May someone answer my question above please?

You need to rephrase it for me.

I see a number of rune bugs, mostly with blood runes. Some of them are simply cosmetic, others beneficial.

Unless your warriors aren't sundering or your rogues aren't exposing, Oblit will hit for around 2k more damage per swing on a crit with the best weapon in game with the best gear. But like its been said, the reason SS is really good is because of the glyph and not needing to use GCD or runes on PS or IT and allowing additional SS's to be used.

I also saw a nice increase in DPS this week where I raided as standard 17/0/54 but dropped Ebon Plague and only picked up Crypt Fever while our MT had Ebon Plague. Here's a log:

Patchwerk : Shadesong

If raids have more than 1 DK and none are forced to go Frost or Blood, I think the best DPS spec right now in game is for 2 Unholys and one getting only Crypt Fever while the other gets Ebon Plague.

I've seen things like this happen, most memorably when I cast Army of the Dead during a Patchwerk pull as normal, and all three runes that I used were "locked" similar to what you describe. I just blew ERW and continued.

Thankfully, that attempt had to be aborted when for some bizarre reason the slimes from the room previous all aggroed the raid. We did it again, my runes worked properly, and I topped 5k dps for the first time.

@Nihenna: I use the SS glyph. Watch your DoTimers (or similar addon) like a hawk. You start out normally (PS-IT-SS-BS-BS-RD), then start SSing like a madman, BSing when your death runes come back as blood, dumping whenever your next strike would put you above cap.

I ONLY use UF for PS/IT when:
1) My diseases are down
or
2) My diseases have <3s remaining and my next UF won't come up for another 2 or 3 seconds after they fall off (obviously rule of thumb, it's hard to accurately judge the cooldowns at a glance, but you learn it).

That's how I treat my SS glyph. It's served me well, and will serve me better once I upgrade my Bite into the BoH.

@everwatch: My guild has a new DW DK who consistently places near the top in mediocre gear (though he just got 3 pieces of Valorous last night). DW is absolutely insane right now - I don't know what the devs were thinking, taking the cd off HB in 3.0.8. I predict a DW monotone of scoreboards to follow.

Quick question...

Is there any reason to avoid the +32 AP gems versus the +16 STR ones? My guild JC'er doesnt have the STR one yet and I like to try and stay in house if possible.

Its the same AP either way but doesnt scale with other buffs of course...

You just answered your own question.

Depending on whose numbers you go with, you're looking at roughly 2.5 AP per strength, so no, they really aren't the same. 16 str is going to be roughly 40 AP.

It's pretty simple to figure out what you gain from going with STR gems over AP. Take your +str talents (there's some in blood and in unholy) and then consider Kings.

In addition to what others have said, ghoul scales with Strength and not with Attack Power.

And the final big one, Rune of the Fallen crusader increases strength not AP. I think we've sufficiently beat the why Strength is better than AP horse into oblivion.

Thank you...I would prefer to get the mst out of every slot so +16 STR it is.

How's that?

Hardiness, Command, and Axe Spec do nothing for DC damage. Blood Fury will obviously make DCs stronger from the extra AP, but I don't see where 5% could come from.

It's a bug.

Could you provide some data that confirms this? You're going pretty far with just shrugging it off with "It's a bug".

It's pretty simple to test, since DC damage is constant - I've simply checked at different levels of AP (to find scaling increased by 5%), then extrapolated for 0 AP (to find a 5% higher base damage as well)*. I had a non-orc DK crosscheck, and the stated 15% AP scaling and base damage proofed correct for him.

Best guess is that DC for some reason counts as a pet (and hence gets the 5% from "Command") - that's hardly working as intended. Hence I label it a bug.

*) tested with a level 73 and 74 orc DK with 0/0/0 and various other specs, vs. different level dummies in both UC and EP

Would it have anything at all to do with the seeming "binary" nature of Death Coil? I have noticed a DC "Resist" message, but at the same time it will still do damage (almost as if there were 2 sources of damage. On my mage I would see similar messages when the slow from frostbolt is immune, but the damage is not).

Very interesting indeed. I wonder what that ranking will look like when 3.0.8 launches and Howling Blast loses it's CD.

Assuming this is true, wouldn't the same potentially apply for other abilities? It's accepted that the racial affects the Ghoul, Garg, and DRW. What about abilities like Unholy Blight or even Death and Decay? They work in fairly odd ways, and could get the bonus. I know if you click on Anti-Magic Zone in the combat log it's classified as a totem.


Dual Wield is pretty interesting. The next patch gives no CD on Howling Blast, but also a sigil for Icy Touch (as well as a buff to the IT glyph). It's possible to have a DW build without losing Unholy Aura and Ebon Plaguebringer if you need to bring that to your raid (personally, I do), but it doesn't use Howling Blast obviously. I'll be giving it a try sometime in the coming weeks, preferably after I get some decent 1 handers (despite weapon damage having a lower overall impact). It would be a shame if I end up banking my Betrayer of Humanity for wimpy one handers, but alas.

edit: Keep in mind that with DW, you are not looking at only potentially higher personal DPS, but also a 5% damage increase on FFB for your mages (and frost damage from other DKs) once fully stacked. Dual Wielding will also make Fury of the Five Flights more appealing, especially considering a Fast/Fast setup appears best with Killing Machine and no Frost Strike.

Why is it interesting? Patchwerk is ideal "unholy territory", because there is zero threat to any pet, and since gargoyle is an absolute dps monster if it lives for any period of time... This is all common knowledge. I wish everyone posting here would at least research a tiny tiny bit what they are posting about. Way too many posts lately have been along the lines of "Oh look found this!", when its all "old news" so to speak.

I can't remember questioning that. The fact that DW dominates 2H is what I considered interesting. There has never been a discussion about Unholy itself.

Well if you look closely at the parses, the difference in damage isnt even wether they are 2h or DW, but seems to be more a case of who handled gargoyle better. I just with they would tone it down, and at the same time increase its survivabilty, its a bit silly that you absolutely need to be specced into gargoyle to reach impressive numbers.

Should I always be using gargoyle on a trinket +ap proc, even if that means it will miss bloodlust for that fight? Let's assume a <3m or >6m fight (otherwise I must use it immediately).