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This WoW guide will tell you not only how to powerlevel your warlock, but will also give you talent specifications so you won't be left in the dark wondering how to powerlevel your warlock
Also, after you respec you can check out the other powerleveling guides and you should be able to follow them
Talents:
10-14: 5/5 Imp Corruption
15: 1/5 Demonic Embrace
16-18: 3/3 Imp Imp (For the instances you should be running right now)
19: 2/5 Demonic Embrace
20-22: Imp VW
23-25: 5/5 Demonic Embrace
26: 1/1 Fel Domination
27-29: 3/5 Fel Stamina
Respec #1 (Level 30)
30: Respec to 5/5 Imp Corruption, 5/5 Imp Drain Life, 2/2 Imp Life Tap, 5/5 Fel Concentration, 2/2 Nightfall, 2/2 Grim Reach
31: 1/1 Siphon life
32-34: 3/5 Suppression
35-39: 5/5 Shadow Mastery
40: 1/1 Dark Pact
41-45: 5/5 Demonic Embrace
46-49: 4/5 Fel Intellect
Respec #2 (Level 50)
50: Respec to 5/5 Imp Corruption, 2/2 Imp Lifetap, 3/5 Imp Drain Life, 5/5 Fel Concentration, 2/2 Grim Reach, 2/2 Nightfall, 1/1 Amplify Curse, 5/5 Demonic Embrace, 3/3 Imp Imp, 3/3 Imp VW, 3/3 Imp Succubus, 1/1 Fel Domination, 2/2 Master Summoner, 3/5 Unholy Power, 1/1 Demonic Sacrifice
51: 1/1 Siphon Life
52: 1/1 Curse of Exaustion
53-55: 3/4 Imp. Curse of Exaustion
56-60: 5/5 Shadow Mastery
Note about Drain Tanking:
Common knowledge is that Drain Tanking is the most efficient leveling spec. Few realize, however, that it is nearly useless before level 30, due to the weakness of the lower versions of the Drain Life spel
How to level:
Grind and quest at the same time. Either look for multiple quests that involve killing the same mobs, or look for multiple quests in the same areas.
The more quests you can get done before running back to turn in, the faster your leveling will go.
Also, remember to set your hearth to new places frequently. Every time you plan to level in a new place for more than an hour, set your hearth there, as the time saved by teleporting back to the nearest down instead of running is incredible
Summary:
1-9: Do your lowbie quests. Should take 2-3 hours.
10-29: Stack all your DoTs on a mob, send in the VW, stack all your DoTs on a second mob, and then wand the second mob to death. Repeat until low health, and then bandage/Consume Shadows. Each level should take about an hour, moving towards an hour and a half as you get closer to 30. If they are taking longer, figure out what the problem is (mobs too far apart, mobs have too much life, too much downtime) and move to an area that solves it.
30-39: Drain Tank: Load the mob up on DoTs, send in the Succubus, cast Drain Life while the mob beats on you, rinse and repeat.
40-49: Drain Tank, but instead of Life Tapping, use Dark Pact. A good rule of thumb is, DP only if your pet is over 50% mana, because if they run out it will slow your fighting time down. The easiest way to do this is to turn off all autocast abilities on your Succubus, and remember to DPing during the fight (rather than after) as a good time-saver because your DoTs will help keep up the DPS.
50-59: The Drain Tanking gets even better now. By Demonic Sacrificing your pet, you are able to regen even more life per fight, keeping up with increasing monster damage, while still 'Tapping up to full mana whenever you want because of the passive regen.
60: You are now specced SM/DS, which is generally accepted to be best grinding spec. Do whatever killing you need to do, grind factions etc., and then respec to your high-level build of choice.
Equipment Choice:
"I found that during early levels it was best to focus on +sta, and at around 35 or so to switch to +shadow or +dmg. If you are specced into affliction and are draintanking, +dmg will be vastly superior to +sta. You kill the mobs much faster for the same mana, and heal yourself that much faster." -Clutchsama
It's my personal opinion that up until about level 40 you should stack +sta and "of the Eagle" gear. At 30, start looking for Shadoweave gear, and around 40 switch into it. Full Shadoweave can be made by tailors, and will give a bonus of +114 shadow damage, along with some Int and Sta, and can be equipped at level 44.
In general, while using Dark Pact I stack as much +damage gear as possible, and while using Demonic Sacrifice, I stack as much +sta gear as possible, while keeping a minimum of +100 dmg.
This guide was written by Suicidal from the main World of Warcraft community site. It is listed here as it has been an extremely helpful guide. Be sure to bookmark this page and check out the other guides to make HUGE amounts of gold in this game and powerlevel to the top
I love Tanks. Likewise, there have been many Tanks who have loved me.
Preface: This will likely end up being long, and I realize it is months behind (in writing the guide anyhow), however I hope to go over every point I have learned through my experiences, as well as outline a complete pull schedule (unfortunately I can only do it in written form, any attempts I make at a fraps turns out quite badly, so please bear with me). Before you read on check out this quick video of a warrior, priest, and 3 mages completing the 45 minute Baron run, it may give you some pointers and more understanding befofe I continue on...
For those who dont know me, I am a hardcore player though complete non-raider (aside from the very occasional UBRS). My gear is about as strong as possible without heading into a 40man, I wear 8/8 virtuous, Cainwyn, Hide, Band of Mending, Emerald Flame Ring, Mindtap/Beast card, bonecreeper stylus, and Benediction (the divinity of which I purchased by getting summoned in after domo died on a guilds raid).
