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My first level 80Follow

#1 Feb 15 2010 at 12:25 PM Rating: Good
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Ok, so my DK is my first level 80 ever. I played back in Vanilla wow but took several years off and just started playing a few months back. I play casually with my wife's DK. We are both Unholy DPS specced and we like that role. We're trying to gear up and maximize DPS so I was hoping for you all to give some friendly criticisim of gear, spec, etc, for whatever will help max our DPS.

Right now, I am normally at around 2.2k dps on a normal lich king dungeon (Pit of Saron, Forge of Souls, etc) according to recount running on my pc.

I use a very vague/limited "rotation", and generally do, IT, PS, BS,SS,DC,HOW, DC, BS, SS. Alot of times I just watch my buttons/HP to see what is available when, so if I need to use death strike to get HP back I can.

My biggest problem seems to be I can't keep track of when the best time to use Obliterate is. It would probably be when most diseases are almost ready to fade but I can't seem to keep up with that very well, any suggestions would be great.

As far as gear goes, I bought my first piece of Tharassian(sp?) armor with Triumph badges, which was a nice upgrade, and I want to buy the hands next. I guess my question and concern is, I don't want to waste badges on stuff that I could easily find a replacement for in regular or heroic dungeons. How good is the 2 piece / 4 piece bonus for that set? When is it worth trading to lose a set bonus etc?

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Fenris&cn=Uraff

Edited, Feb 15th 2010 1:29pm by Wiretwister

Edited, Feb 15th 2010 1:34pm by Wiretwister
#2 Feb 15 2010 at 3:14 PM Rating: Decent
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Quote:
I can't keep track of when the best time to use Obliterate is.

You're playing Unholy, there is no time to use Oblit. Use Scourge Strike.

Quote:
How good is the 2 piece / 4 piece bonus for that set? When is it worth trading to lose a set bonus etc?

They are very good, get them as there is little to nothing that could compare from a current heroic. And the only time to break the set bonuses would be when you're min/maxing for raid output. If you're just pugging 5-mans it's simpler to upgrade to the highest tier gear you have access to and be sure that your other gear fills in nicely with the 4-piece. Keep your Hit Rating at 8% and shoot for loads of Str and AP with an eye to Crit (other stats are lackluster more or less).

As far as your current gear, just keep running heroics and pick up whatever dps plate you can find. You might consider buying a few pieces off the AH (Ice Strikers cloak, Vengeance Bracers, etc), but only if gold isn't an issue as you'll upgrade nearly everything that you can buy just through heroics.

For talents, the spec I looked at is ok but try to pick up Reaping. Those Death Runes give you an additional SS every cycle. And SS is where the cake is made.

cheers.
#3 Feb 15 2010 at 8:04 PM Rating: Good
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TherionSaysWhat, Assassin Reject wrote:
Quote:
I can't keep track of when the best time to use Obliterate is.

You're playing Unholy, there is no time to use Oblit. Use Scourge Strike.

Quote:
How good is the 2 piece / 4 piece bonus for that set? When is it worth trading to lose a set bonus etc?

They are very good, get them as there is little to nothing that could compare from a current heroic. And the only time to break the set bonuses would be when you're min/maxing for raid output. If you're just pugging 5-mans it's simpler to upgrade to the highest tier gear you have access to and be sure that your other gear fills in nicely with the 4-piece. Keep your Hit Rating at 8% and shoot for loads of Str and AP with an eye to Crit (other stats are lackluster more or less).

As far as your current gear, just keep running heroics and pick up whatever dps plate you can find. You might consider buying a few pieces off the AH (Ice Strikers cloak, Vengeance Bracers, etc), but only if gold isn't an issue as you'll upgrade nearly everything that you can buy just through heroics.

For talents, the spec I looked at is ok but try to pick up Reaping. Those Death Runes give you an additional SS every cycle. And SS is where the cake is made.

cheers.


I was under the impression that you keep 4T9 until 2T10 at the earliest. As even with 25 man ToGC gear the bonus is that sexy, plus you'd be upgrading your T9 along the way.
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#4 Feb 15 2010 at 10:24 PM Rating: Good
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If I were working on ICC hard modes, I would seriously consider (and statistically model) the 2pc t10 with 2pc t9 compared to holding out for a full replace of 4pc. Looking at the bonuses, I'd have to say it might be really close in pure DPS output but that's speculation.

