When a death knight knows how to play his class effectively they can do massive amounts of damage or make very effective tanks. Doing maximum amount of damage or keeping good agro comes down to casting the right spell at the right time. Keep in mind, how you spec, gear and use your skills will determine how good you are play your class. Not only do rotations get the most out of your DPS but understanding spell priority will make you a better death knight.

Rotations vary depending on how you are spec'd and how you are geared so this is a rough guide to how rotations should be done for a death knight.

DnD - Death and Decay
IT - Icy Touch
PS - Plague Strike
BT - Blood Tap
BB - Bloodboil
DS - Death Strike
SS - Scourge Strike
RS - Runic Strike
BS - Blood Strike
HB - Howling Blast
HoW - Horn of Winter
HS - Heart Strike
FS - Frost Strike
RM - Rime
OB - Outbreak
PEST - Pestilence
DRW - Dancing Rune Weapon
Ghoul - Summon Ghoul


Blood Rotation(single target):

Is now priority based. (Done in Blood Presence if tanking obviously.)

1. Outbreak(Diseases up)
2. Rune Strike
3. Death Strike
4. Make sure Scarlet Fever is up if not Plague Strike, Blood Boil
5. Heart Strike
6. Icy Touch

Blood Rotation(AOE):

Priority Based now

1. DnD
2. Outbreak(Diseases up) + Pestilence
3. Death Strike
4. Blood Boil
5. Heart Strike
6. Rune Strike
7. Icy Touch

On low HP groups:

DnD -> OB -> Pest -> BB -> DS and continue to spam DS and BB till dead.

Frost DPS Rotation(single target):

(DW and 2H uses Unholy Presence):

1. Diseases up (FF apply with Howling Blast)
2. Obliterate
3. Blood Strike
4. Frost Strike
5. Rime
6. HoW

Frost DPS Rotation(AOE):

AoE Rotation Priority(done in Frost Presence):

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

Unholy DPS rotation(single target):
Unholy Rotations for patch 4.0.1 have moved to a priority system.

(DPS done in Unholy Presence):

1. Diseases Up
2. Dark Transformation Active
3. Scourge Strike (U F)
4. Festering Strike (B F)
5. Death Coil on Sudden Doom proc
6. HoW

Unholy DPS Rotation(AOE):

(DPS done in Frost Presence)

1. Diseases up and spread to everything with 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 proc
7. HoW

 

*In boss fights do not forget to use your special talent skills such as keeping your ghoul up as much as possible and using your cool downs as they come up to help maximize DPS. An unused cool down is a wasted cool down. Usually you will want to use them at the beginning of a fight after a few things have proc'd. It may also be beneficial to wait for the shaman to put down heroism but depending on when they do it may interfere with your rotation. Also, to maximize your dps don't forget about [potions of speed] and [indestructible potions], you will want to use them at the same time as you use your other cool downs so the effect stacks. Usually you will use an armor pot before battle(only if you have [bladed armor] otherwise this pot will not help you).

 

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