Death Knight 0/32/39 in 3.0.8: A Guide

[Dankone]

3.0.8 has brought some potentially scary changes to DW, I almost cried when I saw the changes to Killing Machine. All is not lost, however. 0/32/39 will still hold up just fine.

What is 0/32/39?
The 0/32/39 build takes advantage of the only Death Knight F/U ability that deals damage independent of weapon damage, Howling Blast, as well as the myriad of wonderful abilities that Unholy offers, namely Necrosis, BCB (which works well with a third disease), Gargoyle, and Ghoul. 0/32/39 does incredible AOE and single target DPS, which is boosted a bunch thanks to a fast/fast weapon setup, taking advantage of Killing Machine.

However, things won't stay that way come 3.0.8. Here are the relevant changes, thanks to mm0-champion (paraphrased):

-Killing Machine is now a PPM ability based on weapon hit
-Howling Blast cooldown removed
-Corpse Explosion now uses RP as a resource and does substantially more damage
-Gargoyle now does slightly less damage and can only be sustained for up to 30 seconds
-Necrosis now does 4/8/12/16/20% additional shadow damage
-Night of the Dead now reduces the amount of damage your pets take from Area of Effect damage by 40/70%

The Killing Machine nerf hurt the most, but Night of the Dead is now a much more attractive talent, as is Corpse Explosion. Gargoyle is going to hurt a bit as well, but the most important thing here is that Howling Blast's cooldown has been removed. This allows 0/32/39 to gain a more stable rotation.

Changes in Talents
My optimal spec would be this one: (Replace the 0 in the URL with an o, and erase the space between "103" and "115") http://talent.mm0-champion.com/?deathknight=0000000000000000000000000003200535000502012301000000000230230305103 115003100221100000&glyph=122104060105

Changes from "Standard" 0/32/39 (Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft)
-Epidemic added: Now that HB is off cooldown, runes that would normally have been dedicated to PS/IT are now dedicated to HB because it simply deals more damage. Epidemic allows you to go longer without diseases needing to be reapplied
-Corpse Explosion added: A worthwhile talent now, certainly better than spending a talent point in Desecration.

There is nothing major switched around.

Changes in Rotation
KEY: PS=Plague Strike, IT=Icy Touch, HB=Howling Blast, DUMP=Runic Power dump (Death Coil or Corpse Explosion)

PS->IT->HB->BS->BS->DUMP
HB->PS->IT->DUMP->IT->IT->DUMP

There is no change in rotation for 32/39 in 3.0.8. Even with HB's cooldown being removed, it is better to use the two death runes gained from Blood Strike for Icy Touch. The IT Glyph change (no more 10% damage loss) combined with Freezing Fog (Free howling blast), combined with 50 total RP generation from two IT means that IT will outdamage HB using death runes. However, HB will still be used when you have a frost and unholy rune available, because HB does more damage than a PS/IT.

Changes in Weapon
Originally, 0/32/39 favored a fast/fast setup to maximize Killing Machine procs. Now, however, Killing Machine is PPM. Therefore, slow/whatever is ideal, because you'll still be using two blood strikes in your rotation. There have been some rumors that a slower weapon will proc more as haste adds on, but math refutes this.

Enchant X has a proc rate of 10 PPM. Proc chance is calculated before haste for everything, except Seal of Command.

60/1.5=40 swings per minute. 10 in 40 hits (10/40) will proc, meaning there is a 25% chance on swing to proc.
60/2.6=23 swings per minute. 10 in 23 hits (10/23) will proc, meaning there is a 43.48% chance on swing to proc.

In comes a 60% haste buff

1.5/(1+.6)= 0.9376
2.6/(1+.6)= 1.625

60/0.9376 = 64 hits per minute. .25*64= 16 actual PPM
60/1.625 = 37 hits per minute. .4348*37 = 16 actual PPM

There is no difference in actual PPM with haste for different speed weapons. This holds true for weapons of different haste with two or more sources of haste, as well.

1.5/((1+.6)(1+.15))= 0.9376
2.6/((1+.6)(1+.15))= 1.625

.8152 = 73.6*.25=18.4 actual PPM
1.413 = 42.46*.4348=18.4 actual PPM

Changes in Stat Choice
You'll still gear more or less the way you have been in the past. Hit is a priority until you're floating in the 9-11% range (Assuming you have Virulence and a shadow priest/boomkin in your raid. It's 8-10% for Alliance if you have a squidface). It is a waste of points to cap melee swing. Crit and Strength and Expertise should be your next focus stats, until you hit 26 expertise (dodge off the table). Notice that I said STRENGTH. Attack Power is not as good because of talents that grant us percent bonuses to strength, not to mention Blessing of Kings. AP does not scale with either.



Overall, 3.0.8 did not hurt the spec as much as some people thought it would. Long live DW Death Knights!