But the OP is barely into heroics, just take a look at his gear. I don't think that at that rate of Frost Emblem gain it's going to be a big problem anytime soon. Unless he starts grinding ICC like a madman, in which case he's going to need to do some more serious research than this thread.

General rule of thumb though, you're absolutely right. Most folks, wisely, don't drop a 4pc bonus until they can nab the next tier's 2pc bonus, usually with the gloves and shoulders.
#5 Feb 16 2010 at 2:28 AM Rating: Good
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TherionSaysWhat, Assassin Reject wrote:
in which case he's going to need to do some more serious research than this thread.

Kinda like this.

Quote:
For talents, the spec I looked at is ok but try to pick up Reaping. Those Death Runes give you an additional SS every cycle. And SS is where the cake is made.

Is reaping really worth it at his gear level? I know SS is awesome and everything, but I was under the impression(mostly from the thread I linked) that two blood strikes plus the benefits of the talents you would have sacrificed to get reaping is going to be better until you're rocking 2pc t10(or until you're wielding an ICC weapon and have a fair bit of ArP).

Wiretwister, I would personally recommend grabbing the Triumph sigil next. It's cheap and awesome.
#6 Feb 16 2010 at 3:01 AM Rating: Good
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The One and Only Poldaran wrote:
Is reaping really worth it at his gear level? I know SS is awesome and everything, but I was under the impression(mostly from the thread I linked) that two blood strikes plus the benefits of the talents you would have sacrificed to get reaping is going to be better until you're rocking 2pc t10(or until you're wielding an ICC weapon and have a fair bit of ArP).

Wiretwister, I would personally recommend grabbing the Triumph sigil next. It's cheap and awesome.


For my DK 2 BSs typically hit harder than 1 SS. Toon in sig.

edit: I don't use Reaping.

Edited, Feb 16th 2010 4:37am by Horsemouth
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#7 Feb 16 2010 at 10:00 AM Rating: Good
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Poldaran,

Are you referring to the Sigil of Virulence or the Sigil of Awareness? Both seems good to me, but I'm curious which is better?

Well according to the EJ thread that was linked, they argue over whether or not Hanged Man or Virulence is better, so I will probably pick Virulence since I'm not fond of the whole "stacks up to x times" deal.

I now have the Thassarian (T9?) shoulders and hands so I could get the 2 piece bonus. I have several abilities/procs etc that all seem to add strength, as does one of those sigils I listed above.. do you know if they all stack on each other? I doubt it, but was curious.

Also, I was aware that the hit cap was 8% so that you could hit boss mobs without missing, but I'm curious if it's better to always hover around 8% and simply switch gear that focuses more on armor penetration/crit/str/ etc... or to keep going with more hit?

Edited, Feb 16th 2010 11:01am by Wiretwister

Edited, Feb 16th 2010 11:08am by Wiretwister
#8 Feb 16 2010 at 12:30 PM Rating: Good
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Pold - I'm not trying to guide the guy to squeaking out 20 more DPS on Vezax hard-mode in these responses. I'm trying to offer realistic advice to someone starting heroics. 2xBB can yield more under certain circumstances but we're just talking dungeons here. Personally, I think it's more important to learn the basics (like Death Rune to FU conversion) rather than bombard the poor guy with minute details of raiding output variance. From what I could tell after the last patch, SS was hitting like a truck which is why my dungeon unholy build had Reaping.

Quote:
that all seem to add strength, as does one of those sigils I listed above.. do you know if they all stack on each other?

Yes, strength stacks. Even when it's a proc. Some trinkets do share a cooldown, but it's usually pretty obvious which ones. You can always check here or wowhead.com to be sure.

Quote:
I'm curious if it's better to always hover around 8% and simply switch gear that focuses more on armor penetration/crit/str/ etc... or to keep going with more hit?

