DK Builds (Complete)

[cXm0d]

Note, this was all taken from WoW head, I take no credit aside from finding it.
While I am not the author of it, I do have great knowledge on the matter, and can answer any questions you may have.

Hello and Welcome. This is my mini-guide to DK Talent points and Skill usage. I'm posting this because I see alot of post concerning peoples builds, and alot of arguement being passed about many of them.

I'd like to start by saying, It's really hard to build a DK wrong. I have a use in some form or fashion for 95% of DK talents. The thing I've learned about DK talents, is they Synergize with each other. So, I've done the best I could making that happen, while at the same time filling a specified roll which will be said after each build. There are tons of possibilities, so i'll try to cover all I can.

Death Knights are built around combo's. Talents used will make 1-2 skills your main damage dealing skills. If you have more than 2-3 your building your DK wrong. These builds help maximize damage, while making good use of runes. Each build consist of main damage skills, And each build should have a spammable Runic power Skill. Even while spamming damage it is very important to keep both diseases on a target, Frost Fever, and Blood Plague. Note* All of these are a matter of opinion, feel free to offer suggestions

**Terms Legend**
DW = Dual Wield
HB = Howling Blast
DnD = Death and Decay
CE = Corpse Explode
IT = Icy Touch
SS = Scourge Strike
Pest. = Pestilence
Oblit = Obliterate
PS = Plague Strike
HS = Heart Strike
BB = Blood Boil
UB = Unholy Blight
BS = Blood Strike
FS = Frost Strike
DG = Death Grip
HC = Hungering Cold
DS = Death Strike
DC = Death Coil
DarkC = Dark Command
AotD = Army of the Dead

Frost DW w/Unholy DPS 3/50/18 *Polished and Finished*
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - PS, IT, HB, BS, BS, FS
Runic Power Dump - FS
Suggested Rune Enchants - Razorice (Feel free to use Cinderglacier or Fallen Crusader)
This is cut and dry DPS. Starting with the frost tree, picking everything to maximize DPS. This build is heavily reliant on the proc skills such as Killing Machine, Rime, even Blood-Caked Blades in the Unholy Tree. This makes for massive burst DPS (pvp lovers eh hem). It also has good sustained DPS as well with Necrosis, Icy Talons. HB will be your bread and butter here. Save Death Chill cooldowns for HB's. FS is a great runic power dump skill as all the skills make it start to really dish out some damage as well. Start with PS for the Glacier Rot effect. The 3 points in subversion should really help with agro control since you will be in Blood Presence while DPS'ing. *Special Note - When in Raid and Group situations, be careful of HB. Make sure your tank has AoE agro before unleasing it. Cause, if HB crits your first target, it will also crit all targets in range. Consider using Oblit first go around to ensure tank gets proper agro.
Alternatives - Frost DW w/Blood DPS 15/56/0 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Uses - End Game DPS. Not Recommended for Leveling.
Special Thanks - Mercalio

Blood 2 Handed DPS *Polished and Final*
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - IT, PS, Oblit, HS, HS, DC, Oblit
Runic Power Dump - DC
Suggested Rune Enchants - Fallen Crusader
This one has been tough to finish. I've revised it atleast 5 times so far, but thanks to everyone's advice I think I've finally got this finished. First question I think will be the choice of Rune Tap in a DPS build. Well, we all know bosses like to AoE sometimes as annoying as this is. I think Rune Tap is perfect for a Blood DPS because of Blood Gorged. This will help you stay above the 75% mark along with DS. I finally broke down and picked up Hysteria. I can see how it can come in handy when used right. With DS and Rune Tap, I think one could manage his health with this. Also use on teamates but be aware of the fight and their ability to take the extra damage. It doesn't seem like much, but 1% of 10000 is 100 damage. So it can add up in a non controlled situation. As far as I can tell, Blood Presence and Blood Aura DO in fact stack. It might not be noticeable, but I can't find anything, anywhere saying otherwise. Plus your group/raid will love you. Toughness adds to bladed armor for more Attack Power, and the rest of the tree is basically to get to Annihilation. The unholy add-ons are there for better DC's on runic dumps, and the better duration on diseases means more Strikes inbetween without refreshing them so much saving those runes.
Alternatives - Getting Necrosis 51/5/15 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft It's really hard for me to suggest this. The loss of Annihilation means hardly ever using Oblit. So the new rotation would be something such as this : IT, PS, DS, HS, HS, DC. I just think Oblit will be much more damage. But if you intend on using Hysteria alot on yourself, this could actually prove to work better because DS becomes a main skill.
Picking up Icy Talons 51/18/2 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft This one focuses on picking up the Icy Talons skill for increased attack speed. Most likely, you will have a frost DK in your raid/group that will take care of this. But just incase you really want it, here it is. You lose the extra disease time as well as a point to boost your DC. But This would work fine for someone who's a big fan of Icy Talons. I suggest one of the other 2. But personal preferance matters, and, like with most DK builds, works just fine.
Special Thanks - lawlsham, Golite

