DPS For Dummies

[LichKing]

DPS For Dummies
Post made origionally by Prinsesa (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Echo+Isles&n=Prinsesa)at the officials

As a Death Knight, there are 4 key rules to DPS:

1. Always keep your two diseases up
2. Use your primary DPS strike as often as possible
3. Use your secondary DPS strike to get Death Runes, which feeds back into letting you use rule #2 more often
4. Use a runic dump once rules #2 and #3 fill out your runic power

Real-world application, on a spec-by-spec basis:

I. Blood spec

The spec: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqh0IsbRxzAZZfMhhhck

Plague Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49921) -> Icy Touch (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49909) -> Heart Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55262) 2x -> Obliterate (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51425) -> Death Coil (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49895) until RP is depleted -> Plague Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49921) -> Icy Touch (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49909) -> Heart Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55262) 4x -> Death Coil (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49895) until RP is depleted

Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

Heart Strike is your primary DPS strike, which fulfills rule #2

Obliterate converts its Unholy and Frost rune cost into Death runes via Death Rune Mastery, which you then use for more Heart Strikes, which fulfills rule #3

Your runic dump is Death Coil, which fulfills rule #4

II. Frost spec

The spec: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMVZGMxtIxdRhoVosx

Plague Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49921) -> Icy Touch (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49909) -> Blood Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49930) 2x -> Obliterate (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51425) -> Frost Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55268) until RP is depleted -> Plague Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49921) -> Icy Touch (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49909) -> Obliterate (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51425) 2x -> Frost Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55268) until RP is depleted

Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

Blood Strike converts its Blood rune cost into Death runes via Blood of the North, which you then use for more Obliterates, which fulfills rule #3

Obliterate is your primary DPS strike, which fulfills rune #2

Your runic dump is Frost Strike, which fulfills rule #4

In this case, rule #3 comes before rule #2 because Plague Strike and Icy Touch use an Unholy and Frost rune, respectively, which are the same runes needed by Obliterate. You use your secondary strike while you wait for the runes of your primary strike to come back.

If Rime is up and you are in the Frost Strike/Runic dump portion of your rotation, use a Howling Blast, since Rime makes it cost nothing

III. Unholy spec

The spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMVZZfMhhhckgcsMcsut

Plague Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49921) -> Icy Touch (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49909) -> Blood Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49930) 2x -> Scourge Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55271) -> Unholy Blight (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=51379) -> Scourge Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=55271) 3x -> Death Coil (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49895) until RP is depleted

Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

Blood Strike converts its Blood rune cost into Death runes via Reaping, which you then use for more Scourge Strikes, which fulfills rule #3

Scourge Strike is your primary DPS strike, which fulfills rule #2

Your runic dump is Death Coil, which fulfills rule #4

As with the Frost rotation, Plague Strike and Icy Touch share the same runes as your primary strike, necessitating that you use your secondary strike first while the runes spent on the disease setup gets regenerated.

IV. Dual-wield Tri-spec

The spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfV0VZG0ethxdRhoZfM0hxco

Plague Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49921) -> Icy Touch (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49909) -> Blood Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49930) -> Blood Strike (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49930) -> X -> Death Coil (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=49895) until RP is depleted

If Rime is up and you are in the X part of the rotation, use Howling Blast, since Rime makes it cost nothing. If Rime is not up, use Obliterate

Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

The tri-spec does not have any Death Rune talents, which is in violation of rule #3 However, Blood Strike is still used to consume Blood runes, which would otherwise just stay static.

Obliterate during Rime and Howling Blast otherwise is your primary DPS strike, while fulfills rule #2

Your runic dump is Death Coil, which fulfills rule #4

This is a different kind of spec, which leverages three key talents:

Blood-caked Blade, which generates extra 50% weapon strikes (with two diseases active) based on 30% of your auto-attacks
Killing Machine, which increases the crit chance of your next Howling Blast (or Icy Touch or Frost Strike) after an auto-attack crit.
Howling Blast, whose damage is independent of weapon damage, making it an ideal 'strike' for one-handed weapons.

The rest of the talents (Dark Conviction, Bladed Armor, Nerves of Cold Steel, Ravenous Dead, Necrosis and Shadow of Death) are all based around maximizing auto-atack damage.

You will want to use a slow main-hand coupled with a fast off-hand. This is because Blood-caked Blade's extra attacks will use the main-hand's damage, even if it was the off-hand that procced it.

============

Notes on leveling: Obliterate is a level 61 skill, which most of us will not have yet for a few days. In this case, use Death Strike in the meantime, since it has the same rune cost, preserving the rotation.

Also, for Frost specs, you can use Death Coil as your runic dump if you haven't specced deep enough into Frost Strike yet.

