Friday
29May2009
Glyphing Your Death Knight
Friday, May 29, 2009 at 1:40PM | Stoneybaby
Hello there, people reading this post. I'm Shopshopshop from Runeforge Gossip; I play a Death Knight on the Medivh Server, and today I'm going to talk about what glyphs go best with which specs.
Frost DPS glyphs
I'll begin with a Frost DPS spec, since that's what I run with. There are really only 4 major glyphs to choose from, and I consider two of them absolutely mandatory. First off is Glyph of Frost Strike, probably the biggest DPS increase a Frost DK can get from a glyph. Decreasing the cost of your best attack (Frost Strike is usually anywhere from 30-40% of total damage on a given encounter) by a 5th is a pretty significant boost to the amount of Strikes you can get out. In addition, you have more RP available if you need to use Anti-Magic Shell or any other defensive ability.
Next up is another glyph that is awesome for reasons similar to the Frost Strike one: it lets you cast more Frost Strikes. This is the Glyph of Icy Touch, another mandatory fellow. Newer Frost rotations are making more and more use of Icy Touch to generate lots of RP and therefore lots of Frost Strikes, and the whole reason you can do this is this glyph. Take it and enjoy your 25 RP-per-rune ability.
The choice between the other two Frost-related glyphs, those of Obliterate and Howling Blast is a little bit less clear-cut. With modern Frost rotations, the focus is largely on Icy Touch and Frost Strike, with Obliterate falling by the wayside. This often leaves it at under 10% of total damage, which means a 20% increase in that is a fairly minor DPS increase, often less than 2%. In my recent parses, it's been anywhere from 6-8% of my damage.
That said, taking the Howling Blast glyph is a strict DPS loss (albeit a minor one) on single-target fights. It is helpful, however, in pretty much every AoE situation, which includes a lot of the bosses in Ulduar. Especially on bosses with multiple parts, like Kologarn and Mimiron. Basically it allows you to completely ignore Pestilence, which uses up a rune, a GCD and does no damage (ick) and replace it with a Blood Boil or part of a Death and Decay. Choosing between these two is pretty much a matter of personal preference, since the DPS difference of each is difficult to gauge.
Unholy DPS glyphs
For Unholy, with this spec as an example, you again have two mandatory glyphs and then two others to choose between for the final slot. Glyph of Scourge Strike is the first of the necessary glyphs. All Unholy rotations are based off of using Scourge Strike combined with this glyph to put up diseases, and thereby avoiding having to cast Plague Strike and Icy Touch, which do less damage.
Glyph of the Ghoul is another no-brainer. The ghoul pet can be up to 15% of total DPS in a fight where he stays alive, and this is entirely passive. Anything you can to do buff Mr. Ghoul is essential to doing good DPS as Unholy.
The final major slot comes down to a choice between Glyph of Unholy Blight and Glyph of Dark Death. Back when 4-piece tier 7 generated an extra 10 RP on every Scourge Strike, Dark Death was the obvious choice. RP generation was easy and you got a lotmore Death Coils back then. Nowadays, with the set bonus nerfed and many people moving on to tier 8, the difference between the two glyphs is this: UB allows you to use more Death Coils, much like the old 4-piece tier 7. Dark Death, on the other hand, buffs all of your DCs by 15%, a small increase in overall damage.
An advantage of the UB Glyph is that it can make your rotation simpler as well as giving you more options. You are spending less GCDs on Unholy Blight, which means more RP for other things (defensive cooldowns, for example), as well as not having to worry quite as much about Unholy Blight falling off as you run around chasing adds and various things. I'm a big fan of having more freedom and choice in my rotations, so I'll lean towards the UB glyph.
Blood DPS glyphs
Blood specs are a bit more malleable than Frost or Unholy ones, but for the sake of simplicity let's take this one as a base to glyph up. For Blood, there are 4 glyphs to choose from. The one almost all Blood DKs take is the Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon. Controlled burst is one of the highlights of being Blood, what with Hysteria and all, and buffing Dancing Rune Weapon is a significant benefit to this aspect of Blood. Incidentally, controlled burst is pretty important in Ulduar, when certain short phases require a high DPS for a limited amount of time (XT-002's heart phases, for example).
Since 3.1 and Death Strike becoming a mainstay of Blood rotations, Glyph of Death Strike is pretty much mandatory. It changes the rotation up a little bit, forcing you to have at least 26 RP whenever you use Death Strike to take full advantage, but in my opinion this makes the game more interesting. You need 26, rather than 25, because the glyph boosts your damage for 2% every two RP rather than a 1 for 1 deal. You still only get 25% damage from 26 RP, though.
