Post by jarakao on Oct 29, 2009 12:25:57 GMT -5
Introduction
This guide is meant to help Blood DKs improve and maximize their DPS, and provide basic information about class mechanics. The information comes from several sources (mostly Elitist Jerks website) and has been condensed to be more readable and digestible. It has come out of extensive theorycrafting, simulation, and real-time raids in places such as Ulduar and ToC. The math wizards spent a lot of time on the PTR testing new changes and working out the advanced formulae for determining what works best. What that means is that you can be confident that this information will help you achieve better DPS.
Things can change from patch to patch. For example, patch 3.2 brought changes to Armor Penetration and Heart Strike that lowered DPS. This was offset, however, by the new Sigil of Virulence, which helps increase DPS via Strength procs, and it only costs 20 marks (inexpensive). The point is that reading the patch notes is a must, since the smallest change can affect your DPS. When that happens, we look for a way to compensate or work around it.
Please set aside opinions and pre-conceived ideas. The information in this guide works. You should be able to reach 2K DPS or more with moderate gear (item level 200 and below). With a mix of level 200 and higher gear, you should be able to reach around 3K. Raid buffs, potions, enchants, glyphs, and gems all have an impact on your DPS as well. In full raid buffs you could reach 4K with mixed gear. At the high end in Ulduar gear, you could reach 6K.
This guide is intended for PVE, not PVP. They have different dynamics.
Please do not put much stock in gear ratings. They are helpful for determining if somebody is decently geared, but do not impart that person’s skill. As long as most of your gear is rated at item level 200 or above you should be good for almost all heroics, with the exception of some of the 25s and Ulduar. Remember, you are part of a raid group – not soloing. Each member has their own part to play. Yours is to DPS.
Blood vs. Frost vs. Unholy
Currently, Blood DKs do higher single-target DPS than any other DK. Frost and Unholy do better AOE. Blood DKs also offers something desirable to a raid – Abominable Might. This talent boosts DPS for the entire raid group via +10% Attack Power. That’s everybody, not just you. Blood DKs also have built-in healing from Blood Presence and a few passive talents, making survivability easier. You have to be a very-well geared Frost or Unholy to take on a geared Blood and win. In fact, a smart Unholy will not even engage you and will look for an easier target. They simply cannot compete with your damage output. A Frost can slow you down, but once you are in range, they are at a serious disadvantage. Death Strike is an especially nasty attack, since it heals you as it hurts them, and it hits very hard (have seen a 10K DS a few times).
DPS has a huge impact on a raid. It can be the difference between success and a wipe, since more DPS equals shorter fight, which is less damage on the tank, and an easier time for the healer. It’s why anything less than 2K can be viewed as unacceptable for most raids. H-TOC is much harder, and even 2K DPS can be viewed as insufficient.
Common Terms
AMS = Anti-Magic Shell
APE = Attack Power Equivalence
BB = Blood Boil
BCB = Blood Caked Blade
BP = Blood Presence
IT = Icy Touch
DC = Death Coil
DG = Death Grip
DnD = Death and Decay
DRW = Dancing Rune Weapon
FC = Rune of the Fallen Crusader
HoW = Horn of Winter
PS = Plague Strike
RP = Runic Power
RG = Raise Ghoul
Talents
There are currently two Blood DK builds that are the best, and there isn’t much difference between them. A slight talent tweak, a glyph change, and a rotation change are what set them apart. They are both 51-0-20 builds, one based on rolling diseases and the other on increased death coil damage – called Rolling Diseases and Dark Death respectively. Rolling Diseases is trickier, but it is pulling slightly ahead of Dark Death. The difference is not great though, so either is very viable in all raid situations. I will list the talents for Dark Death, and indicate the changes for Rolling Diseases. You will notice some remarkable talents not selected, but that is because they do nothing for DPS, and are more suited to tanking and PVP.
