Synergy

We find our hero in the Ebon Hold terrorizing the newbies with Munchy’s “War Stories”. Yes, he really did man the 50cal…

Generally as you live your life and do any sort of team sport/activity you will meet friends. With these friends you will complete the activity/win the sport together, and you begin to trust in them. You trust that they will always have your back if something goes wrong with your strategy, you trust that they will save you if you are getting hurt, and much more.

Then after spending so much time together with your new friends you can basically complete any activity and KNOW the person. By this I mean, know what they would do, if they were to have trouble, and basically work together so simultaneously you are surprised you are not fused to each other’s hips.

This is what we call Synergy, and you will find this in your WoW “life”. Everyone has friends/guildies that they know very well and will be able to work well with no matter what role you play (DPS/Tank/Healer). This is probably one of the most important ties that you can possible have, and one should make use of this tie.

Raiding is like a Soccer Team, you have your players and are all part of the same team striving for the same goals (no pun intended, but it’s there anyways). If a few people do not do their jobs, you will wipe or lose the game for your team. Now if the team is full of synergy, you WILL not fail because you all know each other’s strengths, limits, weaknesses, and ability. Working together with perfect synergy is essential for both activities to succeed.

The Backstory

Yes, I joined a new guild, a 25m Raiding guild with high ambitions and two very great Raid Leaders with my friend, Bigblakbul and some other of the “core raiders” from my other guild. So far it has been pretty good, we downed everything up to the Val’kyr and decided to finish them off last night.

Just one problem, we didn’t, we sat there and wiped for quite some time until we finally just called it. Was it a Tanking problem? Hell no, Blak and I brought our A-Games for sure. The Healers were pretty good as well, but what was wrong, was the DPS. There were quite a few Melee DPSers that never switched targets throughout the night, as I am sure there were a couple of Ranged, but melee was our largest problem of them all. So what does this have to do with Synergy?

The Back Story After the Backstory

After the Raid our RL (Boomkin/Feral Tank OS) and our other RL (Prot/Ret Pally) asked Blak and I to hop into a private channel in vent with them. I knew that we had not done anything wrong, but I feared for the worst anyways. Here is (basically) how it went down, and luckily my fears were proven completely wrong!

RL: El, Blak, how familiar are you with ToC?

Me: We have both done it and lead it multiple times, why?

RL: Well, the way this used to be done made things become very “cliquey” now Co-RL and I have Tanked together and know each other very well, just like you two are comfortable Tanking with each other. What we want to do is not make this cliquey so that all of us (Tanks) are familiar with each other, because face it we will not all make it to every Raid and will have to Tank with each other regardless.

All: Damn Straight (In multiple variations, but that one sums it up)
RL: What we hope to do is to gear up people and get familiar with each other in 10m ToC, because the guild has more than enough people to do these full-guild we will be splitting off into 2 groups. Me and El will Tank the first one together, and Co-RL and Bigblak you guys will Tank the second so that we can break up any “cliques” and get to know each other.

All: Sounds good!

After, we talked about times that would suit us best and what-not, but I thought this was an extraordinary idea and it should work out very nicely. There is very little loot competition between the groups except for Trinkets/Rings/Neck/Cape and it will be easy to create a synergy since the groups can/will be swapped around once and awhile.

Skiiing! Yay!

How to Create Synergy

What my RL suggested was a great way to create Synergy between Tanks, you simply Tank with the people you will most likely be grouped with. After a few sessions you will know the person like he was your own brother in terms of Tanking. Once this happens, it will be a very powerful and effective tie for your Raid to have. Sure, the best geared Tanks in the server could do a great job Tanking some boss, but they will never know each other’s limits if they do not make a bond with the other.

Synergy is stronger than gear, being able to seriously know the person you are fighting beside is a huge advantage in any field, especially WoW. But are Tanks the only ones that need synergy?

Hell no! In fact there are multiple synergies that can be created in WoW, there are exactly 6 different combinations. These include:

• Tank to Tank
• Tank to DPS
• Tank to Healer
• Healer to DPS
• Healer to Healer
• DPS to DPS

So how does one actually create synergy? Very simple, just like our RL has done you “force” each other into playing alongside one another until you create a very strong bond. With said bond everything becomes easier because you have someone you can always count on to get the job done.

What does this have to do with my performance?

You are a Rogue and your best bud who you play all the time with is a Healer. Your buddy KNOWS that you are not always aware of fire and will be sure to top you off accordingly. The Healer buddy just saved your life and allowed you to keep DPSing your heart out. See the connection? Without that synergy your Raid would be left with one less DPS, and that can make a significant difference as to if your group will finish or crash and burn on the spot.

Let me take Klinderas for an example. There are points when my Runes start to stay on C/D and can be very tricky for me to get Aggro, as a great Hunter and friend he knew when to pop an MD on my ass and keep me Tanking when it really mattered. Hell, there were times back in TBC where he would put a Trap on me to lessen the inevitable chance of my death, it felt good to be able to count on someone.

As a Tank we will generally pop our OH SHI- buttons when needed, but depending on the Healer’s capabilities we may have to pop them earlier than we expected. If [Insert Healer friend here] and I were in the middle of a fight and I know when his heals start to dry out due to synergy, I press my shiny buttons and save both of our hides for a few more seconds.

This is very confusing, what is the point of this?

Look, we all establish ties with someone, and as *ahem* awkward as it sounds a bond with a friend is extremely valuable. Synergy is when this bond grows to the point of us being able to successfully complete tasks as if we were somehow turned into that person, and by doing so we know each other’s next move and limits. With this knowledge we can have a more wholesome experience in our Raid/Everyday life because we know who to count on and what they can do.

Synergy, it has saved my Raids, will continue to save my Raids, and makes the game that much more enjoyable because I KNOW that I have friends that I will entrust my virtual-life with.

Happy WoWing!
-Elno

On a Separate Note

@Baenhoof was taking requests for a free fully colored commission of their WoW character. All we had to do was be the 1st to tweet her with a screenshot of said character at the loading screen. Guess who got that commission?

No, I'm not taking off my pants, that costs extra!

Me! Still I question why no woman wants this hunk ‘o Blood Elf love. Those aren’t tattoos ladies, them be fightin’ scars!

Meet the Consumables

“OMNOMNOM, ME LOVE SANDVICH!!!” Screams Elnoriah as he devours sandwich after sandwich at the Ebon Hold’s café delicious…

Raiding can be quite the expensive investment, as a Tank I put in about 100g a night of raiding in repairs, and receive emblems and possibly loots. Of course I have tons of fun, which is worth every copper of that damned virtual currency. Nonetheless there is more to Raid expenses than just repairing, and these my friends are called consumables!

What IS a consumable?

The best way to describe a consumable is something that you “eat” and in WoW, most likely buffs you. The three examples that you will be most familiar with will be Flasks, Food, and Potions. Just by having enough of all three of these items can increase your performance quite a bit, and so most Raiding Guilds REQUIRE you to use these on Guild-Run Raids. PUGs for specific Raids, not so much, but if you are tackling hard content, then you may as well strap a few of these on with you.