As such, I am constantly looking for challenges. The tier.5 was a great challenge IMO for non-raiders, and the dreaded early block of the 45 UD is the second most difficult part I believe (behind valthalak who I would hate trying in a pick up). It took me 6 attempts to get my first 45 minute run completed for my own quest, since then I take fun in helping people past this part. Currently, I have completed 20 successful pick up (which Ill from now on refer to as PUG) runs in under 45 minutes, at about 80% success rate.
My Death Knight is named Rhnea, but most people call me Ashes. I currently plan to reroll on Mal'ganis horde side as a Death Knight and continue there. I have played all the tanking classes in raiding environments when they were still cutting edge. So, my intention is to play Rhnea with the mindset that she will become another tank and hopefully a great one. This guide is a comprehensive on tanking and to that end, I have chosen to exclude extraneous information that pertains to DPS and utility. I will give some things mention, but for the most part in the sake of brevity, I will be focusing my energies on the Death Knight and its role as a Parry Caster Tank.
This being said as it has been pointed out; a death knight is a strong DPS sort of tank. We don't rely on "causes a high amount of threat" abilities to build aggro, instead, we rely on DPS'ing smart and holding up our tanking abilities at the same time. Right now as it stands, since we don't have the ability to equip a shield that does get rid of quite a bit of mitigation through both armor and shield block. This is easily made up in avoidance, but without the general standards on a shield getting a higher health pool will be harder, but not by much. One of the great things is when it's a controlled fight with predictable cooldown on mobs/boss abilities we can easily negate much of the damage through our various abilities (i.e. Icebound Fortitude, Lichborne and the like(.
Abbreviations Used:
Avoidance: Dodge\Parry\Miss
DPS: Damage Per Second or Damage Dealing Class
Mitigation: Damage reduction (i.e. spell damage reduction and armor)
GCD: Global Cooldown
DoT: Damage Over Time
AoE: Area of Effect
HoT: Heal Over Time
RP: Runic Power
IT: Icy Touch
PS: Plague Strike
HS: Heart Strike
SS: Scourge Strike
BB: Blood Boil
HB: Howling Blast
HC: Hungering Cold
Ob: Obliterate
UB: Unholy Blite
DnD: Death and Decay
1.0 The Basics
As stated above in comparison Death Knights will have a little less health and a less armor than the other 3 tanking classes. However, we won't be too far behind druids in the armor situation as it stands. All things considered the gameplay of a death knight requires an intimate knowledge of your resources: cooldowns, trinkets, runes and runic power. With some practice and quite a bit of insight you can do some amazing things as a Death Knight tank. The crux of the Death Knight though is the constant need to pay attention to all your details in order to maximize your tanking ability.
The Death Knight's ability system works off a combination of all 3 pools. The Death Knight in its current state has 6 runes: 2 Blood, 2 Frost, and 2 Unholy. Basic abilities use a rune or a combination of runes. Some, are free of cost, but most use runes. As you use runes, and with proper talents, you build runic power. If you spend all your runes you get 50 runic power. The first rune of each Blood, Frost, and Unholy recharges in 10 seconds, while the second is on an 8.5 second cooldown due to latency purposes. Sometimes, you can regen them faster depending on your talents. Once you have runic power you can then use other abilities such as Death Coil. These abilities are usually a plus and give you a chance to have a choice in fillers. Also, as you use abilities you will start to debuff the target with diseases. Which diseases and how many depends entirely upon your spec. The more diseases you keep up the more additive damage you will do with certain abilities i.e. death strike.
Runeforging is a pretty simple system. It's a cross between poisons and enchants. With runeforging you can enchant your weapon with a permanent weapon aura. This aura does not work with weapon enchants, however, it does work with temporary enchants such as oils and windfury. You can change your runeforge enchant at any runeforge, for your convenience, in Ebon Hold.
Blood:
Blood Boil
1 Blood Instant Cast
Causes all disease effects on targets within 30 yards to painfully erupt, consuming the diseases, dealing X to Y damage modified by attack power
This is a handy ability; not only does this cause AoE damage when you have pestilenced the whole group
Blood Tap
X% health, Instant Cast, 1 Minute Cooldown
Immediately activates a Blood Rune and temporarily converts it into a Death Rune. This rune counts as a Blood, Unholy, or Frost Rune. Lasts 20 sec.
It's nice for those times when you're just short 1 rune for obliterate or Howling Blast. It gives you a quick opportunity to take advantage of the all out moments.
Dark Command
Melee Range, Instant Cast, 10 sec Cooldown
Commands the target to attack you, but has no affect if the target is already attacking you.
Basic taunt
Death Pact
40 Runic Power, 30 yd, Instant Cast, 2 min cooldown
Sacrifices an undead minion, healing the Death Knight for 20% of your maximum health.
Nice ability to regain some health. Only thing is you need a humanoid corpse around or Corpse Dust to raise dead.
Forceful Deflection (Passive)
Increases your Parry Rating by 25% of your total Strength.
It makes our str (source of attack power) even more useful outside of dps.
Pestilence
1 Blood, Instant Cast, Melee Range
Causes X to Y Shadow damage to the target and up to 3 additional targets and spreads any diseases on the target to the additional targets.
A great little ability to help you spread diseases around. A nice perk is it places the diseases with full duration on them. So, you can theoretically work your way around the group with this ability and use it as a disease refresher. However, it does not refresh it on the direct target.
Strangulate
1 Blood, 30 yd, Instant Cast, 2 min cooldown
Strangulates an enemy, silencing them for a maximum of 5 sec and deals up to X shadow damage modified by attack power at the end of the effect.
One of many abilities you can use to silence an enemy; however, this is one of the only few that can be performed at range. It also has the nice added effect of shadow damage when the silence is done.
