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re: So You're going to roll a Death Knight - A Guide for new DKs

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Loranus

Death Knights unholy warriors forcibly ripped from the grave to fight once more in the name of the Lich King their spirit still intact and breaking away from unholy servitude to exact revenge on their evil one time master.

This guide is more of a breakdown of class mechanics then say what spec is best for leveling and so on. Due to the Heroic Classification of this class an requiring a previous character to be level 55 basic WoW lingo will be used.

Death Knight Mechanic Summary: Death Knights at the moment are the only class that use 2 resource mechanics in the game. Runes and Runic Power. While they work in such a way that you gain one from the use of the other they are seperate units that you need to pay attention too.

Runes: You get six runes 2 of each called Blood,Frost, and Unholy. These are fixed and the only way to change them is by specced abilities to change certain runes into Death Runes when you use specific attacks. Death Runes act as any Rune that you may need at the time though it does it automatically so you don't need to worry about it if your using a fixed rotation. These runes are used to power some of your main attacks either by using a single one or a combination of them to a max of 3. Examples:Icy Touch uses one Frost Rune, Death Strike uses One Frost and One Unholy Rune, Death and Decay uses One of each Frost,Blood, and Unholy Rune to use it. These runes refresh at a fixed rate after use so no matter what attack you use they come back at the same rate. These attacks give us our next resource when we use them.

Runic Power: After using runes we gain Runic power these are used to power specific abilities that use this resource. While the ability count that use this is small they are some of our most devastating in the game. These abilities are what we use when all our Runes are on Cooldown. Runic Power can be gained by using Runes or by specific abilities that declare we get runic power. For those who would like to know. Using a Single Rune ability like Icy Touch will give you 10 runic power any Multi-use rune ability like Death Strike an Death and Decay will grant you 15. These values can be changed for certain attacks by spec or glyphs but lets not worry about that for now.
Examples: Death Coil uses 40 runic power. Dancing Rune Weapon uses 60 runic power.


Now that you have a basic grasp of the Resource Mechanics we can breakdown a bit into the Combat Mechanics for a DK. This breakdown won't be fine fine number detail though the class has a lot of math to it that can be done hopefully I can give you an idea how your attacks work together and how gear comes into play.

Combat and Gear Mechanics:

Diseases: All Death Knights have 2 basic diseases they can apply Frost Fever and Blood Plague. These are DoTs that are crucial in the Combat Mechanics of a Death Knight. Most of our Attacks work in such a way that they do increased Effects based on the number of diseases we have on a target. Such that Death Strike heals us 5% of our health for every disease on the target when we hit or such as in the Case of Obliterate where it increases the Damage done to the target based on the number of diseases as well.

Relics/Sigils: Just like Druids,Paladins, and Shamans the Death Knight Class uses a specific Relic for us it is called a Sigil in the spot of a ranged weapon. Not many Exist and you will primarily be using the one given to you at the start of your DK career until you hit 80. These Sigils give us benefits to specific abilities whether just increasing there damage or granting a specific buff when certain abilities are used.

Stats: Strength is our primary DPS stat grants 2 attack power and grants us 1 parry rating for every 4 strength we have. Tanking you take a lot more interest in Stamina but you shouldn't worry about tanking until you hit the 70-80 area since are Tanking Abilities are gained all the way at that point.

Armor: We wear plate Enough said other pieces may be an upgrade but when you can grab the plate piece with Strength over anything else. Also we can't use shields.

Presences: As you progress you will gain Presences that give your DK special stats only accesible in that presence.Blood grants 15% increased weapon damage and 4% healing of damage done. Frost grants 60% armor from Cloth,Leather,Mail, and Plate Items(Not Cloaks, Rings, or Trinkets) as well as a 6% stamina increase. Unholy grants 15% movement and attack Speed. These presences can be improved through a self explanatory spec in each of their respective trees.

Runeforging: DK only Weapon Enchants you gain them as you level up and can only be applied at a runeforge. Grant special effects that specifically benefit a DK over other classes and much cheaper than Enchanting a new Weapon with regular enchants.


I hope this helps people who are rolling a DK better understand what your getting into and what to watch for when levelling your DK.
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