Death Knight DK Tanking Guide/FAQ - 4.0.1/Cataclysm (CATA) by Lichloathe (WoW Forums)

Great tanking guide I stumbled upon on WoW Forums. It help me level my Death Knight while I was tanking using the random dungeon finder tool because of the less an a second queue time for tanks. Thank you Lichloathe for this great DK Death Knight Tanking Guide which is also updated for Cata Cataclysm!

HI! This post assumes a basic understanding of how things work with the changes in Cataclysm. If you need an explanation of how the new Rune system works, what Runic Empowerment is, how Mastery works, or how Blood Shield works, this is not the place to find it.

The place to find those answers is by reading tooltips. Blizzard makes their in-game explanations of things relatively clear in most cases. Use Wowhead. It is your friend and has a lot of valuable information. Your best skill as a tank is being able to find and figure out information on your own.

What you will find in this thread are answers to questions that are not already answered by reading tooltips - the "How do I play" questions.
Posts in this FAQ:
1) How do I spec to tank?
2) Should I dual-wield or use a two-hander?
3) What Glyphs do I want?
4) What is my single target rotation?
5) What is my AoE rotation?
6) Do I still want to have 100% Disease uptime?
7) How do I gem, enchant and Reforge?
8) Why don't I want to Dual Wield anymore?

Also, here's a plug for my sim.
http://bloodsim.codeplex.com
It's very accurate and can give you a pretty good idea of what's going on, as well as what happens when you change stuff. I'm also updating it fairly regularly with more and more options. It has been instrumental in identifying a number of issues that arose during the Beta and I encourage you to check it out.

1) How do I spec to tank?

In Cataclysm, Blizzard has been kind enough to provide us with a single tree that is dedicated to tanking - Blood. That is what you will be picking and liking. There have been a number of changes, some good and some silly, but that's where we're at right now. That said, this is your Level 80 tanking spec:

http://cata.wowhead.com/talent#jcGr0sMruszZMh

Alternatively, if you decide to go Diseaseless (which really is the best option):
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#jcGr0sMrusdZc:zRosRkMVc
Crimson Scourge because there really are no better options until we get to 85 and also gain Outbreak.

And this is your Level 85 tanking spec:
http://wowtal.com/#k=Yf2phMc6.a8t.deathknight.

Contrary to Blizzard's design intentions for Cataclysm, I am not going to be telling you - "This is the base cookie cutter spec, and there are some points left over that you can put where you want." While that was their goal, the reality didn't turn out that way. At 80, this is what your talents should look like and there really is no wiggle room. At 85, you have 1 talent point left that can go anywhere without it being likely that you will notice a difference. I'd probably drop it in Crimson Scourge because, sure, why not.

There are a number of talents that are unused where you could, theoretically, put points in, but most of them are redundant or just downright bad.

Redundant:
Abomination's Might - DPS classes can and will bring this and they do it better. The 2% Strength bonus that is not redundant is not worth the points you will spend on it.

Bad:
Hand of Doom - lol.

Blood-Caked Blade - Has a value of less than 0.5% overall damage increase per talent point. Not worth it.

3 Point Scent of Blood - Has stacking issues. You will hit 3 stacks, and it will proc, and any extra stacks will go to waste. 2 points is better and less likely to cause this problem.

Crimson Scourge - Thanks to Outbreak and Epidemic, you will be reapplying Blood Plague with Plague Strike only once every minute (if you even are). This devalues the "utility" portion of this talent quite a bit. The 20/40% damage increase to Blood Boil is also less than desirable because Blood Boil just doesn't do a lot of damage. With Heart Strike hitting 3 targets now, in any situation where there are 3 or fewer targets, Heart Strike always wins for threat and damage.

Runic Power Mastery - You will never pool enough Runic Power as a tank to make use of this talent.

Icy Reach - You will never be casting Icy Touch (the only one of the three spells it affects that you use as a tank) from far enough away (or probably at all) that this talent will matter.

Nerves of Cold Steel - DW tanking is no longer viable. It is possible but below 2H in almost every possible way. More information further down.

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Death Knight Solo Raid Guide by Symphonia (WoW Forums)

This is a great guide by Symphonia that I found in WoW Forums. It teaches you how to solo raid dungeons with your Death Knight. Great thing about it is that it gives you an avg item level you need to complete that raid dungeon on your own! I got ZG Zul Gurub and MC Molten Core but you can find the rest in the link below. Enjoy!

I'd just like to throw it out there that if anyone wants to add me to RealID, just send me an in-game mail with your contact info and I'll gladly add you!

My Blog: http://wooticus.theccz.net/blog/
Our own forums coming soon maybe!

Section 1 – Zul’Gurub
Suggested Item Level Average: 175

High Priest Venoxis
Venoxis, and the majority of the priests to follow are very simple encounters, so I’ll keep them brief. Killing Venoxis removes Hakkar’s poison ability.