Unholy 2 Handed DPS 17/0/54 *Polished and Final*
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - IT, PS, SS, BS, BS, DC
Runic Power Dump - DC
Suggested Rune Enchants - Fallen Crusader, Cinderglacier
Starting off, I skip Virulence for a reason. My feeling behind the skill is it's ok to get if you feel the need. But honestly, those points are better spent elsewhere. It's hard to drop any of this for DPS'ing if your really serious about it. The next question someone will ask is why no Gargoyle? Well, if your using your runic power for Death Coils, Horn of Winters, and other things on the fly, can you really use it on Gargoyle as well? I feel it's better spent spamming DC and making sure your party has horn up at all times. Just my opinion, feel free to take it if your a huge fan and dont' mind a 3 min cool down which really turns me off this skill. The next part questioned will be no Pale Horse or Unholy Aura. Why do you need movement speed vs end game raids and groups? Sure, it's handy, but it's more suited for leveling not DPS'ing. Now, yes i skipped anti-magic zone. I feel this skill should be left up to a tank. It's alot of points which in all reality can be of help, but mostly it just looks cool for now and people use it leveling. Which isn't helpful at all. It's hard to skip on any points to get this. Unholy Blight. I've racked my brain wondering if it's worth getting. Each time i go back to the runic power that i really want to use for DC's. Again, i feel this is a good tank skill for AoE agro, but not for DPS.
Variances - Unholy 2 Handed DPS with Frost 3/18/50 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft With this, you have to commit to Oblit over SS. Which is fine, I do not know which does more damage at level 80, but if it isn't close, i would think Oblit does have a slight advantage. You gain Icy Talons, and your IT's start hurting alot more. Also, you lose Wandering Plague, but i feel the 3 points in Subversion are way more helpful with the crit and the key lower agro in blood presence which you should be in raiding and grouping. Unholy Precence is ok, but with the agro reduction, you can use things like DnD and such on trash pulls without pulling agro if your tank is decent.

