Death Knight Builds

This site contains popular WOW Death Knight Builds and other resources on how to play a Death Knight. As you all know, the Wrath of the Litch King(WotLK) expansion for World of Warcraft(WOW) has been released and the new Death Knight class is now active. This class is a damage dealer / tank hybrid.

 

The Death Knight class starts at level 55 and they unlockable if you have level 55+ character on that realm. You can only have one Death Knight per server.

WOW Death Knights do not have shields but do have good avoidance and powerful anti magic protection that have them being used as the main tanks against magic attack based bosses in raids. Don't think that because they are not able to use a shield that they will not make effective tanks as they do make good tanks if geared, spec'd and played correctly.

WOW Death Knights can dual wield or use 2-handed weapons. They use a unique rune system for their special skills so playing a Death Knight you will find you will be commonly be using combo rotations to maximize damage and agro. Also death knights gain runic power when using spells that use runs and this runic power can be used to cast spells such as death coil or Frost Strike.

Death Knight talents are split into 3 different trees:
Blood: Talents in this tree focus on 2 handed weapons, healing, and strikes. A great tree to use initially for leveling because of healing/damage. Considered the best single target DPS tree.
Frost: Talents in this tree focus on dual 1 handed weapons, armor, counters, and combos. Considered to be one of strongest trees for tanking but all trees can be used to tank. Frost also has some good AOE talents.
Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, diseases, and AOE. One of the highest damage dealing trees and allows for a perma-ghoul pet. Can dual wield or 2 handed weapons can be used in this spec.

I have just updated the builds for patch 3.3, mainly the builds that were effected were unholy builds due to the change in how scourge strike works now. Many of the old builds did not include scourge strike as it did less damage than using obliterate. Builds that did not use scourge strike have been removed and other more viable builds have been added to the unholy tree.

 

As I have people submit builds or I come across them myself I will be posting them here to share. I receive a lot of submissions so sometimes it may take a while for some to be posted and some may not be posted. Thanks for all of your submissions. Please feel free to email me about any of the below or any you wish to add. Please note the build type and number for ones you wish to comment on.

 

You can see the current trees at: http://talent.mmo-champion.com/

 

Changes for 3.3 that effects blood:

- Glyph of Disease no longer rolls diseases so Glyph of Dark Death may be a better choice for DPS.

 

DPS Builds

1 - 50/0/21 - Blood/Unholy DPS High DPS raiding spec using [Death Strike]. Rotation: PS>IT>HS>HS>DS>UB>(DC till rp is empty) HS>HS>HS>HS*(DS)HS>HS

2 - 50/0/21 - Blood/Unholy DPS #2 Also a high DPS raiding spec, all of the major damage traits are the same just some difference in survivability.

3 - 51/0/20 - Blood Pure PvE DPS This is a pure blood dps build for raids. Rotation: IT>PS>HSx2>DS>DC while runes refreshing to do [Heart Strikes] if diseases are still up.

4 - 44/0/27 - Blood Ghoul High DPS raiding spec with perma ghoul, blood worms

5 - 51/2/18 - Pure Raid DPS, Blood/Unholy Please note you can replace [Glyph of Rune Tap] with [Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon] to increase damage.
Rotation: PS-IT-DS-HS-HS-Hyst-DRW-Refresh runes DS-HS-HS-HS-Blood tap-HS also helps to use that when your raid leader or party leader tells the shammy to use hero I've hit 4-5k easy in first 20 seconds of the fight after your initial burst its: PS-IT-DS-HS-HS-ONE DC (because your death strike will do more damage if you keep RP)

Tank Builds

6 - 53/8/10 - Main Blood Tank Spec - This is a strong raiding tanking build. Things to note is soon Will of the Necropolis will not have a cool down timer and this will make this a much more valuable tallent than it is currently.

7 - 45/5/21 - DPS Off Tank - It has the benefits of Bloods survivability / crits and the ability for good AOE control from Unholy.

8 - 55/7/9 - Blood Tank Build - DS is used in the DK blood tank spec instead of oblit.