High Priestess Jeklik
Make sure you interrupt Jeklik’s heal when she switches to human form. Killing Jeklik removes Hakkar’s silence ability.

High Priestess Mar’li
It’s a good idea to kill the trash before engaging Mar’li, so that you don’t get stunned to death if they pull mid-fight. Killing Mar’li removes Hakkar’s stun ability.

High Priest Thekal
The only involved encounter of five priests, make sure you remember to interrupt Zealot Lor’Khan's heals. To make this easier, set your focus on her and use this macro:
/cast [target=focus] Mind Freeze
Her heal is rather slow, so this is hardly necessary. Killing Thekal removes Hakkar’s frenzy ability.

High Priestess Arlokk
In order to solo Hakkar, you must kill Arlokk to remove Hakkar’s gouge ability. If you do not, Hakkar will reset when he uses gouge on you.

Hakkar the Soulflayer
Hakkar is a very simple encounter as long as you meet a few exceptions. You must kill High Priestess Panther to remove Hakkar’s gouge ability which will cause him to reset and you must make sure you have no minions, including Bloodworms. If you do, Hakkar will Mind Control you, and then the two of you will likely slaughter any minions, causing Hakkar to reset. Otherwise, the encounter is very easy. If you find yourself unable to defeat Hakkar before he enrages, kill more priests until he is weak enough to defeat. I’d suggest killing at least three out of five.

Bloodlord Mandokir
The Bloodlord will be a fairly long fight, yet fairly easy. You should definitely kill his raptor first, and hopefully it drops for you. If you’re a minimalist when it comes to clearing trash, fight him at the base of the stairs and you should never be feared into any trash groups.

Gahz’ranka
I’m not sure when I’ll take the time to summon him, but you shouldn’t have to do much more than stay in the water while fighting him.

Jin’do the Hexxer
Jin'do is an interesting little encounter. He'll mind control you with a totem, but rather than instantly reset, he'll dance around for a bit, giving you just enough time to pull him again. Make sure you refresh your diseases when he does.

Section 2 – Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj(AQ20)
Suggested Item Level Average: 187

Kurinnaxx
Kurinnaxx is a pretty simple boss. You should constantly be moving to avoid his hit reduction sand bubbles. He progressively reduces your healing received by 10% up to 100%, but it does not refresh at this point, and will wear off. Once it does, it’s a good time to heal if you need it. Towards the end when he enrages, it’s not a bad idea to use Icebound Fortitude if you have 80% or more reduced healing.

General Rajaxx
The waves that come during the event are rather boring, and can be killed easily. Rajaxx himself is also very boring, with the exception of his Thundercrash dealing 50% of your current (not max) health. Because of this ability, there’s not much point in keeping your health very high, just enough to recover from Thunderclash without dying to his regular attacks. Remember to compensate for the extra damage when he enrages, and he’ll be dead soon afterwards.

Moam
The most important thing to do before engaging Moam is make sure no Hungering Flesh are in the area. If you pull one, make sure you kill it from range. If it eats you, it will very easily kill you. Moam himself is another easy encounter. When he summons his minions, his damage output increases a bit, but if you kill them quickly, they won’t be much of an issue. Save Anti-Magic Shell for when they spawn to be safe. I only had him spawn them twice, but if you’re slower, he may get to a third time.

Buru the Gorger
Buru is a fun little fight that is very easy if done the proper way. Simply choose an egg and start damaging it, then break it once Buru is in melee range and then begin kiting him to the next egg, using the eggs and the ads to heal yourself. Once all the eggs are destroyed, you'll have about a twenty second window in which you'll have to kite him with no way to slow him again, but it shouldn't be too stressful. After about two circles or so of eggs, his shell explodes, and you can engage him at melee range now and finish him easily.

Ayamiss the Hunter
Unless you're aiming for completion, I would suggest skipping Ayamiss. You must bring down the first 30% of her health with ranged attacks. Using a build with Improved Icy Touch, Icy Reach, and Black Ice makes this a much more manageable encounter. Once Poison Stinger stacks up to about 20, run away from Ayamiss until you out-range it then run back. Once Ayamiss lands, this fight becomes incredibly simple. Make sure you do not use any guardians at any point, as this will cause Ayamiss to sacrifice you.

Ossirian the Unscarred
A note about Ossirian’s trash is that they cast Meteor, which hits you for about 12,000. Ossirian himself is pretty easy. If gear allows it, you can tank him even with the 300% damage. If not, then make good note of where the pillars are.

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Useful Death Knight Macros by Element (WoW Forums)

Here are a few I copied from some topics in the beta forums, these are NOT mine I simply copied them from beta forums to here so you can see/use them. Feel free to bump/add to this topic as needed.

Report for Sticky Post if you other future Death Knights wish to!