Hine over at Death Goddess wrote an article on Death Knight DPS consumables, so for any of our DPS cousins I suggest you hop over there and take a peek!

Food

Up until 80 we generally only think of Food as the way to get our HP back in between pulls, but in fact cooks can create food that can buff the whole Raid/Party or just yourself. As a Tank, there are quite a few decent choices we can get, and the expense to acquire the consumables may vary depending on the server. Regardless, let us judge only by stats, not by a virtual currency.

Fish Feast: As goes the same with what Hine wrote, it’s free and it’s a pretty good buff. Generally I would use this with my guild if we were doing something that is on farm, and/or not a challenge to the group. Honestly, there is no reason to break my back fishing or break my wallet purchasing food if it is for a cake-walk Raid. As with most consumable foods it gives 40 STAM (contributing about 400 HP), and for a whole hour is a pretty sweet deal. On top of the 40 STAM, if that was not already enough to sell you, is 80 AP which of course boosts your DPS. To us this means that because we do a bit more damage, we will be doing quite a bit more TPS (Threat per second).

So for Farm content, or just plain easy instances/Raids mooch off of a friend and eat their Fish Feasts, eat them up!

EDIT: (Thanks for correcting me on that Gravity)

Blackened Dragonfin: Is certainly the best food out there for a DK Tank, with its 40 Agi and 40 STAM there is virtually nothing that can compete with it. The 40 STAM is a keeper just on its own, but what does the Agility do for us? Well, Agility as a stat increases Dodge, Armor, and also gives us a tiny bit of AP. Avoidance, damage mitigation, and a bit of Threat, exactly everything we need in a single stat. It is simply delicious, as a food and as a buff, go blackened and you will NEVER go back!

Personally I would only be using this if either your Raid has no Fish Feast (Very Unlikely) or if you are progressing through harder content that is not on farm or ridiculously easy!

Snapper Extreme: I will be completely honest, use this ONLY if you are severely lacking in Hit Rating. As a Tank we do want to get a bit of Hit, maybe not the Hit Cap, but we want to be “up there” enough to be able to successfully use each of our abilities. The problem with getting “up there” is that in ToC there are VERY few Tanking items with Hit on them, so we need to scrounge what we can out of the T9 Helm/Chest and possibly even use a couple gem slots for +Hit. Dark times indeed, but food can actually limit the amount of gems we need to “waste”! The Snapper Extreme gives 40 STAM still, but also 40 Hit Rating, which is about 1% Melee Hit and 1.5% (ish) of Spell Hit. The extra percent can easily boost your threat IF YOU NEED THE HIT RATING, otherwise like DPS overcapping HR it is completely useless.

So if you are lacking HR to the point of not being able to hit Raid Bosses and keep them on top of you the entire fight, grab a Snapper Extreme to give you that boost. Fish Feast and the Dragonfint are better but if you can not hit the Boss, you are not producing threat. What is the point of all of that survivability and uncrittable gear if you can not keep the boss on you?

Yeap, I look like a stripper now. Mother will not be pleased!

Flasks are made by Alchemists, think of them as potions that last for a whole hour and persist through death. Flasks are VERY important to have, you can go without Food for Farm content, but you should always have at least 2 flasks on you for the duration of the Raid. (Onyxia/VOA/OS you could probably get away with not using one) These flasks will increase performance pretty significantly, and they are not even that expensive! Considering there are only 4 choices to choose from for Flasks we will only be using 1 as a Tank.

Flask of Stoneblood: 1300 HP ’nuff said. Really, that is a significant amount of HP to gain just by drinking some concoction, and it will make quite a big difference in terms of your survivability. Take me for an example, normally I have about 35.9k HP, and by drinking this I am at 37.2k HP self buffed, obviously this is a great deal of difference and will help the Healers not have to work their asses off to keep me alive. Sounds like the 25g a wack is certainly worth it!

Like I said earlier, you would be able to get away with not using Flasks in Ony10/VOA/OS if you are just futzing around with a PuG. Regardless, find an Alchemist and make friends with him/her, because you are going to need them!

Potions

Potions are the trickiest of the consumables to truly understand. You can only use them 2 times in a fight, once before the pull and once during the pull, so you will need to have a bunch but be able to use them wisely. Choosing the right potions is also a huge part of it, but luckily for us we only have one that we even need to think about as a Tank. Yes we are cheaters, but we are the ones keeping you from getting pounded by that fire-breathing worm over there!

Indestructible Potion: Words can not describe my love for this potion, because frankly, it has saved my life on multiple occasions. 3500 Armor is a ridiculous amount to come out of a potion, so much that it completely takes the Runic Healing potion’s potential use and throws it out of a window. The mitigation is tremendous, but that is not all that it gives you. If you have Bladed Armor you can get around 100 AP extra just by popping one of these, so on top of the amazing amount of mitigation it provides, it also gives us a ton of bonus Threat. Just incase we were questioning its awesome power.

Keep about a stack of these with you at all times, because you will never know if you need to whip one out. They are cheap and easily replaceable so do not worry!

So let us add all of these together, if we are fully buffed with all of the best foods/potions/flasks available we will receive about 1700Hp, 3500 Armor, a tiny bit of parry, and 180-200 more AP. A noticeable difference for sure, but it does come with a price. To get fully buffed/flasked it can cost 80g+, but there are ways to limit the costs, but generally only through a little bit of elbow grease.

Level your cooking and fishing to 450 on an Alt or even your Main. The cost of Food is certainly the most expensive of all of these, so by putting a bit of effort in you will be able to cut the cost of Raiding by quite a bit. If you have a gatherer/Alchemist get them to max level and farm on them for the mats/flasks/potions, this can be a bit time-consuming, but it gives you something to do on those boring times of the day.

Great job today guys, now let us take what we have learned and apply it on our next Raid!

Unless it is OS… just face roll. *snickers*

Happy WoWing!
-Elno

On a Side Note- we now have a Guide section for the site, go to the page and you will be able to view all of the Guides written by myself and Aifel! Enjoy!

Magister’s Terrance- With a Bit More Death!

I do not see what the big deal was with that place. Sure, it took 5 people a year ago to do it, but it took 1 Elnoriah now! *flex*…

The Burning Crusade was WoW’s very first expansion pack, and certainly its finest. Some of the most challenging Raids and Instances were home to TBC, and honestly it has shaped many a player. Every pull had to be carefully executed, it was like a well-rehearsed ballet. A Hunter trap here, a polymorph there, and Sap that caster! I miss those days.

Will CC (crowd control) every be back in the PvE portion of the game? I sure hope so, it made every instance a new-found challenge. In the meantime though, the only thing we have left of those days are the memories we all shared, and one of my favorites was doing Magister’s Terrance.

A History

The Sunwell patch was the last official content patch for The Burning Crusade Expansion, and with it there were the Isle of Quel’Danas Dailys,the Sunwell raid (25 man) and of course Magister’s Terrance (5m and Heroic 5m). Both of which were hard, and both of which made me question my faith in a higher being. The group had to be fine-grained in the sense that you pretty much need 5 REALLY good people to complete the Heroic (or even normal) instance, and like the traditional group makeups of TBC Instances you had a Tank, a Healer, and 2-3 DPS that could CC.