9 - 55/8/8 - Self Healing Tank - This build centers around three aspects:1. Damage Reduction (Avoidance) 2. Heavy Agro Generation 3. No Fuss Self Healing

10 - 58/13/0 - Blood Spec Tank\DPS - I am able to tank or off tank with this build. I can also DPS with it. I know Unholy still gets higher but I have recently load a damage meter and in the last few heroics I have been in I have been second in damage done and DPS( a ret. pally beat me both times). I have Frost spec-ed as me second talent spec. When I compare the two the blood is better. I have higher HP's and better agro. The Frost spec does have higher Armor and can take a hit better, but I have been finding I can last longer in blood. The healers like it to because as a frost tank I lose agro and they start getting hit. My rotation is IT-PS-OB-HS-HS-RS- DC, and for more then one mod it is DnD-PS-IT-Pes-RS-DC-HS-HS. My crit hits for around 4.2k to 5.7k. My dps is 1.75k normally. I am still working on the T7 gear. I am miss matched right now with some tanking and some dps gear.

PVP Builds

11 - 48/23/0 - Blood PVP build - This is a PVP build based on [Lichborne]/[Death Coil] Heal and Death Strike Heal. This is mostly a build with huge survivability and and average damage. Rotation: CI-IT-PS-HS-HS-BT-DS If low health drop HS and do VB-RT If Blood Tap is on CD Drop CI If target has low health I recommend keeping HS-HS and just do Lichborne/DCx3

12 - 44/0/27 - Blood PVP DS Build - Its a very easy handling build which makes your DS the main attack. As you can see almost none of the talents are used to improve BS or HS and is more focused on survival no extra pet things would make build more difficult without reaping 2/3 instead of maximizing it i thought 66% was enough. The rotation is simple IT-Ps-BB(x2 or VB)-DC-DS-DS and after that you should have 90-100% hp depending on people around you and i also took in BW and RT for bad situations and if you manage to get in an auto attack between you will be able to get Necrosis and Blood-Caked strikes and impurity increases the effect of them. Hysteria are a free pop you use it before or after killing/battling an opponent or in the middle of a fight Idk.. Improved blood presence is for battling in Unholy Presence faster attacks and lower global CDS. I also tried to get imp Unholy Presence but without MoM crits wouldn't heal that much. Some pluses Increases attack power when using DS, 8% bonus str,6%Stam,6 expertise, after crit 3% physical damage 3stacks. Ghoul is Optional. Some minuses if you use DaD you have will maybe have to reset all Runes. This spec has had up to 5k dps in HoL (hc) don't know about raids.

13 - 51/20/0 - PvP: Chilled Blood - This build was developed to increase healing and self sufficiency in arena and some battle grounds. A rotation usable for this is IT-PS-DS-HT-HT-Obliterate-DC(optional Lichborn for healing yourself) - DC and repeat. Also instead of DC you can use DRW before you restart cycle to increase damage greatly. I put the Endless Winter talent in for the ability to catch running enemies and for the same reason Icy Reach. Toughness is for increasing survivability and decreasing slowing effects, as an additional bonus it increases your AP because of the Bladed Armor talent in the blood tree.

14 - 41/2/28 - Blood/Unholy PVP Survivability With Heals - This build is mainly survivability with heals (improved DS/ rune tap/ mark of blood/ vamp blood/ blood worms/ improved blood pres/ ect.) and it also has the ghoul's help + stun for pvp, your main attack = Death Strikes obviously and since u don't have Endless Winter from frost to help u with the slowing down targets, subbed it with Desecration and Heart Strike (using the heart strike's Glyph) which also helps and either way its not like u stop using chains, just that endless winter is key for less rune usage.

Other Builds(Solo/Leveling/Utility)

15 - 54/0/17 - Leveling - On a bloody pale horse - Leveling build kind of similar to "on a bloody pale horse".

16 - 61/0/10 - Blood Leveling Build #2 - A blood build with good damage and survivability talents selected. You should be able to be constantly be killing without having to rest.

17 - 53/18/0 - Blood Leveling Build #3

18 - 53/18/0 - Blood talons (Blood/Frost dps) - rotation: IT-PS-HS-HS-Obliterate. HS-HS-HS-HS. then start over with IT-PS-HS-HS-Obliterate, pop the dancing runeblade as soon as you're at full runic power.

 

Changes that effect frost builds with 3.3 patch:

Glyph of Icey Touch changed, it now causes Frost Fever to deal +20% damage.

Glyph of disease changed making it so you cannot roll diseases also using pestilence to reapply diseases will prevent Imp. Icy Talons from reapplying.

