Well, I certainly will give Necrosis a try first, giving the ICC fights a run through to see which exactly require frequent enough DnD use to warrant spec'ing for a reduced cooldown and of course whether single / aoe alternating is worth it. Based on current ToGC fights I would certainly choose to have a single target spec.

Current intended spec: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

First, never posted here before... I hope I don't regret it

I do very much appreciate the detailed work people put in here, particularly as it applies to Unholy spec'd DKs and optimizing DPS. I try to read most of it, and do tend to follow the recommendations closely, especially those commonly seen at the beginning of these threads.

With that in mind, I have what may be seen as a simplistic question. With yet another respec and change to the UH rotation I count 19 key strokes to the new "single target" rotation. Even then it doesn't repeat from the beginning if I read correctly. How is anyone actually able to remember this rotation, as a practical matter?

I do enjoy playing my DK as my main, but I have to say that after so many changes to spec'ing and rotations this past year, my frustration with the ever increasing complexity to basic "play" has made me take a fresh look at my hunter. Can anyone offer some alternative to the new rotation, without diminishing DK abilities too considerably?

On the subject of easier rotations, I'm finding the following more manageable (or at least more intuitive) than the single target rotation in the OP, despite being basically the same.

IT-PS-SS-BS-Pest
(then repeat)
SS-SS-SS
SS-SS-BS-Pest

Annu you'll have an easier time when you stop thinking of it as a rotation to be memorized and instead begin to understand why you're doing what you're doing.

Yeah, I kinda got there with the last rotation, and was able to improvise a bit even in given situations. That said though, and I hope I'm not the only one, runes have always been a bit of a mystery to me, despite having read up on them more than once. At some point I kind of intuited the mechanics, but not because I ever really understood the explanations I read (at WoWHead, WoWWiki).

Thanks a lot for this. It will help a lot. I found the new rotation daunting, to say the least

The Armory still doesn't include Arthas loot, actually.

That aside, I'm still not getting how gearing changes so radically between AoE and Single Target (ignoring gemming) Stacking ArP on gear doesn't come at the expense of Str, but of haste (or possibly crit, but rarely). That's all. Haste is no better for AoE. Worse, actually.

Yes, there might be some slight differences in str/crit, of course, but it really shouldn't be anything that large, and I still can't see a single target BiS list drastically differing from an AoE BiS list (Assuming 4P T9 wouldn't still be necessary for the latter, and ignoring the aforementioned potential for gemming ArP). Perhaps a piece or two, but that'ld be about it.

But, at any rate, I would agree - ICC certainly has a much smaller emphasis on concentrated AoE (although incidental AoE is as omnipresent as ever). Simply don't believe that will largely influence our gearing decisions - ArP may be great, yes, but if we don't take it for AoE, what stats do we get in return? Nothing of greater value for AoE, in the vast majority of cases.

Anyways, as to the different rotation Diospadre, like you said, that's really the same thing - simply swapping the BS/Pest with the following SS. The difference is that SS getting the benefit of Desolation or diseases (and BS) getting the benefit of your sigil/possibly an additional trinket proc. It's slight either way - even smaller than IT/PS. Personally I prefer what I listed due to the fact that on most fights there are adds (or simply stuff like spines on Marrowgar) which means that you then have to factor in the additional dps of diseases being spread sooner. To each their own, however. Quite minor.

What are you doing with your runic power?

I'm fairly certain he's adding DC dumps to the end of those. He's just stating the rune usage.

Im having a bit of trouble this patch refreshing my bone shield when it falls off from either duration or charges being eaten. Prior to 3.3, when My spec did not include Reaping, it was very simple to use this macro every minuet to keep bone shield up.

#showtooltip Bone Shield
/cast Blood Tap
/cast Bone Shield

Now, Ive tried to insert the usage of this macro either at the end of a UFUFBB or a UFUFDD, when all runes are on cooldown, and my blood/death runes were used most recently.

When i use it at the end of UFUFBB, my next set of runes obviously comes up as UFUBD (because the rune was now used on Bone sheild and not pest or BS), And i lose a SS in that set.

When i use it at the end of UFUFDD, then my next set is UFUFBD, No problem, ill use the D on my pest or BS. But the set after that shows UFUDD initially, but because the Bloodtap buff is now expiring, as i approach the third SS in that set, one of the D runes goes B and I cant SS! Im not really sure i understand why it does this. The Blood taped rune was already used, and the two runes B and D were used on BS and pest, this creating death runes.

My question is, Is there a way i can alter my macro to include a /cancelaura Blood Tap line, to fix this issue, or do i need to make a separate macro.

Ive tryed both ...

#showtooltip Bone Shield
/cancelaura Blood Tap
/cast Blood Tap
/cast Bone Shield

and

#showtooltip Bone Shield
/cast Blood Tap
/cast Bone Shield
/cancelaura Blood Tap

And come up with the same result, Blood Tap is canceled before Bone shield is cast. Am i spamming that macro to hard? Do I need two separate macros?

Any help with how to recast Bone Shield without messing up the rotation would be appreciated. Thanks!

On an absolute side note, Deathbringer's Will for DK's has a 600 STR / 600 Crit / 600 Haste set of procs, all of which are on a random roll. ICD appears to be ~90 seconds but I didn't test it long enough to confirm.

Yeah. That's the way those macros work. There is an explanation somewhere in this thread if you're really interested why. Basically it's because /cancelaura isn't affected by GCD but Blood Tap/Bone Shield are so when you're spamming it you'll cancel the aura before you can cast BS.

It was solved with 2 macros. I guess you can make it with 1 but then you can't spam the macro and must wait for the GCD.

/cast Blood Tap
/cast Bone Shield

and

/cancelaura Bood Tap

This is an issue I posted about a long while back for DW frost as well.

DW frost has the same issue with Unbreakable Armor and Blood of the North.

The best way to do this is as follow:

1. Make these 2 macros:

#showtooltip Bone Shield
/cast Blood Tap
/cast Bone Shield

#showtooltip Blood Strike
/cancelaura Blood Tap
/cast Blood Strike
/startattack

(the last line is just so that i start auto attackign something in case the rune is on CD, its an old habit of me)

Now let me explain why you do it this way.

You can use the Bone Shield macro in 2 situations:
- Either at the end of FUFUBB; in this case you DO NOT want to cancel the blood tap aura though, after all you want 2x death runes (a blood tapped rune stays deathrune for 20 seconds btw).
- Or at the end of FUFUDD; in this case you do want the blood rune to go back to blood, because otherwise it gives you some trouble later on. (The buff will run out at the wrong time giving you a blood + death rune)

So the way i dealt with it is to simply put the cancelaura to blood strike, that way you always blood strike on blood runes and not deathrunes. And you keep your death rune if you are going to use 2 of them for a scourge strike.

I'm not 100% sure this still works as it should with reaping. But i've used this methode in patch 3.2.2 as well, since it's pretty solid and covers all unwanted scenarios. So I'm pretty sure it will.
And i always refresh after all my runes are on cooldown, things really get messed up if you use the bone shield macro when there are other runes up sometimes.