Lichborne: The death knight beta diaries, part 2: Dual wielding in Deepholm
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 10th 2010 at 9:00AM
Our adventures in beta continue, as promised, with a new zone and a new spec. With Hyjal behind us, the next logical zone to head to is Deepholm, and such is where I headed, after a suitably epic breadcrumb quest sequence. My spec was dual wield frost.
Just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from with this testing, I should note that I have been equipping quest rewards if they're itemized for death knight usage, even if they're downgrades, in order to get an idea of how much survivability and damage potential your average casual death knight will have.
Frost Striking for fun and profit
Dual wield frost has long been a vaunted spec. "Death knights use two-handers and that's it" has been the philosophy of many. The whole issue was compounded by the fact that, especially in earlier patches, it often required a minimum gear level or a very weird counterintuitive spec before dual wielding could be expected to churn out anything near the DPS of a death knight wielding two-handed weapons. Lately, though, Blizzard's done a pretty decent job of balancing the style, and I can report that it seems so far that dual wielding will be a perfectly viable leveling spec come Cataclysm. I found, overall, that I didn't seem to go too much slower on killing single or multiple enemies than unholy, and maybe even faster sometimes.
One advantage in the frost tree is that so far, the basic rotation (or at least the basic philosophy of the frost rotation) has changed very little in Cataclysm. All the important talents that make it work, such as Killing Machine and Rime, are still there. There are some slight timing differences due to the new rune system, of course, but nothing major, and with the runic power generation ability of Frost Presence, I generally had enough runic power to squeeze off Frost Strikes in the downtimes anyway.
The one major change is the fact that Howling Blast now only requires 1 frost rune. Luckily, this just means it pairs up quite handily with Death and Decay on AoE rotations, leaving behind enough runes for diseases, a Pestilence and a Blood Boil. For single-target fights, I was still using Howling Blast only when Rime procced, so that was hardly a consideration.
Survivability between dual wield frost and unholy DPS seems similar: You'll definitely want to make sure you have plenty of food and bandages, which unfortunately is easier said than done at the moment. Cataclysm cloth and bandages aren't implemented yet, and Deepholm vendors don't sell level 80 food for some reason. Of course, the other nice thing about frost is that you can easily swap Death Strike in place of Obliterate in your rotation.
Doing mostly single-target fights, I found survivability was pretty easy. Just don't get too cocky and be sure to check your health bar and take a bite to eat when you can. Unfortunately, things got a bit hairier in group fights, and with areas where group fights were unavoidable (including one quest where you had to fight four shadow priests at once to grab quest objectives), things got pretty tough to manage. Luckily, Pillar of Frost's 1-minute cooldown isn't that long for bursting purposes, and I found myself using Hungering Cold as quick respite for bandaging purposes at times. The bottom line is that you may not be as powerful as you think you are anymore. Be cautious, and use your cooldowns.
Deepholm: Where Wrath gear dies
While Hyjal gear was slightly worse than most Icecrown stuff, Deepholm, the next step, has no such issues. If you're in tier 10 stuff, you're probably going to start replacing it here. For example, see the Catapult Loader's Gloves. These things are demonstrably better than even the base tier 10, 10-man Scourgelord Gauntlets, even if gemmed with a Bold Dragon's Eye. Likewise, the Geodecrack Shoulderguards edge out a properly gemmed and enchanted pair of Scourgelord Shoulderplates, though you may find you'd rather keep the critical strike on the shoulderplates over the hit rating on the Shoulderguards.
Of course, that's just for 10-man gear, but even 25-man gear gets a run for its money. The Petrified Stone Bracers will give normal Polar Bear Claw Bracers a pretty huge fight, and the Cloak of Fungal Growth outstrips the Might of the Ocean Serpent in strength. Therazane's Seal might not replace a properly gemmed Ashen Ring of Endless Might, but it will give it a run for its money, and it will upgrade most other non-heroic rings. The blue quest rewards are where it gets really crazy, though. Take for example the Fungus-Stained Legplates, a blue reward with 233 strength. Even heroic tier 10 25-man can't claim that.
Weaponry also gets crazy in this zone: The Axe of Earthly Sundering is a blue axe with more DPS than Shadowmourne. Of course, Shadowmourne has slightly higher high-end damage, a sweet proc and gem slots, so you may end up keeping it a while longer if you have it. Anything else in the two-handed arena is probably getting replaced, though.
For the final big battle of the zone, though, you'll pick up even greater stuff. The final battle of the zone gives you a choice of the one-handed Riftrent Waraxe or the Blacksoul Polearm, both of which pretty much blow alway all pre-Cataclysm comers as far as DPS goes. The Blacksoul Polearm is technically a hunter/druid weapon, but with that damage and DPS, it may just be worth taking for a DK using two-handed weapons, anyway.