 

The major glyphs for DPS that should be used are now: Glyph of Frost Strike,Glyph of Obliterate and Glyph of Icy Touch

 

DPS Builds

1 - 0/54/17 - Frost Raid DPS Build -This is the predominant Frost Spec.

2 - 0/53/18 - Frost/Unholy DW Raid DPS Build -Has all the strong frost talents, as well as picking up the talents in unholy that scale well with dual wield. The rotation focuses on the power of obliterate. Killing Machine and Rime procs are to be used together to get the optimal dps. If rime procs hold it until you get a KM proc, if KM procs save it for a Rime, or let it be consumed by the FS dumps at the end of a rotation. The simple rotation is: IT PS OB BS BS Dump OB OB OB Dump Priority Rotation: Frost Fever, Blood Plague, Killing Machine + Rime, Obliterate, Blood Strike, Frost Strike

3 - 3/51/17 - Frost Raid DPS Build With Agro Reduction -This is a good frost raid DPS build not as good as 0/54/17 but has Subversion to reduce threat. Most DKs will not need to use this spec unless your tank has agro issues.

4 - 3/51/17 - Frost/Unholy DW Personal DPS Build -This spec sacrifices improved icey touch in order to improve personal DPS. It uses Glyph of Disease to maximize the usage of Obliterate and Rime procs. Rotation: OB -> OB -> BS -> Pest -> Dump OB -> OB -> (Dump) -> OB -> Dump

5 - 3/51/17 - Frost/Unholy DW Variant -Death runes are used for OB in this spec. Killing machine should be used with rime procs whenever possible. Rotation: IT PS OB BS BS Dump OB OB OB Dump, Presence: Blood presence, Runeforges: FC/RI, Sigil: Awareness

6 - 16/55/0 - Frost/Blood DPS Build

7 - 15/54/2 - Frost Raid AOE DPS Build -This is the best AOE DPS build for raids and is very good for encounters with multiple targets.

8 - 17/51/3 - Frost/Blood 2H Raid DPS -This build uses a 2H weapon and drops the 2H bonuses that the frost tree gets but takes the 2H bonus from the blood tree.

Tank Builds

9 - 13/51/7 - Frost Tank Build

10 - 7/52/12 - Frost Raid Tank -Rotation: it>ps>bs>bs>oblit>dump, Multi mob rotation: fs>bb>bb or dnd>hb

11 - Raid Frost 2H U/B -This spec has a good balance between mitigation, threat and aoe v/s single target. Making it a good spec for jumping between single boss tanking and taking on waves of adds. Howling Blast combined with Morbidity make non-stop aoe with lots of threat easy. Always remember to macro runestrike with all of your main attacks. Works well in 25 ToC reg. Single Rotion: IT-PS-BS-BS-OB/FS as avail, repeat --- Multi Rotion: DnD-IT-PS-Pest-HB-BB-OB/FS dump-HB-BB-BB repeat using DnD optional

12 - 13/52/5 - Frost Tank Spec This spec is solid and has some runic power generation built in.

PVP Builds

13 - 27/44/0 - Frost/Blood PVP This build is a DW build that uses healing (Rune Tap/Mark of Blood) as survivability, with DW you got really good DMG (depending on ur weapons) you got Frost Strike which is an awsome source of high DMG and Endless Winter. As DW your Killing Machine will be constantly on which makes Frost Strike even better and you also have Unbreakable Armor for extra DMG with the 10% increase to Strength.

Other Builds(Solo/Leveling/Utility)

 

 

Changes that effect Unholy Builds in patch 3.3:

-Unholy has received the biggest change with the 3.3 patch due to the redesign of Scourge Strike. Scourge Strike now does much more damage and should be being used now instead of Obliterate. Builds that were not using Scourge Strike below have been removed and new builds have been added. Scourge Strike was nerfed several days after the patch so that the shadow damage component can no longer can crit. Right now only the physical portion of the damage can crit reducing the damage the Scourge Strike can do now. This nerf does reduce damage a bit but it is still worth while over Obliterate. The change in the amount of damage Scourge Strike now effects what talents you should be taking when creating a build. Before optimal builds would always have reaping to maximize dps now however this is not always the case and it becomes gear dependant on what is the optimum build for DPS.

 

DPS Builds

1 - 17/0/54 - Unholy Raid Single Targe DPS(without Reaping) -This is the highest single target DPS spec if you do not have at lease 2 pieces of tier 10 or several pieces of ICC gear. This is probably going to be considered the 3.3 cookie cutter build.
Rotation: IT – PS – BS – SS – BS – DC – HoW – SS – BS – SS – BS – DC – DC – (DC)
The Death Coil in brackets you will not always have the RP to do it.