-Casts the following spells in a sequence, resets on end or you go over 10 seconds without clicking the macro.-
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=10 Pestilence, Blood Boil, Blood Boil

-Easy pet heal-
/cast [target=pet] Death Coil

-Death Grip your target and taunt it-
/cast Death Grip
/cast Dark Command

-Death pact your ghoul, while not loseing your current target, maximizing your dps-
/cast [target=pet,exists] Death Pact

-One button and you get a BIG rune tap-
/cast Vampiric Blood
/cast Rune Tap

-Solo fighitng as frost spec, easy rinse a repeat macro, spam it and it goes threw the spells-
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=target/dead Icy Touch, Plague Strike, blood strike, blood strike

-Solo fighting as frost spec, easy rinse a repeat macro, spam it and it goes threw the spells-
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=dead/target Icy Touch, Plague Strike, obliterate, blood strike, blood strike, frost strike

-Makes y our target your focus, and every time you cast Hysteria it will cast Hysteria on him, If he is dead, it won't work, Plus won't auto cast it on your self.-
#showtooltip
/cast [target=focus, help, nodead] Hysteria

-Basically, makes clicking on the icon cast DC on your target, alt+clicking cast it on your ghoul.-
#showtooltip Death Coil
/cast [nomodifier] Death Coil; [modifier:alt,target=pet] Death Coil

-Will cast Strangulate the mob your mouse is hovering over, without changing your current target. Useful for getting stray caster mobs to run to you/the tank/the AoE. -
/cast [target=mouseover] Strangulate

Rotation for unholy DK's single target dps best cast sequence
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=nocombat Icy Touch(Rank 5), Plague Strike(Rank 6), Blood Strike(Rank 6), Blood Strike(Rank 6), Scourge Strike(Rank 4), Unholy Blight(Rank 4),

Attack Macros:
Change Blood Strike to whatever attack you are using. If Rune Strike and Blood Tap are not up, the error messages are suppressed.

#showtooltip Blood Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE")
/cast Rune Strike
/cast Blood Tap
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE")
/cast Blood Strike

Death Knight DK DPS Guide by Kaeladin (Version 4.0.1) (WoW Forums)

This is the Death Knight DK Guide I used to maximize my DPS for End Game Raiding! Thanks to Kaeladin of Kirin Tor for this very informative post!

All the information on this guide has been updated as of patch 4.0.1. PLEASE be aware that for people who have never touched a DK before, much of what I have written won't make complete sense until you've gotten some experience with the class.

Also please be aware that this looks at DK's at the high-end (Experienced level 80 working on raid content) of DK performance. This will not be the absolute end-all when it comes to maximizing DPS in every single situation, but it has worked and I am confident in its reliability and applicability. This information is a composite of personal experiences, collaboration with other experienced DK's, extensive reading and learning from various other DK communities (Such as EJ), and so on. I would HIGHLY recommend that you feel free to experiment and try out each talent for yourself before you come back to this guide; try to make sense of the information I present from the perspective that you gain, NOT from what I simply tell you. You only get a new class once.

Cheers,
Khaeladin of Kirin Tor (Level 80 DK)

Maximum DK DPS Guide - By Khaeladin

We stand on the precipice of Cataclysm. In a short period of time, the world as we know it will forever change. We will be saying farewell to many of the old areas, quests, and instances as we remembered them, and exploring the exciting new transformations of our landscape, cities, and more.

However in regards to the DK class, said transformations have happened a few months earlier than the release of the new expansion. Blood is now a tanking tree, frost retains its dual-wield dominance but also re-introduces its long estranged 2-hander cousin, and unholy earns an even uglier pet (On cooldown). Runic empowerment adds a random factor to our core rune resource system, and iur rune system has changed as well. In most cases DPS'ing as a DK will require greater attention and effort than before to perform extremely well.

With that said, the DK is a very complicated class to master. There are several mechanics at work that make this class so.

1) It is a melee class. Generally speaking, it is more dangerous and harder on positioning for melee classes than for ranged classes. There are certainly some exceptions to this, but one cannot deny that there are more melee unfriendly fights than there are ranged unfriendly fights.

2) The class runs on two resource systems as opposed to one. Runic power's (RP) closest equivalent is rage, but even that is a limited comparison (RP is only generated from using rune moves, and does not generate from being hit or hitting something with auto-attacks). The rune system is somewhat similar to energy, except it is much more stringent and restrictive in terms of what you can use runes for (Death runes help to mitigate this a bit) and the only way to refresh runes outside of their natural cooldown is through the somewhat unpredictable Runic Empowerment.. This can be very attention-demanding for some players, especially also given the need to watch for melee dangers/repositioning.

3) The class also makes usage of damage-over-time (DoT's) diseases. These days, early refreshing on DoT's is fairly commonplace (Early meaning when it has about 1 - 3 seconds left), but maximizing the amount of time you spend to use your non-disease moves still remains an important practice for most DPS specs. For some specs, the DPS sequences come down to some fairly tight constraints in terms of global cooldowns (GCD's).

