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Death Knight's DPS FAQ (WoW)  

Parts of this page were originally written by theophany.

This FAQ is going to assume you know basic game mechanics, stuff like hit caps, expertise caps, etc. Just a warning for later on when I start talking about melee hit caps and spell hit caps so your monitor doesn't get gooey from your brain exploding. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read here.

Here's a rundown of what we'll be going through.

1. Runes, Runic Power, and General DK mechanics
2. DK Abbreviations
3. DPS Basics
4. Builds
5. Itemization

Alright, let's get to it.

Runes, Runic Power, and General DK mechanics

Runes are essential to a Death Knight. They're what we're constantly watching as we DPS (or tank), and they're what provide us with the ability to use such a wide variety of skills. We have 6 rune slots, and we start with two of each type of rune. These runes are correlated to each of our three talent trees: Blood, Frost, and Unholy. Runes have a 10 second cooldown after they're used.

Runic Power is generated by using our rune abilities. It fills up a bar that's much like a Warrior's rage bar, which we can then spend on abilities to do damage, interrupt spell casting, or other useful abilities.

Using a 1 rune ability will generate 10 runic power (RP). Using a 2 rune ability will generate 15 RP. Using a 3 rune ability will generate 15 RP.

Abilities generally fall into 4 categories for DKs.

• Blood Abilities: These cost 1 blood rune. They're generally the bread-and-butter DK attacks, modified by how many diseases you have on your target. When we get to the Frost and Unholy build sections, we'll talk more about how these are useful.
• "FU" Abilities: They're called that because they use both a Frost and an Unholy rune. Obliterate and Death Strike are the two most commonly used, though there are others.
• Disease Abilities: These two abilities are unique because they're used in every single DK build, bar none. Icy Touch (Frost) and Plague Strike (Unholy) each apply a disease to your target, though they don't do much damage.
• RP Dump Abilities: Goofy name, I know. But that's what you mainly use these abilities for; getting rid of your RP to make room for more RP and do damage at the same time.

So as a new DK, you may be wondering why the "Disease Abilities" get their own category. That's pretty easy to explain, so let me elucidate.

Abilities like Blood Strike do additional damage (most often quite a bit more) the more diseases that are on your target. You can hopefully now see why they're so important. You do substantially more damage with Icy Touch and Plague Strike up on your target.

World of Warcraft Wikibase™

Wrath of the Lich King required!