Stolen DK Spec

Monk · Senior Member

Stolen DK Spec

Monk · Senior Member

And the Unholy Raid Tanking spec that I will probably work with:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=jZ0xZcgMctbkgtqRfsut

Monk · Senior Member

Another unholy tanking spec I might try:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0xZ0xZcg0ItbkgcqMcsut

-- Edited by Monk at 23:36, 2009-01-12

Monk · Senior Member

Or this one:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0xZ0xZfgoIzbogeVocsut

Monk · Senior Member

I might have to respec again, as they figure out a better Unholy tanking spec, but this one seems pretty good so far, and my dps (in dps-mode) only dropped about 3-400 against bosses. My dps vs regular stuff dropped about 1-200. I think I can handle that. We'll go test it right now as I farm some chilled meat (the daily that wants Northern Stew only wants 8 now, instead of 12 - oh, happy day!).

Hopefully, we'll get to test out my tank spec soon.

JustJonnE · Veteran Member

I might be on tonight! ... I know right... been a while.

Though I seriously need sleep.

Monk · Senior Member

Re-specced and swapped the 1 pt in Anti-Magic Zone (which i heard is crap now) to Master of Ghouls so I can keep the ghoul out at all times. Now my dps is back up to 1100-1300 to normal mobs before they die and still about 1300-1500 to bosses and elites that can handle a full rotation. My Blood spec was just completely superior vs bosses and elites.

What does this mean? It means, as a tank-spec DK, I'm still good to do my grinding/questing/farming since my dps is still high vs normal mobs, but I shouldn't dps in instances and vs bosses/elites unless there is no one else to fill in.

Mattie · Senior Member

How'd you test your dps? Recount?

Monk · Senior Member

Yessir. using the target dummies in ebon hold. They have different lvl dummies and a boss dummy.

On a side note, tanking AoE, I do over 1600 dps. And tanking bosses, I do about 1100 dps.

Monk · Senior Member

More testing. A better DPS tank spec, methinks:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=j0EMZ0xZbg0htbogeo0csut

Dropping:
Morbidity - more dmg on Death Coil, faster CD on DnD
Virulence - plus 1% to hit with spells
Outbreak - more dmg from Plague Strike and Blood Boil
Desecration - AoE slow and 5% more dmg while standing in the area

Gaining:
Necrosis - 20% shadow dmg added to auto-attacks and rune strikes
Bladed Armor - increases AP based on armor*
2H Weapon Spec - plus 4% dmg to weapon dmg and anything based on weapon dmg

*With my current armor: approx. 400+ AP

Edit: link fixed, armor AP fixed

-- Edited by Monk at 23:08, 2009-01-26

-- Edited by Monk at 16:47, 2009-01-27

Mattie · Senior Member

After testing last night, looks like my dps against standard mobs settled down to about 1350, without totems. The nicest thing about recount, for me, was that it made me pay a lot more attention to my dps rotations, which I had been getting a little lax on. Specifically, using my maelstrom insta-spell as soon as it comes up, so I can start building another stack.
It was also interesting how much of a difference my totem buffs made. I really want movable totems now. It's just not worth the extra mana downtime to drop them every 15 yards during average questing.

Bragging alert!!!: 2330 dps against the lvl 80 dummies with totems and cooldowns but no pots, scrolls or food.

Monk · Senior Member

That's pretty nutz dps (2300+). I think that's all you need against bosses in Heroics and for starting raids.

I agree about Recount, too. I am constantly trying to tighten my rotations now. And I'm also more likely to respec to test out a different theory, which paid off for me yesterday, as my current dps is anywhere from 100-200 higher against single targets AND AoE (which I thought was going to be lower). Thanks to Recount, I now for sure. You can also click on your dps/dmg bar in the Recount window and it will give you a pie chart showing you where all of your damage is coming from. This is great because I was specifically testing out the Necrosis talent (20% extra shadow damage to auto attacks and, more importantly, rune strikes). Some people were saying it was 1-2% of your total damage, tops. For me, it was 9-10% of my total damage. And that is MORE than worth the 5 points I put into it. But a huge chunk of that is from my rune strikes, which I wouldn't get if I wasn't tanking (i.e. if mobs weren't attacking me). So I can imagine if you are dps, it would totally suck to take the talent. But at least I know ... and, for me, it will help my dps AND threat, especially since the 20% extra damage is from shadow, it ignores armor. So it stays.

Also, thanks to Recount, Adam was able to tighten his rotation and almost double his dps. Sure, he researched spriest rotations, but I still credit Recount for putting that motivation in his head.

Monk · Senior Member

Mattie wrote:

... Specifically, using my maelstrom insta-spell as soon as it comes up, so I can start building another stack ...

That's huge for DK dps, too. To get the most out of your rotation, you need to use your Rune Stike every time it comes up immediately, and if you're Blood spec, you need to use your free Death Coil soon after it comes up.

Rune Strike (your spikiest/biggest dps strike) is very likely to proc again right after, especially if you have multiple mobs on you (since it procs from successful parries OR dodges).

Sudden Doom (Free Critting Death Coil) is likely to proc again on your next rotation since it's from blood/heart strikes. So use it before you start your next rotation.

Edit: Fixed Rune Stike info.

-- Edited by Monk at 16:56, 2009-01-27

Mattie · Senior Member

Monk wrote:

You can also click on your dps/dmg bar in the Recount window and it will give you a pie chart showing you where all of your damage is coming from.

Thanks, I was wondering if you could do that. I'm interested to see how much of my damage comes from spells vs. melee. That'll help me decide how much I want to itemize for spell hit.

What I really want to test is fast vs. slow offhand. Slow gives bigger damage from lava lash, while fast optimizes the damage from flametongue imbue (supposedly). Unfortunately, to test this, I'll need to find slow and fast offhands with nearly identical dps.

Monk · Senior Member

I think elitistjerks might be worth checking out for that, since it's so numbers-intensive.

Mattie · Senior Member

I have. The slow/fast thing seems to be about equal, and is dependent on the two weapons in question, as well as what glyphs you're using. It's kind of nice, I think, that inscription and other 3.0 changes have torn down some of the cookie-cutterness of certain specs (at least for the time being).