Death Knight DPS Specs
For the first time ever all three trees provide competitive dps. There is a lot of information ahead so take your time digesting it all. All specs, glyphs, and rotations are 3.3.3 current.
Common Abbreviations:
BS - Blood Strike
BT - Blood Tap
DC - Death Coil
DRW - Dancing Rune Weapon
DS - Death Strike
FS - Frost Strike
HB - Howling Blast
HS - Heart Strike
IT - Icy Touch
KM - Killing Machine
OB - Obliterate
Pest - Pestilence
PS - Plague Strike
RP - Runic Power
SS - Scourge Strike
Some standards for all specs (unless otherwise noted):
Hit cap - Alliance 230 (and make friends with a draenei) Horde 263
Expertise cap - 26 or 6.5% after talents
Gemming - Meta Gem - Relentless Earthsiege Diamond 1 Nightmare Tear and the rest Bold Ruby Cardinals
If you find your self lacking in hit a couple Etched Ametrines will do the trick.
Enchanting
Head - Arcanum of Torment - Knights of the Ebon Blade
Shoulders - Greater Inscripition of the Axe - Sons of Hodir
Back - Greater Speed
Chest - Powerful Stats
Wrists - Greater Assault
Hands - Crusher or Precision (if you need the hit)
Belt - Eternal Belt Buckle
Pants - Icescale Leg Armor
Boots - There is a lot of debate on what should be put here I personally use Tuskar's Viatlity for the run speed
Weapon - Rune of the Fallen Crusader (for frost OH use Rune of Razorice)
Frost
1/52/18 Frost DW with glyphs
0/53/18 Frost DW with glyphs
Rotation: 1st: IT->PS->OB->BS->BS->FS 2nd: OB->FS->OB-FS-OB 3rd: OB->OB->*Pest->BS->FS
Benefits: 20% increase melee haste if the raid is missing an enhancement shaman. 45% increase haste for you.
Why does pestilence has a star next to it you ask? To see top dps with this spec you need to recast your diseases as little as possible. Pestilence is your #1 priority and should always be your first option if your disease times are low.
KM procs now should be used as soon as possible with frost strike. The reason we only take 4 points in KM is so the procs aren't wasted by being refreshed because you can't hit a frost strike.
Even with out the perma ghoul talent don't forget to summon him! Pop him out before lust/hero he will do a good amount of damage in the 2 minutes he is out.Army of the Dead is on a 30 minute timer but that doesn't mean it should be ignored. Get them out before a hero/lust as often as possible.
Weapons of choice for dw frost are slow slow. If you want to see the logic behind this there is a great post by Stoneybaby (here) on how big of a dps loss a fast OH is. His is tailored to enhancement shamans but the principle is the same, a lot of our damage comes from strikes that are based off of weapon damage; a slow weapon will always come out on top.
Blood
51/0/20 2H Blood with Glyph of Dark Death (GoDD)
51/0/20 2H Blood with Glyph of Disease (GoD)
GoDD Rotation: Start Up: DS->IT->PS->HS->HS->DC 2nd Rotation: HS->HS->DS->HS->HS->DC->DC
GoD Roation: DS->IT->PS->HS->HS->DC All Other Rotations: HS->HS->DS->HS->PS*->DC
*Pestilence is a higher priority then Heart Strike only when diseases are low elsewise use a Heart Strike
Benefits: Blood brings a very nice 10% AP buff to a raid that is missing either an enhancement shaman or a marksman hunter.
With the changes to Glyph of Disease there is no more rolling ap values for your diseases. Doesn't mean it's not viable. Refreshing diseases works great for a fight that you can refresh them every 20 seconds. If not I would recommend a spec with Glyph of Dark Death. You still want to apply diseases after you cast DRW, as it benefits from applying its own diseases. You want to use your DRW early in a fight and always after a hero/lust, hysteria, on use trinkets/abilities(horde),
and speed potion usage. When it is summoned it takes a snap shot of all your stats at that time, so make sure it gets full benefit.
Unholy
Benefits: 13% increased magical damage 30% increased disease damage.
Pre 2 piece tier 10:
17/0/54 Unholy w/Glyphs
Rotation: PS-> IT-> BS-> BS-> SS-> DC 2nd rotation: SS->DC->SS->BS->BS->DC
With no reaping, the change to glyph of disease, and the (now) slight buff to scourge strike we will drop 1 scourge strike for 2 blood strikes in the second part of our rotation. Pretty much everything else stays the same with unholy.
Post 2 piece t 10:
Static Weapon: 14/0/57 Unholy w/Glyphs
Rotation: IT->PS->BS->BS->SS->DC 2nd rotation: SS->SS->DC->SS->DC
Proc Weapon: 0/17/54 Unholy w/Glyphs
Rotation: IT->PS->BS->BS->SS->DC 2nd rotation: SS->BS->BS->DC->SS->DC
When Should You Go Frost Subspec?
If you have a weapon that has a proc on hit ability the haste buff from Icy Talons allows your weapon to hit more often and that damage outweighs the extra SS you would get from Reaping.
Info Pertaining to Both Specs:
The reduced cool down on Army of the Dead and the perma ghoul are the big attractions for this spec. The gargoyle is on a small cool down of 3 minutes so you can use it multiple times in a fight. Pop it early and pop it during heroism.
