Gear upgrade list from boss kills – http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=190236/new-options-in-firelands-a-guide-to-gear-in-4-2#strenghplate-head
And Tanky stuff. Or here too – Orcish Army Knife’s guide.
Overall gear items needed are: An upgraded Head and Shoulder item, preferably one which is a set piece, to get the t4 bonus. Weapon and Boots are the only other critical items for Dps. I’ve finished Valor updates for my Dps set, and now can start looking at the Tank items I might upgrade.
- Head: Tank from Baelroc, or from Ragnaros.
- Shoulder: Dps and Tank from Staghelm, and Tank from Alysrazor and Ragnaros.
- Chest: Upgrade Tank from Bethtilac.
- Wrist: Upgrade Dps from Lord Rhyolith, Tank from Staghelm.
- Hands: None, DK set is bis for both roles.
- Waist: None, cross grades only.
- Legs: Tank from Shannox
- Feet: Dps from Bethtilac, Tank from Lord Rhyolith
- Neck: cross grade Dps from Shannox
- Rings: Tank set only, or both when FL Rep reaches exalted.
- Trinket: Dps trinket from Ragnaros. See ranking table. Tank trinket from Bethtilac is still darn nice. And FL Rep Trinket seems good.
- Cloak: None, best is gained from quests.
Weapons research is depressing for dual wield Frost builds, as there are basically no boss drops in Firelands that give a weapon dedicated for duel wield strength users. An alternate is to switch to a good two handed weapon, which has more options.
- 1H Sword from Beth’tilac, which is still an improvement on the crafted 365 Axes after reforging – despite being a Tank item.
- 1H Axe which is a BoE random drop in Firelands, which is the best option.
- 2H Sulfuras from Ragnaros, is the best 2H weapon, then a 2h Great-axe from Shannox.
Mortigen is my focus in World of Warcraft, and has been since the Death Knights were released.
This page is a scribble pad for info I want to keep handy. Find Mortigen on the Armory, or on the WoWHead Character profiler.
Mortigen at 80 in Tanking set. Rawr.
Mortigen as a new level 80
Mortigen - at 70 in Tank gear
Now wearing mostly 226 gear, new shoulders, and the kick arse Argent Tabbard.
Toon History
- Jun 7, 2010 Mortigen joined guild Insidious
- Jun 6, 2010 Mortigen left guild Exile
- Jan 26, 2010 Mortigen changed guild Legendary with Exile
- May 28, 2009 Mortigen joined guild Legendary
- May 29, 2009 Mortigen left guild Unhinged
- May 11, 2009 Mortigen joined guild Unhinged
- May 11, 2009 Mortigen left guild Epilogue
- Dec 2, 2008 Mortigen joined guild Epilogue
Hey Nice… but i Hate ally (no offence) i like horde more Draenei are the only cool Alliance race! xD
Heh, none taken. Its a good thing that the factions still hate each other.
Ya that’s kool, even in real world… jejeje (joking)
i need a good rotation for the 50/0/21 spec can u come up with one pls
I didn’t find a rotation for Blood that was useful for single target dps and also could cope with interruption due to movement or death of the mob. In my humble opinion the Blood dps rotation is so tight that any change will cause a significant drop in performance.
It also seemed to me to be badly affected by lag, and as an Australian I see 500-850 ms lag as my normal raiding game, so can’t push the Blood performance to its best.
I re-speced to Unholy for dps and now can do a really comfy 3500-4000 dps in 10 mans. 25 man can break 5000. Again I know this is short of what the theoretical top is, but remember that I’m always 0.5 a sec behind the curve due to lag.
But to answer your question directly, apply the diseases, use the strike, then pop Unholy Blight every time it is not active for the RunePower dump. If you find yourself with close to max RP and UB is still active, use a DeathCoil. Refresh the diseases as soon as they are off, not before.
I don’t follow a strict rotation, as I find you need to apply some priority rules to what action to take rather than a fixed 1,2,3,4,3,3,5 rotation.
