Lichborne: Gear upgrades for Death Knights in the starting zones
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 23rd 2008 at 12:00PM
So by now, I assume a good chunk of us are managing to get through Outland again and are hitting the 68-70 level range, ready to jump onto a boat or zeppelin and head to Northrend. Now, up til now, I'm sure a lot of you have been sticking with your Death Knight quest gear, hoping to avoid the clown look of Northrend, or have been leveling so fast through Outland that you haven't had time to replace most of it anyway.
But we're in Northrend now, guys. The difficulty is ramped up a bit, and you're really going to have to start replacing stuff pretty quickly. No worries though, Blizzard's art team has done a pretty decent job of making most of the Northrend quest rewards look like something you'd be willing to be caught dead wearing, so to speak, especially if you're into Norse mythology and imagery like I am.
Today, we'll be discussing some of the best quest upgrades for a Death Knight in the first few zones of Northrend, but before we do that, I'd like to mention one more gear-related thing from our tanking column last week: The Cobalt "set."
It's not technically a set in that it doesn't have a name or set bonuses, but it's 8 pieces of crafted armor, made by Blacksmiths at 375 skill and equippable at level 70, that provides tons of strength, stamina, and defense. It won't get you to the level 70 Defense cap of 490, but it will come pretty close, close enough that if you can pick up a piece of defense jewelry or a trinket or two, you'll be set for tanking up until the mid 70s or so.
The pieces, specifically, are helm, shoulder, chestpiece, bracer, gauntlets, legplates, boots, and belt. Grabbing these will mean that you're probably almost ready to tank Utgarde keep the moment you hit level 70, and should catch you up in effectiveness to your average level 70 pre-heroic BC-era tank, at least. It only takes a total of 37 Cobalt Bars to make -- that's less than 2 stacks. If you've been keeping on on your mining on any of your characters, or if you have a bit of leftover daily money, it's well worth getting this stuff crafted.
Oh, and one more thing on Death Knight itemization before we start: Haste and Expertise just aren't as good for us as they are for many melee, especially for 2-hand wielders. For one, we do a very large portion of our damage as spell and disease damage, and these are pretty much completely unaffected by either stat. Expertise is going to be most effective for Death Knight tanks, who are still going to want to keep from being parry-gibbed. For the other part, as 2-hand wielders, most of our remaining damage is done with instant-cast strikes which don't need haste to be effective. Our white damage is a very small part of our ability. Keeping that in mind will probably affect how we decide what gear to pick up.
Now, on to the quest gear.
Filed under: Items, Tips, Instances, Quests, Leveling, Guides, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, (Death Knight) Lichborne
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dez Nov 23rd 2008 2:09PM
I'm curious, how worthwhile is Hit rating for DK? A lot of the "upgrades" i come across give Hit but reduce Crit or vice versa, funny. I'm currently Lv65 Frost tank speced, so more specifically my question is tank wise.
I'm also wondering if 2H or Dual wield would be the most effective as a tank. Seeing all my chars have been DW I decided to try 2H for a change, most DK tanks I encounter seem to be DW though. People make up these "facts" as a case of propaganda and know-it-all, that 2H is dps and DW is tanking, when I'm sure that's not entirely true.
Oh and in the end I guess it comes down to playstyle, but I'm just curious if maybe I would gain something on going DW tank.
Thanks in advance. ^^
tchernobyl Nov 23rd 2008 1:59PM
hit, according to some elitist jerks post i saw, is possibly the most important stat for a DK. most of our abilities are strikes, thus not missing is very important. Hit>str>crit, though don't sacrifice the others too much for hit (the cap is 9% again, around 290-ish or so rating)
Daniel Whitcomb Nov 23rd 2008 3:39PM
As far as hit rating goes: Yes, it's very important! I find that hit rating really makes the biggest difference in effectiveness for almost every non-healer in game. You need hit rating to hit stuff, it's that simple. If you don't have it, you're not hiting the mob, and nothing else you do will amount to much.
For equal level mobs, I believe the base miss percentage on a two-handed weapon is around 5%, so I like to try to keep to 5% when leveling, grinding, or 5-man grouping. For raiding, that bumps up to 9% for a 2-hander, whereas dual wielding is 28%.
The other problem is that spell hit's miss rating is 17% for raiding/boss mobs. Luckily, if you have Virulence specced and a Shadow Priest casting Misery on the mob, that drops down to 11%.
At the least, you'll want to hit that 9% 2-handed cap for raiding, which should be about 296 hit rating, I think.
On the Dual Wield issue, I will honestly be 2-handed tank until the day I quit playing a Death Knight. I just don't like all the extra hit rating and expertise a dual-wielding tank would need to keep from getting parry gibbed and be able to actually hit a decent amount with his off-hand. I think that 2-handed tanking will win out as the superior tanking style in the end, simply because any extra defense or parry or dodge you get on 2 tanking two-handers will be negated by loss of threat from lower damage weapon strikes and having to replace defense stats on your armor with hit rating and expertise.
Treason Nov 23rd 2008 3:34PM
The name of the cobalt set is "Cocky in Cobalt" thank you very much.
exodar Nov 23rd 2008 1:12PM
The gear options in Outlands for my DK have been the most frustrating thing for me. There are some obvious gear upgrades, but most of the stuff just looks like crap on my DK. Very un-DK-like if you ask me. I think it would have been cool if when putting any gear on a DK that the hue of the gear turned very dark so it looked more evil. Just a thought :)
Tcgjarhead Nov 23rd 2008 2:34PM
Like Tchernobyl said, until the soft hit cap Hit is a very important stat while using a DW spec. Of course just like Fury Warriors you wont want to stop there but dont make it a priority.
If you are using a DW spec you will want the hit so you can proc Killing Machine/Rime/Cinderglacier/Crusader as often as possible. I use a Frost DW spec and it isnt so much about white damage as damage based off of these procs and your non weapon based attacks.
I'm very dissappointed in the itemization on plate gear in the expantion. Lots of Haste, some ArP, lots of straight up AP instead of Str. Its quite a mess.
Oh and lots of people say not to DW while tanking because your chance to get parried is higher which can cause you to take more damage. Though with how much expertise there is on gear in the xpac it will be easier to hit un-parriable.
Redski Nov 23rd 2008 6:24PM
Any suggestions for cloaks?
Sharkhunt Nov 24th 2008 9:33AM
Also worth mentioning, Stoneground Cleaver ( http://www.wowhead.com/?item=35870 ). This is available from one of the first quest lines in the Fjord and can be acquired at lvl 68. I'm going to finish leveling to at least 70 in outland, but stopped the fjord to pick this up as soon as I dinged 68 since it is so much better than anything else I found.
Fireflash38 Nov 24th 2008 9:59AM
That is a clear-cut hunter weapon.
Agility is sub-par for DKs, because you don't get spell crit from it, nor do you get sufficient AP from it.
Sharkhunt Nov 24th 2008 2:02PM
@ Fireflash38
Agreed that the stats aren't ideal for the class, but can you suggest a better alternative that's as quickly and easily available at level 68? I would prefer str to agi, but mostly picked this up for the much higher damage range compared to other axes at that level. The AP and crit boost from this weapon is just icing on the cake.
Ikarus Nov 24th 2008 1:57PM
The weapon you want to go for asap in northrend is:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=38237
you get a after completing a few soloable quest chains in the Borean Tundra. Last me until last night at 76 when I picked up:
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=41816
from the "Amphitheater of Anguish" quest line in Zul'drak. It's basically the Ring of blood for northrend. Lots of fun