Lichborne: Major patch 4.0.6 changes for death knights
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Feb 15th 2011 at 2:00PM
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. Join World of Warcraft's first hero class as we head into a new expansion and shed the new kid on the block label.
Patch 4.0.6 was surprisingly busy for death knights. While we did cover some of the specifics back when the first patch notes came out, how it's all played out is a little different, especially with some additional hotfixed nerfs that dropped for death knights. That said, despite the nerfs, we're really not in that bad a place, and for certain death knights, there's even good news. This week, we'll take a look at some of the most important changes that came with patch 4.0.6 and how they affect your playstyle and gearing decisions.
On the best DPS spec
With the new patch changes, if you're looking for the best PvE DPS spec, it's still unholy. Despite all the nerfs, unholy's still managed to come out on top both because it's just that good and because it relies a little less on RNG.
Frost still has to deal with waiting for procs and then lining them up to be used perfectly with the right abilities, which can take a little more finesse to manage properly. That said, there is still some good news for frost lovers in that a perfectly played frost spec is in theory less than 5% behind unholy -- that is, still enough that if you probably want to take unholy if you want the best of the best, but almost to the point that you might not be laughed out of a raid for taking frost. In addition, 2H frost is now nearly on par (less than 1% behind, at worse) with dual wield frost, so it does honestly appear to come down to a preference of which type of weapon you want, gear weights aside.
Finally, dual wield unholy is dead as a doornail and likely to stay that way, thanks in part to a bunch of weapon strike buffs and the changing of Sudden Doom to proc off the main hand only.
Unholy, of course, has a completely new mastery called Dreadblade. It's essentially a shadow version of Frozen Heart, and since we use shadow damage as unholy almost more than we use frost damage as frost, as you might have guessed, it does affect how we gear. Now, haste is still the superior stat. This is primarily because it affects our ghoul in a way mastery won't and because we do still have enough leeway with Unholy Presence to fit in more attacks before hitting the GCD cap. So, as before, haste is easily the secondary stat winner after you've hit the 8% hit cap. That said, mastery now pretty solidly blows away both expertise and critical strike, and unholy death knights should now find it more useful to take haste/mastery gear or to reforge critical rating into mastery on haste/crit gear.
The mastery change has also affected how frost death knights play. 2H frost disciples will find that their stat weights are a lot more similar to unholy as not. This means that it should be a lot easier for up-and-coming death knights to switch from the awesome leveling spec that is 2H frost to the more superior 2H unholy raiding spec. It also means that you can more easily keep 2H frost as a dungeon or solo farming spec or even an AE raid spec, while keeping unholy as your single-target/raid boss spec. It's a relatively minor thing, but it is nice and convenient.
The other way that the mastery change affects frost is in the talent Virulence. Virulence is essentially the old unholy mastery in the form of three talent points with no additional scaling. As a mastery, it was severely underpowered. As three talent points, it's surprisingly worth it. Unholy, of course, will take this without hesitation, but frost will probably want to do this too, even if it means giving up Improved Blood Tap. Sure, IBT is very useful for getting off a timely Pillar of Frost, but it's still one more complicated button to push in a spec that already depends quite a bit on pressing the right button at the right time. Virulence, however, is a nice, awesome passive boost to your DPS, and one that so far seems to parse out to more damage than IBT for your average death knight.
One final note should be taken in reference to Virulence's old function, that of providing 9% spell hit. Since that 9% is now innate to every death knight, 8% hit essentially becomes the "hard cap" for 2H-wielding death knights. Any hit we get past 8% is essentially useless, since that innate 9% is covering the gap between our spell hit and our melee hit. So in essence, don't be afraid to reforge or regem away extra hit rating.
Tanking: The mastery vs. avoidance debate continues
Honestly, even after patch 4.0.6, there's still no clear victor in the mastery vs. avoidance debate. Mastery actually got an overall buff for blood tanks this patch, since Blood Shields now stack. In essence, you can throw out two Death Strikes back to back without having to deal with one overwriting the other. Of course, in practice, they're stripped off pretty quick anyway, but it's still something to watch out for.
One new theory that's seen some traction is the idea of going back to the old unholy method of stacking avoidance to keep Bone Shield up as long as possible. The argument is that if you have high avoidance, your Blood Shield will stay up longer, since multiple Death Strikes will keep it refreshed, and it will only be depleted on those instances where a hit gets through your other defenses. Right now, I've seen only anecdotal evidence for this new theory of gearing, but it at least bears some mentioning.
Overall, though, much of what I wrote in my previous column on the issue remains essentially true, and you'll continue to have to find your own balance until the theorycrafters can agree on some real numbers -- or tier 12 content throws another level of mudflation into the mix and muddles up the stat weights all over again.