Frost:
Empower Rune Weapon
Instant cast, 5 min Cooldown
Empower your rune weapon, immediately activating all your runes and generating 25 runic power.
Basically it's the prep button for when your group is going to pop all their cooldowns.
Frost Presence
1 Frost Rune, Instant Cast
The Death Knight takes on the presence of frost, increasing armor contribution form items by 45%, magic resistance by X, and threat generated by 45%. Only one presence may be active at a time.
The tanking presence. It increases mitigation to magic and physical damage. It also raises your threat. From what it looks, it seems the magic resistance contribution goes up with level.
Icebound Fortitude
20 Runic Power, Instant Cast, 1 min cooldown
The Death Knight freezes her blood to become immune to Stun effects and reduce all damage taken by 50% for 18 sec. Does not remove existing Stun effects.
Useful to preempt any stuns from mobs, but without a reliable mob timer/ui you can't use it to its full advantage. The damage reduction is nice though.
Obliterate
1 Unholy 1 Frost, Melee range, Instant Cast, Requires Melee Weapon
A brutal instant attack that deals 100% of weapon damage plus X and 50% additional damage for each of the death knight's diseases on the target, but consumes the disease.
Basically the Rune sink of your abilities. With many abilities up this can do quite a bit of damage and gain quite a bit of threat. Notice it says your diseases meaning you have to monitor your own diseases, and not another death knight's.
Rune Strike
20 Runic Power, Melee Range, Instant Cast, 5 Sec Cooldown, Requires Melee Weapon
Instantly strikes the target for 200% weapon damage modified by attack power. Only useable after the Death Knight attack is dodge, blocked, or parried
An ok filler, but apparently still affected by Global Cooldowns making it just that less useful in the repertoire.
Unholy:
Anti-Magic Shell
20 Runic Power, Instant Cast, 1 min cooldown
Surrounds the Death Knight in an Anti-Magic Shell, absorbing 75% of the spell damage dealt by harmful spells. Damage absorbed by Anti-Magic Shell energizes the Death Knight with additional runic power. Lasts 5 sec.
One of the most amazing abilities death knights have against casters. Imagine never needing an interrupt for Kael's stupid pyroblast and all his damage going into your runic power bar. *Drool*
Death and Decay
1 Blood 1 Frost 1 Unholy, 30 yd Range, Instant Cast, 30 sec cooldown
Corrupts the ground targeted by the death kngiht, causing X damage every sec that targets remain in the area for 10 sec. This ability produces a high amount of threat.
A great AoE tanking ability. The fact that you can cast it at range makes it a great AoE for those times when your mages want to go crazy and you just can't get in range quick enough.
Death Coil
40 Runic Power, Instant Cast, 30 yd range
Fire a blast of unholy energy, causing X Shadow damage to an enemy target or healing X damage from a friendly Undead target.
A great ability to use as a filler to give yourself a little more threat. The wording on the heal portion of it makes it confusing, but it seems to be a nice way to heal yourself if your ghoul is out.
Death Grip
30 yd range, Instant Cast, 35 sec cooldown
Harness the unholy energy that surrounds and binds all matter drawing the target toward the death Knight and forcing the enemy to attack the Death Knight for 3 sec.
One of the abilities you can have fun with. It's our single target taunt and it is literal our pull mechanism. You pull the target smack in front of you, and if you're smart you'll cast icy touch or death coil on it as it's coming down.
Death Strike
1 Unholy 1 Frost, Melee Range, Instant Cast, Requires Melee Weapon
A deadly attack that deals 60% weapon damage plus X and heals the death knight for 100% of the weapon damage for each of her diseases on the target.
A great ability to give yourself a small heal. Depending on your spec you can get quite a bit out of this spell as far as self heals go.
These are the talents that I have found more focused on tanking. The other talents tend to give you more dps which is more threat, but I don't think they need to be discussed within this thread since this is quite a bit to digest in the first place.
Blood:
Blade Barrier x/5
Whenever your Blood Runes are on cooldown, your Parry chance increases by 2/4/6/8/10% for the next 10 sec.
Great ability and if you're smart you should be able to keep this up most of the time.
Rune Tap x/1
1 Blood Rune, Instant Cast, 1 minute cool down.
Converts 1 Blood Rune into 10% of our maximum health.
Great little self heal ability,it's similar to the warrior's last stand, and it's a self heal every minute or 30 sec depending on your talents.
Improved Rune Tap x/3
Increases the health provided by Rune Tap by 33/66/100% and lowers it's cooldown by 10/20/30 secs.
See above.
Spell Deflection x/3
You have a chance equal to your Parry chance of taking 10/20/30% less damage form a direct damage spell.
Another source of spell damage mitigations making us even better at being caster tanks.
Veteran of the Third War x/3
Increases your Strength and stamina by 2/4/6% and your expertise by 2/4/6
Buff to stam and str and adds a little to expertise.
Mark of Blood x/1
1 Blood, 30 yd, Instant Cast, 3 min cooldown
Place a Mark of Blood on an enemy whenever the marked enemy deals damage to a target, that target is healed for 4% of its maximum health. Lasts for 30 seconds.
Nice little ability to help you get topped off can be useful to help out when you're not Main Tanking something.
Bloodworms x/3
Your weapon hits have a 3/6/9% chance to cause the target to spawn 2-4 Bloodworms. Bloodworms attack your enemies, healing you as they do damage for 20 sec or until killed.
This has proven to be more gimmicky, but it does heal you for a little bit.
Vampiric Blood x/1
1 Blood, Instant Cast, 1 min cooldown
Increase the amount of health generated through spells and effects by 50% for 20 sec.
Not the best ability for tanking, but it does give you a little bit more healing if you like to push this sort of thing.
