Definitive DK DPS Guide

[reveng_]

Since people think I don't know sh*t about DK DPS and how I'm a dirty leecher, I'll contribute what I know. Credit goes to all the people at EJ who devote their time to theorycrafting and number crunching this out. Just note, the rotations listed here aren't iron-cast. That is, learn to adapt to situations. You won't be doing the same "rotation" each and every fight. When adds spawn, switch to the AoE rotation if needed and so forth.

Common Abbreviations

AoE = Area of Effect
AMS = Anti-Magic Shell
BT = Blood Tap
BB = Blood Boil
BCB = Blood Caked Blade
BP = Blood Presence
DC = Death Coil
DCh = Deathchill
DK = Death Knight
DnD = Death and Decay
DPS = Damage per Second
DS = Death Strike
FC = Rune of the Fallen Crusader
FF = Frost Fever
FS = Frost Strike
GCD = Global Cooldown
HB = Howling Blast
HS = Heart Strike
HoW = Horn of Winter
IT = Icy Touch
KM = Killing Machine
NoTD = Night of The Dead
OB = Obliterate
PS = Plague Strike
RP = Runic Power
SS = Scourge Strike
UA = Unbreakable Armor
UB = Unholy Blight
UP = Unholy Presence
VB = Vampiric Blood

Blood DPS

Specs
The only spec is 51/0/20 with a few variants in the spending on Unholy Talents. Blood requires a lot of Armor Penetration to really work.

With Ghoul Glyph and NoTD:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

With Death Strike Glyph and max Morbidity:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Rotation

1 Rotation
IT PS DS HS HS Dump
HS HS DS HS HS Dump

Alternative with Vengeful Heart Sigil
IT PS DS HS HS Dump
HS HS HS HS HS HS Dump

AoE
IT PS Pest DnD
Start normal rotation

Frost DPS

Specs
There's 3 variants of the accepted 17/51/3 spec. Two which has a glyph change between IT and HB, while the other is the 6xIT experimental spec. There is also the 6xIT 20/51 experimental spec.

17/51/3 with IT Glyph:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

17/51/3 with HB Glyph:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

17/51/3 6xIT spec:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

20/51/0 6xIT spec:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Rotation

Single Disease (HB Glyph) - BP
HB OB BS BS Dump
OB OB OB

Some info on when to use HB. Credit to EJ forums.

Note that HB should replace OB at any time where it looks like the duration of Frost Fever is about to expire. Due to the inherent OB spam nature of this rotation, it is heavily reliant on the generation of Rime procs. When Rime is procced, there are two things that must be considered before the proc is used:

1. How much time is left of the Frost Fever timer?
2. How many Obliterates do I have left in my rotation?

If the timer for FF is getting low (<5s), the Rime proc should be consumed immediately to prevent the disease from falling off the target.
If there is still a significant amount of time (>6s) left on FF's timer and you have no OBs left in your rotation, the Rime proc should not be spent until just before you begin to use OB again. The reason for this is to simply insure that you get the maximum duration out of each application of FF, so you are not forced to spend any runes on HB that would otherwise be better spent on OB. Furthermore, by never holding onto a Rime proc while using OB, you insure that you will never "lose" a Rime proc to a double proc situation.
This rotation is best used while in Blood Presence, owing to the small amount of Global Cooldowns needed for two-rune attacks.

Double Disease Rotation - UP
IT PS OB BS BS Dump
OB IT PS IT IT Dump

6xIT Rotation
IT PS OB BS BS Dump
IT IT IT IT IT IT Dump
Use FS during the second rotation when you're about to go over the cap.

AoE
Same as normal rotations but use Pest and HB when needed.

Unholy DPS

Specs
There's 2 main specs for Unholy, with 1 variant new one without much testing.

12/0/59 Blood Unholy Spec:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

0/10/61 Frost Unholy Spec:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

7/10/54 Unholy Spec:
Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Rotation

SS(IT PS) BS BS SS Dump
SS SS SS Dump

Replace a SS with a IT PS wherever necessary if your diseases are about to fall off. Use Ghoul Frenzy with a BT after SS but before 2xBS. When BT is down, use the Death Runes to Ghoul Frenzy, use the other Death Rune to cast IT.

Pots, Flasks and Runeforge

Pots: Insane Strength Potion and Indestructible Potion
Flask: Endless Rage
Runeforge: Fallen Crusader for all specs.

Sigils
Blood: Dark Rider, Awareness, Vengeful Heart.
Frost: Frozen Conscience, Awareness, Vengeful Heart.
Unholy: Arthritic Binding, Awareness.

Hit and Expertise Caps
Hit Cap is 8% which is 262 rating
Alliance with Draenei is 7% which is 229 rating.

Spell Hit Cap is 17%. DKs get 3% from Virulence lowering it to 13%. Add in 3% from Misery or Improved Faerie Fire and that's 10%. Add in another 1% for Draenei and thats 9%.
Horde: 262 Hit Rating
Alliance: 232 Rating.

Expertise Soft Cap for no dodges is 6.5% = 26 Expertise = 214 Rating.

[Pedersendk]

Good guide m8

With these glyphs: Glyph of Death Strike - Glyph of dark death + Glyph of Plague Strike

I prefer this rotation for blood:

IT - PS - HS - HS- DS (Death Coil)
IT* - PS* - HS - HS - DS (Death Coil)

*Depends on how much time there is left on diseases

[Zankoku]

I still like my 15/0/56 spec. Still able to pull 3k dps w/ little effort in pre-raid gear.

Glyph: SS, Ghoul, Disease, HoW, Pest, RaiseDead

Only equip that is raid-level is UndeathDeck (bout 3% of my dps)

PaperDoll: (with fishing hat and pole equiped) 2337ap, 27% crit, 300 hit (cant get rid of any...grrr) and 26 expertise) 2pc t7.0

[ChildeRoland]

BTw, who would need a 6x IT rotation? IT deals max 3k, 6 of it is 18k, while OB does up to 10k. You get 3 of them, means 30k dmg...

[reveng_]

Think of the RP generation 6xIT gives? My IT crits for around 4k in a raid mate. OB hits maybe 9k at most. IT gives more RP which gives more FS. My FS crits are in the 12k range.

[Dankone]

BTw, who would need a 6x IT rotation? IT deals max 3k, 6 of it is 18k, while OB does up to 10k. You get 3 of them, means 30k dmg...

It generates massive amounts of RP for frost strikes.

[Wat3rcolour]

Thanks for this, i just dinged 80 and helped me get a good idea of a spec and basic rotation. +Rep

[reveng_]

No worries. For fresh 80's Unholy is probably best as it scales well at low levels. Blood and Frost require a bit more gear to be good. Unholy is still best overrall though, I just don't enjoy the playstyle. I'm a Frosty through and through.

[indostylo]

atm. Im Blood/unholy build.

Few Naxx DPS gear and Heroics top DPS gear. The max I could get is 2900+ dps.

Which really annoying me really much, Just so close to 3K dps lol.

For weap atm im waiting for Black Ice from EoE, Kel Thusad either 10 or 25 Weapon drop. or some ulduar drop which i dont really mind which as long its 2 handed.

And bought my Noble Deck already for Greatness card. which i still need to wait little longer than 1 week before Darkmoon starts.

Always use HoW before Battle starts.
Put all ur Sockets for +16 Str gem.
If theres 1 pala only, ask for BoK, if u can get BoM too, then get both of them.

[m4drock]

Quite good guide thx for sharing

[Monkeypieeater]

Nice DK Dps guide! Thanks for it!