2 - 14/0/57 - Unholy Raid Single Targe DPS(with Reaping) -This builds is this highest single target DPS build if you have the gear for it, you need at least 2 pieces of tier 10 or a few pieces of ICC gear to make it worth working. If you do not have the gear use the build above without reaping.
Rotation: IT – PS – BS – BS – SS – DC – HoW – SS – DC – SS – SS – DC – (DC)

3 - 17/0/54 - Unholy AOE Raid DSP(without Reaping) - This is the best build to use for raid AOE damage if you do not have at least 2 pieces of tier 10 or several pieces of ICC gear. This spec is very similar to the single target spec and still does really good single target damange but does superior AOE damage.
Rotation (multi-target): Initial:IT – PS – Pestilence – DnD – DC – HoW
Rotation after initial: SS – BS – BB – SS – DC – DC - SS – Pestilence – DnD – DC – HoW

4 - 17/0/54 - Unholy AOE Raid DPS(with Reaping) -This is the highest damage AOE damage spec if you have the gear to support it. In order for this gear to be the highest DPS build for your character you need to have 2 pieces of tier 10 or a few pieces of ICC gear. Use the rotation listed above for the other AOE build.

5 - 19/0/52 - Mujahadeen's Blood Raid DPS Survivability -Went into blood to pick up the anti-threat stuff, improved rune tap and the increased crit chance. Skipped 2 hand weapon specialization because 4% white damage is not as important as increased crit chance in my opinion. Unlike most unholies, I skipped desecration totally because in most boss fights it doesn't work (bosses/adds move too quickly), skipped desecration because I'd rather blow my RP on death coil than on popping a disease, and skipped impurity because most DPS from a dk is from melee damage not spell damage. Instead I maxed out my ghoul, gargoyle, and the other disease-damage related abilities, and picked up corpse explosion for some burst AOE. I've found this spec maximizes my DPS and survivability in raid and PVP situations. My philosophy is: you can't DPS when you're dead.

6 - 0/18/53 - Drajii's Raid DPS DW build -This is a unholy DW build really good dps almost as good as the 0/33/38 the old hybrid with HB i loved its AoE the rotation is IT,PS,SSx2,BS,UB also you want to use Ghoul frenzy as often as possible for the 25% haste and makes it hard to kill with its heal 60% of its health in 30 seconds.

7 - 0/13/58

Tank Builds

8 - 12/8/51 - Scourge Strike Spam Tanking Spec -This unholy tank spec makes use of use of Glyph of Disease to spread/refresh diseases with a single blood rune. Opening Rotation: IT - PS - BS - BS/Pest - SS - SS - SS - SS Rotation After Opening: Pest - BS - SS - SS -SS - SS - SS (make sure you are using your runic power for rune strike/DC when the other things are on cool down). You can also use Glyph of Scourge Strike to increase disease time instead of using Glyph of Disease but the rotation will be a little different.(from Satorri on TankSpot)

PVP Builds

Other Builds(Solo/Leveling/Utility)

 

 

DPS Builds

Tanking Builds

PVP Builds

1 - 37/34/0 - Bloody Cold Obliterate -This build is a great pvp build. It gives you great survivability with Rune Tap, Mark of Blood, Vampiric Blood, Improved Blood Presence, Toughness, Improved Frost Presence and Hungering Cold, but this build doesn't stop at that. It allows Large burst damage, mainly from obliterate, and with Deathchill(auto crit), and Hysteria obliterate becomes deadly. Cast sequence should be IT or CoI, PS, BS, BS, Hysteria, Deathchill, OB.(feel free to pop Hysteria whenever you see fit)

2 - 0/35/36 - Bone Chilling Cold -This build is similar to Bloody Cold Obliterate it just shifts its dps from two-handed melee damage to DW shadow damage. It retains survivability through Magic Suppression, Anti-Magic Zone, and Bone Shield. Plus the same frost bonuses in the previous build. This build has more consistent dps between, DW, Disease and Shadow damage, and the benefits of having a perma ghoul to chase down any kiters. Also with Deathchill you still can have fun getting those big Obliterate crits.

Other Builds(Solo/Leveling/Utility)