4) The class makes use of arguably the most instant-attacks in the whole game in order to do the majority of its DPS. There are many decisions you make on a micro-level that are small at the moment, but overtime these decisions will ultimately decide just how much extra output you are squeezing out through your skill priorities. This is a class where attention to detail makes a big difference.

Add to this some powerful defensive cooldowns (Anti-magic shell, icebound fortitude) that can make or break someone's survival, and a short cooldown interrupt (Mind freeze) and useful situational tools (Death grip and strangulate), and you've got the makings of a phenomenal class.

Without further ado, let's get to the meat of what I hope will interest you. Please note this is primarily for the purposes of raiding and running instances, and I hope that the information here will prove to be of assistance in understanding and enjoying this great class.

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The Death Knight FAQ 4.0 Cata by Elixir (WoW Forums)

This is a very good Death Knight FAQ by Elixir of Barthila at WoW Forums. This post helped me answer a lot of general questions while I was leveling my Death Knight.

---------
FOREWORD- <3.9> Cataclysm Update
This post has all the basic class information you'll need to start a DK in the post cataclysmic world, including specific information about early specializations, and the new races.

For specialized views into late game DPS/Tanking/Gearing/etc, Be sure to check out the other stickies on this forum maintained by competent DKs like Kailee and Ashes.
---------

This is an original work (Except for Ghoulgrims list of terminologies... because its awesome)

In this FAQ I will be covering the following areas:

1: The restrictions and such

2: General Information on the Death Knight and about the Start of a Death Knight

3: Play style of A DK

4: Death Knight Specializations and Masteries

5: Ghoulgrim's list of DK Terminologies

updated

6: Questions from the Community

Here we go.

1: The restrictions and such

1a) I bought Cataclysm, and I cant make a Death Knight?!

As the Death Knight is WoW’s first Hero Class that begins at a high level, there is a level restriction in place to prevent newcomers to the game from missing out on all that Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor quest wisdom. You must have a level 55 or over character somewhere on your account to create a Death Knight. This level is set at 55 due to the Death Knight also starting at 55. As Cataclysm is the last expansion in a series of expansions, and the Death Knight was introduced in Wrath of the Lich King, make sure you have a valid Wrath of the Lich King or Cataclysm Level account (checkable under account management).

1b) Awesome, I’m just gonna go roll 9 Death Knight Alts

You’re welcome to, however I hope you don’t mean on the same realm. There is a restriction on Death Knight creation to 1 per realm. PVP realm rules no longer apply. You can make a Horde DK even if your chars are allied.

1c) What happens to my 55+ character?!

Nothing. You don’t sacrifice it, it doesn’t become your Death Knight, it doesn’t wave at your Death Knight in a dark alley, etc etc. The Death Knight is created at the character select screen, just like everyone else.

1c-2) What happens if I create a DK with a 55+ char, then delete that char with no other 55+s on my account?

Nothing. As long as you have a 55+ on creation, your DK will not be affected should you delete all other 55+s.

1d) Role Play Support?

I'm not a role player, but I can only assume that Role Play rules will still be heavily enforced on Role Play servers. They have strict naming rules too, so don't go namin' your DK Blaumeux or Rivendare :P

1e) So, race restrictions?

All Races can be Death Knights, Including the Cataclysm races of Goblin and Worgen. NB: If you create a Worgen or Goblin Death Knight you will proceed to do the Death Knight starting area, not Gilneas or Kezan. As such you will be ineligible for realm first of your race

2: General Information on the Death Knight and about the Start of a Death Knight

2a) So, What level does the death knight start as and why is it so?

The Death Knight starts at level 55. This is due to it being classed as a “Hero Class”. As former heroes of the Alliance or Horde, these corrupted beings have now been raised after death to continue servitude to the Lich King. This does mean when you first create you Death Knight, you’re not officially part of the Alliance or Horde, but part of the Scourge. As seasoned veterans of both life and death, it is believed that running around Goldshire being owned by Defias Bandits is a little below their calibre.

2a.5) I have to go and get my flight paths again?

You are given every flight point in Eastern Kingdoms except Zul'Aman for some reason. You are given all of them in Kalimdor. As for Outland and Northrend, you're on your own.

2b) 55?! What about all my talents?!

Upon first creation of a DK, you will have 0 talents. As you progress through the Death Knight only chain, you will get talent points as quest rewards. 1-3 talents a quest. Respecs until you leave the instanced area, are free.

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Cataclysm Death Knight Changes (Bliz Post)

Get ready for Cataclysm! These are the supposed changes that are going to affect the Death Knight in 4.0 and Cata. Thx to Blizzard for the heads up!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will bring with it several changes to class talents and abilities. In this preview, you'll get a glimpse at some of the new abilities, spells, and talents in store for the death knight class, along with an early look at some improvements we plan to make to the rune resource system.