There is one other somewhat weird quest reward that's worth mentioning. The Questioning Axe is a strange thing indeed. The slow speed suggests a DPS weapon, but the dodge suggests a tank weapon. If we're going to see more slow tank weapons like this, it should at least be a godsend for those stubborn enough to try to stick to dual wield tanking, since there's no way they'll be able to get Threat of Thassarian. The question remains: Is this a sign of a shift to slow-speed tanking weapons, or is this just one of those weirdly itemized quest rewards that's never really duplicated in endgame content?
Delicious Deepholm
As far Deepholm's report card itself, I'd have to say I like it even more epic than Hyjal. Despite some annoying issues with graphics glitches and being stuck in combat due to "battlefield" areas full of endless streams of mobs fighting with friendly NPCs, it's an incredibly well-put-together zone with a very epic feel. I don't want to spoil anything too badly, but a couple of the battles near the end are about the most epic I've ever felt playing solo and are even more epic than some raids I've experienced. This zone has a lot of creative ways to take down a dragon, and most of them are well worth the price of admission. There's also at least one very shocking revelation that shook me to the core regarding an old, beloved NPC, but I'll let you discover the specifics for yourself. Suffice it to say, it may be that the reason you'll quest instead of just joining the dungeon queue is because questing's going to be genuinely fun and compelling.
We have advice for everything from PUG etiquette and buttons you should push more often to Icecrown loot and gear stat weights. Check out WoW.com's DK leveling guides, and visit Lichborne every week for more death knight strategies and tips. Filed under: Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Pneumonia Aug 10th 2010 9:15AM
Is frost with a 2 hander a viable spec or are they forcing frost dks to dual wield? I don't want to dw but I don't like unholy spec.
Spookie Aug 10th 2010 9:32AM
Pneumonia, there's a new talent called "Might of the Frozen Wastes" on Frost Spec.
It's current effect is if a Dk attacks with a Two hander it has 15% chance to generate 100% Runic Power of autoattacks.
As for if it's viable or not i don't know but it's a start.
Qot Aug 10th 2010 10:07AM
1) Killing Machine is on a proc-per-minute timer, so having a slow 1H shouldn't give you any major problems losing crit.
2) "Might of the Frozen Wastes" is just across from "Threat of Thassarian", which allows for DW Frost DKs to hit with their major abilities like a DK using a big 1H would hit. So, while DW Frost DKs are talenting to hit like they're wielding a 1H, 1H DKs are talenting for ridiculous sums of runic power (2.5 Frost Strikes just from every other autoattack, essentially).
3) It's going to require some theory crafting to tell. I started doing the math (but don't have the time or energy to finish it). DW the blacksmithing 316 2.6 speed axes, your special abilities will hit harder and you'll have a lot more damage from 2 309.7 DPS weapons (one hitting at 309.7 and one at 193.5 with DW spec for a combined 502 DPS) than the 1H 417.6 DPS weapon. Of course, that depends on how much hit rating you have. If you only have talents and no gear (assuming raid boss), then your misses will make DW 382 DPS and 1H 384 DPS. If you yellow-cap with gear, then your DW autoattacks will be 422 DPS and your 1H will obviously be back at 418.
Basically, what I'm getting at is that Blizz has done a good job mathematically at balancing 2H damage versus combined damage from 2 1H. There aren't a lot of talents that favor 2-1H in the frost tree and KM is PPM, so 2H Frost should be competitive.
Qot Aug 10th 2010 10:21AM
And also, because I forgot to mention it earlier, talent specs will shift a bit: you won't be able to get Necrosis as Frost, so auto-attack damage loses the 20% bonus shadow damage it did. If I remember my DK theorycrafting right (it's been a while), going into unholy for Necrosis and Blood Caked Blade was where DW pulled away from 1H (going into blood for 2H specialization) for DPS.
Zaros Aug 10th 2010 10:33AM
You, my sir are very good with spreadsheets.
Personally I am baffled by all the funny looking tables.
niko Aug 10th 2010 9:28AM
Poor Shadowmourne... gonna be in every toon's bank in no time flat. :(
Darasen Aug 10th 2010 9:38AM
Thank you for these articles. Especially as a DK I find these to be the most useful Cataclysm articles thus far.
ANeM Aug 10th 2010 9:59AM
"Is this a sign of a shift to slow-speed tanking weapons"
That sign was already put up, in bright neon lights, when the paladin hammer of the righteous was swapped from doing 4x Weapon DPS to 3x Weapon Damage.
