Noblebeastx
07-03-10, 03:49 AM
In 3.3 there are two general valid build for the blood spec, and they differ simply by 1 talent point, and a glyph.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Dark Death Build
51/0/20 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVh0Icfkf0stZfzhhxc:ILGMmV)
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Disease Build
51/0/20 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVh0Icfkf0stZfMbhxc:IpGMmV)
These are your two main builds, and we'll discuss later the differences between them, and how to decide what is right for you.
In the Blood tree you will have 4 points to play with. If you are looking for absolute max DPS you will want to go with 3/3 Bloodworms and 1 point in Imp Blood presence. Why? Bloodworms will add a little (reports say ~ 80) DPS, and your other options being Mark of Blood and Vampiric Blood, both of which require the use of a Blood Rune, and that’s 1 less Heart Strike!
In the Unholy tree the most common line of thinking goes: Ravenous Dead > BCB > Necrosis. From my own experience, I’ve found BCB to be slightly higher than 1% DPS per talent point, whereas Necrosis was slightly < 1% DPS per talent point. Keep in mind though that Necrosis can effectively crit, whereas BCB cannot, so people with very high crit rates may see a swing in the relative value of these two talents. Typically you max all three, but if you want to play around, have at it.
Morbidity works itself out to be approximately .6% DPS per point, which is why we remove the point from there for our Glyph of Disease Build which requires 2/2 epidemic.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Runeforges
There is currently only one viable Runeforge for PvE DPS: Fallen Crusader (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53344).
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyphs
Major
[Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45799)
[Glyph of Death Strike] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43827)
[Glyph of Dark Death] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45804)*
[Glyph of Disease] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45805)*
*You will either use GoD or GoDD as your 3rd glyph, depending on which build you choose to go for.
Minor
[Glyph of Horn of Winter] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43544)
[Glyph of Pestilence] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43672)
[Glyph of Raise Dead] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43673)
Rotations
The GoD and GoDD builds have differing rotations, and in order to make the most out of each build, it is important that you use the correct rotation
For both rotations, you will be able to dump 2 Death Coils at one break, and then one at the other. This depends on whether you start a fight with RP or not. It is not important where a particular phase falls, and so we'll just represent it with -Dump-.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Dark Death Rotation
IT-PS-HS-HS-DS -Dump- DS-HS-HS-HS-HS -Dump-
Beginning with Dark Death as it is the easier of the two. On a pull to minimize your wasted GCDs during your dump phase you can cast HoW, and raise your Ghoul.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Disease Rotation
The GoD rotation is made up of two distinct parts. There is your Open Phase (1), and then the repeated phase (2). You begin with the (1) rotation to set up your diseases, and then repeat two until your diseases fall of some how, or the enemy dies
(1) IT-PS-HS-HS-DS -Dump- DS-HS-HS-HS-Pest -Dump-
(2) HS-HS-HS-HS-DS -Dump- DS-HS-HS-HS-Pest
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) AoE Rotations
Blood's strength is it's ability to do exceptional single - or double - target damage, once you exceed 3 or 4 enemies, you would be much better suited using a UH off spec for AOE fights. Most of the AOE in ICC currently are trash fights, which isn't a main concern of this guide. In general for AOE you want to spead your diseases, and use Blood Boil. As Blood generates a large amount of death runes, especially the Glyph of Disease spec, you will be able to cast a tremendous amount of Blood Boils.
In general Blood Boil begins to outperform HS at around 5-6 targets, your mileage may vary, use a Scrolling Combat mod that shows the sum of your AoE attacks, or else it will be very hard to tell for yourself.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Rolling Diseases
Pre 3.2 you could load up your procs, cast diseases, and using GoD would maintain the higher power diseases throughout the fight. This is no longer the case, diseases do not roll anymore. It was fun while it lasted.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Dancing Rune Weapon
DRW will gain buffs you have before casting it, but will not get things used after, i.e. Hysteria, potions, etc. Heart Strikes from DRW also are affected by its diseases, and the diseases will stay even after DRW has expired. For this reason it is proper to cast DRW before refreshing your diseases. Note: your heart strikes do not benefit from your DRW's diseases, and vise-versa.
