Lichborne: Talents for catching up
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 9th 2008 at 10:05PM
So there are quite a few of us, I imagine, who are still on track to switch to a Death Knight, or at least play one quite extensively, immediately when Wrath of the Lich King hits the live servers. But the fact remains that you'll be 15 levels behind everyone to start, and if you have friends to catch up to, you're going to want to get up there pretty quickly, most likely. Even if you plan to take it slow, you'll still want a good effective leveling build, most likely. So today, we'll look at three solid solo DPS builds from each tree, and discuss how to use them most effectively for grinding and leveling.
Unholy
Unholy remains my favorite tree, as it provides a good, solid amount of DPS provided with a lot of unique and fun utility and AE damage abilities. The build I will personally use to level my Death Knight will likely look a little something like this 16/0/55 Build, focusing on the Unholy skills first.
This build works best if you gather up a lot of enemies at once. Use Icy Touch and Plague Strike to Infect one mob, and Pestilence to spread the diseases to the other mobs. From there, you'll want to use Death and Decay (If you're DPSing in a group, make sure your tank has solid threat before you use it), and as runes permit, use Blood Boil and Scourge Strike. As soon as you have the Runic Power, you'll want to get Unholy Blight out for the extra damage If the battle lasts long enough, you'll probably need to reapply your diseases.
With this build, you'll want to keep your Ghoul and Bone Shield up as much as possible for the extra DPS. You can also use Corpse Explosion to explode your ghoul for massive damage (target the ghoul before using the ability) if you find yourself with an extra Unholy or Death Rune. Of course, if your health is looking low, you may decide to use Death Pact instead, once you have it. Night of the Dead will then assure that you'll be able to summon a new Ghoul almost immediately. Gargoyle is also a very massive helpful damage boost that you'll want to use as Runic Power permits.
If you want to be more a single target Unholy DPSer, or if you're fighting somewhere where casting AEs willy-nilly is inadvisable, you can simply cut back to your single-target DPS abilities, focusing on using Scourge Strike and Blood Strike for your damage once your diseases are properly applied.
The Unholy tree presents a small problem in using glyphs -- namely, there's so many good ones to use. Glyph of Bone Shield is essential, since it makes sure Bone Shield stays up longer, giving you more damage absorption and more DPS. When it comes to your second and eventually your third glyph, Glyph of Scourge Strike and Glyph of Ghoul will both be solid choices. If you have a hard time keeping your diseases up, or just don't want to deal with constant disease reapplication, you may want to pick up Glyph of Scourge Strike. If you're pretty confident in keeping your diseases up, though, Glyph of the Ghoul is a good choice to grab first.
Filed under: (Death Knight) Lichborne, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Leveling, Talents, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, Inscription
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
TehAlx Nov 9th 2008 10:26PM
Amazingly helpful.
I've been debating forever an attempt to instance level my Death Knight (practice tanking is go!) or solo it out. I've started to lean toward questing, considering most people in Outland will (as has been stated numerous times) be my fellow Death Knights. So, it's nice to have some place to start looking at solo builds, as it's something I haven't really looked at yet.
offday Nov 9th 2008 10:32PM
I wasn't around when TBC came out, so to the people who were: was it hard to quest in the starting areas when the game came out? Like for example the quests where you need to kill x amount of whatever seem like they would be impossible with so many people doing them at the same time. Will it even be worth it to start a DK the day wrath comes out?
tristan Nov 10th 2008 1:31AM
I don't think it was that bad. While there were a ton of people in outland, there were also a ton of people in the new starting zones. So I think it balances itself out
Tanglebones Nov 9th 2008 10:59PM
From my experience in the beta, it wasn't too bad. There were bottlenecks at the various named mobs, Grillok "Darkeye" for example. Group up for these, be polite and prepared to wait for a respawn. On the other hand, apparently some time after i was finished with Hellfire, a new, larger wave of invites went out and Hellfire turned into a living hell (pardon the bad pun)... that is, assuming you could even get to Hellfire, for a while, the lag was so bad in the DK starting area that any action took literally 30 seconds to complete (and, for obvious reasons, you'd die if you tried to fight anything). Of course, that was beta, it was *supposed* to have problems, with any luck, Blizz will have fixed it for Thursday. I'm gonna try my luck on a DK, and try taking my main to Borean Tundra, but if it's bad, i guess i'll work on my term papers instead... yeah, it'll have to be pretty bad to make me stop procrastinating...
Allen Nov 9th 2008 10:45PM
Most of us are only going to have 51 talent points when we hit level 60, not 71.