The most fun I had here was on my Warlock, I was seducing, banishing, and christ knows what all at the same time.

Each of the fights were inventive, and of course a challenge! My favorite of which was the Faction Champions esq boss before you fight Kael’Thas. Think of it as Faction Champs but with less people, and it being about 2x as hard. It was a nightmare, but when you completed it you felt like you were THE SHIT! If someone misplaced a CC you were practically done for in that boss fight, it was stupendous. Sure, to the point that many people never even finished it in its prime, but the ones who did can agree it was hard as hell and rewarding once you finished it all.

Blizzard, you made me a happy Warlock and a very stressed Priest, and to that I thank you.

Elnoriah’s Adventure

Longing for the feeling to go back and get even with the bosses of Magister’s Terrance once again, I decided it was far overdue to make a trip through MGT and solo it. The only turn-off however was that I needed to be “attuned” to the Heroic, and so I picked up the quest and ran straight into the Terrance. With that. . . our story begins!

*Looks around*
Trash! Simplistic, these first two pulls consist of two mobs to a pull. I think the saddest part of the first two pulls is that you can literally 3 shot these things, damn straight 5k Obliterate crits are EPIC!

Now, there is a large circle with two groups of mobs on either side, which path do I choose? It does not really matter so pick the left! Let us see, 5 Belfs and an Imp, you would think this would be easy as sin, but in all honesty this one pull was harder than any trash fight in WOTLK Heroics. At the end of it I literally had 2k HP left with IBF (Icebound Fortitude) and AMS (Anti-Magic Shell) on cool down, but this will be the hardest fight in quite a while so the thrill was short-lived.

Launching myself like Kirby at the trash pulls I was a GOD, and seriously it felt GOOD! I kept up on my silences, and was doing wonderfully, and then I reached the room of the first boss, Selin Fireheart. Being the first boss, he is arguably the easiest in the entire instance, and certainly a cakewalk to solo now. Back in the day however, he was still pretty simple, but was more of a DPS check (we will talk about this in a minute), trust me, I passed the test with flying colors.

Unfortunately for you I'M the god, not you Selin!

The Boss Fight- Selin Fireheart

• Keep him in the center of his platform, the farther away he is from those crystals the better. Commence Tank and Spank!
• After he gets bloodied up enough, he runs over to a crystal and starts channeling the power from it. The longer he channels the bigger he gets.
• The crystal he is channeling from is targateable, so of course NUKE THE LIVING @!$% out of it!
• No matter how godly you are, he will still get a bit bigger and scream really lame catch phrases that only work for ME.
• After each yell he explodes with a nova of green clouds, so squishies need to move the hell away.
• Rinse and repeat until dead.

Now that he is dead we can continue to the next boss, but first the pulls before him! Mana Wyrmlings, just like the ones you have to kill at the Belf starting area, except much more of a pain in the ass. The first couple are just single squishies and are easy to kill, but afterwards they start grouping up into larger masses. Until finally in the next boss’ room down the hallway of worms there are 4 groups of about 10-15 worms per. If you are a Tank pull all of these bastards and pop a cooldown, because after each dies they explode and do a bit of damage. (Killing Machine + Rime Proc = 1 shot and a TON of lag as they asll explode)

Congratulations, you now get to fight a Voidwalker by the name of Vexallus! Honestly this was more of a Healer-Intense fight in which there was a lot of damage going out in multiple places, but if everyone was paying attention it was a cakewalk.Think of him as  mini-Curator (and if you never did Kara go do it now), which is another fun fight. I will warn you though, he is mostly a Tank and Spank . . . mostly.



Rough 'im up boys!

The Boss Fight- Vexallus

• Run in there and pop every C/D known to man. Burst him until it is not funny anymore.
• It’s still not funny, keep killin’ him!
• Pansy, you call that breaking a spine!?
• Sparks will now start shooting out, kill these things, because they tend to explode and do more damage then they are worth.
• With a group each DPS should be getting 3 each. Each spark gives a stacking buff that increases damage done, as well as received, so it can be problematic with too many stacks.
• Rinse and repeat until he is dead.

If you have the quest go to the back of the hall and laugh at the dying Belf. [Badass name] [Something with Strider or any other Belfy suffix] will give you a new one which is to go outside and use the scrying orb to spy on the Sunwell. Proceed in doing  as told and watch the cut scene that follows, and yes the guy who narrates the other cut scenes does this I think so you can listen to the liquid candy that is his voice.

What a coincidence a Blue Dragon flies down and tells you his life story, pick up the quest from him! This quest tells you to kill Kael’Thas (final boss), and by doing so you will unlock the Heroic mode for MGT.

“Wait we… AREN’T killing… the blue dragonflight?”
Not today, Munch, remember this was before Malygos decided to go crazy, so he is still “cool” with us. Well, not Bronze Dragonflight awesome-
“You know… his hair is… blue like… yours!… Except it actually… LOOKS GOOD…”
Note to self: Put less sass in his lettuce, he certainly does not need anymore.

Alright, you get your awesome buff thanks to the Dragon hanging around, and continue your quest to kill Kael. There are two robots in the hallway proceeding to an outer courtyard. They are easy, just kill them and let us get to the interesting pulls!

No, these are not holigrams, these are actual Belfs and Demons hanging around this courtyard, about 7 per pull. Remember the difficulty in the first couple pulls? Take that and multiply it by 2, damn right it’s fun! For maximum skippage pull the right or left group closest to you, kill them, then pull the middle. At level 80 you should be able to just walk down the path leading towards the next room, avoiding the back pulls.

Another robot will be patrolling the hallway proceeding to the next courtyard, be sure to pull him far enough away from both the groups of mobs you skipped, and mobs you have yet to touch.  Not bad, could have gone cleaner, but now your next task is to heal up and clear out the first half of this new courtyard. You will figure out why in a minute.

Alright, head into that Greek-Building-esq thing in the middle of the courtyard, and you will spot 5 characters. 4 randomly generated characters, and one stable person, the Princess  (Purple lady with too many arms). Incoming hard fight, GO!

So, why is there a Belf with two Fisticuffs and no shirt...?!?

The Boss Fight- Faction Champions Princess-I-Need-Less-Arms

• Do the strategy you would for Faction Champions, burn down and interrupt the Healer.
• When this is done kill the next most annoying of the bosses.
• There is no threat table, they will randomly jump from person to person. (If you are soloing then go figure)
• Destroy all of them!
• ???
• Profit!

Quick! Run into the fancifully decorated hallway ahead of you, yes, Blood Elves ahead, who would have guessed!?

There are literally about two groups of Mobs left to down before you hit Kael’Thas, and these actually are some of the easier ones. Just remember to oust the Healers first, no need to make this anymore complicated than it needs to be, no? Don’t question the Naga in the pull, I assure you most Blood Elves have no positive association with them.

