Me and My Ghoul » Looking to swap your DK role? Here’s how…

Looking to swap your DK role? Here’s how…

Mar 25, 2009 I dps, gear, specs, tanking.

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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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admon Says:

while looking at the dkbuilds, im extremely surprised that it doesn’t have the disease-less 51-0-20 build for blood. and they put 51-13-7 as the cookie cutter build … even though it has been obsolete since 3.08 hit.

that site is good for a starter build when you are just trying to learn the spec, but if you want to maximize your damage you will have to look elsewhere. (and most likely that place will be SJ for any dps dk)
Mar 25, 2009, 1:45:10 pm
admon Says:

hmmm, it seems like the dkbuilds site has link to send new builds to him so that way if he missed a build it can get added later on.

i may have to send him the top blood spec/rotation so he can get it up then and update it a bit.
Mar 25, 2009, 1:57:36 pm
Grimtorn Says:

SJ offers good information, for sure, but I hesitate to link it due to some of the questionable images that he has posted in the past. Call me a prude, but I don’t see the need to generate traffic through the usage of photos of other women in questionable positions.
Mar 25, 2009, 2:02:39 pm
Kanaloah Says:

Isn’t the diseaseless blood spec taking a hit in 3.1? I thought they worked it so all the spells scaled with the # of diseases on a target encouraging the use of them. Maybe I missed a blue though.
Mar 25, 2009, 2:32:30 pm
Grimtorn Says:

It is – as are dual-wielding specs – which is why I’m sticking to a nice 2handed spec. I may not be uberleet, but I’ll stumble along just fine.
Mar 25, 2009, 2:45:11 pm
Kanaloah Says:

That’s probably why the diseaseless blood spec isn’t on that site.

I’ve been playing my DK lately and having a blast. I’m looking forward to Dual Spec to jump between a real tanking and a real DPS spec. I’m working on my tank gear atm, got some nice crafted pieces and been able to tank with little issue so far. Just hit 80 this weekend in ZulDrak so I have a lot of questing and dungeons ahead of me .

Kanaloah’s last blog post..Just for me…
Mar 25, 2009, 3:40:11 pm
Grimtorn Says:

I’d concur with your thoughts there.

With regards to tank gear – if you’ve got a buddy (or another toon) that’s a BS, some of your better upgrades will come that route. Granted, titansteel can get a bit pricy, but at least on my server the price has gone down dramatically. Grinding the hell out of Wyrmrest Accord rep will help there too – there’s a really nice chest (and boots if you don’t get the tempered titansteel) available at revered.
Mar 25, 2009, 3:58:35 pm
Kanaloah Says:

I picked up the Tempered Titansteel helm and boots last night, after picking up the titansteel destroyer too. Yes, my gold reserves have taken a huge hit and I’m down below where I was around level 65 . I also have all the crafted Saronite pieces, so I have a solid base for tanking, just need some rings and trinkets, and save up for the Titanium Earthguard Chain and a Titanium Earthguard Ring…ugh going to be so much more broke.
Mar 25, 2009, 4:04:12 pm
Grimtorn Says:

There’s a quest chain in Icecrown (the one that leads to uncovering the Admiral) that’ll offer you a decently nice necklace as a reward. And yeah, Earthguard ring is one of the items in my bank right now. Ah well!
Mar 25, 2009, 4:19:21 pm
Kanaloah Says:

Oh thanks! I’ll try to hit that up this weekend while the gf studies
Mar 25, 2009, 4:42:30 pm
admon Says:

yea, sj’s pictures are not exactly the most appropriate (though he does have good info).

and as for the dkbuild site, i submitted the disease-less build (as well as added rotations for the other blood specs). if he puts it up there great, if he doesnt … oh well he is probably planning for 3.1 (which i almost put a few dps specs up for him, but then figured not to since they probably will change a bit before it comes out).

and as for his tank specs … i dont know enough about dk tanking to really give improvements about them. tanking is not my strong point … though my guild seems to think that i should be a tank more often than dps for raids/heroic raids (thank god for duel spec in 3.1).
Mar 25, 2009, 7:25:35 pm