Frost 2 Handed DPS 20/51/0 *Polished and Final*
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - PS, IT, HB or Oblit (explain later), BS, BS, FS
Runic Power Dump - FS
Suggested Rune Enchants - Fallen Crusader, Cinderglacier, Razorice
First i'll explain the rotation question. Unlike the DW build, 2 Handers will make Oblit start hitting very hard. HB will still hit very hard as well, but, now you have Death Rune Mastery as well. With this, using Oblit can make death rune, blood strike will make death runes. This is probably the most flexable build there is due to the ability to actually make all 6 runes Death Runes. So, if something changes you can adapt on the fly. Here is how I personally would work this. Lets say your running an instance. Trash pulls of up to 4 mobs sometimes. I would use HB on pulls where you can damage 3 or more targets. Whereas pulls of 2 or less you would be using Oblit. This applies to boss fights as well. Use Oblit. I dont know the confirmed damage on each at level 80 to say one hurts more.. BUT, if your using Oblit followed by 2 BS's durning a boss fight, your sustained DPS will be higher than just having the burst from HB. Having all those Death Runes will make it easier for you to have 2 rotations to keep pumping out sick damage. First Rotation you've seen, after you've finished it. Start the next as so. PS, IT, Oblit, Oblit. OR HB, HB. Whichever does more damage. Then FS your runic power away, and start back to the old death rune making rotation which is still pumping damage. Careful on your points, realize i left 1 point off of Killing Machine to get the full Death Rune Mastery.
Variances - Frost 2 Handed DPS with Unholy 5/51/15 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft Main goal of this is to increase the time your Diseases are up (which i've fell in LOVE with) and getting Necrosis. The frost tree changes some.. Losing toughness (no more bladed armor) and grabbing Runic Power Mastery and UnBreakable Armor for that burst in STR. That's the reason for keeping Butchery. You'll have mucho runic power to spam now if it builds up. So you can FS your heart out. The Reason Morbidity is taken is for the DnD cool down. With Subversion up, you can use DnD on trash pulls and really pump out some damage without pulling agro (if you let the tank set some up first its pretty simple, I use this alot and always have DnD my 2nd highest damage on runs and don't pull agro.)
Frost 2 Handed DPS with mix. 14/50/7 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft Epidemic is yummy and so is Death Rune Mastery, yay you get both! Note on Toughness and Bladed Armor the points. They aren't maxed, but enough to help out. I've added this because Necrosis isn't adding up to what it should be atm. The DPS isn't enough to base a build around imo. We'll see if some changes are made, not that it's bad, just other things are better.

[cXm0d]

****Leveling Ideas****
*Note: I won't go into the tons of possibilies you can use while leveling. Such some suggestions. There is always points you can spread around to wherever you think you need them.

Blood 2 Handed Leveling 53/15/3 *Polished and Final*
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - IT, PS, Oblit, HS, HS, DC
Runic Power Dump - DC
Suggested Rune Enchants - Fallen Crusader or SwordShattering
I wont' go into much detail. This is very similar to the Blood DPS build with added healing. I do not get blood worms. I like Vendetta personally and a better rune tap. IF you want Blood Worms, get them. But don't drop the other tree's points to do it. That's to much overhealing and your losing to much damage for it. Morbidity is for your DC, and you have to have Annihilation for your Oblits. I highly suggest building this like this. Get your frost tree done, then get Morbidity. THEN start your blood tree. It's much better to have those tree's done for leveling as it won't help much to not have those things since this a leveling build, and you probably won't use this end game. Trust me, I did a blood leveling and not having those skills hurt. One thing you can consider. Since your leveling, you can skip gettin down to Annihilation done for one reason. Death Strike is a heal, and you will be using it. It will also make death runes, so if you choose, you can skip going deep into the frost tree until your confident enough to use Oblit and not take much damage. I would still get imp icy touch and toughness early tho. They help a ton. IF you skip Annihilaton early, just substitute Death Strike in your rotation for Oblit.
Variances - Picking up Epidemic 53/11/7 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft Finish unholy tree first, then get Imp Icy Talons and Toughness, then work on Blood Tree. Get Black Ice Last or Spend the 3 points elsewhere