EDIT: I'd like to give credit to Illundai of the EJ forums, who did most of the write-ups on DK DPS. This is simply my attempt to convey the information in a simple manner, with emphasis on UNDERS

[tugun]

If you are plaguestrike glyphed, wouldnt it be smarter to go IT before PS for the bonus damage?

[Snazzy]

If you are plaguestrike glyphed, wouldnt it be smarter to go IT before PS for the bonus damage?

If you have the glyph, then yes. Although it seems that without it, it's not overly important which you cast first, unless you have the Glacier Rot talent, which increases the damage of IT on diseased targets.

[Toshi]

If you have Scourge Strike Glyph, its quite decent idea not to spam IT + PS in every mobs. I suggest doing ---> Blood strike ---> Scourge Strike ---> Blood Strike ---> Scourge strike ---> Death Coil ---> Scourge Strike ---> Death Coil. Unholy blight is necessary to keep up only when fighting multiple enemies, and Bone Shield to get a sweet 2% dmg bonus.

Also, when you manage to hit the mob with Scourge strike that inflicts both diseases, you do a Pestilience on the mob (If more than two mobs left) and keep pestilience-switching to upkeep diseases, this way you do not waste the Frost + Unholy runes you need for your lovely Scourge Strike to upkeep that damage you do.

Thanks.

[Larsus]

nice posts, thanks for the info. Does level matter on this or is it pretty universal?

[Cyrok]

Lich King: Can you update the links to the talent specs? I'm assuming they were based on before the patch 3.1.1 that came out and we can't get proper showing of the specs. Thanks. Cyrok

[eric4u2enjoy]

I think that instead of glyphing for scourge strike you should go for the pestilence glyph which when used it recharges your diseases. Even if you glyph for scourge strike there is still a 75% chance of doing reg damage (like 2.5k for me) which sucks in comparison to 6k damage. I just don't think its worth it.

[Oshoogun]

DPS For Dummies
Post made origionally by Prinsesa (http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Echo+Isles&n=Prinsesa)at the officials

As a Death Knight, there are 4 key rules to DPS:

1. Always keep your two diseases up
2. Use your primary DPS strike as often as possible
3. Use your secondary DPS strike to get Death Runes, which feeds back into letting you use rule #2 more often
4. Use a runic dump once rules #2 and #3 fill out your runic power

Real-world application, on a spec-by-spec basis:

I. Blood spec

The spec: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMqh0IsbRxzAZZfMhhhck



Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

Heart Strike is your primary DPS strike, which fulfills rule #2

Obliterate converts its Unholy and Frost rune cost into Death runes via Death Rune Mastery, which you then use for more Heart Strikes, which fulfills rule #3

Your runic dump is Death Coil, which fulfills rule #4

II. Frost spec

The spec: http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMVZGMxtIxdRhoVosx



Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

Blood Strike converts its Blood rune cost into Death runes via Blood of the North, which you then use for more Obliterates, which fulfills rule #3

Obliterate is your primary DPS strike, which fulfills rune #2

Your runic dump is Frost Strike, which fulfills rule #4

In this case, rule #3 comes before rule #2 because Plague Strike and Icy Touch use an Unholy and Frost rune, respectively, which are the same runes needed by Obliterate. You use your secondary strike while you wait for the runes of your primary strike to come back.

If Rime is up and you are in the Frost Strike/Runic dump portion of your rotation, use a Howling Blast, since Rime makes it cost nothing

III. Unholy spec

The spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMVZZfMhhhckgcsMcsut



Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

Blood Strike converts its Blood rune cost into Death runes via Reaping, which you then use for more Scourge Strikes, which fulfills rule #3

Scourge Strike is your primary DPS strike, which fulfills rule #2

Your runic dump is Death Coil, which fulfills rule #4

As with the Frost rotation, Plague Strike and Icy Touch share the same runes as your primary strike, necessitating that you use your secondary strike first while the runes spent on the disease setup gets regenerated.

IV. Dual-wield Tri-spec

The spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfV0VZG0ethxdRhoZfM0hxco



If Rime is up and you are in the X part of the rotation, use Howling Blast, since Rime makes it cost nothing. If Rime is not up, use Obliterate

Plague Strike and Icy Touch cast your diseases, which fulfills rule #1

The tri-spec does not have any Death Rune talents, which is in violation of rule #3 However, Blood Strike is still used to consume Blood runes, which would otherwise just stay static.

Obliterate during Rime and Howling Blast otherwise is your primary DPS strike, while fulfills rule #2

Your runic dump is Death Coil, which fulfills rule #4

This is a different kind of spec, which leverages three key talents:

Blood-caked Blade, which generates extra 50% weapon strikes (with two diseases active) based on 30% of your auto-attacks
Killing Machine, which increases the crit chance of your next Howling Blast (or Icy Touch or Frost Strike) after an auto-attack crit.
Howling Blast, whose damage is independent of weapon damage, making it an ideal 'strike' for one-handed weapons.

