DK - the hard choices

CircaRevolt — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:26:05 GMT

I feel your pain. In other classes I pick the obvious choices in a tree then use the left overs in other trees to supliment whatever objective I am going for. But when it comes to the DK trees, I get to the final ability in a tree and then I still have a ton of things in said tree I want to have as well. I'm at 73 right now and still have every single point in one tree.

As far as Blood vs. Unholy (I'm sure it's pretty self explanitory that Frost is the tank tree), I'd recommend you go blood until you're wanting to seriously run instances (perhaps at 70 so you can start taking part in the new Northrend content) because blood is easily the best solo build. You won't see a big difference between blood and unholy on the DPS charts until around 65 or so then the unholy will dominate them. Unholy is definitely the pure DPS build and it will even have an easier time soloing elite mobs due to spells like Bone Shield, but over all I think you'll have more success casually leveling as blood due to the increased regular heals as well as Rune Tap heal. Your general survivability will be way higher due to how much healing you have coming in constantly. The only reason unholy does better soling things like grou pquests is because for the amount of time it takes to solo one mob of the elite persuasion it has cooldown abilities it can pop that make it pretty hard to kill (including anti-magic shell).

I hope this overly long post helps.

lumpownsnoobs — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:00:57 GMT

i believe this is the best lvl 80 raid / instance spec for a dps / tank

www.worldofwarcraft.com/.../talents.html

Althos — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:50:04 GMT

Correction this is the 80 build i linked a old build.. the bottom one is correct and is my 70 build thou

www.worldofwarcraft.com/.../talents.html

Althos — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:47:18 GMT

I agree with you, currently everyone is crossing talent boundary making the best high bread they can at there level. But now that there is more people giving up on DK on my server and turning to there mains to level I have been noticing DK with some "interesting" builds like my own of 80 (61/5/5)<blood tank> (once I get to 80 I tested it's 70spec (55/5/1) in kara tanking)... Which is a good soloing and tanking build if you know how to tank. I just think it just comes down to Play style in the long run. with the people doing most DPS are the people that know how to gear and know how to do proper rotations. Specing in this class has not "perfect" builds just imperfect creations

Soon to be 80 tanking build

www.worldofwarcraft.com/.../talents.html 70 build

www.worldofwarcraft.com/.../talents.html

Edinj — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:12:17 GMT

Haha, I know what you mean...

While I am primarily Unholy, I find myself looking at the other talent trees for things that would better my overall experience as a death knight. What I've come across is there's no "perfect" talent build. I have unlearned my talents three times since level 58 and added on different bits from Blood and Frost that would benefit Unholy.

Right now, I'm experimenting with a 10/3/58 build (though I won't fully have it until 80) and it seems to be working out. But again, I keep seeing more and more different combinations. I currently have around eight builds saved on my desktop that I'm going to test out and I'm still seeing more and more.

My point is, that the death knight class is very versatile for: play style, as mentioned and what you are going to be doing in end-game. Of course you're going to be primarily Frost if you're going to tank, but with DPS, there's many combos.

PrieHord — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:38:45 GMT

well, yr concern must be changed in future patchers of Wotlk!!!

Eagle_Eye — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:17:25 GMT

Well, to my personal knowledge. Yes

Just to give you a more widened perspective of a Paladin's tanking capabilities... Paladin's are much more effective in maintaining aggro on multiple mobs, thus the reason why I recommend paladin's to tank heroics (5 mans).

Also, I always thought/seen/heard that paladin's mostly heal for raids, other than DPSing or off-tanking.

I'm not sure if they are able to off-tank as effectively in a raid as a warrior would, for that I hope someone sheds more light on this topic.

DenSquaTT — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:59:45 GMT

Thanks for your comment Eagle_Eye. It helped a bit :)

So, correct me if I am wrong, a paladin in 10-25 man raids is only an off-tank? Or support healer maybe?

Eagle_Eye — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:56:30 GMT

Each serves it's own purpose, DenSquaTT. For instance...

Warrior's are more likely to tank for raids (10-25 man raids), because they are more specialized in maintaining aggro on specific targets.

Paladins are better for tanking 5 man instances, such as heroics.

Druids are more likely to tank in 5 man instances, however, they may be called upon to tank certain bosses in raids because of their superior damage mitigation.

I hope that helped :)

GnomeTank — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:51:47 GMT

The way you are with Blood, I am with Unholy. I couldn't imagine dismantling my Unholy build for something else. I rely too heavily on many of the talents in the tree.

Personally, I think this is a strength of the DK class. For once, you are able to spec based around your play style, not the FoTM build. The reason people feel so strongly about their build is because their build tends to fit their play style exactly, which is not something you can say for every class. Many classes you end up squeezed in to a build because numerically X is better than Y, but with the DK, it's hard to find that numeric advantage. Blood can be just as effect as Unholy, and vice versa, in the hands of a player who's play style fits the build.

DenSquaTT — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:56:38 GMT

Hey,

I can find myself in your words....I am a casual player too and struggling with the question if I am not missing something in talents or builds or even classes.

After many characters in low levels and 3 lvl70's (lock, hunter and paladin) I now play the paladin in WotLK and that was also my first character almost 3 years ago. With a paladin you can play all the three major types in the game (Tank, Heal or DPS). Currently i am on DPS because of leveling......like everyone else. But in the end game I want to go tanking and with this Paladin I couldn't be wrong I thought......But that DK? Everyone says is overpowered and so easy to play with. Is a DK better to tank in endgame instances or do warriors, paladins and druids still count?