If you liked this, you could check out my other DK guides (I don't maintain these regularly, and some of the information may be incorrect or stupid. I'll try and get to them when I have the time).
http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-gu...ml#post1238417
http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-gu...-grinding.html

[Ginchy]

Thanks for this. +3 rep

[rhok90]

Thanks for the valued information

[Proe24]

Great guide, very detailed and clean, and the part with the mathematics turned out to be quite a help. This will be the first ever spec guide I will have used (since I am still a believer in the one spec fits best approach, especially on my rogue.) this will be the first thing i do whenever I stop being bored of WoW (I have to take it in small doses or I get bored way too fast, I am currently stuck on Garry's Mod) I'll be +Rep'n this bitch or whatever you young whipper snappers (<= I am pretty sure that has traces back in racism)

[rawrz]

This is an amazing guide, I will be sure to respec in this way. I would + rep if I could.

[Swh777]

this is really nice thank you

[Superpenguin]

Great guide, very detailed and clean, and the part with the mathematics turned out to be quite a help. This will be the first ever spec guide I will have used (since I am still a believer in the one spec fits best approach, especially on my rogue.) this will be the first thing i do whenever I stop being bored of WoW (I have to take it in small doses or I get bored way too fast, I am currently stuck on Garry's Mod) I'll be +Rep'n this bitch or whatever you young whipper snappers (<= I am pretty sure that has traces back in racism)

ROARRRRRRR
On topic: Yeah, i'll def. use this, +Rep

[JRa]

I am one of the DW Dks out there with this spec. Lovin it. Other 2H DKs lol at me when they see that I am dual-wielding and not a tank although I'm pretty deep in frost.

Was trying to figure out whats the best spec and gear/weapon + stat composition when 3.0.8come.. but this guide helps me so much thanks +rep

[Dankone]

Thanks for the support, everyone!

To clarify why Slow/whatever will be better:

It used to be better to go fast/fast because KM used to be a flat 50% chance on melee critical hit. Now, it's a PPM, meaning that in a given minute, it will proc that many times, and is therefore not affected by weapon speed. A chance per hit is calculated with this formula:

PPM / (60/weaponspeed)

EG, let weapon A have 2.00 speed, and weapon B have 3.00 speed. Both are enchanted with enchant X with 5 PPM.

5 / (60/2) = 5/30 = 1 proc per 6 swings, or 16.666.....%
5 / (60/3) = 5/20 = 1 proc per 4 swings, or 25%

However, if enchant X were to have a flat 50% proc rate:

60/2 = 30; 30*.5 = 15 procs per minute
60/3 = 20; 20*.5 = 10 procs per minute.

Hope that clears some confusion.

[boazjuggalo]

Any ideas on a weight scale for this build? Or maybe a Pawn scale? Looked around on elitistjerks.com and found nothing.

Also... how come you can Pestilence glyph on your mmo champion? How does this benefit the build? Why not horn of winter?

[Mygo]

thanks, will try it

[Dankone]

Any ideas on a weight scale for this build? Or maybe a Pawn scale? Looked around on elitistjerks.com and found nothing.

Also... how come you can Pestilence glyph on your mmo champion? How does this benefit the build? Why not horn of winter?

If you're not a downie, you should be using Horn of Winter every two minutes.

Glyph of Pestilence is a MUST for any Death Knight. That extra 5 yards means a lot not only in trash, but in fights like Maexxna, for example, when you're on spiderling duty.

[boazjuggalo]

but without Pest being in your main rotation? Sorry, i've been tank pretty much since I rolled, been 80 for about a month and done little else but tank. My normal rotation was
junk:
DG>DnD>IT>PS>HB>Pest>BB>IT>PS>HB>Pest>BB, start over at DnD
Single target:
IT>PS>Obli>BS>BS repeat

In this type of rotation i can understand the glyph, but what i'm asking is how would this fit into the spec here? When would i use it? Should i give up my main rotation to use it? Everytime there is more than one target? If so then why list a roation without it, because this is mainly a multitarget damage spec.

Give an example of your rotation using pesilence.

[Dankone]

but without Pest being in your main rotation? Sorry, i've been tank pretty much since I rolled, been 80 for about a month and done little else but tank. My normal rotation was
junk:
DG>DnD>IT>PS>HB>Pest>BB>IT>PS>HB>Pest>BB, start over at DnD
Single target:
IT>PS>Obli>BS>BS repeat

In this type of rotation i can understand the glyph, but what i'm asking is how would this fit into the spec here? When would i use it? Should i give up my main rotation to use it? Everytime there is more than one target? If so then why list a roation without it, because this is mainly a multitarget damage spec.

Give an example of your rotation using pesilence.

Given rotations are usually for single target as a rule. To work pest in, you'd just replace a BS in both lines with a pestilence.

You should be using pest every time there is more than one target in range.

[boazjuggalo]

So in the last day or 2 i've picked up your build and been doing heroics... keep in mind i am using some shitty weapons for a lvl 80, offhanding the sword from wyrmcrest rep and mainhanding a mace from heroic VH, not sure of name but dropped from the skettis guy.

This seems to be my results so far...

Avg out of 4 heroics... 1950dps
Total in 10man vault... 2200dps
Total in 25man OS... 3200dps

I am in love with this build, never dreamed of hitting 3200dps with my old unholy 2h dps build, and i was using (again bad with names) the 2h craftable epic mace.

+reping you for this