Less about you, more about me.Follow

catchy title? So I'm back. I'm sure none of you knew I took a break from WoW, but I did and I'm back! was like a month and a half :P

This is one of them Rate My Gear threads, you can find my armory link down in sig.

What would I like from all of you? Suggestions & thoughts on gear I should try and get and/or spec (stay w/ DW Frost...change it up? I do about 3k DPS, I know I'm way over hit and need to change some Gems).

A little about me: I don't really raid and for the most part I PuG everything (I like PuGs..), and I like the DPS side of DKs.

:D

The one in this EJ post.

The only difference is when it comes to Multi-target AoEing. I put up a Diseases, spread them around, BB, and then do a HB. I usually don't use DnD in my AoEing either.

No, sorry, that's me being really stupid, and I have another correction to make.

SO:

Red- +20 Str always. Nothing else is useful, and ArP sucks for Frost.

Yellow.

Okay, this is where Frost can be annoying.

EJ says go /crit if you have a str socket bonus. I disagree with this as an absolute. There is a point where it is the superior orange gem, yes, but that is not universal (nor is it absolutely true at high gear levels).

If you are under spell hit cap (and especially if under strike hit cap) then a /hit gem is superior to a /crit gem (but a 20 hit gem with a str bonus would still be inferior to a 20 str gem).

I also want to clarify--Sand is *currently* spell hit capped. However, I'm fairly sure that regemming would take him under it. That is why, when regemming, he should probably use /hit gems in yellow sockets rather than /crit.

As for when it is useful to go /hit (or /crit) over pure str?

I'm going to stay and say that greater than 5 is the key. It's possibly lower, but I wager not to the point where a +4 str bonus would be worth an orange gem. If you can get a net gain of 16 str or better, than matching the socket is probably best. But, honestly, if you are at the point where you are using /crit gems, then I personally wouldn't do it until 17 str or so, due to the fact that pure damage is more reliable than something RNG dependent (and I'm not at all certain that the expected DpS of 10 crit would be better than 4 str).

Blue. Again, don't use a blue gem, ever, unless you get something with a ludicrous bonus like +10 Str (which I doubt exists). It will *always* be a DpS loss. If you think you really need 100 more health for some reason, go ahead. But it will never likely be worth it.

Now, prismatic gems.

Look at all your items--what sockets are required for what socket bonuses.

First, see which ones are worth using Orange gems. Now see which ones would result from using blue gems. Compare the unused Orange bonuses to the Blue bonuses. Place the Prismatic gem in the best one, and use +20 str in the rest.

**NOTE**

Nightmare Tears are 10 to every stat. Their downgrade, Enchanted Tears, are +6 to each stat.

Now, you need to use one to activate the blue requirement of the best Meta--this is their primary function. However, NTs are less than 50% worse than a Str gem (meaning, they are slightly superior than half of a +20 str gem). ETs, however, are 40% worse than them, and are almost 70% worse than a +Str gem.

In a world where you are buying epic gems for a +4 bonus over the rare ones, do you really want to skimp here? REALLY?

Please take a moment to realize that you are willing to pay a 100+G more for an epic Str gem, which is a 4 Str bonus, but won't do it for your Prismatic gem, which is 4 Str, some crit, armor and Stamina. Sure it may not be much, but it *is* a larger bonus.

So, please, use Nightmare Tears. Dragons Eyes sell for a 100G or less on most servers, and infinite dust are pitifully cheap. Add in a 20G tip, and that is still probably only like 130G. I would be VERY surprised if your Epic str gems were so cheap on the AH. On my server, the raw* epic gem would sell for 100 more than that.

NOTE: The AH prices on Dalaran (Horde) right now:

Nightmare Tear- 215G.
Eternal Tear- 95G
Bold Scarlet Ruby-80G
Bold Cardinal Ruby-235G (Cheapest, not even average like the others)

So for more gold, I'd get less of a bonus by upgrading a red gem to epic quality than my prismatic one.

Outside of raiding or frost emblems, that's the best you're gonna get with a cape. If you have 50 emblems to drop, you could grab this. But there are probably better upgrades to grab first though (but I'm not sure, because I haven't looked at them from a plate dps perspective).

If you ever have a bunch of cash, the Kirin Tor (teleport) ring would be an upgrade by about one tier. Note, you need to buy the first ring and then UPGRADE it to get the bonus. That's 2500G (and I'm not sure if you'll get a discount from KT rep).

No non-raid drops are an upgrade, though, unfortunately.

This seems like it would be an excellent use of 60 Frost Emblems. It may not be as good for burst, but you aren't Unholy or Blood--you don't have CDs that gain huge benefits from buffs.

Darkmoon Card: Greatness is still an awesome trinket, if you can get your hands on one.

That's the best you are gonna get outside raiding. The Frozen Halls trinket is a side grade or a small upgrade. This one. ArP isn’t going to be a huge bonus for you. The crit is nice, though. It’s really up to you here, I think, but I’d stick with the BF one.

So, realistically, the only thing left for you in these departments is frost emblem or expensive items.

I haven’t looked at the rest of your gear, but I doubt that is any different. At best there may be a Frozen Halls upgrade, but that’ll just take you a few minutes looking at the loot tables to figure out.

Think of it like Bladebarrier in the Blood tree. At some point all your runes will be on cooldown, Icy Touch - Plaguestrike - Blood Strike - Blood Strike - Obliterate. All your runes on cooldown and now you have a 3% damage buff for the next 15 seconds. A buff which will refresh every time you do your rotation so will basically be a 3% damage buff to everything except your first rotation. Not exactly groundbreaking, but still pretty shiny.

Edited, Mar 10th 2010 11:30am by EbanySalamonderiel

I read that as well and found it odd. I think he used poor wording in his guide and meant "if there's only one socket on the item and the bonus is +str, go with an orange gem" which would make some sense.

Also, Sandin, you have two +hit trinkets equipped? I know white hits are a big part of DW DPS, not to mention with BCB and all, but I'm at barely 400 hit rating and doing 4k DPS easily on single targets. You're in way better gear than me, but looking into one of those +attack power on hit trinkets might up your DPS some. Perhaps the banner from ToC5 or something like that.

Edited, Mar 15th 2010 1:21pm by Mazra

haha. I was trying to get into a group the other night that demanded everyone be over 5k GS, because we all know..the higher your GS the better you are.
I use the AP trinket and an old ilv200 iirc (one of the ones that dropped of Brew Fest Boss). I'll look into the banner.