I am guessing you have a basic understanding of Power Auras so I am not going to go into a long, drawn out tutorial on that subject.

So the short of it is: on the "Activation" tab, select "Action Usable" from the "Activation by:" list. Type in "Rune Strike" in the field below, and select "Only if in Combat" for good measure. That's it. Then you just configure the visual cues: Texture, animation, etc. to your own liking.

I'll make it easy on you, here is the exported config for my Rune Strike:

Feel free to PM me with any questions for I fear we are in danger of derailing the thread

Like one of the previous posters, I've ended up in situations where I had 4 death runes and PS and IT both used the frost death rune, leaving me with 2 blood runes, 2 runes on cooldown and 2 unholy runes. Is this a bug? From what I understand, if you have a death rune up and a blood rune up, and try to use a blood rune ability, the blood runes have priority over the death runes. If I want to use an unholy-rune ability and I have no true unholy runes but I have 2 unholy->death runes and 2 frost->death runes, I would assume that PS would use the unholy->death rune and IT would use the frost->death runes.

It seems like it's a bug to me.and it really throws off my rotation when I can't use IT/PS because I have too many death runes.

After some fooling around, I found out frost strike and scourge strike can be partly resisted >.> ( tested with only a frost totem from a shaman ). Inc spell pen. gemming for pvp lol.

Thanks, works now. The actual steps were much easier than the code tbh haha, but only cause I'm not sure what files to put codes into for addons lol.

Although this thread often argues DRW vs Gargoyle, I've wondered if anyone has ever given any serious thought to the Lazy Blood spec that was thrown around in Beta?

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Sorry if there is some mistake in there somehow.

Simple (read: lazy) rotation:

HS, HS, OB, OB, DC-->

HS, HS, HS, HS, HS, HS, DC

You can technically use a crit DC between HS, I've never look at how this effected DPS. No Dots, just 2h weapon spam with OB glyph abuse and some Necrosis. Occasional small contributions from B-CB and bloodworms at times. You can alternate the first part of the rotation to OB first, and set up a 10 HS combo.

In addition, you can easily move 2 points (BW and DRW) and go gargoyle, choice is yours of course.

So my group often lacks an enhancement shaman and thus we are missing out on some great buffs.

I've been toying with a personal nerf that would alleviate this and would like some feedback.
Blood DPS w/Abom and ImpIcy

magegraf-DK recommends
PS-IT-HS-HS-OB-DC
PS-IT-HS-HS-HS-DC

I'm sure this rotation can be improved on with some of the recommendations previously posted.

Am I insane to try to cover both Rage and Windfury?

Just some quick numbers to toss up for a geared out blood 50/0/21 spec. Last night in Naxx/25 off Patchwerk, i did 4214DPS, this was raided at prime time tho with some extreme lag causing my globals to take 2 seconds, I would guess i could of done over 5-5.5K DPS easily without it.

Its been 2 weeks now where my server has been garbage while instancing, hoping to get a 'real' Patchwerk attempt soon.

Here's the WWS :

Wow Web Stats

Are there any prevailing opinions on the best way to build a blood leveling spec in the low 70s range? I can't get DRW and annihilation, so I feel like I'm wasting a lot of disease dps potential when obliterate dispels the diseases very early on. Am I going to be better off putting a lot of points into blood and skipping the frost tree entirely, or skipping blood gorged(for the general practice of aoe pulling, which might often result in less than 75% health?) and DRW, and grabbing annihilation?

Someone must see the benefit of a tool like this....

Check this out: feraldps

If that doesn't motivate someone out there to write one for DK's, I dunno what will I'd *love* to have a tool like this to practice and experiment at work.......

ok I've been studying these forums and have gotten some great ideas that have boosted up my DPS almost triple. But whats not working is the rotation order you guys are doing.

IT>PS>OB>HS>HS>DC (this works fine)
Then some posts say
OB>HS>HS>HS>HS> (or some sort of variation)

What doesnt work is by the time I do the first set of runes I'll have unholy and frost rune back up, so I can do an OB but then I'm out of runes. I either wait for them to come back (which is less dps) or I pop the skill to get all my runes back, but I can only do that every 5 min. What am I missing here?