Raaj Nov 9th 2008 10:57PM
He's showing you the finish line and explaining what you'll be doing once you arrive. He can't hold your hand all the way there. Pick a spec and work towards it, just like every other class.
tristan Nov 10th 2008 1:31AM
@raaj:
"So today, we'll look at three solid solo DPS builds from each tree, and discuss how to use them most effectively for grinding and leveling."
I understand grinding at level 80, but I don't believe that "leveling" should have been included in that sentence if he's linking to level 80 builds.
Horixon Nov 11th 2008 1:33PM
@tristan
I don't think you understand. He is just posting the full 71 point spec to show you where you would end when you are done leveling with that spec. Unholy, for example, you would work your way down to Unholy Blight and then start going through the Blood talents he has listed. It isn't an end-game spec. It is a leveling build.
Evad Nov 10th 2008 7:03PM
The thing is this article is meant to be about getting a build for LEVELING not end game. So he fails dismally on that account by giving level 80 builds.
Horixon Nov 11th 2008 1:39PM
/dense
mr.gerbz Nov 9th 2008 11:22PM
I suggest the following unholy build for lvling:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=jfcMacZZfMGuzfkMcq0fsux
Some slight changes, like no Unholy Blight. It's only usefulness is in a raid environment with lots of multiple add pulls.
Outside of that, it's just not worth spending 60 Runic Power on such a small increase in DPS. Not to mention, if you're lucky, your Deathcoil will crit harder than UB's entire damage.
Of course, that's single target, not multi-target.
Also, don't forget UB isn't considered a disease anymore, which was the only reason for most people to get it.
Nintai Nov 9th 2008 11:25PM
I like the frost tree. I was leaning towards one with a little more survivability so I could tank well with it too, but I won't start my DK until after I get my main to 80.
Erich Blume Nov 9th 2008 11:29PM
One of the more informative posts I've read in recent days at wowinsider. I've tired of playing the same classes, and I'll be playing a DK when WOTLK hits, crowd be damned. I've been staggered by the possible permutations of attack sequences with Death Knights, and this post finally convinced me of Unholy's.
Dedbitt Nov 9th 2008 11:35PM
There's a lot to be said for keeping On A Pale Horse talent, even if you aren't focused on Unholy. Leveling means a lot of running around, so 20% extra mount speed is nothing to sneeze at. Quest mobs aren't that hard to kill and even in a 5-man run I think min/max DPS can wait, so that's why I'm keeping that talent up even if I go Blood or Frost. At level 80 that argument changes, and it is gone altogether in end game raiding and PvP.
Tap Nov 9th 2008 11:41PM
"If you want to be more a single target Unholy DPSer, or if you're fighting somewhere where casting AEs willy-nilly is inadvisable, you can simply cut back to your single-target DPS abilities, focusing on using Scourge Strike and Blood Strike for your damage once your diseases are properly applied. "
Did you mean .. simply cut back on your single-target or multiple target ?
Saiforune Nov 10th 2008 12:33AM
I just had an epiffany! (Spelling?)
You know how Ozzy Osborne is supposed to be the star of the next WoW commercial? I'm willing to be we're going to see the commercial within 2 weeks of the launch of wrath, I'm even thinking this upcoming weekend, and Ozzy Osborne will be nonetheless a Deathknight to 1. Promote WoTLK 2. It suites him 3. Give great gameplay with all the new graphics from northrend.
I'd be willing to bet good money on it.
Other possible choices are Warlock and Rogue, but I'm 99.99 (Reapeating) % Positive that he'll be a Death Knight.
***Potential Breakfast Topic Blog Post FYI***
Caustik Nov 10th 2008 12:52AM
To me, Vendetta in blood tree seems to be a no-brainer at level 58, even if you spec heavily frost or unholy.
Of course this would lead to some delay on key abilities in your main tree, but more regen = less downtime.
Rageork Nov 10th 2008 3:20AM
With DK's of any spec, there is no downtime at all if you use Death Strike correctly. Killed a couple mobs and down a little on health? Just throw in DS instead of Obliterate or Scourge Strike.
In Beta I could pull 6 or 7 vultures in HFP, AOE them down, then pull a couple mobs solo and use Death Strike to get back up to full health. It really is a thing of beauty to kill mobs while healing yourself, just watch out and dont get too confident and try pulling 12 mobs alone.....it wont end well :P
bugmaster Nov 10th 2008 8:18AM
i found that using death strike works better for keeping my health up since its reuseble and your ghoul can still continue to nuke things down
Inscrutibob Nov 10th 2008 9:22AM
To all the spoiler-whiners: how could a column about the beta NOT be spoileriffic? Duh.
(need. more. coffee.)