The next (and also largely mandatory) glyph is Dark Death. Blood fires off more Death Coils than any other spec due to the free ones from the Sudden Death talent, making boosting its damage a higher priority than for Unholy. In addition, this glyph benefits from having the Sigil of the Vengeful Heart, which Unholy DKs won't be taking (Awareness is superior for them).
There is the option of taking Glyph of the Ghoul, but the only reason to take this over any of the other three is if Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon is simply not available on your server yet (it's one of the ones learned from the new world drop books in 3.1).
The Glyph of Disease
Over at Elitist Jerks, every DPS thread is peppered with people asking about rotations with this glyph. The overwhelming response is that this glyph is always a DPS loss, for a number of different reasons. First, Pestilence does no damage, so right off you're losing the damage of a Blood Strike or Heart Strike, depending on your spec. It also makes rotations more complex, especially for Unholy and OB-centric Frost rotations, which rely on having pairs of Death Runes come up at once. You are also forced to clip your diseases, since you must cast Pestilence before your disease runs out, therefore losing the last few ticks of damage. In sum, do not use this glyph as a DPS DK.
A side note
As glyphs become cheaper, it gets easier and easier to swap out glyphs on a case-by-case basis, even using different glyphs for different boss encounters. If you have some extra gold lying around, try out different combinations for different encounters and see how you make out each time. Now get thee to your local auction house and have fun glyphing your Death Knight.
Frost DPS glyphs
I'll begin with a Frost DPS spec, since that's what I run with. There are really only 4 major glyphs to choose from, and I consider two of them absolutely mandatory. First off is Glyph of Frost Strike, probably the biggest DPS increase a Frost DK can get from a glyph. Decreasing the cost of your best attack (Frost Strike is usually anywhere from 30-40% of total damage on a given encounter) by a 5th is a pretty significant boost to the amount of Strikes you can get out. In addition, you have more RP available if you need to use Anti-Magic Shell or any other defensive ability.
Next up is another glyph that is awesome for reasons similar to the Frost Strike one: it lets you cast more Frost Strikes. This is the Glyph of Icy Touch, another mandatory fellow. Newer Frost rotations are making more and more use of Icy Touch to generate lots of RP and therefore lots of Frost Strikes, and the whole reason you can do this is this glyph. Take it and enjoy your 25 RP-per-rune ability.
The choice between the other two Frost-related glyphs, those of Obliterate and Howling Blast is a little bit less clear-cut. With modern Frost rotations, the focus is largely on Icy Touch and Frost Strike, with Obliterate falling by the wayside. This often leaves it at under 10% of total damage, which means a 20% increase in that is a fairly minor DPS increase, often less than 2%. In my recent parses, it's been anywhere from 6-8% of my damage.
That said, taking the Howling Blast glyph is a strict DPS loss (albeit a minor one) on single-target fights. It is helpful, however, in pretty much every AoE situation, which includes a lot of the bosses in Ulduar. Especially on bosses with multiple parts, like Kologarn and Mimiron. Basically it allows you to completely ignore Pestilence, which uses up a rune, a GCD and does no damage (ick) and replace it with a Blood Boil or part of a Death and Decay. Choosing between these two is pretty much a matter of personal preference, since the DPS difference of each is difficult to gauge.
Unholy DPS glyphs
For Unholy, with this spec as an example, you again have two mandatory glyphs and then two others to choose between for the final slot. Glyph of Scourge Strike is the first of the necessary glyphs. All Unholy rotations are based off of using Scourge Strike combined with this glyph to put up diseases, and thereby avoiding having to cast Plague Strike and Icy Touch, which do less damage.
Glyph of the Ghoul is another no-brainer. The ghoul pet can be up to 15% of total DPS in a fight where he stays alive, and this is entirely passive. Anything you can to do buff Mr. Ghoul is essential to doing good DPS as Unholy.
The final major slot comes down to a choice between Glyph of Unholy Blight and Glyph of Dark Death. Back when 4-piece tier 7 generated an extra 10 RP on every Scourge Strike, Dark Death was the obvious choice. RP generation was easy and you got a lotmore Death Coils back then. Nowadays, with the set bonus nerfed and many people moving on to tier 8, the difference between the two glyphs is this: UB allows you to use more Death Coils, much like the old 4-piece tier 7. Dark Death, on the other hand, buffs all of your DCs by 15%, a small increase in overall damage.
An advantage of the UB Glyph is that it can make your rotation simpler as well as giving you more options. You are spending less GCDs on Unholy Blight, which means more RP for other things (defensive cooldowns, for example), as well as not having to worry quite as much about Unholy Blight falling off as you run around chasing adds and various things. I'm a big fan of having more freedom and choice in my rotations, so I'll lean towards the UB glyph.