New Death Knight Abilities

Outbreak (level 81): Outbreak infects the target with both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at no rune cost. This ability allows death knights to apply diseases quickly when they are switching targets or when their diseases have been dispelled.

Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike -- the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health.

This ability is meant to bring back some of the old flavor from when death knights could dispel heal-over-time (HoT) effects. It also gives the class a bit more PvP utility without simply replicating a Mortal Strike-style effect.

Dark Simulacrum (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent's next spell cast and unleash it. Unlike Spell Reflection, Dark Simulacrum does not cancel the incoming spell. In general, if you can't reflect an ability, you won't be able to copy it either.

Rune System Changes

While we're satisfied with the way the rune system works overall, we're making a few major changes to the mechanics that will ultimately help death knight players feel less constrained. Here's the rationale behind the changes, followed by an explanation of how the new system will work.

• In the current rune system, any time a rune is sitting idle, death knights are losing out on potential damage output. By comparison, rogues spend most of their time at low energy levels, and if they're unable to use their skills for a few seconds, that energy builds up and can be spent later, minimizing the net loss from the interruption.
  
  
• A death knight's runes, on the other hand, cannot be used until they are fully active. If a death knight ever goes more than a few seconds without spending an available rune, that resource is essentially wasted. Because the death knight is pushing buttons constantly, it can be difficult to add new mechanics to the class because the player doesn't have any free global cooldowns to use them. We can't grant extra resources or reduced cost, because there is no time to spend them. Missing an attack is devastating, and it's impossible to save resources for when they're most useful.
  
  
• Additionally, each individual death knight ability has a fairly low impact on its own, making it feel like most of the death knight's attacks are weak. The death knight's rotations are also more easily affected by latency or a player's timing being just a little off. At times, it feels like death knights aren't able to take advantage of their unique resource mechanic, which can diminish the fun.
  
  
• The new rune system will change how runes regenerate, from filling simultaneously to filling sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. Essentially, you have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. (Haste will cause runes to fill faster.) Another way to think of this is having three runes that go up to 200% each (allowing extra "storage"), rather than six runes that go up to 100% each.
  
  
• As this is a major change to the death knight's mechanics, it will of course require us to retune many of the class's current abilities. For example, each ability needs to hit harder or otherwise be more meaningful since the death knight is getting fewer resources per unit of time. Some abilities will need to have their costs reduced as a result.

Talent Changes

Next we'll outline some of the death knight talent-tree changes we're planning in Cataclysm. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it should give you a sense of how we're intending each death knight spec to perform.

• One of the biggest changes we're making is converting Blood into a dedicated tanking tree. While we feel that having three tanking trees was successful overall, it's less necessary in a world with dual-specialization. In addition, the current breakdown isn't as compatible with the Mastery-based passive talent-tree bonuses we want to add (see below). We'd rather spend time tweaking and balancing one good tanking tree rather than having a tank always wondering if they picked the "correct" tree out of three possibilities.
  
  
• Blood seemed like the best fit for tanking. Unholy has always had a strong niche with diseases, magic, and command over pets. Frost now feels like a solid dual-wield tree with Frost magic damage and decent crowd control. Blood's niche was self-healing -- fitting for a tank -- as well as strong weapon swings, which could easily be migrated to Frost and Unholy.
  
  
• Our plan is to move the most interesting and fun tanking talents and abilities to Blood. For example, you will likely see Vampiric Blood and Will of the Necropolis remain, while Bone Shield will move over from Unholy.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Blood
Damage reduction
Vengeance
Healing Absorption

Frost
Melee damage
Melee Haste
Runic Power Generation

Unholy
Melee damage
Melee and spell critical damage
Disease Damage

Healing Absorption: When you heal yourself, you'll receive an additional effect that absorbs incoming damage.

Runic Power Generation: This will function as the name implies, and the new rune system will make generating Runic Power more appealing.

Disease Damage: Unholy death knights will be able to get more out of their diseases, which are integral to the tree's play style.

Vengeance: This new mechanic is designed to ensure that tank damage output (and therefore threat) doesn't fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will grant a stacking Attack Power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character's unbuffed health. For boss encounters, we expect that tanks will always have an Attack Power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Blood tree; these values will be smaller at lower levels.

You only get the Vengeance bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Blood tree, so you won't see Frost or Unholy death knights running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to design tank gear more or less the way we do today; there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so their Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but the goal is that all four tanks will do about the same damage when tanking.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.


Cataclysm Stat & System Changes: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1

Mastery System Preview: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23710210871&sid=1

The Death Knight Leveling Compendium by Gromna of Thunderhorn (WoW Forums)

This is the one of the posts on WoW Forums that helped me level my Deathknight fast in World of Warcraft (WoW) and answered most of my questions. Please Thank Gromna for his excellent work!