In 3.3 DRW now currently acts as a debuff on your target. This puts us a little bit more at the mercy of Blizzard's pet AI, unfortunately. In its current form the DRW is making its way behind your target, so parry's should still be minimized.
Your DRW checklist looks something like this, in order of importance (and yes, I finally added "Heroism" for all the Alliance out there, ugh).
Bloodlust/Heroism
Hysteria
On use trinkets / Trinket Procs
Empowered Rune Weapon
Potion of Speed
Hitting all of those criteria will maximize your DRWs DPS, very important to maximizing your own DPS.
Obviously you can't always meet every criteria, as some are out of your control. You always want to wait for Hysteria if you think the fight will last long enough to do so, and you especially have to make sure your diseases are up and death runes are ready. If you have on use trinkets, you want to be sure to use them before popping DRW as well. Rarely will you be able to use Empowered Rune Weapon twice in one fight.
I'm not a huge fan of waiting on trinket procs, like Greatness or Grim Toll/Mjolnir. I tend to take the approach that if they are up, awesome but if they are not I don't wait for them. If you "feel" like you are due for a proc, it might be worth waiting 1 or 2 CGDs, but I don't know that I would go much beyond that. This is especially true due to the fact that often times your DRW is part of a coordinated burst, like XT heart phase, and you dont want to be lagging behind waiting for a proc.
That being said, if it is a long fairly straighforward fight like Ignis with no real burst phase requirement, I would probably wait to try to maximize my DPS.
It should also be noted that we most often have a lot of procs lining up at the beginning of a fight. If you want to use DRW at the start of a fight, it should always be used after your first full rotation, otherwise you will clip your original diseases losing out on DPS.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Priority Systems
The priority structure to Frost DPS is significantly more complicated than Blood. Apart from adjusting your rotation for missed strikes things flow quite smoothly. The biggest thing you will be watching for will be not Heart Striking right after your diseases have fallen off.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Unholy Presence v Blood Presence
Fortunately for Blood DKs this is an easy question. We hit hard, we use Blood Presence. Blood has a nice tight rotation, and if you are in UH Presence you will spend a considerable amount of time waiting for something to do.
As with so many things, there are occasions when you may find running in UH presence to be useful, but overall our best DPS presence is blood.
Rune Striking?
I wasn't really a convert to Rune Striking until after a little spell of tanking with my DK, and begin using the Rune Strike macros with my Death Strikes and Heart Strikes. The majority of fights the issue will never come up, as you dont find yourself dodging or parrying very often, but on the occasions where you can, Rune Strike is a DPS increase. Once you have your first big Rune Strike crit for 20k+ at the cost of 20 RP, you'll be glad you did.
Following is a log from Marrogar, showing just how good Rune Strike can be in situations where you can use it.
World of Logs - Real Time Raid Analysis (http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/477afn9373rz4bb6/details/19/?s=2021&e=2291)
The following are the macros used for Death Strike and Heart Strike. If Rune Strike becomes available it will cast that, otherwise it will be business as usual:
#showtooltip Death Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Death Strike;
/cast !Rune Strike;
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
#showtooltip Heart Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Heart Strike;
/cast !Rune Strike;
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
Gearing and Stat Weights
One thing I've found while keeping this thread is posting Stat Weights really isn't a good idea. Before reading on know this, the stat weights listed below are not perfect stat weights for your character. To really get a good idea of what stat weights are for you, you need to run your own sims and do your own research based on your particular gearset. With that disclaimer, we'll move on.
The two most important stats for Blood DKs are Strength and Armor Penetration. The general rule of thumb while gearing up is ALWAYS gem for STR, except to meet Meta gem requirements.
The following are stat weights as of 3.3 which I currently use, based upon my current gear set.
StatAPEAttack Power1 Weapon DPS8.28Strength2.67 Armor Penetration3.1Hit Rating (to cap)6.4Expertise Rating5.27Crit Rating1.78Haste Rating1.25Agility1.31Hit Rating (to spell hit cap).35Armor.028
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Dark Death Build
51/0/20 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVh0Icfkf0stZfzhhxc:ILGMmV)
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Disease Build
51/0/20 (http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#jfVMVh0Icfkf0stZfMbhxc:IpGMmV)
These are your two main builds, and we'll discuss later the differences between them, and how to decide what is right for you.
