There was a request made to go over Ulduar weapons for tanking death knights. Since there still are no two-handed tanking specific weapons I figured no one would mind if I went over Ulduar weapons for tanking and DPS.

Ulduar Weapons: 10-Man

[Relentless Edge]

It has agility and haste, not our best stats, and a lower base damage than the other two Ulduar 10-man weapons. It is also a polearm, which some death knights may not have skilled up (you should skill up all weapons, just find a decent green and use it to do dailies). If you already have Kel’Thuzad’s weapon from either 10-man or 25-man then just skip this one.

[Ironsoul]

Now this is more like it, a base damage increase (unless you have [Betrayer of Humanity]) and strength. Armor penetration isn’t my favorite stat, but this weapon is a definite upgrade for many. The only downside is it is a mace, which we start with no skill in. So again skill up your weapons ahead of time. Also keep in mind this is a great feral druid weapon and they can’t use the polearm and axe that also drop in the instance.

[Stormedge]

Virtually the same stats as Ironsoul, but with hit instead of crit. If you don’t need the hit then there isn’t much point in waiting for this over Ironsoul, unless you are being nice to your feral druids.

Ulduar Weapons: 25-Man

[Rune Edge]

An upgrade for everyone, though not the best Ulduar has to offer. Agility and armor penetration are more meh stats, but the stamina makes it a great tanking weapon. Besides, it has been a while since we’ve seen a decent end game two-handed sword.

[Lotrafen, Spear of the Damned]

Great weapon name for a death knight. The stats are similar to Rune Edge, this has less stamina and more armor penetration so less tanking and more DPSing, though either would be a good upgrade for both approaches.

[Worldcarver]

This is the must have weapon in Ulduar. It has the same base damage as the other two drops, but the stats are so much better for us: strength, more stamina, haste, and expertise. The best part is it drops off of one of the early bosses, Ignis the Furnace Master.

The Death Knight Guides page has also been updated with links to all of the new patch 3.1 talent build posts I’ve done.

I’m glad the DPS post especially has been so popular and started so many conversations. Thanks for your support.

Based heavily on the Elitist Jerks Death Knight forum here are what are considered to be the standard tanking builds for patch 3.1. Tank builds differ from DPS builds in that since a tank isn’t trying to do a single thing very well (i.e. lots of damage) more flexibility in builds is called for. Some tanks may want more damage mitigation, others may need more damage talents for better threat generation. These are solid builds worked out by the top theorycrafters, however you are free to adjust them to suit your own play style or needs so long as you understand deviating from the standard makes you, not others, liable for the consequences.

As before there are two popular tanking builds, one for frost and one for unholy. Frost provides better initial threat and constant damage reduction while maintaing AoE threat generation ability. Unholy provides better AoE threat, more damage mitigator buttons, and raid buffs. Blood tank builds may appear later, the new Will of Necropolis is certainly nice in some settings, but the jury is still out on blood being as viable overall as frost and unholy. I know, nothing new there.

So let’s go over our two standard tanking builds so you can setup your own build from there.

Frost Tank: 12/51/8

Frost has long been considered the build for main tank death knights. The patch changes bring better damage reduction but all in all the play style is the same. Points can be shuffled around. I prefer Deathchill for an opening Howling Blast AoE crit but others may want Hungering Cold. If your raid needs Improved Icy Talons then you can pull points out of the blood tree.

Rotation – Single Target: IT, BS, OB, BT, OB, RD

Against a single target you’ll apply Frost Fever, small hit, big hit, blood rune to death rune, big hit, and dump runic power (Frost Strike by default).

Rotation – Multiple Targets: DnD, IT, PS, Pest, HB/Pest/BB, RD

Against multiple targets you’ll open with an AoE, apply Frost Fever, apply Blood Plague, spread diseases to all targets, then pick one of three AoE attacks based on your situation, and dump runic power (Frost Strike by default).

Unholy Tank: 10/8/53

Unholy is considered the standard AoE tank build, typically for off tanks but you can main tank with it as well. Points can be shuffled around, just like with the frost tank build. The speed boost from Improved Unholy Presense is dumped in favor of freeing up two talent points and using Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality but if you want you can pull points out of Dirge to get it back. You can also pull some points from the blood tree if you want to add other talents.

Rotation – Single Target: IT, PS, BS, BS, SS, SS, SS, SS, RD

Against a single target you’ll apply Frost Fever, apply Blood Plague, blood rune to death rune, blood rune to death rune, big hit, big hit, big hit, big hit, and then dump your runic power.