*Disclaimer* This guide was written prior to cross realm looking for group. As such, the builds are optimized for an old world style leveling grind which consisted mostly of doing non-instance quests solo, with an occasional instance mixed in. If you are going to be leveling mainly through instances using the x-realm LFG system many things in the FAQ (and strength/weakness portion) still apply but the builds contained within are NOT optimized for instance DPS or tanking. In that case, if you're DPS please see Kailee's thread. Pick the talents in the primary tree (I.E. blood or unholy) first and then do the secondary tree. If you're going to be tanking, please see post 31 on page 2 in this thread for a 2h frost tank leveling build. Post 86 is a dual wield frost tank leveling build.

Introduction

So you’ve decided to click on that enter world button with a DK. If so one of the first questions on your mind will probably be where to allocate your talent points. I’ve had the misfortune of picking a race that I wasn’t really happy with once I reached end game (pre-race change service) on my DK so I’ve actually had to level 2 of them. I leveled my first Death Knight as blood based on the recommendation of a friend. My second one I leveled unholy after doing a little research on the forums. The purpose of this guide is to pass on to you my observations and recommendations for leveling your new Death Knight.

FAQ

Which spec is the best?

This is a very subjective question. Each of the three different trees has strengths and weaknesses. The goal of this guide is to outline these as adequately as possible so you can make an informed choice. You will never, ever, ever get a majority consensus by asking a bunch of Death Knights what the best way to level is.

They’ll all tell you the way they leveled was the best. In other words, you’re going to have to make at least some decisions for your self and possibly experiment a little. Also, keep in mind that since Death Knights start off at 55 with only 1 gold respec fees if you choose a style and it doesn’t suit you then you can come back to this guide and try another.

"Best", much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

I want to tank instances while I level. Should I use tanking talents in my leveling build?

See the disclaimer. The answer to this depends on how frequently you plan on doing instances. If you plan on tanking a lot of instances you should use both a dedicated tank spec and gear. If you plan on leveling mostly solo, running the occasional instance just to get a quest done, or if someone just whispers you asking if you'll tank it's definitely doable with a DPS spec and gear. Just make sure you are level appropriate (within one level of the last boss is ideal) before accepting. Never tank when you're 4 or more levels below any mob in the instance. You'll be taking crushing blows.

Runeforging, which one should I use?

Prior to level 70 the two most common runeforges are razorice and cinderglacier. Which one you want to use depends on if you are dual wield leveling or using a 2 hander. Generally speaking cinderglacier is the better 2 hand enchant and razorice is the better 1 hand enchant. If dual wielding, feel free to put cinder on 1 blade and razorice on the other. Once you hit level 70 Fallen Crusader is the only enchant you want for your 2 hander. For dual wielders you put fallen crusader on your main hand either razorice or cinderclacier on your off hand.

What about BOA armor?

No reason not to use them.

What kind of weapons do I want?

All builds look for weapons with high top end damage. If you look at any weapons in the game all have a number range. For instance a dagger might have a range of 150-250 while a 1 handed sword might have a range of 275-450 and a 2 hander might have a range of 500-750. Any time you perform a death knight strike like frost or scourge strike the game engine uses this number to determine how much damage the strike will do. So, if comparing a weapon that does 250-300 damage to a weapon that does 275-400 damage a swing the latter has better "top end" and is the better choice for the Death Knight. Pay close attention to this when selecting weapons. It’s easy to pick a weapon with the higher raw DPS (a higher swing speed makes up for the lower range) and think that it’s an upgrade when in reality you’re hitting weaker. This rule is the same whether you are using 2 handers or dual wielding.

What about the BOA weapon/s? I tried runeforging it and it won’t work!

Sadly no, you can not runeforge any BOA weapons. However, this does not mean you shouldn’t use them. In general the BOA weapons raw damage and passive stats are far better than anything you’ll get while leveling. In other words even an un-enchanted BOA weapon will out perform most runeforged weapons that you will get.

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WoW Dailies Guide for Professions

Leveling professions in World of Warcraft is very time consuming, but it is a necessary part of the game. It’s impossible to make any WoW gold without having any professions, and an important part of leveling your professions is running the WoW daily quests. However, it can be very difficult sorting out exactly what you need to do in order to level your professions, especially when you reach the higher levels. This is where the WoW dailies guide for professions comes in. Whether you’re farming for gold, profession skills, or reputation, a good WoW dailies guide is a must-have tool for any serious World of Warcraft player.

How They Work

There are plenty of great WoW dailies guides available, like Dugi’s Dailies and Events Guide. Most of them provide a lot of very helpful information, but some of them just aren’t as complete as others. You also have to take into account the fact that some of them are in-game guides, while others will require you to either print out the guide or have it running in the background so you can flip back and forth while you play WoW.

WoW dailies guides generally include all the information you need about every daily in the game, and they provide plenty of information about all the daily quests you need for certain professions. For example, jewel crafters will need to complete their daily quests for jewel crafting in order to keep making gems to sell, even after they reach level 450 of their jewel crafting profession.

