Talent Specs

When it comes down to talent trees, I've always been able to spec to some degree of success. I usually find a good pre-built build, find some sort of fault or something that I dislike and change it to revolve around my play style. So today, I'll just go over my unholy spec on Greymein so you can see why I believe it to be one of the best specs. Mind you, this spec is not my own, but taken from ElitistJerks' Unholy Death Knight thread, which I have linked.

Now, as I stated in my previous post, I believe Unholy to be, by far, the best build for PvE content. Now, the build itself, which is an Unholy 17/0/54 build maximizes DPS in the Unholy tree as well as provide some useful raid utility.

Starting with the Unholy Tree...

Vicious Strikes 2/2 - Overall increased crit chance and bonus to Plague Strike and Scourge Strike, two of the Unholy tree's bread and butter spells.
Virulence 3/3 - Hit is vital for almost all classes expecting to do damage, so that added 3% is nothing to scoff at. The chances of the diseases not being cured is no small matter either in my opinion (as I do use this build in casual PvP as well).
Epidemic 2/2 - Those added six seconds can be absolute lifesavers and are a major DPS increase, mainly due to the fact that you can do more in between applying diseases. Your diseases in the Unholy tree are absolutely deadly, so the longer they stay on, the better.
Ravenous Dead 3/3 - Strength being the gem that you will socket in pretty much all slots, that 3% can prove to be extremely useful. The added whopping 60% to both Strength and Stamina for your ghoul, who is also a major source of DPS, makes him deadlier as well.
Outbreak 3/3 - Again, added bonus to bread and butter spells.
Necrosis 5/5 - A very subtle DPS increase to auto-swings, but still a source of added DPS.
Blood-Caked Blade 3/3 - The occasional nice, big auto-swing is a welcome addition to DPS.
Night of the Dead 2/2 - The fact that your Raise Dead and Army spells have their CDs is nice, but that reduced 90% damage from AoE spells to your ghoul basically make him almost immune to Area of Effect spells, which means you don't have to worry about him with people like Koralon, Toravon, or even Lord Marrowgar. Also, it leads right down to another talent that you will definitely need.
Unholy Blight 1/1 - Nice little DPS increase as well as making your diseases undispellable, which is extremely useful in places like ToC Champions.
Impurity 5/5 - Since AP is a Death Knight's SP, this makes all your spells (Icy Touch, etc) more deadly.
Dirge 2/2 - While 5 RP might not seem like a major increase, it really can be extremely useful. Death Coil, for example, is your main RP dump and it is where you will be spending the majority of your RP. So having a constant stream of nice, steady RP makes this talent quite worthwhile.
Master of Ghouls 1/1 - 30 second Raise Dead, but more importantly, your pet. Your ghoul will be out forever in this case, making him an extremely viable DPS increase.
Desolation 5/5 - Since Blood Strike will be a part of your rotation as an Unholy Death Knight, that 5% added damage buff is usually always up. A very nice DPS increase.
Bone Shield 1/1 - Bone Shield, for some, may seem like a talent that only tanks would use. However, it is a lifesaver in many, many cases. I try to keep my Bone Shield up at all times because, yes, you do get hit while DPSing and this just helps with survivability. Also, a useful macro to use with Bone Shield that doesn't break your rotation would be:

#showtooltip Bone Shield
/cast Blood Tap
/stopcasting
/cast Bone Shield

This macro enables you to Blood Tap for a Death Rune as well as casting Bone Shield, which enables you to hit this macro in combat and still have that rune to use for any spell that requires an Unholy Rune. Personally, I swear by this macro.

Crypt Fever 3/3 - At the lowest tier of the Unholy tree, we start to get to the major players. Crypt Fever amplifies how hard your diseases hit, and that added 30% makes your diseases quite deadly.
Wandering Plague 3/3 - Your critical strike chance at higher tiers of armor gets to be pretty high and as such, your Wandering Plague will proc quite often. It is a viable source of DPS, especially with things such as opening ICC trash.
Ebon Plaguebringer 3/3 - Ebon Plague is, by far one of the most useful raid utility spells that a Death Knight has to offer. That added 13% of all magic damage means EVERYONE gets a slice of that added damage. That means higher hits for everybody! And also that 3% added crit chance is very nice.
Scourge Strike 1/1 - Scourge Strike is the heavy hitter with the Unholy tree. When all three (remember Ebon Plague?) diseases are up, your Scourge Strike can, and usually will, hit like a truck.
Rage of Rivendare 5/5 - Since Blood Plague will be up pretty much at all times on your target, you'll always have that 10% buff to your spells and abilities. And 5 Expertise is always a welcome addition.
Summon Gargoyle 1/1 - For the 30 seconds your Gargoyle will be out, he provides an ample bonus to your DPS. The DPS that he does is taken as a snapshot of your current stats. For example, if you use him with no buffs, he'll do less DPS. But if you use him while your buffed and both your trinkets have procced (what I tend to do), he'll have exactly those stats for the 30 seconds he's out, even if you no longer have them.