Will of the Necropolis x/3
Reduces the cooldown of your anti-magic shell by 4/8/12 sec. When you have less than 35% health, your total armor increases by 10/20/30%
Expertise I think will be one of our more wanted stats since we're parry tanks; plus, it adds more mitigation when you're low.
Heart Strike x/1
1 Blood, Melee Range, Instant Cast
Instantly strike the enemy , causing 50% weapon damage plus X, and an additional x bonus damage per disease. Prevents the target from using haste effects for 10 sec.
More of a DPS ability, but the fact that you can negate haste effects makes it sort of desirable; it should be noted that it "prevents" and does not dispel haste effects.
Frost:
Improved Icy Touch x/3
Your Icy Touch does an additional 10/20/30% damage and your Frost Fever reduces melee and ranged attack speed by an additional 2/4/6%.
Reduces melee and ranged attack speed meaning you won't be hit as often.
Toughness x/5
Increases your armor value from items by 3/6/9/12/15% and reduces the duration of all movement slowing effects by 6/12/18/24/30%.
Basic tank increases armor talent with the bonus of decreasing movement impairment.
Nerves of Cold Steel x/3
Increases your chance ot hit with one-handed melee weapons by 1/2/3% and increases the damage done by your offhand weapon by 5/10/15%
+hit and + damage = threat generation. It's a decent talent and for 3 points not too bad. Note: this depends on whether you believe in the whole DW Tanking.
Lichborne x/1
Instant cast, 3 minute cooldown
Draw upon unholy energy to become undead for 15 sec. While undead, you are immune to Charm, Fear and Sleep effects, and your horrifying visage causes melee attacks to have an additional 25% chance to miss you.
It's a neat ability to break fear and a few other CC abilities some mobs have. Plus, it gives you a 25% chance you'll be missed so sort of a lucky pocket watch effect.
Annihilation x/3
Increases the critical strike chance of your melee special abilities by 1/2/3%. In addition, there is a 33/66/100% chance that your Obliterate will do its damage without consuming diseases.
Gives you more freedom to use other abilities since you won't have to refresh your diseases, but definitely not needed.
Runic Power Mastery x/3
Increases your maximum Runic Power by 10/20/30.
Gives you a little more to work with in the way you sink your Runic Power not exactly bad, but a little debatable on how great it is.
Frigid Dreadplate x/3
Enemies who hit you in melee have a 100% chance to become unsettled, decreasing their chance to hit you in melee by 1/2/3%
A reactive chance to cause mobs to miss you. Not a bad talent to keep mobs off your back. It'll be particularly useful against AoE pulls.
Merciless Combat x/2
Your Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Obliterate and Frost Strike do an additional 6/12% damage when striking targets with less than 35% health.
Just a nice little umph for when warriors and such are execute spamming.
Frost Aura x/2
While in Frost Presence, all party members within 45 yards gain (.5/1 per death knight level) spell resistance.
Extra mitigation for you and others when you're taking magic damage.
Unbreakable Armor x/1
1 Frost, Instant Cast, ` minute cooldown
Increases your armor by 25% and your total Strength by 10% and Parry chance by 5% for 20 sec.
Mitigation and avoidance bump for 20 seconds. If you're this far down it'll be pretty easy to work into a rotation with the other skills such as lichborne. Another thing to note is, since it adds strength you actually get more than 5% parry
Acclimation x/3
When you are hit by a spell, you have a 10/20/30% chance to boost your resistance to that type of magic for 18 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
Another magic mitigation of sorts. It's reactive, but 3 out of 10 chance it'll proc, not too bad.
Guile of Gorefiend x/3
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Blood Strike, Obliterate, Rune Strike, and Frost Strike abilities by 15/30/45% and increases the duration of your Icebound Fortitude by 2/4/6 sec.
Basically this will allow you to keep icebound fortitude up most of the time. Oh and more damage aka threat, whee.
Hungering Cold x/1
60 Runic Power, Instant Cast, 1 min cooldown
Purges the earth around the Death Knight of all heat. Enemies within 10 yards are trapped in ice, preventing them from performing any action for 10 sec and infecting them with Frost Fever. Enemies are considered Frozen, but any damage other than diseases will break the ice.
It infects all the mobs within 10 yards with frost fever giving your Howling Blast a nice boost to up your AoE tanking in instances plus it gives you a semblance of CC when the mobs are freezable.
Unholy:
Anticipation x/5
Increases your chance ot dodge by 1/2/3/4/5%
Basic tank +dodge talent.
Epidemic x/2
Increases the duration of Blood and Frost Fever by 3/6 sec.
It gives you the opportunity to use a couple more damaging attacks (i.e. Scourge Strike/Blood Strike) Before you have to refresh your diseases.
Unholy Command x/2
Reduces the cooldown of your Death Grip ability by 5/10 sec.
Lowers your cooldown on your death grip and who doesn't like to pull people around.
On a Pale Horse x/2
You become as hard ot stop as death itself. The duration of all Stun and Fear effects against you is reduced by 10/20% and your mounted speed is increased by 10/20%. his does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.
Reduction of fear and stun effects as a passive ability. When coupled with Icebound and Lichborne you can keep the time you're CC'd or stunned to a relative low.
Shadow of Death x/1
Increases your total Strength and Stamina by 2%. In addition, whenever you die, you return to keep fighting as a Ghoul for 45 sec.
Stam and Str bonus.
Magic Suppression x/5
You take 1/2/3/4/5% less damage from all magic. In addition, your Anti- Magic Shell absorbs an additional 5/10/15/20/25% of spell damage.
Decreases your spell damage intake. It has proven extremely useful in fights where you are fighting an elemental since all their damage is magical damage.
