• Asphyxialol

The specs are all fairly well balanced now, probably more than ever in full honesty. As an example check out WoW Meter Online - Combatlog Replay. All of the current parses are from 3.2, and not 3.1. You will see, with the exception of a couple select fights (Hodir, XT 002) that every spec has solid representation in any given boss fight.

Essentially any fight where cleave will be available a good portion of the time Blood will come out on top (ie Mimiron). Any fight with a crit multiplier buff frost will do better (ie Hodir). When it comes to mass AoE then unholy comes out triumphant (ie Freya/Yogg). However, in general, each spec is competitive if played correctly.

This also comes down to raid makeup and buffs available to your group.

Personally being Blood/Frost dual spec is what works best for me (and I have hold the top spot or top 10 on most fights in 10m US with both specs - 25m gives me weird interface lag and we rarely have an optimal group comp). I don't enjoy pet management and there aren't any fights that it exceptionally exceeds dps over the other two specs, so I don't use unholy.

 

Slider_1128

Why would Unholy still have best AoE? (Im sure your right just trying to understand) With the change to Unholy Blight the only think that would give them an advantage is Impurity. Morbidity is low enough in the tree that any spec can have it. Also Blood has increased dmg on Boil blood and if your unholy and frost runes are death runes these are more AoE's you can trigger. As for Frost, it only has howling blast but i thought that would be enough to also give it increased AoE dmg. Unholy does have Corpse Explosion, but is it always a viable talent. Lots of creatures count as elementals or Mechincal so i wouldnt conside it something you can use all the time. Being i dont do alot of upper end raiding (25 man naxx is extent of my experiance) I can be wrong on the Corpse Explosion.

Guess my question is why does it work out that unholy has better aoe dmg?

 

Consider

Unholy has the strongest diseases (impurity, crypt fever, RoR, so on). Diseases are one of the highest parts of any spec's AoE dps. That's one for Unholy.

Unholy has the strongest Death and Decay (not because of morbidity, but because of impurity, primarily). That's two for Unholy.

Unholy has Wandering Plague. Wandering Plague is pretty huge. It can easily be 10% of your dps in an AoE situation, potentially higher without much trouble. Not only that, but all of the damage it does is essentially passive (i.e, gcd free). That's another point in Unholy's favor.

Unholy can spread Ebon Plague in an AoE fashion. Moonkins and Locks can't do their 13% magic damage debuffs to multiple targets with any amount of ease, so not only does this boost Unholy's AoE by a lot, but it boosts the AoE of the entire raid. This is a huge point in Unholy's favor.

Stronger Diseases/Wandering Plague (the two go hand in hand) and Ebon Plague/Pest are the primary reasons why Unholy still wins the AoE medal. Ebon Plague alone is enough, it's just highly underrated/underacknowledged.

 

Jackinthegreen

I'd like to add in a little tidbit about (ab)using AMS for TotC, since the other threads don't have anything about these fights yet:

Faction champs: Plenty of opportunities to use it here especially if you're taunting a magic-user. If you find you don't need it for an ohshit button, might as well use it for RP.


Twin Valkyr: Possible use during Light or Dark vortex, but will annoy your healers.

 

Buffie

Rather than this, I'd suggest using it to soak balls heading for the boss.

 

Silarn

My group chooses to simply soak the Touch damage on Hard Val'kyr, so I try to use AMS for when I get one of these debuffs. The only other time it might come in handy is if a ball slips past your 'filter' group and might kill you if it hits.

That being said, you take constant damage throughout the fight so if your group runs PERFECT, no bad balls slip through, and you opt to remove the Touch debuffs, you might as well use AMS any time off cooldown for a bit of extra RP.

 

radon

Hello, i have a question about expertise. I am DW frost dps spec, i am orc and i have a main hand axe / off hand sword. My character sheet says Expertise: 19 / 14. Since i got threat of thassarian, when i OB / BS / FS, does it take my main hand or off hand expertise into account ? If neither (?), what is my expertise for special attacks ? (Special attacks make a single attack unlike mutilate, so you cant hit main hand / get dodge offhand i assume. i got confused in here)

 

Shadai

@ radon Each weapon is the listed expertise. Main hand 19, off 14. Each time you swing with that weapon, it uses those numbers to determine a hit, including your overall hit rating. Usually ability swings will key off the main hand weapon. Unless it is specifically different, it should still key off that main weapon.


On another note, I've updated the post to reflect the current changes. As always, if I missed something, please let me know.

Death Knight Questions? Here are some answers!

 

Knaledge

I have messaged a few people and dug through skeletonjack.com, wowpro, and EJ. I just am a bit lost in terms of "starting out tanking".

At level 68, I have become comfortable with spec/rotation for Unholy 2H DPS and now want to occupy my second talent spec slot with a tanking spec. However, most of the information I have come across is for raiding at 80 and even then they take the tone of "well, play how you want to play and choose a spec that fits you ^__^"

Really, is there something better than that? I am hoping for perhaps some indicators as to what to build out at 70, what to build out at 80, and all of this being considered for 5-mans, pre-raids, and the like.

This post may be reaching and... yeah it's basically a request but - you guys seem so knowledgeable! And I am positive if you spent just a few moments throwing something basic together, this thread would only benefit.

Thanks

 

Pintofbrew

5mans at pre-80 are irrelevant. You can zerg through them and as long as Frost Presence is on, you're effectively a tank. Not that it makes any difference. Read the first post of this excellent thread, it's specifically designed for what you ask. The exact same rules that apply to end-game applies to casual pre-raid gaming. Get the Def Cap, then Dodge>Parry>Miss and more Stamina. The only particularity about casual tanking is you'll be on trash most of the time, so you may benefit from a slightly more AoE-based spec, like frost with glyph of HB and glyph of DnD.

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