The rest of the talents (Dark Conviction, Bladed Armor, Nerves of Cold Steel, Ravenous Dead, Necrosis and Shadow of Death) are all based around maximizing auto-atack damage.

You will want to use a slow main-hand coupled with a fast off-hand. This is because Blood-caked Blade's extra attacks will use the main-hand's damage, even if it was the off-hand that procced it.

============

Notes on leveling: Obliterate is a level 61 skill, which most of us will not have yet for a few days. In this case, use Death Strike in the meantime, since it has the same rune cost, preserving the rotation.

Also, for Frost specs, you can use Death Coil as your runic dump if you haven't specced deep enough into Frost Strike yet.

EDIT: I'd like to give credit to Illundai of the EJ forums, who did most of the write-ups on DK DPS. This is simply my attempt to convey the information in a simple manner, with emphasis on UNDERS


First off Noone in any situation except leveling is going to be PlagueStriking before Icy Touch. In the moment an encounter begins ur approaching the boss Ranged Icy touch to PS Now ur unholy Rotation is horrible and wont produce anything remotely good on meters.

It-PS-SS-BS-BS-SS-SS-BT-SS-SS-SS

Also if ur unholy and u donot use Scourgestrike glyph Reroll.

Frost Rotation is also incredibad.

You will not be using PS in a frost frotation for DPS.

IT-HB-FS-OB-OB-FS and if ur not bad u have HB glyph so u dont need IT anymore either.

Id speak on blood but its a fail spec in general and will be out dpsed consistantly.


I think that instead of glyphing for scourge strike you should go for the pestilence glyph which when used it recharges your diseases. Even if you glyph for scourge strike there is still a 75% chance of doing reg damage (like 2.5k for me) which sucks in comparison to 6k damage. I just don't think its worth it.

WTF r u talkign about? Once you have applied your disease SS glyph will not let your disease's go down. 1/4 SS will refresh your disease's on the target. 2.5k regular damage...are you level 75 or something? 4k regular damage 9k crits at level 80 w/ 3400ap. In a proper build and rotation you will easily get 4 SS off in a row allowing you to def refresh your Disease's.

your glyphs should be

Glyph of SS

Glyph of The Ghoul

Glyph of Dark Death

[Saria]

Hai guys new to the forums just had a dps question do i need a level 80 weapon to make my dps better? if not how can i work on my dps

[LichKing]

The fastest way is to buy a titansteel destroyer (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41257). But they are expensive and you will replace it very fast once you start running TOC. If gold is not an issue, buy the destroyer. Another option is to run some heroic instances, or regular trial of the champion instance. Just look for people making "regular toc" groups. You will get alot of good gear there. See the guide here: http://deathknightarmy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154

[Saria]

Sweet thanks!

[Saria]

Where can i buy a titansteel destroyer at?

[Brahma]

With the spec I am running that has talents to buff my deathstrike I am doing more damage more often then I am with Oblitterate. Just somthing to think about. my deathstrike will crit for around 3500-4500 frequently. I am lucky to see a crit for 2500-3000 with oblit and less frequently. Not sure why this is but it is. I have tested on different mobs and dummies and always get the same result. The build I am using is the build from "Blood is the power" thread. I also just ran a bunch of BGs and I was topping out total dmg and DPS over everyone else. DKs rule!!!

[Titanrage]

Where can i buy a titansteel destroyer at?

You can't just buy the Titansteel Destroyer, unless you have more than 1k gold to spare. And crafting it will take several days because the spell to Smelt Titansteel is on a 20 hr Cooldown.

[LichKing]

You can't just buy the Titansteel Destroyer, unless you have more than 1k gold to spare. And crafting it will take several days because the spell to Smelt Titansteel is on a 20 hr Cooldown.

Like titan said, you can buy it if you have about 1000g. Either from the AH or from a blacksmith. If you get the materials and have a BS craft it this is usually cheaper.

[Titanrage]

Like titan said, you can buy it if you have about 1000g. Either from the AH or from a blacksmith. If you get the materials and have a BS craft it this is usually cheaper.

Ya...i was under the assumption you could smelt titansteel as much as you wanted, had no idea about the cooldown until one of my Miner friends told me lol.

just to be helpful Saria, ill list the mats for ya:

8 Saronite Bars (8 Saronite Ore)
8 Titansteel Bars ( 24 Titanium bars, 8 Eternal Fire, 8 Eternal Earth, and 8 Eternal Shadow)
2 Frozen Orbs

The Orbs and Saronite is probably the easiest to acquire.

[klmn964]

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