boost to Frost/Shadow damage (raw, scaling boost) would be more beneficial, in the long run, than bladed armor and 2H Weapon Specialization in the blood tree. Bladed Armor is a flat, static boost - you get 5 AP for every 180 points of armor you have. 2H Weapon Specialization doesn't affect diseases, Icy Touch, Death Coil, or Unholy Blight.
The point in Lichborne can be popped into Annihilation if you really want to min/max, but it's not going to change the world.
Lastly, the points in Unholy ... so many of them! No points in Necrosis because it only affects autoattack, and even then it's a piddling amount of damage. 5 points in this accounted for 2.5% of a night's damage - this is *almost* fully counteracted by putting the points in Morbidity. Otherwise, everything should be self-explanatory in this tree.
Glyphs: Dark Death and Unholy Blight beef the hell out of Death Coil, our main RP dump. Glyph of the Ghoul beefs up your pet. I do *NOT* use Glyph of Scourge Strike as it actually has a habit of fucking up your attack rotation. Minor glyphs are self-explanatory.
Tanking: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#j0xGoZhxZcghhzc0gcht0ucq:MohMmV
Main idea behind this spec: 11 points in Blood. Blade Barrier is mandatory. Bladed Armor and 2H Weapon Specialization will help hold aggro a bit. Rune Tap is for some extra *oomph* for the healers - some limited self-healing.
8 points in Frost are mandatory as well - slower mob attack speed and more armor for me.
The points in Unholy are there generally to help make me a bit harder to kill (particularly against casters and high-damage magic attacks like Fusion Punch). With this spec, typically I will take 16% less damage from all spells, with a maximum spell damage reduction of approx. 50% with all CD's running.
Glyphs: Bone Shield for more damage reduction, Death and Decay for better AoE threat, Rune Tap for limited party healing. Minor glyphs explain themselves.
Any opinions, ideas, comments are welcome.
I'm surprised you didn't
Keisjaa — Wed, 08/12/2009 - 07:29I'm surprised you didn't shuffle the lichborne point into corpe explosion or something for some AoE dps(although it may be negligible for bosses)
Having used my 0/53/18 DW build I can say that you could probably drop a point in subversion if you felt so inclined(although there doesn't seem to be a better option unless you want to take annihilation)
Tanking, I haven't done but i'dlikely swap the Rune tap Glyph for rune strike or something(with only a point in rune tap it seems kind of limited for a major glyph)
developing my DK
Vitriola — Wed, 08/12/2009 - 07:14Hey Shihli!
I have been trying different specs. I tried unholy and did not do very well. (I have crap for gear and am not a terrific DK player anyway, but that is another story.) I tried shorty's blood build and increased my dps by about 600. (And no, that was not from 50 to 650!) I know that you do great dps and my first thought is that I am not doing it right.
So, to the questions:
Should unholy have commensurate dps to blood? Is it a matter of style or is one actually better for dps? I notice that you use unholy variations for both dps and tanking. Are you saying this stuff here because you recommend it or because you prefer it?
and thanks for posting this. I am eagerly picking up on tidbits to improve my DK which I like very much.
Another option is the new,
Shihli — Wed, 08/12/2009 - 01:52Another option is the new, up-and-coming (and very very depressing) "Obliterate UH" Build:
www.wowhead.com/
This build is essentially the same as the DPS build I posted above, however it replaces almost every instance of Scourge Strike (and subsequent improvements to its damage) with Obliterate and the use of Annihilation.
Currently, Scourge Strike has very, very low damage modifiers - considerably lower than Obliterate. People at EJ have theorycrafted and tested, and found that once you hit approximately 20% Armor Penetration, Obliterate's damage begins to outpace Scourge Strike's possible damage output on a boss.
Opinions are welcome, thanks!
Shihli — Wed, 08/12/2009 - 01:16Opinions are welcome, thanks!