Anti-Magic Zone x/1
1 Unholy, Instant Cast, 2 minute cooldown
Places a large, stationary Anti-Magic Zone that reduces spell damage done to party members inside it by 75%. The Anti-Magic Zone lasts for 30 sec or until it absorbs 111,376 spell damage.
An AoE cover for you and your friends. It's centered around you. It'll be nice for fights where there's plenty of AoE damage and all around spell Chaos. This can be helpful even when you aren't tanking. You can toss this down to help mitigate damage against anyone who stands in this zone.
Bone Shield x/1
1 Unholy, Instant Cast, 1 min cooldown
The Death Knight is surrounded by 4 whirling bones. While at least 1 bone remains, you take 40% less damage from all sources and deal 2% more damage with all attacks, spells, and abilities. Each spell or attack that lands consumes 1 bone. Lasts 5 minutes.
Damage mitigation and extra damage. Only good/bad thing is each bone is consumed with each successful attack on you. It's been theorized you can keep this up for an entire minute if you have a high enough avoidance. AoE's do not consume bones
Wandering Plague x/3
When your diseases damage an enemy, there is a chance equal to your melee critical strike chance that they will cause 33/66/100% additional damage to the target and all enemies within 8 yards. Ignores any target under the effect of a spell that is canceled by taking damage.
It basically gives your DoT ticks a chance to do some extra tick damage helping you to mindlessly keep extra aggro on your adds. It might not be completely worth it considering it is based of Crit chance, but if you switch out gear for different instances this may prove slightly useful
Unholy Blight x/1
60 Runic Power, Instant Cast
A vile swarm of unholy insects surround the Death Knight for a 10 yd radius. Enemies caught in the area take X shadow damage per sec. Lasts 20 sec.
Not as impressive as in its beta days. The lack of an extra disease diminishes this. However, it does provide another source of AoE damage.
Keep in mind that blizzard has emphatically expressed that their full intention is to make all of our trees will be tank viable. It's just a matter of how much you're willing to sacrifice and how well you play your class and spec.
On a note of sarcasm: Go figure you have to know how to play to be able to main tank.
This spec takes all the mitigation and healing abilities of the blood tree and tries to integrate them into your tank tree. Only problem with this is it doesn't put out a huge output of dps.
This build takes deep frost and combines it with a lowered DnD cooldown. This combo can definitely do a good amount of AoE damage while having all the perks in deep frost for mitigation.
This by far is my favorite spec to run around with. It has all the perks of Unholy, but I give up wandering plague and gargoyle/ghoul so I can pick up some extra strength in the blood tree. So far, it has proven to be quite an effective spec.
Unfortunately, we don't have a great way to frontload an insane amount of aggro like Pally tanks. One of the big reasons why I like to start out with this combo is because it allows you to put up Blade Barrier almost as soon as the fight starts. So, this rotation can be cut down if it's a single target mob to just something that does a decent amount of damage on a single target.
IT --> PS ---> OB//HB/SS
Generally, I wouldn't interrupt this rotation with rune strike until I have that snap aggro. Rune strike isn't required to be against the target you crit so you can use it like warriors do when they tab target sunder. You can just tab through and rune strike when it's up. A big priority for death knights is to keep up your diseases; not only does it provide a nice DoT on the mobs but it amplifies most of your abilities. So, once you have your disease application down just work through a solid DPS rotation tossing in Bone Armor/Unbreakable Armor/Icebound Fortitude whenever it feels like a good time.
Unholy DPS Rotation:
SS---> SS --> BS ---> BS ---> UB/repeat previous
You can generally get UB up earlier, but I do like to provide an Oh Shit cushion with a little extra RP. By the point you finish your first rotation you should have enough RP to also toss up one of your defensive abilities.
Frost DPS Rotation:
HB---> BS ---> BS ---> Ob----> Frost Strike ---> Repeat
Some people will like to toss hungering cold in there, but when it's single target it's not a big deal to keep it up, nor is it an effective use of your runic power IMO. You could just as easily rotate pestilence through targets to spread your Frost Fever and hit them with Howling Blast.
Blood DPS Rotation:
Ob--> HS --> Ob --> HS ---> Death Coil
Here it's a pretty simple rotation. You can generally through different things in for the Death Coil like Mark of Blood or Vampiric Blood to change it up, but generally you do get some freedom with it.
2. Advanced Training
4. Stat Priorities
The first and major priority for tanks is the defense cap. This should be your first and primary goal. For level 80 you need 540 defense (that's 688 defense rating) total at all times when tanking level 83/boss mobs. If you have anything less than this there is a good chance you will be crit by the boss's physical attacks. In fights where it is all spell damage this can go out the window.
After this it can be taken down this path or something similar to:
Stam/Str
Dodge/Parry
Hit/Expertise
Crit/Agi
AP
Stam/Str are a bigger priority than the rest. You need a nice little cushion for the incoming damage that will be coming in. And though this may not be the best argument, but healers tend to see a decent amount of health so that they don't lose faith in their tank's ability to handle the situation. Strength will give you more threat, but with our forceful deflection we will be able to parry more so this proves to be even more useful. So this is why Str is so far ahead of AP on the priority list.
Hit/Expertise are great tools to help you push that DPS out to get more threat, but your main priority is tanking, and although being a threat rocket is great if you can't survive the fight and give healers something to work with the fight will not go well. I do like these stats don't get me wrong, but in the grand schema of things it isn't as big priority. Plus, you seem to get these as time moves on pretty easily. The same goes for Crit/Agi/AP
2.2 Dungeons & Raids
Coming soon!
3. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. What spec is best for tanking?