TEMPEST KEEP WAS MERELY A SETBACK…

“Asshole… I haven’t done… Tempest Keep… yet!”
Didn’t miss out on much, Munchy, we killed him and he apparently rose from the dead.
“…That’s my… job…”
HE TEWK YER JAWRB

YOU TWO ARE LIKE TEENAGERS IN A MOVIE THEATRE… DAMN IT, LET’S JUST FIGHT!

My, Kael'Thas, what rotten skin you have!

The Boss Fight- Kael’Thas, trust me it won’t fail this time!

• Being the prime example of a Mage, Kael will shoot fireballs at you, do try and interrupt to minimize damage taken
• around 75-80% he will summon a Pheonix, this needs to get burned down ASAP!
• Every so often Pheonix eggs will be spawned, destroy these before they can spawn the actual Pheonix inside.
• About 60% he will cast an ability that will literally take the gravity away from you for a while, much like the Tempest Keep fight.
• During this you need to fly around and dodge the purple bubbles that will be flying towards you.
• Do this successfully and he will be stunned for a few seconds before repeating this again.
• Keep killing the Eggs!
• Rinse and repeat until finished!

It is an easy fight in theory, but then again this is coming from a member of a species that thought the sun revolved around the Earth. Honestly, even on Normal mode and switching between Unholy/Frost specs I was no able to defeat Kael’Thas, and yes I was using my OH SHI- buttons and the like. It is an extremely hard fight, both for its respective level and to solo, so I will have to bug ask Aifel to help me out with that.

Either way, it was as fun of a run as it was back when I did it at its respective level, and honestly harder than any of those damned things we call “heroics” nowadays! So go try it out, and have some fun.

I’m comin’ for you Kael’Thas!

Happy WoWing!
-Elno

P.S.

As a note to all of you aspiring Tanks that have not “gotten the hang of” when to use your OH SHI- buttons, do the first trash pulls in MGT: Norm, you will know by the end of those, seriously.

My Definitive Rogue Guide

Anyone who’s not a Rogue can just ignore this post.

If you’re a Rogue who wants to do better in just about anything, then there’s no doubt that you’ve gone to Elitist Jerks. EJ is a fantastic repository of information, and its well worth your time to go peruse the Rogue class mechanics forums. However, there is one problem I have with EJ: the information is all over the place. Yeah, there’s a lot of info available, but its hard to find and compile it all. Therefore, I am now going to attempt to compile all the useful information you need in order to play a Rogue well, and will also include some of my personal advice as well. And yes, this guide will be applicable to both Combat and Assassination Rogues.

Combat General Rules

Use the following spec if you’re using a Rupture build, and use this one if you’re not. And yes, put talent points into whatever weapon spec you have weapons for. If you’re Mace Specced, you’re going to be using an offhand dagger, as there are no good offhand maces. Therefore, put one point into CQC instead of Endurance.

Mainhand a slow sword, axe, mace or fist weapon (2.5-2.6 speed). Offhand a fast dagger, fist, sword, or axe. The MH should have Wound Poison, unless you decide to get 3/3 Imp. Poisons; the OH should have Deadly.

Priorities: Slice and Dice, assorted cooldowns (BF + AR and BF + KS should be used together whenever possible. However, they should still be kept off CD), Rupture (if you’re using a Rupture build.)

Rotation: Slice and Dice (any number of CP) -> (5 point Rupture) -> 5 point Eviscerate. Finishers, excluding SnD, should always be used with 5 CP.

The Ruptureless Rotation: If you’re approaching the ArPen hard cap, then you should drop Rupture from your rotation and just Eviscerate. You should also get the Glyph of Eviscerate as well, should you be near the hard cap.

Mutilate General Rules

Use the following spec.

Mainhand a slow dagger (1.8 speed). Offhand a fast dagger (1.4-1.5 speed). Mainhand Instant and offhand Deadly.

Priorities: Hunger for Blood, Slice and Dice, Vanish/Overkill, Rupture, Cold Blood.

Rotation: Get SnD (any number of CP works) and HfB up -> 4+ CP Rupture -> 4+ CP Envenom.

The Envenom buff: To achieve maximum DPS, the Envenom buff should be up as often as possible.

Professions

Engineering, if you use bombs as often as possible, and Jewel Crafting are the best professions for boosting your DPS. However, its really up to you; every profession will help in some way. Some are just more help more than others.

Stat Weights

Combat: AGI if you don’t have an ArPen trinket/mace spec > ArPen > Hit Rating until spell cap > Crit > Expertise > Haste.

Mutilate: AGI > Expertise* > Hit Rating until spell cap > Crit > Haste > ArPen.

A note about Expertise: For Mutilate, its inadvisable to gem for Expertise unless you’re stupidly low on it (less than 15). The only reason you need Expertise is so finishers stop missing. Once you reach an amount of Expertise you find that works well, the value of it will go down.

Hit Caps

With 5/5 Precision: 99 to ability cap, and 315 to spell cap.

Expertise Cap

26 expertise (214 rating) to cap.

ArPen Cap

1400 to hit the cap, and 1190 to cap with Mace Spec.

With Mjolnir Runestone, its 735 to cap, and 525 with Mace Spec.

T9 vs T8

The EJ consensus is that T9 sucks. It would take 5 pieces of T9 to replace 4 pieces of T8.

Glyphs

Combat: Glyph of Sinister Strike, Glyph of Rupture/Eviscerate, Glyph of Killing Spree.

Mutilate: Glyph of Mutilate, Glyph of Hunger for Blood, Glyph of Rupture.

Weapon Swapping

If you follow Rogue news, chances are you’ve heard of weapon swapping. It is, in essence, swapping your offhand weapon for a different weapon with a different poison once you’ve hit 5 stacks of Deadly Poison, and then switching back to the DP offhand once the DP timer gets low. However, 3.3 will outdate weapon swapping due to DP’s new effect: once DP hits 5 stacks, any more procs of DP will renew the DP timer and proc your mainhand poison.

If you still want to weapon swap, check this addon. Keep in mind that the impact may be minimal or very large, depending on gear, and Mutilate Rogues will get a bigger benefit. You will also want two identical offhands.

Survival Tips

1. Download Omen, and don’t surpass the tanks in Threat.

2. Feint and/or Evasion when there’s incoming (physical) AoE.

3. Cloak of Shadows yourself out of harmful debuffs.

4. Stay out of fire.

How to be (More) Helpful in Raids

1. Tricks of the Trade the highest DPS. If that’s you, then Tricks the 2nd highest DPS.

2. Disregard number 1 if tanks are low on Threat. Instead, Tricks to them.

3. Cloak out of debuffs that harm raid members other than yourself (IE Light Bomb, Burning Bile).

4. Stay alive.

Weapon Enchants

Berserking > Mongoose > Accuracy. Berserking will stack if dual wielding two Berserking-enchanted weapons. The same applies to Mongoose. Also, Mongoose pulls ahead of Berserking at T9 gear levels.

Mutilate v.s. Combat

Mutilate: has higher single target DPS. Arguably the best single target DPS in the game. Has only two cooldowns though, and Cold Blood isn’t that good.