Blood Tree
Butchery (2) – runic power generation
Subversion (3) – critical strike chance
Bladed Armor (5) – attack power
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (2) – damage
Dark Conviction (5) – critical strike chance
Death Rune Mastery (3) – death runes, helps smooth rotation
Bloody Strikes (3) – damage
Veteran of the Third War (3) – Strength (damage) and Stamina (health)
Blood Vengeance (3) – stackable damage
Abomination’s Might (2) – Strength (damage) and Attack Power (damage for you and raid)
Bloodworms (3) – healing for you as they damage the target
Hysteria (1) – damage (can use on other raid members)
Improved Blood Presence (1) – filler, but helps the raid healers heal you
Improved Death Strike (2) – damage, critical strike chance, and self-healing
Sudden Doom (3) – extra Death Coil now and then for more damage
Heart Strike (1) – damage on multiple targets at same time, based on diseases on targets
Might of Mograine (3) – critical strike damage
Blood Gorged (5) – damage, and ignore 10% of target’s armor at all times
Dancing Rune Weapon (1) – copies all of your attacks at 50% damage, burst damage
Unholy Tree
Vicious Strikes (2) – critical strike chance and critical strike damage
Virulence (3) – spell hit chance, reduced chance that diseases can be removed
Epidemic (1) – disease duration <-- change to (2) for rolling diseases
Morbidity (3) – damage and healing <-- change to (2) for rolling diseases
Ravenous Dead (3) – Strength (damage) and ghoul buff
Necrosis (5) – auto-attack damage
Blood-Caked Blade (3) – auto-attack damage based on diseases on target
Glyphs
Major: Dancing Rune Weapon, Death Strike, Dark Death (use Glyph of Disease for Rolling Diseases)
Minor: Horn of Winter, Pestilence, Raise Dead
Runeforge - Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Presence - Blood Presence
Sigil - Sigil of Virulence, Sigil of the Vengeful Heart, Sigil of Awareness in order by benefit o DPS
Rotation
A Blood DK has tight rotations in both builds. Deviation will result in a loss of DPS. Sometimes your rotation is interrupted by boss mob movement or interrupts or running for your life, but if you keep them in order it will smooth back out. Talents you never, ever, ever use on a boss mob are DnD, DG, and BB. They incur high threat and steal aggro from the tank. If the tank loses aggro, it will cause a cascade effect resulting in a raid wipe. It is rare to recover when the tank loses aggro, unless the boss is near dead already. If you draw the aggro, the boss will kill you before the healers notice. Their job is to heal the tank, and heal you now and then to keep the DPS alive. But make no mistake; they know their survivability is based on the tank, not you. They will sacrifice you and rez you after, if anybody is left standing. Your job is simple – DPS – do as much damage as possible as fast as possible, without dallying around with non-DPS or AOE skills.
Basic Dark Death
Repeat --> IT – PS – HS – HS – DS – RG – DS – HS – HS – HS – HS – DC
Basic Rolling Diseases
Once -- > IT – PS – HS – HS – DS – RG – DS – HS – HS – HS – HS – DC
Repeat --> HS* – HS* – DS* – RG* – DS* – HS* – HS* – HS* – HS* – DC
* = If your diseases are about to expire on the target, use Pestilence instead of that attack.
Alternate Raid Rotation to get Abomination’s Might up as soon as possible
Once --> DS – IT – PS – HS – HS – RG – DC – HS – HS – DS – HS – HS
Repeat --> basic rotation
Dancing Rune Weapon is not included in the basic rotations because it is situational, and its maximum benefit is derived from other things. DRW gains the buffs that you have prior to being cast, such as Hysteria, potions, raid buffs, and talent procs. The best time to call DRW is right before diseases are refreshed, so right before IT and PS in the Dark Death build and right before Pestilence in Rolling Disease. That gives you a chance to get 4 diseases o nthe target, for extra disease damage. It isa good idea to put DRW in a burst damage macro with Hysteria and on-use trinkets and potions for great burst DPS.
Do not user Army of the Dead unlessed asked to do aso by the raid leader. Army of the Dead can cause some threat and aggro issues.
Bind Rune Strike to Heart Strike and Death Strike, so it will fire off when it is ready. An example macro is as follows:
#showtooltip
/cast Heart Strike
/cast !Rune Strike
Stat Priorities
This is where most disagreement occurs, and Cataclysm will change this quite a bit next year. For now, what is below is pretty much the best course to follow. It works, and that is what matters most.
The Stats are weighted according to APE, meaning how much Attack Power they are worth. Higher numbers are better. Anything below 1 AP is not listed and should be ignored.
Weapon (9.89) – a better weapon will improve your DPS more than anything
Strength (2.89)
Armor Penetration (2.75) – going away in Cataclysm and rolling up into Strength
Hit rating (2.51) – Hit should be at least 262 on character sheet
Expertise rating (2.47) – Exp should be 26 on character sheet
Crit rating (1.56)
Haste rating (1.5)
Agility (1.37)
The melee hit cap is 8%, which is about 262 Hit rating. Anything over it is wasted, since it will have no effect on boss mobs.
The soft expertise cap is around 25 or 26 (not rating), depending on race. Example - for a human it would be 25, and for an NE it would be 26.
