So...I think these are the photos that Atar was trying to hide from me by performing a quick "De-Friend" on me on Facebook.

This guide is intended to provide information for healers, other DPS classes, tanks, and of course, Death Knights. Quick note if you're new: just like other classes which can tank, only one tree is for tanking which is Blood. Naturally, blood is no longer a viable DPS spec.

General Need-to-Know

First things first -- why the heck would non-DK players need a guide to Death Knights?

Healers: Take note, Death Knight tanks are substantially different than any other tanking class. Reference the section (below) "Blood - Death Knight Tanking" for all the gory details.

Raid Encounters - Utility:
DKs have a multitude of abilities which are proving to be very valuable in Cataclysm raid encounters. Of course they were valuable in wotlk too but with so many changes with 4.x, it's worth making a list.

• Chains of Ice: Instant cast (requires frost rune), slows target by 60%; can be applied to multiple targets.
• Anti-Magic Shell: Can be used to absorb/prevent almost any magical effect/debuff. Obviously, physical fears and debuffs won't be mitigated by this.
• IBF: 3min cooldown; immunity to stun.
• Mind Freeze: One of the few interrupts with a default-10sec cooldown; this requires 20 runic power but DPS DK are rarely out of RP.

Raid buffs:
Blood DK - Abmoniation's Might: +10% attack power
Frost DK -Improved Icy Talons: +10% melee/ranged attack speed
Unholy DK - Ebon Plaguebringer: +8% magic dmg (debuff, see note on changes)

ROFLSTOMPING OVERPOWERED HERO CLASS:
Maybe I'm going a little overboard here but DKs are a really nifty DPS class. They're like a shaman, warlock, and paladin all rolled into one - minus the ability to cast.

Awkwardly, and different than most melee classes, DK abilities are half-melee and half-spells. As far as dps is concerned this means death knights can maintain 100% DPS even in fights where movement is necessary. Of course, 100% uptime isn't always possible because a DKs primary damage are single-target melee abilities, however, most fights are timed and DKs can adjust to ensure maximum DPS while having to move. Other melee classes are very limited in their ability to DPS when outside of melee range. This, along with DKs raid utilities (above), provide for an outstanding DPS class.

Damage

Death Knights can deal damage via two different classes: Frost or Unholy.

As far as output is concerned, here's how things currently stand (from EJ):

[Normal Raids]
Assuming an average iLvl of 359 (normal t11), the order goes something like: 2H Unholy > DW Frost = DW Unholy > 2H Frost, with 2H Unholy being ~1.5% ahead, DW Frost and DW Unholy being within 0.5% of one another, and 2H Frost being ~10% behind the middle. For reference's sake, the approximate dps at this gear level is 21k-23k. This is the simulated result, remember, which means it's assuming no AoE, no movement, no fight specific buffs/debuffs, all raid buffs/debuffs and so forth.

In reality, Frost will tend to underperform compared to what it theoretically should be at, partially because it's more heavily affected by RNG, partially because of the rune bug where they skip back half a second, partially because it's more heavily affected by movement, and a handful of other minor factors. Generally speaking, this leads to DW Frost and 2H Frost falling behind about 10% on most of the current single target centric fights of the tier, although the two specs do easily win on AoE heavy encounters.

[Hardmode Raids]
Assuming an average iLvl of 372 (hardmode t11), the order goes something like: DW Unholy > DW Frost = 2H Unholy > 2H Frost, with DW Unholy being ~2% ahead, DW Frost and 2H Unholy being within 0.5% of one another, and 2H Frost being ~10% behind the middle. For reference's sake, the approximate dps at this gear level is 23k-25k. This is the simulated result, remember, which means it's assuming no AoE, no movement, no fight specific buffs/debuffs, all raid buffs/debuffs and so forth.