We all know to pop trinket, hysteria and runeweapon during bloodlust and holy strenght etc but what is the optimal rotation to use while runeweapon is up?

So far i've had the best luck with trying to squeeze in as many oblits as possible.
So pop runeweapon, oblit, oblit, bloodtap, oblit, embpowerd runeweapon and oblit, oblit. Or should i immediately go for IT then PS to get the double dot up?
Also anyone have any numbers on summoning double ghoul?

If this thread is in the wrong place please move it.

I could use some more input on the Blood rotation for 51/13/7 because it's really been bugging me today.

The more I think about the cast sequence, the more it seems like 2xHS 2xOB on alternate rune sets should not be doing more DPS than the 4xHS 1xOB rotation if both can only afford 2 DCs per second RP dump. However, I seem to consistently get higher results on the boss dummy when using 2xHS 2xOB and I am not sure why. The average OB damage even with SoA and the glyph is still not higher than 2xHS.

It's either that I am doing something wrong with 4xHS rotation or I'm just missing something that should be obvious.

When DPSing in Blood Presence, are you guys holding SD procs or spending them mid-rotation?

I've consistently had better results with glyphed 2x Oblit rather than 4x Heart Strike as well. It seems counter-intuitive, and I'm not insightful enough to pinpoint the reason why it works better, but the numbers don't lie.

I'm only guessing, but at least in my case I *think* the improvement is due to neither rotation being executed flawlessly at all times. I don't mean that I'm screwing it up all the time (though it happens occasionally to all of us), but rather that encounters never provide you with a 100% perfect rotation. Bosses make you move around, cause you to lose valuable fractions of seconds responding to the environment, etc. Even Patchwerk is going to squeak a dodge in on most of us who aren't overgeared for him yet. All of those things impact the rotation, and 4x Heart Strike suffers much more from setbacks than 2x Oblit. Saving just one GCD and dumping it on a DC later on if possible opens up a lot more options for reacting to bad luck, AoEs, or whatever other crappy things end up happening.

Basically, 2x Oblit just seems to be more real-time environment friendly.

The rotation I do is IT-PS-OB-HS-HS-DC (more DCif any proced). By this time I'll have 1 unholy and 1 frost avail. so I usually do another OB, But then all of my runes are on cooldown and I might have enough for another DC. But on previous posts at this time in their rotation their doing 4-5 HS. Where are you getting all these blood runes?

I spend them, within reason. I usually Heart Strike in pairs to keep the rune timing consistent and avoid throwing off a future rotation-- i.e., if I PS IT HS *SD proc!* DC now, it might leave a gap with no rune or RP or SD proc next time through the runes (The exception is if Blood Tap is available-- then you know you can just toss in an extra HS on that empty GCD). So, I very occasionally let a SD proc go to waste, but it's pretty rare to get two subsequent SD procs anyway.

I've tried both 51/13/7 and 51/0/20 now in raids, and I actually find 51/13/7 to be less flexible despite having Annihilation. With only 18 seconds for two melee rotations, it was harder to fit in every strike with diseases up while still effectively expending runic power. So I'm using something a bit different than what some are talking about here-- 51/0/20 with Epidemic, in Blood Presence.

The reason is that my raid buffed HS and DC are about the same damage (not to mention DC's crit rate is higher thanks to Sudden Doom)-- you want to use both of them at every opportunity, and it's easier to fit them all in when you don't have to worry about diseases dropping off. My base rotation is

IT PS HS HS DC OB IT PS HS HS HS HS DC,

as you'd expect. I can fit in every DC and SD proc without fear of diseases dropping off or missing a strike. It also allows me to be more flexible if blood runes pop back up. As long as diseases are ticking, HS and DC are the highest priority, so I sometimes end up doing

IT PS HS HS OB IT PS HS HS HS HS HS HS OB IT PS HS HS HS HS OB (resume)

with DCs in between. Yes, that means that sometimes a UF sits ready for longer than a second. Don't panic! The point is that 1) every GCD is filled, 2) I'm doing my highest damage abilities as much as possible with diseases up, and 3) I wait to Oblit until I can shortly IT PS again. Empower Rune Weapon and Blood Tap are your friends here.

