With patch 3.1 coming closer to being live, there will be more DKs out there either switching from their previous roles (be it tank or DPS), and still others grabbing up dual-speccing and needing to get a whole additional set of gear, not to mention a new spec.

While it might seem easy to just run a few random instances and hope that something useful might drop that’s not the way to go. Before you go off into that instance, take the time to plan out just what role and what tree you’re looking to achieve. We’ve established that I’m in love with the Unholy tree, so there was little doubt I’d be moving from Unholy Tank to Unholy DPS. But that meant finding a spec that not only matched my play style, but also wouldn’t gimp my guild on DPS.

Enter Death Knight Builds. While they may not be the only talent build site out there, they are specifically targeted at DKs, so there are plenty of builds available for your consideration – and even if cookie cutter isn’t your route, it’s still a good baseline to start with.

If you’re like me, you probably never anticipated you’d be switching away from your chosen role, and didn’t stockpile gear besides what you’d need *rightnow*. So how did I rectify this? I went back and forth between wowhead and maxdps, making up a list of items, where I could find them or what I needed to create them, and another list containing mats for enchants/gems. While some people (Zizzle) may think that making lists takes the fun out things, I like knowing what I need and where I can get it. Yes, I’m anal, but it works for me.

If you’re going to use wowhead for your gear search, make sure to utilize the feature that places an item value on items based upon your spec. It’s not perfect (in the case of DPS builds, maxdps will give you more accurate values), but it’s a good start.

Be willing to compromise, too. If you look over the armory link to the right, you’ll notice that Grim has on some nice DPS gear, some crummy DPS gear, and then some tanking gear (along with 2 really crummy trinkets). Sometimes, if the RNG doesn’t fall your way, you have to work with what you’ve got, or what you’ve got access to. Because Grim is an armorsmith, he was able to craft a chest/pants combo that, while not spectacular, will work until one of the better itemized pieces drops.

Above all, be willing to shell out some gold. While I stockpiled a great deal of blacksmithing mats in anticipation of this change, I’ve still been forced to buy gems (scarlet rubies by and large, to be cut into Bold Scarlet Rubies) and my gold supplies are the lowest they’ve been in awhile. Nothing a bit of farming can’t fix, but still, don’t go into this with nearly empty coffers and expect to be able to pull it off.

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