In reality, Frost will tend to underperform compared to what it theoretically should be at, partially because it's more heavily affected by RNG, partially because of the rune bug where they skip back half a second, partially because it's more heavily affected by movement, and a handful of other minor factors. Generally speaking, this leads to DW Frost and 2H Frost falling behind about 10% on most of the current single target centric fights of the tier, although the two specs do easily win on AoE heavy encounters.

I would add that in Cataclysm, it's worth learning how to DPS using either spec -- picking Frost for AoE-intensive fights and Unholy for single-target fights. Currently, Frost puts out impressive AoE damage. As far as DW or 2H is concerned, it seems reasonable to choose based on what gear you have and run some numbers -- obviously a 372 2h will outperform 346 DW.

Unholy:

The damage from unholy are (in order) pet attacks, scourge strike/festering strike, death coil, attacks, and diseases. Unholy is priority based -- refer to the EJ link below for details. Above all, make sure your pet is never dead and you're in unholy presence. Frost presence can be slightly better for AoE. Unholy benefits from +15% movement speed via Improved Unholy Presence.

Frost:

Frost is a great AoE spec, superior for DW, but does roughly 10% less dmg than Unholy for single target fights. Unlike Unholy, Frost doesn't use a pet and deals damage via (in order) Obliterate, Frost Strike, Melee, Howling Blast, and Diseases (HB and Diseases are almost equal). In AoE heavy fights, HB will roflstomp. Again, see EJ for rotations, bis gear, etc.

Tanking

Tanking on a DK is challenging. A DK tank is responsible for self-healing, maximizing blood shield, and utilizing every cooldown appropriately. DKs have substantially less armor compared to warriors which means they'll take more damage -- the upside is a DK can self-heal for more than the difference but this is easier said than done because Death Strike requires two different runes. The challenging part isn't self-healing -- the challenging part is that a Blood DK is a GCD-limited tank and the only instant abilities are Rune Tap, Vampiric Blood, Mind Freeze, IBF, AMS, Blood Tap, Empower Rune Weapon, and Taunts (DG/Dk Cmd); this is sort of half the story though -- while these abilities can be instant, only Vampiric Blood, AMS, and taunts are free. All other defensive abilities require runic power or a rune. This means if ERW and BT are on cooldown, you can end up locked out of everything but AMS and Vampiric blood for several (or even 8) seconds!

Gear / Gemming

As it stands, for mastery and survivability, blood DK have a HP soft cap of 137421; anything after that, mastery gems are better than stam gems (incl. chimera's eye). Technically, between 115471 and 137421hp, the +45 mastery gems are better than +60 stam gems. However, most gear will put a DK over 137k anyways.

At 137k, the Death Strike benefits of mastery and stam are 5 to 3. With Chimera stam/mastery gems being 101/60, this is 1:1 for chimera gems. As the DKs health pool increases, the benefit of mastery increases while stamina stays the same.

As it stands, these numbers are based on plate specialization + blood presence. Any buffs to stamina will increase the potency of mastery.

Obviously, you'll want more than 137k HP for raid bosses. In some cases you may get stunned while in other cases there is magic damage which blood shield doesn't mitigate. Last, keep in mind DKs have 10-20% less armor than other classes (bp is bugged and only gives 30% armor) and so they take more incoming damage to begin with.

(need more info on doge/parry)

Rotations

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Cooldowns

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Macros

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Healers Need-to-Know

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EJ Links

Death Knight Forums
Unholy DPS
Frost DPS

Hey everyone!  I know it's been some time since I've /wowquit.  I've got to say, I do miss it and everyone quite much but being a dirt poor college student means I don't have money for it. 

So, I've decided to change my career path from going to law school (since I'm not getting a scholarship and can't afford to go that much into debt) and I'm actually trying to break into the film business.  I actually do have a really great connection (he's a lead editor for big movies) who said he'd help me get my foot in the door.  Anyway, I'm trying to come up with some short film ideas.  I already have a couple, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a 10 min or so short?

Thanks.

I miss yall.