When you gear, you are pretty much looking for as much Strength and Armor Penetration as possible, since they will have a bigger impact on your DPS than everything else but your weapon, but always try to cap Hit and Exp if possible.
Benefit of Professions
This part is not for making gold. It is for tweaking out the maximum, absolute best numbers for your DPS, at the possible sacrifice of gold-making abilities.
The two best professions for a Blood DK are JC and BS. JC can make JC-only gems (Bold Dragon's Eye) that are Strength +34, of which you can have 3 on your gear, for 14 extra Strength per gem (+42 together). BS can add an extra socket to your bracers and gloves, which are two more Strength +20 gems, as well as let you make Eternal Belt Buckles for another socket. The other professions do offer some benefit, but nothing like these two. With the upcoming changes in Cataclysm, JC and BS will also give the Blood DK the skill to enhance their own armor and jewelry.
Gems
Gem for Strength! Ignore socket bonuses, since you will get more benefit from Strength gems than what the socket bonuses offer. It may seem funny, but it works. The only exception is the Nightmare Tear, which gives +10 to all stats. It should always be used.
Enchants
We will cover this at another time, since the information I have is for endgame gearing. It is a shame to waste the gold it would cost for them on something you will eventually replace. If you have to, enchant for hit, expertise and attack power for the best pre-endgame benefit.
Also, NEVER ENCHANT YOUR WEAPON! Always use Rune of the Fallen Crusader, since it procs a lot and beats the heck out of everything else. You can use short-term stuff like sharpening stones, which are helpful for DPS though.
Getting Your First Great Weapon
This will sound harsh, but there is absolutely no reason for bringing a 500 damage 2H weapon to a raid. We have two solid options for a 700+ damage weapon available to us that only require rep grinding with Knights of the Ebon Blade and at the Argent Grounds. Both weapons are great starter raid weapons. Grinding rep may also sound bad to you, but it is effective and will help you hone skills in preparation for raids. You also have the expensive option of buying a Titansteel Destroyer off the AH. It is well-spent gold, since your weapon has the greatest impact on your DPS.
Once you can get into normal TOC and H-TOC 5-mans, you can pick up an epic polearm (MArrowstrike) or epic axe (Edge of Ruin).
Summary
Disagreements aside, this is simply the best information available for a Blood DK to raise their DPS. If you follow it, you will increase your DPS and success in raids. If you choose to gem or enchant or gear differently, expect lower DPS.
This guide is meant to help Blood DKs improve and maximize their DPS, and provide basic information about class mechanics. The information comes from several sources (mostly Elitist Jerks website) and has been condensed to be more readable and digestible. It has come out of extensive theorycrafting, simulation, and real-time raids in places such as Ulduar and ToC. The math wizards spent a lot of time on the PTR testing new changes and working out the advanced formulae for determining what works best. What that means is that you can be confident that this information will help you achieve better DPS.
Things can change from patch to patch. For example, patch 3.2 brought changes to Armor Penetration and Heart Strike that lowered DPS. This was offset, however, by the new Sigil of Virulence, which helps increase DPS via Strength procs, and it only costs 20 marks (inexpensive). The point is that reading the patch notes is a must, since the smallest change can affect your DPS. When that happens, we look for a way to compensate or work around it.
Please set aside opinions and pre-conceived ideas. The information in this guide works. You should be able to reach 2K DPS or more with moderate gear (item level 200 and below). With a mix of level 200 and higher gear, you should be able to reach around 3K. Raid buffs, potions, enchants, glyphs, and gems all have an impact on your DPS as well. In full raid buffs you could reach 4K with mixed gear. At the high end in Ulduar gear, you could reach 6K.
This guide is intended for PVE, not PVP. They have different dynamics.
Please do not put much stock in gear ratings. They are helpful for determining if somebody is decently geared, but do not impart that person’s skill. As long as most of your gear is rated at item level 200 or above you should be good for almost all heroics, with the exception of some of the 25s and Ulduar. Remember, you are part of a raid group – not soloing. Each member has their own part to play. Yours is to DPS.
Blood vs. Frost vs. Unholy
Currently, Blood DKs do higher single-target DPS than any other DK. Frost and Unholy do better AOE. Blood DKs also offers something desirable to a raid – Abominable Might. This talent boosts DPS for the entire raid group via +10% Attack Power. That’s everybody, not just you. Blood DKs also have built-in healing from Blood Presence and a few passive talents, making survivability easier. You have to be a very-well geared Frost or Unholy to take on a geared Blood and win. In fact, a smart Unholy will not even engage you and will look for an easier target. They simply cannot compete with your damage output. A Frost can slow you down, but once you are in range, they are at a serious disadvantage. Death Strike is an especially nasty attack, since it heals you as it hurts them, and it hits very hard (have seen a 10K DS a few times).