Also, on DRW vs. Gargoyle, I'm pretty much hooked on DRW now. The damage when well-used is competitive with Gargoyle, and on fights where the Gargoyle gets insta-gibbed (which is quite a few), the DRW is the clear winner. Allowing you to do double AOE damage is pretty handy too.

Edit: Made rotations more readable

Useless post: The nerf to the thread title makes me sadpants

This is exactly what ive found and could be why so many people prefer the 21 in unholy atm. Due to gcd limitations and general raiding encounter mechanics like movement, you end up doing a very similar rotation as the unholy subspec, while having none of the stronger unholy talents.

The entire point of adding 13 into frost is to give your rotation significantly more flexibility. Anytime a boss moves out of range for a second, general lag, or anything of that sort, you fall behind. When you start falling behind you are wasting resources. In a raid scenerio this can happen all the time. Using 2x oblit over a 4x heart is often the best way to get using your resources quickly.

Between sudden death and a general lack of open gcds to use runic power, you almost rarely even get a chance to 4x heart strike in a raiding environment. Youll either be sitting on a full runic power, or using your runic power and wasting rune uptime. Using obliterate allows you to use both your rune resource and your runic power resources almost to their full extent. Heart strike may be best damage per rune ability, but when time and runic power limits become a factor, it often falls behind.

Now dont get me wrong, there are definitely times to 4x heart strike. However dont be afraid to use your instincts. If your tank just moved kt to avoid a VZ and it takes you a second to get back in, you're wasting rune time if you sit there to toss out all 4 hearts.

Thats at least my 2 cents from everything ive experienced thus far.

EDIT: To simplify my point, think of using obliterate as a compromise between blood and unholy presence. A situation where you can keep blood presence and still effectively use resources which is the benefit of unholy.

Please take a look at the Death Knight PvE DPS entry in the TTT. Section 8.3 covers Blood Rotations, 8.2 covers Blood talent specs, and 4.1.1 covers Death Runes.

In the first part of your rotation you're using Obliterate too early, which is why you don't have any Blood Runes available after you Obliterate at the start of the second part in the cycle. It also sounds like you haven't specced into Death Rune Mastery, which is assumed for either of the two Blood talent specs. That is where the extra Blood Runes are coming from.

That's pretty awesome.

Most of the WWS results for the fastest Patchwerk kills show Blood DK's using 50/0/21 and dealing over 4K DPS. I was wondering what your guys' rotations looked like (people seem to have differing opinions).

I think most modern 50/0/21 rotations start with Obliterate now?

I'm having trouble making use of most of the data in this thread. For you people posting the higher DPS, would you mind showing some logs of you fighting the boss dummy with ZERO buffs, without using DRW, your stance, how long you fought it for, and the exact rotation you are using?

This sort of information will actually help people figure out what the best rotations and specs are.

Also, since DRW does not benefit from all of our talents, I'd love to see logs of your DRW's damage, and what rotation you use within their DRW window.

I'd like to be able to see what other people are doing that I'm not. It's frustrating to try to figure out why someone's dps is higher than yours only to find out they are using hysteria on themselves. If we remove all the buffs tin this thread the numbers in this thread will normalize and the data will become much more useful to everyone.

Thank you.

Well I'm still waiting on the WWS report to post from tonights 10 man Naxx, but I'de like to share what I did notice right away. This week I changed from 51/13/7 to 51/0/20, and have the same gear, but different raid make up. I had more melee support buffs last week than I did tonight. For the first few boss fights I remained in Blood Presence and didn't notice much change.. if anything slightly less dps overall. For the Raz and Loatheb fights I decided to try dps'ing while in UH Presence. At the end i was able to reach 3.3k dps. After comparing just the average dps of tonight vs. last weeks WWS of the same fights.. my dps increased about 300, same gear, less melee buffs in raid. I was not completely sold on those previous posters about their success with dps'ing in UH Presence..... but I'm listening now.

with the new changes to blood, would DRW be better? considering the amount of times Gargoyle Dies to AOE?