As far as normal and even heroic dungeons go, any spec should be fine. Death Knights by design have been given the ability to tank in any of their trees so long as they have a good knowledge of their skills, and can play their class. As for raiding it is highly recommended to get the bottom 3 mitigation/avoidance talents maxed out before you plan your raiding spec. Each tree has its quirks and can all tank in raid situations. The gear is just what will really make or break you at that point.
2. Do we need to have 102.4% Avoidance to prevent Crushing Blows?
No you don't need to get high avoidance to avoid crushing blows anymore. They have been taken out for mobs 3 levels higher than you; however, it still exists for mobs 4+ levels higher than you to prevent you from taking on anything out of your league.
3. Do Death Knights compare well/scale well compared to the other tanking classes?
In reality at the moment until more and more testing is done it is not for certain, but as it has been pointed out by numerous blue posts all tanks should be equal. Some may be slightly better than another in different fights, but none should be incapable of tanking if they have the proper gear requirement.
Klingonisches Brückenset II: Bird of Prey (240 Cryptic Punkte)
How to 'Graveyard Ninja' in AV
If you are new to Alterac Valley, you may wonder what people mean when they start telling the raid "NEED SOME1 NINJA IB". They hopefully mean that they want someone to help them ninja a graveyard, a critical tactic to help push the enemy back and win AV.
Why do we ninja graveyards?
TAKES ONLY 2 PEOPLE. Ninjaing graveyards can be done with a minimum of two people which should not take too much power from the pushing force.
SLOWS ENEMY SPAWN. When you team is pushing closer to a graveyard flag, your team will be far from their respawn and close to the enemies respawn. This gives the opposing team an advantage. But when you capture their graveyard flag, it makes the graveyard contested. This means that no units can spawn there. The enemy will no longer spawn AT the flag, but rather will spawn at the next closest graveyard that they own. This only affects dead enemy units. Living enemy units are a different matter.
DISTRACTS THE ENEMY. When you capture the graveyard flag, it will be broadcasted in RED and a soundclip will play to accompany the message. Usually, at this point, the enemy will get a bit disoriented. Most enemies will continue fighting in the main force, but some will break from the main melee and run straight back to the flag to reclaim it. This is good for your team! They should be fighting a slightly reduced force.
What does ninjaing entail?
Two people, regardless of class can ninja a graveyard, although some classes are better than others and some classes really shouldn't be ninjaing. When ninjaing, the each player takes on one of these roles: the Runner or the Capper.
The Runner's job is to mount up and run by the graveyard flag, taking with him the aggro of all four guards and the commander if it is still alive. If dismounted, the Runner must stay alive long enough to allow the Capper to finish doing her job (greater than 10 seconds).
The Capper's job is to get to the flag just after the Runner has gotten ALL the aggro and right click the flag. After that, she just prays that no PC comes along and hits her before the 10 seconds are up.
Class Comparison:
Warrior: As a Runner, a Warrior is excellent. If knocked off his mount; he has enough armor and health to survive long enough to let the Capper do her job. Use defensive stance, and any skills that seem conducive to your own longevity. Being unable to sneak to the flag, a Warrior may attract enemy PCs who will probably follow the Warrior and aim to disrupt the Capper.
Mage: As a Runner or a Capper, a mage can use blink to great advantage. I usually see mages as Runners because if they are knocked down, they use Frost Nova and sometimes Blizzard to slow down the graveyard guards. IF the mage plays the Capper, they can hide behind a tree nearby to the flag and use ranged attacks to keep any enemies from recapturing the flag.
Hunter: Although a hunter has enough armor and health to be a good Runner, they tend to be better Cappers because of their ability to covertly defend the flag after the capture has been made. Because crowd control is important when ninjaing a graveyard. It is advisable to not have a pet out when you are playing either role as a graveyard ninja. If you are a Runner, don't use feign unless you are less than one half second from death (i.e. death is imminent). If you are a Capper, hide behind a nearby tree and shoot any enemies that come by to reclaim their graveyard.
Rogue: My personal favorite for ninjaing, Rogues can play either role. Rogues can sneak all the way to the flag which means that the enemy should never follow a rogue back to the graveyard and attack the Capper. As Runners, the rogue could use Sprint to aid in the escape, but their armor is weak and their health is low. Because of their high stealth movement speed, they make excellent Cappers. Plus, after the capture, they can restealth to hide and snipe any enemies trying to reclaim the flag.
Druid: Could be the best graveyard ninja. They have the same weak armor and health as the rogue, but they should be able to instant heal (if you have Nature's Swiftness) to help increase survivability. They can also stealth up to the flag and use movement increasing abilities. Unfortunately, having a druid ninjaing a graveyard means having a druid that's not in the main fight healing...
Priest and Warlock: As Runner's these guys die quickly if dismounted. If there is a commander at the graveyard, these classes may die before being dismounted! Using voidwalker's Sacrifice will sometimes send the guards chasing a Runner Warlock back the graveyard to hit the Capper. As a Capper, a priest or warlock is decent, but your healing and AoE are best used to serve the main battle.
Shaman: I'll be honest here. I've never played a shaman. I know nothing about them. If you play a shaman, use your best judgment.
Some extra notes:
Sometimes enemy PCs will stand under the mounted commander at a flag where they are harder to see. They are usually guarding the graveyard.
If you have three people, you have two Runners and one Capper. The first Runner takes the NPCs aggro. The second Runner acts like he is going to capture the flag and then runs off to take any PCs that are guarding the flag away. Finally, the Capper moves in and takes the flag. This is my favorite manuever because it shows that the PCs guarding the flag are only barely smarter than the NPCs.
As a Capper, positioning the flag between you and approaching enemies does not protect you from ranged attacks.