Combat: has very good cooldowns, allowing more damage to be done during burn phases (IE: XT heart phase, Icehowl stun phase) than Mut. Getting the right gear (ArPen trinkets) can be very difficult, however.

Helpful Addons

Rogue Power Bars, Procodile (and Poison Swapper) are all good to have. Be sure to add missing buffs (Berserking, Envenom) and debuffs (Deadly Poison IX) to RPB.

Gems

Meta: Relentless Earthsiege Diamond.

Yellow: Deadly Ametrine, Deft Ametrine.

Red: Delicate Cardinal Ruby, Fractured Cardinal Ruby, Bright Cardinal Ruby.

Blue: Nightmare Tear.

When to use what gems: if the socket bonus outweighs another AGI/ArPen gem, then go for it. For example, say you got a Vest of Shifting Shadows, a decent piece of gear for both Rogue specs. The sockets are 1 red/1 yellow, and the socket bonus is 6 AGI. So, you socket the red gem for ArPen/AGI, but what about the second socket? Well, you could go for more AGI/ArPen, but instead, you should go for a Deadly/Deft Ametrine; the additional crit/haste and AGI is worth 4 lost points of AGI.

The Death Knight Tank and You: Professions Part 1

“Munch, I am going to grab some water, do NOT touch the frag belt I just modded, alright?” Says a goggle-wearing Death Knight…

*Boom*
What part of do NOT touch did you not understand!?
The part… with you being … a Blood Elf…

Welcome class, my regrets for your classmate, he should have known not to stand near Munchy in the middle of an explosives lab. Worry not, Gnomes will be even more replaceable once we get access to Goblins! Trust me, he will be in good hands.

As any character, you should pick up two professions. The first reason for this is to simply make some quick cash, because face it, you can not repair all that plate gear on you without any cash, students! Secondly, professions have an indirect and/or direct effect on our performance as a Tank. Each profession has gear that can be created for any player in WoW, but they also give special bonuses for you to boot!

There are 3 gathering skills (skinning/mining/herbalism) and 8 crafting professions, each of these gives a flat-out buff, special ability, or gear enhancement specifically for the player. Any combination of these has a chance to be beneficial for a class in WoW, but as a Death Knight Tank, what should we be looking for out of our professions’ bonuses?

Well, with 24 different combinations of skills available to a single player,  and the ability to only pick 1 of those combinations, it can be quite a challenge to pick which is beneficial to both your income of Gold and increased performance as a Tank. Let us cut into this so-called chase and explore which skills will be beneficial as a Tank, but do remember, you are entitled to your own opinion! (Just your opinion may not be most beneficial as a Tank).

Note: The benefits listed are based upon 450/450 skill in them!

Gathering Skills

Simply put, each of these skills allows us to take from the world. Whether it be picking flowers, finding ore inside of a rock, or ripping the skin off of an animal, each acts as a base for practically every single profession in the entire game. All are simplistic to level up, as well as great ways to rake in the cash.

Herbalism
Pickin’ flowers eh? Fine, if you want to frolic amongst the Priests you may. As a Herbalist the ability Lifeblood is granted to your worthless soul! Once clicked it allows you to be a Resto Druid for 5 seconds, every 3minutes. This meaning that you can heal yourself for 3600 HP with a bunch of pretty little flowers placed all around you. How  useful! Hell, another free Heal is never a thing to pass up, so in that case it is  certainly an O.K. profession to fill in the void.

As a Herbalist, your Herbs are needed by Scribes and Alchemists in order to create potions, flasks, glyphs, and scrolls. Since there is constantly a great market for all of these items it will rake in the cash substantially. Even if you do not AH your findings and instead use them to craft your own items you will be able to save a KILLING on some very pricey Raid Flasks/Glyphs!

Elno’s Word: Alright, it is certainly an easily defended choice of profession. The Lifeblood ability produces a noticeable amount of HP, and it is very simple to level. Is it my top choice? No, but it is definitely a good option to consider as a Tank.

Mining

If bashing a rock, armed only with a tiny pick, does not sound manly to you, then I have absolutely no clue what would be. Out of all of the gathering skills combined it is the proud owner of the most useful “ability” for a Tank. Toughness at its max level of 450 adds an extra 60 STAM to your stats. A little over 600 HP by leveling one of the easiest trade skills in this entire game? Sign me the hell up!

From a money perspective, you will be able to mine Ore needed by Jewel Crafters, and turn that ore into bars for the Engineers and Blacksmiths (Jewel Crafters as well) on your server. Titanium and Titansteel bars will sell for an absolute killing, and the gems you gather as you scour the regions for these nodes will be able to be turned into useful gems to place into gear.

Elno’s Word: Honestly, I would be hard-pressed not to take up Mining as a Tank. It is practically brainless to level, produces an excellent amount of cash, and gives 60 STAM to boot! What is not to like about this?

Skinning

The Native Americans used practically every part of any animal they would kill. It is a damn waste to leave that Rhino laying there to decay! Luckily Skinners will take these rotting carcasses and recycle them into useable pieces of fine leather. The bonus it gives, however, is the least-desired out of all of the Gathering Skills. Master of Anatomy, despite having a badass name, is not desired for a Tank. We do not need Crit, if it comes off of the 2H that is perfectly fine, but we should not be gemming/enchanting/leveling trade skills solely to get the extra Crit. However, as a DPS the extra 40 crit is not half bad.

As for being a tycoon as a Skinner, your audience is not horrible. You get Leatherworkers and maybe a Tailor to consume your dead animal skins as they make “stylish” clothing articles for everyone to wear. Yes, you are the sole reason RPers look so good, congratulations!

Elno’s Word:  Despite being useful, I would rather pick flowers than skin wild beasts, the benefits are just not worth my time. Although it is the easiest Gathering skill to level, a Tank should not be touching this with a 10 ft pole.

We can dance if we want to!

Tradeskills

At this point in time of WoW there are 5 different Trade skills to choose from. All of which have their uses and perks in-game. Most of the trade skills require gathered materials that one (or more) of the three Gathering skills can acquire, because of this many people level a gathering skill and a trade skill that cooperates with it well. The perfect synergy, but what Trade skills (if any) will we be choosing!?

Tailoring

What could be less many than picking flowers for a living? Why making dresses of course! First of all, as a Death Knight we do not even bother wearing Cloth, and as a Tank this goes double do to the lack of useful Stats and armor. This is solely needed for the clothies, and just incase you have not noticed, we wear PLATE, especially as a Tank. The only use we would be getting out of Tailoring will be the bags, so if you are that dead set upon leveling it, go make a Priest for Christ’s sake.