Don't need to stack hit past the 8% margin for Unholy. If you happen to have some on a gear upgrade, fine. But don't actively seek it. Stat priorities are roughly Strength, Strength, Strength..... and other stuff =)

Seriously, Hit to 8%, Expertise to 6.5%, and loads of Strength, are your priorities. Armor Penetration and Crit are also great but don't gem for them. Haste is kinda meh.
#9 Feb 16 2010 at 12:59 PM Rating: Good
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TherionSaysWhat, Assassin Reject wrote:
Pold - I'm not trying to guide the guy to squeaking out 20 more DPS on Vezax hard-mode in these responses. I'm trying to offer realistic advice to someone starting heroics. 2xBB can yield more under certain circumstances but we're just talking dungeons here. Personally, I think it's more important to learn the basics (like Death Rune to FU conversion) rather than bombard the poor guy with minute details of raiding output variance. From what I could tell after the last patch, SS was hitting like a truck which is why my dungeon unholy build had Reaping.


I've always been a "If something works better even by a little, do it that way" kind of guy. Smiley: tongue

Quote:
Are you referring to the Sigil of Virulence or the Sigil of Awareness? Both seems good to me, but I'm curious which is better?


Virulence was the one I meant. It has, if Wowhead commentary is correct, an 80% proc chance, which means it's up a lot(damn near all the time), which is damn sexy.

Edited, Feb 16th 2010 12:11pm by Poldaran
#10 Feb 16 2010 at 4:52 PM Rating: Good
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I'm just saying that damage output differences are situational. There is a big difference between gear and encounters in a raid setting vs. a heroic. My unholy build with Reaping performed better in heroics for me in kiz's gear than one without. But neither actually out-did frost. Mainly because AoE burst is king in current heroics. For raiding it was a whole other story.

Quote:
Virulence was the one I meant. It has, if Wowhead commentary is correct, an 80% proc chance, which means it's up a lot(damn near all the time), which is damn sexy.

Ever so very, very sexy =)
#11 Feb 18 2010 at 7:49 AM Rating: Good
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Well when I get 45 more triumph badges, I'll grab the T9 Helmet and I'll have my 4 piece T9 bonus. I'm doing Heroics a decent amount now and slowly gathering frost emblems. I'll be going with the Sigil of Viruluence and a nice ring from that same vendor (can't remember name at the moment). I'm pushing average of 2.4/2.5k dps so it's getting better slowly. Do we ever get anywhere close to the DPS output of mages or paladins? They always seems to be at 3.5 - 4.5k dps.

I'm considering toying with a reaping spec to see how much things change, and will let you know how it goes.

I've been trying to pay more attention, and as Horse said with his DK, it appears more often than not, my BS hits a good bit harder than my SS.
#12 Feb 18 2010 at 10:07 AM Rating: Decent
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What's your gearscore? I hate to use that, but if you only need one piece of T9 to have the 4 piece you should have about a 4k+ gearscore, unless your non tiered pieces are garbage. I have a gearscore of 4823 and am pulling 4.5-5.5k DPS depending on procs, buffs and debuffs.

I just looked at your armory (the one posted in your first post).... you need to work on your accessory gear (cloak, rings, trinkets, sigil, necklace....basically everything)

Running through Reg and H ToC until you have everything you need along with the 3 new 5 mans will put you at a very good place. Anything you upgrade will provide a very good benefit, no matter the piece, but weapon provides a more noticeable increase that most other pieces.

I highly recommend getting a gear scoring/ rating add-on like Pawn, rating buster, etc, to help you pick upgrades quickly based on your build. I use Pawn and can't really imagine leveling or playing without it. You will eventually get to a point where you won't need it, but I'm not even to that point yet for the majority of my gear. I use it mostly to discount gear that looks good, but really isn't any better than what I have.

Keep doing what your doing and you'll eventually get to where you want to be, but everyone has 1-2 pieces they run through dungeons to get and it takes them 100032645932745 runs to get it to drop and then another 15 times to get the drop again and win the roll this time.

Good luck.
#13 Feb 18 2010 at 11:57 AM Rating: Good
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Cool, thanks for the advice on the addons. I do use GearScore and I believe it is at 3660 last i checked.