In the Blood tree you will have 4 points to play with. If you are looking for absolute max DPS you will want to go with 3/3 Bloodworms and 1 point in Imp Blood presence. Why? Bloodworms will add a little (reports say ~ 80) DPS, and your other options being Mark of Blood and Vampiric Blood, both of which require the use of a Blood Rune, and that’s 1 less Heart Strike!
In the Unholy tree the most common line of thinking goes: Ravenous Dead > BCB > Necrosis. From my own experience, I’ve found BCB to be slightly higher than 1% DPS per talent point, whereas Necrosis was slightly < 1% DPS per talent point. Keep in mind though that Necrosis can effectively crit, whereas BCB cannot, so people with very high crit rates may see a swing in the relative value of these two talents. Typically you max all three, but if you want to play around, have at it.
Morbidity works itself out to be approximately .6% DPS per point, which is why we remove the point from there for our Glyph of Disease Build which requires 2/2 epidemic.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Runeforges
There is currently only one viable Runeforge for PvE DPS: Fallen Crusader (http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53344).
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyphs
Major
[Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45799)
[Glyph of Death Strike] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43827)
[Glyph of Dark Death] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45804)*
[Glyph of Disease] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=45805)*
*You will either use GoD or GoDD as your 3rd glyph, depending on which build you choose to go for.
Minor
[Glyph of Horn of Winter] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43544)
[Glyph of Pestilence] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43672)
[Glyph of Raise Dead] (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=43673)
Rotations
The GoD and GoDD builds have differing rotations, and in order to make the most out of each build, it is important that you use the correct rotation
For both rotations, you will be able to dump 2 Death Coils at one break, and then one at the other. This depends on whether you start a fight with RP or not. It is not important where a particular phase falls, and so we'll just represent it with -Dump-.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Dark Death Rotation
IT-PS-HS-HS-DS -Dump- DS-HS-HS-HS-HS -Dump-
Beginning with Dark Death as it is the easier of the two. On a pull to minimize your wasted GCDs during your dump phase you can cast HoW, and raise your Ghoul.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Glyph of Disease Rotation
The GoD rotation is made up of two distinct parts. There is your Open Phase (1), and then the repeated phase (2). You begin with the (1) rotation to set up your diseases, and then repeat two until your diseases fall of some how, or the enemy dies
(1) IT-PS-HS-HS-DS -Dump- DS-HS-HS-HS-Pest -Dump-
(2) HS-HS-HS-HS-DS -Dump- DS-HS-HS-HS-Pest
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) AoE Rotations
Blood's strength is it's ability to do exceptional single - or double - target damage, once you exceed 3 or 4 enemies, you would be much better suited using a UH off spec for AOE fights. Most of the AOE in ICC currently are trash fights, which isn't a main concern of this guide. In general for AOE you want to spead your diseases, and use Blood Boil. As Blood generates a large amount of death runes, especially the Glyph of Disease spec, you will be able to cast a tremendous amount of Blood Boils.
In general Blood Boil begins to outperform HS at around 5-6 targets, your mileage may vary, use a Scrolling Combat mod that shows the sum of your AoE attacks, or else it will be very hard to tell for yourself.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Rolling Diseases
Pre 3.2 you could load up your procs, cast diseases, and using GoD would maintain the higher power diseases throughout the fight. This is no longer the case, diseases do not roll anymore. It was fun while it lasted.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Dancing Rune Weapon
DRW will gain buffs you have before casting it, but will not get things used after, i.e. Hysteria, potions, etc. Heart Strikes from DRW also are affected by its diseases, and the diseases will stay even after DRW has expired. For this reason it is proper to cast DRW before refreshing your diseases. Note: your heart strikes do not benefit from your DRW's diseases, and vise-versa.
In 3.3 DRW now currently acts as a debuff on your target. This puts us a little bit more at the mercy of Blizzard's pet AI, unfortunately. In its current form the DRW is making its way behind your target, so parry's should still be minimized.