Rotation – Multiple Target: DnD, IT, PS, Pest, UB, SS/Pest/BB, RD

Against multiple targets you’ll open with an AoE, apply Frost Fever, apply Blood Plague, spread diseases to all targets, more AoE, then pick one of three attacks based on your situation, and dump runic power.

You’ll note there are also weapon links here. For whatever reason this method allows for weapon DPS to be scored. It it worth noting that in many cases you should be more concerned with a weapon’s base damage than its DPS or stats, but a quick guide to look at doesn’t hurt.

Among the many features of Wowhead is their gear compare feature. It is a nice way to compare the stats between two or more pieces of gear and is a principle way I go over my gear wish list. A less used aspect of the compare page is the stat weight score.

Stat weighting allows you to assign a fixed numeric score to a piece of gear, based on its stats. Each stat is giving a fixed amount of points, usually ranging from 1 to 100 on Wowhead but any fixed range works, and Wowhead then calculates a final score based on how much each stat is worth and how many of that stat the item has. For example strength is usually worth 100 (being our best DPS stat) so 10 strength on an item gives the item a score of 1,000. If the item also has 5 crit rating, which is worth 47 in the stat weight presets I’ll go over, then the item is worth 1,235 (1,000 from the strength, 235 from the crit).

The system isn’t perfect, but it is a great tool to use for quick comparison of gear. Wowhead has built-in presets for Blood, Frost, and Unholy DPS specs and Frost tank specs. The presets are pretty good, but they can be improved upon and Wowhead allows one to create custom stat weight values. It is important to keep in mind that death knight theorycrafting, which is how we come by the numbers used, is still in its infancy compared to the other classes. Values can change as the class is balanced and new talent builds are found. For now, however, I like to think the stat weights I use for my own gear are pretty accurate for what we know today.

Below are the stat weight setups I use on Wowhead. You should note there is no way to save these as presets, even if you have a Wowhead account, however you can reuse the links to set the values and Wowhead will remember your compare page changes if you come back on the same computer and browser. You can use the Wowhead default presets if you like, but a big gap with them is that they don’t value gem slots or agility and they don’t take hit cap into account. There are also little things people may want to change, such as giving armor value in a DPS stat weight because of Bladed Armor talent.

The two DPS stat weights are generic. I took the values usually assigned for blood, frost, and unholy builds and averaged them out. You can tweak the generic DPS stat weights for your build if you wish, but I only consider that if I have two items I just can’t decide between otherwise, and even then I can usually do the final decision on my own. The tank stat weight is good for frost and unholy tank builds. All death knight tanks want the same defensive stats and both rely on both melee and spells for threat.

Finally, here is the combined stat weights in one link. DPS hit capped is top, DPS + hit is middle, and tank is bottom. Enter this into your usual Wowhead browser, click the Save button on the page, and any new items you add to compare will come up with all three scores.

Minor Glyphs

These are easy. There are only three good minor glyphs, and they are good for any build of DPS or tanking death knight.

[Glyph of Horn of Winter]
[Glyph of Pestilence]
[Glyph of Raise Dead]

[Glyph of Blood Tap] might be useful, but what’s 6% of your base health in a raid environment? [Glyph of Corpse Explosion] would be really neat when it happened, if only Corpse Explosion wasn’t lame. And again, in a raid environment, you should be healing yourself or your ghoul so [Glyph of Death?s Embrace] is useless.

Major Glyphs

Now we get some glyph distinction between DPS builds and tanking, but you may be surprised at the amount of overlap there is.

[Glyph of Bone Shield] – If you get Bone Shield this is a must, whether DPS or tank.

[Glyph of Death and Decay] – This is really a generic “meh, there’s nothing better” glyph.

[Glyph of Frost Strike] – A strong filler glyph for deep frost specs.

[Glyph of the Ghoul] – If you spec for a permanent ghoul this is a must.

[Glyph of Icebound Fortitude] – A must have for any tank builds.

[Glyph of Icy Touch] – The standard raid glyph for all DPS specs.

[Glyph of Obliterate] – Good for blood builds and frost builds not focused on Howling Blast.

[Glyph of Plague Strike] – Another generic “I got nothing better” glyph. Not you’ll want to start using Icy Touch before Plague Strike with this in your rotation if you aren’t already.