Moving to the Blood Tree...

Butchery 2/2 - The more RP the better!
Subversion 3/3 - An added 9% crit chance to two of your main spells is always nice, and that 25% reduced threat helps your tanks hold aggro.
Bladed Armor 5/5 - A necessary talent for all Death Knight DPS specs. Being a plate armor wearer does indeed mean more armor. Therefore, more armor equals more AP.
Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 2/2 - Since you will be using a two-hander, that 4% is a nice bonus to your damage.
Dark Conviction 5/5 - 5% added crit chance is extremely nice.

And now Glyphs!

Major:
Glyph of Icy Touch - 20% more damage on Frost Fever plus all the added disease damage equals an even deadlier disease.
Glyph of the Ghoul - 40% more added Strength and Stamina for your ghoul plus the 60% more damage from Ravenous Dead equals an even deadlier ghoul.
Glyph of Dark Death - 15% more damage from Death Coil? Plus the DoT it has from Unholy Blight? Again, welcome bonus.

Minor:
Glyph of Raise Dead - I think this glyph is the best minor for all DKs, personally. No reagent or corpse needed for your ghoul? Yes, please.
Glyph of Pestilence - That added 5 yards is both a blessing and a curse. It makes your Pestilence hit everything you need it to hit, yes. But be careful it doesn't hit mobs that haven't been pulled yet!
Glyph of Horn of Winter - Since Horn of Winter will be up at all times, that added minute makes it a little less stressful on you to remember to keep it up. Also, helps with GCD on your rotation.

And that's my talent spec and all its gory details. I hope that this helps all of you to-be Unholy DKs to maximize your DPS and have one hell of a force to be reckoned with. Until next time everyone.

-Greymein

First Post, Basic Info

Hello fellow Death Knights and other World of Warcraft folk! The name's Greymein, and I'm a level 80 Death Knight on the Icecrown US server. I have a lot of fun playing the Death Knight class as well as others, and am basically writing this blog to talk about my experiences in-game, things that interest me as well as some basic theorycrafting.

I've been in WoW since original beta, sporadically, but in-game nonetheless. I've seen the changes, seen the population grow and have been there for a majority of all the major events in Azeroth. So after about five and a half years, you get to know the world pretty well. However, I must say that WoTLK has been a welcome change to it all, and I eagerly await Cataclysm with bated breath.

Now let me say, I am far from the most hardcore people. I've never been a major hardcore raider, not in the slightest. I'm very casual when it comes to actually raiding, but when I do, I'm usually "in the zone" with it. I know my way around pretty much every raid in-game, but have not experienced all of it. I'm sure that I will be talking about all the stuff I experience. Let me post what I've seen over my many years.

Vanilla:
-Molten Core
-Zul'Gurub
-Blackwing Lair
-AQ 20/40
-Naxx 40 (very, very little, but still amazing. By far one of the coolest things I've seen in-game)

Burning Crusade (Took a break during, never really got into it):
-Kara
-The Eye

Wrath of the Lich King:
-Naxx 10/25 (cleared)
-Ulduar 10/25 (cleared up to Keepers)
-Trial of the Crusader (cleared)
-Trial of the Grand Crusader (Beasts cleared)
-Icecrown Citadel (First wing, Frostwing/Plaguewerks trash)

Again, far from being the most hardcore, but I have been around. I tend to think pretty soldier-like when it comes to raiding, so I tend to follow orders and get stuff done.

My Death Knight, Greymein, is an Unholy Death Knight, which I believe to be the best raiding spec. A lot of people agree/disagree with me, but the utility certain spells give (cough cough Ebon Plague cough cough) makes an Unholy Death Knight an invaluable asset to a raid, in my opinion. I'm more of a PvE player myself, but I do dabble in PvP from time to time, so I may discuss it. My Blood spec is more for solo play, considering the massive crits and healing I get from it, but Unholy through and through for all of my major content.

I do tank from time to time on my Warrior (who will be Alliance imminently) and I enjoy it. However, I tend to stick to dps on Grey, mainly because of how broken he can be at times.

Let's see..what else should I say...OH! Websites that I swear by:

-Wowhead - By far best WoW database, in my opinion
-Curse and WoWInterface - I tend to prefer Curse, however WoWInterface has access to some addons you just can't find on Curse
-WoW Insider - Great articles, great information
-MMO-Champion - Great information about all future and current content

I will definitely keep posting more in the future and I look forward to seeing where this blog goes! Until then everyone.

-Greymein