Death Knight spec options and Rotations in Patch 4.+

So i did play a DK early on when they were first released, and well it was the first toon that i actually hit the level cap with, then they were nerfed a bit. But now in patch 4.1 they are quite strong again in both PVP and PVE.

I have found a bit of stuff on them so i thought i would post it here, check it out.

Blood Spec Death Knight

Popular Level 85 Blood Death Knight Talent Builds

Blood 33/0/8
Blood 33/6/2
Blood 33/0/8

Blood DK Spell Rotations

Blood PVP, or Single Target Rotation

1. Diseases
2. Rune Strike
3. Death Strike
4. Scarlet Fever if its up / Plague Strike, Blood Boil
5. Heart Strike
6. Icy Touch

Blood AOE Rotation

1. Death and Decay
2. Diseases
3. Pestilence
4. Scarlet Fever if its up / Plague Strike, Blood Boil
5. Death Strike
6. Blood Boil
7. Heart Strike
8. Rune Strike
9. Icy Touch

Easy AOE Rotation (usually good for trash or low health mobs)

1. Death and Decay
2. Icy Touch
3. Plague Strike
4. Pestilence
5. Blood Boil
6. Death Strike

Frost Spec Death Knight

Popular Level 85 Frost Death Knight Talent Builds

Frost 7/31/3
Frost 8/31/2
Frost 8/31/2

Frost DK Spell Rotations

Frost PVP, or Single Target Rotation

1. Diseases
2. FF apply with Howling Blast
3. Obliterate
4. Blood Strike
5. Frost Strike
6. Rime
7. Horn of Winter

Weapons:
Duel Weild use Frost Presence
2H use Unholy Presence

Frost AOE Rotation

1. Howling Blast
2. Death and Decay
3. Plague Strike
4. Frost Strike
5. Horn of Winter

Presence: Frost

Unholy Spec Death Knight

Popular Level 85 Unholy Death Knight Talent Builds

Death Knight Unholy 6/0/35
Death Knight Unholy 5/3/33
Death Knight Unholy 0/6/35

Unholy DK Spell Rotations

Unholy PVP, or Single Target Rotation

1. Diseases
2. Dark Transformation Active
3. Scourge Strike
4. Festering Strike
5. Death Coil on Sudden Doom proc
6. Horn of Winter

Presence: Unholy Presence

Unholy AOE Rotation

1. Diseases + Pestilence
2. Dark Transformation Active
3. Death and Decay
4. Scourge Strike
5. Blood Boil + Icy Touch if BB and FF runes up
6. Death Coil on Sudden Doom
7. Horn of Winter

Presence: Frost Presence

Spell Priority

You can use this as a guide if you dont want to use the above rotations, shows the actual spell priority you should be using as a unholy DK.

1) Icy Touch & Plague Strike to maintain diseases only!
2) Dark Transformation
3) Scourge Strike 
4) Festering Strike 
5) Death Coil
6) Horn of Winter

Further Reading:
http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/191453-dk-basics/ – DK Basics
http://www.arenajunkies.com/forum/60-death-knight/
http://wowpopular.com/Death+Knight – Death Knight Builds
http://www.maxdps.com/deathknight/unholy.php – MaxDPS Gear and Enchants – Only has the Unholy

I know your all keen to hear the answers to the following questions. Call it intuition

Here We go…

General WoW Cataclysm Questions

What is the deal with the Cataclysm PVP Queues? Why are they so long? Why Does It Take So Long To Find A Battleground?

Well Horde battle ground queues are quite long, can be anywhere up to 10-15 minutes, This is due to the fact that most people have rolled horde and a lot less people want to play alliance  these days. Horde however seem to win a larger percentage of battle grounds than alience. So alience queues are almost instant, being mostly less than one minute. However this will change slightly depending on your battle group.

Arena Queues are always quite quick being around 1-2 minutes.

So the options are, change to Alliance and get pwned 60% of the time with instant queues, or stay on horde and wait for the looong queues.

Where can i buy the 70-80 PVP Gear?

You will have to make your way to area 51 in netherstorm, there is PVP vendors there where you can buy your classic PVP gear sets, the other peaces can be found in your capital city still, like boots and gloves. But the main items are all there, including the weapons.