If you are a Runner, using life saving skills like Vanish, Divine Shield, Sacrifice, Feign Death, or Fade will send the graveyard NPCs back to the Capper, don't use them until the graveyard is captured.
If there are a bunch of PCs guarding the graveyard and you already failed to capture it, go back to the main fight and push for 10 - 15 minutes. No reason to take yourself away from the war effort when you can see the enemy must be a few players short.
If you need more in-depth coverage of battle grounds and PvP tactics, check out,there's a small fee for it, but it's well worth it in my opinion
Earning favour with the Death Knights
One of the many factions that you can earn reputation in the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, is the order called the Knights of the Ebon Blade. This group is made up of Death Knights who have made their home at the Ebon Hold in the Eastern Plaguelands. They also have bases at the Ebon Watch in Zul'Drak and the Shadow Vault in Icecrown. The main area players will see them is around the Shadow Vault as they quest in there while attempting to gain reputation with them to earn rewards.
Players start at neutral with the Knights of the Ebon Blade and must earn additional reputation by completing quests for them. If you are a Death Knight you start with friendly level reputation with them after you have completed one of your class quests at level 55.
Earning Reputation
There are a vast number of quests that you can do to earn reputation with the Knights of the Ebon Blade. Before you are level 80 you can start to earn reputation with the Knights by following the quest chain that starts with An Invitation, of Sorts. The chain starts with a drop off of a Withered Troll outside of the Ebon camp in Zul’drak. The quest line gives about 1,900 rep in addition to the other quests available at the outpost.
Many players however don’t start seriously worrying about the reputation until they hit level 80 and reach Icecrown. Therefore the place most people start their reputation grind is with the quests based around the Shadow Vault in Icecrown.
Once you reach friendly reputation you can either continue as normal in your reputation guide, completing more quests, or purchase the tabard and start running 5 man dungeons. If you are fresh to level 80, I would probably just do this as it supplies reputation and items as you go. If you can’t find groups for dungeons though, or if you just prefer questing, you can do that instead.
The quests start with It’s all fun and Games and works through several quests until you get to the point where dailies open up after finishing The Shadow Vault. The initial quest chain keeps going though through to the quest Let the Baron Know. It then starts a new one with Parting Gifts still in the Shadow Vault and Over at Death’s Rise with the quest To the Rise with all Due Haste! The quest lines provide a lot of reputation, but you can still champion the Knights in the various heroic instances once you reach friendly (easily done by a few quests in The Shadow Vault). If you have the time you can easily reach friendly, grab a tabard, and start running heroics. You’ll knock out two birds with one stone this way. However, if you want your head enchant fast or still need to get friendly then questing is the way to go.
Daily Quests
In addition to the quest chains, there are several daily quests that can be done to earn reputation with the Knights of the Ebon Blade. They are all available once you have completed certain quests in the long Shadow Vault quest chains and have reached level 80. Each quest grants gold and 250 reputation.
Rewards
There are several nice rewards that can be earned with reputation from the Knights of the Ebon Blade. Being an order of Death Knights the best items are melee based. To access the rewards at all you need to complete the quest chain at the Shadow Vault that starts with It's all fun and games, up to the point when you finish Shadow Vault. At this point you can find the Duchess Mynx in the Shadow Vault to purchase items from.
One of the key items that players will want to access is the melee helmet enchant. The enchant is called the Arcanum of Torment and is available once you reach revered with them. It grants 50 attack power and 20 critical strike. Also once you reach exalted there are some decent item level 200 epic items. They are cloth casting waist, mail casting legs, melee leather chest and melee plate boots. Though, you can probably get better in the upper tier 5 man heroics or from badges, so don’t make it your priority to get exalted.
Eye of the Storm plays like a combination of World PVP, Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch. How is this possible? Let's analyze all the mechanics Eye of the Storm has and why it is so unique when compared to the other battlegrounds. To win, your faction must collect 2000 Victory Points which can be earned through various methods.
In the World of Warcraft any of the various classes and class sub-specs are valid for play. However, due to the number of choices and what each class or sub-class brings to the table, many are viewed as second class citizens. This leads to issues for many players that have characters that they love playing but that they just can not find groups or raids for.
Class types and requirements
Let’s start by looking at what you need for each type of group in the game. After all this is an MMO, it should all be about groups and playing together. If you are only worried about playing by yourself, then you shouldn’t really be worried if your class is left out or not. These numbers are based on experience in various situations and are not hard coded; they change in many ways from situation to situation.
When looking at the DPS spots and seeing that you need roughly 15 for a 25 player raid, another thing to look at is which raid and which fight it is, and what the rest of the group makeup is. Ideally you want a mix of ranged and melee DPS for any given instance. This means 7-8 of each type. Sometimes players will get excluded simply because a group already has enough melee or ranged and does not want more of one type.
Once the key spots are filled groups or raids tend to go down a list to see if they have specific buffs in the group. They generally want Paladin buffs and Priest buffs as a minimum, but there is a huge number of other beneficial classes.
This is a rough list of which classes are usually in demand. It is based off of the server I play on which is a very active PvE server. Different servers may vary. Also I am going to discuss the maximun numbers you want in a raid so for classes, this is based on 25 player raids, in 10 player raids you never want to bring more than 2 of any single class, even if they are different sub classes, if you can help it.
Paladins – High Demand – Blessings, Auras, Bubbles, mana regen, can tank, heal, or DPS, what more could you want! Usually 3 is enough though to get all the buffs.
Druid – High Demand – Mark of the Wild, Innervate, Combat Rez, Cyclone, Root, bonus crit, and a ton of other abilities, combined on a class that can tank, DPS or heal. This is a solid class that most raids like having 2 or 3 of around if at all possible.