Follow our road map to leveling your DK from 80 to 85, and then learn the ropes of endgame play with WoW Insider's DK 101 guide. Gear up with pre-heroic gear for DPS DKs and keep track of what's happening on your hotbars with our guide to DK spell alerts.Filed under: Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Epius Feb 15th 2011 2:16PM
As a tank I have been having to decide between going avoidance or mastery. To be honest I find having a solid mix of both is a very nice way to go.
While people may argue over exactly what to do, I honestly think you should just choose what you wish to do when it comes to this.
Also, DW Frost DKs are awesome as that was my MS (though it is my OS now). I was pulling more dps as frost that unholy buy maybe it was just me being really used to frost.
Epius Feb 15th 2011 2:18PM
Please forgive the spelling errors since this is being done from my phone haha.
Fossless Feb 15th 2011 2:19PM
I personally like the avoidance although I do get a balance with about 28.5 % avoidance and 13% mastery
With a little bit more tier gear ill shoot for just another percent in mastery
Diomedes Feb 15th 2011 2:27PM
Thanks for this, summed everything up quite nicely. Glad to see Unholy not get nerfed into the ground- new Mastery makes gearing a lot more pleasant too.
I was wondering how the changes leave disease-less Blood Tanking... specifically the changes to Crimson Scourge (now offering free Blood Boils when you strike a target with Blood Plague) and with the 30% disease damage boost available on the first tier of Unholy for Blood tanks. I've been running heroics diseaseless for a bit now, and I rather enjoy just sort of BB/HS, DS and RSing my way to victory, and just using Outbreak on CD or on tougher mobs.
Thoughts?
Epius Feb 15th 2011 2:35PM
I like my diseases tbh. That and pest really helps with aggro and just overall damage output. Generall I do not reapply diseases unless it is a boss.
In general though, how well do you have a hold on targets you are not directly attacking? While DnD does help grab some aggro and keeps generating more of it over time, I would assume it would not be as good as a disease using tank.
This of course is only my opinion so please speak up if you have a great counter-argument.
sperrone Feb 15th 2011 2:58PM
If the situation allows, I pull with DnD, then Outbreak on the main target, then Pestilance, then HS/DS/RS. I use BB when it procs free. No problem holding aggro on everything.
If Outbreak is on cooldown, I just move from DnD straight into HS/DS/RS spam. If there are more than three targets I usually will throw in a BB early too (even though it's not free).
Atou Feb 15th 2011 3:20PM
I think the changes have sort of put the nail in the coffin for diseaseless tanking with the changes to Scarlet Fever. Blood Boil no longer applies the 10% damage debuff that this talent gives, but instead has it being applied through Plague Strike. This means both of your diseases now offer major debuffs as a tank that you should be taking advantage of in any fight. This is more so the case in multi-mob situations where the 20% attack speed debuff and the 10% damage debuff will help reduce the amount of incoming damage you take.
JT Feb 15th 2011 3:30PM
Diseaseless doesn't matter much in heroics one way or the other, from my experience, although I'd be tempted to use them more if I was just gearing up.
On the other hand, unless you have someone else *reliably* providing the melee slow and the physical damage debuff (a DPS DK, for example) then it's incumbent upon you to provide those debuffs. All you lose is 1 DS every minute or so (assuming 2/3 Epidemic) which isn't much when you consider that without those debuffs, raid bosses will be hitting you harder and faster at least 30 seconds out of every minute, and longer if you didn't put points into Epidemic.
The Angry Intern Feb 15th 2011 2:50PM
I want to try tanking on my DK, but I'm kinda scared to try it. I've never played any kind of tank before, so I have no idea what to do. Any advice on where to begin? I've got the standard accepted blood spec and I've been collecting a few pieces of tank gear (lower iLevel stuff, i'm definitely going to do non-heroics to start off with) I'm thinking of grabbing a few guildmates who will hopefully be more patient with me while I learn.
Mr. Tastix Feb 15th 2011 3:29PM
Stick down DnD on AoE pulls (and even single-target) as a pre-emptive strike for threat, do this as you're opening in on the target.
For glyphs you want Death Strike, Rune Strike and Heart Strike (Prime Glyphs) on single-target, swap out Rune Strike for the Death and Decay glyph on AoE fights. Good Major Glyphs would be Blood Boil for AoE, Rune Tap (helps healers), Vampiric Blood, and Anti-Magic Shell. Dancing Rune Weapon glyph is rather meh.
For the skills to use: DnD on pull. Then you basically just spam Death Strike and Rune Strike. Heart Strike and Blood Boil are good for AoE (Heart Strike has a cleave effect) and I never use Death Coil unless the target's out of range. Diseases are optional and I only generally keep them up on bosses or with Outbreak only as the damage is rather pitiful on anything else.
