Nah you are pretty much spamming things non-stop, especially if you don't have a blood strike-> death rune talent or aren't hit/expertise capped. Lots of dks will be either GCD limited or latency limited I think.

Deathchill, Runetap, Bloodtap, AMS, IBF, Lichborne, Deathgrip, and Mind Freeze are all off the GCD if I am remembering correctly. I don't believe Hysteria, UA, Bone Armor, Vampiric Blood, Gargoyle, DRW, or Mark of Blood are off the GCD.

While deciding on my DK leveling and endgame PVP spec, I ended up with a 19/52 spec with 3 points in DRM before realizing that DRM wouldn't really benefit me damage-wise, but how is it survivability/utility/PVP-wise?

My guess is it'd help getting a couple of chains of ice more off, or icy touch multiple people for the slow effect of chillblains from a long range. Any more examples of this?

Sorry if I'm derailing the thread a bit with this post, but I couldn't really find a discussion about this.

Edit: Realized again that Blood of the north would open up the same abilities while preserving my DPS due to converting of blood runes to death ones, makes my question void. Oh well.

I think what I'm about to suggest was mentioned before at some point, but I also think that there was no clear verdict on it. I was playing around with frost a bit and realized that it would be possible to drop 4 points in frost with no notable DPS ramifications (assuming you have a shaman for the raid) to reach a 0/50/21 build Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft.

Now, the 4 piece bonus of tier 7 death knight gear gives obliterate another 10 runic power generated. Would this be enough runic power generation to maintain a gargoyle, and how would you guys weigh that gain (along with the other unholy stuff) against the loss of several valuable blood talents? Keep in mind that with epidemic, it is now possible to do a rotation of:

PS -> IT -> BS -> BS -> OB -> FS
OB -> OB -> OB -> FS

if I am not mistaken, which impacts both the DPS from your rotation, and throws in another buffed runic power generation obliterate if you have 4p T7.

There are 4 points you can shave off of that build, but Imp Icy talons is definitely not one of them. Why would you ditch 5% haste (especially when you have Killing Machine) for Deathchill or Unbreakable armor as a DPSer?

As for the rest of your post, it's a good idea, but I'm still skeptical of Frost's RP generation. Plus Frost Strike is so much better than Death Coil that the DPS gain would be a lot smaller, if it exists at all.

I hardly see the point in trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. DRM is a WASTE of points in its entirety unless you are specced far enough into blood to get Heart Strike.

You would use it like any on-use trinket that gives AP... use it in such a way that it's used as often as possible, but also used in conjunction with other cooldowns whenever possible (especially large haste gains like Bloodlust).

I have read the post and feel that I understand some of the basics of the class, I was not in beta so I have no real feel for the mechanics. This is very good discussion and I have learned alot.

If I understand correctly the RP is gained like energy or rage. Is it gained on the white hit or any strike in the rotation? Should DRW/Gargoyle be timed with heroism or just a pure dump when RP is full? How often should it be mixed into your rotation to maximize DPS?

Good point Zurm, I think I'll probably take that out of deathchill, I didn't really think about that 5% haste for some reason when I was working on the build. I'm doing that over unbreakable armor because my gut is telling me that unbreakable armor is probably more of a DPS increase, and definitely provides some tanking utility that could buy a raid some time in an oh shit situation.

In any case, the RP generation isn't something I want to try modeling without having had access to beta, so I think I'll wait till 80 and then revisit this idea when I'm getting close to having 4p t7. I'm fairly based on brain math that the RP would be enough, but then theres also the DPS loss from blood talents to consider, theres a lot of unholy points which don't go to much use in there what with frost strike and such. Does anyone know if bladed armor updates dynamically enough to give any significant DPS increase based off of the armor bonus in unbreakable armor?

No need to lie.

You should take a gander at Section 4.2 of the very first post in this thread.

So here is something that has bugged me while I was playing on the Beta, and speced 50/0/21

Epidemic - I always felt when I had this talent that I was doing alot of waiting, I'd dump my Runic Power and have to wait for my Blood Plague to get to the end of its duration before starting up my rotation again. It seemed to me it felt alot more natural to jump into the cycle again once I had finished.

Instead of Epidemic I would normally max out Necrosis.

I guess what I'm asking is if the extra 2 ticks of Blood Plague add up to more damage over time, then the constant 4% shadow damage with our White Damage, specially when you consider the kind of damage a swing from something like Betrayer of Humanity will do, with a top end of 901, and knowing that weapons will only get harder hitting as the xpac gets older.

Epidemic is a complete waste of 2 points as 50/0/21. You should be refreshing your cycles after a non-talented round of diseases because you are using a PS and IT every wave of rune cooldowns. You made the right choice, IMO. As a minor correction, Betrayer of Humanity has 910 topend, according to this.

During the (brief) discussion about efficient ability priorities when dealing with different sized AoE situations, one of the posters mentioned working in ERW to squeeze out more BBs.

Is there any school of thought on when would be the most efficient time to use ERW? Or do most people consider it a "oh crap" button for use when you totally mess up your rotation, or need to do something like emergency tank?

When I was considering this, is that it might be useful use fairly shortly after popping a gargoyle.

The lengthy cooldown makes it pretty difficult to decide which moment is best. Like someone said earlier in this thread, if tank TPS becomes an issue, it can be used right after the initial threat buildup to give a headstart. For DPSing, it would make sense to use it every time it's up to maximize dps. If you have trouble sustaining the gargoyle and for some reason can't generate enough RP, that's another moment.