Boobah Aug 10th 2010 11:59AM
The only reason anybody ever favored fast tanking weapons was Heroic Strike's on-next-swing mechanic. When a raid boss is beating on you, you have unlimited rage, more or less, and a fast weapon can Heroic Strike more often for more damage and more bonus threat. In Cataclysm, Devastate and the new Heroic Strike both favor slow tanking weapons.
You can replace Heroic Strike with Cleave in the previous paragraph for multi-target tanking.
Re: Hammer of the Righteous: That's being reverted to it's original form; it was changed to weapon DPS so that Paladins and Warriors could fight over... err... SHARE the same tanking weapons.
thebitterfig Aug 10th 2010 6:18PM
well, with the change to heroic strike (no longer next-hit), it means that warriors prefer slow tanking weapons now, due to devastate. for paladins, slow will win out for long-term threat, but faster speeds will help get the seal of truth stacked to 5 quicker, which probably isn't enough of a benefit for anyone to prefer fast-to-slow, particularly due to the addition of crusader strike to the prot paladin tanking rotation.
one can only hope that the devs realise they've made slow tanking weapons preferable, and that they give us slow tanking weapons from now on. likewise, there are only two mechanics i can think of which prefer fast one-hand weapons, and those are deadly poison and combat potency procs, both rogue abilities. however, combat will likely switch to using daggers in the offhand due to the removal of weapon masteries. it could be the case that only daggers and caster 1handers will be fast in the future, much to the delight of any shamans out there.
elstor Aug 10th 2010 10:01AM
Well I as a tank, am definitely questioning the Questioning Axe
Ashimar Aug 10th 2010 2:15PM
Well as a warrior tank I know the advantage of fast weapons was due to getting more Heroic Strikes. Now Heroic Strike is an instant attack instead of based on weapon swing, so a slower weapon will generate more damage and thus more threat. Not sure about other classes, but there have to be advantages for them as well.
Hal Aug 10th 2010 10:16AM
I gotta say, the one thing that's bothered me about the forthcoming DK changes are changes to tanking. I don't really care that one spec has been made tanking; I'm just bothered because Frost and Unholy were always my favorite specs. Now if I'm going to have a tanking spec and a DPS spec, I have to drop one or the other . . . how do I choose?
Brian Aug 10th 2010 10:46AM
i think your avatar answers your question nicely =)
Boobah Aug 10th 2010 12:01PM
"OK. High roll stays. Frost rolls... a 20! Unholy gets a... 20! Nuts!"
Shela Monster Aug 10th 2010 10:30AM
I just recently did a respec into Frost just to try DW.
I for the life of me, can't get into it.
More than likely with Frost Presence changing in Cata and the new 2H ability in the Frost tree it will work out, but I'm still betting DW will be the way to go in Frost.
Any DKs in beta give 2H Frost a shot?
I'd like to know how it worked out over 2H Blood or Unholy in WotLK.
feniks9174 Aug 10th 2010 10:35AM
Are you using a 4.0 clone of a 3.3.5 DW spec or have you opted for more of a leveling spec with survibability talents over max DPS?
feniks9174 Aug 10th 2010 10:41AM
Nevermind, I didn't see the talent tree link. =P
Meccaryn Aug 10th 2010 11:25AM
i'll be frank - i'm hugely disappointed with DK's new design shift
i understand the frustration of balancing 3 specs to be viable for both PvE/PvP grounds would end up choking too much development man power/cost
i understand that having pre-defined roles for each spec would make balancing and tweaking much easier
i also understand that players are frustrated at times when a 'tank' or 'dps' cant do their job properly, resulting overall tarnished imagery of DK community
but really - Blood as the TANKING tree? imho FROST is the more suitable tree that fits the 'tanking' feel
yes, i know that Blood tanks did well in raiding thanks to their arsenal of powerfull cooldowns - then again, the very same cooldowns can be migrated over to frost as well; and we get to preserve the UNIQUE DW tank experience
instead we get a "unique" self-healing tank - havent the failed lesson of pre-revamp Prot pally taught anything?
in the beginning of BC - Prot pally were meant to be a 'self-sufficient' tanker with ample power to keep themself up. it took a galaxy of tears and a complete class revamp to make Prot Pally viable for heroics/raiding - guess what, self-healing not included.
no offense to Blood tank lovers - even if this overhaul is a success, i'd mourn over the lost of a truly unique tank setup, and a much beloved 2H spec that makes me feel that my 2 hander has a meaningful existence to my DPS
not some re-worked spec that doesnt even theme fitting - or some spec that fakes using 2 hander but pets and disease does all the work
Qot Aug 10th 2010 11:29AM
Hi Frank!