Seasonal Daily Quests

Another important part of a good WoW dailies guide is the seasonal daily quests. The seasonal dailies are a great way to earn more WoW gold and a lot of experience while you’re leveling. They’re very easy, and usually the amount of experience earned from the seasonal quests is a lot. Seasonal quests are also a great way to break up some of the monotony involved in the daily quest grind.

A Real Time Saver

Using a WoW dailies guide will also save you a lot of time. Dugi’s Dailies and Events Guides are organized according to both reputation and zone, so you won’t spend valuable time trying to figure out which daily quests you need to do each day. A WoW dailies guide will help you understand which daily quests you should be doing, depending on which faction you need the reputation with.

The Prerequisite Quests are Covered

Most daily quests do have some prerequisite quests you will need to complete before you can become eligible for the daily quests. You will need to follow the WoW dailies guide to make sure you complete all of the prerequisites you need. Otherwise it is just too easy to wander around the game while you try to figure out what you need to do to unlock the dailies. This means you are covered for daily quests, even before you begin working on a regular daily routine.

The Perfect WoW Dailies Guide

There are so many aspects to World of Warcraft that following all of them can be a bit dizzying. One of the parts of the game that many players fail to reap all the benefits from is the daily quests. There are several reasons players may choose to complete dailies. The two most common reasons are to earn reputation and as a stable source of WoW gold, but there are also some professions that require daily quests also. Let’s take a look at how a good WoW dailies guide like Dugi’s Dailies and Events Guide can help out.

WoW Dailies Guide for Reputation

There is one major reason you may want to earn reputation with the various factions throughout World of Warcraft. Having reputation with these factions allows you to purchase various helpful items like enchantments for your gear, recipes for your professions, and even special mounts. The reputation system is set up in several stages. Hated is the lowest level of reputation, and in many cases you may have to complete some prerequisite quests with the factions just so you can attain friendly status. Once you are friendly, then you can begin working your reputation up through the ranks of honored, revered, and exalted. Exalted is the highest level, and it gives you access to the best of the best items that faction has to offer. For many classes, the only way to get enchantments for certain pieces of gear is to farm reputation with a particular faction.

Gold Farming through a WoW Dailies Guide

Another way a good WoW dailies guide will help is with gold farming. Using daily quests to farm for gold takes all the guesswork and risk out of how much WoW gold you will make. Many daily quests earn you 13 to 20 gold, and they are a valuable way of making gold in the game. The one problem with gold farming through dailies is the fact that they tend to be scattered all over Northrend. Also there are plenty of daily quests that only pay out 6 gold, so you want to make sure you’re completing the 25 dailies that earn you the most gold. Otherwise, it just isn’t worth your time to be farming 6 gold per quest. A WoW dailies guide will show you which daily quests earn you the most gold and where to find them.

Profession Dailies

Daily quests are also very important for some professions. For example, jewel crafters will have to do a daily quest each day to keep earning patterns and recipes for new gems. These dailies will need to be completed each day, even after the jewel crafting profession has reached level 450. Any gems you create can then be sold for even more gold on the auction house. However, remember that the auction house is one of the riskiest ways to make gold, so you may want to research your server’s auction house first to see which items are selling for the most gold.

The Complete Dailies Guide

Farming for gold on World of Warcraft has never been an exact science. Sure, there are plenty of tips and techniques to making gold, but most of them involve using the auction house or mindless grinding on creatures and in instances. The problem with all of those techniques is that the amount of WoW gold you will earn is never guaranteed. Every time you farm or sell things on the auction house, you’re taking a gamble on how much WoW gold you will earn, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a guaranteed amount of gold every time?

Benefits of a Good Dailies Guide

This is where a good dailies guide comes in. Running your daily quests is the only way you can be sure of exactly how much gold you’re bringing in. A good dailies guide like Dugi’s Dailies and Events Guide will take you through all of the Northrend dailies, including the Argent Tournament Ground and a full listing of all the daily prerequisite quests. No gold gambling required!

A dailies guide is an important part for any WoW gamer who wants to make sure he earns at least a set amount of gold per day. Dugi’s Dailies and Events Guide even gives you a complete listing of all the speed gold runs. It’s basically a complete guide to completing all the daily gold quests as quickly as possible. After all, no one wants to spend all day farming for gold, so following a dailies guide will keep you on track and earning a set amount of WoW gold as quickly as you possibly can.

The Basic Technique for a Dailies Guide

Each of your characters is allowed to do 25 daily quests per day, so you will have to pick and choose which quests you complete. However, a dailies guide makes it very easy to select the quests that will earn you the most WoW gold in the shortest amount of time. Once you’ve completed a few days using a dailies guide, you’ll begin to get into a regular routine. You’ll know your daily circuit by heart and no longer have to keep looking it up in your guide. Once you get used to doing your daily quests each and every day, you’ll start to realize that you can complete all 25 daily quests in just two hours.