Tailors can make leg enhancements for everyone, but as a perk for a Tailor these leg enhancements only cost a mere 1g thread to create. These enhancements are called Master’s Spellthread and Sanctified Spellthread; they give 50 spellpower and 30 STAM, and  50 spellpower and 20 Spirit respectfully. Just to burst your bubble, despite the fac that we do have Spells as Death Knight Tanks, they do NOT scale based upon spellpower, instead they work off of our Attack Power. That perk? Useless, but hey, you can make a Magic Carpet mount which makes it totally worth it! (Seriously, it is pretty epic)

Edit: Thy whom make bags also have an embroidery for their cloaks, on top of the Spellthreads for their legs. Shadowguard Embroidery, Darkglow Embroidery, and Lightweave Embroidery would be their names, and of course the mats are pretty cheap and worthwile. However, if you are a Tank, it is TOTALLY not worth your time to go for any of these. First, Darkglow and Lightweave are completely useless because once again, we do not use spellpower and do not even have Mana as a rescource. Shadowguard is not half bad however, but for the amount of time to get to that point in Tailoring is just not worth a 400 AP chance on hit proc on my cloak.

Elno’s Word: For Christ’s sakes, I know it is extremely easy to level, but there are absolutely no perks into leveling Tailoring. Even if it was useful, do you really want to be THAT GUY who makes dresses at the Ebon Hold?

Enchanting

Everyone who wishes to accomplish anything end-game will find your name and make you their new best friend, seriously. You are the guy that can boost their performance, and you can make a killing off of doing so. As an Enchanter you suck the life out of all of the useless Green/Blue/Epic items of the world and turn them into useful materials needed to put powerful spells in your’s and other’s gear. So pick up that rod and let us get to work!

As a perk for Tanks, you can Enchant Ring- Stamina to both of your rings. 30 Stam x 2 = 60 Stam! Yes, about 600hp solely off of Enchanting, and that is pretty frickin’ sweet. Plus, you do not have to go out of your way to buy mats for your own personal enchants, so you will be guaranteed to save a killing off of that.

Elno’s Word: YES! 600 HP extra is certainly a magnificent bonus, just a small price to pay for being the “enchanting bitch” and staying at the bank after Raid nights enchanting guildy’s gear. Trust me, it is made of pure win, and some arcane.

Conclusions Part 1.

As I said earlier, you can make great cash off of any of these gathering skills/trade skills, but which ones should you choose from a Tanking perspective? So far Mining, Herbalism, and Enchanting are the only “viable” options that we have explored so far. Do not worry though, next week we will take an in-depth look into Black Smithing, Jewel Crafting, Engineering, Leatherworking, Inscription, and Alchemy. I hope to see you all there!

Do you have a Death Knight Tanking question you want answered in The Death Knight Tank and You: weekly miniguide? Drop us an email at Plaguedcandles@gmail.com !

Happy WoWing!
-Elno

Another Player-named Item.

This time its named after a huge member of the EJ Rogue community, Aldriana! Clapclapclapclapclapclap!

BloodLustin’ The Economy!

“No, damn it, this is MY blog! It’s supposed to be about ME!” says an upset Death Knight as his cameramen turn towards a suspicious Shaman…

Rastasham is a good friend of mine. We met in <Blue Oasis Buccaneers> and have Raided together ever since. He’d give me an Earth Shield, I would make sure he would not die in a way that would not be humorous, it works out well! Either way, he is one of the core group of friends I have in WoW, along with Aifel/BigBlakBul/Mocococo/Mycosynth, and quite a few others.

To make  a long story short, he has decided to create his very own blog! It’s going to focus on making Gold, as well as a few other things as Rasta sees fit, so how’s about you all go down there and give him a warm-Plagued Candles-welcome!?

Hey, if it’s in the fridge and not being eaten it’s up for grabs, right?

Best of luck with Rasta’s Gold Farming my Troll compadre!

Seriously, it gets bigger when he uses Bloodlust

Podcast Episode 9: Shenanigans!

The Podcast
Older Podcasts

Well due to someone *glares at Aifel* getting his rear end into the wasteland that is no Interwebs for a prolonged amount of time (unless he sneaks on!) we have not been able to do a podcast in quite some time. Luckily we found a time to do our 9th episode this week, and hope that you all enjoy it!

Topics: More talk of ToC, mostly of our new guild and its “big success” (Except the ones who are dead!) inside of there, as well as how to not be a complete idiot like one of our PuGs. Leveling also pops up, specifically how to escape the hell that is the 50-58 Lvl. range! And of course a few other topics are included.

I think my voice deepened, finally! So hopefully the squeeky noise that is/was my voice is tolerable now.

Thanks for listening!
-El and Aifel

The Death Knight Tank and You: Your UI

“No Munch, do not touch that, I have been working on this for…*zap*! [Censored]!!! What in the Hell was that for!?” says our Death Knight Hero with some quite complicated equipment…

Good day students, how goes the journey into Tankhood? Excellent, so now that we have talked about Specs, Gear, Stats, Caps, Rotations, and how to play a Death Knight (basics mind you), you are ready for a bit more personal lesson in Tanking. No, I do not need any tissues, what we are talking about is your User Interface, or UI for short.

Disclaimer

As with Death Knight Tanking, there are many choices to pick through, and each should be carefully chosen.  What may be the best UI since sliced bread to me, may be unethical and down right impossible to work with for others. Is there anything that we can all mutually agree on, possibly, but for the most part mine will look much different from yours even if we have the exact same addons.

That being said, how about we set some ground rules for what a UI should do for you, in my own opinion!

Ground Rules

• List additional information that Blizzard does not already (or does not easily) show in the base UI
• Condenses bars and information into a more viewable space
• Clears the center of the screen to allow a more viewable area of your character (allows you to see fire/aoe/circles of doom/ect.)
• Better Raid Frames
• Changing the look of the Blizzard basic UI

The Basic Blizzard UI is not THAT bad, unless of course you are trying to do something in-game. As a Raider, we need to be able to see how much Threat we are pulling, what is our DPS like, and of course Raid Frames. DPS is downright impossible to calculate without an addon to do so, and Threat is only accountable when you have the boss on top of you without an addon as well. As for Raid Frames, sure you can take the ones that Blizzard provides as a base, but generally we want something that is tailored to our needs, and catches the eye for when we need it.

Another problem I have with the Blizzard basic UI is simply that the Bars are all over the place and are far too big for my eyes, I like a small and condensed space that does not take up most of the middle of my screen. During any Raid, quite af ew bosses will throw down AoEs and the like, we want to be able to see these things easily, so how does one do that? We need the center of our screen free of space is how, so sorry Blizz, it’s workable for pretty much very low levels.

Will the Blizzard UI work for Raiding?
Sure, but for me it is the difference of using a bike with two wheels or a unicycle, you will get to your destination in the end, but one is significantly easier and more sought after than the other. In this case, a custom UI is the Bike, we are not all robots that can suffice with the same UI as everyone else, so we may have to get creative and create our very own UI.

Elnoriah, show us “the money”!
First of all, I based my current UI heavily off of Lore’s from Tankspot.com, but of course with a few more “tweaks” to better suit my wants/needs.

Do note, I am going to tweak the View Ports and such to look much more appealing than just two large black bars. Also, that large black space on the bottom is where Omen should be, and it will pop up when I am Raiding and not just being a Tool in the middle of Dal.