Priests – High Demand – Fortitude, Spirit, magic debuff, and health regen all combine to make this a high demand class where you want at least a healing and a shadow priest in a 25 player raid.
Shamans – Medium – Shamans can fill many roles, they can heal, melee DPS, and caster DPS. In addition they can self rez and have totems for buffs. Many fights go much easier with one around due to their tremor and poison totems, and many DPS go nuts if you don’t have one, because they lose buffs. A great class to have 2 of in a raid, past that, it’s not worth the spot.
Warriors – Medium – They can tank or DPS but lack huge group benefits past having 1 or 2 in a group.
Mage – Medium – Mage Cookies, Polymorph, and Portals. Mages feed you and let you travel when you’re done. Well, ok they do big DPS as well. Usually you want 2 in a raid.
Warlock – Medium – Soul stones, Summoning closets, and a magic debuff make this a useful class to have around, combined with High raid DPS and they are a solid choice.
Rogues – Low – Sure they do high DPS and have a misdirect, but they tend to not offer much else.
Death Knights – Low – While they can tank and put out big DPS there are a million and one of them, so you never ever need more.
Is a Paladin Viable in Arenas?
Right now half of the top ten arena teams on the tournament realm have a Paladin. Looking at the current top ten teams for this season of PvP shows there is only one Paladin in the 2v2 Arena teams, there are four Paladins in the 3v3 bracket and all but two teams have a Paladin in the 5v5 bracket. In the year of the Death Knight it is fairly amazing to see this kind of Paladin participation. Rogues have been a staple in PvP, but Paladins are giving them a run for their money in the pseudo and actual professional ranks.
Holy, Protection, Retribution and You
The Holy spec Paladin has a long history in PvP. With Cleanse, Blessing of Freedom (now Hand of Freedom), Blessing of Protection (now Hand of Protection), and of course some great single target heals, the Holy Paladin has been a very popular choice for PvP. It never hurts to wear plate either. So what’s new? Well now that seals last 30 minutes, the Judgement button should be your friend. Even if you aren’t contributing damage, you should be judging anything around you. Since healing is more of support role, there aren’t many different strategies – just keep your team alive! That and stun the Rogues that get within range. Don’t forget Lay on Hands and the Paladin signature move, the bubble.
Protection is not the typical PvP spec, but with 35,000 hit points, 25,000 armor and all kinds of instant cast spells, Protection can be quite fun in PvP. The Protection tree includes instant casts of Hammer of Righteousness (hit a few at a time) and Shield of Righteousness (if you have a high block value this can hit nice and hard). These spells in addition to the Captain America-type shield throw (Avenger’s Shield) really allow the Player to choose with their spec of choice instead of only seeing one or two viable options.
Retribution continues its climb up the PvP ladders. Paladins came out of the shoot fast when the latest post Patch 3.0 arena season started, but fell out of favor briefly before returning to prominence. The amount of damage a Retribution Paladin can pump out in a very short time has made them prime targets for nerf bat. Burst damage has been addressed on the Public Test Realm (PTR), so expect fights to last a little longer when Patch 3.2 arrives. Crusader Strike and Divine Storm are both nice and proccing an instant Flash of Light through The Art of War talent really adds to survivability.
Laying on the Pain
Now that we’ve been brought up to speed on some of the various specs available to the Paladin, let’s run through some basic moves and tactics for fighting the other classes in the game. Blizzard has said repeatedly that they do not balance the game for 1v1 which is nice because more times than not we (as Paladins) have the upper hand!
General Note on PvP – Monoy Mon
One on one PvP is decided almost always by the player who gets the drop on the other player. Not necessarily the first hit, but the character that is able to set up first and prime a few moves will typically win the day. What this means is that you must always keep your “Head on a swivel” as my football coach used to say. Do not get caught with blinders on, someone invariably has you in their sights and you’ll be in spirit form faster than you can say “I hate rogues.”
Class by Class
Druids are one of our hybrid brethren that have also enjoyed quite a boost to all three of their talent trees. Once a Boomkin (Balance Druid) would have been laughed out of an Arena, now they can really bring a lot of tricks and damage to a fight. Regardless of the Druid spec (actually this applies to any PvP scenario) have your Hand of Freedom spell ready. A Balance Druid will try to keep some distance so expect Roots. Clean that with HoF and also be ready to dispel Moonfire’s DOT with Cleanse.
Play for free (not private server)
Simple method, cancel your billing plan, wait till your acct is frozen, add a payment method it will be active for playing straight away, go in game play, minimize game, then cancel payment method, no payment should be taken and you can still play wow, enjoy.
Avoid drowning
Okay, so you know when you are in very deep water and that fatigue meter comes up, right? Well if you dont want it to go down and you to drown then... find a landmass and ram your head straight into it. The fatigue meter will disappear and you will be okay for the next few seconds
Kill rouges
If you happen to get jumped by a Rogue and he runs off mid-fight to vanish and regroup/heal, simply summon a Gnomish Battle Chicken (230 Engineering) - it will automatically find him, stealth or not. For some reason the Chicken ignores stealth, and goes after your attacker.
Nome speed loot
From a friend's account, I've done some more research into my "Gnasty Trick" exploit, it turns out Gnomes in a party are processed slightly faster for looting, and if you're on a Quest for a certain monster, and that corpse has your Quest Item in it, you can loot it, regardless whose "turn" it really is, and so far as I've seen, regardless of what the party's Loot Setting is. Obviously, don't pull this too often, unless you like getting other players mad at you, and/or someone might turn this one in and get it fixed...Blizzard likes fixing things, even before they're broken!
