Rotation:

PS IT BS BS HB => Runic
PS IT IT IT HB => Runic


Glyphs:

Ghoul, Plague strike, Bone shield.


In no way do I think that I'm running an optimum or benchmark setup, I was just flabbergasted by the results. With so much room for improvement in my play, gear, and glyphs/changes next patch I'd not be surprised to see myself or someone else break 7k.

I'm convinced that 0/20/51 will be far and away the highest dps spec in 3.0.8 due to the [Sigil of the Frozen Conscience]. If the sigil applies to base damage, you're looking at 606 non-crit damage added per Icy Touch. Assuming a 50% crit rate on IT for the build and you can hit a 10s rotation, that'd be 272 dps from a relic slot, which is a ridiculously large amount.

I've been actively theorycrafting the spec for a few days now. I have a draft post but I haven't been able to find a spreadsheet I can use (I can't open xlsm docs but I've tried the others listed in the spreadsheet thread) that has good support for DW. I can napkin math the major damage sources, but I need a spreadsheet to break down talent point alternatives because there simply aren't enough points to get everything so I'm building one from scratch. A side benefit is that I should be able to provide good support for analyzing/optimizing the other DW builds.

A few questions, since I don't have a firm grasp on DK details:
* How do spell raid buffs apply to DKs, specifically WoA, Moonkin Aura, and imp scorch?
* Which ability GCDs are reduced by haste? All non melee would be my guess, but confirmation would be nice.

Ok, so I hit 80 this morning and I ran three heroics today. Halls of Stone, Draktharon Keep, and Utgarde Pinnacle. Right now im using 2 Fang of Truth's from Wyrmrest and I averaged about 1500-1600dps between the three instances. I haven't had the oppurtunity to raid yet, and probably not until I run some more heroics. However, even with the 4 or 5 pieces of green gear I still have, and also taking into account I'm a fresh 80, do you think that 1500-1600dps good for where I am at right now in heroics? Or am I doing something wrong so my dps should be more in the 2000 range? Feedback on this would be great.

P.S. I plan on getting Grasscutter in the next few days, and if I don't get the opportunity to get a fast main hand, I'll probably buy the slow titansteel onehander which is still much better than Fang of Truth, until I have the oppurtunity to get a fast onehander. (In the past 3 days I've looked, I have not seen any Avool's Sword of Jin in the auction house on my server). I think these upgrades along with getting full blues and superior gear would make me ready for raiding, am I right?

@ grayrest, I am not sure why you think 20/51 will be "by far and away the highest dps spec" due to that Sigil. 32/39's Icy Touches only hit 10% weaker than yours (assuming another class that can provide the EP buff) while you have nothing nearly as good as HB to do with your unholy runes. That's like 3 runes wasted over a 20 second rotation. I agree your Icy Touches will hit like a Mack truck, but the Sigil won't add that much more for 20/51 than it will for 32/39 in a raid setting... unless I am missing something.

@ Epicness, for what it's worth, my DPS was much higher when I was cookie cutter unholy 2-hander. I could pull 2k-2.3k heroic instance DPS with that spec, and it's significantly lower with my current DW setup. I think my raid boss practice dummy DPS is only about 1700 with my current gear and spec (and I'm unable to raid for another two weeks to improve my gear). I take solace in the fact that DW scales so well with basically every stat, and that with Naxx gear my crit, AP, and expertise will each increase by at least 50%.

So, I guess, if you're worried about being raid ready, you might want to try out unholy for a little. In my experience it's a lot less gear dependent than DW.

Haste lowers our spell GCDs, no effect on Melee Strikes.

The easiest way to see this is dumping Death Coils during a Blood Lust.

I got 6559 DPS (recount ss, WWS w/o ghoul or AotD) on Patchwerk earlier tonight with this 32/39 spec. I find that Night of the Dead is only useful on very few fights (Sapph, Heigan, Sarth) so I didn't bother speccing it. I tank on Sartharion anyways. The major glyphs I used were Ghoul, Icy Touch, and Plague Strike. Tejax, the other dps DK, was 17/0/54 Unholy.

I started channeling Army of the Dead the second the boss was engaged and then followed this rotation:
IT-PS-HB-BS-BS
IT-PS-HB-IT-IT

When [Mirror of Truth] procced I used Gargoyle. Before today I had solely raided as Unholy DPS. I found that trash DPS was actually higher with this spec. I didn't use Death and Decay at all, rather favoring Howling Blast on CD while burning blood runes on Pestilence and Blood Boil. HB just has a sickeningly high crit rate with fast/fast weapons and the damage didn't appear to be target capped. It wasn't uncommon for me to crit every mob in a trash pull with a 10k+ Howling Blast.

Nope, the screenshot works and that's quite impressive, I must say.

By the way, Ren. I'm looking at your rotation and I notice that there's not Runic Power dump except for the Gargoyle, yet you still use glyph of Icy Touch.

I'm a little confused. Do you follow that rotation 100% or do you use death coils and stuff?

Edit: By the way, if you dps the Boss training dummy in ebon hold (so it's 100% single target), how much dps do you get without using any buffs except for bone shield and Horn of winter while not using long cds such as the gargoyle. (You use the ghoul, ofc).
So basically just doing the rotation without anything else.

The reason I'm wondering is that my gear is pretty equal to yours in terms of quality and I just wanna know if I'm where I should be with my DPS.

Thanks.

I still see alot of people asking for advice regarding starting gear for DW and some seem to believe that the Titansteel Bonecrusher is in fact good for DK while the Wyrmrest sword is in my mind a far better mainhand får DK DW, due to the increased KM procs. While fast mainhands is the norm atm people still seem to presume that Titansteel Bonecrusher is superior due to it being epic 200ilvl but that just isn't the case, imo. The weapon obviously isn't that expensive but it's still 4 titansteel which could be put to better use.