Unholy 2 Handed Leveling 10/8/53
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - IT, PS, SS, BS, BS, DC
Runic Power Dump - DC
Suggest Rune Enchants - Fallen Crusader or SwordShattering (Cinderglacier is an option).
First thing most people will note is why I took Imp. Icy Touch and Toughness instead of going deeper into Blood. Reason: Unholy can sustain good dps without other trees to rely on. Therefore, added survivability because of the lacking self healing. Also, Toughness will add to Bladed Armor and Imp. Icy Touch will no only make your IT's hit harder, but it also makes the enemy hit slower. Therefore, taking less hits. Don't kid yourself with Blade Barrier. You won't be questing 100% of the time. When you do instances you will be dps not tanking, so, taking Subversion will help with reduced agro, and Butchery for added DC's and HoW's. I added all the speed increases such as Pale Horse and Unholy Aura for faster mob to mob questing. *Note: The 4 points in Necrosis not 5. Also, Necrosis isn't adding up to much added dps, so if you please, spend those 4 in the unholy tree teir 3 and above as you want really. I strongly suggest against CE.
Variances - Unholy DW Leveling 0/21/50 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft This gives you DW and adds things like Blood-Caked Blades. Lost Unholy Aura, but it's more worth the points to max out icy talons with DW. Try to finish Frost tree first imo. Atleast get Nerves of Cold Steel first before starting deep into Unholy.
Unholy 2 Handed Leveling 18/0/53 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft Give me Crit and Give me Rune Tap! Make note of losing Dirge, but with Butchery your Runic Power gains should be fine. Get down to Rune Tap first, skippin Dark Conviction till later.

****Tanking Builds****
Note* All of my suggested tanking builds will include 2 handed weapons. I believe you will need to much extra hit rating to DW tank. I, along with everyone else could be wrong, but until proven otherwise, leaving it as 2 handed just works better.

Note 2* All my builds follow the starting 5/8/5 build. Feeling that those skills are essential to tanking (Imp icy touch gives you more ranged and melee slow is the reason there)

Blood Tanking 48/14/9
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Death and Decay, Heart Strike, Death Coil, Obliterate
Suggested Rune Enchants - Fallen Crusader, Swordshattering
This is heavy reliance on self healing. Especially if you go Fallen Crusader. I think you should be pretty stable. I don't think there is anything here that isn't self explainatory. Maybe the Morbidity, but the decreased CD on Death and Decay is a must for a tank IMO, it generates to much AoE hate and DPS.
Other Blood Tanking Ideas - More Unholy added 48/8/15 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Do not use Obliterate IMO without Annihilation. Use Death Strike for Runes. Also, No more lichborne but you have better white damage, and longer diseases.

Frost Tanking 12/52/7
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Main Rotation - Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Death and Decay, Blood Strike, Frost Strike, Howling Blast
Suggested Rune Enchants - Swordshattering, Fallen Crusader
The popular 3 "oh crap" clicky with Lichborne, Unbreakable and Icebound Fort. With my Spin on it. Pretty easy to understand. There isn't any self healing. This had added AoE agro with Howling Blast combined with Dead and Decay. For boss fights you might find yourself using Obliterate some on HB cooldowns which will be fine as it will do decent damage. Frost Strike really starts critting hard.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
Deathbunny's Lich of Marked Bones pvp/rounded build. 21/12/38

"for dealing with regular moblins, I just do the standard IT PS BS BS DS DC IT unsoweiter. Most things don't live that long. When pvp crops up, it's time for boneshield, lichborne with target=self deathcoils or I use gargoyle if I'm not dying too quickly.

I rarely obliterate since I need my diseases up for self healing through DS. I put pestilence in after PS if it's a multi mob fight,a nd then I blood boil instead of BSing.

it's the basic DK rotation without talented strikes. I'm actually using a dual weild build at the moment with blood caked strikes and shadow damage on swings because that's the weapon I've got at the moment. I have them enchanted for spellshatter." Deathbunny

Great Tank info by Nystali Guide to Death Knight Tanking - Death Knight - Wowhead Forums

Great PvP info by skribs Skribs' PvP DK Handbook - Death Knight - Wowhead Forums

[sollus]

:O nice guide good job !

[Adust]

Nice ty + rep ^^
Yet personally i use a frost dps specc on my dk, lvl 66...
I kill mobs in a few seconds and pvp i mostly rule

[Footmen]

nice
useful for my dk

[cXm0d]

Saying + rep, doesn't give it.

And mind linking, and explaining your Frost/DPS spec? I'm interested.