DPS has a huge impact on a raid. It can be the difference between success and a wipe, since more DPS equals shorter fight, which is less damage on the tank, and an easier time for the healer. It’s why anything less than 2K can be viewed as unacceptable for most raids. H-TOC is much harder, and even 2K DPS can be viewed as insufficient.
Common Terms
AMS = Anti-Magic Shell
APE = Attack Power Equivalence
BB = Blood Boil
BCB = Blood Caked Blade
BP = Blood Presence
IT = Icy Touch
DC = Death Coil
DG = Death Grip
DnD = Death and Decay
DRW = Dancing Rune Weapon
FC = Rune of the Fallen Crusader
HoW = Horn of Winter
PS = Plague Strike
RP = Runic Power
RG = Raise Ghoul
Talents
There are currently two Blood DK builds that are the best, and there isn’t much difference between them. A slight talent tweak, a glyph change, and a rotation change are what set them apart. They are both 51-0-20 builds, one based on rolling diseases and the other on increased death coil damage – called Rolling Diseases and Dark Death respectively. Rolling Diseases is trickier, but it is pulling slightly ahead of Dark Death. The difference is not great though, so either is very viable in all raid situations. I will list the talents for Dark Death, and indicate the changes for Rolling Diseases. You will notice some remarkable talents not selected, but that is because they do nothing for DPS, and are more suited to tanking and PVP.
Blood Tree
Butchery (2) – runic power generation
Subversion (3) – critical strike chance
Bladed Armor (5) – attack power
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (2) – damage
Dark Conviction (5) – critical strike chance
Death Rune Mastery (3) – death runes, helps smooth rotation
Bloody Strikes (3) – damage
Veteran of the Third War (3) – Strength (damage) and Stamina (health)
Blood Vengeance (3) – stackable damage
Abomination’s Might (2) – Strength (damage) and Attack Power (damage for you and raid)
Bloodworms (3) – healing for you as they damage the target
Hysteria (1) – damage (can use on other raid members)
Improved Blood Presence (1) – filler, but helps the raid healers heal you
Improved Death Strike (2) – damage, critical strike chance, and self-healing
Sudden Doom (3) – extra Death Coil now and then for more damage
Heart Strike (1) – damage on multiple targets at same time, based on diseases on targets
Might of Mograine (3) – critical strike damage
Blood Gorged (5) – damage, and ignore 10% of target’s armor at all times
Dancing Rune Weapon (1) – copies all of your attacks at 50% damage, burst damage
Unholy Tree
Vicious Strikes (2) – critical strike chance and critical strike damage
Virulence (3) – spell hit chance, reduced chance that diseases can be removed
Epidemic (1) – disease duration <-- change to (2) for rolling diseases
Morbidity (3) – damage and healing <-- change to (2) for rolling diseases
Ravenous Dead (3) – Strength (damage) and ghoul buff
Necrosis (5) – auto-attack damage
Blood-Caked Blade (3) – auto-attack damage based on diseases on target
Glyphs
Major: Dancing Rune Weapon, Death Strike, Dark Death (use Glyph of Disease for Rolling Diseases)
Minor: Horn of Winter, Pestilence, Raise Dead
Runeforge - Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Presence - Blood Presence
Sigil - Sigil of Virulence, Sigil of the Vengeful Heart, Sigil of Awareness in order by benefit o DPS
Rotation
A Blood DK has tight rotations in both builds. Deviation will result in a loss of DPS. Sometimes your rotation is interrupted by boss mob movement or interrupts or running for your life, but if you keep them in order it will smooth back out. Talents you never, ever, ever use on a boss mob are DnD, DG, and BB. They incur high threat and steal aggro from the tank. If the tank loses aggro, it will cause a cascade effect resulting in a raid wipe. It is rare to recover when the tank loses aggro, unless the boss is near dead already. If you draw the aggro, the boss will kill you before the healers notice. Their job is to heal the tank, and heal you now and then to keep the DPS alive. But make no mistake; they know their survivability is based on the tank, not you. They will sacrifice you and rez you after, if anybody is left standing. Your job is simple – DPS – do as much damage as possible as fast as possible, without dallying around with non-DPS or AOE skills.
Basic Dark Death
Repeat --> IT – PS – HS – HS – DS – RG – DS – HS – HS – HS – HS – DC
Basic Rolling Diseases
Once -- > IT – PS – HS – HS – DS – RG – DS – HS – HS – HS – HS – DC
Repeat --> HS* – HS* – DS* – RG* – DS* – HS* – HS* – HS* – HS* – DC
* = If your diseases are about to expire on the target, use Pestilence instead of that attack.