Blood DPS glyphs
Blood specs are a bit more malleable than Frost or Unholy ones, but for the sake of simplicity let's take this one as a base to glyph up. For Blood, there are 4 glyphs to choose from. The one almost all Blood DKs take is the Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon. Controlled burst is one of the highlights of being Blood, what with Hysteria and all, and buffing Dancing Rune Weapon is a significant benefit to this aspect of Blood. Incidentally, controlled burst is pretty important in Ulduar, when certain short phases require a high DPS for a limited amount of time (XT-002's heart phases, for example).
Since 3.1 and Death Strike becoming a mainstay of Blood rotations, Glyph of Death Strike is pretty much mandatory. It changes the rotation up a little bit, forcing you to have at least 26 RP whenever you use Death Strike to take full advantage, but in my opinion this makes the game more interesting. You need 26, rather than 25, because the glyph boosts your damage for 2% every two RP rather than a 1 for 1 deal. You still only get 25% damage from 26 RP, though.
The next (and also largely mandatory) glyph is Dark Death. Blood fires off more Death Coils than any other spec due to the free ones from the Sudden Death talent, making boosting its damage a higher priority than for Unholy. In addition, this glyph benefits from having the Sigil of the Vengeful Heart, which Unholy DKs won't be taking (Awareness is superior for them).
There is the option of taking Glyph of the Ghoul, but the only reason to take this over any of the other three is if Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon is simply not available on your server yet (it's one of the ones learned from the new world drop books in 3.1).
The Glyph of Disease
Over at Elitist Jerks, every DPS thread is peppered with people asking about rotations with this glyph. The overwhelming response is that this glyph is always a DPS loss, for a number of different reasons. First, Pestilence does no damage, so right off you're losing the damage of a Blood Strike or Heart Strike, depending on your spec. It also makes rotations more complex, especially for Unholy and OB-centric Frost rotations, which rely on having pairs of Death Runes come up at once. You are also forced to clip your diseases, since you must cast Pestilence before your disease runs out, therefore losing the last few ticks of damage. In sum, do not use this glyph as a DPS DK.
A side note
As glyphs become cheaper, it gets easier and easier to swap out glyphs on a case-by-case basis, even using different glyphs for different boss encounters. If you have some extra gold lying around, try out different combinations for different encounters and see how you make out each time. Now get thee to your local auction house and have fun glyphing your Death Knight.
Reader Comments (5)
[...] Posting at Big Hit Box I just put up a post over at Big Hit Box about glyphing for DPS Death Knights, and I encourage you to go check it out [...]
Glyph of Disease actually stood to change the face of DK rotations forever. It allows in a glorified 5x UF rune ability per 20 sec which would have been a considerable amount of dps. Unfortunately, Glyph of Disease was released with multiple bugs of which gives the user a serious disadvantage.
1) It doesn't proc Icy Talons, despite the explicit description in the Icy Talons talent, this is a huge 20% loss in melee haste unless another class/DK covers it.
2)It is bugged and, at times, diseases will fall off early without going through their full duration. There is a huge window of up to three seconds where one of the diseases can, and often will fall off earlier than it should. This means you'd have to reapply your diseases all over again which is what Glyph of Disease is trying to avoid.
So.. buggy content, and until Blizz can fix it, it leaves very few advantages for Glyph of Disease supporters to mention. We should revisit possible applications for it once the glyph is fixed.
Hmm... no tanking glyph advice? My frost tank runs with Unbreakable Armor, Hungering Cold, Pestilence, Raise Dead, and Horn of Winter (not 80 yet). Unbreakable is mandatory, and I really like having Hungering Cold available every minute, gives you a lot of flexibility, and helpful in PVP as well. Will probably add a DPS glyph at 80, Frost Strike is the most likely choice. Thoughts?
@Shandreya: I was going to respond to you here, but I ended up having more to say/rant about the subject than appropriate for a comment, so you can read my response here: http://runeforgegossip.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/the-glyph-of-disease-problem/
@Hardyoyo: I'll try to do a post on tank glyphs later tonight or tomorrow that will hopefully answer your questions in detail. For the moment, if you're tanking as Frost I would advise trying out Glyph of Howling Blast and Glyph of Frost Strike. Hungering Cold isn't as useful in PvE (most heroics/naxx are AoE fests anyways) as in PvP. When you get to 80, I would add in glyph of UA, but until then regular instances shouldn't require it.
[...] in practice. Today I want to discuss the Glyph of Disease, partially in response to a comment on my glyph post over at Big Hit Box. The commenter stated that the Disease glyph is currently not worth using due [...]