Blood not working right?Follow

First of all, stop using Obliterate. It is consuming all your diseases, meaning your rotation is doing way less damage than you could be. Use: PS/IT->PS/IT (doesn't matter the order with your build)->DS->HS->HS->DC->DS->HS->HS->HS->HS->DC, repeat (on the off chance it isn't already dead). You can also replace 2 heart strikes in the second half with a DS.

Also, what Rune are you using? Right now, you have the choice of Razorice, Lichbane and Cinderglacier. I would go with Cinderglacier, personally (and I did) until you get to Rune of the Fallen Crusader at level 70 (which will be what you will always use as a DpS, more than likely). Cinderglacier procs a decent amount, and essentially is 20% more damage on a Death Coil. I do not remember if Necrosis damage is affected by it and/or eats a charge. But I remember pretty very fun situations where I got a CG proc and a SD proc, giving me a free DC with an additional 20% that CRIT, plus another that was +20% that may or may not crit.

As to talents, you are losing a lot more DpS than you realize in favor of way more healing than you should ever need.

There is really no need to take Improved Rune Tap. During the small span when my leveling Blood spec had it, I only needed to use the 10% ability a few times, and only when I got 2-3 additional adds.

Spell Deflection also isn't really worth it. Just use Anti-Magic Shield if up against a caster. And take them out first if you have multiple mobs.

Bladed Armor is also a TON of attack power. You have around 5K Armor when you first get your DK. That is 100 AP (50 str) for 5 talent points. A hefty DpS boost.

PERSONALLY, I think Bloody Vengeance is near useless for leveling. Things died way too fast for me to ever get much use out of it. Hysteria isn't that good for the same reason. The only time that kind of DpS is needed is when things are dealing too much damage for you to want to use it.

You also don't need Blade Barrier and Anticipation. They are great mitigation, but all of Blood's self-healing should be more than enough to handle it.

Also, are you sure you want Garg to be your dinging point? That means you won't have any RP dump beyond DC until level 80, when you will be respeccing anyway. I'd make your next point DRW. It will help a lot in mowing down groups, Blood's weakness. Although, if you are willing to respec now, I would recommend something different.

Necrosis is also a lot of damage. You don't even have Rune Strike yet, so taking it would mean 20% more damage on all of your auto-attacks.

Here is what I did for a 61 Blood. For the next 6 levels, just go straight down to DRW.

After that, you will want something like this at 75.

Then, go for 3/3 Outbreak. There, you will be 78 and have had a flier (I'm guessing not epic) for a level. You can go for On a Pale Horse to do all your dailies faster, making an 60% flight speed go 80%, or your 100% ground speed go 120%.

Or, (what I would do if I DID have an epic flier) go for 2/3 in BCB or go 1 in BCB and 1 in Shadows of death.

A final option is to respec, putting taking the last 6 points out of Blood and putting them in Unholy, letting you do this.

All of these things will increase your DpS, letting you level faster, without sacrificing utility (or, rather, sacrificing any utility that is actually important).

[EDIT]

And, as to glyphs, I would use:

Glyph of Blood Strike (affects Heart Strike as well).
Glyph of Death Strike (also has a modifier with amount of RP, that isn't shown on the tooltip--good glyph a lot of the time).
Glyph of Pestilence (by far the best minor glyph)
Glyph of Raise Dead (no longer have to carry corpse dust).
At level 70, grab the Glyph of Horn of Winter.
At level 80, go for Glyph of Plague Strike and make sure it comes after Icy Touch in your rotation.

Edited, Apr 4th 2009 2:55pm by idiggory

Just a note: I added glyphs into the above post.

And, if you are finding youself missing a self healing ability, You can sacrifice a point somewhere for RT or MoB. I personally prefer the latter, but it is your choice. One has a higher healing potential, but only works in battle and every 3 minutes. The other can be used anywhere, but heals much less (assuming an average number of hits while MoB is up).

Also, one final note, when you turn 68, go to Borean Tundra. There is a quest there (you will likely have to group for it or grab a higher level for help) that will give you the Axe of Frozen Death. You likely won't find a replacement weapon until 78 or so in Zul'Drak, unless you get lucky in instances. I, personally, used it up to 80, never getting anything better (granted, I never really looked and didn't want to buy one off the AH). But my DpS was always fine and I killed things easily.

You can if you want to. Your choice.

I always forgot about it, and I have never had a problem. The only time I ever summoned him was when taking on an elite or in PvP.

At level 66 you will get Death Pact. I highly recommend trying to sync your Ghoul's deaths with the ability. Though, as Blood, you may just not need that healing, like, ever.

Oblit IS really pretty, just not as pretty without the Frost talent making it not consume diseases (until your endgame gear gets good enough to forgo diseases all together).