It is efficient, I can see any major mechanics in a boss fight, and it is simple to perform as a Tank. The only time I ever need to look at my action bars is when I am doing something nutty with my Engineering, (Jeeves, Wormhole, Mailbox, Goblin Switch Blade of Rezzness) or mounting up.  To me this is a simple, but pretty UI, I like seeing Elno all punked up and ready to kill on my Unit Frames, and I love the Skinner Addon, it is simply delicious!

Pros

• Because of Skinner, I have a workable UI with widescreen viewing ability. It is a bit of work to set up, but certainly worth it! Think of it as viewing a movie in widescreen, you actually see MORE of the film around you, and the exact same goes for my UI.
• It is easy to Tank with. I can move around and view the rest of my group with ease (look at the top left corner for Grid)
• It is appealing to the eye, which to me is a big factor when going through my UI, I want to be able to have a bit of appeal when I am playing. Hey, I am an artist at heart! (Despite the fact that I’m not good at art)
• My diseases and procs are easily kept track of do to ClassTimer (the addon to the left of Elnoriah). It can keep track of my buffs/procs as well as diseases that are on the target. Although I use Death Knight Info Rune/Diseases for disease tracking, it stands out much more, making it easy for me to glance at the diseases.
• Runes, RP, and HP are easily viewed. I have Death Knight Info Runes above my Player/Target/Target of Target frames, and large frames for Elno to be viewed in. Damn straight that is some kung foo text!
• My buffs are at the top-right of the screen and are exactly how I like mine!

Cons

• It needs something on the top portion of the screen, that black chunk between useless abilities/food and the screen is certainly annoying. I am thinking of putting FuBar on there to list my Gold/Repairs and some other useful bits of out of combat information.

Basically, this bad boy presents everything that I want and need out of an UI, thus making it appealing and kickass for my tastes. It is not completely wrong of you to disagree with my thoughts on a UI, after all it is YOUR game, not MINE.

Addons Used

Each of the addons that I use can be found from the Curse Client, or even Curse.com. Yes, I am a lazy bastard!

Chinchilla Minimap- A simple minimap with a clean feel to it, also has great amounts of customization.
Skinner/View Ports- Changes the basic Blizz UI to whatever your heart desires. View Port comes with Skinner and allows you to change your views of the WoW screen. (For example, my widescreen mode)
Pitbull Unit Frames 4.0- Unit Frames, EXTREMELY customizable. Highly suggested!
Omen Threat Meter- Displays TPS/Total Threat of the Raid/Party members on each individual mob.
Recount- DPS Meter, can view more than just DPS/Damage done though.
MikScrollingBattle Text- Scrolling text that shows how much damage I do, if an ability comes off of C/D, Healing Received, if the Target Avoids the attack,ECT.
Prat 3.0- Easily organizes chat, will show the class color and level of every player chatting.
Quartz- Cast bar and swing timer
SatrinaBuffFrame- Buffs and Debuffs
Dominos- Action bars, comes with 10 regular Action Bar, a Pet Bar, Vehical Bar, Roll Area, and a Cast bar (not used).
DBM- Basicly reminds me of the encounter, yells at you if you are in fire, and warns you of incoming special abilities that bosses use. (DXE and Bigwigs work as well, if you Raid you NEED one of these).
DeathKnight.Info Runes- Runes and Diseases
ClassTimer- Shows a timer of procs/diseases/DOTs/Pet Abilities (Customized to your liking)
Button Fascade- Prettier Buttons
Grid/GridManaBars- A Raid Frame that is HIGHLY customizable, easy to set up and highly recommended.

If there are any other questions about my Addons feel free to leave a comment or drop me an E-mail!

"ENERGY LEGS" Macro caused some win in /2

What does a UI do for Tanking?
In my case, clearing the middle of the screen of useless crap allows me to view the boss fight, as well as Skinner’s View Ports in the sense that my wider screen lets me see much more of the game than the basic settings. Tanks need to be on their feet, we have to see everything that is going on around us, or else we will not be able to react successfully towards it. I also like to view a bit more information than the general Blizzard Frames. It is a bonus for me to get alerted when key abilities are off CD, and when they are currently on me when I am getting wailed on. If I know what is and isn’t available, I can act MUCH quicker and more efficiently than searching my bars for something that is or is not on a C/D.

When I Raid Lead, addons like  Recount can give me a basic idea as to who the problem can be/is in a Raid. Correcting a problem is 1/2 the battle, because let’s face it, not very many people like to “fess up” if they did something wrong, so if I can physically see this out of their DPS/Combat log I can correct it. Omen does a bit of the same thing for me, although more useful as a Tank, I can call out if someone needs to slow down on the aggro for a couple of seconds, rather than not knowing and letting the group burn and crash.

Efficiency and being able to evaluate your raid are key qualities for Tanks and Raid Leaders need to have, Addons just make these qualities easier to use.

Conclusions

Do remember, your choice of addons/UI is yours to make, I will not go all Dictator on your sorry asses if you still use the Blizz UI. If you are extremely comfortable and efficient, that is your choice to make, NOT mine. If you want to critique mine, or want me to critique yours, feel free. This is a relatively new setup for me, so some criticism would be ideal. Either way, go toy around with some addons, class, you can’t judge until you tool around for a bit!

Return around the same time next week for more knowledge of the Death Knight Tank!

Happy WoWing!
-Elno

P.S. If the site blows up within the course of the week it was not because Aifel/I were touching the layout, no sir!
P.S. x 2  Sneak Peak of Aifel’s Avatar!

In all his badassery

The Gladiator: The Specs

The Arena, a place of gore, death, but most of all, glory. One must take everything, ‘lest he wishes to lose everything he has worked hard for in this life.  Do you have what it takes, Death Knight?

PvP or Player verses Player is a hit or miss for most people, but as a Death Knight I have found it to be one of the most fun things I have done in WoW. The Gladiators will be a regularly updated mini-guide (much like The Death Knight Tank and You) to inform all of my PvP loving pupils on how to reach the top and kill many.

As with anything you will do in WoW a spec has to be chosen, but in PvP especially you must be very comfortable with this specific spec. You should know your build inside out, better than you would you own child. Why? The answer is very simple, PvP is INTENSE you are getting nuked by some Mage, then out pops his buddy, what buttons do you hit?

I don’t know, I just took the spec for teh Ghoul! *dies*

In PvE you have some sort of warning when to pop OH SHI- buttons, whether it be knowing the boss fight or some mod like DBM, you generally have a good idea on when to pop your buttons to help you live. Sadly, you generally will have little to no warning of when to smash those buttons in a PvP environment, you are playing against real people, they do not have a set amount of damage or an ability that only goes off every 30 seconds on the second.

As a Death Knight any of the specs are viable, although some are much more popular than others, they all work perfectly so long as you know how to play them correctly.  One important detail that you will be noticing when speccing for PvP is that you can be quite a bit more creative, there is no “best spec” per-say, merely some talents that you like and those that you do not. Of course there are essentials that would be down-right idiotic to not snag, but for the most part you can be pretty lenient with what you choose, so long as you know what you are doing.