While I haven't tried the whetstone yet (hasn't dropped) I believe the Sphere from heroic Nexus to be far better as you can use it to summon the Gargoyle which makes it alot stronger. Trinket swapping is not for me but that would probably be optimal otherwise.

I use Death Coils, I just didn't put it in my skill list because it seemed obvious. I tend to dump RP after HBs and at the end of the rotation. As for Glyphy of Icy Touch: despite the fact you have so many talents buffing IT's damage and crit rate, trading 10% of an IT for 25% of a Death Coil is still definitely worth it.

Hah, yeah after actually trying the rotation myself, I noticed that there's plenty of time for death coils.

By the way, I made an edit to my last post (didn't know you'd answer this quick).

Hello,

I'm what we can call, an old level 80, i'm mostly naxx 10 geared, with some heroics and 25-mans stuff (like the T7.5 shoulders).

I've been 2H Blood-specced for a long time (since I started raiding) and I was quite happy with it.
I don't have any SS to prove anything, but i was averaging 1.9k DPS on the dumy at Ebon Hold, and 2.5-2.7K in 10-mans raids.

I finally got time to read forums again (too much work IRL is really bad) and so I decided to try DW, as the WWS were showing what we can call a hudge dps for that spec.

Here's my armory, can be usefull to see my stuff if needed: The World of Warcraft Armory

So far I tried (always on the same dumy, on a 5minutes timer and with only personnal buffs):

- 51/13/8 : 2M -> 1.9k dps.
- 0/32/39 : Fast/fast weapons -> 2.2k dps.
- 0/20/51: fast/fast -> 2.4k dps.

I always tried a lot of rotations, either found here or selfmade, i just toss out the best results i had, gargoyle used asap (full RP + mirror proc and/or FC proc), so i can use it 2 times in my 5minutes.

Now my questions:

- I can clearly see the logic behind the IT specs, but I'm having a hard time when it comes to stuff. What should I prioritize ? Crit and Haste to get a lot of KM procs ? I valued strengh a lot when blood-specced (1k+ strengh on blood stuff).

- I didn't have the time to test the FS spec (0/44/27) but it seem to me even better. FS benefits from KM while DC don't. This is frustating in IT spec: KM is up, but no runes to IT so hudge DPS loss. And FS benefits also from some talents in frost like Black Ice.
My question is : Is this worth trying or not ? I haven't find a WWS with that spec, even if it theorically looks better.

- This is the DW post, but what about the full frost 2H DPS spec ? I've seen really amazing results on WWSs for that spec.

- From what i've read, the 3.0.8 patch will benefit more to the 0/44/27 specs (and the 2H frost spec) than to the 0/32/29. Is that right or have i missed something ?(I've read all the thread but it's kinda big ^^).

- Can someone post me a link to the 0/44/27 spec so i can it tonight ?

Thanks in advance.

PS: Sorry for my bad english, I'm french and at work xD.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft is the spec I use.

Nevermind.. didnt take army of the dead into account.

Very solid damage, will have to start using army of the dead as well. I fear however that upcoming WWS:s will provoke the nerfbat

Currently im using *0/50/21* because of Tundra Walker (I need the bonus expertise badly). Many people think it would be stupid not to choose Tundra Walken when going deeply into the Frost Tree. I use FS as my main RP dump.

But im eyeing with *0/44/27* because of Impurity and Gargoyle.

Any ideas which i should choose?

Should take one point out of Virulence and put it into Master of Ghouls for your 44/27

I made some cards and managed to get a full Undeath deck. How good exactly is this trinket for DW?
Equip: Improves haste rating by 85 (2.59% @ L80).
Equip: Each time you deal damage, you have a chance to do an additional 744 to 956 Shadow damage.

It's a free trinket for me, but I could also get like 2k gold for it, so I'm not quite sure what to do.

Ren, I noticed you said that you used Army Of The Dead on the Patchwerk fight. I was under the impression that the ghouls ran around taunting everything. I never use them for fear of taunting the boss off of the tanks. You don't have any problems with the ghouls taunting bosses during fights?

Hello. There. Ive been reading this thread and am really interested to see if i enjoy the DW build. Ive been thinking of trying the 32/39 build. But before i drop the gold to get the weapons and such i have a couple questions.

(Armory for gear reference) The World of Warcraft Armory

Since im using the Titansteel Destroyer as a 2h. And the only 1h i have access to right now is 2x fang from Wyrmcrest. Would it be a dps drop going from the epic hammer in 2h unholy to two blue swords? Also in terms of Runeforges. It seems most are putting FC on MH. But there is a mix of Cinderglacier or Razorice on offhand browsing through armory. Is that just personal preference? Or is one better suited for the spec then the other?

Also. I think a new thread needs to be made on the DW topic. Might cut down on the "hi im new to dw" questions if there is a post that gives a newbie DWer something to start on! Espically since it seems the 1st half of this thread is obsolete information now.

Well 1. Patchwerk locks in his MT based off aggro of course and then the OTS based of HP. Reason a Melee might die if "x" tank isnt healed before he gets back around to him.

2. I don't think Patchwerk is tauntable just like 90% of other bosses in raids, though I could be wrong.

Was wondering if we can make some sort of stat weights for the three mostly used DW Build´s, like that one from zurm in the unholy thread?

I use my Army of the dead on every boss, and never had problems with them taunting the boss. Just make sure you use them if the boss is below 50% and nothing bad should happen.