All the Extras

As if guaranteed gold wasn’t enough, there are plenty of extras that go along with daily quest guides. Many of these guides include reputation guides to help you build up your reputation with various factions. Better reputation can earn you access to special rewards from these factions, and you will be able to save a lot of gold by having these higher reputations. After all, why would you want to pay 2,000 gold for something on the auction house when you can purchase it from one of these special factions for 200 gold? In some cases, you’ll even learn how to earn special mounts.

The Best Technique for Completing Your WoW Dailies

From the moment you cross over into Northrend in World of Warcraft, you begin to see quest givers that offer quests with a blue question mark instead of the traditional gold one. These blue quest are daily quests, which means you can complete them once per day. You can complete 25 WoW dailies per day, and you really can’t afford not to put forth effort on completing your dailies.

Determining the Best WoW Dailies for You

There are much more than 25 daily quests available throughout World of Warcraft, and it can be difficult to sort out which dailies are the best ones for you to complete. Just start sorting out your dailies by asking yourself some questions. For example, if you’re still in the process of leveling your character, then you’ll want to complete daily quests that give you plenty of experience. In some cases you may even be able to kill two birds with one stone while you’re leveling, especially in the case of reputation farming. For example, the Sons of Hodir daily quests will give you a ton of experience while helping you get to exalted standing with the faction.

If your character is already level 80, then there are plenty of other reasons you will want to make sure to complete your daily quest rotation. Reputation farming is one of the major reasons level 80 characters continue completing daily quests. There are several factions in World of Warcraft that you just have to be exalted with because of the special enchants and gear you can buy. Almost all classes can benefit from being exalted with the Sons of Hodir because it gives them access to various enchantments they can’t get anywhere else. Also tailors can purchase a recipe for the Glacial Bag, a giant 22-slot bag that has a limit of making one per week. Other professions also have certain items that can only be purchased from the Sons of Hodir with an exalted reputation, so this faction may be one of the first reputation farms you do.

Another reason WoW players complete daily quests is to farm for gold, so this is another thing to keep in mind. If farming for gold is your main objective, then you want to focus on the dailies that give you the most gold for the least amount of work.

Figure Out a Pattern

Once you know what you need to work on, you can then figure out a pattern. A WoW dailies guide will show you how to complete 25 dailies in just two hours, so it certainly doesn’t have to take a long time. Just keep in mind that your daily quest routine will change about every other day or so, depending on how much reputation or experience you gain from each of the dailies. However, once you’ve completed a few rounds of daily quests, it will be easy to move on to another set of dailies and meet your next goal.

The Best Places to Complete Your WoW Dailies

Daily quests have become an important part of World of Warcraft, especially those who are farming reputation or gold. Daily quests make it possible to earn reputation and gold by repeating the same quests over and over, once per day. Each character is allowed to complete up to 25 daily quests per day, and most of them are pretty standard quests that involve gathering a certain number of items or killing a certain number of creatures in a specific area. Let’s take a look at some of the best places to complete your WoW dailies.

Storm Peaks Daily Quest Guide

The daily quests in the storm peaks are wonderful because they earn you both gold and reputation. Most of the WoW dailies in the Storm Peaks will earn you about 13 gold per quest, and all of them will earn you reputation with the Sons of Hodir. The Storm Peaks is really the best place to start running your daily quests, especially if you have a brand new level 80 toon. Characters of most, if not all, classes and races can benefit from the shoulder enchantments that are available to purchase from the Sons of Hodir quartermaster after they reach exalted status with the faction. There are also some very interesting mounts, some jewel crafting designs, and a tailoring design that all tailors will want to have.

Argent Crusade Daily Quest Guide

Another area of the game that has plenty of WoW dailies is the Argent Tournament Grounds. Many players love to earn the collectible gear and status points by participating in the daily Argent Tournament quests. These quests are very simple, and some of them involve things like jousting and aiming for targets. This part of the game came along with the Trial of the Champion, which is a five-man instance in the Argent Crusade area. Overall, the Argent Tournament dailies are really a breath of fresh air when it comes to daily quests because they are so different than the average WoW dailies. They also earn you gold and Champion’s Seals, which are used to purchase various rewards from the tournament grounds.

Kirin Tor Daily Quest Guide

One faction that most races and classes will definitely want to become exalted with is the Kirin Tor. This faction offers the Sapphire Spellthread pattern to tailors and the Arcanum of Burning Mysteries for healers and casters. Other than mages, all classes and races start out neutral with the Kirin Tor, so it is necessary to build up quite a bit of reputation with the faction. The only daily quests that earn reputation with the Kirin Tor are the cooking, fishing, and jewel crafting dailies, which are available to members of those professions in Dalaran. There are also some scattered non-daily quests available throughout Northrend to help build up reputation with the Kirin Tor, although the easiest way to do it is to build up to friendly status and then purchase and wear the tabard of the Kirin Tor. Wearing the tabard while running instances should earn you plenty of reputation in just a couple of weeks or less.