Unholy 0/17/54

One of the leading PvP builds is currently the Unholy 0/17/54 build, this is designed to give you the best of two worlds, the burst of Unholy coupled with the very basics of mitigation in the early Frost Tree. This is the spec that I am fond of for a few reasons: you are VERY difficult to defeat, there’s the ghoul permanent pet (3 sec stun), gargoyle, diseases that are a pain in the ass, and of course ridiculous amounts of burst.

Let us take a quick look at the two pets you receive as Unholy, first is your perma ghoul. Think of him as a gimped Rogue, he can ninja jump onto your opponents from afar creating some bad ass distractions as well as a 3second stun every minute. Plus, he does some delicious amounts of damage so he is a great thing to keep alive, besides Pets are some of the most annoying things to have to ignore while PvPing, they can be deadly as sin because they just do not stop kickin’ your ass. The stun that I mentioned earlier should really be used only when needed, I like to hit my opponents up with it after they have used their trinket either on my Resto friend’s Roots/Cyclone or Aifel’s Sap/Frost Trap (3.5, seriously)/Kidney Shot/Gnaw (oh wait). Using your abilities at the correct time in the Arena or just BGs in general can make or break the fight, so just bind that pretty stun to a key and use it when it is necessary.

The Gargoyle is probably one of the worst things you can throw at your opponent, it ROCKS them like they were a baybeh. Basically all it does is fly around and throw “Wrath” spells at your opponent for 30 seconds. The only downside is the 60 RP lost in order to summon it and the 3min cool down, the Gargoyle should only be used when you need an extra 300-500 DPS thrown at your opponent when bursting them down.

The reason Unholy DK’s tend to stay alive for so long is the amount of burst that we can throw out, I mean honestly I am pretty damn squishy for a guy wearing Plate, but if I can get you to focus on your own self-preservation and not taking me down, you’re dead. We have 3 diseases, and the 3rd (Ebon Plague) from the talents increases Spell Damage used on the target by 17% and 30% more disease damage taken. Yes, it is ridiculous, and I like it that way.

To sum up the Unholy Build, “The best offense is your best defense”, it is so true in this case! All you have to do is out burst your opponent and keep yourself alive with your OH SHI- buttons, if you can do both of those at the same time, you win at playing 0/17/54.

So, Munch, the lettuce stalks are down! *cymbal crash*

I have seen a few variations of Blood, and the most successful one seems to be the 51/0/20 build. Blood is known for its heavy amounts of survivability in PvP, as well as some support it can offer to the player’s partners via some abilities. Do not fret, it does plenty of damage to hold its own in PvP, but the more memorable thoughts of your fight against the Blood DK will be how LONG the battle was.

A great chunk of their survivability comes from their self-preservation (healing) via Death Strike, Rune Tap, and of course Vampiric Blood (the blood-exclusive OH SHI- button focused on increasing HP and receiving more Healing for 10 seconds). Couple your Rune Tap with Glyph of Rune Tap and your friends get 10% of the amount healed as well, which takes a great chunk of stress off of your healer, or just allows you to function better without a Healer.

Comparatively to Retadins, Blood is also very strong in supporting their partners on the field of battle. While Retadins can bubble, hand of freedom, and heal their comrades to cheat death and live to fight another day, Death Knights merely cause more death and destruction. Abomination’s Might is a perfect example, the talent works off of Heart Strike/Blood Strike/Obliterate/Death Strike, and when it is procced via one (or more) of those abilities, every comrade within 45 yds of you is granted 10% more AP for 10 seconds. Not a bad burst, eh?

Hysteria is arguably the Blood Death Knight’s BEST use of support in terms of blowing stuff up. Basically you pop Hysteria on a comrade or yourself and get to do 20% more damage for 30 seconds, exceptional for a time when burst is needed, and needed FAST. However, with most things in life, there is always a price for doing so, that price is 1% HP every second for the duration.

But hey, when your team is taking a beating your Healer (or lack of one) can not fix, pop your Rune Tap for quick heals and maybe a Mark of Blood on an enemy. For 20 seconds, or 20 of his damaging strikes, the target of the abuse is healed for 4% of their total HP. Not a bad trade-off!

How does one summarize Blood? “The best defense is your best offense” Sure, the Unholy bastards have you beat in terms of burst, but your team will be a TON stronger than theirs thanks you. So if you’re a guy who enjoys getting in peoples faces while helping your team mates, pick blood!

Frost 0/53 /18 and 10/54/7

There are two ways to play Frost in PvP, you will either DW if you have really good 1H weapons, or you will rock the 2H. Either way, you are going to be a complete menace, and certainly a pain in the ass. In a basic perspective, Frost is sort of the “middle man” of the three Talent Trees (PvP wise of course), it has excellent burst, good survivability, and a heavy helping of CC. Comparatively speaking, the burst is amazing, but Unholy may actually have it beat by a little bit (depending on your weapons of course), the survivability out of Blood is probably a decent-amount better, but Frost is certainly nothing to scoff at.

CC however is very, VERY delicious, it really is the only Tree with any sort of “CC” on its own. The permanent ghoul gives a 3second stun, but as Frost you pop your Hungering Cold and freeze everyone around the Death Knight for 10 seconds. Now do remember, like a Hunter’s Frost Trap, any damage done to a frozen target will break the CC, so make sure your partners are not complete idiots.

As far as survivability goes, you have Lichborne to pop out and become immune to fear/charm/sleep effects. Remember that Warlock problem you used to have? Oh wait, you never had one because you were immune to all of their bullshit for 15 seconds with AMS up, oh yes, that red puddle WAS the Warlock “problem”! It does not even stop there, Fridgid Dreadplate gives the Frostie a 3% chance for attacks used on you to miss. Think of it as extra avoidance really. As an added bonus count Toughness as a Frost Talent and you are a frickin’ Tank, delicious Armor, plus the 30% reduced duration on movement slowing effects.

The burst, do I even need to explain it? Killing Machine + Rime = WIN, Frost Strike crits = WIN, Obliterate crit? = Where’d his health go?

Feel like being the middle-man? Think you have what it takes to control rediculous amounts of crit-age in your hands? Frost will be your friend!

And we are letting this fine piece of steak out of her bindings, why?

Conclusions

As I stated earlier, each of these specs can be catered to your needs, there is no set-in-stone way to spec for PvP, but it is generally best if you follow the spec’s outline. IE for the Unholy build go for 0 talents in Blood, 17 in Frost, and 54 in Unholy, but these can be in whatever place your little heart desires! So go out there and make me proud, team, or come back laying on your shield.

Note: It will take much time until you find your perfect build, so try a few out, and do not be afraid to tool around with a new Tree, sometimes the best way to learn PvP is starting from scratch.

“Death Knights… can’t use… shields, idiot…”

They best not fail then,

“Damn straight…”

Death to the living!
-Elno
P.S. The avatar on the top of the page is going to be posted on each of the posts that I write, Aifel will also have his coming in the near future. Now you can distiguish who is writing what instead of going on a wild goose hunt!