Yeah, I will be hitting up the accessory items as soon as I can. I'm almost to exalted with Ebon Blade so I thought I'd buy those boots from them. If anyone could suggest something better than those that doesn't required 25 man raids etc, that would be great.

Ok, I will have to see what I can do about a weapon upgrade. I looked through some threads and wowarmory upgrade options and it appears most accessible weapon upgrade option for me would either be the Orca Hunters harpoon or getting lucky with the Battered Hilt.
#14 Feb 18 2010 at 1:39 PM Rating: Good
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Wiretwister wrote:
Yeah, I will be hitting up the accessory items as soon as I can. I'm almost to exalted with Ebon Blade so I thought I'd buy those boots from them. If anyone could suggest something better than those that doesn't required 25 man raids etc, that would be great.

Heroic Halls of Reflection drop[Grinning Skull Boots], Emblem of Valor badge loot[Bladed Steelboots], craftable boots[Battlelord's Plate Boots](will be expensive). I'd go with the first set if you can get it, but the other two aren't bad by any means. If you don't need the hit, I'd probably go with the rep boots over the valor ones, though again, Grinning Skull ftw.

Edited, Feb 18th 2010 12:48pm by Poldaran
#15 Feb 22 2010 at 9:08 AM Rating: Good
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UPDATE: Well, I've been very busy. I went with the Boots from rep with ebon hold, and got several other upgrades. All items are epic now except trinkets.. and I'm working on those next. I saw two trinkets that I could buy for Triumph badges, one was Mirror of Truth and the other had 128 hit and right click 1024 atk power (I can't remember name of it). I looked at the list of BiS trinkets on the EJ site but it appeared almost all of those are 10 man/ 25 man etc raid trinkets.. except for Greatness trinket.. and I haven't done any of those, nor is my guild able to do them.

I'm pumping out on average 3 - 3.5k DPS.. my max with in one heroic was just over 4k, so I'm fairly pleased with how it's progressing. My main concern now is, I'm over the 8% hit cap (I'm at 10.89%), and I only need a quarter of a percent to be expertise capped at 6.5. I suppose I will focus on str as suggested after both of those are capped. I'll keep earning frost emblems until I can purchase the 2 pieces of t10 and begin working on some of the harder 10 man content. I believe my gear score is a tad over 4600 now.

After trinket upgrades (assuming I use triumph badges for them), is it worth it to work on getting tier 9.5 armor pieces with any extra triumph badges I have (while still earning frost emblems for t10)? Or are there better uses for those badges?

My next goal will be to get a better weapon - perhapds Orca hunter harpoon or if I get lucky, the battered hilt.

I may toy around with using reaping to see how that affects my DPS.

Once again, any thoughts or guidance is appreciated.
#16 Feb 22 2010 at 10:58 AM Rating: Good
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Wiretwister wrote:
UPDATE: Well, I've been very busy. I went with the Boots from rep with ebon hold, and got several other upgrades. All items are epic now except trinkets.. and I'm working on those next. I saw two trinkets that I could buy for Triumph badges, one was Mirror of Truth and the other had 128 hit and right click 1024 atk power (I can't remember name of it). I looked at the list of BiS trinkets on the EJ site but it appeared almost all of those are 10 man/ 25 man etc raid trinkets.. except for Greatness trinket.. and I haven't done any of those, nor is my guild able to do them.


Get a guild group together and farm regular mode ToC 5 a bunch of times. ArP isn't necessarily the best stat, but it's a good stat. Additionally, hit FoS heroic every single day til you have the Needle Scorpion trinket.
#17 Feb 23 2010 at 6:18 AM Rating: Good
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Well, the trinket dropped yesterday and I lost roll to our healadin =\ /sigh, will try again today.
#18 Feb 24 2010 at 6:01 AM Rating: Good
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Dropped again tonight, lost to druid tank lol
#19 Feb 24 2010 at 7:59 AM Rating: Good
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Wiretwister wrote:
Dropped again tonight, lost to druid tank lol

I'm assuming you mean the Needle Encrusted Scorpion? That sucks to lose it twice. Keep in there, you'll get it eventually.
#20 Feb 24 2010 at 10:14 AM Rating: Good
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Aye, the Needle Encrusted Scorpion. Yeah, I'll keep at it and get it eventually. Just frustrating losing it twice in a row heh.
#21 Feb 24 2010 at 10:47 AM Rating: Good
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I would focus on H: PoS and try for the Tyrannical Beheader rather than the Orca-Hunter's Harpoon. The itemization of the Tyrannical is so much better than the Harpoon for a DK.