I agree that it is bad at higher levels, but at lower ones I was killing things so fast that Vendetta was a big part in keeping my health up without having to take Rune Tap or MoB (and using a blood Rune for them).



It is mostly because I killed things way too fast to EVER need to Blood Tap. The only times I EVER used it (or even had any reason to use it) was when soloing Elites, and many two times when I ended up with a group of like 5-7 mobs. And, with the elites, maybe 60% of them only needed a MoB, wihtout touching Rune Tap.

If I was going PvP, I could see it being useful. But with all the healing you get from Blood without wasting a rune, I never had to bother when leveling.



There is a big difference here. 1 is something that is free, and replaces 2% passive damage. The other is something that takes 3 points when the OP said he wanted OaPH.

The burst from a CG+SD proc was often enough to kill off a mob in a group with two clicks (which then returned 6% health because of Vendetta). And, when I was Blood, I got a LOT of CG procs (I don't know if I was just lucky or if they changed the rate, etc.)

So, that just the 9%, especially because 3 crits usually meant something was dead. Granted, it will last for a whole pack of mobs, so I could see it being very good in AoE.

Also to note, I hate having a time limit on my next target. I HATE seeing buffs run out unused, so when I have to stop to loot/skin things and/or there isn't another target around, it kills me a little inside. Things like a Rogue's Remorseless Attacks talents always drove me insane. I like being able to stop for a moment if I want to, without losing out on 2-3 talent points of use.

And your blood spec just seems to be WAY too excessive on healing to me. Even when I had Rune Tap and MoB, I NEVER had to use them when just going normally. The only time I touched them was when going after mobs I knew would be highly difficult (because I wanted to test the class out). Vendetta alone was more than enough for me. Will it be as good in the 70s? Probably not, because things will be hitting harder. But throughout the 60s, I never needed anything else.

I can't stand leveling like that, lol, so it is probably why I disagree on the build. We have completely different styles. :P I dinged 80 less than a month ago (from a 55 DK sometime in early January/late December).

I explore a lot, do dailies, etc, etc. So my killing isn't very fast paced (I like a mob dying as fast as possible, but won't necessarily always have 16 targets lined up). Well, with Frost I tend to grab as many as possible, but I didn't as Blood.

As Frost, Oracles dailies = fun. There is that FH training camp in their base. Grab all of them and nuke em down with one or two HBs. >:D

That is 30 mobs, or so. lol Tanking gear = fun. Things just don't hurt when you have IBF, Lichborne and UA up all at once. : )

Plus, the healing from a crit HB on 30 mobs is impressive.

I went with Idigg's build. I usually take on 1-2 mobs per fight, not as many as Theophany prefers. It seems to be working for me so far. I think I'm up to 15 hours played and at 65 now...not the fastest in the world but it works for me.

The only time the lack of healing talents bit me was when I tried one of the group quests in Thrall...the Hand of Kargos or whatever got me...but a kind druid came over to help out.

What are you guys picking up for tradeskills? From what I hear the consensus seems to be BS/JC or JC/Mining...I would go BS/JC but I don't have another toon on the server yet. I'm thinking I may do Mining/JC and then just send the mats to a BS if I need stuff made...but then I miss out on extra sockets....grrr....

If I went BS/JC what level would my alt have to be to get all the needed mats from mining? 70 plus?

I agree with idiggory's path.

Personally, I like Inscription (as I've mentioned numerous times before) so I never had to grind Hodir rep.

BS/JC are probably best for min/maxing, but to be honest, I like the money from Mining too much to give up.

The only thing I can see giving it up for is maybe Enchanting.

Pretty much every profession (for DPS) is going to give you a ~64 AP boost. Enchanting gets ring enchants (32 AP per ring), Inscription gets a better shoulder enchant, BS gets additional gem slots, and JC gets epic crafted gems.

The gems, due to how Str scaling works, are slightly better than any other profession, but it also costs a lot more to level (at least on my server).

If nothing else, get JC if you want to min/max.

I think I might go Mining/JC. I despise leveling characters/skills too much. I can't imagine going back and leveling skinning and mining both. I definetely will be tanking though once I hit 80. And I like a good profit...but who doesn't.

I'm done with SoH rep. /gloat.

I must say, though, spending 600 gold on the Ulduar Relics REALLY sped up the process. XD

And, one last note, the only profession I can think of that just won't do anything for you is Tailoring--it doesn't do anything for anyone anymore. >.< You know there is something awkward going on when all the Mages co BS/JC. :P

[EDIT]

Inscription IS really nice too. Being able to make your own glyphs is priceless, imo.

Edited, Apr 6th 2009 4:54pm by idiggory