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Belgarion.
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re: Gearing of DK's; Gems and Enchants

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Loranus

This topic is more about the discussion of what you should be doing about the type of gear your DK should be wearing depending on both Spec and Playing style as well as talking about the types of Gem one should be socketing into your gear on the same precipice.

First topic is the most talked about is whether to Dual-Wield or to Two-hander. I have heard so much discussion about this in all fronts for both Tanking and DPS. After doing the math (partly I only have 3 pages done of it) it really is more about your Spec and position.

Tanking- Tanks should never Dual Wield while tanking. Even with the High Def Rating Single Handers we don't need them to hit Def cap and with the increase of a hit cap and higher expertise it doesn't balance out with our need to keep aggro.

DPS- This is the main argument I see about whether you should Dual Wield or not. The only valid spec raid wise you should Dual wield is Unholy Spec with the Nerves of Cold Steel talent from the Frost tree. Blood Presence is more about increasing the Weapon Damage and its abilities are based off of that weapon damage though you can dual-wield in it I find it better to use a two-hander at this time. Unholy spec allows you to hold the person still longer allowing you to hit more times with your dual-wielding (Unholy Presence rocks here) And a lot of your abilities have a better chance to activate like Blood-Caked Strike. Also since the unholy tree is more about spells which are based off of our Attack power you don't need to worry so much about the Damage that you deal with your blade as much as your Attack power.

PVP-I know Raiding guild but this needs a small post. The only changes I could see would be the more applicable Approach of Dual-Wielding in Blood Presence. You would Crit more for your attacks cause everyone is moving around so much getting in additional quick hits would be better than the slow single hits of a two-hander.

Gems the lifeblood and Downfall of being a raider at times. Looking at gems we don't need to worry about Spell power,MP5, or all that other pansy magic stuff. What you need to look at is stuff like Strength, AP, and Hit for DPS. Def,Dodge, Stamina, and Parry for tanks.

Tanks- I feel the Major Concern would be getting avoidance when looking at Gems. If your lucky enough to already hit DEF cap you should try and hit Socket Bonuses as well especially on Epic Gear. Even though its Difficult Now you should Socket Dodge over Parry. Why is because of Diminishing Returns. For Example a Dodge Rating of 40 and a Parry rating of 45 the Dodge would give you more avoidance than the Parry. This is true for all tanks not just DKs but something to consider a lot. Right now the Flashing Scarlet Ruby is the only solid Color Gem that grants directly to an avoidance with 16 parry rating. With patch 3.1 hopefully the Subtle Scarlet Ruby with 16 dodge Rating will come out. My advice asap replace all those Flashing Scarlet Ruby with Subtle ones when 3.1 comes out.With any non-red Socket try and Socket [Stalwart Monarch Topaz] for yellow if you are Def Cap and [Regal Twilight Opal] for blue spots if you feel you have enough health to help get some extra avoidance while hitting socket bonuses.

wow quite alot to think about when Gemming for a Tank

DPS- This becomes a concern whether or not you have Hit Cap (which in my DPS gear im way over without any enchants) if you do have hit cap you should probably be putting in just stuff to increase your ap. If you are DPSing in Blood or Unholy Socket Strength. You will gain more AP and a higher DPS than the Attack power Ones. Unholy will buff up there Ghoul More with the increased strength as well as Shadow of Death will increase your strength by 2% giving you more AP since 16 strength equals 32 attack power increasing your Strength will increase your AP even higher with the buff. Blood has the same deal except they get a higher buff to their own strength increasing there AP more being able to throw out a higher weapon damage which increases all there attacks based off it. Frost DPS can have either since they don't get a buff in strength and mainly are based off of Crits and Increasing Frost Damage.

PVP- The same as DPS except when you can also Socket Resilience into yellow Sockets. to reduce crits on you and Increase Crits on Other players. I suggest only Doing this with PVP gear though as Resilience doesn't help much in a Raid Sense.

Enchanting the Weird and Controversial world that it is for us DKs.

Weapons- Enchant your weapon or throw a Rune on it. As far as it is Concerned Runeforging are enchants for only us DKs and whether or not Regular enchants are better for us. Weapon wise I think the Runeforging is always going to be a better option. Especially with Rune of the Fallen Crusader for DPS it has a high rate at which it comes out and an increase in most cases of our already buffed strength by 30% is a real asset. For tanks the Rune of Swordshattering and the Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle are the only real enchants a tank is worth having on a Weapon. Swordshattering gives us 4% parry on top of 50% less time of being Disarmed if it happens. The Stoneskin Gargoyle gives us 25 defense (Not Rating Defense confused) and 2% bonus stamina which at a higher level is about another 200-300 health. Quick for the math 25 defense also equals 1%miss on you 1% dodge and 1% parry so an avoidance of 3% total 1% less than the swordshattering but an easy way for some extra health and Def cap.Im still working on whether you can gem the complete extra 1% avoidance by replacing Def Gems but it might be worth it anyways for the higher damage reduction on Icebound Fortitude though I doubt it. (Which Blizzard says is 35% at 540 defense but I dont know the formula so I cant tell you how much of a reduction it gives but basically says at every 140 defense you gain 15% meaning about every 9.33 (repeating) defense is roughly 1% so you would only get about a 2.67% extra damage reduced from the rune itself)

Enchanting for Tanks- Armsman is a must parry rating increased threat if you can get this ASAP. If you don't have the Defense get Defensive ones like Titanweave and Greater Defense on chest. You should Decide though if health or Expertise is a bigger concern for you though (Expertise higher Threat less parrying and dodge of your attacks which also reduces damage to you something for you to think about.)

Enchanting for DPS- I have to say this is probably my most sketchy thoughts on here. I would say get anything that increases your AP(Like Gems blood and Unholy should Consider Strength before AP but do the math out first if multiply the strength by 2 if its close if not equal to the AP then go for strength.) or Crit Rating if not then get something with Haste to increase the amount of time you swing your weapon to get the crits.

Enchanting for PVP- There are Resilience Enchants out there get them for your PVP gear. Otherwise Consider the same as DPS you want to get higher damage out as quickly as possible.
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