Your DRW checklist looks something like this, in order of importance (and yes, I finally added "Heroism" for all the Alliance out there, ugh).
Bloodlust/Heroism
Hysteria
On use trinkets / Trinket Procs
Empowered Rune Weapon
Potion of Speed
Hitting all of those criteria will maximize your DRWs DPS, very important to maximizing your own DPS.
Obviously you can't always meet every criteria, as some are out of your control. You always want to wait for Hysteria if you think the fight will last long enough to do so, and you especially have to make sure your diseases are up and death runes are ready. If you have on use trinkets, you want to be sure to use them before popping DRW as well. Rarely will you be able to use Empowered Rune Weapon twice in one fight.
I'm not a huge fan of waiting on trinket procs, like Greatness or Grim Toll/Mjolnir. I tend to take the approach that if they are up, awesome but if they are not I don't wait for them. If you "feel" like you are due for a proc, it might be worth waiting 1 or 2 CGDs, but I don't know that I would go much beyond that. This is especially true due to the fact that often times your DRW is part of a coordinated burst, like XT heart phase, and you dont want to be lagging behind waiting for a proc.
That being said, if it is a long fairly straighforward fight like Ignis with no real burst phase requirement, I would probably wait to try to maximize my DPS.
It should also be noted that we most often have a lot of procs lining up at the beginning of a fight. If you want to use DRW at the start of a fight, it should always be used after your first full rotation, otherwise you will clip your original diseases losing out on DPS.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Priority Systems
The priority structure to Frost DPS is significantly more complicated than Blood. Apart from adjusting your rotation for missed strikes things flow quite smoothly. The biggest thing you will be watching for will be not Heart Striking right after your diseases have fallen off.
[top] (http://elitistjerks.com/f72/t61176-blood_simple_blood_dk_dps_guide_updated_3_3_a/#top) Unholy Presence v Blood Presence
Fortunately for Blood DKs this is an easy question. We hit hard, we use Blood Presence. Blood has a nice tight rotation, and if you are in UH Presence you will spend a considerable amount of time waiting for something to do.
As with so many things, there are occasions when you may find running in UH presence to be useful, but overall our best DPS presence is blood.
Rune Striking?
I wasn't really a convert to Rune Striking until after a little spell of tanking with my DK, and begin using the Rune Strike macros with my Death Strikes and Heart Strikes. The majority of fights the issue will never come up, as you dont find yourself dodging or parrying very often, but on the occasions where you can, Rune Strike is a DPS increase. Once you have your first big Rune Strike crit for 20k+ at the cost of 20 RP, you'll be glad you did.
Following is a log from Marrogar, showing just how good Rune Strike can be in situations where you can use it.
World of Logs - Real Time Raid Analysis (http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/477afn9373rz4bb6/details/19/?s=2021&e=2291)
The following are the macros used for Death Strike and Heart Strike. If Rune Strike becomes available it will cast that, otherwise it will be business as usual:
#showtooltip Death Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Death Strike;
/cast !Rune Strike;
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
#showtooltip Heart Strike
/script UIErrorsFrame:UnregisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
/cast Heart Strike;
/cast !Rune Strike;
/script UIErrorsFrame:RegisterEvent("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE");
Gearing and Stat Weights
One thing I've found while keeping this thread is posting Stat Weights really isn't a good idea. Before reading on know this, the stat weights listed below are not perfect stat weights for your character. To really get a good idea of what stat weights are for you, you need to run your own sims and do your own research based on your particular gearset. With that disclaimer, we'll move on.
The two most important stats for Blood DKs are Strength and Armor Penetration. The general rule of thumb while gearing up is ALWAYS gem for STR, except to meet Meta gem requirements.
The following are stat weights as of 3.3 which I currently use, based upon my current gear set.
StatAPEAttack Power1 Weapon DPS8.28Strength2.67 Armor Penetration3.1Hit Rating (to cap)6.4Expertise Rating5.27Crit Rating1.78Haste Rating1.25Agility1.31Hit Rating (to spell hit cap).35Armor.028