Priests

What is the Haste cap for shadowpriest in patch 4.0.x or 4+?

You should be aiming for about 500 haste rating which will work out at about 6.9% haste.

How much spell penetration should i be aiming for arenas as a disc priest?

You should be aiming for around 200 spell penetration, just go for the epic cloak.

Bloodthirsty Gladiator’s Drape of Diffusion or Vicious Gladiator’s Drape of Diffusion

A Great arena 2v2 priest to check out the gear and the enchants is Mackenzii.

What is a good rotation for shadowpriests?

For maximum DPS you should be looking at the following rotation:

1)  Mind Blast when 1+ Shadow Orbs up to maintain  Empowered Shadow
2)  Shadow Word: Pain
3)  Devouring Plague
4)  Vampiric Touch
5)  Archangel at 5 stacks of Evengelism
6)  Shadow Word: Death only if the boss has less than 25% health
7) Shadow Fiend
8)  Mind Blast
9)  Mind Flay

Mage

What are the best trinket options for my 85 mage?

It depends a bit on your spec, well not really… there all kinda the same, in order of awesomeness or hard to get ness.

	[Heart of Ignacious] Twilight Ascendant Council			372	623.79
	[Theralion's Mirror] Valiona and Theralion			372	622.54
	[Figurine - Jeweled Serpent] Jewelcrafting			346	618.11
	[Darkmoon Card: Volcano] Inscription			359	586.18
	[Heart of Ignacious] Twilight Ascendant Council			359	551.92
	[Theralion's Mirror] Valiona and Theralion			359	550.51
	[Bell of Enraging Resonance] Atramedes			372	545.26
	[Stump of Time] Hellscream’s Reach – Exalted			359	535.72
	[Stump of Time] Baradin’s Wardens – Exalted			359	535.72
	[Vibrant Alchemist Stone] Alchemy			359	520.53
	[Gale of Shadows] Erudax			346	516.94
	[Soul Casket] 1650 Valor Points			359	507.52
	[Witching Hourglass] Ascendant Lord Obsidius			346	499.14
	[Bell of Enraging Resonance] Atramedes			359	482.17
	[Anhuur's Hymnal] Temple Guardian Anhuur			346	475.64
	[Gale of Shadows] Erudax			333	456.44

I know im referring here again to the MaxDPS Table, Reference below.

Hunters

Why do PVP / Arena Hunters have spell penetration on their gear?

Well a lot of hunter attacks do spell damage, for example arcane shot and explosive shot. Also traps are all spell damage. so adding spell penetration to your gear will make your DPS a lot more effective in PVP.

How much spell penetration will i need on my hunter?

You should aim for a minimum of about 100 spell penetration, and you can go up to a max of about 200 depending on how much agility you want to sacrifice.

Mark of the Wild and Blessing of Kings both have about 100 spell resistance in them, so having 100 will negate those buffs. Mage Armor adds another 44 to all resistances. Paladins and Shamans can have around 200 resistance to fire, so if you are a survival hunter it is advisable to have around 200 spell pen.

Data Sources
MaxDPS – Shadow Rotation

MaxDPS – Fire Mage

Yes it has come to that time, where i have farmed all the battle grounds, done tol barad quite enough, made 10,000 gold from daily quests, and there isnt really that much else to do. I log in, do my 5 arena wins on the Hunter and the Priest, thats about 2 hours a week. Now what do i do? PvE? No Thanks, I found Sambas, Karoma and Loc’na(sp?) the other spirit beast.

I have about 20k in gold spread over my characters, nothing to buy really. I could level fishing again and cooking, but i can just buy the food from AH. So what is there to do apart from arenas? Nothing much really. I started leveling a few other characters that i have sitting around, and got all the heirloom gear, but it seems kinda pointless. I guess there comes a point when there isnt really that much else to do, i need to feel like im achieving something, which i guess is why they introduced the achievement system, but for some reason its just not the same as the feeling you get from leveling a toon. I usually top the DPS charts in BG’s as BM or Marks, its kinda fun but i dont need the honor points anymore, so whats the point.

And now there going to make honor even easier to farm? why? for alts? idk maybe its good. Recently i just started playing 1v1 on sc2, its kinda cool to play that again. Something different. I guess just keep playing arenas until next content update, least thats still fun.