I’m at level 60 now, and I’m about evenly specced in frost/unholy (prolly a bad idea), but I find that I’m most comfy doing it basically your way — diseases then strike.
I really like to have those flies buzzing around me too!
Any suggestions on how to cheaply raise my intellect by about 20 or 30? My battlefield gear is especially lacking in that area.
hey Chartroose – I think using Int anywhere on your gear is a bad idea. You don’t need it at all (unless there is a pvp reason that is beyond me?). DKs get more spell damage from our Attack Power stat, and Int has no affect on RP generation.
Suppose if you want it, then look for an Enchant, or a +Stats to Chest to raise everything. I usually scan the AH when leveling looking for bargain enchants for each gear item.
If I can’t get a Enchant I don’t worry; but the initial DK gear at 58-60 is darn good and you’ll keep most of it well into 63-65.
Thanks, dude! I’m so used to playing my main warlock who is oozing intelligence — and it has really helped him — that I figured it would help my DK too.
I am going to respec, since I hear that blood/unholy is a better leveling combo.
Hello Typhoon, I love the blog about DK’s, which are difficult to find from work!
I am struggling at lvl 75 Blood DK at the moment with finding decent gear drops. Do you have any advice on which areas of Northrend I need to concentrate on for quick levelling or better gear? My DPS is about 2.5k with my current gear mostly attack power, stamina and strength. Is this right for my current level or should the dps be higher?
Hi Shaggyd, if you’re doing 2.5k at level 75 then you’re doing nothing wrong at all. I’ve seen folks at 80 do far less.
I’d suggest dropping Stamina from your leveling needs, as a blood DK can regen health really quickly, and strength is what to aim for.
Leveling its even ok to not worry too much about hit and expertise either, just take what you can from instances. Do the normal random every day and you’ll see some nice gear and build toward a nice set when you hit 80.
Also check out Kaliban’s Loot List, as it have the best dps and tank gear by zone and instance already figured out. A fantastic resource.
Oh and the Champion of Anguish quest is fantastic for a 2H weapon.
Will the tankard of terror be a good weapon choice at 80?
If you happen to have one banked then yes, its ok. It is not brilliant however and is probably a better weapon for a class that gets more benefit from Agility.
A true DK weapon will have Strength rather than Agility. I would also suggest that unless you can get another good one hander and are using the dual wield spec, then a 2 handed weapon is better. Certainly better for Blood.
I started with a crafted Titansteel Destroyer, which was a good start.
Also try these on the AH as the early BoE weapons that you might get; and also remember that some great items are available for only 25 Champions seals.
Many thanks for the reply, nice to know that what I am doing is ok. My next DK question is an ethical one (ooh!) – I currently wait 30 mins to dps in dungeon finder, if I switch to tank as a Blood DK would this be “acceptable” or would I most likely be booted off the party? – This is knowing that tanks get to join parties much quicker than dps…
If you have the gear to be defense capped, or gear that is appropriate to your level while leveling – then it is ok to join as tank.
However if you join as Tank with no gear capable, and no intention to do so then you’re only pissing everyone off and doing the wrong thing. And yes, you’ll probably get booted.
Better to gear up using off-spec rolls while doing dps than join as a tank.
Hello Typhoon, I love the blog about DK’s, which are difficult to find from work!
I am struggling at lvl 75 Blood DK at the moment with finding decent gear drops. Do you have any advice on which areas of Northrend I need to concentrate on for quick leveling or better gear? My DPS is about 2.5k with my current gear mostly attack power, stamina and strength. Is this right for my current level or should the dps be higher?
+1
As long as you are not dying the general level of dps you doing is secondary. I found that it was better in the Northrend areas to stay in areas where the quest hubs were consolidated. I liked BT, SB and loved Icecrown.
If you’re stacking Strength on your gear then that is the right idea, and don’t worry about missing a good drop here or there, as the Cata drops are so much better. You’ll be able to buy cata drops at 78 that are better than mid-Wrath raid gear from the AH cheaply.