Examples of build and glyph combinations:

Blood DPS – Icy Touch, Obliterate, Plague Strike

Frost DPS – Frost Strike, Icy Touch, Obliterate

Unholy DPS – Bone Shield, Ghoul, and Icy Touch

Dual Wield – Bone Shield or Frost Strike (depending on exact spec), Ghoul, Icy Touch

Unholy Tank – Bone Shield, Death and Decay, Icebound Fortitude

In the end choose your glyphs based on your talents, your rotation, and what abilities you actually use on a regular basis, the most powerful of which take precedent. Glyphs can add a lot to your performance so treat them like you do enchanting and gemming your gear.

Here is the combat log report from our one drake up kill (the log is set to anonymous but you shouldn’t have a problem seeing me). Note who had both top damage out and top damage in. How did that happen? Well, I kept almost all of little adds pissed off for most of the fight (one of the warriors acted as an emergency pick up, since the AoE tank can’t move well) with Pestilence (I love it being off cool down), Death and Decay, and Unholy Blight. Oh, and I forgot to change into my tank gear that attempt. Yeah, wouldn’t recommend that last part. Nice numbers, though.

As you’ve no doubt heard patch 3.0.8 is being rolled out. You can all thank me for the roll out, I respected and got some gear enchanted on Monday so now I get to respec again Tuesday and pine over the wasted enchanting mats.

If you’ve kept up with the various changes in this patch you know death knight changes are significant. The changes from the launch of the public test realms to today have also been significant. We’ve been teased with changes only for them to be taken away. Check out Blizzard for the official patch notes (as of this posting they aren’t up, but will be at the link provided). I also love MMO Champion’s coverage of patches, as they cover the notes and the stuff left out of them. I don’t want to do a point by point reposting of death knight changes this patch, but there are certainly plenty of items worth highlighting.

Class Changes

Lots of buffs and nerfs. This patch is a big part of our class balance. Keep in mind that we’re a few years behind the balancing curve so expect us to get what may feel like more than our fair share of changes for a while. You definitely want to go over them all and consider making changes to your talents, skills you use, and maybe even your glyphs. The more notable ones include:

• Horn of Winter, which now gives us runic power instead of using it.
• Killing Machine, which isn’t as drool worthy for dual wielders as it once was.
• Night of the Dead, which gives unholy death knight ghouls a chance to actually survive a boss fight.
• Raise Dead, which is now two spells on two cooldowns, ones for your ghoul and one for raising another player as a ghoul.

Item Changes

• [Ring of the Kirin Tor] is now available if you have the gold. It is better than any agility based DPS ring but it is weaker than the few strength based DPS epic rings available.
• [Spiked Titansteel Helm] is losing some strength but will gain crit and a blue gem slot.
• [Sigil of Arthritic Binding], [Sigil of the Wild Buck], and [Sigil of the Frozen Conscience] have been added and are easy to get. All three are an upgrade over the start area sigil.
• Enchanting mats for recipes have changed, a lot. Most of our favorite enchants are included in the changes. Be sure to look up the new mats before your next enchant. Overall it should make your enchants cheaper.

Tanking Changes

A lot of the larger changes are specific for tanking. Overall Blizzard is making it easier for the new death knight tank to get geared up for heroics and raids and making our ability to handle damage less spiky (which isn’t as big of a deal for you, but it is for your healer).

• Frost Presence has been buffed for better full time damage mitigation. In exchange Icebound Fortitude and Bone Shield have been nerfed for lesser short term mitigation.
• Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle, a new rune for our two-handed weapons, grants 25 defense (or 123 defense rating) and 2% increase to our stamina. Some people are thinking the 4% parry rune will still compete as a tank rune, but I doubt it. Stoneskin Gargoyle opens up a lot of gem and enchant options for those heavy in defense with those, and even if you are past that with your gear the defense is still bonus dodge, parry, and miss.
• Rune Strike’s damage is getting nerfed but its threat increased. This puts it more in line with its original intent as a backup aggro strike, not a ZOMGWTFBBQ PvP strike.
• [Glyph of Death and Decay] is losing its cower feature, which is sad, but it is getting 20% more damage in exchange, which is good for aggro.
• [Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight] is good for the new death knight tank desperate for more defense. Personally I’m thinking of getting [Sigil of the Frozen Conscience] for the extra initial aggro.
• [Tempered Titansteel Helm] is gaining a meta gem slot and a blue gem slot. To be honest, though, I’m still not sure it would be an upgrade over my [Arcane-Shielded Helm]. I’d be trading a lot of dodge for stamina, some armor, and some defense.
• Bonus armor on any item (armor in green text) now no longer get multiplied by any talent or Frost Presence.

PvP Changes

PvP is something I’ve gotten more into as an in game hobby, so look for some postings about it later on.