I'd suggest you tank normals, to begin with, as well. Even if you've got the tank gear to do Heroics you'll still want some practice in normal dungeons until you've got some practice.
This article on WoW Insider might help you, one thing you'll want to learn (nobody can teach you this) is situational awareness. Watch where mobs are and what they're doing, watch any AoE damage (AMS is handy for this) and also watch your own threat and the threat of other players.
Mr. Tastix Feb 15th 2011 3:29PM
Sorry, forgot the article link:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/06/03/wow-rookie-tanking-for-beginners/
The Angry Intern Feb 15th 2011 3:57PM
Thanks for the tips!
TheUsualSuspect Feb 15th 2011 5:37PM
Short summary - fights vary.
Start on normals, not heroics. Even if you are geared for heroics.
For multiple mobs in general - Drop Death and Decay on top of yourself and Death Grip the caster to you (or ranged - in fact if there is a hunter type mob in the enemy group, its better to death grip him and strangulate the caster). The rest of them will run to you through your death and decay and by that time you should have diseases up on the one you death gripped and can now spread to the rest with pestilence. After that it's what others have said. Try to keep blood shield up with Death Strike, Rune strike when its available, Heart Strike in between those. Keep bone shield up whenever its off cooldown. Blood boil when its a free one or if you need help gathering aggro at beginning.
Opinions vary of course between tanks but this is a general strategy and will get you started until you find your own groove. Tanking is fun and we need more of them. Sometimes you are the hero, sometimes its thankless. Good Luck!
Windshear of Duskwood Feb 15th 2011 3:07PM
With diminishing returns, I would say avoidance is good to a point. I personally am going to try and shoot for about 15% Parry and 15% dodge and then stack the rest into Mastery so I can get a good mix. At that point I will have about 30% avoidance and can rely on blood shield to cover the rest. I tanked Baradin Hold yesterday with a 341 ilvl with no problems and I believe that DK's are at the top of the food chain for tanking these days, but I haven't leveled a pally, warrior or bear yet to see how they perform.
dkswanson Feb 15th 2011 3:27PM
You should not be scared to tank on a DK, it's incredibly simple. As the above posters have mentioned, the initial threat is Outbreak, HS/DS/RS, multitarget is DND, Outbreak, Pest, HS/DS/RS. The only decision making part is figuring out which mobs will not pull and must be gripped or CCed at range (casters, etc.) which is not hard.
The new mastery which stacks Blood shields have made DK tanks OP imo, with vampiric blood, rune tap, ghoul sac and WOTN combined with our high avoidance, I find myself able to survive easily any encounter.
Adding vengeance in with the damage buffs to blood, my tank is pulling 8K+ in heroics as well, so high DPS, high EH, high survivability, tons of defensive cooldowns, it's about as easy as tanking gets, and I don't even have good gear.
JT Feb 15th 2011 3:33PM
Hush with that OP tank talk! If anything we're underpowered and need more buffs.
*wiiiiiiink*
Doomgeek Feb 15th 2011 7:52PM
You forgot bloodworms.
As a healer, I find death knights to be great tanks. They hold aoe threat amazingly well, they have tons of self-healing, and they Deathgrip mobs off me. They're my favorite tanks to heal for.
JT Feb 15th 2011 3:25PM
Never understood the idea of synergy between avoidance and BS.
Let's say (for simplicity's sake?) you have no avoid. You pop BS. Boss swings at you 10 times. You take those 4 hits at 20% reduction and the 6 at full damage.
Now let's say you have 40% combined avoid and you pop BS. Boss swings at you 10 times. You avoid 4 of those hits (if RNG smiles on you, you could just as easily take all 4), take 4 at 20% reduction, and the last 2 at full damage.
All that tells me is that avoidance helps you take less damage, but that has nothing to do with BS. A parried/dodged hit (to the best of my knowledge) is completely negated, and so the DR from BS doesn't apply.
What am I missing here?
Mr. Tastix Feb 15th 2011 3:33PM
I find it's better as a tanking cooldown, rather than something to keep up all the time. The reason for this is for the reasons you described.
When using it as a tanking cooldown rather than a buff you want to keep refreshing, avoidance will help to keep it up until you really need it. If you pop it when large, incoming damage is coming (unavoidable damage, for example) then you'll be hit for 20% less damage by it. That's better than getting 20% damage reduction on damage that could've been avoided to begin with.
This is how I see it, personally.
Batarang Feb 15th 2011 3:36PM
I believe the bonus comes from the fact that any damage you take that doesn't consume a BS charge (either magic damage or within BS's ICD) is also reduced by 20%. So the more charge-consuming hits you avoid, the more chances for that 20% to be applied to other things.