Originally Posted by Orlgin

Two-Handed builds are divided into the three types: Blood, Frost, and Unholy. It makes sense to do the same to the DW builds as frost builds are very different from the unholy ones. This summary is designed with upcoming changes in mind. I recommend you familiarize yourself with the Think Tank article about Death Knight DPS. Though some of the data is out of date, it is a good foundation of knowledge overall.

3.1 Update

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deat...0&version=9757

Weapons: Slow (FC) and Fast OH (RI)

Preferred Stats (in order of importance)
1) Hit until the spell hit cap. - This build is a caster build and missing spells really hurts your DPS
2) Strength - Not only does it scale 103%, but your Ghoul scales with it too.
3) Haste - Spell Haste affects spell GCD in Blood Presence. It also boosts white damage, pet damage and Necrosis/BCB damage. A lot of haste can lead to more spells within a 10 second rotation.
4) Armor Penetration - At higher attack power, Armor Penetration becomes more valuable. With the use of Obliterate, you deal enough physical damage to cross the threshold where Armor Penetration becomes a good stat.

Raid Buffs: Ebon Plaguebringer
Major Glyphs: Ghoul, Obliterate, Dark Death
Sigil: Sigil of the Vengeful Heart

Strengths: Duel-wielding scaling with haste/armor penetration is excellent. It's your edge against the two-handed builds. Death Coils scale extremely well with this build. The high spell count makes this build excellent for moving fights.

Weaknesses: Weapon based strikes deal better damage with a two-hander. This limits most of your arsenal to spells.

Blood Caked Blade: This is one of the talents that define this spec. This talent is much better in a duel-wielding setup. This was buffed in 3.1 to 62.5% damage with three diseases up.

Necrosis: This was nerfed. No matter what, this is a 20% bonus to your white damage. Thankfully it still ignores armor.

Obliterate: This is used because it generates 25 runic power. With sufficient armor penetration, it scales better and deals more damage than Scourge Strike. The magical number is 14% but you can get away with less. It's a high damage attack that doesn't reset your diseases.

Haste: Haste is amazing for this type of build. Obviously this improves your white damage but it's also great for your spells. Death Knights get the benefit of spell haste so it can be used in Blood Presence to lower the GCD time.

Example:

New Casting Time = (Base Casting Time)/(1 + (% Spell Haste / 100))

BaseCastTime for instant cast spells is 1.5 sec. RatingConversion is 32.79.

So if you have 350 Haste Rating, using the formula

1.5 / (1 + ((350/32.79)/100) = 1.5 / 1.1067 = 1.355 GCD

1.05 * 1.03 = 8.15% Spell haste. Adding 8.15% Spell Haste from raid buffs:

1.5 / ((1+350/3279)* 1.03* 1.05) = 1.253.

With 5 spells in the rotation, you save (1.5-1.253) * 5 spells which is 1.255 sec for every 10 sec rotation.

As you can see, without latency, you save enough time to cast an extra spell.

Current rotation: You'll need to open with Blood Tap.

PS -> IT -> OB -> IT -> BS -> DC -> DC
PS -> IT -> OB -> BS -> IT -> DC -> DC

Itemization: Here are some examples of 226 ilevel items that stand out as good. Note trinkets are lower ilevel. The cloak is ilevel 219.

Head: Conqueror's Darkruned Helmet
Neck: Insurmountable Fervor
Shoulders: Conqueror's Darkruned Shoulderplates
Back: Stylish Power Cape
Chest: Conqueror's Darkruned Battleplate
Wrist: Decimator's Armguards
Hands: Gauntlets of Ruthless Reprisal
Waist: Girdle of Embers
Legs: Conqueror's Darkruned Legplates
Feet: Boots of the Underdweller
L. Ring: Bladebearer's Signet
R. Ring: Crazed Construct Ring
Trinket: [Grim Toll]
Trinket: [Darkmoon Card: Greatness]
MH Weapon: Malice
OH Weapon: Remorse
Sigil: Sigil of the Vengeful Heart

It gives you enough hit, some expertise, haste, armor penetration, and a whole lot of Strength.