Keep working for the trinket. I love mine. I would actually recommend replacing the Whetstone with the Mirror of Truth. Haste is ok, but an extra 1000 atk power is dead sexy. Trading down 40 emblems of Trimuph for Heroism hurts a bit, but are so easy to get now that I wouldn't worry about it.

#22 Feb 24 2010 at 12:02 PM Rating: Good
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Really? I was thinking about that last night actually. Although as you said, trading 40 triumph for the heroism made me pause. I wasn't sure if the haste was better than the attack power.

I don't really need the hit, but that trinket that has +128 hit and right click 1000k + atk power ever 2 minutes seems dead sexy... but the only advantage to that would be that I could stop worrying about getting +hit on items in odd slots (not the T9/10 slots), such as the Waist etc. It would free me up more to making sure expertise would be capped etc.

I don't know, still kicking it around at the moment ;)

But yeah, will look into replacing the Whetstone with the Mirror of Truth, as you said, triumph aren't too terribly difficult to come by. I could easily make 60-80 in one long day of weekend heroic marathoning :)

EDIT:

About the Tyranical Beheader... I was looking at that weapon, but I'm using Mourning Malice atm and losing all of that expertise from the weapon would put me way out of range for the expertise cap atm... is gaining 20 extra DPS and the haste/ArP really worth it?

Edited, Feb 24th 2010 1:04pm by Wiretwister
#23 Feb 24 2010 at 12:16 PM Rating: Decent
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I think you'd lose more DPS by switching to the Harpoon. It has no Strength....which is the key stat for DK's for DPS, you might need to regem to see a gain in DPS with the axe, but the increase would be worth it imo.

Edited, Feb 24th 2010 1:17pm by Katchii
#24 Feb 25 2010 at 3:41 PM Rating: Good
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^ this exactly.


If you drop a 20 str gem in the Beheader, that's. A 149 str/ 298 atk buff that scales with Kings. That's incredible. Don't discount ArP as a stat as a lot of our damage comes from physical attacks. With the upcoming physical damage buff to SS, I can see Unholy DKs starting to focus on it a bit more. Here's another thing you can do, look at the breakdown of your next Recount and see how much of your damage comes from autoattacks. ArP will increase that total as well.

Expertise is a great stat, but when looking at the overall increase from the Beheader, with the ArP and max damage increase, you should see a noticeable DPS jump.

*EDIT*

Just remembered about the Banner of Victory if you didn't want to spend badges on Mirror. Granted, the drop rate on this is pretty much on par with the Scorpion, so if you're really a glutton for punishment...

It does stack with the Mirror of Truth proc though.

Edited, Feb 25th 2010 4:49pm by Jornam
#25 Feb 26 2010 at 12:23 AM Rating: Good
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Jornam wrote:
Just remembered about the Banner of Victory if you didn't want to spend badges on Mirror. Granted, the drop rate on this is pretty much on par with the Scorpion, so if you're really a glutton for punishment...

That one is tons easier to get. You just have to get a group of 4 guildies who need other trinkets from in there(the caster trinket is particularly awesome) and farm it over and over til you all have what you need. It drops in normal mode, so it's an easy farm.
#26 Feb 26 2010 at 7:48 AM Rating: Good
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Wow thanks for that suggestion about the Banner trinket... and yes, I am a glutton for punishment lol :)

BTW, last 2 days I ran H: FoS and no Needle Encrusted Scorpion dropped

I will start work on the Banner trinket also then.

I think I'll be saving my triumph badges for buying a tank trinket since my tank set is coming along nicely (Although I have zero experience tanking). I will be giving that a shot before long.

Thanks for reminding me about checking recount for actual physical damage. I always forget to use that for gathering information such as physical white damage.

I wasn't aware they were going to buff white damage for DK's in an upcoming patch... I will have to look into that.
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