[ElcyionLacar]

not bad, I went with 28/5/38.
Maximises the bonus to str / stam (13%/ 8%), boosts the ghoul pet as much as possible (plus army of the dead for rapid resummoning). Also the crap load of points into blood allows for a lot more survivability. And anti-magic to deal with casters.
So far the only class I can't win against in a duel is a druid. Still working on a good method to counter them.

http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/ba...50131020000000

Great thing with DK is that you can do a build you like and it will generally work. I'm not gonna claim it will work great but it will work.
I guess we'll just have to wait til elitist jerks come out with the "Uber"-builds that are going to become the norms for tanking / dps. Then we'll become like every other class an be forced to follow someone elses idea of play if we want into raids.

[Bananafresh]

And again, another post about DK specs and the specs are wrong. At least these ones are close, but still not bang on for pure dps specs.

51/13/7 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Although the one you posted was close, Blood Aura and Vampiric Blood have no dps benefits, but Blood Worms do. It's not much but its still more. Five points in Toughness are also a waste, moving them to Glacier Rot and Black Ice are dps increases, even if they're small.

17/0/54 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Skipping Unholy Blight and Gargoyle is just bad. Moving 2 points from Desecration for Gargoyle and Unholy Blight will be a considerable dps increase. With a lot of boss fights standing in the Desecrated Ground isn't always an option which makes it a weak talent. Moving 2 points from Necrosis to Unholy aura is worth the loss in personal dps, 4% more white damage isn't much to give up for raid-wide 15% runspeed, especially in 25 mans.

As for the leveling and frost specs, i can't really comment on because i only leveled as unholy, and I've never played frost.

[Biozerk1]

At least you said you copy/pasted it and took no credit unlike other people.

+rep.

[*ChAoS*]

And again, another post about DK specs and the specs are wrong. At least these ones are close, but still not bang on for pure dps specs.

51/13/7 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Although the one you posted was close, Blood Aura and Vampiric Blood have no dps benefits, but Blood Worms do. It's not much but its still more. Five points in Toughness are also a waste, moving them to Glacier Rot and Black Ice are dps increases, even if they're small.

17/0/54 Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Skipping Unholy Blight and Gargoyle is just bad. Moving 2 points from Desecration for Gargoyle and Unholy Blight will be a considerable dps increase. With a lot of boss fights standing in the Desecrated Ground isn't always an option which makes it a weak talent. Moving 2 points from Necrosis to Unholy aura is worth the loss in personal dps, 4% more white damage isn't much to give up for raid-wide 15% runspeed, especially in 25 mans.

As for the leveling and frost specs, i can't really comment on because i only leveled as unholy, and I've never played frost.

Ya, these specs seem to be about what most people are using.

Frost DPS (17/54/0): Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Obviously there will be some variation, depending on what you want to do.

[smoke213]

Saying + rep, doesn't give it.

And mind linking, and explaining your Frost/DPS spec? I'm interested.

Im Rolling 17/54/0, as for the 20/51/0 theres flaws in it like Death Rune, which when used OB or DS UH and Frost runes convert to Death runes, why would you want that when your 2 Higest dps abiltys are Howling blast (1uh 1frost) and OB (1uh 1frost),waste of 3 points, also Unbreakable Armor 1 min cd incresase armor by 25% adding ap, also str by 10%, to not have this and be this deep in frost is a waste and maybe u shouldnt have rolled a DK, theres alot of theroy crafting going around, i recomand trying wich spec you like the most and you feel comftreble with and try improving from there, ie gems glyphs maybe a couple diff rotaions, dont forget were a new class and alot of things will change in the coming months.

On a side note, im 17/54/0 my friend is same spec nearly exaclty the same gear 4% crit diff and 400 ap, he does 2800 steady dps on target dummy unbuffed, i do 2000, with a diff rotation. it shows how big of a diff rotaion will make.
(Both also have 7.5 4 pice set bonus 2 pieces: Increases the critical strike chance of your Obliterate and Scourge Strike abilities by 5%.
4 pieces: Your Obliterate and Scourge Strike generate an additional 10 Runic Power when used.) Spec --> http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jfVMVZGhxtGxdRhoVosx