WOTLK DPS Death Knight Pre-Raid BiS

This is a DPS Death Knight Pre-Raid Best in Slot list for The World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King expansion. You should be able to begin raiding Naxxramas by acquiring one thing for each equipment slot on this list.

Plate DPS Gear

Head

Neck

Shoulder

Cloak

Chest

Hands

Legs

Wrists

Waist

Boots

Rings

Trinkets

Weapons

Two-Handed Swords

Polearms

Two-Handed Maces

Two-Handed Axes

WotLK PVP Unholy Death Knight PVP Guide (Quick)

Welcome to our Unholy Death Knight PVP guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Death Knight class as Unholy.

Talents

This is the Corpse Explosion build that I run. You have to be careful when you sacrafice your pet but the extra burst can be the difference between a win and a loss.

 

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear. 

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (5%)
  2. 135 Spell Penetration
  3. Strength
  4. Critical Strike
  5. Haste
  6. 1000+ Resilience

Abilities

  • Keep your diseases on the target. (The more enemies the better)
  • Scourge strike for damage, Death Strike to heal.
  • Spread diseases with Pestilence when possible.
  • Death Coil when you have enough runic power
  • Unholy presence is your main presence, switch to Frost if you are dying.

WotLK PVE Unholy Death Knight DPS Guide (Quick)

Welcome to our Unholy Death Knight DPS guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Death Knight class as Unholy.

Talents

This is the popular Unholy DK DPS build. As your gear improves your DPS will improve drastically.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear. 

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (8%)
  2. Strength 
  3. Haste
  4. Armor Penetration
  5. Critical Strike
  6. Expertise
  7. Attack Power
  8. Agility

Rotation

Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Blood Strike -> Blood Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Death Coil -> Horn of Winter -> Scourge Strike -> Death Coil -> Scourge Strike -> Scourge Strike -> Death Coil -> Death Coil

Glyph of Disease allows us to use Pestilence to refresh our Diseases.

Army of the Dead should be used before the encounter starts. Casting it instead of doing your rotation will cause you to lose DPS.

WotLK PVP Frost Death Knight Guide (Quick)

Welcome to our Frost Death Knight PVP guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Death Knight class as Frost in Arena/Battlegrounds.

Talents

There are a number of frost build options for PVP.

The first build here doesn’t have Howling Blast. Instead it has Icy Talons, Increased Runic power from Chains of Ice and Scent of blood plus Virulence to reduce the chances of your diseases can be removed.

This build drop Obliterate. The Glyph of Obliterate is replaced with the Glyph of Chains of Ice allowing you to do damage while gaining runic power. 

This 3rd build is a self healing survivability build.

This last build includes Howling Blast but drops Icy Talons.

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear.

Stat Priority

  1. 135 Magic Pen
  2. 9% Hit without talents

WotLK PVE Frost Death Knight DPS Guide (Quick)

Welcome to our Frost Death Knight DPS guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Death Knight class as Frost.

Talents

This is the popular Frost DK build. This build really starts to shine as your gear improves.

These 4 talents can be adjusted based on your gear and/or raid setup.

  • Black Ice can be bumped up to 2/5. This talent scales with Strength and not Armor Pen.
  • Blood-Caked Blade This talent is a solid DPS Boost. Synergizes with Armor Pen. The more the better
  • Killing Machine can be taken either way. The less crit you have, the more useful this talent becomes.
  • Subversion Small DPS increase but a nice threat decrease. This talent is better when you don’t have a paladin providing Salvation

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear. 

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (5% with Nerves of Cold Steel)
  2. Expertise (26)
  3. Strength
  4. Armor Penetration
  5. Critical Strike
  6. Haste
  7. Attack Power
  8. Agility

Rotation

Opener
Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Blood Strike -> Pestilence -> Horn of Winter
Frost Strike -> Obliterate -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Obliterate 

Rotation
Frost Strike -> Obliterate -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Blood Strike -> Pestilence
Frost Strike -> Obliterate -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike -> Obliterate -> Frost Strike

Ability Priority

WotLK PVE Blood Death Knight Tank Guide (Quick)

Welcome to our Blood Death Knight Tank guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Death Knight class as a Blood Tank.

Talents

This is the popular Blood DK Tank build. If you do not plan to use a 2-hander, you can drop Two-Handed Weapon Specialization for Mark of Blood, or Bloody Vengeance, or Bloodworms. We also go into the Frost tree to unlock two really nice raid buffs, Improved Icy Touch and Improved Icy Talons

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear. Personally I had to gem for hit cap until getting better gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear. 

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (8%)
  2. Expertise (26)
  3. Defence (540 for raids)

Rotation

WotLK PVE Blood Death Knight DPS Guide (Quick)

Welcome to our Blood Death Knight DPS guide for WoW WotLK. This guide will show you what you need to know to play the Death Knight class as Blood.

Talents

This is the popular Blood DK build. Once you have 90% Armor Penetration your damage goes up dramatically.

Standard Blood DK Build

Glyphs

Major Glyphs

Minor Glyphs

Gems

Gems can change based on your build, equipment and caps. You may need to adjust your gems to account for your gear.

Enchants

You may need to adjust your enchants to your gear. 

Stat Priority

  1. Hit (8%)
  2. Expertise
  3. Armor Penetration
  4. Strength
  5. Critical Strike
  6. Agility
  7. Haste
  8. Attack Power

Rotation

Icy Touch -> Plague Strike -> Heart Strike x2 -> Death Strike -> Death Coil
Death Strike -> Heart Strike x3 -> Pestilence -> Death Coil

Heart Strike x4 -> Death Strike -> Death Coil
Death Strike -> Heart Strike x3 -> Plague Strike -> Death Coil

Glyph of Disease allows us to use Pestilence to refresh our Diseases.

Army of the Dead should be used before the encounter starts. Casting it instead of doing your rotation will cause you to lose DPS.

Hysteria should be used on cooldown.