Alternate Raid Rotation to get Abomination’s Might up as soon as possible
Once --> DS – IT – PS – HS – HS – RG – DC – HS – HS – DS – HS – HS
Repeat --> basic rotation
Dancing Rune Weapon is not included in the basic rotations because it is situational, and its maximum benefit is derived from other things. DRW gains the buffs that you have prior to being cast, such as Hysteria, potions, raid buffs, and talent procs. The best time to call DRW is right before diseases are refreshed, so right before IT and PS in the Dark Death build and right before Pestilence in Rolling Disease. That gives you a chance to get 4 diseases o nthe target, for extra disease damage. It isa good idea to put DRW in a burst damage macro with Hysteria and on-use trinkets and potions for great burst DPS.
Do not user Army of the Dead unlessed asked to do aso by the raid leader. Army of the Dead can cause some threat and aggro issues.
Bind Rune Strike to Heart Strike and Death Strike, so it will fire off when it is ready. An example macro is as follows:
#showtooltip
/cast Heart Strike
/cast !Rune Strike
Stat Priorities
This is where most disagreement occurs, and Cataclysm will change this quite a bit next year. For now, what is below is pretty much the best course to follow. It works, and that is what matters most.
The Stats are weighted according to APE, meaning how much Attack Power they are worth. Higher numbers are better. Anything below 1 AP is not listed and should be ignored.
Weapon (9.89) – a better weapon will improve your DPS more than anything
Strength (2.89)
Armor Penetration (2.75) – going away in Cataclysm and rolling up into Strength
Hit rating (2.51) – Hit should be at least 262 on character sheet
Expertise rating (2.47) – Exp should be 26 on character sheet
Crit rating (1.56)
Haste rating (1.5)
Agility (1.37)
The melee hit cap is 8%, which is about 262 Hit rating. Anything over it is wasted, since it will have no effect on boss mobs.
The soft expertise cap is around 25 or 26 (not rating), depending on race. Example - for a human it would be 25, and for an NE it would be 26.
When you gear, you are pretty much looking for as much Strength and Armor Penetration as possible, since they will have a bigger impact on your DPS than everything else but your weapon, but always try to cap Hit and Exp if possible.
Benefit of Professions
This part is not for making gold. It is for tweaking out the maximum, absolute best numbers for your DPS, at the possible sacrifice of gold-making abilities.
The two best professions for a Blood DK are JC and BS. JC can make JC-only gems (Bold Dragon's Eye) that are Strength +34, of which you can have 3 on your gear, for 14 extra Strength per gem (+42 together). BS can add an extra socket to your bracers and gloves, which are two more Strength +20 gems, as well as let you make Eternal Belt Buckles for another socket. The other professions do offer some benefit, but nothing like these two. With the upcoming changes in Cataclysm, JC and BS will also give the Blood DK the skill to enhance their own armor and jewelry.
Gems
Gem for Strength! Ignore socket bonuses, since you will get more benefit from Strength gems than what the socket bonuses offer. It may seem funny, but it works. The only exception is the Nightmare Tear, which gives +10 to all stats. It should always be used.
Enchants
We will cover this at another time, since the information I have is for endgame gearing. It is a shame to waste the gold it would cost for them on something you will eventually replace. If you have to, enchant for hit, expertise and attack power for the best pre-endgame benefit.
Also, NEVER ENCHANT YOUR WEAPON! Always use Rune of the Fallen Crusader, since it procs a lot and beats the heck out of everything else. You can use short-term stuff like sharpening stones, which are helpful for DPS though.
Getting Your First Great Weapon
This will sound harsh, but there is absolutely no reason for bringing a 500 damage 2H weapon to a raid. We have two solid options for a 700+ damage weapon available to us that only require rep grinding with Knights of the Ebon Blade and at the Argent Grounds. Both weapons are great starter raid weapons. Grinding rep may also sound bad to you, but it is effective and will help you hone skills in preparation for raids. You also have the expensive option of buying a Titansteel Destroyer off the AH. It is well-spent gold, since your weapon has the greatest impact on your DPS.
Once you can get into normal TOC and H-TOC 5-mans, you can pick up an epic polearm (MArrowstrike) or epic axe (Edge of Ruin).
Summary
Disagreements aside, this is simply the best information available for a Blood DK to raise their DPS. If you follow it, you will increase your DPS and success in raids. If you choose to gem or enchant or gear differently, expect lower DPS.