• Vehicles can now be affected by any spell that doesn’t affect speed, so now we can disease up those siege engines before we start smacking them. I bet they make for great Death Strike targets when low on health.
• [Titan-forged Plate Helm of Triumph], [Titan-forged Greaves of Triumph], and [Anvil of Titans] are now available as epic PvP gear for [Wintergrasp Mark of Honor]. Unless you are competitive in arenas these are excellent, and fairly easy to get, PvP items. The hit rating really makes the helm and greaves especially a must have pre-arena gear.
• Our PvP glove bonus has been changed from a cooldown reduction on Strangulate to chance that your Frost Rune will refresh when you cast Chains of Ice.
• Overall a lot of our skill changes were based on PvP balance. This is certainly not the first Blizzard has affected PvE in the name of balancing PvP.

The Taketh Away

Not everything we were once told will be coming to pass.

• The new two-handed tanking sword and axe crafted by blacksmiths have been removed and will not come back. In short Blizzard was worried about death knight tanks keeping them through multiple raid tiers and they feel the new tanking rune and sigil will take care of our early defense needs.
• Howling Blast still has a cool down. However it has been changed to 5 seconds (from 6 seconds) to better match the 10 second rune refresh cycle.
• Howling Blast and Killing Machine changes have really put down the idea of every death knight going dual wield with two fast weapons for max DPS. Further testing after the patch will give more info, but for now it looks like two-handers are still just as viable as dual wielding and frost isn’t necessarily the top DPS tree.

First the big news, no new tank weapons for death knights.

Ghostcrawler: The two-handed Blacksmithing tanking weapons are not going to be implemented.

Indeed, we did not want to stick DKs with these weapons forever, nor did we want to start itemizing 2H tanking weapons forever. DKs were designed to tank with 2H dps weapons.

The new sigil and runeforge enchant should help players with low defense.

Original thread can be found here.

If you read the thread it is about concerns of death knight tanks getting stuck with one of two tank weapons for the rest of the game, barring more tanking two-handers being released. A valid concern, and Ghostcrawler comments on that with things we heard back when the death knight was first announced. So no new weapons, but we’re still going to be better off defense wise than we were.

For those death knight tanks still wanting a specific tank weapon keep an eye out for [Inevitable Defeat] from Naxx 25-man trash. Just be aware feral druids will be drooling over it as well after patch.

For our DPS weapon we are still using to tank we are getting Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle, which grants 25 defense and 2% stamina. It has been confirmed that that is 25 actual defense, not defense rating (which is equal to 123 defense rating, or almost a fifth of the defense rating we need for cap). Even if you are already defense capped this still beats Rune of Swordshattering and you should take advantage of the new rune by changing out defense enchants and gems for other stats, such as dodge, stamina, hit, and expertise. I myself am going to take back my concern over having to change runes to be defense capped (if the group needs me to tank that badly I can use Death Gate and they can summon me back) and will use this to change out a lot of defense gems I have. This will also make us more flexible than warriors and paladins in terms of taking tank upgrades that have less defense than lower level gear.

We’ll also be getting Sigil of the Unfaltering Knight.

It will be available for 15 [Emblem of Heroism]. At first glance I dismissed this item: why in the world would you make your defense cap rely on a proc? But as it turns out the “chance” is 100% and it lasts for 30 seconds, so as long as you use Icy Touch at least every 30 seconds it is dependable defense. For the new death knight tank I think this can work, especially with the low badge cost. Personally I’m going to skip it, at least until I’m out of badge gear to buy. Given I’m in good shape with defense gear I just don’t want to put myself in a position where I have to rely on a proc, even a guaranteed one, to remain crit immune. Now all other sigils are damage based so from a tank perspective, assuming you have no threat issues, this is your best slot choice even if you are otherwise crit immune. Extra defense does grant some dodge, parry, and miss, so if you have the badges to burn go for it.

DPS have it easy. Once you know your caps and your best stats you are good to go. For death knight DPS we know hit cap (though it did seem to change without notice) and expertise cap. We know strength is our best stat and that crit beats agility. All in all it isn’t that hard. Tanks have to deal with diminishing returns, the defense stat which does a lot of things at once, and the same basic caps and best stat rules DPS deals with. What’s worst is there is less death knight tanking theorycraft out there than there is for DPS (probably because the numbers are more complex). We also can’t pull straight from any other class’ tanking info. Warriors and paladins have block which we don’t, druids don’t even use defense, and we get additional parry from our strength.

I’m planning to do a detailed post later. I’m also looking forward to patch 3.0.8 more now. Its new tank weapons and rune are going to open up a lot of new enchanting and gemming options for death knight tanks.